Not so much a top ten here, but rather cards I want to keep an eye on:
Seeker of the Way: It feels annoying to use removal on, but can cause big life swings. It doesn't necessarily cause the disadvantage heroic does, but can be vicious if played that way.
Grim Haruspex: The stats and ability make it quite versatile. I'm not sure if it's more of a combo card or a aggro anti-wrath card.
Hardened Scales: It just plays extremely well with some older sets. Spikes, graft and modular are the first things that come to mind.
Heart-Piercer Bow: It's cheap and reusable colorless damage. It could help red against come of the more powerful protection from red cards (like say, Master of Waves) or just allow mono-green decks an easy way to take care of multiple utility creatures without spending too many cards
Abzan Ascendancy: It promotes playing a lot of creatures while not walking into massive Wrath disadvantages.
Become Immense: A potential game-ender at a potential 1 mana late game sounds interesting
Feat of Resistance: Allows you to push through some damage, protects against removal, or just a good combat trick; A sign of a potential White Weenie card back in the day
Raiders' Spoils: The Warrior pool is deep; the card draw/life loss is optional; and the power boost isn't limited to just Warriors
Sagu Mauler: Boring, but big, protected and has trample all at two reasonable prices
Lens of Clarity: In a format with plenty of shuffling effects, how much weaker can SDT be and still be good?
Honestly, it looks pretty good. I'm kinda surprised that some of the best delve cards are common. Sultai Scavenger even beats the +3 Delve tack-on. There's a lot of random creature-type love (yetis, lammasu, kirin, elk), though Human and Warrior stand way above the pack.
A few cards look better in other wedges than their advertised ones, Mardu Blazebringer for Temur, Disowned Ancestor for Sultai
The Sultai toughness love makes sense, but seems a bit odd. Arrow Storm looks like a decent expensive burn card. I was kinda afraid that red would be neutered after the reevaluation of cheap common removal, but it looks like it might turn out okay. Bellowing Saddlebrute makes me wish Suicide black was possible with modern design, but it can't be
Also, lol at comparing Khans to Kamigawa. While, granted, Magic is toning power level downwards we are not even near Kamigawa levels of bad.
I'd argue Kamigawa was full of niche cards. It just happened that it was deprived of the one niche area it really needed to have (artifacts), and suffered from Rosewater's second biggest mistake (insisting legendary matters). Honestly, if it had a decent set of dual lands, some earlier better answers to affinity and a means to expand Arcane out of block (which would be about 10/15 cards total for those three points), Kamigawa probably wouldn't be as hated as it is now. Kami/Rav was one of the best Standards of all time due to the plethora of different decks with radically different play styles (many like G/U Snakes, Ghost Dad, Ghost Husk, Greater Good and Owling Mine used notable Kamigawa block themes). As a block, it doesn't hold well together, but it's chalk full of things that were missing from Theros: crazy cards (that are probably bad) that you want to build around. To me Khans looks a lot better in this regard, but its mechanics as a whole aren't the most inspiring (which is actually like Kami block). For a while, the Mythic cards filled that role. Thankfully, Wizards has wised up about that yet hasn't really been good at putting it back in at the lower rarities.
lazy designs perhaps, but anyone who thinks any creature with morph is bad in limited is mistaken.
ALL morph creatures, no matter how terrible the design, are playable and arguably quite good in limited.
Bash them now if you want, but these cards are going to be making your sealed decks, and will be drafted highly.
Doubly so since the set's designed as a tri-colored format.
Other note: I'm trying to decide whether I like the four great ancient capitals reference in the planeswalker's guide or not.
Usually, I don't mind new creature types, but in magic, I associate snakes with lands, card advantage and deathtouch. Naga feel like they totally fit in with the card advantage/deathtouch aspects that its a bit jarring that they aren't snakes.
The wrath looks good. At four mana, wrath can be a bit too much pressure on creature decks, but at six, it usually isn't enough. The justification for the extra 1 fits perfectly with Theros while not being completely useless outside of that context. Good design
The fork has a bit of design dilemma with the need for attacking critters and spells that are useful post-combat. My first thought is like the article, with extra combat sorceries, but thinking about it again, token spells are probably a better bet.
It makes sense seeing Outlast, but gets doubly disappointing once you realize Outlast is sorcery speed. The body is good enough for the cost though; it just suffers from the Moonfolk effect.
I'm actually guessing one planeswalker per color in Commander:
- White = Serra?
- Blue = Teferi
- Black = Tevesh Szat?
- Red = Freyalise?
- Green = ?????
That will keep it fair and even.
Freyalise is a green walker. And Leshrac would be a better choice than the insane Tevesh Szat.
Freyalise is red/green, as she started as a fire mage, but later chose to favor green. I wasn't thinking, though, so she would make a better green planeswalker, while Jaya is the obvious red planeswalker.
The only issue with Jaya is that she is so close to Chandra in design space, and Chandra hasn't exactly been the easiest Planeswalker to design. I think a Parcher might be a more interesting option.
I think it was because I read it late at night, but I got a kick out of this blogatog post.
So here's a wedge cycle of uncommons:
Impassioned Kitsune (2/W)(R/W)(W/B)
Creature - Fox Samurai
Bushido 2
First strike
Lifelink
2/2
Soratami Provoker (2/U)(G/U)(U/R)
Creature - Moonfolk Rogue 1: [Soratami Provoker] gains flying until end of turn.
Return a land you control to its owner’s hand: Untap target creature. That creature must attack or block this turn if able. Activate this ability only once each turn.
3/1
Lingershade Kami (2/B)(W/B)(B/G)
Creature - Shade Spirit (W/B)(B/G): [Lingershade Kami] gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
When [Lingershade Kami] dies, return another target creature card with converted mana cost less than or equal to [Lingershade Kami]’s power from a graveyard to the battlefield.
2/2
Stoneheart Kami(2/R)(U/R)(R/W)
Creature - Elemental Spirit
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a 1/1 colorless Spirit creature token with haste onto the battlefield. If it’s during your combat phase, put that token onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.
3/3
Orochi Dabbler (2/G)(B/G)(G/U)
Creature - Snake Rogue
Deathtouch
Whenever [Orochi Dabbler] deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.
1/3
I'd guess it's Mortify. Though it does happen occasionally outside of Core sets, I thought Wizards prefers the deck defining cards to be new ideas rather than putting the power into already used cards. Mortify is strong, but not deck defining.
Izzet really isn't a permanent based guild. I don't think trying to fit it into a U/R build will work too well. What I'm more curious about is: Could he be useful in a blue deck with a splash of red or a red deck with a splash of blue? A monoblue deck typically has some trouble with critters, and a monored deck typically has issues with running out of gas. In either of those cases, he seems potentially good.
I think I'm turning into a grownup. I just realized that I was excited about cleaning my tub than spoiler season. I'm just hoping this set has some sense of ending a storyline, and not mess it up like SOK (I mean come on, even the books had integration of Spirit and non-Spirit magic at the end.). That being said, I think there'll be some sort of enchantment creature showing how they've "stepped up the enchantmentiness" like the archetypes were for BNG.
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Seeker of the Way: It feels annoying to use removal on, but can cause big life swings. It doesn't necessarily cause the disadvantage heroic does, but can be vicious if played that way.
Grim Haruspex: The stats and ability make it quite versatile. I'm not sure if it's more of a combo card or a aggro anti-wrath card.
Hardened Scales: It just plays extremely well with some older sets. Spikes, graft and modular are the first things that come to mind.
Heart-Piercer Bow: It's cheap and reusable colorless damage. It could help red against come of the more powerful protection from red cards (like say, Master of Waves) or just allow mono-green decks an easy way to take care of multiple utility creatures without spending too many cards
Abzan Ascendancy: It promotes playing a lot of creatures while not walking into massive Wrath disadvantages.
Become Immense: A potential game-ender at a potential 1 mana late game sounds interesting
Feat of Resistance: Allows you to push through some damage, protects against removal, or just a good combat trick; A sign of a potential White Weenie card back in the day
Raiders' Spoils: The Warrior pool is deep; the card draw/life loss is optional; and the power boost isn't limited to just Warriors
Sagu Mauler: Boring, but big, protected and has trample all at two reasonable prices
Lens of Clarity: In a format with plenty of shuffling effects, how much weaker can SDT be and still be good?
A few cards look better in other wedges than their advertised ones, Mardu Blazebringer for Temur, Disowned Ancestor for Sultai
The Sultai toughness love makes sense, but seems a bit odd.
Arrow Storm looks like a decent expensive burn card. I was kinda afraid that red would be neutered after the reevaluation of cheap common removal, but it looks like it might turn out okay.
Bellowing Saddlebrute makes me wish Suicide black was possible with modern design, but it can't be
I'd argue Kamigawa was full of niche cards. It just happened that it was deprived of the one niche area it really needed to have (artifacts), and suffered from Rosewater's second biggest mistake (insisting legendary matters). Honestly, if it had a decent set of dual lands, some earlier better answers to affinity and a means to expand Arcane out of block (which would be about 10/15 cards total for those three points), Kamigawa probably wouldn't be as hated as it is now. Kami/Rav was one of the best Standards of all time due to the plethora of different decks with radically different play styles (many like G/U Snakes, Ghost Dad, Ghost Husk, Greater Good and Owling Mine used notable Kamigawa block themes). As a block, it doesn't hold well together, but it's chalk full of things that were missing from Theros: crazy cards (that are probably bad) that you want to build around. To me Khans looks a lot better in this regard, but its mechanics as a whole aren't the most inspiring (which is actually like Kami block). For a while, the Mythic cards filled that role. Thankfully, Wizards has wised up about that yet hasn't really been good at putting it back in at the lower rarities.
Doubly so since the set's designed as a tri-colored format.
Other note: I'm trying to decide whether I like the four great ancient capitals reference in the planeswalker's guide or not.
The wrath looks good. At four mana, wrath can be a bit too much pressure on creature decks, but at six, it usually isn't enough. The justification for the extra 1 fits perfectly with Theros while not being completely useless outside of that context. Good design
The fork has a bit of design dilemma with the need for attacking critters and spells that are useful post-combat. My first thought is like the article, with extra combat sorceries, but thinking about it again, token spells are probably a better bet.
The only issue with Jaya is that she is so close to Chandra in design space, and Chandra hasn't exactly been the easiest Planeswalker to design. I think a Parcher might be a more interesting option.
So here's a wedge cycle of uncommons:
Impassioned Kitsune (2/W)(R/W)(W/B)
Creature - Fox Samurai
Bushido 2
First strike
Lifelink
2/2
Soratami Provoker (2/U)(G/U)(U/R)
Creature - Moonfolk Rogue
1: [Soratami Provoker] gains flying until end of turn.
Return a land you control to its owner’s hand: Untap target creature. That creature must attack or block this turn if able. Activate this ability only once each turn.
3/1
Lingershade Kami (2/B)(W/B)(B/G)
Creature - Shade Spirit
(W/B)(B/G): [Lingershade Kami] gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
When [Lingershade Kami] dies, return another target creature card with converted mana cost less than or equal to [Lingershade Kami]’s power from a graveyard to the battlefield.
2/2
Stoneheart Kami(2/R)(U/R)(R/W)
Creature - Elemental Spirit
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a 1/1 colorless Spirit creature token with haste onto the battlefield. If it’s during your combat phase, put that token onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.
3/3
Orochi Dabbler (2/G)(B/G)(G/U)
Creature - Snake Rogue
Deathtouch
Whenever [Orochi Dabbler] deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.
1/3