Usually the New Year brings us time to reflect on the good and bad of the past one. That's what we're all about today- celebrating the best of the last.
Tom, Gramps and I have selected our best picks from 2014. So let's get to it.
THIS IS THE STACK!
UNCLE LANDDROPS
I loved the scry lands, not just Temple of Epiphany. The whole cycle rocked, and gave us some powerful additions to every mana base. This temple was picked because it's my favorite artwork of all of them. The color palette has tremendous contrast, making it incredibly appealing, but the best quality of it is that the electrical storm brewing allows the card to both fit the Ancient Greek-ness of the Theros set while also transcending its own plane. With the Izzet guild so identifiable, I really like the fact that this card and artwork seems to slip right into another Izzet deck without seeming awkward. GG and I both liked how Wizards did something similar in Innistrad with the printing of the enemy-colored m10 counterparts, and I think that's where this set succeeds too.
Grandpa Growth- THUMBS UP
Yea...these cards are pretty excellent. I have been playing New Benalia in my mono White decks for years. I always thought it was great. These cards are just ridiculously powerful. Lands have become the most important part of any deck and, in modern Magic sets, some of the most expensive. Taplands in general feel pretty bad to draw late in the game, but the Temple cycle is completely different. If you are going to draw a land, you are so much happier drawing this.
Tom - THUMBS UP
I don't have a lot to say about the Scry lands that hasn't already been said. They're awesome. Topdeck manipulation and colour fixing in the same land? Be still my beating heart.
Having played with this a bit, I am well and truly convinced that it is overpowered. Clone effects are almost always cheaper than the thing that they are copying. This is a fair deal because you often have to wait for an opponent to play something appealing before you can unleash your Clone, mitigating any potential tempo gains that would accrue from a less mana-intensive play.
D^2 completely breaks the mirror by granting Haste and Dethrone. Your version gets to attack immediately giving you a clear tempo advantage AND your copy is often larger than theirs because of a single +1/+1 counter you get when coming from behind. How is this fair at all?
Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
I was so excited for this because of Animar, and it hasn't let me down.
The last awesome thing I did with it was copy my opponent's Ulasht, the Hate Seed. For those who don't know, giving Ulasht more ways to get bigger on the battlefield lends itself to some serious power. Because Animar is a combat-based deck, predicated on getting wide, I got to a point in the game where I just turned him into a bunch of Saprolings and added some additional Hellrider triggers so I could kill both my opponents at the table.
Tom- THUMBS UP
I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but I love Clone and copy effects. If it weren't for that pesky little bit of Red in the mana cost this would go right into my Roon of the Hidden Realm copy/blink deck. What really sells this card is the Haste, allowing you to hold it until after someone else drops their Blightsteel or Eldrazi in order to copy a big bastard and launch it an opponent immediately.
UNCLE LANDDROPS
One of the finest mass removal spells I've seen printed. In my opinion, this is right up there with Wrath and Damnation, except it creates an excellent way to get one-sided with some of the weenier White or White-Adjacent decks.
Grandpa Growth-THUMBS UP
This is the best five mana Wrath; in my opinion at least. To create an advantage with Wrath, you usually have to set something up or trade away life points. In the decks that play this, there really is no set up cost. You have cheap Creatures, with which you are beating down during the early game. Naturally, your opponent will have bigger late game plays that outclass your Creatures. However, when you play this, you are right back on the war path. Your opponent is left with a frumpy frown and a bad taste in their mouth.
Tom- THUMBS UP
The only thing better than a wipe is an asymmetrical wipe. It's what justifies the high cost of In Garruk's Wake, it's what makes Martial Coup a nightmare in a weenie token deck and it's what makes Necromantic Selection into a potentially game-ending play. I get something while you get nothing, and it's really hard to argue with that kind of advantage when it's applied to multiple opponents. Best of all it works in the many, many new Alesha brews we're seeing to leave her army of midgets in perfect position for an aggro rush.
TOM
Tom -THUMBS UP
The moment I saw this guy, I knew I was going to build around him. There are so many potent death trigger abilities that draw cards, gain/drain life, force opponents to sacrifice and just generally give everyone a tough time that a general who can not only force sacrafice of creatures but get mightier from each death creates a constantly self-reinforcing deck in which every action benefits in some form or another.
So what makes the card so good? Well, the first and most obvious factor is the harsh punishment handed down on any opponent who tutors, ramps or cracks a fetchland. It's EDH, we know how prevalent this kind of thing is, and being able to shut it down is a slice of fried gold. Not to mention that Ob's ability gives poor old Maralen of the Mornsong a reason to keep getting up in the morning. However, useful as that is (and it really is - you wouldn't believe how often opponents will end up ramping/fetching lands with Ob on board just because they need the mana so badly), it's not what really puts Ob at the top of my list.
No, what drives my demonic pal into the top tier is his combination of two forms of evasion coupled with his ability to get bigger and bigger whenever another creature kicks the bucket. I've noticed that opponents will usually ignore this and focus on his anti-searching tech, but it's actually the latter ability that kills them in what is basically deathtriggers.dec. Be it through my own shenanigans with Skullclamp, Attrition, Ghoulcaller Gisa or Soldevi Adnate, potent symmetrical effects like Butcher of Malakir and Grave Pact, or simply targeted or mass destruction from the likes of Malicious Affliction and Plague Wind, Ob Nixilis accrues +1/+1 counters fast, and his flying/trample let him swing in for huge amounts of Commander Damage.
Grandpa Growth- THUMBS DOWN
I find it interesting that the reactions to this card have varied so widely. When my threats don't do something to immediately impact the board, I take issue - ESPECIALLY with expensive cards. This does grow quickly, so the fact that it is undersized for its costs doesn't particularly bother me. People use to play Scavenger Drake in this format, and at one time, that was acceptable.
The truth is that nowadays, there is no good reason to be playing a threat that matches up poorly against removal. There are enough good options in every color that you just don't have to make that sacrifice.
Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
On an individual card basis, I do side with Gramps. Still, we all know O.B. Nix isn't exactly in colors that play fair when it comes to paying for spells, and this is something Mono-Black likes to build around. Premier Reanimation, Boots, and/or Greaves do well to fix the problems here.
GRANDPA GROWTH
You've already heard a hundred people talk about how great this reprint is. You are about to hear a couple more people do the same. I am going to do something different.
I don't really 'get' the flavor behind the Dragon bones and the fetchlands. Take delta here for an example: the card seems to imply that the bones are doing the polluting or ARE THE POLLUTION. This is incongruent when you look Wooded Foothills or Windswept Heath, both of which have very 'pretty', nature-centric arts. On those cards it's implied that the skeletons are somehow empowering the growth of plants. Seems weird. Am I alone here?
Tom - THUMBS UP
As a relatively recent convert to the game of Magic, original fetches were way outside of my reach. These reprints have made them much more available, and as someone who loves an efficient mana base I'm overjoyed. The sheer potency of lands that search out the colour you need without an ETB tapped clause is high indeed.
Of course, my excitement has absolutely nothing to do with that foil Windswept Heath I pulled from one of my very first KTK boosters. At all. Ahem.
Uncle Landdrops- THUMBS UP
This was something I'd found to be an inevitable reprint, and I couldn't think of a better place and a better way to do it.
On top of being economically sensitive to players who held the $35+ original printings from Onslaught (This is because of the block-structure change), I think Wizards did a really nice thing within the confines of their story arc by using the reprint to connect the story of Ugin and his homeland to Zendikar, the last time we saw fetches in Standard. Additionally, it gives us a way to weave and re-weave characters to which we are already familiar with, which is a really smart thing to do in just about every way imaginable.
Well, that's how we stacked it up. We don't have much for news, but it is spoiler season! You can find our latest info and thoughts soon, but if you can't wait that long, follow me on Twitter @unclelanddrops, where I'm sure to be making snarky remarks, re-posting images from PAXEAST yesterday, or answering any questions you have in the future in 140 characters or less.
Until then, make good choices.
Pass.
-The TGZ Staff
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