You Make the Pick Live! Theros Block - Journey Into Nyx

Hey Zoners! Grandpa Growth here. This week we are bringing you three new YMTP segments and we are doing things a little bit differently. We have video! Yes, you can watch me crack packs and discuss booster draft in glorious, low definition, slightly green-shifted detail.

We will be opening and examining booster packs from each set in Theros block to simulate the full draft experience. Today we will see Journey Into Nyx, Born of the Gods on Wednesday, and on Friday we will finish up with Theros! Enjoy the video and make sure to tune in later this week to see the other segments as they go up on the blog!

You Make the Pick #7: PT JOU Edition

Hey Zoners! Pro Tour Journey Into Nyx was this weekend and, if you're anything like me, you were glued to the webcast the entire weekend soaking up all the coverage you can get LIVE from Atlanta, Georgia. We were treated to a special treat early on in the tournament as we got to watch Pro Tour Theros champion Jeremy Dezani in the day one draft. Dezani is a hot topic right now as he was at the top of the standings for the Player of the Year race going into the event; an award which would cap off a stellar 2013-14 season if he can manage to win it.

So try to picture yourself in his shoes. You are playing the best Magic of your life, it is nine a.m. on the first day of the Pro Tour. You have flown all the way accross the Atlantic ocean, tested for countless hours over the past two weeks to familiarize yourself with the new draft format, there is $40,000 up for grabs, and Player of the Year honors at stake. This is the pack you open:

Rather than tell you about the pack myself, I am going to let you hear it straight from the former PT champ himself. Brian David Marshall met up with Dezani live on stream to break down his picks and get some insight into the thought process he had as he was drafting. Check out the video here:

You can look over the draft viewer which lets you see every pick from every seat in Dezani's pod, as well as tons of other articles and videos at the PT coverage page here if you missed any of the action over the weekend: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/ptjou14/welcome

So now you know the stakes, you've heard the analysis, and you know what Dezani took. The only question left is...what would you pick?

You Make the Pick #6

Hey Zoners! Grandpa Growth here. Journey into Nyx has finally been released and you know what that means! It is time for more "You Make the Pick" action. Obviously we have to start off by cracking a few packs of the new set. Let the drafting commence!

So, we have a pretty interesting pack here: a tough to evaluate rare, strong uncommons, and several playable common cards to choose from. Let's begin at the top.

The Green and Red commons are poor at best; we won't be taking those.

The White is only slightly better. Two playable cards, but nothing worth taking early.

Rotted Hulk is no good, but Bloodcrazed Hoplite is solid and Black/White heroic was a real deck in Botg/Theros/Theros, so it is probably still good in the full block draft.

The Blue commons are by far the strongest: all three are very good, but not necessarily in the same deck. If I were going to first pick one, it would be Font of Fortunes because it can fit easily into any deck, even with only a light Blue splash. The other two want to be in a more aggressive tempo-based deck. I haven't had much success with that strategy for Blue decks so far in Theros draft. If I am playing Blue I want to have the better late game.

Moving on to the uncommons: Knowledge and Power just can't be good. This type of effect has been hit or miss in previous formats at converted mana cost three. Five is simply too much for me to attempt this. Spite of Mogis is okay in certain decks, but not something I want to first pick. Strangely, it probably goes in the same deck as Knowledge and Power and both may wheel. Brain Maggot is just an awesome card and I would be happy to first pick it. I stand by the statement that Black was the strongest color in the previous format. I would imagine that has to extend into the third set as well.

Finally, we arrive at Mana Confluence. The card is financially valuable, so some may snap-take it on that basis. I have a different idea...WE'RE FORCING FIVE COLOR! It is my favorite thing to do in any format. Do I think it is a good idea to try in your 8-4 cue? No. Is it going to fun, and awesome, and totally appropriate for a casual draft or a Swiss cue? Absolutely. If we take confluence here, we will almost certain wheel Market Festival and be well on our way to a solid mana base. From there, who knows? But we can take whatever we want in packs two and three and play all of it!

So you know what I would do...the only question left it is: what would you take?

Journey Into Nyx Set Review: Answers

Welcome back to The General Zone's Review of Journey Into Nyx! This is part three of the review. So if you missed the first two, make sure to catch up before continuing. Links here: Legends Threats.

Today, we will be discussing the answer cards in the set. An answer is something that you use to stop, slow, or disrupt your opponent. Removing threats, destroying Lands or other resources, countering spells, exiling cards from graveyards or libraries, discarding cards - These are all forms of disruption. Basically anything that hinders your opponent's path to victory falls into this category. Let's take a look at some of the cards.

I often teeter back and forth about whether or not 'Hate Bears' are threats or answers. As Creatures with aggressive costs, they seem poised to attack for the win, like a threat. Also, they have some line of rider text that ostensibly makes life hard for your opponent, think Gaddock Teeg. This genuinely allows them to serve as both, and normally I just move them to whichever article has less cards in it, as a way to balance out the length of the articles.

As for Aegis, we have a historical precedent, so let's consult it: True Believer. Aegis is less color intensive, and Hexproof is flat out better than Shroud. Getting a 2/1 is worse than a 2/2, but not by much. So, by the measurables, Aegis is the best of its kind. However, I highly doubt that there is a deck in Commander that has been waiting for this. Some decks do play 'hate bears'. Some do want to be shielded from targeted discard. In general though, I wouldn't expect to see much of this, despite the fact that it is a solid card.

Here we have an updated wording of Oblivion Ring. This templating change makes it conform with more current comparables like Banisher Priest in both name and function. Apart from that, it is completely identical and thus, just as powerful as the ubiquitous O-Ring. This is a welcome addition to a format where removal that exiles is at a premium. I am unsure whether or not we have hit the saturation point on this effect yet, but I am still happy to see functional reprints of this effect with different names.

Do you feel it? The colossal let down. The niche answer. The ultimate stop gap in case the God cards got out of control. Standard needed this, in theory. It works perfectly there. My sole complaint is that this is essentially blank in Commander. Against a God card being used as a commander, this is strictly worse than Revoke Existence, which was already under-powered. In exchange, you do get the right to look through your opponent's deck to examine their list, but most people play Commander against close friends in a home setting. They already knew most of their opponent's list anyway, so this advantage is very minor. I know it is not R&D's job to design exclusively for Commander, but it always feels bad to be left out. This card could easily have been reworked to make it useful with only a minor change in templating. The basic effect of the card could have been left intact. Very disappointing. As is, this card is stone unplayable in Commander, but I wanted to take time to examine the opportunities that it missed.


This card sets a hard limit on the number of spells you can play in a turn. I wish there was something that set a hard limit on the number of cards with bad flavor text Wizards would print in a year. If Erayo were legal for use as a Commander, this would be a critical piece of the format. As things stand now though, this card is out of place. There are ways to abuse it, perhaps a hard lock with Isochron Scepter, but attractive alternatives already exist. It is unclear to me whether or not it is better to have an Enchantment Creature or just an Enchantment. While one can attack and wear equipment, it is also much more vulnerable to opposing removal.


New design space explored, achievement unlocked! This is something that we all saw coming. A Bestow card that you were supposed to put on your opponent's Creatures. I dig it. This is a little slower than my learning curve wants to go, but hey; you have to teach to the slowest student in the class right? As a Creature this is too small to matter. As a Control Magic, this is too expensive to be competitive....so....bad? Bad.

Is it just me or does it look like that cyclops was cut-and-pasted into the art? Its foot is hanging off the edge, but the pose makes it look as if it is standing firm. Is it about to fall? Is it walking on air? Is the line between siren and harpy a little too thin in this set? Perhaps. It seems like the rule is this: Attractive? Siren. Ugly? Harpy.


Similarly to Banishing Light, this is an update of Mesmeric Fiend, following the same changes in templating. That card is awesome in Pauper and even makes the occasional appearance in Cube. I doubt Brain Maggot will see much play in Commander, but it can be tutored up with Zur, a characteristic that has boosted the playability of many seemingly innocuous cards in the format.



This is some art. The format doesn't need any more expensive Wrath effects, but Black makes great use of board sweepers. But dat art! That is an OG line up if I ever saw one, save for the fact that Pharika's card turned out to be garbage. Imagine this was a JRPG and you chose these guys as your party! Badass alert.

In my opinion, this is by far the best offering from emerging talent Chase Stone. He began working on the game with Duel Decks Venser vs. Koth and has made steady contributions in each set since. Notably: Experiment One, Mirko Vosk, and the alternate art Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.


We're now going to have a moment of silence for the premier rare removal spells that have been skipped over because they were too expensive. Would this card really be that good if it only cost three? If its Strive only cost two? I'd argue not. Card advantage isn't expensive, in fact, in recent sets Wizards has established a precedent that pure card advantage is actually getting cheaper than it has been in the past, but they are backing off from printing things that have powerful effects on the board.

This is a consequence of R&D trying to move the game from a 'spell focus' to a 'creature focus'. They want the game to be on the battlefield, not on the stack. Naturally, if you want the game to STAY on the board you can't keep printing good cheap removal. 'Kicking' this a couple times will shatter a board state. If all you have is Creatures and then someone kills all your Creatures....you're gonna have a bad time. Unfortunately for those of us that play eternal formats, we are unlike to see as many good answer cards being printed in the near future.


I have a Nicol Bolas all-spell, no Creatures deck that thinks this card is really good. I also have a Maelstrom Wanderer deck that thinks this card is garbage. Scry on removal spells is really sick. It helps to set up the game state such that you can gain a tempo advantage. Kill your guy, play my own guy, for example. It is cheap, it is likely to get the job done a high percentage of the time, and it rewards you for doing something you probably already wanted to do. That is a recipe for success to me.


I have said it before and I will say it again here: the designers have become much better at spreading the core card concepts around the color pie in recent sets. Red needs card draw. Blue needs aggressive Creatures. Green needs removal. I dig it. The fight mechanic has done wonders for opening up design space in Green. They are probably over-using it a bit, but they have more than a decade's worth of lost time to make up for.

Mechanically, this is more of the removal spell I am looking for. Somewhat conditional, but that condition is simply that your deck needs to be doing what it was designed to do: Have bigger dudes and more of them. This is an Instant. This is extremely cheap. This has potential for card advantage. This can change the texture of the board immediately. These are the characteristics of good removal. Setessan Tactics, despite having a silly and incredibly set-specific name, is everything I could hope for from a rare iteration of Prey Upon.

That's all for today folks. Do you agree with our evaluations of the new cards? Did we leave out something that you want to hear about? Let us know in the comments. Next time, we will finish the set review with a look at mana and utility cards. I hope to see you then!

-GG

Journey Into Nyx Set Review: Threats

Hello and welcome to The General Zone's review of Journey Into Nyx! This week we will be breaking down the new set with special respect to our favorite casual format, Commander. Let's lay down the ground rules:

• First, I will not be discussing any of the Legendary Creature cards in the set. For a full review of all the new potential Commanders, scroll down to check out Uncle Landdrops  review right here on the blog.
• Second, I am only going to be discussing the cards that I think will be making an appearance in Commander. If it isn't relevant to that format, you won't see it here. If you believe a case can be made for a card that I leave out, make sure to share your opinion in the comments!
• Third, no reprints! If a card already exists, we should already be aware of its place in Commander, so a reprint isn't going to do much to change a card's playability. 
• Last, the review will be broken down into different parts based on what position the cards play on the field of battle. Today we will be talking about threats.

THREATS

A threat is something that you use to win the game. Creatures, Planeswalkers, combos, sometimes other things: a threat puts pressure on your opponents and promises eventual victory. The best threats also generate a resource advantage or protect themselves, but the main criterion for determining how good a threat is? Time. If it kills quickly the less chance your opponent has to remove it. Let's see how JIN stacks up; time to dig in!

I always like to start off on a positive note, but it is not often that I get to start things off with a Q. I moved Aegis of the Gods to the next part of the review though, so this is what I get. This card is playing directly on the success of last year's Unexpectedly Absent. Which was pretty incredible and made a big splash in eternal Magic. This card will likely see some play, but a 5/6 with no ability to protect itself is unlikely to kill your opponent. This is, however, great removal for an opposing commander or active god card. I don't think this is going to become as popular as Luminate Primordial, but it should definitely see some play based solely on the power of 'tuck' effects in the format.

This is a strong token enabler that will easily replace currently played cards like Conqueror's Pledge. This provides more tokens for fewer mana and they get to attack immediately which can provide the last few crucial points of damage to seal a game. For swarm decks, you are often trying to vomit tokens onto the table and win with a 'surprise' Overrun or Anthem. Launch the Fleet doesn't resist any of this archetype's current weaknesses, but it is just a more efficient package to buy something you already wanted. It is hard to say no to that.

A new challenger approaches! This card definitely has potential. Lightning Greaves and Whispersilk Cloak are among the most common cards in the format. Inspired combines very well with the latter. Daring Thief is cheap, reasonably sized for the cost and has an incredibly powerful effect. Having the last threat standing is always my goal, but having the best threat on the board is a sound alternative. Even a single Inspired trigger on a game winning threat is likely going to enough to win and if this goes unanswered it is incredibly hard to imagine a comeback.


This is what you might call, a "combat trick." I dont normally endorse shenanigans like this in the land of fat stacks, but this actually has potential to create card advantage, so I will indulge for a moment. The ability to copy a Titan and net multiple attack trigger would be pretty sweet.

I am always a little let down when R&D reveals a 'new' mechanic that is actually just a more restrictive version of an old mechanic. Inspired was already a little lame, but asking me to buy ANOTHER version of Kicker is asking too much. Perhaps R&D should strive to come up with more original ideas.



I used to play a lot of Kederekt Leviathan, and Scourge compares favorably. This requires commitment to mono Blue, but also leaves your board intact. You also get a 6/6 instead of a 5/5 and it costs one less mana. Sounds good enough for me. Expect to see a fair amount of this guy around the tables.

Side note: Is the Journey Into Nyx symbol supposed to be a boat? It looks like a boat. I thought we were going to space, not the bottom of the ocean. Where is my spaceship? Why isn't this kraken living inside an asteroid field? Also:
IMMMMGONNNNAAAAAEEEEEEEAAAAATTTTYOUUUUUUUUUUNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM!



This card is interesting to me. I do not believe for a second that there is a way to use this on the pure 'high risk, high reward' strategy. Cards are just better than life points in Commander. I am prepared to offer a new angle however: Black group hug. I don't understand it, but the group hug niche has grown in the last few years. Black hasn't really ever had much to contribute though. I suspect that this also has some playability in Nekusar builds.




I am digging the idea that reanimation effects are starting to edge their way into being Instants. The surprise value on cards like this can be very powerful. To keep this from getting out of hand we have to give up something, especially given that this is an uncommon and not some super-snapped rare. Only being able to target your graveyard shouldn't really be a problem, but not getting any of the text box on your Creature is a let down. That, combined with the exceedingly 'fair' cost makes me less than optimistic about this card's chances.



I am going to go ahead and assume everyone reading this is familiar with Mindslaver and how you are supposed to win with it. This has a few problems that will prevent it from seeing the same kind of play. You can't repeat it. Also, you can't repeat it. Additionally, it isn't Blue, but also you can't repeat it. I have never seen, even once, someone play Mindslaver just for value. Mostly because it isn't that great. Getting ahead by a few cards is sweet, but not worth eight mana. The way that this is worded you can't even Fork it for value. Panoptic Mirror is banned, Eye of the Storm is tantamount to insanity. Leave this one at home kids, there are much cheaper ways to get some value.


I am interested in this card. It is a big threat, but it has the right amount of terrorism to make it dominate a multiplayer game. No one is going to want to lose all their junk. No one is going to want to make their friends mad. Meanwhile you get to go on a rampage forcing chumps blocks, eating into life totals, and generally causing a ruckus. I used to have a five-color Child of Alara deck that tried to capitalize on this same concept. Invest very little on the board and force the opponents to expend resources in unfavorable trades. This card isn't fantastic, but it is better than it looks and will be underplayed in the format.


Despite the fact that Commander has no Mono Burn deck, I am really digging on this card. It is a direct callback to Pyrostatic Pillar, a card that is underplayed in all corners of Magic. This is great in a 'Big Red' style deck that is looking to go over the top with board sweepers and swingy effects. I could see Eidolon and Bearer of the Heavens in the same deck. Sticking this card on the play is going to mean a lot of damage getting distributed around the table. If they kill it, no big loss. You forced them to spend a removal spell on your two drop so they are less likely to have one left for your 6-8 mana beaters.



We have an interesting design question here: If Mass Mutiny exists and is fair, albeit expensive - and Act of Treason has been established as the new standard fare for Threaten effects (it has been printed each year from 2009 to 2013) - is this card 'good'? Is it aggressively costed? It is Rare, so is it stronger than its Common comparables: Act of Treason and Traitorous Blood? Is it both cheaper and less splashy than Insurrection? Here are my thoughts: it doesn't give Trample, which was a big, but unexpected boost on Traitorous Blood. It is good in single and multiplayer. It is capable of ending the game or putting it out of reach by forcing some uncomfortable blocks. I can dig this. I don't think it is snapped. I think the Strive could cost one less and it would still be safe, but this card can be worth it for sure


Whoa buddy! They finally figured out how to print a Red Ophidian...and it doesn't suck! I don't think I have to say too much about this card. Just pay attention to Standard over the next year. You are going to be hearing plenty about how powerful this is. In casual formats the impact will be even bigger. The potential to snag two cards a turn is crazy. Can you imagine this with a Madcap Skills on it? Why do we do this to ourselves? This isn't fun. They won't even reprint Thieving Magpie, but they will make this?



Since this card is a big/stupid dragon people will play it. Since this card is bad I am going to decline to talk about its playability. Instead: I wonder how the creative department decides on what characters/creatures to LEAVE OUT of a set. There are always a few of the 'heroes' sprinkled in as Legendary Creatures. The planeswalkers and main characters are mentioned in card titles and flavor texts, but there are also some characters that go missing. Thraxes is, apparently, the dragon that lives inside Purphporos' volcanco. So we have a card that represents a child of Thraxes, but no Thraxes card. I always wonder why that is. Sometimes, if a set is popular enough to be revisited down the line, we get to see some of these unsung heroes receive their own card. E.g. Jhoira of the Ghitu in Time Spiral block. Perhaps Theros will receive the same treatment.



Unlike Harness by Force, I have zero interest in this card. It is far too safe to be a game winner. It is hard to generate value by pointing things at your own Creatures; there is just too much spot removal to make that a sound plan. Lastly, it is hard to blitz your opponent with a fast aggro plan in Commander, so a card that just punches through a few extra damage in one turn isn't as good as say, just having a better threat.




How many hydras is this block going to have? Seriously, Greek mythology is figuratively overflowing with crazy beast that would be perfect for a game like Magic, but only maybe a half dozen or so made it into the set that weren't already staples of the game. I am loving the satyrs. I am loving the minotaurs and chimeras, but Magic had too many hydras to begin with...and we just got ten more shipments. Yay!

This compares easily with Chameleon Colossus, an awesome and underplayed card. Colossus was so powerful because it was essentially immune to both Black and Red removal. There are some pros and some cons here, but all-in-all I would rather have Protection from Black than permanent counters. Not to mention, Colossus is under the radar because it is under the power curve nowadays; there just isn't room for a worse version.


What's that? There is another Hydra? Oh....and wait what?! It makes even more Hydras?! What is going on here! Did R&D get a Groupon for multi-headed monsters or something? This is ridiculous.

This isn't so bad, they basically have one turn to answer it before it turns into a bunch of little guys. Wrath of God shuts the whole show down though. If I am going to spend 13 total mana on something I expect it to be able to beat a four mana card that is in LITERALLY every White deck. And some Red decks. And basically every Black deck. Don't even get me started on Blue. This card is stone unplayable against Blue.


And now...the moment you have all been waiting for! You finally have a centaur lord. Dust off those Centaur Groves! We ride to victory! I mean gallop, nobody rides a centaur.

Sidenote: did you know that in the original Greek myths centaurs were like boogie-men that abducted and raped women who strayed into the forest? Well, they have certainly cleaned up their bad boy image in the last couple millennia.




Last, but certainly not least, we arrive at our old pal Ajani. One of the original five Planeswalkers to see print in Lorwyn, AJ has seen a few iterations and some constructed playability. His abilities seem awesome. He can generate card advantage. He has the infamous distinction of having no minus abilities. I dig the total package here and expect it to see play in multiple formats. It is always nice to hear about an old friend that is still doing well.

Interesting sidenote here: Ajani was a White card in his original form, but in the story he is from the Shard of Naya on the plane of Alara, which is made up of Green, White, and Red mana. His second iteration was White/Red. In this instance he is a Green/White card that has come to Theros to defend his kitty cat brethen from the oppressive rule of the Green/Red Xenagos. Apparently there is some trouble in the jungle paradise of Naya colors. A lot of internal strife going on there. The Heroes and villains of the block are centered on Green, which is something you don't see often in Magic.

Thanks for reading guys, make sure you stay tuned to the blog this week as we roll out new segments of the review! As always, feel free to leave your thoughts on the review and the new cards in the comments below. Next time we will be talking about Answers! See you then.
-GG

Journey Into Nyx Set Review: The Legends

Happy Tuesday Zoners!

UL's back with the Journey Into Nyx Set Review with the Legendary Creatures of the set. Though we only had 6, there's plenty to talk about.

So let's kick it off in spoiler reverse.

I'm not sure what the deal is with Pharika. It's clear to me that this card was designed bottoms up because this is not the flavor that has been outlined in the cards and surrounding literature concerning Theros and the Gods.

To be fair, I'm not sure what the flavor would look like for a Creature that's supposed to be both creator and healer for all the maladies of the plane, but this is not it, and Golgari players everywhere are now suffering. Snakes,  +1/+1 counters, or Jarad Buffs are too many choices, and though none of them are really better than the others, they aren't collectively good either.

Aside from being an aggressively-costed God, Pharika is terrible from about every perspective I can measure, and that's disappointing. I feel that in every set, Wizards takes one card in their cycle, and just tanks it on purpose. This is it.

Moving along in our Spoiler rewind motion, we've got Athreos, the God that got all the attention out of PAX East 2014.

I'm very put off by the artwork. With such an elegant card border, many of the Theros block Gods seem to be heightened by the re-framing.

However, our friend Athreos is clearly not, and the contrast is serious. In fact, I think it's just the whole color palette. I'm not sure what Ryan Barger thought or what he was instructed to do with the artwork, but I'm really feeling like I need to call into question what he thought "God of Passage" meant. The acrid yellow smoke off the water (DRNT-DRNT-DRRR, DRNT-DRNT-DURR-NURR) doesn't conjure up the idea that Athreos is a Charon allusion ferrying Theronians (Theronites?) across a comparable version of the river Styx, but really? A blindfolded piece of Nuclear-Flubber-turned-Grim-Reaper as he drags them through the remnants of what a toilet looks like after high school kids come back from their first night of drinking.

That sounds critical, but I'm not upset about the mechanical design of Athreos. I'm okay with it. However, I would've welcomed the inclusion of a boat. I just don't know how he plans on transporting anyone. I don't know anyone, living or dead, who'd happily grab on to his gross body, sit on top of a god's scythe when traversing to the afterlife.

As far as the rules go, I think it's going to be played, which is only a bummer cause I can't stand to look at it. The key to its success will be "target opponent." Picking out the lowest life total at the table will ensure that threats are coming back, and with access to all the Extort/Enchantment combos you want, this could be much more real than Obzedat, Teysa 2.0, and Triad of Fates, which we've seen for Black and White in the last year.

So we're moving from tangible and disgusting to the unseen and amorphous.

I'll admit I had the worst time trying to figure out if R&D made a mistake with Kruphix's 4th ability, consulting both GG and my playgroup's rules guru/almost Magic Judge.

It felt like an unemptying mana pool was implied, but not stated. On almost every card of its kind, Wizards has done a real "beat-me-over-the-head" job of explaining via reminder text that the mana doesn't empty from the mana pool as steps and phases end, like Omnath.

However, this is not Omnath at all. By being a replacement effect, Wizards has done a clever thing to make the design slightly more elegant while maintaining functionality. And, as I pointed out to GG, the lack of explanation adds to Kruphix's mystery. So at the very least, the designers are scoring points for flavor victories.

I didn't pick the order, but we've got back-to-back hits. Because I'm a huge fan of Keranos.

Though it is probably because of GG, I'm obligated to give two looks to any Magic card that says, "Draw a card." It's the three little words R&D could put on basically anything and I'd at least say, "Well... I'll try it."

Keranos, however, is a little more than that. Unlike Mogis's opt-sac/pitiful 2 damage, Theros' resident bolt-thrower is going to generate value for you no matter what's on the top of your library, which is also something that's within your control in these colors.

There are a lot of selling points for playing Keranos in Commander. He works well with Izzet's most recent additions (Niv-Mizzet Dracogenius and Melek), and he plays well with the bulky damage doubling enchantments that Red wants to play. You might even be able to play Creature-less with a nice control package.

This is a deck I hope to see around, mostly because I want to blast this whenever someone casts him.

And speaking of decks that will probably be rampant, we should all be giving a big kitchen table welcome to Iroas. Designed with such savory, intentional goodness, the new Red-White God of Victory seems to have been born with a gigantic ego and big-game abilities to match.

The first question I have to ask on Iroas is, "Where da Nyx?"

An overwhelming majority of the God artwork seems to carry that special midnight-sparkle, and I don't get how Iroas and Pharika didn't get there. Maybe there just wasn't enough left after Kruphix used it to support that ambiguous appetite. I'm not saying it isn't cool for Wizards to go against their own flavor. I think it would add more to this picture, rather than just having a faded centaur along the skyline.

This is by far the most aggressive of the Gods since Thassa, and it's going to show up in Standard. As such, I think it'll show up at Commander tables a little later, but Iroas is ready to go right now. Having both Pyreheart Wolf and Dolmen Gate is a huge bonus, and there's plenty of incentive to getting the 7/4 online and attacking.

Although I have been looking for a viable Red/White EDH deck, I'm a little off-put by this one. The obviously good card will always be obvious, and it just feels a little too easy to build. That doesn't mean I don't think it'll be good- I would have just preferred a little bit of a challenge.

Our last card is the only non-God Legend in the block, and the oddest.

Meet MTG's King Midas. Because everyone he touches turns to Gold tokens, which you can sacrifice to add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

Back at BotG spoilers, I thought we might get something like this based on Gild, the which does what this cursed King does when he's "Inspired." This block has been full of foreshadowing.

Whereas I find Iroas good, but easy to build, I find Macar bad, but challenging. That's intriguing to me. Combined with a great piece of art by Greg Staples and we've got ourselves a stew going. I really hope to see someone overcome the weirdness of his ability, and his lone Creature type. There's a deck here, for sure.

Well, that kicks off spoiler week. Be sure to check out GG's Review of the Set, splitting it into Threats/Answers/Mana as we've switch to full Journey into Nyx mode here on TGZ.

Pass Turn.
-UL

TGZ News 4/25/14: Journey into Nyx and Announcing...

TGIF Zoners! Grandpa Growth here with a couple quick announcements!

First, this weekend is the Prerelease tournament for Journey into Nyx. This is your first opportunity to play with the new cards and get your hands on some sealed product. Make sure you reserve a spot at your local store for the event and have some good old fashioned fun playing with the new set!

Secondly, coming up next week we will have coverage of the new set here on the blog all week long with our set review. Uncle Landdrops and I will be breaking down all the cards and giving you our take on how JiN stacks up in the land of Commander. Make sure to check every day next week for the new content as it goes live!

Finally, we have a very special announcement. We are all very excited to reveal that we have a new contributor joining the team here at The General Zone. A long time friend and associate is ready to make the jump from consumer to creator and will be taking over the Thursday spot on TGZ. He has chosen the Zachroling as his pen name, spoiler: his name is Zach and he likes Saprolings. I won't give away too much more now, but look for his articles coming soon on Thursdays and he will be sharing his thoughts with us every Saturday in The Stack! Give him a warm welcome as he settles in here on the blog.

This has been a public service announcement. Thank you for listening. That is all.

-GG

TGZ NEWS 4/11/14: Duel Decks, Duels 2015, and Spoilers

After a short lull following the release of Born of the Gods, TGZ News is back with some exciting new developments in the world of Magic: the Gathering! New duel decks, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015, and Journey into Nyx spoiler season is upon us! Let's take a look.

Duel Decks: Speed vs. Cunning
Announced earlier this week on Daily MtG, this Summer's Duel Deck release will be called Speed vs. Cunning. Not much information was given in the initial announcement, but we can safely assume that it will follow the same formula as previous Duel Decks offerings: a few cards will feature new arts, there will be a couple of cards that haven't been printed in the new card frame, and there will be one or two money cards to try and hook us into buying an otherwise extremely boring product. Unlike other limited print Magic products like From the Vault or retro booster boxes, you can expect this to hold MSRP for a while...mostly because there won't be anything of value inside. Link to the announcement below:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1463

Duels of the Planeswalkers
This year we will get yet another iteration of Duels of the Planeswalkers, the annual release video game that ties into the annual release of the Core Set. This year's offering has some interesting twists! It will include the ability to fully customize decks from a larger pool of cards and to build your own decks. Whereas previous games have forced you to use under-powered pre-constructed decks and substitute only a certain amount of cards, Duels 2015 will push the game closer to the full customization potential of the Magic Online platform. Speaking of platforms, Duels 2015 will be available on Steam, Android, Xbox Live, and Xbox One. The expanded story mode will focus on escaping Garruk, who has been cursed by the Chain Veil. This essentially confirms that the Garruk featured in Magic 2015 will, in fact, be Garruk the Veil Cursed. This points towards Transform being the featured mechanic in this year's Core Set, although that has not been confirmed. Link to the announcement below:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1470

Journey Into Nyx Spoilers:
In an exciting change of procedure, Wizards has begun running previews a week earlier than usual. We will get to enjoy a full three weeks of spoilers leading up to the release of JiN. Stay tuned to Dailymtg.com for the latest spoilers as they are previewed and make sure to read our ongoing coverage of all the spoilers right here on The General Zone.

Till next time Zoners, this is Grandpa Growth signing off.
-GG