Reviewing 2013 Part 1: The Hits

Happy Winter holiday fest Zoners! Now that the festivities are in full swing it is time to take a look back at the year that has passed us by. Yes, the time has come for us to reflect, quietly or otherwise, on the things that we have done...and we here at the General Zone have done some serious growing. When I signed up, we were looking at a couple of hundred views. Now, I ain't typically in the blogging business, but if you start there and work your way up into the tens of thousands after a year and a half then you just might be on to something. I am proud to be here as a part of it! So in honor of that I am going to be looking at some of my proud moments from the set reviews in 2013. If you haven't had a chance to check them out, use all of the sweeet holiday free time to take a look back through the archive; look out for the Set Review tag. If you were hoping for the part where I eat twelve helpings of humble pie, skip ahead to next week where I will be taking a look at my biggest misses!

So let's take a look at what I did right, starting with the recent and rolling it all the way back to 2012.

So I am going to start off a bit easy here. This wasn't a walk off home run, but it was sure close. I was quite sure Unexpectedly Absent was going to be the secret Legacy plant from Commander 2013, and it did manage to see some one-off sideboard play, but it seems White isn't the color you want your new Legacy tech to be; this year we want Blue presents and we aren't accepting substitutes. True-Name jumped straight into Legacy Delver decks and put up results immediately. In Commander it has done a ton of work as well. I guess I'll have to settle for saying it was the second best card in the set.

I have been right occasionally, and about this one I definitely was. This card is sick like cancer and it is seeing plenty of play so I guess I have that going for me (is that joke inappropriate, even among the tristing sewer pipes of internet commentary?). I gushed plenty about this card here on the blog and do so to just about everyone that I see playing it, so let's get on to the gettin' on.



I sort of hit the nail on this one. I believe my exact words were, 'the creatures you control could have a ham sandwich and it would still be good' or something like that. In my mind, this is really only a little bit of an under estimation considering I would take either of these abilities on a card. Again though, I did make a bold claim that Bow of Nylea was better than this by a substantial margin. I was probably wrong about that being true, but this is a heck of a card.



I made some tentative comparisons here to some pretty good cards. Gaea's Cradle? Cabal Coffers? In Commander this isn't quite as much of a show stopper, but if Standard is any indicator devotion is going to be a big thing in multiple formats. So far, we have only seen one set out of this block and it has already shaken up a lot. I excited to see how much more this card can achieve with some more support.




So in my initial review I said that this card was just down right hogwash. And it turns out that that is actually true! One thing I did manage to leave out in my original discussion was that horrible, horrible flavor text. This is one card that may actually be worse than basic Mountain, even in multiples.



Possibly my favorite hit of the year. I have been waving the red flag on this little number since day one. It is an absolute house. It is such a monstrous beating to counter a Reanimate and gain 15+ life in the process. That is being rather conservative as well...This card can gain silly amounts of life. This is the only card that I am considering cutting from my Pauper Cube because it is just too strong. It can't be beat. Every time someone else casts this card against me, in any format, I just instantly want to throw up. Here on TGZ we have been playing up Crypt Incursion for a while. If you aren't on the bandwagon yet...well it is about gosh darn time you dug your head out of the sand and sat it squarely back on your shoulders.




Ugh...I just...don't even want to. I like being right, but not when it means something like this. Have you played against this card? It is so vicious, so conniving that I just can't bring myself to main deck it. This is it. We found it. This is where I draw the line. Debt to the Deathless is just too darn mean. In the DGM set review I relayed a humorous anecdote about a gigantic Exsanguinate for seventeen. Well, just the other day a table of four players just scooped up their cards and left when this card resolved...FOR FIVE! That was it. Pour one out on the curb for your deathless homies. I felt like one of the statues in this art...just projectile vomiting blood onto my board. This ranks up there in my top ten for feel bad cards. Keeping company with Daze and Plow Under is only good in certain neighborhoods. No one should have to feel this bad playing a game of Magic.




This little guy went underrated for a good sixth months before I started seeing him around the tables. Even I was starting to second guess myself, but I held firm. Things first came to a head when I battled against UL's fabled Animar, Soul of the Elements deck. As it turns out, when your whole deck is creatures, you draw an extra card with Domri pretty often. At some point, this just turns into a chain gun, you load it up with a sufficiently sized Animar bullet and it just mows down everything but the front lawn.

It's funny, because in the GC set review I made a joke that getting to Domri's ultimate turned all your creatures into the Predator...and then a few months later all the Slivers became Predators. No? Nobody else finds that funny, I guess. I like to think that the creative team reads the blog.



In the Gatecrash Set Review I made the not-so-bold claim that this would either be completely snapped or completely useless. That isn't much of a prediction. What I got right about this card was that they shouldn't have printed it. When I said that things like this are bad for the game I meant it. Instant dominance in Legacy is an indicator to me that a card is just too dang strong...or free. And that is the problem here! This is way out of the park in power level and, as it turns out, is completely free. I agree that a certain amout of 'puzzle' cards should exist for people to try and break. People like combos. People like deckbuilding. I say let my people brew! You just have to be very careful because it takes a lot of foresight to understand what the effects will be if someone actually does solve the puzzle...

Well, so much for that. Those were the favorite true things I said about a Magic card in 2013. As I said, next week we will be taking another stroll down memory lane to check out my big whiffs! So I hope to see you all then. Make sure to leave a comment about your favorite cards from this year. Or maybe your favorite silly pun that I made. Who knows, we might just have some fun by accident.

-GG

Twenty Instants Under 25 Cents

Heya Zoners, it's your pal Landdrops here with a pretty exciting list of budget goodies.

This is gonna be a big one, so let's just skip the pleasantries and get right into this super-saving budget wonderland.

20. Swell of Courage

I'm aware of just how many budget blue cards are better than this, and didn't make the cut. Negate, Dispel, Boomerang, Inspiration.

Let's just say this is a card that's been on my radar during my on-again-off-again struggle in building Daxos.

This was going to be Stir the Pride, but I like this a little better. Like the ever-popular theme amongst secret tech that I own, some cards are really bad until you read the penultimate line.

Every other card I've seen with Reinforce is terrible. This card is still pretty "meh" too, but it does provide flexibility. And really, Daxos only needs a couple counters to make sure he doesn't die.

19. Overrule

Overrule is a new card I've reluctantly accepted into my decks. I don't consciously try to overexaggerate, so I won't. This card is pretty adequate, and I wish some other pure blue X counterspells would give adequate incentive to tap more mana like this.

Can you imagine Condescend with Scry X instead? Jeez Louise we'd have a big game.

Overall, this is actually a surprising skill test if you're locked in a counter-war, and a nice preventative measure that can add a little extra value late in the game if you get behind, like control decks often do.

I think I might've had some previous slander for this card, so I'll just go ahead apologize to VJ and the rest of his Azorius Lawmakers. I'm ready to assimilate.

18. Sprout Swarm

The Big Bopper for Pauper. One of the cards that singlehandedly saved me from extra Ulamog's Crusher death and effectively stalled the game.

Convoke and Buyback should not be on the same card, but it's awesome that they are.

In other EDH variants, I'm not sure exactly how good Sprout Swarm is. However, if you have Aura Shards, Cathar's Crusade, or other relevant "I don't care what creature enters the battlefield, just as long as it does" kinda cards, then here's a nice gift.

Here's a Saproling generator. You can either receive this gift as Christmas come early, or Arbor Day come super late. Up to you.

17. Voyage's End

When they add an already good mechanic onto something that's already appropriately costed and good to play, I sometimes have to resist the urge to question it.

That was the case with Voyage's End. I've already put it on an Isochron Scepter, in case you were asking, and it is as tasty as the moment you realized it was only 1U, and you could put this on an Isochron Scepter.

Braids' Blueberry Bounce House hasn't been same since. The Theros stuff that she got with scry, including this and Prognostic Sphinx, have generated astronomical card advantage. I'm very happy with the results.

16. Signal the Clans

I was as shocked as you were to see a Green and Red card make the list.

Unfortunately, this card didn't do the horrendous kinds of beatdowns I thought it might in Standard as early as this year, but it still has a few more miles to go. Getting Gods seems pretty good.

Quick tangent. I love the artwork on this. Battlehorns are always appropriate signals, and the color palette is pretty nice. Dave Kendall should be proud. This is a pretty sweet little card all around.

15. Grisly Salvage

This wasn't exactly the droid I was looking for, but it's still a nice card. If you have dead draw issues, this can surely eliminate those things.

I had it in Glissa for awhile, but got sick of seeing all my Instants pile up in the graveyard. So it's gone now, but it's got a good seat on the bench.

Looking past myself, this card is still a house. The return of Golgari cards was something I thought Wizards had an excellent grasp on in our second trip to Ravnica, and this is a good example.

14. Psychic Spiral

Psychic Spiral is a card I like, but it's still trying to find its place in my decks too.

This is one of those cards that blue spell decks crave, but only after they've drawn the game out a while. Much like Elixir of Immortality, it has been a card I just don't want to see until at least 30 cards or so in my deck.

I've been playing it and cutting it for a while now, mostly because I don't want to draw it in my opener, or at a point where it's a dead draw and it won't interact well with my plans.

I'm still hopeful though. There'll be a day when the shoe fits.

13. Rakdos Charm
This card is a really nice addition to the Rakdos family. It's one of the first unofficial "black" cards that can destroy artifacts, and one of the first "red" cards to exile a graveyard.

With just these mechanics alone, that's quite a punch. This is a card I've seen do some serious hurting to the graveyard decks which are unnecessarily common in my metagame, and having a little color pie skew on this didn't really compromise the integrity of the colors who normally couldn't have either.

Plus, the more Zoltan Boros art I can have in my life, the better.

12. Rescue from the Underworld

Speaking of graveyard hate. Meet Rakdos Charm's new nemesis.

It's disgusting how much value comes in this package. Black reanimate already has access to some of the games primo spells and creatures. Now, you get to have them again.

I really can't say enough good things about this card. The flavor theme is super sweet. It's an Instant-speed answer to protecting a potential Commander from getting tucked, and then it nets you another dude.

Between this and Tempt with Immortality, which both have completely splashable CMCs, Wizards is ushering in a new generation of Reanimate spells that seems too good to pass up. This is a Gravy Train everyone should probably be hopping on.


11. Reach of Branches

Reach of Branches is one of my favorite cards from a few years ago. It is a house in Mono-Green decks that play almost pure ramp and Landfall triggers.

The best part about this card was that Reach was sent to me as a free card along side some other things that I'd ordered. Still, I threw it in this Baru deck I was playing and went to work.

I was playing GG the first time I got to play it and hard-casted somewhere upwards of 13 Treefolk tokens.

I liked to play this in conjunction with Treefolk Harbinger, not only because it's badass, but also for the sheer fun-ness of synergy and Happy Treefolk Nonsense.

The Trees are home to some of my most guarded secret tech. This card is among several of my favorite cards to cast.

Once again, this is yet another early Christmas or late Arbor Day gift. Use wisely, friends.

10. Dead // Gone

Mixed results with Dead and Gone.

Let's start with Gone. This is clearly the card's better half, and probably the only reason it's made the list. Having a red card with blue abilities has been proven to be pretty good, and it has saved me in a few situations where Heartless Hidetsugu has blasted the pants off of each one of us at the table, and the damage is coming at me. Obviously a completely overcosted card, but worth it in color.

Dead is slightly less justifiable, but not as much as you might think. My defense? Gaddock Teeg is a 2/2. If you've never played against this smug little Kithkin, you might not realize how inherently valuable little removal spells are, even if they are Red.

9. White Sun's Zenith

Kittens inspired by Kittens. None of the Zenith cycles make any sense to me, but that doesn't mean we can't appreciate them.

There is not a single Zenith that I don't play, and I love them all for their own function in the deck.

Still, there's just something to be said about making a bunch of Kitty Katz at the end of your opponent's turn, or as chump blockers, and getting a free shuffle/chance to cast it again.

I can't believe this card is twenty-five cents. This is some of the cheapest fun I have in games, and it still hasn't gotten old for me yet.

8. Pit Fight

Imagine my double surprise when yet another RG card found its way on my list.

The real sad part about both of them is that I haven't been able to get them into a deck I want to play yet. I have a feeling that day might not be too far off though, if they keep making cheap things I really want to put on an Isochron Scepter.

I love this kinda stuff. Being able to create value out of other cards is what separates the men from the spellcasters.

Silly card, sure. Fun? Maybe. I'll let you know when I try it out. For now, we'll let the Myth spin it.

7. Naya Charm

This card has been wrecking face ever since it came out in Alara block, and I've been a huge fan of it for almost as long.

It's basically half of a non-blue Cryptic Command or a non-creature Eternal Witness. Either way you split it, that's still pretty okay. Both of those cards have a lot of serious power, especially when you consider that tapping creatures down almost always ensures a huge damage point swing because you play creatures.

There's not really much else to say about this one. Good card is good. If you've got a Naya deck and the charm isn't in there, I'd fail to see how this wouldn't make the cut.

6. Blustersquall

On sheer power alone, Blustersquall is probably outclassed by Naya Charm. Solid options are always better.

However, having a splashable card that does one of the things you'd want to do with Cryptic Command about 50% of time is still a huge bonus.

In Limited, this card was a beating. In Commander, it's almost as good as Aetherize.

I love it. It's the premier budget option from Return to Ravnica, so play all of the copies.

5. Realms Uncharted

Sometimes reading a card the second time is a lot better than the first time you read it.

That's how I feel about Realms. Grandpa and I have been playing this card for a few years now, and it's a total house.

Do you need fixing? Do you want your Strip Mine?

There's just too many different packages and combinations to be played with this card. You can have your opponents trying to figure it out for days.

I think that's the real reason Realms and Gifts and Fact or Fiction are so good. They create a sub-game that supposed to give whichever opponent you choose the option of trying to ruin your plans.

What no one realizes though, usually, is that whatever they get is usually good enough anyway.

Seriously- Take the Old Spice challenge on this card. If you don't like it, throw it away and get yourself a stick of deodorant. Either way, you can't lose.

4. Wing Shards

The fact that this card is less than 25 cents makes me all kinds of crazy.

Apparently people don't know a good card when they see it. Cause, BOOM! This is one. You are looking at it.

This owl shooting what appear to be feather bullets at you is basically one of the most secret beatdowns of the last half century. Do you like removal? Do you like getting more than one copy of a removal spell and not paying any more for it?

Apparently not. Because you're not playing it, and the secondary market is overflowing with a valuable playable removal spell.

So go get your head on straight and buy a playset. It's ridiculous that the price on Wing Shards is this low, when the rent is too damn high.

3. Sapphire Charm

The Jeopardy Category for this one is "Weird Targets for Isochron Scepter" today, and this is clearly no exception.

There really is no charm more relevant on a Scepter than Sapphire. This is another GG-inspired piece of tech, and I think it's pretty clear when the first ability is draw a card.

I actually prefer to use Sapphy Charm as a removal spell. Phasing is hilariously bad, and fun for people who understand the next silliest mechanic Magic has made next to Banding.

Again, 2 out of 3 abilities isn't bad. I'm definitely over ranking and overhyping this card, but still- I believe in it. So should you.

2. Crypt Incursion

We've talked this card up a lot here on TGZ, because it's just too good to be a Magic card.

I gained 27 life with it on Sunday. I've gained 40+ life with it on a couple of other occasions too. The longer the game goes, the better this card gets.

It is just too much value for one card. In black, where you can Ad Nauseam and Dark Confidant your way to death, this card is great at keeping you alive. And Crypt Incursion is really good at it.

1. Deglamer

Our number one card is Deglamer, which might be a little shocking.

But to tell you the truth, I'm shocked that this is still 10 cents.

Since the Gods came out, Return to Dust, the world's most obvious RFG Artifact/Enchantment spell, has gone up by about 50 cents.

Now I know that there are probably some other factors in the competitive environment I might not be aware of, but I think that's still crazy when you consider that Deglamer is basically twice the card that Return to Dust wants to be.

In every situation where a God will appear, this is the spell you want. Not Return to Dust. If someone is using RTD as their Commander, it's just plain overcosted. Especially if you have to cast it immediately on their turn.

Deglamer, no matter what time, no matter what situation, be it a main deck God, or a Commander God, will always be there for you. It is hands down the quickest answer to a God, and one of the many reasons why Green got better again. Like Didgeridoo, this old card has more to play with, and it is just too good to pass up.

Honestly, it's probably the next best Naturalize short of Krosan Grip too. Shuffling your opponent's Swords, Jitte, Greaves, and Batterskull are just as good, and it trumps the indestructible the Colossus Trio (Darksteel, Blightsteel, of Akros).

And once again- this card costs an actual dime. So buy one. or sixty.

That's all I got for today. Feel free to comment if you think I've missed something. There were a lot of good cards to talk about, so if you want, feel free to email me at UncleLanddrops@gmail.com if you want to see the ones that didn't make it.

Until next time, take the power back.

-UL

Super Secret Sunday 19: Second Looks

Welcome back to Super Secret Sunday! The place and time where we discuss underplayed cards, under the radar strategies, and under-thought thoughts. Now we all know that your Ol' Grandpa Growth can get to talking. And sometimes when he gets to talking he can get pretty opinionated. Well now that Dragon's Maze has been around for a couple weeks and I have had a chance to play with the new cards I am gonna take a look back at the predictions I made in the set review and talk about some cards where my expectations were way off. That's right, we're talkin' about Grandpa's biggest screw-ups from Dragon's Maze!

 So right off the bat we have to look at the Pro Tour decklists that showed up this weekend. This guy has been pulling big boy weight against every version of Esper deck in the field. Standard isn't exactly the same beast as Commander, but Sire shines even brighter in a multiplayer dominated format. I misread the role that this card can play in games. It isn't so much of a creature threat that you just want to play and attack with. The timing of this card is so critical. This is much trickier to operate than a Mind Twist, but when you hit them with it you already have a decent clock to back it up. The potential for card advantage is very high and skill testing cards in R/B are kind of rare. I like this in practice quite a bit more than I did in theory.


 I called this as a big hit in the set review. I know the value of a Time Walk and I am also good as spotting one, even in a disguise this good. This card just looks so unassuming, but check the score! How much life do you need to swing the race? How many turns do you set your opponent back by gaining 12 or more life? All this and it still has the potential to trade for a card from your opponent and denies them resources in the late game. This is a huge beating. That is an understatement. I knew it was a huge beating. It is an indescribable beating.







 So back on the results from the Pro Tour: this card was the finisher du jour in a variety of Blue based control decks. The analogue that I have been able to draw with Commander is how often these Standard control decks hit big mana. They are built to maximize Sphinx's Revelation and frequently control 10+ lands. In these late game situations (which happen to come around a lot in Commander) Aetherling is very difficult to race. I underestimated this cards ability to play defense. In a grind fest, you can nug your opponent with the unblockable four damage, but then blink it and leave your mana to pump its toughness to near infinite levels allowing you to block basically any single threat your opponent has. I stand by my assessment of this card as a pure threat. It is slow and expensive. What I didn't catch on to is how easily this card turns into inevitability.


 I was extremely excited about this card when it was spoiled. My excitement got the better of me. I made comparisons to many very good cards. I was pretty far off the mark. This costs two more than it is really worth. You still get a basically random card, which isn't much better than just drawing a fresh card except in the smallest corner cases. This card is much easier to hate out than other card advantage outlets, for no real reason. That card advantage by the way, really isn't that great. You only ever get one extra card. Nothing special. Mind Unbound. Yawgmoth's Bargain. Phyrexian Arena. The comparisons are not as favorable as I once thought.

 Well there we go youngins. A dose of my own medicine and a helping of humble pie all in one. It's good to be back doing S^3. It has been on hiatus for quite a while. Do you think I got these cards right the second time around? Let me know in the comments.

-GG