Might as well kick off the first ALR discussion thread.
Knight of New Alara2GW
Creature - Human and Knight (R)
Each other multicolored creature you control gain +1/+1 for each of its color.
2/2
David Palumbo, *70/145
now I like the casual aspects of this card. A beating in aggro decks for sure. As far as constructed though, you still have to remember that that 2 toughness doesn't make it very viable. And I know I know, I hate "it dies to blah" as much as the next person but in some cases it really does affect the card. Unfortunately this card would've been rockin' at 2/3 or even 1/3 and let all the other creatures do the beatings. A 7/6 wooly thoctar attacking turn 4 is pretty sweet either way.
My faince has a block domain deck that rips a lot of top teir decks to bits, I think this card would be epic in that deck. 10/10 Angel, 11/11 Cosmic Baby... personally I tink it's a lot better then it looks.
Unfortunately this card would've been rockin' at 2/3 or even 1/3...
That's what I think as well. At 2 toughness it is a very easy target and falls to all sweepers. I bet R&D tested the hell out of this and found that it being weak on its own keeps it from being too good.
If nothing else, with a Wooly Thoctor in play it's an overcosted giant growth that draws out an agony warp or pyroclasm. Not bad imo. Not great though.
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-B Rogues
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This in multiples is sick, they protect each other nicely.
Very true there. The only problem is that one will probably die before the other gets into play. I personally hate the "it dies to removal" argument myself but a turn 4 2/2 with a awesome ability won't last long IMO. I still love this card anyway and can't wait to build a Bant or Naya deck with this card in it.
This in multiples is sick, they protect each other nicely.
The problem is getting the next one to stick. It's a balanced card, and I'm sure R&D looked at this card thoroughly when it was 2/3 and said "Well it's a tournament staple, however it's probably going to be off the wall insane once rotation happens. Might as well take the *****ing and knock it to a 2/2. Keep it at its mana cost though so that people over look it a bit until rotation."
I like it though and I'll probably use it as a poor man's Wilt-Leaf Leige. As aggravating as it sounds to me it's true, this card will draw most of the removal to it. Put it in a FCA Deck and I'm sure it'll shine beautifully.
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I'm a competitive deck-builder and I spend a ton of time sifting through card lists, trying to find what makes a card powerful enough for tournaments. As I've researched I've found that there's several elements: the environment, relative cost, potential power, card utility and card support. I have to say, Knight of New Alara excels at all four of these categories. This card isn't just playable, it's a Tier 1 threat, though subtly so, and I'm sure will find a home in competitive decklists around the globe.
Let me explain.
The Environment: It's a new day in standard and removal has almost never been more common. Even WHITE has a ridiculous amount of power, since when has that been the case? With path to exile, oblivion ring, terror, lash out, shriekmaw, executioner's capsule, hallowed burial, wrath of god, volcanic fallout, firespout and even more floating around, creatures have never had such a hard time of it. Worse yet, the new lands make it easy to play all these spells at once (curse you 5 color control!)
This is the perfect environment for Knight of New Alara.
When board-sweepers and spot removal are common it's very important to make your creatures matter and matter quickly. Being able to give all your creatures an immediate +2/+2 bonus at the very least is an excellent way to pile on the damage and fight through all those wrath effects. Usually aggro decks' 4 drops are rendered useless by the turn 4 wrath of god. But this creature makes all your other guys hit for a lot more the very turn he hits play and if he's countered or burned before you can attack - so much the better. Your opponent just played two spells to sweep your board, giving them only half the card advantage and a whole lot of hurt.
Also, multicolored creatures have never been so common OR colored. Hybrid mana can turn a pathetic little guy like slippery boggle into a terrifying beat-stick that puts nimble mongoose to shame once you lay down your Knight. Will you play this combo? Probably not. But you'll always know you could, while happily swinging in with your 5/4 kitchen finks that's going to come back three more times =).
In short: The creatures are stronger, as are the tools to deal with them. Thus a creature that sharply tips the scale to the creatures side of things or draws removal away from your REAL threats (pay no attention to that war-monk behind the curtain!) is a fantastic bit of weaponry.
Relative Cost: One famous adage of competitive deck-builders is, "if it costs 4 or more, don't put it in unless it wins you the game". Knight of New Alara does an amble job of that - giving each of your other multicolored creatures at least +2/+2 immediately. He's a discount overrun or a super-charged glorious anthem with a free creature thrown in. If your opponent can't kill him in the next two turn, they're going to find it impossible to come back from your huge advantage.
Power Potential: Playing a bitterblossom on turn 2 is incredible. Playing it on turn 7 is less attractive. Topdecking a bitterblossom halfway through the game is often a dead draw and is no way to some from behind. It does nothing to the board the moment it hits and hardly buys you any extra time as it bleeds you last bit of life away. And if you're allready winning... Well, who cares about an enchantment that can backfire?
But if you play it on turn 2... Wow, it's just absurd. It's one of the best two drops in the history of the game.
Knight of New Alara is like that? Could it be removed if you happen to play it while they have mana open and you have no way to save it? Sure. But it's POTENTIAL for power is ridiculous. If you can protect it for even a few turns you're way ahead. If they get mana-screwed this will insure they NEVER come back. And if you get two out... Well let's not even think about that. It's not nice.
Whole decks are built on this principle. Elves is the most powerful deck in extended but it's fragile. It's still highly dangerous though, even with an environment obsessed with hating it, because of it's POTENTIAL to go off as early as turn two and consistently on three and four.
Knight of Alara has immediate board presence and ridiculous potential power. Plus, if it dies you've only lost a card; not a game like with Elves.
Card Utility: Most people consider this slot card advantage as in, "how many cards can I expect this creature to be worth". Tidings is easy, it's a 4 for 1. Phantom Centaur is more complex but will frequently 3 for 1 as black removal can't hit it. However, sheer amount of cardboard isn't enough for me. I need to know what it will cost my deck to run this card. What am I giving up if I choose to shuffle up this card as part my sixty?
Consider Phantom Centaur. It's a cool card. But if I'm running a GW deck I have other 4 drops to choose from, like Loxodon hierarch. The Centaur jsut can't stand up to the hierarch so, while the card is good, the cost of running it (i.e. not getting the hierarch) is too much to pay.
Knight of Alara checks out beautifully on this scale because it's two cards in one. Think about Civic Wayfinder, a constructed staple in BG Rock decks and Lorwyn Elves. It's a land-search engine with a creature stapled on top. It serves two roles at once. If a Rock deck wanted the land-search effect they'd usually have to give up a creature for it. Not so with the wayfinder in.
The Knight is similarly powerful. He lets you play a super-charged glorious anthem without giving up a creature. He gives you the explosive power of an Overrun but with the permanency of an enchantment. True, he might force out some powerful mono-colored creatures but seriously, who needs mulldrifter when you can play a Cold-Eyed Selkie and pick up 3 cards a turn? And did I mention that YOU DON’T HAVE TO GIVE UP A CREATURE!?! The card might actually be LESS valuable in enchantment form.
Card Support: This category asks, “What cards make this one better?” For New Alara’s Knight, this list is just far too extensive to put down. I mean, come on, aside from all multicolored creatures, any type of counter magic to protect it and the entire dark-bant archetype; this card makes ITSELF so much better. If you get two copies on the field not only do they turn even the lowliest slippery boggle into a 6/6 shrouded monstrosity but they also turn each-other into very sizeable threats and protect against all but the most devastating burn. When a card makes even ITSELF better you know you’ve got something special.
Summary: If Knight of Alara was the ONLY multicolored creature in the new set, he’d still be incredible. The interactions with the sleeping hybrid creatures floating around plus an incredible power boost to war-monks, kitchen finks and redcaps around the world – he’d still be incredible. But we’ve got an entire set of over-powered gold monstrosities coming our way. I shudder to think how ridiculous this knight is going to become.
Oh, and a final word before I part; just one. This is one word I left out of the Card Support category because I thought it was so packed with power that it would explode everyone’s imaginations to new vistas, vanquishing the protests of the unbelievers who claim the card is too fragile and spinning assorted deck-lists through our minds.
I do think this guy has a lot of potential, especially in the right decks. I know I'll pick up a playset. I just wish it didn't dietoeveryboardsweeperinstandard (except Cloudthresher). Regardless, I still see this card getting played. Who knows how many amazing cards ARB will have to make this guy even better.
Ah, but that makes it even better! It's so much more powerful BECAUSE of all those sweepers. It allows a bigger bash before the Wrath reset button and is such powerful support for your other threats that it requires someone to spend their removal before they would want to.
Because it grows your existing threats to epic proportions it requires more frequent wrathing and removal, exhausting the control player's resources.
Lots of things die to those boardsweepers, that's why they're call boardsweepers =). The point is it makes a tiny board into a big threat, putting the pressure on control decks while keeping a lot of cards in your hand to play post-wrath. Also, it lets you outgrow your aggro opponent's army to shut them down.
But the greatest power of this card is that it makes sub-par cards playable. Cold-eyed selkie is good, but not good enough on its own. Throw it together with Knight of New Alara and it's a card-drawing machine.
With just this guy and Rafiq in play alone, Rafiq is swinging for 12. Him + Doran is silly and War Monk just got a healthy dose of steroids. Dark Bant is scary now. Really scary.
EDIT: He also works like Rafiq (though not as strong) for the T2 War Monk.
This card might be okay post-rotation, but it's hard to say since we don't know m10 or Live yet. Right now this card won't be efficient, simple because there are too many board sweeper effects and every deck is running fallout. I think this card would be a lot more viable if it was 2/3 and not 2/2, due to the aforementioned fallout. I guess you could run Mark of Asylum to not have to worry about fallout/burn, but why not just play good cards for now. Break this card post rotation imo.
This card might be okay post-rotation, but it's hard to say since we don't know m10 or Live yet. Right now this card won't be efficient, simple because there are too many board sweeper effects and every deck is running fallout. I think this card would be a lot more viable if it was 2/3 and not 2/2, due to the aforementioned fallout. I guess you could run Mark of Asylum to not have to worry about fallout/burn, but why not just play good cards for now. Break this card post rotation imo.
Yes, cause every deck plays R and even when splashing it's not always that easy to have easy access to RR (even my current 5cc block deck has sometimes difficulty casting fallout in a timely manner before being run over by for example WW exalted)
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He's viable in Dark Bant, since every creature in that deck save the mana 1 drops is multicolored, but Wilt-Leaf Liege is a 4 drop that generally does the same thing while being a 4/4 body instead of a 2/2 one. I can see him being used though, simply because everyone and their dog will have one.
I did a bit of calculations: I took a Dark Bant list and added up the amount of points of power Liege or Knight of New Alara would add to each creature, multiplied by the amount of that creature in the list. Without including themselves, Liege had 40 and Knight of New Alara had 51. Including their own 2/2 or 4/4 bodies, Liege had 56 and New Alara had 59. Of course, since New Alara dies to Fallout, his somewhat larger bonuses might disappear very quickly in midcombat.
You claim to be a competitive deck builder and not once do you bring up the point that this guy is unplayable compared to him? It's like Shock and Lightning Bolt, One is undercosted and amazing, one is just unplayable, especially so if it's in the same format as the other.
I don't see how you can call a format with Jund Charm and Volcanic Fallout highly played as a great format for a 4 mana 2/2.
I have to agree that this card is strictly worse then Wilt-Leaf Liege. Dark Bant wont run it over Liege and once Liege rotates there will be no reason to play Dark Bant over Bant, that is when this card might see play. Naya decks should be efficient enough that they don't need this card. Knight of Alara might catch on but not until post-Lorwyn/Shadowmoor.
Knight of New Alara 2GW
Creature - Human and Knight (R)
Each other multicolored creature you control gain +1/+1 for each of its color.
2/2
David Palumbo, *70/145
now I like the casual aspects of this card. A beating in aggro decks for sure. As far as constructed though, you still have to remember that that 2 toughness doesn't make it very viable. And I know I know, I hate "it dies to blah" as much as the next person but in some cases it really does affect the card. Unfortunately this card would've been rockin' at 2/3 or even 1/3 and let all the other creatures do the beatings. A 7/6 wooly thoctar attacking turn 4 is pretty sweet either way.
its been confirmed in the 'prerelease and release' thread
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Kinda too bad it wasn't an enchantment. On the other hand, I'm sure there's a wicked Haakon deck in the works.
the card isn't that bad though.....probably best in a naya deck (and yes liege is still MUCH better for standard)
MY TYPE TOO DECKS
-B Rogues
-Sanguine Bond 5c Life gain
-Polymorph Tokens
MY EXTENDED DECK
-BWrRs deck for da winz!
MY TYPE ONE DECK
-Fluctuator
ptq 4th place
Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator
Very true there. The only problem is that one will probably die before the other gets into play. I personally hate the "it dies to removal" argument myself but a turn 4 2/2 with a awesome ability won't last long IMO. I still love this card anyway and can't wait to build a Bant or Naya deck with this card in it.
I like it though and I'll probably use it as a poor man's Wilt-Leaf Leige. As aggravating as it sounds to me it's true, this card will draw most of the removal to it. Put it in a FCA Deck and I'm sure it'll shine beautifully.
There was once [The Pack], but no more.
T1: Forest, Noble Hierarch
T2: Swamp, Doran, the Siege Tower
T3: Plains, Knight of the New Alara, Swing with a 4/9.
T4: Island, Rafiq of the Many, Swing with a 5/10 Double Strike, ect...
the flavortext is about as accurate as i'm going to get. i used freetranslation. so don't come running crying to me when it's different
The Merciless Lord of Torture, Permanently Bound To: ">[THE PACK] 11/5/63 - 11/25/09 Goodbye mom, i'll always love you...
Tibalt & His Devils vs. Avacyn's Inquisitors
My EDH decklists
Let me explain.
The Environment: It's a new day in standard and removal has almost never been more common. Even WHITE has a ridiculous amount of power, since when has that been the case? With path to exile, oblivion ring, terror, lash out, shriekmaw, executioner's capsule, hallowed burial, wrath of god, volcanic fallout, firespout and even more floating around, creatures have never had such a hard time of it. Worse yet, the new lands make it easy to play all these spells at once (curse you 5 color control!)
This is the perfect environment for Knight of New Alara.
When board-sweepers and spot removal are common it's very important to make your creatures matter and matter quickly. Being able to give all your creatures an immediate +2/+2 bonus at the very least is an excellent way to pile on the damage and fight through all those wrath effects. Usually aggro decks' 4 drops are rendered useless by the turn 4 wrath of god. But this creature makes all your other guys hit for a lot more the very turn he hits play and if he's countered or burned before you can attack - so much the better. Your opponent just played two spells to sweep your board, giving them only half the card advantage and a whole lot of hurt.
Also, multicolored creatures have never been so common OR colored. Hybrid mana can turn a pathetic little guy like slippery boggle into a terrifying beat-stick that puts nimble mongoose to shame once you lay down your Knight. Will you play this combo? Probably not. But you'll always know you could, while happily swinging in with your 5/4 kitchen finks that's going to come back three more times =).
In short: The creatures are stronger, as are the tools to deal with them. Thus a creature that sharply tips the scale to the creatures side of things or draws removal away from your REAL threats (pay no attention to that war-monk behind the curtain!) is a fantastic bit of weaponry.
Relative Cost: One famous adage of competitive deck-builders is, "if it costs 4 or more, don't put it in unless it wins you the game". Knight of New Alara does an amble job of that - giving each of your other multicolored creatures at least +2/+2 immediately. He's a discount overrun or a super-charged glorious anthem with a free creature thrown in. If your opponent can't kill him in the next two turn, they're going to find it impossible to come back from your huge advantage.
Power Potential: Playing a bitterblossom on turn 2 is incredible. Playing it on turn 7 is less attractive. Topdecking a bitterblossom halfway through the game is often a dead draw and is no way to some from behind. It does nothing to the board the moment it hits and hardly buys you any extra time as it bleeds you last bit of life away. And if you're allready winning... Well, who cares about an enchantment that can backfire?
But if you play it on turn 2... Wow, it's just absurd. It's one of the best two drops in the history of the game.
Knight of New Alara is like that? Could it be removed if you happen to play it while they have mana open and you have no way to save it? Sure. But it's POTENTIAL for power is ridiculous. If you can protect it for even a few turns you're way ahead. If they get mana-screwed this will insure they NEVER come back. And if you get two out... Well let's not even think about that. It's not nice.
Whole decks are built on this principle. Elves is the most powerful deck in extended but it's fragile. It's still highly dangerous though, even with an environment obsessed with hating it, because of it's POTENTIAL to go off as early as turn two and consistently on three and four.
Knight of Alara has immediate board presence and ridiculous potential power. Plus, if it dies you've only lost a card; not a game like with Elves.
Card Utility: Most people consider this slot card advantage as in, "how many cards can I expect this creature to be worth". Tidings is easy, it's a 4 for 1. Phantom Centaur is more complex but will frequently 3 for 1 as black removal can't hit it. However, sheer amount of cardboard isn't enough for me. I need to know what it will cost my deck to run this card. What am I giving up if I choose to shuffle up this card as part my sixty?
Consider Phantom Centaur. It's a cool card. But if I'm running a GW deck I have other 4 drops to choose from, like Loxodon hierarch. The Centaur jsut can't stand up to the hierarch so, while the card is good, the cost of running it (i.e. not getting the hierarch) is too much to pay.
Knight of Alara checks out beautifully on this scale because it's two cards in one. Think about Civic Wayfinder, a constructed staple in BG Rock decks and Lorwyn Elves. It's a land-search engine with a creature stapled on top. It serves two roles at once. If a Rock deck wanted the land-search effect they'd usually have to give up a creature for it. Not so with the wayfinder in.
The Knight is similarly powerful. He lets you play a super-charged glorious anthem without giving up a creature. He gives you the explosive power of an Overrun but with the permanency of an enchantment. True, he might force out some powerful mono-colored creatures but seriously, who needs mulldrifter when you can play a Cold-Eyed Selkie and pick up 3 cards a turn? And did I mention that YOU DON’T HAVE TO GIVE UP A CREATURE!?! The card might actually be LESS valuable in enchantment form.
Card Support: This category asks, “What cards make this one better?” For New Alara’s Knight, this list is just far too extensive to put down. I mean, come on, aside from all multicolored creatures, any type of counter magic to protect it and the entire dark-bant archetype; this card makes ITSELF so much better. If you get two copies on the field not only do they turn even the lowliest slippery boggle into a 6/6 shrouded monstrosity but they also turn each-other into very sizeable threats and protect against all but the most devastating burn. When a card makes even ITSELF better you know you’ve got something special.
Summary: If Knight of Alara was the ONLY multicolored creature in the new set, he’d still be incredible. The interactions with the sleeping hybrid creatures floating around plus an incredible power boost to war-monks, kitchen finks and redcaps around the world – he’d still be incredible. But we’ve got an entire set of over-powered gold monstrosities coming our way. I shudder to think how ridiculous this knight is going to become.
Oh, and a final word before I part; just one. This is one word I left out of the Card Support category because I thought it was so packed with power that it would explode everyone’s imaginations to new vistas, vanquishing the protests of the unbelievers who claim the card is too fragile and spinning assorted deck-lists through our minds.
That word?
Revilark.
Yeah, it scares me too.
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Because it grows your existing threats to epic proportions it requires more frequent wrathing and removal, exhausting the control player's resources.
Lots of things die to those boardsweepers, that's why they're call boardsweepers =). The point is it makes a tiny board into a big threat, putting the pressure on control decks while keeping a lot of cards in your hand to play post-wrath. Also, it lets you outgrow your aggro opponent's army to shut them down.
But the greatest power of this card is that it makes sub-par cards playable. Cold-eyed selkie is good, but not good enough on its own. Throw it together with Knight of New Alara and it's a card-drawing machine.
Deck builders just got a lot of new tools.
And Dark Bant just got a lot scarier.
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With just this guy and Rafiq in play alone, Rafiq is swinging for 12. Him + Doran is silly and War Monk just got a healthy dose of steroids. Dark Bant is scary now. Really scary.
EDIT: He also works like Rafiq (though not as strong) for the T2 War Monk.
Yes, cause every deck plays R and even when splashing it's not always that easy to have easy access to RR (even my current 5cc block deck has sometimes difficulty casting fallout in a timely manner before being run over by for example WW exalted)
I did a bit of calculations: I took a Dark Bant list and added up the amount of points of power Liege or Knight of New Alara would add to each creature, multiplied by the amount of that creature in the list. Without including themselves, Liege had 40 and Knight of New Alara had 51. Including their own 2/2 or 4/4 bodies, Liege had 56 and New Alara had 59. Of course, since New Alara dies to Fallout, his somewhat larger bonuses might disappear very quickly in midcombat.
You are aware that Wilt-Leaf Liege is a card, right?
You claim to be a competitive deck builder and not once do you bring up the point that this guy is unplayable compared to him? It's like Shock and Lightning Bolt, One is undercosted and amazing, one is just unplayable, especially so if it's in the same format as the other.
I don't see how you can call a format with Jund Charm and Volcanic Fallout highly played as a great format for a 4 mana 2/2.
Stairc: Knight of Alara will NOT allow Kitchen Finks to come back three times. If you play this card and say I'm ending my main phase and the opponent plays volcanic fallout and you lose him, your noble hierarchs, and your bird of paradise/CARD]s how is that better then Wilt-Leaf Liege? FYI More is Less
This card makes me happy!
Knight of the reliquary is at least a 4/4
However, I see a home in my rafiq/stoic control casual for this card. Making rafiq a 6/6 and an angel a 6/7 is awesome.
Now if only they made a decent "lance" equipment or another cool sword.