M15 Set Review: Threats Part One

Hello and welcome to The General Zone's set review for Magic 2015. I am Grandpa Growth and I will be taking you through the set, giving you my thoughts on the cards with a focus on Commander. If you have read any of our previous set reviews, you will know that we do things a little bit differently. Here are the rules:

1. I will not be reviewing every card. I will not discuss any reprints. Nor will I discuss any cards that I don't feel are relevant to Commander. It is safe to say that if it is bad, even by 'playable in Commander' standards, then you won't find it here.
2. The set review articles will be broken into different parts based on the roles that these cards play in a game: threats, answers, utility, and mana. Because of the unusual length of this article, the threats review will be broken into two parts. We will get to everything later in the week, so if you don't see a card here, check back for the subsequent parts. 
3. The new Legendary Creatures get their own review article, written by Uncle Landdrops. Which will be going up later on. Since these cards are so central to the Commander format, we want to give them their own article.

I am extremely excited for M15. The set appears to be juiced far beyond the power level of a typical core set. There are many interesting cycles and cool new design elements that give the set a very unique feel. There were also some controversial decisions made by R&D, so we have plenty to talk about. 

Today we are discussing threats. A threat is something that you use to win the game. This doesn't just mean attacking with Creatures. Planeswalkers and some other card types can very easily be threats. A good threat will kill your opponent quickly and generate value on the way. The best threats do those things, but also protect themselves. Let's dive right in and see what M15 has to offer.

I always feel a little bit strange when we see a planeswalker receive multiple different cards in the same year. Most people think that a new printing of a planeswalker is showing us where that character is at in their life right now. The strange thing is that, the timeline of Magic is not necessarily linear...and that can make things a bit confusing.

By conventional standards, this doesn't meet the requirements to be a 'good' planeswalker. It doesn't generate any permanent value with its +1 ability. It doesn't have an ability that interacts with the opponent's board. It can't really protect itself. It requires other permanents to be effective at all. The ultimate is far away and doesn't immediately win the game.

Having said all that, I am very interested in a planeswalker that plays well with other planeswalkers. Adding extra loyalty counters to Karn or Eslpeth Knight Errant can completely change the course of a game. Not a great planeswalker, not even a great iteration of Ajani, but it will generate some interest in Commander.


This effect is very powerful. Auratouched Mage sees some modest play in dedicated theme decks. The important thing to remember here is that those decks are very good. Zur the enchanter. Bruna, light of Alabaster. These are names that Commander players are familiar with. Is this card good enough to make it in those decks? I would guess no, simply because it is so expensive, but make no mistake. Tutoring, even with restrictions, is king in Commander.



This card seems powerful to me. I have played many games where things have come down to a top deck contest. Suddenly being able to take a few steps back from death's door will change the texture of a late game battle. The consideration that will govern this card's playability however, is not power but competition. And boy is there a  lot of it. At seven mana, you have a lot of options of very powerful effects. White is a very deep color. If this is the best seven drop you have, your deck is not very strong.

Also, I can conclusively demonstrate that if you burn a rose, that rose will not bloom again.



This is the first real hit of the set. This card is just insane. We discovered that Immortal Servitude basically always won the game when cast for any reasonable number. I fully expect this to be just as good. Only getting back small Creatures is surely a restriction, but you can build your deck with that consideration in mind. There are plenty of two drops that are both singularly powerful and worth recurring. Giving mono White decks access to this game-changing effect strengthens their position in the metagame. If you can find these for cheap, pick up a few. They will retain value.



Here we have our first look at the new mythic cycle of avatar Creatures. The spiritual successors of the Titan cycle from M11, these cards were meant to restrict the dominating power level of their predecessors by changing the free triggered abilities into activated abilities. They are also better 'ambassador cards' because they reference iconic Magic sets and locations, which helps build interest with newer players.

These cards are worse than the Titan cycle, that is for sure, but it doesn't change the fact that if you untap with them, you are most likely going to win. I think that these are a mechanical improvement because they don't give you anything for free and can be answered 1-for-1. That is a much safer design space in my mind. I predict they will not enjoy the dominance that the Titan's had in Standard. The removal is much better in the current environment and the ramp is worse.



I debated leaving this card out of the review. I have a very difficult time believing that this card will see any serious play in Commander. It is weak, slow, and vulnerable to exiling removal. It is a way for Blue to generate a token army, but that isn't much of a threat on its own. Blue doesn't have the support for weenie strategies that don't have tribal characteristics. Speaking of which, when was the last time you saw a merfolk deck in Commander, much less squids? Leave it at home boys and girls.



I don't typically pay much attention to the story that is presented within a Magic block. I don't read the books or the comics, although I do like to go back every once in a while and catch up on what I have missed. In the case of Dragon's Maze, I was real confused. I had no idea what was going on, truly. In fact, it wasn't until I saw this card that I really was able to look some things up and figure out what the heck the story was.

Mechanically, this is the worst Jace. That's pretty obvious. It has a strong ultimate that is achievable, but the rest of the card is pretty week. It has a high starting loyalty and a way to protect itself from opposing threats, but this card really just doesn't do anything relevant. Look at Jace TMS. That is a planeswalker. I have no idea what deck could make this card good.


I have an opinion about core sets: They are better when they include Birds of Paradise and Air Elemental. I am not going to bother explaining why. Rather, I am going to say that this set marks an exception.

I love David Sirlin. For those who don't know. He is an author, game designer, and former competitive gamer. Importantly, his writings helped to educate me about game design and theory. I am very excited that he got the opportunity to design a Magic card. It is my hope that through this contribution, he will show me something new that can change my perception of the game.

Mechanically, this is another in a long line of 'tricky' sphinxes that have made appearances in the Modern era of Magic and I tend not to play these cards because they are generally weak and gimmicky.  This has a power level on par with Sphinx Ambassador, but is substantially less expensive. That should indicate that it will see some play in Commander decks, particularly while the set is still new and in print.



Sakashima the Imposter is a true powerhouse. It is incredibly underplayed in Commander due in large part to the fact that people think of it as being 'lame' or 'unoriginal' when utilized as a general. I don't necessarily agree or disagree with that stance, but I do believe that is a poor reason to refuse to play certain cards. This effect is powerful. It is easy to use. It scales with the game state. Don't be the last person to find out how strong this card is.





The Soul of Ravnica has my pick to the be strongest of the cycle, with the possible exception of Soul of Innistrad. It is unclear what impact any of these cards will have on Standard, but you can expect to see plenty of them in Commander, even if they aren't the most competitive cards. This is almost guaranteed to draw you several cards. I don't think you would put it in your deck if you couldn't draw three or more on the regular.

I want to point out a peculiarity of the new font that is used in the card titles. It is easy to see that the font in the text box is similar, but distinct from the one used in the title bar. In that font, certain letters look strange. The highly stylized K, R, Q, etc. are attractive to the eye, but they overlap on to the space of the next character. I have never before seen a type set that had this feature. Prior to digital printing it was impossible to achieve this effect consistently and it intrigues me that they chose to change the typeface that they used....but I digress.


This card just seems rude. And I like it. Despite the 'punisher' mechanic being an obvious drawback, all the options are still somewhat reasonable. It is unlikely that an opponent can win the game if they had to endure this for several turns in a row. At converted mana cost 4-6, that is what I am looking for. It take over the game given time and protection. At converted mana cost 6+ it needs to win much faster or have reliable protection in order to be realistic.




For whatever reason, Slivers are making a return in M15, but only as a token representation, not the full on theme. I don't know why and I am not going to speculate. I just want to say that Hellrider is one of the best finishers for an aggressive strategy ever printed. It provides a lot of hasty damage that is unblockable. This very much achieves the same goal. In a linear, aggressive, tribal strategy, this is as good or better than Hellrider. That makes this card very scary to me. I am glad this isn't common. It would imbalance Pauper.


The final card for today is Soul of Innistrad. Just like Grave Titan it has Deathtouch. Sweet. Unlike Grave Titan, is doesn't immediately create a huge amount of power spread across multiple bodies that spirals out of control very quickly.

This provides the inevitability of card advantage, just like all of its brothers, but recurring your most powerful threats is better than getting random cards or beast tokens. The activation cost on this is also pretty reasonable for its effect, which is always a must. Overall, this card is decent and will see some play, but is not impressive. Commander already has a half dozen cards at this price point which are better for this purpose. Speaking of price point, if you are new to the format and can't source cards like Ink-eyes or Geth, this could be a decent alternative.


That's all for today. As always leave your feedback in the comments. Let us know what you think of the review and what cards you are looking forward to. Next time, we will finish reviewing the threats and move on to the other parts of the review later in the week.

-GG