Reviewing M14: Utility and Mana

Welcome to the exciting conclusion of The General Zone's review of Magic 2014. As always, I am Grandpa Growth. Be sure to check out the first two parts where we discussed all of the exiting new threats and answers from the set.

Today we are looking at everything else essentially. A new land, a new equipment, a couple investichantments, you know the regs. Let's see what we've got.

I don't like it, but that's not a big surprise. I can easily see you turning both halves of this into an advantage, though. It costs exactly what an anthem should cost, which is great, and you get a little bit of value every time you smash face. The real problem with this is that it is kind of a win more. If you are ahead on life and smashing you are most likely in the drivers' seat. When you are behind on board and behind on life this card does zero actual things. So what is the lesson here? Win all the time and your cards will look great? I like to do more of a 'play good cards and don't worry about this kind of stuff'. My opponent's life total is irrelevant in nearly every deck that I play because EDH revolves around card advantage not racing.



This card has real applications in Pauper Commander. Giving your Crusher a lift is a big game. It's a shame this isn't colorless, because many Blue creatures already have Flying, but I think you are going to see it doing big boy work all the same. Sporemound is my favorite common from M14, but this isn't that far behind.

Aww jeez. Here we go. I can hear them now. The trolls...shouting into message boards: "It's Fecundity." "It's Necro!" "It's better!"

Don't get me wrong. I really like the card. It is vying for the title of my favorite card in the set. It's just raw value. It's a low investment in terms of mana and almost always card-neutral at worst. It protects your guys from removal and it provides a steady stream of card advantage throughout the game. That is pretty sick for a three drop.

I don't really agree with buying a new hammer when your old hammer will do, but they did need to solve the plurality problem of Llanowar Elves. That all being said, having another Green 1 drop accelerator does impact the format dramatically. Aggro-control decks like Edric now have a better chance of powering out their general early. The same goes for Rafiq and other voltron style decks. Everywhere you saw Ll E you will see this guy. It is sometimes cool when you get an extra copy of a solid card in your deck to help add consistency and redundancy. Sometimes it isn't cool when your consistently so far behind your opponents curve because they always have a one drop. Such is life.



This would appear to be a dramatically inferior version of Oracle of Mul Daya. A somewhat different version of Rowen, perhaps. Even when this is good, it really isn't that good. It costs four and at most accelerates you by one mana a turn after that. I think we can do better than that for a rare.

Also, I believe the perspective in this art is being viewed through a kaleidoscope.

I have mixed feelings about this card. I don't know what kind of deck I really want to play it in. Do you play it with a bunch of dudes to get even more dudes...is that what they needed? You have Lurking Predators. You have Wild Pair. Do you want this? Let's look at a Commander build of Bant Hexproof. When you slam an enchantment you get to safely make a guy bigger. That seems pretty cool and relevant to the format. The life gain is pretty marginal (even though this can easily gain a BUNCH of life). Do you play a mix and just try to get out in front on any of three key resources in a race: more dudes, bigger dudes, more life? Is this worth a card? Do decks want this? You guys tell me. I am honestly stumped, but six seems like a reasonable price for two 3/3's and 9 or so life when you are on the defensive.


This is so much worse than Tatsumasa that it makes me want to cry. That being said...I LOVE IT. Haunted armor is cool flavor; classic D&D/fantasy. Equipment that can attack and block on it's own when you don't have something to put it on is great utility. Much like Tatsumasa this is a terrible piece of equipment. Unlike Tatsumasa you don't get the equipment back if they kill the dude (and the dude is smaller and can't fly). Unfortunately, I can't see any real reason to play this.

Planar Portal is underplayed. I don't know if we have to stoop this far, we could probably just play the original. If your deck needs tons of repeatable tutoring in order to win, what you really need is better tutor targets, not more junk like this. I don't see this card solving any problem in the current format and there are plenty of better options to choose from.

This looks like it has the right price to accrue value. The real trick to solving this card is going to be finding a combo that can really abuse it. I don't typically go in for the combo decks in the format, so I can't tell you if this is the next wave waiting to break. I do like incremental advantage and I feel like this can get you some.

My original comparison was to Rings of Brighthearth, but UL pointed out to me that it just really isn't that similar.

I am thinking now that this seems more like a scaled down version of Mimic Vat. After all, the most abusive things to stick on the Vat were beaters with ETB triggers. In that context this card seems to be pretty lame. You really need a critical mass of triggered abilities in your deck for this to have any meaning. It's a shame you can't point it at an opponent's stuff. Goal (Pipe dream): Copying Annihilator triggers!

Wow, we really got a string of them here don't we? This isn't inherently worse than Tectonic Edge. For instance, if they are stuck on less than for lands, you can still use this to get even further ahead. However, this comes at the cost of a huge price tag for activating it in the first place. This makes it much harder to abuse with things like Crucible of Worlds. I think this is worth including in decks that play Tectonic Edge, but between Strip Mine, Wasteland, Tec Edge, and Dust Bowl, you could be hitting the ceiling on how many redundant copies of this effect you really want to play. Colorless lands are tough on the mana in multicolor decks. They can even be trying in Mono White and Black where there are strict color requirements at key spots on the curve. I like that R&D is experimenting with new ways to make land destruction feel more fair, but I think they pushed this too far down the power curve. Still, expect it to see moderate play, particularly in budget lists where Wasteland and Dust Bowl aren't realistic options.


Well there you have it. It has been fun chaps. I hope you enjoyed it. There are certainly plenty new things to be excited about in M14. Let me know how I did in the comments and be sure to stay tuned to TGZ as we return to our regularly scheduled content.