Five Cards I'm Playing From Born of the Gods

Heya Zoners! Weekend Greetings to all!

With yesterday marking the official release of the second Theros block, it's high time we talk about my favorite highlights and question marks of my BotG pre-order.

5. Courser of Kruphix

It might just be me, but it seems like the only god worthy of playable disciples is Kruphix. His prophet is powerful, and so is this guy.

I'm not going to dwell on GG's assessment, because I think this card is one of the better cards in the set for all the game play knowledge Grandpa dropped in the review.

Still, this guy is a Centaur. And a moderately cool-looking one at that. Two things that Magic has been real antsy about making interesting in its illustrious history.

On the flip side, his enchantment typing is bittersweet. I love the border, hate the "this dies to Naturalize" that comes with it.

Kudos to Eric Deschamps, who rarely disappoints and often gets his work on the money cards. May the odds be ever in his favor? 

4. Champion of Stray Souls

Champion of Stray Souls is the best spelling and redux of an already existing card named "Conjurer's Closet."

Welcome to ETB abuse 2.0, which comes in the form of creature, kills things in the name of awesome, and doesn't have to die if you don't want it to. 

This obviously goes without saying, but I think these are all successful ways to define a card that calls itself a Champion.

Like Courser, I'm a fan of this card design top-down. Sweet art, name, affordable cost, ripe for abuse, and ripe for re-abuse, if the price is right.

There are always a few cards in each set that have a solid feel and design to them. They are the kinds of creatures and spells that have flavor, power, and bring exciting elements to the game that push the multiple axes by which we can interact. These are the cards I most enjoy, and I'm hoping this will be one of them. 

3. Unravel the AEther

My first response when this was spoiled was an emphatic fist pump followed by a "Hell Yes!" 

The Theros release party was actually more of a coming out party for Deglamer, as reasonable Commander players everywhere where running on the bank to get ways to deal with the Gods.

So I thank the Gods (Well, let's call them the "R&Dieties") we got a functional reprint of Deglamer. I look forward to beating face on all future Swords, Gods, and other pesky noncreature nonsense.

Get your playset. It's worth the $.40 you spend on it.

2. Archetype of Imagination

So far, I've written pretty glowing reviews about my favorite Top 5 BotG cards.

But none should glow as brightly as this one. The blue archetype is my favorite card in Born of the Gods.

Per the typical blue-leaning we see in R&D, this card is significantly better than its fellow cycle-mates.

Why? Because it makes your creatures unblockable. All of them.

Yeah, I know there's a card that already does this in blue. His name is Sun Quan, and he lords over all the Wu's.

In Animar, he also used to lord over all the "Woo's!" as well. Now, there's another sheriff in town. A prettier, skinnier one that I think is just as useful, and certainly a little more exciting for me. I love this card, and I hope I can find a way to make it playable in a couple other decks too. I can hear the voices of three Aggro-Wizard Tribal players cheering and dancing like Darth Vader just died. 

1. Perplexing Chimera

So people who haven't read my article yet are already coming up to me on the streets which I haven't been out on yet, and they're asking me, "Yo Landdrops- how can Archetype be your favorite if it's not Number 1 on your list?" 

Well, the answer is simple, anonymous mob that doesn't exist anywhere outside the hypothetical situation we now mutually share. It's perplexing. 

Specifically, a most Perplexing Chimera, and the one I'm most interested and excited to play. PC has the most upside to any prospect in the set, and its mystery brings both fun and intrigue to the game. 

I have a feeling he could very well be the life of the party in some games. Back in Ravnica, we had a junk rare named Conjured Currency that was just so close to being fun that it hurt. 

Perplexing Chimera really succeeds in all the facets where Conjured Currency failed. Where Currency had an upkeep trigger and the feeling like everyone was going to get screwed over (the world's most disappointing-yet-accurate flavor), Chimera has that free-market spirit we all know and love. The option to trade your silly 3/3 with something better on the stack is, to quote nefarious Gotham Crime Boss Carmine Falcone, "Power you can't buy." Most game states are going to stay disrupted for a very lengthy period of time if this thing gets passed around, and I predict it will agitate people.

Just be prepared to break a mental sweat. 

Well, that's all I got for today. GG's currently off the grid, so I'll be coming at you live tomorrow where I'll either be berating Duel Commander as a format or giving you a new episode of Command Zone OG's.

Until next time, don't forget to take out your Sylvan Primordials. Cause that shit is banned.

-UL

Born of the Gods Set Review: Utility and Mana

Hello and welcome to the third and final installment of the Born of the Gods set review. If you missed them you can see parts one and two by clicking on the links: Part 1  Part 2

Today we will be talking about the utility and mana cards from the set and basically everything else that we haven't had a chance to talk about yet.

A mana card is something that either produces mana, fixes colors, or helps expand your resources in some way, e.g. putting extra lands into play. A utility card expands the functionality of your deck beyond just Creatures and removal. They let you draw cards, search through your deck, and do all sorts of other fun stuff. Many cards potentially fall into this category, but, of course, an explanation as to why is important.

The Cards

This is my personal favorite card from the set and the one that you are most likely to see around the table, with the exception of the Legendary Creatures, obviously. This compares favorably with Oracle of Mul Daya, which is one of the best cards in the format and a huge fan favorite. This is cheaper, has a bigger body, and potentially gains you a hand full of life; both from the ability to block and the triggered ability.

There is a real concern for me with the Enchantment Creatures that don't have Bestow. They are incidientally exposed to more kinds of removal than a normal Creature. In the case of a card like Oracle, killing it quickly helps limit the value that it can generate. Being able to use a Naturalize effect to stop Courser of Kruphix is going to be a real bummer when it happens to you.


For some reason, Commander players still find a reason to play Explosive Vegetation even though there are much better cards they should be playing instead. Maybe now they will finally stop...and play this. Or maybe they will really outdo themselves and play one of the half-dozen or so better alternatives.

I find it weird that journeys are sometimes used to provide the flavor for grabbing additional lands. Now, I get it. That makes sense on the surface, but what about a journey THROUGH some place implies OWNERSHIP? Quite frankly, I don't take kindly to people walking into my kitchen like they own the place.




So I have been thinking a bit about this card and I am pretty convinced that I have it figured out. You always leave two stacks empty to minimize your losses. That wasn't much of a puzzle and this isn't much of a card. Do not, under any circumstances, confuse this with a playable card. Even if you never had to sacrifice anything and it only affected opponents I would still not recommend playing this.


The list of blah-o-mancy cards is getting a bit out of hand. I don't think this card is so bad though. If it draws you 4+ cards you made out like a bandit. Promise of Power is a very strong, very playable card. This takes more to set up, but for that extra work you can scale the power up further and you gain a small amount of control over what number it lands at. Ultimately, I think I would rather just have Night's Whisper, but that card is very underplayed in my opinion.


This HAS to be the worst mana rock ever. While your friends are busy trying to build a train to magical christmas land you can just play a regular two mana accelerator and win. I wouldn't play this even if there were only two X's in the cost. What is the point? There are plenty of ways to generate mana, even colored mana, much more efficiently than this. If you see someone puts this and Energy Chamber into the same deck, you know you've got a real scrub on your hands. Don't play them, they are going to make you worse at Magic.

Also, the flavor here is too silly for me to abide. It is a cornucopia...in space. That somehow generates the same energy that comes for the land. You work it out.


Because of the large libraries in Commander, decks need a critical mass of card manipulation and tutoring to smooth their draws and make sure things run properly. Even restricted tutors like this can be very powerful. Tutoring for multiple cards at once allows you to search for all the pieces of a combo simultaneously and often win on the spot. Think about why Gifts Ungiven is so good. It can find multiple pieces of multiple combos and has no real drawback in Commander. This is basically two Idyllic Tutors stapled together and there are plenty of Enchantment-themed decks that can't wait to get their hands on this.

It is always interesting to look at the symbolism of other cultures and how these ideas became established. This flavor text isn't half bad. Self-examination is key to explaining all of life's mysteries, both from within and beyond ourselves.



At five mana, this has a very safe cost. This isn't going to run rampant accross the format, but it can certainly be powerful. Captain Sisay is an established tier 2 deck and this card will find a home in that archetype. The ability to dig yourself into a threat when the gas tank has run dry is a huge bonus- if a somewhat inefficient use of mana. Sometimes you just need a little extra boost to clear a string of lands off the top of your deck, there is no shame in that. I would expect to see multiple archetypes adopt this as a card advantage engine in combination with other forms of card manipulation like Sylvan Library.

Artist William Murai has only been working on the game for a little over a year, but has already produced some very impressive pieces. This isn't his best work in my opinion, that honor would have to go to Brainstorm, but this shows you a much better example of his style. Deep backgrounds, multiple subjects, truly magnificent lighting, and fine detail. A fine young professional and a true credit to the medium of digital art.


Born of the Gods brings us three more "Temples". These cards have proven their mettle in Standard and Modern. When the cycle is complete expect for them to become unanimous inclusions in Commander as well. There is not much else to say; their power and effectiveness have been well documented and exhaustively discussed by writers both more eloquent and qualified than I. Play them, you are running out of excuses not to.

Well, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes the Set Review. Make sure to leave your comments and suggestions below. If you enjoyed the review, please become one of the Zoners! Like and follow The General Zone. We will be back to our old tricks next week with regular posts from Johnny Confidant, Uncle Landdrops, Venser's Journalist, and myself.
-GG