Saturday, September 27, 2014

Khans of Tarkir Set Review: Utility and Mana

Hello and welcome to the final installment of The General Zone's set review of Khans of Tarkir! If you missed the Legends, Threats, or Answers click the links to catch up. Today we will finish up the review by talking about the utility cards and mana producers.

Mana is pretty self-explanatory: if it puts lands in play, produces any mana, or filters colors it's on here. Utility cards are much more nebulous. In short, they expand the capabilities of what your deck can do. They might give you new options in construction, like engine cards or obvious 'build around me's'. They can expand your options in gameplay too: mainly through card drawing and selection. Enough exposition. Let's jump into the cards!

Brave the SandsThis set is stretching the boundaries of what uncommons are allowed to do. Granting keyword abilities to every dork in your token army is pretty awesome, even if Vigilance isn't the hottest property to pick up. Blocking multiple Creatures however, is pretty hot. Super chump blocking to the max!

I guess I should talk about how it is going to be used in Commander, but sadly I just can't think of a reason it would be. In my experience, token decks operate on a binary system. You either amass enough tokens to make a timely Overrun effect lethal or you lose. There isn't room in that strategy for something that doesn't directly impact your ability to deal forty damage. It's sad, I kind of want this to be a thing.



Dig Through TimeThis is extremely powerful...and extremely over-costed. Here is a design question for you: what does this effect cost? The most direct comparison is obviously Ancestral Memories. They do the same thing and are both rare. Dig is an Instant, which generally makes things cost about one mana more. Less for good cards, more makes them worse. This costs fewer colored mana, which is better with Delve. One colored mana is generally worth two colorless mana when discussing mana costs. Green and Black mana are easier to come by so double color requirements there aren't as tricky. Historically speaking though,  Red and Blue are tougher to come up with. So an Instant version of Ancestral Memories that only costs two colored mana would then have a converted mana cost of seven. Cost reduction mechanics like Delve or Affinity generally increase the cost of an effect by 1-3 mana, so explained this way, Dig Through Time appears to have an appropriate cost.

Let's look at it another way: Ancestral Memories is terrible. It has never been considered a good card. It was bad the day it was printed and it hasn't aged well over the last decade. Neither one of these cards is as good as Impulse, a COMMON! In fact, pitch the punny, nostalgic name. I would rather have R&D just staple one Impulse to another Impulse and call it a day.



Treasure CruiseWell after railing Dig Through Time you might think that the forecast wouldn't look too good for this card...and you'd be wrong. This is a common and it much more closely matches my expectations for what a common should do. Even in a normal game situation this is going to turn into a Concentrate pretty quickly (for reference Concentrate is an uncommon). It will get much better with just a little effort to set it up.

This is the closest thing that we have had to Ancestral Recall since...well actually we just had Ancestral in Vintage Masters so that comparison doesn't really mean much. But the point I was going to make is that it is fair...and that is fine! People are going to sleep on this card. They are going to forget it. They are going to chuckle when they lose to it and hate it when they see it in their opening hand, but don't forget: It is a cheap way to draw a good amount of cards. That is inherently powerful.


Grim Haruspex
This card is a little strange. I find it extra strange that they chose to give it a name that has Greek origins, since we just LEFT the Greek mythology world. They should have caught that one in the flavor department, but who knows what those guys are busy doing all day. Here is an alternative name: Hannibal Lecter.

What we have here is a sweet card advantage engine for a sacrifice deck. It also somewhat arbitrarily includes the Morph mechanic, but I guess that is what they mean when they talk about 'theming'. If you wanted to draw even more cards from your Skullclamp shenanigans now you can. Go forth my children and multiply (the cards).



GoblinslideContinuing with the awesome uncommon enchantment sub-theme we have a pretty ridiculous token generator. It might seem pretty lame to pay one for a 1/1 an indeterminate number of times, but if Return to Ravnica block taught me anything, it is that paying a little bit extra for a little bit extra is basically always the right choice.

Somewhere, there is a sweet counter-burn deck waiting to just sit back and Spell Burst all your junk and poke you to death with a handful of hasty gobbos. Tell me that doesn't sound just annoying enough to try.



Hardened ScalesMany people have boarded the hype train for this card. People seem to be into this kind of junk, but I just can't understand why. Doubling Season was good. It's still good. I won't deny it. It is an express lane to an ass whuppin', but it seems every year R&D vomits up another knock off and each one is worse than the last. First it was only tokens and that was fine, but nobody jumped out of bed at 3 a.m. to go grab one on Black Friday. Then we had a true successor, but they fixed it so that it worked 'properly' with planeswalkers. I used fix there in the same way that you fix a dog by chopping off its wiggly bits.

Seriously, what is the point of playing this card? Why not just have another effect that adds counters? Or GOD FORBID, just a regular threat that doesn't need fifteen +1 counters to make an impact. Are there really that many people left playing Vorel of Hull Clade?


Rattleclaw MysticIf you have ever played Starcraft you will be familiar with the nickname creation principle of replacing syllables that sound like '-attle' with cattle. Since the following consonant is inevitably going to be a 'C', just drop that and replace it with a 'B'. Now you have a firm understanding of why I am going to call this card CattleBra Mystic.

CattleBra Mystic is a pretty generic mana dork. It costs more than it should and produces fewer colors than it should, but it is a 2/1 so the illusion persists that is will be useful for something other than powering out your Primeval Titan  Pearl Lake Ancients. For added entertainment, it can do this cute trick where it generates an extra mana the turn you un-morph it. Neato!

People have used words like 'explosive' to describe this card. I think that is accurate, in that it is going to explode literally every time you play it. No one has ever once thought; "Hmm, a Morph. Ahh it'll be fine, I'll just ignore it." If they can kill it, they will kill it. At which point you will be stuck unable to cast your fatties, wishing you had just listened to Grandpa Growth instead.


See the Unwritten
I discussed this card in one of my preview articles, so I won't spend too much time here. In short, it gives you a discount on gigantic fatties. If you can set up the Ferocious trigger you can also generate card advantage. Since that condition isn't too hard to satisfy, you can expect to win with this a decent amount. However, it won't take too long for this to fade out of style. People will remember that there used to be another, better card that they stopped playing. But then they will get distracted by some tasty Cornetto treats.



Trail of MysteryWizards has finally seen fit to print enough Morph cards to make an entire Commander theme deck around. Conveniently, they have also simultaneously printed a build around card that rewards you for doing so.

This card isn't really bad at all, but wanting to use it says something about you. You probably got lost in grocery stores a lot when you were little. You have trouble driving on the highway because you crash into oncoming traffic every time you see a billboard.




Deflecting PalmAt some point during the creative process, Doug Beyer probably got back a sketch of this card's art and immediately lost his lunch. I imagine earlier drafts had a lot more BLOOD. You can almost infer that there was a lot of it because the final iteration has NONE. That is interesting because if this happened on a planet with Earth-like physics this guys hand would explode like a guinea pig in a microwave. Everyone standing behind the point of perspective would need a shower and an HIV screening.

This card is strictly superior to previous reflect damage effects in that it requires no targets. An unnecessary complication that has lead to more unintentional losses on Modo than the F6 key.



Villainous WealthAnd this children is why we should always play counterspells. The last thing you want is some hoodlum cat-man rifling through all your stuff until he finds a sufficiently sturdy club to cave in your skull with.

We have all been waiting for something like this to come along. A Genesis Wave that you could point at someone else is going to break just about any game wide open. You can't steal their lands, but you CAN take the Instants and Sorceries. Clever Imposter is the clear runaway favorite of this set, but Villainous Wealth is not far behind. This is the card that I am most excited to play with, being that I already know Imposter is going to rudely trample all over the format. This at least has the courtesy to be three colors so that not every one and their brother can play it.


Warden of the EyeFor the uninitiated, this is known as the Tree pose in yoga. It also happens to be an Izzet Chronarch clone that can also pick up Planeswalkers. This is a little expensive, but the effect is powerful. I don't see why this can't make it into the top decks. It is loaded up with value and big enough to overcome most procedurally generated tokens.









Abzan AscendancyNow we have come to the cycle section of the the review. Starting with the Ascendancy enchantments.

I dig this. It has about the right amount of power for me. Plus, I have never seen a card that screams louder to be played with Ghave. Which, by the way, is still a deck that you should be playing and preparing for. It is better than Doran and better than a heck of a lot of other things too. Ghave is on the short list of maybe ten or so decks that I would consider playing in Commander that don't have Blue in the color identity.



Jeskai AscendancyWhen I saw this card, I was confused. At first I thought this was the box art from Kung Fu Panda, but then I realized I was wrong: this art is much more childish.

Back on topic though, this just might be the most powerful of the cycle, but hardly the most playable. Casting one removal spell, then getting the opportunity to ambush multiple attackers is hot tech. Unfortunately, that is never going to happen. Not only would no one ever attack into this under any cicrumstances, no one even has a deck to put this into. The team America colored commander options are so shallow that you can barely justify the speculation, much less the building, of such a deck.




Mardu AscendancyThe first ability is quite a doozy, the second might as well be illegible because people are going to spend a long time reading it, but never use it. Still, getting free tokens for doing something that you probably wanted to do anyway is a pretty sweet way to nab some value. I would expect to see this specifically in Zurgo decks, but not anywhere else. Mardu, like Jeskai, lacks a deep selection of quality commanders.







Sultai AscendancyI am pretty sure that this is the weakest of the cycle. It will be the most played though, I should think. The decks that want this kind of effect are so ubiquitous they might just start edging in on the Pigeons in Manhattan.

People are going to be upset when they open up their fifth copy of this in draft and they are going to have to look for somewhere to apply it. The phrase 'good enough for Commander' might have just quietly slipped from thinly veiled insult to desperate plea for attention.



Temur AscendancyThis already has a convenient home: Animar. The tricky bit is that there are tons of great cards that would shine in Animar decks, but every card that you include that isn't itself a Creature has to be pretty insane in order to justify its spot. I think that this manages to pull that off. With the sheer volume of beaters in that deck, Haste is a choice cut of meat. There are plenty of Creature-based draw engines, but this one happens to be cheaper...and stapled onto a Fires of Yavimaya.





Now we have the charm cycle. On the list of surefire inclusions in the set, this is right up there with the tri-lands and Legendary clan leaders. Shards of Alara basically spelled out all the answers for us. The only question left is whether or not the third set will be similarly all multicolor.

Abzan CharmSo do you kill a guy or draw two? I am down for whatever. The third mode is secretly good as well. Modal spells are best when the uses for the card don't overlap onto each other. These situations are all related, but distinct: If his dudes are small, you can make your guy bigger than his. If his dudes are already big you can exile one of them. If the board is in balance, you can draw cards to break the symmetry. Quite clever.






Jeskai CharmInstant speed Time Ebbs have pretty much always been awesome and the cheaper you make them the better they get. Remember Azorius Charm? This is 66% the same card. Except now instead of Cycling you get to singe the dome. Hint: that is not an upgrade.











Mardu CharmThis is my pick for the worst of the cycle. It might be played in some other format, but it has little effect in Commander. Four toughness is not a significant barrier in a format where things cost one or six. There are better ways to make tokens and Duress, while awesome, shouldn't cost three.

The fact that you don't have a deck to play this in notwithstanding, you...well you shouldn't play it anyway.




Sultai CharmIf Abzan Charm isn't the best, then Sultai is. You can destroy Artifacts, Enchantments, and most Creatures, which makes this a hot answer card, but you can also Cycle+loot on the rare occasion that the other two modes aren't useful. Basically what that means is that this card will never be bad. I value it somewhere between your opponent's best card and two random cards from your deck. Whatever that means.





Temur CharmThis is a much more situational removal spell than either Abzan or Sultai Charm, but if you have fatties it will do the job. The problem with fight mechanics in constructed is that the potential for blowouts is so high. It is just too easy to be two-for-oned.

No one cares about a Falter effect when you can get Triumph of the Hordes for roughly the same price by EDH standards (recall from earlier that Green mana is cheaper than Red mana).

So what are we left with, Mana Leak? No thanks.



Abzan BannerSo we have combined the Obelisks from Alara and the Cluestones from Ravnica to get Banners. The people in the creative department must all be alchemists. I don't even understand how magnets work. How exactly is a flag meant to produce the same amount of energy as an ancient magical monument or a devoted druid? I don't get it.

Setting aside the glaring flavor problems, we can talk about the glaring playability problems.They won't be played in Standard, Modern, or Commander. They aren't going anywhere in Pauper either, except my Cube.



Ugin's NexusBesides being obviously insane with certain Artifact combo enablers, Nexus isn't much to look at. When used fairly it...well quite frankly it won't be. When used as a degenerate combo piece it will have a profound impact on the format. There are already some similar ways to achieve an infinite turn lock, but we haven't yet reached the saturation point on such effects. Expect to see a modest amount of this card around the tables. Also, expect to fall asleep from sheer boredom every time that you do.




Bloodfell CavesWell this sure wasn't in Shards block! Why the design team felt it necessary to print strict upgrades to the guild gate cycle just a year after their original run, I have no idea. At first glance, it would appear that these are taking the spots that would have been occupied by the Panorama cycle and Borderpost cycle, but I don't want to jump to that conclusion just yet. I am still hoping that those see print for the sake of Pauper.

On balance, these are a cheap (financially) comes into play tapped land that will easily fill out roster spots in budget lists. Seriously competitive decklists will have no use for them, but it will enable players of average means to build a greater number of decks without having to spread their collection of shocklands too thin. I think that we can all agree, a greater wealth of EDH decks will make us all happier than Scrooge McDuck in a money pool.



Frontier BivouacBelieve it or not, I never really played the original Trilands in Commander much. Partly because I am partial to two-color brews, partly because five color decks are silly, and partly because I always had better options. Similar to the above logic used on Bloodfell Caves, the completion of the Triland cycle will encourage many players to start using them in all manner of decks in which they don't really belong. Tap lands are generally the enemy of an efficient mana curve and there are so many dual lands nowadays that we no longer have to play bad ones. Tapping for a third color has always been a bonus, but I would rather have a fetch land or a filter land.

Additionally: what in the world is a bivouac?

Well that's all she wrote ladies and gents...or more appropriately all he wrote, since I am a Caballero and not a Senorita. Either way we're at the end of the trail for Khans. What did you think of the set? What did you think of the review? Holler at us in the comments.

We will be back to our regular antics next week.  See ya when I see ya Zoners.
-GG

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Khans of Tarkir Set Review: Answers

Welcome back to The General Zone's Review of Khans of Tarkir! This is the third installment, so make you take a look at the previous segments here: Threats, Legends.

In today's segment we will be discussing answers. Answers are something you use to stop an opposing threat. These can take many forms and often serve multiple roles depending on what types of cards they are meant to answer. They can also differ in what stage of the game or game zone they work in. Counterspells, removal, discard, land destruction, hate bears, niche sideboard cards, etc. Many cards fit into this category and an explanation of what they are meant to answer is critical in evaluating them.

End HostilitiesToday we will begin...at the end. Of hostilities. Putting aside the mechanics of this card for a moment, I'd like to discuss the questionable flavor of such a card. Is it smart to release a card representing the end of hostilities at the BEGINNING of a block? I am going to have to assume that all hostilities pictured in the art of Khan's cards came BEFORE this event is meant to take place. I fully expect that both of the coming expansions in this block will feature ABSOLUTELY NO references, direct or indirect, to violence or conflict of any kind. That is going to be a particularly boring twist being that Wizards billed this entire block on the idea that there are five factions constantly vying for dominance. The battles are not just physical contests of violence, but also ideological campaigns for sovereignty. I guess we can all be disappointed together that we won't get to see that awesome crusade take place, after all, it already ended. Right here. Do you think I am reading too much into it? OR AM I?!


Suspension FieldThis card is 100% worse than both Oblivion Ring and Journey to Nowhere. In fact, it is at the bottom of my list for White removal cards. Even if you insist on having Enchantments to support some silly 'theme' you wouldn't want this. There is so much premium White removal available that you needn't even bother.










Kheru SpellsnatcherYou can now Spelljack in Creature form. This probably isn't that exciting to most players, but Spelljack happens to be a personal favorite card of mine. The mechanics of exactly how you cast the card have been updated and improved, which is nice. The attachment of a modest body is also an excellent bonus and I think that is the key to evaluating this card. Counterspells, even expensive flashy ones, are good in the format. That much we know. The question is whether or not you can make the 3/3 generate some value. That means equipment, protection, and hopefully someway to turn it face down again. Even without the surprise factor, your opponent will still have to grind through a second Spelljack in order to regain parity in the game. That is a tall order, especially when a single removal spell isn't going to cut it.



Quiet ContemplationWe have seen many uncommons like this before. They are reasonably priced and serve to expand the available archetypes in the limited environment although most of the time they aren't even good enough for draft. In some cases, like Astral Slide, they can make a spectacular leap to constructed. I think that this card has that potential. An aggressive deck is going to need to have an extremely fast fundamental turn to overcome this kind of road block. Regardless of how effective it proves to be in Standard, it will certainly be USABLE in EDH. Things just take longer to get moving and boards are much more likely to build vertically than in other formats. That makes Commander the ideal environment to foster a tempo engine like this.



Set Adrift
I have already given significant consideration to many sketchy looking Delve cards. The reality is that if a card becomes cheap enough, it doesn't really matter what it does. Delve directly lowers the cost of the card, so things can get very close to free under the right circumstances. All Delve cards are somewhat irritating to draw in your opening hand, but decks with a fetchland mana base, good numbers of ramp spells or Cyclers, mill mechanics, or just enough Creatures getting killed can easily power out quick Delve spells.

I am going to say that this card is pretty strong. The comparison that makes me think that is Submerge. Submerge is circumstantially free. This is generally cheap, but always costs something. Set Adrift however can nail any nonland permanent, which is a huge bonus. Commander features many types of problematic permanents that need to be answered. Set Adrift is not an Instant though, which definitely hurts. I will try it out, but I don't expect it to permanently replace anything I already play. It is very close though.



Crackling DoomThis card seems awesome. It is an edict effect, but it constrains your opponents' choices. That means you are almost always going to get a high value Creature from each player. The bonus damage isn't incredibly exciting, but it isn't nothing. This is quality removal with built in card advantage. If you aren't down with that, we just can't get along. The casting cost is going to get you bent into knots, but if you are one of the oddballs who are still playing Kaalia of the Vast or Oros the Avenger then you just got an early Christmas present.



Duneblast
End Hostilities, part two. Why this set needs so many board sweepers, I have no idea. This is expensive, slow, and color intensive, but what do you get for all that? Not that much really. Having the only threat on the board means that you are probably just the biggest target added on top of the fact that you just burned a bunch of bridges by killing other peoples stuff. On average, Phyrexian Rebirth is going to leave you in a less favorable spot, but it is DRAMATICALLY easier to cast. The specificity of the color requirements on this card means that only a tiny sliver of the metagame can even sleeve it up. When you see this color combination, expect to see this card. But alas, I don't expect anyone to be changing their commander just to include this.



MindswipeRakdos's Return showed us just how powerful it can be to incidentally kill an opposing planeswalker. That lesson carries over here, but in a much less powerful shell. A soft counter, while surely playable, is less exciting than a Mind Shatter.




I enjoy crossovers just as much as the next human, but I don't think it is appropriate to depict Lord Helmet from Spaceballs without crediting the original source.





Ride DownI like it when R&D endeavors to explore NEW mechanical ground, rather than just delivering us a tired rehash of mechanics that previously didn't meet sales quotas. I think it is awesome to have a card that can 'unblock' a guy and I am particularly excited that it gets to be a removal spell. The question then, is whether or not any deck in the format currently wants this. My answer is no. Unless you consider Jor Kadeen a deck.







Trap EssenceI like counterspells more than just about anyone. I don't really mind if they are expensive or flashy or what have you. This however, is kind of pushing it. It costs more than it should, it is more color intensive than it should be, and its upside is hardly exciting. I would understand this card if it only cost GU. That would be fine and dandy. But a situational counter that costs three of three colors? Why bother?

The answer to the implicit question in the flavor text is Krabby Patties, which as we all know, are good for the soul.





Utter EndIt took more than ten years, but we finally have a truly Instant speed version of Vindicate. The modern equivalent comes with a couple of back breaking riders though. First, it is too expensive. Why? I have no idea. Maelstrom Pulse didn't exactly break the game, despite being substantially more powerful than this card. Secondly, it, like is so common with current templating standards, cannot hit lands. Again, I don't know why Wizards finds this characteristic to be so important, but it is the reality of the game these days.

After all that, what we are left with is a withered husk. The obvious nostalgia bait is dangling in front of us, but it lacks the power and playability of its predecessors.

Well, there you have it. That is all I have to say for these cards. Generally an unexciting mess, but what this set lacks in quality answers it more than makes up for in other areas.

What do you think of the set so far? Are we adequately answering your calls for pop culture references? Make sure to check back on Sunday when we post the last segment of the review covering utility cards, mana producers, and everything that we missed.
-GG

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Khans of Tarkir: The Legends

Hey there. Landdrops here.

Welcome to the week of build up Zoners! Set rotation is imminent, and the smell of a new scent with warring clans of enemy colors is upon us. If none of those things stir any excitement, I suggest you say out loud, "I should've checked myself." Cause congratulations- you've wrecked yourself.

This set is full of goodies that my PIC Grandpa Growth has begun to talk about, and I highly suggest you sneak a peek at his assessment of the threats if you haven't, as well as the rest of the Answers and Mana/Utility cards later this week.

For now, we've got those Clan Leaders to talk about, so let's do it. Our very own Tarkir journey begins now!

Well we've got a new set, and a sweet new creature subtype- Enter the Naga, and Sidisi, the Sultai's scaly leader.

Without a whole lot of options in these enemy colors, it feels easy to want to see what these new Commanders can do. Sort of a quality Grandpa Growth talked about early last year when he talked about the way Legendary Creatures get introduced by what's popular and new.

In this way, we are going to see a lot of the Sidisi self-mill reanimator as both an alternative to and a maindeck assistant for my least favorite deck in the format, The Mimeoplasm.

Personally, I'm a fan of the aesthetic, the creature type, and the aggressive mana cost. The rest really isn't much to look at, even though I find it really exciting that the creatures that go into your graveyard will STILL be usable as you proceed to beat down with UNTAPPED 2/2 Zombies. So there is some design subtleties that are nice and welcome additions to the new Naga Shaman on the block. I'm just not convinced it's going to be powerful enough to stick around.

Much like Doran, this is a nice aggressive threat that's larger than its cost. While I'm not sure what these abilities are supposed to do, much less why they are so awkwardly paired together on this card, I can't say I find them unappealing.

Anafenza provides a nice offense-oriented way of hating out reanimate decks everywhere, which is counter-intuitive to its color combination, but helpful when you consider just how much removal you have access to in this color combination.

Exiling creatures in a 1-ofs format is a huge game, and that second ability turns those lowly Doom Blades into more powerful removal without the drawbacks from the premier versions of these spells in the current metagame.

Green, Black, and White is probably my favorite combination, so this is something I'll be rooting for, occasionally checking out lists to see if it is getting some traction. Seems like he's going to take up a slightly more aggressive place along side his GBW mainstay, Doran.

Speaking of face-smashers- Enter Zurgo.

When this card got spoiled during the Speed vs. Cunning stuff, I laughed. Because before I even looked at what the Mardu clan leader did, all I could think about was the silly way Crow and Mike and the MST3K gang would throw out names of crappy B-list action heroes. If that's what WotC was going for in the 7/2 Orc Warrior, well, I see you R&D.

Aside from his name, Zurgo really is a no-nonsense card. Much like Kaalia, the Helmsmasher's board presence is never going to escape your opponent's view. He's big, he's here, and he has Haste.

Comparatively, he's really nothing like the other cards in his colors. The card Zurgo really compares favorably with is Ruhan, and is superior in just about every way, despite the lack of defenses.

I like this aggro-Voltron deck. When you can combine Wraths favorably into design space, look for this guy to terrorize some kitchen tables.

Enter Temur, the clan which seems to be in a very complicated with relationship with Bears. I found this out at prerelease when cries of utter joy were being exclaimed every time someone pulled a Bear Punch (Savage Punch), and all I could pull was a single-yet-often-well-timed Awaken the Bear.

According to flavor-text lore, and an oddly-cut coat, Temur's clan leader Surrak Dragonclaw is a nice figurehead for this strange love/hate with Magic's grizzliest.

Obviously, there are several things I like; Flash, being a 6/6 for 5, and his uncounterability. Together, these are attractive qualities for any Legend you'd want to put into a Command Zone.

Really, it's the other abilities I'm not really fond of. Giving other spells the ability to go unchecked is great for Standard, but here it will invite the kind of design space that I don't see Dragonclaw really wanting to play, which is comparable to the insanely powerful all-creature Animar deck that JC and I have discussed here on this site. In my mind, Surrak would rather be suited for a spell-heavy control deck with a couple of game-enders, including himself.

Overall, I don't see this card getting big in Commander, but we'll have to wait and see what the Internet comes up with. Unseating Animar doesn't seem logical, but I've been wrong before.

Our last legend is a prospect I've predicted to have the most upside.

Again, we have to go to a different set of triple colors for better comparison. In this case, Narset compares more favorably with Commander 2013's Grixis feature, Jeleva, mostly due to the free noncreature swag you're bound to get.

Unlike Narset, hexproof, the attack trigger, and the power-boost are a big game. The design space for this will be similar to Jeleva, but with a much more potent plan to end the game, as the Time Warp and extra Combat Step spells should provide enough turns to get to 21 Commander damage.

The tricky part will be ensuring evasion. So far, I've seen a few lists worth tweaking and tuning to bring a lot of neat, sweet victories.

That's all the Commander talk we've got for today. Be sure to check back Thursday as GG continues our maiden trip through Tarkir.

Pass Turn.
-UL