UL's Six Stat Corrections of 2013

Some people don't like to admit it, but opinions change. Mistakes get made. Though most days I'm only man enough to demonstrate the ones that Wizards makes or something the Commander culture does, today it's my turn to show you some of mine.

Throughout the year I make some bold predictions here and in the real when sets come out. Sometimes the cards turn out better than I expect. Sometimes it's worse.

Most of the cards I talk about today will be me formally admitting which cards I got wrong, how much I got it wrong, and the new opinion I've formed since.

So prepare yourselves. I might be saying I'm sorry a lot, but it's important to know I'm human, not just a disembodied voice on a blog at the bowels of the Interwebz.

So let's get started.

6. Hammer of Purphoros

We'll start with one of the more favorable mistakes I made. Hammer is a lot better than I gave it credit for. Mono-Red Commander decks have a serious reliance on card draw and top deck mode in the late game. This card puts Fervor to shame and gives you marginal rewards for drawing land. Recycling, card value- this is what this card does. Instant speed chump blockers are awesome too.

If you're thinking about Fervor, look for this first. It's just better.

5. Medomai the Ageless

Yeah, I talked a lot of crap about this. The sheer power of extra turns is intimidating, and I let it get the best of me. My bad.

The truth is that this card can be a serious threat. HOWEVER, what I forgot to take into account is just how much SLOW-zorius NEEDS this card. I got to see it in action a couple times already, and the best thing it really does is create a nice swell of opportunities for extra "Draw, Go" situations, where the turns aren't really "turns." An opportunity will probably be missed, like say, a combat step, which means that if Medomai is your Commander, it'll just take longer to get to 21 damage.

I'm a lot less freaked out by this card now, and I'm sorry about the previous hate statements about it. This is not a broken card by a longshot.

4. Curse of the Swine

I really let the "XUU" and the words "Exile target creature" and "2/2 Boar tokens" get to my head here. I only realized it was a Sorcery and therefore bad just seconds before I wanted to put this in a deck. Thank goodness I did. I haven't been impressed with the results as played by other people in my group. I still have to try it out for real, so maybe this will end back up on my Stat Corrections in 2014. But for now, I think it's pretty bad. Shoulda been an Instant. That's how quick it should take to turn other creatures into Boars.

3. Luminate Primordial

I wasn't too vocal about this one, but being wrong is being wrong. I still have yet to see people play this. And I thought it would be EVERYWHERE.

So far, the story has been that I've seen literally every other Primordial, including the Red one, active and beating down in games. Sylvan and Sepulchral have obviously become serious threats, and Diluvian has its uses, but I just haven't seen it. Maybe I will soon, but I guess it just isn't that good.

2. Bow of Nylea

This was probably one of the most overhyped cards I talked about this year, aside from Ruric Thar.

Unlike my favorite Gruul-a-tron though, Bow made the list because mastering its utility is super difficult. Both it and Ruric Thar were overhyped, but Ruric Thar still has the same function. The timing and use of Bow's effects make it a really hard card to manage in EDH. The investment in Green, both for its casting cost and its activated ability, also make it hard for anything over a two color deck, which I'm not even sure how good it is in any two-colored deck. It was hard for me to play in Glissa T's, and remains a tough card to want to play in Yeva. Deathtouch is awesome on the upswing, but really one-dimensional, despite the fact that its second ability is trying to compensate. Hence the reason I lean towards Bow sinking below even my worst expectations.

1. Prime Speaker Zegana

The most polarizing change is number one on this list. I talked a lot of crap about Prime Speaker Zegana when I reviewed her in Gatecrash.

Then a few months following its release I swallowed my distaste and gave her a real shot in Animar. Now, I'm a believer.

GG was right. This card is a hellacious beatdown, and to prove it, I beat him down with it. I think I must've drawn 7-8 cards off of it in two of the games I had playing Animar, and there was nothing he could do. Top decking her after a Mind Twist is usually pretty rough.

PSZ is a stupid good card, and I'm stupid for not believing in her majesty in the first place. Please play her more. It's really, really good for you.

That's all I got for today. Until next time, be sure to make more mistakes. And learn from them. Don't get them pregnant.

-UL

UL's Card Corner: The Flops

As I've said before, not all cards are created equal.

Today, I'd like to talk about some of those cards.The ones I didn't like, or probably more accurate, I couldn't pilot properly.

If you've been following the Animar deck series over the past few weeks, you know this guy was in there as a way to get haste.

Before that though, Sarkhan was originally part of my bad Intet deck, my slightly more successful Kresh deck, and a few build-and-immediately broken Naya decks.

Believe me when I say I've been trying to make this guy relevant. He's a table favorite, though everyone knows what five 4/4 dragons can do to a table.

Unfortunately, ol' Sarky's never been a game-changer. I've maybe won 1 or 2 games in all the decks he's been in, and I've never wanted to tutor him, or even be happy to draw him.

So after years of testing, I think it's time for him to fly.



Yeah. I'm probably gonna get some funny looks for this one. I know all the combos and all the fun-time people in my playgroup and the internet has to break this card.

So I thought I'd try my own luck, using this card to leverage value in relevant-but-not-so-broken ways. After being in Hidetsugu and a short-lived Rasputin Dreamweaver deck, this card was a hugely disappointing draw. Every time. No joke.

It basically became fodder for Trading Post in HH. It was slow, and really irrelevant unless you had stuff already on the board.

After hearing Grandpa Growth and some of the CommanderCast folks talk highly of this card, I decided to give it a spin, and found it to not be so good.

Sure, Undying makes it good- but the truth is, triggering on attack makes it bad. Without haste, this wolf, to me, at least, like you're gonna get owned.

Drawing it made me feel like I was down a card at any point, and since then, I've increasingly grown to dislike the art for this card. It likes a t-shirt I had when I was 6.






That's it for today. If any of you guys have had success with these and would like to share, always remember there's comment space below.

Remember, when it comes to tech, you're your own pilot.

Only the penitent cards shall pass.

And me. Cause I'm saying Pass.

-UL