A bunch of stuff here, and I didn't go over absolute every relevant multicolour card invididually. Eg. Sardu Mauler is almost certainly part of the Temur deck, and i mentioned it but didn't specifically point it out.
Next week I'll likely post some brews for each of the Khans. I cannot confirm or deny whether I am brewing in the closed beta.
Good to see some discussion about the new format, and also good to see that that a lot of the discussion mirrors the views I came up with while preparing my block constructed set review (part 1 should be up on puremtgo in the next day or so).
As I've done with previous sets, the first part of the set review looks at lands/fixing, white, blue and black. From those group of cards I've discussed the following individual cards, these are the ones which I think will be at least possibly relevant (* indicates very likely relevant imo):
Lands/fixing:
All of the multicolour lands
Banners
Rattleclaw Mystic*
Trail of Mystery
Embodiment of Spring
Seek the Horizon
White:
End Hostilities*
Mardu Hordechief
Master of Pearls
Rush of Battle
Suspension Field*
Wingmate Roc*
Blue:
Clever Impersonator
Dig Through Time *
Treasure Cruise *
Jeskai Elder *
Jeskai Windscout
Kheru Spellsnatcher
Pearl Lake Ancient *
Singing Bell Strike
Taigam's Scheming
Black:
Bitter Revelation
Bloodsoaked Champion *
Ruthless Ripper
Dead Drop
Despise *
Empty the Pits *
Grim Haruspex
Murderous Cut *
Necropolis Fiend
One thing which hasn't been discussed here is the fact that the set includes allied colour fetchlands, in an enemy-coloured wedge block. I think that's an awful design decision from a block constructed perspective (would have much rather the M15 enemy-painlands and the Khans fetchlands were swapped), it's going to make 4-colour decks much more likely because then you have 12 fetchlands instead of only 4 for each wedge. Counting the tri-lands, you have 20 on-colour multi-colour lands in a 4-colour deck, but only 8 in a three colour, forcing you to use the much worse guildgate equivalents (and even then you are still playing ~12 basics unless you use off-colour tri-lands or something). It'll be a shame if the intended central thematic theme of the block isn't borne out in the block constructed decks, but unless the format is quite fast (spolier: seems unlikely) then 4-colour could, or at least 3 with a light splash, well be the default.
does anyone else think that WoTC missed the boat by not printing enchantment lands in JOU? Either a full cycle like the mirrodin artifact lands, or even just a single sweet one would have been awesome and potentially had a permanent impact on the game in all sorts of formats. Flavour-wise, they're never going to have a better reason to make these than in the current block this feels like a huge missed opportunity to me.
Am I missing something here? I understand they'd be powerful, but they would turn naturalize into 2 mana stone rain and enchantments would be common enough that enchantment kill spells would almost be maindeckable.
Just so you know, that list was pre-BNG. I'm unsure exactly what from BNG you'd include in the deck (hero of iroas? Nyxborn rollicker? Everflame eidolon? Akroan Skyguard?), I haven't really looked at the archetype since then, but I'm sure there's new cards you'd want to include.
why would you want to play a 3 colour aggro deck in a format where all of the dual lands come into play tapped? You invite a huge loss of consistency for very little gain, particularly here where your red is basically supurfluous. the red ordeal is barely better than the white one, and there's not a single red hero you'd prefer to play over the white or blue ones. Lightning strike in the board is not a reason to play an entire third colour, especially when blue bounce does a fine job of removing stuff for this deck if you want it.
I have an article on UW heroic coming up in the next couple of days, imo it's a pretty decent and quite underrated archetype right now, keep an eye out for it if you're interested :).
This is not primarily a reanimator deck, in fact the best version probably doesn't play rescue. It's a synergy deck which uses dredge cards (satyr, commune) to see a lot of your deck and then get incidental value from the graveyard in some way (whip, nighthowler etc.). This destroys the control decks but has weakness to aggro.
The reason behind Heliod (or Mogis, which some lists are now using) is to have a threat that doesn't die to hero's downfall/gild, which is a big consideration in such a threat-light deck.
One thing to note is the absurdity of kiora's follower with the bow of nylea. This combo can even shoot a dragon out of the sky.
I highlighted that interraction in my set review, I think it's pretty neat. Be warned that bow is terribad against Polis Crusher, though, it's a tough to play the card (especially seeing as it's a 3 mana enchantment that doesn't affect the board, unless your RG opponent - who is packing 6-8 maindeck burn spells - lets you untap with both it and your 2/2 in play).
this topic comes up fairly often. here's what i said last time, check out the whole thread for other opinions:
if there was just one bot that always had the best prices on everything, then there wouldn't be so many bots out there now would there? Smile I'm sure you know the usual suspects (goatbots, mtgotraders, supernova etc.), check them out, or shop further afield. Nothing is going to consistently have the best prices on everything all of the time though, it's the way of things.
This is very similar to the UB deck that a bunch of people tried early in the format (example here), it didn't work then and I can't see it working now. The deck lacks any ability to close out games in a reasonable manner, it plays a bunch of 1 for 1 answers in the early turns and then does... nothing. Master of waves and bident are interesting innovations but I can't see them solving the deck's fundamental problems. In particular, playing a bunch of 2/1s or a do nothing enchantment doesn't seem a winning plan when you're going to get killed in 2 combat steps from poly/arbor colossus/stormbreath.
Also, people may misplay against ashiok and let it fog for you, but smart players won't. they'll just use occasional burn to keep its counters down if it ever threatens to play something relevant, and ignore it the rest of the time.
come back post-BNG with nullify and guild and we might be talking though!
Elspeth makes you auto win against aggro which is the other plausible way to attack the archetype. It's also good against ug which was something of an anti meta choice vs gr, due to not being affected by voyages end.
http://puremtgo.com/articles/around-block-54-khans-tarkir-set-review-part-2#comment-49317
A bunch of stuff here, and I didn't go over absolute every relevant multicolour card invididually. Eg. Sardu Mauler is almost certainly part of the Temur deck, and i mentioned it but didn't specifically point it out.
Next week I'll likely post some brews for each of the Khans. I cannot confirm or deny whether I am brewing in the closed beta.
http://puremtgo.com/articles/around-block-53-khans-tarkir-set-review-part-1
Should I run my target list of cards for part 2 by you guys to see if I'm missing anything glaring?
As I've done with previous sets, the first part of the set review looks at lands/fixing, white, blue and black. From those group of cards I've discussed the following individual cards, these are the ones which I think will be at least possibly relevant (* indicates very likely relevant imo):
Lands/fixing:
All of the multicolour lands
Banners
Rattleclaw Mystic*
Trail of Mystery
Embodiment of Spring
Seek the Horizon
White:
End Hostilities*
Mardu Hordechief
Master of Pearls
Rush of Battle
Suspension Field*
Wingmate Roc*
Blue:
Clever Impersonator
Dig Through Time *
Treasure Cruise *
Jeskai Elder *
Jeskai Windscout
Kheru Spellsnatcher
Pearl Lake Ancient *
Singing Bell Strike
Taigam's Scheming
Black:
Bitter Revelation
Bloodsoaked Champion *
Ruthless Ripper
Dead Drop
Despise *
Empty the Pits *
Grim Haruspex
Murderous Cut *
Necropolis Fiend
One thing which hasn't been discussed here is the fact that the set includes allied colour fetchlands, in an enemy-coloured wedge block. I think that's an awful design decision from a block constructed perspective (would have much rather the M15 enemy-painlands and the Khans fetchlands were swapped), it's going to make 4-colour decks much more likely because then you have 12 fetchlands instead of only 4 for each wedge. Counting the tri-lands, you have 20 on-colour multi-colour lands in a 4-colour deck, but only 8 in a three colour, forcing you to use the much worse guildgate equivalents (and even then you are still playing ~12 basics unless you use off-colour tri-lands or something). It'll be a shame if the intended central thematic theme of the block isn't borne out in the block constructed decks, but unless the format is quite fast (spolier: seems unlikely) then 4-colour could, or at least 3 with a light splash, well be the default.
Am I missing something here? I understand they'd be powerful, but they would turn naturalize into 2 mana stone rain and enchantments would be common enough that enchantment kill spells would almost be maindeckable.
Article is up
I have an article on UW heroic coming up in the next couple of days, imo it's a pretty decent and quite underrated archetype right now, keep an eye out for it if you're interested :).
http://puremtgo.com/articles/around-block-43-controlling-block
The reason behind Heliod (or Mogis, which some lists are now using) is to have a threat that doesn't die to hero's downfall/gild, which is a big consideration in such a threat-light deck.
I highlighted that interraction in my set review, I think it's pretty neat. Be warned that bow is terribad against Polis Crusher, though, it's a tough to play the card (especially seeing as it's a 3 mana enchantment that doesn't affect the board, unless your RG opponent - who is packing 6-8 maindeck burn spells - lets you untap with both it and your 2/2 in play).
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/market-street/market-street-cafe/market-street-modo-cafe/540206-best-mtgo-buy-bot
Also, people may misplay against ashiok and let it fog for you, but smart players won't. they'll just use occasional burn to keep its counters down if it ever threatens to play something relevant, and ignore it the rest of the time.
come back post-BNG with nullify and guild and we might be talking though!