Grading Scale: A: Oppressive cards with a relatively unique effects that figure to routinely dominate games in which they're left unchecked. Most of them are going to be insanely powerful "build-around-mes" that'll dramatically increase the overall power-level of any deck that they're slotted in to. These are format definers that can completely warp fledgling metas. Think Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Humility, Consecrated Sphinx, Primeval Titan, Repercussion. B: Formidable cards that don't offer anything truly unique and that aren't oppressive. People shouldn't have to bend over backwards in order to beat them but decks full of these won't just roll over to any old brew. Think Syphon Mind, Earthquake, Wrath of God, Fact or Fiction, Lurking Predators. C: Powerful cards that winning decks will want to play. They're not going to blow you away but you'll rarely be disappointed with their performance. A deck full of these won't crush a table but a solid foundation of Cs should be good enough to keep you competitive. Think Vampire Nighthawk, Clever Impersonator, Taurean Mauler, Thragtusk, Restoration Angel. D: Marginal playables that're unexciting to field. It's not that you can't or shouldn't play them, just don't expect them to yield impressive win %s. Most fun, cool, niche, build-around-me, etc. cards will fall into this category alongside the ones that you'll unhappily field given a lack of alternatives. I don't recommend playing Ds if you can avoid it and I strongly advise that you look for suitable alternatives if it's a realistic option. F: Weak cards that're unlikely to boast respectable win %s that probably shouldn't be played. +/-: Used to denote a better or worse N. That is, a B+ represents a strong B whereas C- implies a weak C.
White
Bastion Protector: I like this card a fair amount. When I personally play White in EDH it's often a Prison deck featuring things like Hokori, Dust Drinker, Brago, King Eternal or even Derevi, Empyrial Tactician at the helm. A cheap threat that you can run out early on to protect them feels relatively powerful to me because you often only need to buy a turn or two before they seize control of the game. Forcing players to kill Bastion Protector first is a very real speed-bump because people are only going to be playing so much spot removal and having to "waste it" on a Nessian Courser isn't what they want to be doing. Hell, they won't be able to afford to do so a huge % of the time. I'm not exactly sure how powerful these kinds of cards figure to be for more casual players but I don't see you wouldn't want to protect your Roon of the Hidden Realm, Rafiq of the many or whatever. The fact you can curve the Protector into your General is huge by the way. It makes her many orders of magnitude more useful than an Aegis Angel type effect that comes afterwards. I could easily see this being a staple in the format but at the same time I wouldn't be surprised to see her omitted from the best versions of the best decks either. It mostly depends on your meta and what you're trying to do with your deck. Still, your general tends to be the most important card in your deck so anything that you can do to efficiently and effectively protect it has always been amazing for me. As such I have to this that this going to be a total staple for the format even at the highest levels of competition.
Constructed/Cube Grade N/A
EDH Grade B
Dawnbreak Reclaimer: I wasn't hyped for this card initially but for the life of me I can't think of a way for it to actually backfire. At the end of the day your opponent has to choose something that you actively put in your deck and if you're anything like me then it's probably something immensely powerful. Your worst creature is still a card that you purposely added to your deck so how bad can it really be? Obviously she's somewhat vulnerable to removal but given that it triggers at EOT that doesn't exactly give people much time to interact with it. Technically "it dies to removal" which is sketchy on most 6+ CMC spells but if Consecrated Sphinx has taught us anything it's that you can't dismiss threats on that assumption alone. My biggest issue with this card is that I can't think of a compelling reason to play it over cards such as Reveillark, Karmic Guide, Sun Titan, Angel of Serenity, Emeria Shepherd, on and on and on. Even in formats such as EDH there's such a thing as "too many 6 drops" and I don't think that this makes the cut in the higher-end lists. Still, it's a 6 drop that provides something reasonably close to immediate value and if left unchecked it will do a number on the rest of the table. I generally dismiss drawbacks on cards such as these (and this one is no exception) primarily because you'll still take a 2-horse race every day of the week. Much like Trade Secrets you can take advantage of weak/inexperience players, ones with weak decks or even someone who had a bad draw to mostly offset the risk of helping someone else. Moreover, even when you can't it's still fine to just bolster the two of you because facing down one "final boss" still beats trying to slog through an entire table. Ultimately I don't think that we're looking at a new staple but at the same time I think that casual decks can certainly consider fielding it as a generic value 6 drop.
Global Grade C
Grasp of Fate: FINALLY! It's about freaking time that I can tell people to stop playing Oblivion Ring in their White decks. That horrendous 1-for-1 at Sorcery speed has been a mainstay of the casual MP community since its inception despite the fact it's not a card that can actually win games of magic for you. Not only is it expensive, slow, marginal and in one the worst MP colors to begin with but it was even a temporary solution that could be interacted with. While Grasp of Fate may share some of those weaknesses it's still an incredibly powerful card with countless multiplayer applications. Facing 6 players? Remove up to 6 things! That's AWESOME! The "up to" is relevant for politics and other fluffy nonsense but at long last we have a powerful, versatile and relatively cheap answer for White that doesn't lose all its luster given the increased number of players. Whereas Quarantine Field was a horrendous 6-8 mana pile of trash this thing scales amazingly well for low price of 3 CMC. If someone doesn't have something worth removing, whatever, no big deal. Don't make enemies if you don't have to. Still, the option is always there to exile the biggest threat from each opponent and the price is a total steal. I'm extremely grateful that Wizards has printed this card and hope that we continue to see these kinds of "direct ports" for key spells/effect in every color. This is a must-have staple for everyone so get your hand on a whack of copies. It can literally slot into any deck that can reliably cast it so unless you desperately need the ability to exile your own Necropotence (or whatever) this should replace 99.99% of the O-Rings that are currently seeing way more play than they deserve.
Global Grade A+
Herald of the Host: Myriad is the greatest mechanic that I've ever seen which could not have been implemented worse. They decided to throw on 5+ mana aggressive creatures which have to deal combat damage to accomplish anything relevant. They're all terrible blockers with low-toughness, die to removal, generate a lot of aggro and need to connect with people before they do anything relevant. I understand that you can sacrifice the tokens for value post-combat but since the cards feel inherently win-more that's not enticing me to play with them. I could be missing something but as it stands I think that the cycle of Myriad creatures is quite weak in general and I don't plan on playing any of them in any multiplayer setting. If someone can find something cool to do with them, I'm in. I would love to be wrong about these things. My current disposition is that they're basically useless and until proven/shown otherwise I'm not interested in trying to make them work.
Global Grade D
Kalemne's Captain: 5 mana for a 5/5 doesn't interest me in the slightest and paying 12 mana to exile Arts/Enchs seems equally dreadful. Given that White has access to cards such as Austere Command and Planar Cleansing I struggle to think of any deck in any format that would want to play with this thing. The ability to exile threats is nice and all but not worth the doubled mana cost. Be it Constructed/Cube/EDH I don't think that this has a home.
Global Grade D
Oreskos Explorer: Hell yes. Moreso than anything else I love it when Wizards prints cheap, powerful threats that scale well into a multiplayer setting. Much like Land Tax, Tithe, Weathered Wayfarer, Gift of Estates and Knight of the White Orchid this is a solid turn 3 play for any White deck in any format. It's also one that naturally pairs with things like Flickerwisp, Restoration Angel, Sun Titan, etc. which means that you should almost ways feel good about slamming one of these things into play. before moving on let me start by dispelling a common myth that I hear from time-to-time. You don't have to do anything special to make these kinds of cards insanely valuable. Sure, if you can add cards like Karoo, Orzhov Basilica and Fieldmist Borderpost to your "Land Tax" decks if you really want. That being said let me assure you that absolutely don't have to. Far more often than not you'll be able to run this type of spell out on turn 3 (before playing your land obviously) for instant value without having to worry about doing any extra work. If you were going to play Azorius Chancery anyways, hey, awesome! I love taking advantage of free synergies like these. It's totally unnecessary however and you can literally jam this into White deck in any format and I can guarantee you that you'll love the results. Now, if you don't think that you need to hit 7-9 land drops, think again. There's always cards like Emeria, the Sky Ruin, Luminate Primordial and Emeria Shepherd which you can employ to take advantage of the wonderful bounty that he provides. Moreover he tutors up any Plains be it Mistveil Plains, Tundra, Sacred Foundry or otherwise. This means that while he's happy enough to play for mono-White by no means is he shy about spreading the love in 2-5 color decks as well. White isn't a color that has much actual card draw but at least it can make its land drops at which point it can often lean on cards such as Emeria, the Sky Ruin to act as lategame card advantage engines. It can also abuse cards like Goblin Charbelcher to OTK players because it's incredibly easy to remove every land from your library if you're so inclined. Otherwise you can also pair these kinds of cards with Scroll Rack to generate a great deal of card advantage over time. Still, even ignoring all of that this is just an amazing turn 3 play regardless of what you're trying to do because virtually every strategy/archetype wants to hit its land drops. Given that this thing is easier to cast than Knight of the White Orchid and that it has a higher power-ceiling (I do realize that the lands go into your hand) I'm personally going to be acquiring a ton of these to field in every MP setting. From Cube to EDH to Constructed this is a card that I want in most of my White decks because it doesn't ask anything from you to be amazing. It's just always going to be that card that you can run out on turn 3 to draw 3 cards and clog up the ground a bit.
Global Grade B
Righteous Confluence: This is a straight miss for me. All 3 modes seem like complete and utter trash and there's no way in Hell that I'm going to cut things like Grasp of Fate/Return to Dust/Austere Command/etc. from my lists in order to make room for it. I don't know why everyone seems to think that gaining 15 life is worth 5 mana and a card (it's not) so unless your meta is swimming with Enchantment-based decks that also have a bunch of Replenishes I can't think of a good reason to turn to this thing. As much as I'd like the humor the idea that it's a "good token generator" off-the-top of my head things like Mastery of the Unseen, Sacred Mesa, White Sun's Zenith, Benevolent Offering, Increasing Devotion, Cloudgoat Ranger and a throng other alternatives all have it trumped as far as I'm concerned. I realize that whole > the sum of the parts but in this instance that sum doesn't add up to much in the first place.
Global Grade D
Shielded by Faith: Auras are mostly trash but this one has some potentially interesting applications. First of all Sun Titan decks can consider fielding one to build a Vigilant + Indestructible recursion engine which can always pass the savings onto whatever it is that you're bringing back. It also might have a home in the Bogle deck as both a form of defense and an easy way to protect Kor Spiritdancers. Otherwise Bruna, Light of Alabaster EDH decks may want this type of effect since it's the cheapest and most powerful version printed to date. Zur the Enchanter usually fetches Vanishing as its primary defensive spell but since I don't actually play that deck myself I'm not sure if this makes the cut in the best versions of the archetype. Casual builds will undoubtedly field this thing but I'm not well-versed enough enough with the General to know whether or not this is competitive at the highest levels of play. I'll defer this one to actual experts of the archetype.
Constructed/EDH Grade D
Cube Grade F
Closing Thoughts: The only must-haves are the cheap, scaling spells in Oreskos Explorer and Grasp of Fate. Both are perfectly playable in EDH, they're both going in my Cube and they're both easy 4-ofs in any White Constructed deck. Since I'm always way more excited to see colors get 2-3 drops as opposed to 6-7 drops I personally think that Commander 2015 was a slam-dunk for White since both of these cards help the color fill out your early-game curve without having to spend much money and/or field bad cards.
Blue
Æthersnatch: We've seen this type of spell before in Kheru Spellsnatcher, Desertion, Spelljack, Commandeer, etc. but it's never been this clean. This is the first true "Confiscate target spell" that we've seen and in formats such as MP and EDH which are often filled with overpowered bombs such as Syphon Mind, Sylvan Primordial, Insurrection, etc. that's an extremely powerful effect. Still, the problem with all of these cards is that they're incredibly unwieldy. Holding 6 mana up is a significantly taxing opportunity cost because it's difficult to make meaningful plays while doing so. MP/EDH aren't formats where you can usually afford to sit around doing nothing because eventually people will start cobbling heinously degenerate combos/synergies/board states together which will ultimately spell your demise. This is why you generally see permission such as Pact of Negation, Swan Song, Counterspell, Mana Drain, Forbid, Cryptic Command and Force of Will played. They're cheaper and thus enable you to more easily defend yourself and/or win counter wars. Having your 6+ CMC spell fall to a Swan Song is an enormous swing and that's why you generally see people play the cheaper permission whenever possible. The reality is that while it's nice to live the dream and Æthersnatch an Exsanguinate for 40 (or whatever) in practice you're usually better off advancing your gameplan while holding your cheap permission up. In slower, more casual metas this type of spell will probably shine but if you're trying to protect and/or thwart degenerate gameplans then it's simply too expensive and awkward to rely on.
Global Grade D+
Broodbirth Viper: A 5 drop with a small body, no evasion and that has to deal combat damage? Color me unimpressed. Even in a world where you can attack a player having a bad draw and get this thing to survive it's still "just fine" which isn't where you usually want to find yourself in a MP setting. I'm perfectly happy to work for a card if the payoff is there, I've killed a lot of people with Hydra Omnivore + Kessig Wolf Run, but I don't want to work to draw cards when I can just cast a Mystic Remora/Rhystic Study/Recurring Insight and call it a day. As such I don't expect this thing to see much competitive play nor do I recommend trying to make it work.
Global Grade D-
Gigantoplasm: A Clone that goes infinite with Reveillark? Yep, that's going to see a ton of play in Simic/Azorius/Bant blink decks. For those wondering how this works, you can have Gigantoplasm copy Reveillark, turn Gigantoplasm into a 0/0 using its activated ability, have him die and use Reveillark's death trigger to recur himself and another <=2 power creature from your Graveyard. You can either use this as a generic mass revival engine for every creature with power <= 2 in your graveyard or you can add something like Blood Artist and/or Bitter Ordeal to clench victory immediately. It's a win-win either way. From Brago, King Eternal to Momir Vig, Simic Visionary to Roon of the Hidden Realm they're all going to strongly consider playing this thing because even when you're not going infinite it's still a Clone with a reasonable upside and that's perfectly playable in most MP spheres. Note the effect doesn't end at end of turn so this guy figures to be a relevant threat at every stage of the game which is perfect for "go big or go home" formats such as MP and EDH. Even if you're not making a 0/0 there's nothing wrong with an 8/8! This is especially relevant for a color like Blue in Constructed because it's so hard to find good blockers that threaten big Green beaters. Now you can copy that Sea Gate Oracle (or whatever) but still turn him into a 5/5 (or whatever) to avoid being overrun. The key here is that your fail-case is a Clone, a card that you're always happy to have, and best-case scenario is that you have another infinite combo with the right setups and/or a scaling threat. This is an easy competitive staple in my mind and I'm personally going to be acquiring them for Constructed, EDH and Cube.
Constructed/EDH Grade B
Cube Grade C
Illusory Ambusher: Err... another conditional 5 drop creature that draws cards? ... Thanks? I think that people tend to overestimate these kinds of cards in general as compared to ones such as Jace's Ingenuity. On the surface it doesn't seem like "getting attacked by a 3+ power creature" is a daunting requirement but the issue that people frequently overlook is that you don't actually want to tap your mana until the last possible second in formats such as MP/EDH (or any format for that matter). EOT of the preceding player? Sure, go ahead and cast your draw spell. Odds are you don't need to hold mana up for counters/removal/etc. any longer. Still, do you really want to tap out on the proceeding player's attack step though? Not really no. From a pure card advantage standpoint I think that this type of card will almost always win-out over a "traditional" draw spell (such as Fact or Fiction) but that doesn't tell the whole story. The condition of "I have to tap out at a terribly inopportune moment" is a very real drawback. As such I don't expect this type of threat to see any competitive play in traditional combo/control strategies. Now, where I don't mind this card is in Chain Reaction/Blasphemous Act decks that include cards such as Swans of Bryn Argoll. Having another creature-based threat that can can randomly draw 13 cards is incredibly useful. Nin, the Pain Artist comes to mind for EDH because that is a lot of cards that you can draw. Either way what I'm trying to showcase here is that I personally see this as a combo card moreso than a generic draw spell that can sometimes ambush a threat. I'm not holding my breath on having this be some sort of top-tier playable across multiple decks/archetypes but at the same time I don't see the harm in picking up a playset and jamming them in a deck with 4x Soulfire Grand Master, 3x Nin, the Pain Artist, 4x Boros Reckoner, 4x Swans of Bryn Argoll and a whack of burn such as as Blasphemous Act. Oh, before I forget, I should probably discuss the fact that this card "dies to removal" which is technically another strike against it as opposed a generic draw spell that will "always work." Clearly Counterspells are still a thing but you know what I mean. Anyways, while these concerns are certainly relevant I personally don't assign much weight to them. I'm going to play powerful cards/creatures even if they die to removal because doing something marginal/fair is only ever going to take you so far. I find that it's people who actively works towards an unfair/degenerate/powerful gameplan that find themselves doing well and consistently winning games even if it sometimes blows-up in their face. What I'm trying to say is that in a vacuum I'd rather be the person trying to get a 9-for-1 with Illusory Ambusher than ones "playing it safe" and taking a 3-for-1 with a card like Jace's Ingenuity. I'm clearly just using random numbers and examples here, don't focus too hard on them, the point is that I'm more than willing to take risks because I know that playing it safe can only take you far. I often feel as though 75% of players want to pull-off the "fly under the radar" strat in which they silently build up an insurmountable advantage without anyone taking notice. When everyone is playing as safe as possible it's hard to grind out a win "the fair way." You sometimes have to stick your neck out and go for the play that will put you over-the-top.
Constructed Grade C
EDH/Cube Grade D
Mirror Match: On the one hand any mass copy effect can be sweet since MP/EDH tends to be filled with creatures with powerful ETB triggers. Sure, you don't get to keep them, but when it comes to things like Mulldrifters/Titans/Primordials then it doesn't really matter. You get to Plague Wind someone's board and generate a bunch of value in the process. On the other hand it's a 6 mana conditional "removal/Fog spell" that relies on having an opponent turn a large number of creatures sideways at you. In that sense I have no idea how to assess these kinds cards because I've never had them played against me and no one seems to add them to their decks on the forums either. It reminds me of Domineering Will in many ways, a card which seems "pretty good," but the fact that I've yet to see it played outside of the precon means that I don't have a good bead on how effective these kinds of cards are in general. My gut tells me that they're mostly trash because I would much rather use that 6 mana to cast a spell such as Recurring Insight or Consecrated Sphinx but on another level I don't like hating on cards that I've never played with. Much like Æthersnatch I see another 6 mana condition spell that I don't want to hold mana up for because if people play around it or simply elect to direct their attention elsewhere then you've just Time Walked over your turn. I'm personally lumping this thing with the other unplayables of the format for now but if someone wants to comment on these kinds of combat tricks please feel free to share your experiences with them. Again, I literally never get to see them played so it's tough for me to say how effective their average use-case is.
Global Grade D
Mystic Confluence: Sayonara Jace's Ingenuity! You won't be missed! A bad Cryptic Command is still an absurdly powerful Magic card and I expect to see this played as a powerful budget alternative that's significantly less demanding on the old manabase. The first mode doesn't quite read "counter target spell" so sometimes you'll have to select it twice but that's not really the end of the world in my mind. Far more often than not you're countering a big, game-winning spell cast on-curve so they frequently won't have the extra 3-6. Both other modes essentially read "draw a card," either by bouncing one of your own value critters or by grabbing a new one, so you can't go wrong either way. These kinds of "counter-draw" cards are frequently paired with Snapcaster Mage/Eternal Witness/Archaeomancer-esque recursion effects so the option bounce is a huge boon compared to a card such as Dismiss. Still, even if you ignore those there's any number of cards like Augur of Bolas, Sea Gate Oracle, Mulldrifter, Diluvian Primordial, etc. that are all equally amazing to bounce. Otherwise there's nothing wrong with "counter your spell, draw 2 cards" and it doesn't always matter if you have to to pay 5 mana for it. Now, I will stress that the first mode isn't as stellar as we'd all like it to be and I'm not trying to suggest otherwise. You don't see Mana Leak make the cut in most competitive MP decks for a reason; games run long and ramp is often prevalent so paying an extra 3 is easily do-able. Yes, we all remember the games where you counter that 40 point Exsanguinate with a Force Spike but far too often those soft counters wind up costing you games as they go dead. Lastly, no, this card doesn't have the same inherent weakness that Æthersnatch possesses. While it's true that 5 CMC counters are slow you're never punished if you choose to hold mana up for this thing. Even if no one casts a scary spell you can always fire it off as a draw spell (any combination of creature bounce and card draw will work fine) so the fail-case is that you run out your Jace's Ingenuity and not feel too bad about it. I'm not saying that Ingenuity is an especially powerful card or anything but it's certainly not horrendous and that's the absolute worst-case scenario. All things being equal that's not a terrible place to be. Either way the key thing here to remember is that even if this isn't better than Cryptic Command it's still really freaking good and the fact that it's easier to cast is way more relevant than it seems. For budget-minded players who can't afford amazing mana bases and $50.00 Dismisses this is a fantastic alternative. Buy 4 and feel good about playing them in just about everything. I know that I will.
Global Grade B
Synthetic Destiny: Mass Polymorph's 5-8? Yes please! I've never experienced much success with Polymorph decks because the fact of the matter is that one big threat is virtually never going to be enough to win a multiplayer game. From Progenitus to Blightsteel Colossus to to Worldspine Wurm to Emrakul, the Aeons Torn they're all beatable. As such I personally think that you need to "go bigger" if you're looking to clear a MP table and that's where these kinds of "mass effects" shine. All you need are some Khalni Garden/Awakening Zone type effects and then it's just a matter of hitting 6 mana and going off. The cool thing about Synthetic Destiny is that since the deck can now run a ton of copies of the effect (don't forget about Proteus Staff!) as long as you play self-shuffling threats such as Eldrazi and Colossi you've never going to lose to a string of removal/interaction barring a ton of mass exile. Even if your first wave goes down you can always rebuild and fire off another a few turns later. Otherwise, the fact that this card is an instant means that you can sometimes catch people off-guard but more than that it allows you to play through permission. Cast Synthetic Destiny on the second mainphase of the preceding player (gets countered), untap, cast Mass Polymorph. Game! Take that control mages! It's also worth noting that you can respond to mass removal with this card to "beat it" and that fact extends to a board that you may have already Mass Polymorphed into play. It also means that you can build extremely degenerate Upheaval style decks that cast this, nuke the board, then run the table over with an army of behemoths. I do realize that most of these sequences are 10+ mana (barring Balance) but that's obtainable in many MP/EDH settings. Clearly this isn't a generic playable that you'll just slam in your Blue decks for no reason but for the people who want to build around Proteus Staff/Mass Polymorph style enablers this an exciting and competitive new addition to the roster. I'm personally going to snap 4 up as soon as I reasonably can.
Constructed Grade B
EDH Grade C
Cube Grade F
Closing Thoughts: Blue got a fair number of powerful spells but most of them belong in niche/specific archetypes and/or require specific synergies. The only "must-have" card for everyone is Mystic Confluence because I can guarantee you that it's way closer to Cryptic Command than it looks. The ability to counter a spell and draw 2 cards (either by returning a value creature or ripping new ones) is incredibly powerful and if worst comes to worst you can just fire off a Jace's Ingenuity at EOT and not feel too bad about it.
Corpse Augur: I've been waiting for this type of a threat for a very long time. A generically powerful 4 drop that doesn't lose to removal, that trades well with Green creatures and that curve naturally into Sidisi, Undead Vizier and/or Gray Merchant of Asphodel is exactly what casual Black decks have needed to fill out their curves. Moreover, this card isn't a dead draw later on because eventually it's going to draw 5+ cards and it's even on a creature that you can easily recur. From Entomb to Buried Alive to Stinkweed Imp it's not exactly difficult to fill your bin which means that this thing can get easily out-of-hand past a certain point. It's even a Zombie which is relevant for Unholy Grotto and it's also an excellent card to pair with things like Disciple of Bolas and Smothering Abomination which tend to play well with cards like Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat. Those decks are always interested in drawing more cards and putting massive amounts of lifegain to use so that they can then clear the table out with cards like Exsanguinate and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. I need to stress that being a creature is amazing because it's so easy for Black to Phyrexian Reclamation, Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, Oversold Cemetery, Necromancy, Palace Siege, etc. it back into play. This isn't a busted combo card that you'll play in your "turn 3 win" decks but since that represents such a small fraction of Kitchen Table Magic I can't think of this as anything other than a complete staple. As an avid Black Mage I'm going to acquiring many, many playsets of these because I've always wanted some dorky 4 drop that actually beat removal. Things like Crypt Ghast, Phyrexian Obliterator, Graveborn Muse, Mindslicer, etc. are more are all swell Magic cards but sometimes you want something that no one has any incentive to mess with.
Global Grade B-
Daxos's Torment: Oh... goody... an aggressive + conditional Black 4 drop that dies to removal and that basically can't block. That's exactly what I want to be fielding in a MP setting /sarcasm. This thing could be a 4 mana 5/5 Flyer with Haste and it still wouldn't be remotely playable (especially in EDH) so there's absolutely no reason to purchase/play with it.
Global Grade F
Deadly Tempest: Worse than Life's Finale, better than Extinguish All Hope, still many orders of magnitude weaker than alternatives such as Toxic Deluge and Damnation. If token decks are plaguing your meta then it's an interesting tech option but even then I can't say that I would bother playing it over something like Crux of Fate which is cheaper to cast. Every meta is different but I personally haven't experienced much success with these 6 mana Wraths so it doesn't really matter how many of them get printed as far as I'm concerned. The first has virtually never made the cut in my Cube/EDH/Constructed decks so there's not exactly much hope for the 2nd and 3rd either. As I always say every Wrath of God is playable in a MP setting and this one is no exception but you'd only ever play it as a budget "last resort" and not as something that you're actively happy to sleeve up for the job.
Global Grade C-
Dread Summons: I like that Wizards is trying to print "Shared Traumas" that aren't completely unplayable and this is a big step in the right direction. For someone like me who frequently plays in 6-8 player games it doesn't take much for this to put 20 power into play and since basically every Black deck is a graveyard-based deck in formats such as EDH you can also think of it as a "draw spell" of sorts. It's a bummer that the Zombies ETBT but that's simply how Wizards likes to print these kinds of cards so for the time being we'll just have to take it on the chin. Much like Army of the Damned and Empty the Pits it's a big splashy finisher that puts "big mana" to use which is perfect for the color that access to Cabal Coffers, Crypt of Agadeem and Crypt Ghast among other things. I still don't think that mill itself is even remotely competitive as a win condition but even if you're playing a generic value deck (say The Mimoeplasm) having a graveyard full of goodies is almost a big a help. From Animate Deads to Mortivores there's also plenty of ways to abuse the critters that other players are pitching so you're really using every part of the buffalo with this type of effect. Now, the drawback to this type of card is that it continues to get weaker and weaker as A) your meta shrinks in size and B) it increases in competitiveness and C) other players in your meta field graveyard-based strategies. Fast spell-based decks generally don't care about mill (unless you haphazardly nuke key combo pieces) and the amount of power that this thing generates can vary wildly based on player number and creature prevalence. In your typical ~4 player match with ~20 creature decks (or ~35 in EDH) it takes a long time for this to reliably produce a sizable army so I really do think of it as a card that will only shine in very large 6+ player games that aren't filled with fast combo decks.
Global Grade D+
Scourge of Nel Toth: So let's get a few things out of the way. It's a Zombie for Gravecrawler, you "cast" it for Vengevine, it's a sac outlet from your graveyard, it pairs well with Bloodghast and it loves self-mill such as Buried Alive, Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Grave-Troll. That's swell and all but the problem that I have with this guy is that it's a big dumb conditional flier. That is, a 7 mana 6/6 flier ism't a card that I would ever elect to field in a MP setting so you have to cheat thing thing into play early on to get any semblance of value out of it. After all, I personally hate fair, creature-based win conditions and the last thing that I'd ever want to try and do is clear a MP table out by turning a dorky 7 mana flier sideways. I also think that aggressive threats such as Gravecrawler and Bloodghast are usually horrendous (unless you're Skullclamping them) because you're never going to be able to race a table and the inability to block is an enormous drawback. However, since you must sacrifice 2 creatures to recur this thing your hands are tied unless you're willing to pay 6 mana total using Reassembling Skeletons. Still, who the Hell wants to play 6 mana 6/6 fliers in multiplayer? Certainly not me. I think that this is a cool card with lots of interesting synergies/interactions but I don't think that it's an especially competitive one. It's mostly unplayable in EDH (too conditional, too low impact), it's completely unplayable in Cube (way too conditional) and so I personally recommend treating it as a Constructed card. For example, you can play a 4x Buried Alive deck and fetch this + 2x Bloodghast and hopefully get some Vengevines in to the mix as well. That's not overpowered or anything but it's certainly going to be serviceable in some metas. It's still a big dumb beater that can block and recur for basically nothing so if that's enough to get the job done it's not a bad place to be.
Constructed Grade C
EDH Grade D
Cube Grade F
Thief of Blood: I think that people are unfairly dismissing this card. It's not a 6 mana Æther Snap and/or Spike Cannibal. Right off the bat it kills all Planeswalkers dead. From Tibalt to Ugin it doesn't matter how many are in play nor how many counters that they have. In larger metas that may feature "Super Friends" style decks filled with the things this can prove to be very relevant as a reliable + reusable way to keep their numbers in check. Moving on it's another Dark Depths enabler. I'm not saying that you'd ever play this card for that reason alone but it's going to matter some % of the time. Before everyone starts shoving Vampire Hexmage down my throat, bear in mind that they serve completely different purposes. You don't put Hexmage in your deck because you want a 2/1 for 2 in a MP setting. No, you put that card in your deck to enable a combo kill. Sometimes she can kill a 'Walker and/or block but that's not why she's in your list. Thief of Blood on the other hand is a removal spell + threat (one that can legitimately kill people) who doubles as a combo piece if needed. Moreover, it's creatures and not a spell. This is extremely relevant in formats such as EDH since decks are usually way better at tutoring for creatures than they are for spells. From Sylvan Tutor to Wordly Tutor to Eladamri's Call to Survival of the Fittest to Chord of Calling to Birthing Pod... the list is endless. Furthermore, creatures are significantly easier to recur than spells. Most Black Constructed/EDH decks are going to start with cards like Phyrexian Reclamation, Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, etc. so it's trivial to recur this thing as needed. Whereas Vampire Hexmage comes back, kills one thing and dies this leaves a relevant body body behind and has a significantly more powerful impact on the game. Otherwise, yes, it's a Spike Cannibal! For every +1/+1 counter, every Loyalty counter, every Charge counter, etc. this flier gets +1/+1. It's not unreasonable in the slightest to think that this can reliably hit play as 10/10+ flier. People seem to like glossing over that fact but this will easily OTK people in big 6+ player games and even in 4 player Pods it's still going to be huge a large % of the time. Don't forget that as you're producing this threat you're also killing every 'Walker, neutering every Everflowing Chalice, taking the bite out of those Forgotten Ancients, thanking that Scavenging Ooze for his hard work, on and on and on. Clearly this isn't some inherent bomb that will work for everyone but at the same time I don't see why you'd ever dismiss it completely. There's more than enough going here to justify acquiring 1-2 of these because if you ever need an answer to a Planeswalker-based deck or a +1/+1 counter list then this is a fine option.
Constructed Grade C-
EDH Grade C+
Cube Grade D
Wretched Confluence: Yeah no. This is a fancier version of Annihilate and should see about as much play. Profane Command barely sees any action and it's roughly twice the card that this POS is. After all, let's not kid ourselves into thinking that giving a creature -2/-2 is the same thing as killing it. It'll nuke random utility threats/mana dorks but realistically you have to pump at least -4/-4 into anything worthwhile. Since both other modes essential read "draw a card" (one way or another) I don't see why this would see any more play than Annihilate does (which is none). I understand that sometimes it can "Sudden Spoiling" if they run a whack of small critters into a bunch of your medium-to-small things but that rarely-if-ever occurs in my games. Multiplayer isn't usually about creature-based combat in my experience and there's very few things that actually get into the Red Zone. Again, I don't even think that it's better than Profane Command which is another card that sees next-to-no play. Why? Well, since you can only afford to run so much spot removal in MP that usually has to be reserved for cheap spells such as Slaughter Pact, Go for the Throat, Snuff Out, Murderous Cut, etc. that are easy to hold mana up for. For this card to see any legitimate amount of play the first mode would have to reliably kill a creature because as it stands it's way too expensive for way too niche of an effect. And no, I don't really want to play with an instant version of "Harrowing Journey" as my fail-case. The 3 life matters because you're not getting a discount on the CMC at all and, let's face it, it's not as though people are clamoring to play with Jace's Ingenuity. A bad version of an already weak card isn't very enticing. If the draw didn't cost life, ok, sure, I might consider that. You don't want to jam things like Necrologia in 100% of all decks, especially if Gray Merchant of Asphodel is banned in your meta. Given that it's not I can't actually bring myself to call this a playable. I would never add it to any of my decks/Cubes nor do I think that anyone else should. -2/-2 is just way too weak for a 5 CMC removal spell and if you ever have to double-up on the effect then you're sad. Since I expect that to be the average use-case far more often than not (Hell, you need all 3 just to kill a Titan) I'm extremely underwhelmed but the thing.
Global Grade D
Closing Thoughts: As an avid Black Mage the only card that personally interests me is Corpse Augur. He hits so many key criteria that I'm looking for in a 4 drop. He beats removal, he scales well into the lategame, he threatens big Green beaters, he's recurrable with Unholy Grotto, he curves well into Sidisi, Undead Vizier, he draw draw cards, on and on and on. I know that he isn't fancy and I'm not suggesting that he's going to win games outright but this is what I personally want to be casting on turn 4 in my Constructed decks. The other cards are too weak/niche and won't be acquired unless I need them for a specific reason.
Red
Awaken the Sky Tyrant: A 4 mana 5/5 flier (no conditions, no drawbacks) would be unplayable trash in every MP format. This card is... sigh...
Global Grade F
Dream Pillager: Um... really? You couldn't throw Red a bone and give them a somewhat legitimate draw spell? Just this 7 mana POS? Even as someone who frequently plays Lightning Greaves, Mimic Vat, Feldon of the Third Path and Sneak Attack I still can't imagine a deck that would be actively happy to sleeve this thing up. It's so bad. Why is it 7 mana? Why is it tiny? So many depressing questions, so few answers.
Global Grade D
Fiery Confluence: First of all I'm slamming this into my Cube because the critter nuke + Arttifact destruction are always relevant and it's nice that you can now play a Shattering Spree that isn't useless when you need to clear the board. For Constructed this is the first Flame Rift style spell that we've seen in a long time so the burn deck, albeit horrendous, got a small boost in that sense. I still think that it's nearly impossible to win playing one but some people just want to watch the world burn (literally) and this is a fantastic card for said individuals. For those of us who want to win games of Magic, eh, not so much. With respect to EDH this is close enough to being a staple that everyone should try it. A 4 mana Anger of the Gods that doesn't exile isn't fantastic and a Shattering Spree with a ceiling is somewhat marginal but both effects are powerful and desirable to the point where you should almost always play with them. I personally see this as stapling two effects that I actively desire together with the upside of sometimes getting them both. If it proves to be unplayable, so be it, but it's a cheap board control spell that keeps mana rocks/Equipment in check without being a dead draw when you need to nuke some critters. Outside of EDH all bets are off because not everyone is as fond as Artifact-based ramp as I seem to be and playing this as a bad Earthquake isn't worthwhile.
Constructed Grade C-
EDH Grade C
Cube Grade C+
Magus of the Wheel: We all need to have a quick pow-wow and discuss something about "Top X Best Cards" lists that really bothers me. They are often incredibly misleading to newer/less experienced players because they don't bother to explain why a card is powerful in the first place. For a card like Demonic Tutor that doesn't matter but something like Wheel of Fortune I personally feel as though you shouldn't blindly label it as a powerful card and pass that information on to new players. Wheel of Fortune is amazing in the sense that combo decks can use it to draw ridiculous amounts of cards in order to dig for key combo pieces that will allow their controller to win the game on the spot. This circumvents the drawback of having each opponent draw 7 cards which would otherwise be considered a crippling flaw. When you're literally playing it as a 3 mana draw 7 then it's horrendously busted which is why all of those crazy all-in combo decks that you see run it each and every time. Now, the problem is that 99.99% of you don't play all-in combo decks. Most of you play somewhat fair + budget decks that play Magic as opposed to Solitaire. That's fine, I do too, but Wheel of Fortune is a terrible, yes, TERRIBLE Magic card in fair decks. A spell that draws each opponent 7 cards which they are then allowed to play is atrocious. There's no possible way to argue that you figure to consistently come out on top from having that event occur. All things being equal at least 1-2 others will benefit more than you given that they didn't need to invest cards/mana but still got to see the same 7 cards. Sure, you get to control the timing, but that only accounts for so much. Please do not add this to your generic creature + spell deck that wants to drag things to the ultra-lategame. I get that Red lacks draw spells in general but this isn't the solution that you're looking for.
Moving on to degenerate combo decks, it's unclear as to which will be able to support a creature that needs to untap. Obviously things like Hermit Druid see a fair amount of competitive play but that card legitimately wins the game outright whereas the Magus here doesn't. Draw 7s will frequently enable game wins but there's a world of difference between "frequently" and "assuredly." That being said it's still a draw 7 and so even if this never sees plays in the best versions of the best Red decks the "good versions" are probably excited to see another powerful draw spell for the color. I do realize that Lightning Greaves is a thing but Reforge the Soul isn't an especially exciting card so I'm not going to hold my breath on a conditional variation breaking the mold. The problem with this card is that it signals to the table that you're going to win next turn (probably) but it doesn't actually do anything the turn that you play it. This should push the other players to either interact with you or try for their own combo kills which you will then struggle to thwart with your Nessian Courser. Even with that in mind I still plan on acquiring these, probably 5 or 6, because I do want to test this card in a competitive MP setting. Having a 3 drop that reads "you win the game if you can untap with me" is pretty good all things being equal so I have to think that there's some combo shell out there that will be able to make good use of the guy.
Constructed/EDH Grade C
Cube Grade D
Meteor Blast: This is a terrible version of Mizzium Mortars that I would simply never play. I get that Battlefield Thaumaturge is a card and I do realize that it can go face but neither provide me with enough incentive to actually sleeve this incredibly marginal effect up. I personally think of this as having the average use-case of dealing 12 damage for 6 mana and that's simply not an effect that interests me in the slightest.
Global Grade D
Mizzix's Mastery: Past in Flames and Mind's Desire just had a love-child and I let me assure you that it's going to make waves in every major multiplayer format. BUR are fanatic dig/loot colors in general which can employ cards such as Faithless Looting, Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Wild Guess, Frantic Search, Desperate Ravings, Fact or Fiction, Syphon Mind etc. to fill-up your graveyard with powerful spells. Once you start factoring in rituals such as Dark Ritual, Rite of Flame, Cabal Ritual, Seething Song and Mana Geyser it's easy to envision scenarios in which you combo kill the entire table with one fell swoop using cards such as Pyromancer Ascension and Storm finishers such as Tendrils of Agony. Even outside of degenerate spell-based combo decks it's still a Recoup/Memory Plunder of sorts that has the ability to go full-on Yawgmoth's Will when needed. Casting every spell in your graveyard is a huge game regardless of your deck's contents so even if you're just re-casting things like Time Warp, World at War and Mob Rule that's still fine too. Much like Volcanic Vision I think of this as a Blue/Black/Green card more than a Red one when it comes to fair decks however. The problem with Red spells is that they tend to be things like Earthquake, Fork and Insurrection that have absolutely no synergy with one another. In fact, they're downright terrible together. I'm not trying to make blanket statements and suggest that Red never does anything else but in general I think that these kinds of cards are significantly less powerful than they seem inside their actual color. Now, outside of Red is where you have my attention. Black tutors/draw spells, Blue extra turn spells/draw spells/theft effects, Green ramp/tutors/9+ CMC bombs and more are all cards that I want to be casting alongside one another. Even if you don't win the game on the spot using a combo kill, let's be real, the game is still going to end. This is an absolute must-have staple so don't be shy about picking some up. Much like Past in Flames the effect is so incredibly overpowered that there'll always be something worthwhile that you can do with it even if it's literally just going to act as Past in Flames #5-8 in Constructed and #2 in EDH.
Constructed Grade A
EDH Grade A
Cube Grade C
Rite of the Raging Storm: My favorite thing to do in Red is to Wildfire/Devastation/Obliterate people with something like Daretti, Scrap Savant, Predatory Advantage and/or Assemble the Legion in play. It's horrifically degenerate, outrageously unfun for the other players and makes for a terrible experience overall. It's perfect! Judgmental opinions aside the fact of the matter is that sometimes you just want to make everyone else suffer so even if you don't play these kinds of decks every game sometimes it's fun to whip them out every now and then. As long as you don't make a habit of defaulting to things that are ridiculously unfun it shouldn't be a big problem. Now, the real question is how does this card rank as a finisher in those kinds of lists? On the one hand 5 Hasted power each turn is an insanely quick clock. Under ideal circumstances this can run laps around a card like Assemble the Legion and clear the table out in a handful on circuits. On the other hand what incentive do people have to actually kill each other off and allow you walk away with the match uncontested? Absolutely none. Realistically they should simply choose to do-nothing and/or take out a key threat while leaving everyone else intact. As such I'm skeptical of its competitive applications. At the end of the day the onus is mostly on your opponents to kill themselves so you're mostly banking on people playing poorly and making bad decisions. That's obviously going to work some % of the time but not against anyone "worth beating" so to speak. After all, if this is simply a 5 power Hasted creature on your turn then that's not exactly much of a clock. A player or two will probably still die but some of them will get back up-and-running. I still think that it's a powerful option but by now you've probably correctly guessed that it's also inherently flawed. That being said this is only one of many possible applications for the card. Red has no shortage of Vicious Shadows type spells that benefit from having creatures die and even if you just run this out naked on turn 3-5 it's reasonable to think that far more often than not players will bash each other to bits with it. It won't win the game outright but it's certainly going to deal a lot of damage. Moreover, this is a very good card if you're a "weak" player trying to beat a "better" one. If your strength lies in politics moreso than cards or bankroll it's still easy to use these kinds of effects to squash a key threat. Much like Mob Rule there's not much counter-play to this type of effect. If everyone decides to gang-up on someone they're probably going to lose. Multiplayer is self-correcting in many ways and this is a great example as to why that is. With respect to this card's final verdict, for the time being I'm going to "hope for the best" and pray that people make poor decisions. If enough of them decide that "the game is over anyways" and/or "I'll get attacked anyways" and/or "I just don't want to lose next" then this could easily slaughter a table over a handful of circuits and that seems fairly ridiculous to me. I'm personally going to acquire some for my various Wildfire decks but if the card ultimately proves ineffective I won't be afraid to cut it. I think that these kinds of cards tends to get worse over-time and/or as players become more familiar with them which is even more reason to only play these kinds of decks "every now and then." I can't provide you with a more definite answer than that because ultimately your opponents have the final say in the matter and I can't even speak for the ones in my own meta just yet.
Closing Thoughts:Warchief Giant is straight busted and everyone needs 4. Mizzix's Mastery is also one of the best recursion spells in the game as both of its modes provide an insane return on investment. Even if you're not trying to Storm off with rituals it can still cast things like Enter the Infinite for 4 mana and that's something that anyone can get behind. For those of you looking for something a bit more degenerate I do highly recommend testing Rite of the Raging Storm out because curving one of those into a Jokulhaups can easily provide people with enough incentive to "hurry on to the next game." As to how the card will fare in fair decks, I'm not entirely sure, but it does seem kinda sweet doesn't it? I'm really not sure on that one but I'm liking what I see so far. Otherwise I do recommend grabbing a Fiery Confluence for Cube/EDH if nothing else but in the right metas it seems perfectly reasonable for Constructed as well.
Green
Arachnogenesis: The best Fog ever printed is still a Fog. I won't lie and pretend that I've never seen Tangle/Moment's Peace/Constant Mists blow someone out but at the same time it's been at least 10 years since I've played a MP deck that won by turning creatures sideways as its primary gameplan. To give you an idea I've personally lost exactly once to a Fog (Tangle) roughly 15 years ago when it was first printed and that's because I still had no idea how to play Magic. Nope, not even the Maze's End deck has ever won a game in our meta. As such I would happily start everyone's decks with as many Fogs/Walls as they desired and that's usually a sign that a card isn't very powerful. After all, stopping one combat phase from one opponent sometimes has its uses but in general it's such a worthless effect that I'll never be able to consider these legitimate playables. That being said this is probably the closest thing to a truly playable Fog that we've ever seen. If it's not the best then it's certainly close because this one legitimately improves your board and some % of the time you'll blow a token/combo deck out of the water. Nice Pestermite + Splinter Twin and/or Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest friend! The Spiders can even gang-block as much as they want and the fact that it puts a whack of creatures into play means that this is much more than a simple defensive spell. It can go from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds flat if your deck happens to have cards like Beastmaster Ascension, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Craterhoof Behemoth, etc. in it. The problem is that ultimately this isn't a consistent effect that you can control so it's significantly weaker than it seems as a token generator. Since the base card is a Fog, a card which I personally think is unplayable, I'm not excited to try and work for it. I expect a lot of other people to happily play this in their decks but since I personally think that creature-based aggression is horrendous I don't want to add cards to my deck that focus on it.
Global Rating C-
Bloodspore Thrinax: The love-child of Master Biomancer and Mycoloth is interesting and much like his Master he loves to see Forgotten Ancient already on the field ready to move some counters around. That being said the problem with this type of spell is that it's worthless unless you draw it early-on and have it dodge removal. Whereas a card like Beastmaster Ascension can be played before or after you establish a board the aforementioned buffers don't offer that luxury. This thing is clearly powerful if you can curve a mana dork into it, eat the dork, have it survive and proceed to produce an army of tokens/critters. That being said if you acquire the army first then draw this after you're hooped. I generally dislike these kinds of cards in that sense because I would much rather build a board of tokens/weenies and then tutor up a big finishers such as Craterhoof Behemoth and/or Kamhal, Fist of Krosa using things like Green Sun's Zenith, Survival of the Fittest, Chord of Calling, Fierce Empath, etc. Otherwise this is another Persist enabler (much like Melira, Sylvok Outcast) in the sense that it pairs with any sac outlet and any persist threat to go infinite. Because he's expensive and conditional he's not even close to being the best option available but it's still worth keeping that in mind. You obviously don't have to play him in combo decks but let's face it; there's a reason why you don't see many Master Biomancers in competitive lists. For every game that they blow you away there's another 2 or 3 where they fail to deliver. To me this card represents "consistency," not "power" because the decks that want this effect now have another way to acquire it. I don't think that those are the best decks to be playing but there's nothing wrong with trying to make them work and seeing how far you can take them. After all, every meta is different and if you can dodge removal and get the right draw these kinds of cards can easily win games on their own.
Constructed/EDH Grade D+
Cube Grade D-
Caller of the Pack: Well this is the best of the cycle and it's not particularly close. An 8 power Trampler that hits everyone kills insanely quickly and your Myriad copies can take full advantage of effects like Kessig Wolf Run, Greater Good and Xenagos, God of Revels to end games on the spot. 7 might seem like a lot of mana but that's actually easily do able on turn 3 in the Carpet of Flowers/Wild Growth/Utopia Sprawl into Grim Monolith/Somberwald Sage/Basalt Monolith style ramp deck. That's more-or-less a turn 5 kill which isn't half-bad. It's also worth noting that cards like Dense Foliage and Steely Resolve exist so killing him can sometimes be easier said than done. Ultimately this is still a 7 drop that dies to removal (at no benefit) and that has to attack so realistically it's not a busted Magic card. Still, at least the payoff is there if you can get it to work which is more than I can say about most other cards. Again, I fully expect this thing to die to removal at no benefit but I like that there's an actual payoff for connecting with this thing. 8 is a lot more than 4-5 and the Trample means that you can't just chump it. These "Hydra Omnivores" are a lot of fun to play around with and I do plan on trying to smash people for millions with this guy.
Global Grade B
Centaur Vinecrasher: Much like Terravore, Knight of the Reliquary and Titania, Protector of Argoth which came before it Green now has access to a critical mass of threats that pair well with Armageddon/Wildfire style mass land destruction (MLD). While the newest iteration is weaker and more conditional in the sense that you can't simply curve one into MLD it's still entirely possible to build up to 8 mana or whatever and cast them both together. This is especially true in formats such as EDH where you're going to playing with a ton of Artifact-based mana ramp and/or mana dorks anyways. Moreover, the inception of Retreat to Coralhelm means that Knight of the Reliquary decks are now able to quickly and easily bin their entire manabase if desired which further enhances the potency of these types of threats. Otherwise their obvious application is their interaction with Fetchlands as they effectively scale from each and every one. In a multiplayer setting this is relevant for the 'Vore and the Vinecrasher because most competitive decks will include a fair number of them. Even if you ignore MLD and combos it's trivial to have these things grow immensely large as the game progresses from Fetchlands alone. They're also the primary way in which you'll recur your Centaur Vinecrashers because otherwise you're relying on niche effects such as the one that Knight of the Reliquary possesses. That is, you can still beat people "the fair way" with these kinds of threats but you obviously have plenty of incentive to pursue more degenerate alternatives if you're playing to win. Before I move on I'll throw out a quick word of caution. While these kinds of cards are fine in big metas filled with Fetchlands they lose most of their luster in smaller ones without them. I'm not saying that it's always "all or nothing" but clearly the card is significantly weaker when everyone is casting basic lands and Guildgates. That is, if you're not building a degenerate Armageddon/Retreat to Coralhelm style deck you'll have to carefully assess and consider the merit to fielding a threat that relies on having your opponents play certain kinds of cards. The example that I like to use is Carpet of Flowers. For some people it'll literally be the strongest card in Magic that frequently surpasses Sol Ring but for others it'll be a stone-blank. I don't know what the people in your own personal meta play and I never will so these kinds of decisions ultimately fall on you.
Constructed Grade D+
EDH Grade D
Cube Grade D-
Ezuri's Predation: Now this is a card that I want to start ramping in to. Not only does it produce an insanely large + wide army while simultaneously nuking your opponent's key utility threats but it also pairs insanely well with cards that care about having creatures ETB and/or die. From Elemental Bond to to Æther Charge to Warstorm Surge to Vicious Shadows there's no shortage of ways to do so and that's where you'll get your 8 mana's worth when everything is said and done. While expensive it's imperative to remember that Green is THE ramp color and with cards like Carpet of Flowers it's trivial to be firing these off on the 4th or 5th turn if needed. Green decks looking for some midgame mass removal should definitely consider fielding 1-2 of these because anything that doubles as mass removal and a win condition is perfect for ramp decks. It doesn't win the game on the spot but it's pretty damned close which is why this thing is way more exciting than an In Garruk's Wake or whatever. You should definitely pick some of these up because they have applications in every multiplayer format.
Global Grade C
Great Oak Guardian: This is technically a Splinter Twin/Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo enabler but at 6 CMC I sincerely doubt that it even makes the cut in the EDH versions of the list. Otherwise I think that these "trap cards" are relatively weak for the same reasons that I think Fogs are marginal. It's too difficult to convert their effect into an actual game win in a format where turning creatures sideways is the worst possible way to try and win games. I get that every meta is different and that in some these kinds of cards can lead to insane blowouts but as someone who doesn't play against many "Red Zone" decks myself it's impossible for me to get excited about these kinds of cards. Multiplayer combat, to me, tends to be one gargantuan threat buffed with Haste/Unblockable/Evasion that goes for a kill while everything else sits back on D. That is to say that I personally don't experience much in the way of big alpha strikes and/or back-and-forth races. I clearly can't speak for anyone else but I've never been impressed by fair, midrange decks since they just plain don't seem to win many games. It's far too difficult to race every combo/control/prison/ramp deck before they do something way more powerful than turn a 5/5 sideways and hope for the best. With respect to being a generic "Overrun" finisher I once again think that it's mostly unplayable because it doesn't provide Trample. I'll leave it at that for now because I'll cover Green finishers with the next card and explain why these aren't the droids that you're looking for.
Global Grade C
Pathbreaker Ibex: Green finishers need to be A) creatures B) "instant" and C) give your team at least +2/+2 and Trample. This is why virtually every competitive deck plays Thunderfoot Baloth, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and Craterhoof Behemoth as opposed to any number of alternatives. The Ibex here doesn't an immediate impact, it needs to be able to attack first, whereas the others do. As such it'll never be a top-tier finisher in the color because it fails to meet all of the essential criteria. Feel free to run it if you're so inclined just be aware that there are superior alternatives within the color.
For those wondering why the "creature" tag is important, bear in mind that Green decks tend to start with cards such as Green Sun's Zenith, Survival of the Fittest, Fierce Empath, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Chord of Calling, Birthing Pod, etc. Green is good at finding creatures but terrible at finding spells. The "instant" requirement is essential for beating removal/interaction because you don't want to provide your opponents with an opportunity to respond/react/plan for your big swings. This is why you'll basically never see a card like Siege Behemoth being played. It's too slow and easy to plan for. With respect to the +2/+2 and Trample, anything less than 2/2 isn't enough to push your weenies past blockers and Trample is essential for ensuring that you actually finish the job once and for all. On the surface Joraga Warcaller style threats might seem acceptable but if all you do is force chump blocks then lose your threats to removal then you haven't actually accomplished anything meaningful.
Global Grade D
Skullwinder: Hello must-have staple! Why yes, I do want to play up to 8x Eternal Witnesses in my Constructed decks and I'll play any number in Cube/EDH. This card is bonkers because unlike Witness it's a legitimately good blocker that trades at every stage of the game and it's even easier to cast. Moreover, because you're frequently recurring threats such as Genesis Wave, Sylvan Primordial, Nissa's Revelation, Tooth and Nail, etc. it doesn't actually matter what the other person takes because odds are no cards in their GY is better than your bomb. It's also worth noting that it's extremely easy for cards like Genesis Wave and Tooth and Nail to chain together infinitely at which point it's actually irrelevant as to what they recur because they'll never have an opportunity to cast it. Still, again, even in a fair deck that doesn't rely on a combo kill why do you care if someone else gets a Regrowth if the card that you're bringing back is a See the Unwritten or Defense of the Heart or whatever? You don't! For anyone wondering why this card is much better than a "Regrowth" (i.e. a spell) it's because Green is very good at finding creatures but terrible at finding spells. I know that you're probably sick of reading this but things like Green Sun's Zenith, Survival of the Fittest, Woodland Bellower, etc. all make the creature subtype extremely important. Moreover, your big spells tend be things like Genesis Wave, Lurking Predators, Tooth and Nail, etc. which why it's so important that your recursion comes with a body. Get your hands on these early and often because this is shoe-in for Green decks across every major multiplayer format for years to come. This is the second coming of Eternal Witness and it will see as much play.
Global Grade A
Verdant Confluence: I personally think that this card is crap. The first mode is basically nothing as far as I'm concerned and I'd expect to use it less than 5% of the time. It's not actively bad or anything but the size of my creatures is irrelevant when I'm playing Green and I'm not interested in pursuing cute synergies in general. You'll have the biggest stuff, not close, and you'll never lose games because you couldn't cobble enough damage together. The second mode is significantly weaker than it looks because it can't recur a huge % of your most important spells. It's bombs such as Tooth and Nail that actually win games and this thing can't touch them. No Genesis Wave, Chord of Calling, See the Unwritten, Tooth and Nail, Nissa's Revelation, nothing. I've also never had a high opinion of Restock and this is basically the same card as far as I can tell. VC recurs one more card and/or puts a land into play but costs more mana and has more restrictions. It's a wash in my mind. Either way if I didn't want the first I certainly don't want the second. Otherwise the "search for basic lands" clause doesn't interest me. I think that people underestimate expensive ramp and unfairly classify it as 'too slow" or "win more" but even I have my limits. This isn't Boundless Realms; it's Nissa's Renewal. I know that when it comes these to these kinds of cards you have to look at the whole and not the sum of the parts but I'm positive that I don't want to put Restock in my Green decks and I refuse to believe that this is a superior version of the card until proven otherwise. That is, until I have this thing played against me or have someone smarter than me explain why it's powerful/worthwhile I can't think of a compelling reason to play with it. It's entirely possible that I'm under-valuing its ability to recur 2-3 card combos but even then I maintain that Restock is already a card that see 0 play and that does the job better + cheaper.
Global Grade D
Closing Thoughts:Skullwinder is the stand-out pick for Green that everyone needs to get their hands on. You could find homes for any number of them because they literally slot into any Constructed/Cube/EDH deck imaginable. Otherwise I think that it would be wise to pick up a couple copies of Caller of the Pack for your ramp decks but that one's significantly less important than Skullwinder. You want Eternal Witnesses in your decks (even if you don't think you do, trust me, you do) so gobble these up whenever you can and start going to turn recurring your Genesis Waves and Nissa's Revelations all day every day.
Multicolor
Anya, Merciless Angel: Given that we already have Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and Aurelia, the Warleader I can't say that I'm excited to see another big dumb aggressive Angel in RW. The obvious combo card to pair her with is Heartless Hidetsugu which is fine for Constructed but nigh impossible to reliably assemble in EDH. What are you going to do, turn to White/Red creature Tutors? Ha! Have fun casting Gamble. I actually like Gisela a fair amount but that's because she's so much more than a big dumb flier who hits people in the face. Anya... not so much. Her fail-case is a generic 4/4 flier for 5 which is obviously unplayable so unless you're consistently able to Earthquake the table down (or whatever) you're stuck with a fairly weak card in your deck and/or as your General. She obviously kills fast and hard if you can activate her rage mode but what does that prove? There's countless powerful cards/Generals that always do something so why waste your time with a Serra Angel? I'm not sold on this card and don't expect it to see much play in any format.
Global Grade D
Arjun, the Shifting Flame: The obvious application of Mindmoil is to pair it with anything that cares about drawing cards. Chasm Skulker, Psychosis Crawler, Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar, Thought Reflection, etc. and more all spring to mind for that. In Constructed I'd rather have the cheaper + more durable Enchantment but in EDH the ability to slap that effect on your General means that you can actually build around it. Sticking with Constructed for now you've never played with or against Mindmoil for a very good reason and suffice it to say that Arjun won't be making waves as some busted combo enabler. That deck technically got more consistent but since it wasn't an archetype in the first place that doesn't change anything. At best he's a fun 6 drop that just so happens to pair well with cards like Chasm Skulker and Psychosis Crawler.
EDH (as your General, he's crap in the 99) is where this guy starts to look legitimately broken. Given that you can fill your deck with cheap/free cantrips and ritutals (such as Rite of Flame, Ponder, Preordain, Gitaxian probe, Brainstorm, Seething Song, etc.) this guy sees jillions of cards very quickly and ultimately is great at assembling key combo pieces. As long as your kill involves mostly permanents (think Power Artifact/Wake Thrasher/Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith, Hive Mind + Pact of the Titan, etc.) it shouldn't be difficult to assemble them. Moreover, you can also field the guy in generic Stormdecks that chain spells (cantrips, rituals, etc.) into things like Past in Flames and Mizzix's Mastery in order to win the game on the spot. You may need to hit a Pyromancer's Swath along the way but where there's a will there's a way. The de facto general for that strategy is currently Melek, Izzet Paragon and ultimately I don't know which one is superior. Pyromancer Ascension + Future Sight is one Hell of a combo and as such Melek generally makes comboing off trivially easy 1-2 turns after you untap with him. Moreover, Melek plays better with permission whereas Counterspells are awkward to field in Arjun decks. In that sense I doubt that a semi-random General such as Arjun can overthrow the current king but at the same time I don't actually play Melek myself so I'm no expert on the archetype. I've lost to him on turn 4-5 a number of times but I don't have any experience piloting the deck myself. I'm going to defer to actual experts on this one but either way Arjun strikes me as being extremely powerful/degenerate and I do expect him to see competitive play. He might not be S or even A tier but even as a high B/low A combo General that effect seems ridiculously strong to have permanent access to in a 100 card singleton format.
Constructed/Cube Grade D
EDH Grade B+ as General, D in the 99
Daxos the Returned: As an EDH General in an Enchantment-based shell supported by cards like Flickering Ward this guys seems fun and fair. You're never going to see him facing down the other top tier generals at the most cutthroat tables but as a generic C tier "value general" that plays a straight-forward, interactive game of Magic I have no doubt that this would be a solid option to pursue. Outside of EDH (as a General, these cards are terrible in the 99) the card is basically unplayable because that's how the "experience counter" cards are balanced. They're supposed to be played as Generals. Yes, sure, technically you could still run this as a generic threat and hope for the best. It wouldn't be good, you know it, I know it, Wizards knows it, everyone knows it. Still, hey, it's perfectly ok for cards to fill a niche role/function and nothing else. I'm not going to say much else on the matter because this isn't an EDH subforum and I don't feel like listing the 100 obvious cards to put in the BW Enchantment deck. There's more appropriate places to find those if that's what you're looking for.
Constructed/Cube Grade N/A
EDH Grade C
Ezuri, Claw of Progress: See Daxos. Worth nothing that this card is nuts with Sage of Hours which will be good in EDH. Green has tons of ways to tutor for the thing and it goes infinite almost instantly.
Karlov of the Ghost Council: Finally another card that I can actually talk about. When I personally play the 4x Soul Warden 4x Soul's Attendant 4x Ajani's Pridemate deck my Pridemates routinely grow to 30/30+ by turn 5-6 if they live that long. With that growth in mind Karlov here figures to be an OTK + Terminate machine in the right shells. I've been anxiously awaiting a second copy of the Pridemate for quite some time which is why I was so excited to see Serene Steward in the previous set. She was obviously too weak to see play as a 4-of but the first/second were certainly passable. Still, none of that matters any more because this card is crazy powerful in the Soul Sister archetype. Not only does the card grow immensely large almost immediately but it also functions as an extremely powerful and efficient form of removal. And it even exiles no less! I'm absolutely stoked to get my hands on a playset of these because I happily jamming the full 4 (Legend or not) in my lifegain decks as a powerful form of aggression and interaction. As much as I rag on people who build decks that turn creatures sideways in order to win all bets are off when my 2 drop is hitting for 20 on the fourth turn and then proceeding to exile 2 key threats. Clearly you play Karlov here in any WB lifegain deck but whenever possible you want many small triggers over a single big one. Exsanguinate only gives him +2/+2 regardless of what it hits for. This means that you want more things like Thrull Parasite and fewer things like Debt to the Deathless to support him. I'm not saying that those big drain spells are bad or anything but I'm mostly trying to reinforce the idea that Soul Warden makes him way bigger way faster (and allows him to remove more troublesome threats!) than something like Death Grasp. Now that get to field the full 8 Ajani's Pridemates you have way more incentive to go for numerous small triggers as opposed to a couple of big ones and beat in mind that recursion isn't a problem for WB so don't worry if you lose them early and often. From Phyrexian Reclamation to Return to the Ranks to to Immortal Servitude to Diabolic Servitude to Living Death it's not hard to bring them back as needed.
Constructed Grade B+
EDH Grade C+
Cube Grade C
Kaseto, Orochi Archmage: See Daxos, except ignore the part where I say "this is a fine C tier General." This card sucks.
Constructed/Cube Grade F
EDH Grade D-
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest: Since the other BG General is infinitely more interesting I won't spend too much time on this one. With respect to being an EDH General Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord is similar except he immediately wins the game when you find Lord of Extinction, Phyrexian Devourer, etc. so I'm not holding my breath that Mazirek can compete with that. Obviously any Legend can be run "for fun" but there's plenty of other places that you go to look for that type of info. With respect to being a generic playable in the 99 and/or in Constructed/Cube this is a 5 mana creature that cares about having multiple other creatures in play so my interest-levels aren't especially high. You have to work very hard to "build an Overrun" of sorts which means building a big board, dodging removal, saccing some stuff and then beating people down. Since that's basically the worst way to try and win a game of multiplayer Magic I can't see myself actually sleeving this thing up in much of anything. Moreover, Black is the color that has access to cards like Living Death and Dictate of Erebos already and I personally don't put much weight in buffing my squad. I'd much rather drain the table out with Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat than try to turn creatures sideways. As I'm sure countless others have pointed-out she triggers off of "any" sacrifice which does include things like Fetchlands but that's not a huge bonus as far as I'm concerned. People are frequently popping those early on but there's so many that hit the bin past a certain point. It's possible that I'm unfairly dismissing this card but I'm really not interested in conditional 5 drops that care about having a board full of creatures. Either way if I had to build a deck that includes this type of card it would look something like:
Meren of Clan Nel Toth: The Golgari Gods must be smiling upon me because this is another card that I can actually discuss. Forget about experience counters, this is a 4 mana 3/4 Palace Siege that can sometimes goes full-on Debtors' Knell. In the context of a generic Golgari sacrifice deck that's amazing and there's no two-ways about it. When I personally evaluate "EOT of turn" triggers" I consider it to be "immediate value" which means that Meren, to me, is a card that you can run out on turn 4 and feel good about. She does technically still "die to removal" but realistically speaking that isn't a serious concern. Far more often than not she'll recur a threat and everything past that is gravy. As I explained during my Mazirek analysis I'm a big fan of playing drain-based Bx decks full of Viscera Seers, Zulaport Cutthroats, Blood Artists, Wake the Deads, Living Deaths, etc. that pair perfectly with these kinds of "death matters" value cards. Whereas Grim Haruspex, Smothering Abomination, etc. draw cards sometimes the thing that you want is sitting in your Graveyard and that's where threats such as Liliana, Heretical Healer and Meren of Clan Nel Toth shine. It's nothing for them to recur things like Blood Artist immediately and to keep doing so on future turns as well. Another cool interaction is that Fleshbag Marauder style threats pair amazing well with Meren because they're both easy to recur and they trigger her Experience Counters. It's nothing to bring one back every turn for free to put the screws on creature-based strategies. Moreover, Meren supports numerous creature-based combo kills with are traditionally found in BGx EDH decks. The main ones are Mikaeus, the Lunarch + Triskelion and Necrotic Ooze + Phyrexian Devourer + Triskelion both of which are easy assemble with things like Survival of the Fittest, Buried Alive and Greater Good. This applies to Constructed too obviously but since this more of an EDH thing I'm focusing on that aspect for now. Anyways, Meren here is A) in the right colors and B) great at supporting these kinds of combos because she can always recur your key cards as needed. This is especially true if you're playing a Skullclamp, Contamination deck that abuses recursive beaters such as Bitterblossom, Bloodghast and Nether Traitor. As always these kinds of decks usually love to have things like Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos floating around because they can make it almost impossible for creature-based strategies to compete.
Global Grade B
Mizzix of the Izmagus: Another "I'm a Commander" card that doesn't realistically have applications outside of EDH. Much like Arjun she seems like a solid combo general and I can easily envision scenarios in which you kill the table off 1-2 turns after resolving her. After a Ponder, Impulse and Intuition your spells are only going to cost 1-2 mana tops which seems exceptionally powerful. She feels like Omniscience to me (I'm being hyperbolic but you get what I'm saying) in the sense that you can chain draw spells and tutors together for basically nothing until you assemble your combo kill. As I previously explained with Arjun the current de facto General for that strategy is Melek, Izzet Paragon and as someone who's never built the deck (and only played against it and handful of times) I have absolutely no idea which of these 3 is the best of the bunch. I know a (potentially) broken General when I see one and I don't doubt that she's a solid option but I couldn't tell you one way or another if Mizzix here is superior. My gut says that Mizzim here will be the new top-tier choice but I'll defer to EDH experts on this one. Otherwise she's clearly trash in Constructed because way too much has to go right for her to do work. Still, again, this is a degenerate General so people looking for something competitive can definitely turn to her.
Constructed/Cube Grade N/A
EDH Grade A
Closing Thoughts: Since this isn't an EDH forum the only must-have staple is Meren of Clan Nel Toth. In addition to being a solid General she's a fantastic addition to the 99 and could see play in any BGx Constructed/Cube deck as well. You could completely remove the "Experience Counter" line of text and it realistically wouldn't matter because a cheap threat that Raise Deads is still fine and it really doesn't take much for her to start Animate Deading your key threats. As long as you're playing a creature-based deck there's always an argument to playing a couple of her in the MD. Otherwise the only standout playable in my mind is Karlov of the Ghost Council. Ajani's Pridemate with a built-in Terminate/Unmake activated ability seems ridiculously powerful to me but you do kind of need to pair him with things like Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant to get him to shine. Unlike Meren you can't just jam him into any WB deck and expect him to carry you to victory. That being said he's a 2 drop who can absolutely win games on his own which is why I'm happy enough to urge my readers to acquire him. I know that I'm going to happily play 4 in a ton of lists in the near future.
Artifact
Blade of Selves: WOW! Just, WOW! This card is going to single-handidly redefine the way that we look at Equipment usage in multiplayer. You know that card Rite of Replication? Imagine getting that every turn. For 4 mana. YEAH. The ability to consistently replicate your Eternal Witnesses/Mulldrifters/Gray Merchant of Asphodels/Sun Titans/Sylvan Primordials/etc. is an enormous game because for people like me this will nearly affect 100% of the creatures in 100% of our decks. I am blown-away by how powerful this effect is and I cannot wait to start messing around with it. I think that at "6 CMC" it's too slow for the ultra-competitive versions of my decks but for everything else this is going to be my new de facto equipment. Not "might be," not "could be," this will be. I actually think that cards like Umezawa's Jitte and Batterskull are incredibly overrated because they don't actually do anything relevant in my mind. Jitte is decent at killing small creatures but otherwise I don't really care about lifegain nor creature-based combat and I can't remember the last time that I've played a deck that's won by attacking someone multiple times with a midrange threat. I'm more of a "one-and-done" kinda guy who would rather make a Bonehoard Unblockable or clear the path with a Toxic Deluge/Mutilate. In smaller games I can see the value in these types of threats but in bigger 4+ player games filled with ramp/card draw/combo kills/Titans/etc. I really don't care if someone takes the time to mess around with these kinds of Equipment. I've also always disliked running Swords in general so I'm always happy to field new and powerful alternatives. They're always useless against some of the players and back-breaking against others which means that they often lead to early exits in otherwise prolonged games. This extends to Cube moreso than other formats because I hate taking the time to Cube with friends only to have someone die on turn 5 to a card that they couldn't interact with. Before your scream "hypocrite" just remember that I'm not opposed to uninteractive kills in general. I simply like to make sure that if I'm playing a BS deck that I get it over with quickly and not merely kill someone off 15 minutes into a 2 hour game. When it comes to Constructed/EDH I don't care for most Equipment because I find that they're too low-impact when you're not playing a deck that wins by turning creatures sideways (hint: mine never do). I know that people seem to love Jitte and treat it like some amazing support player but I think that it's mostly trash against everything but the weakest decks/strategies at the table. Rant aside what I love about Blade of Selves is that this card has legitimately powerful MP applications. My deck full of powerful utility creatures with strong ETB triggers can employ it to generate absurd amounts card advantage. I don't care about hitting someone for 8 and gaining 8 life. I do however want to Rite of Replication my Gray Merchant of Asphodel. I'm personally slamming this into my Cube and you better believe that I'm going to be jamming it in my Constructed and EDH decks as well. It works with all of the creatures that you want to play anyways so I'm positive that this will be a big role-player for quite some time. This is the first time in a long time that I've been actively excited to jam a piece of Equipment in one of decks and I cannot wait to see this thing in action. It's my favorite card in the set and it's so not remotely close that it's not even funny.
Global Grade A+
Sandstone Oracle: I love this card so much. Finally Red has a threat that it can cheat into play with Goblin Welder, Trading Post and/or Daretti, Scrap Savant in order to draw cards. No more terrible Staff of Nin! Between Faithless Looting and Daretti himself it's easy to get him in the bin and then it's just a matter of "Trash for Treasureing" him back. This is an amazing addition to that archetype, be in Constructed or EDH, so please grab these if you enjoy playing that archetype. With respect to generic ramp decks this card is better than it looks. Take your uber basic 4x Wild Growth, 4x Utopia Sprawl/Carpet of Flowers, 4x Basalt Monolith, 4x Somberwald Sage/Worn Powerstone deck. That's as ABC as you can get. This card allows you to dump your hand on turns 1-3 and then on turn 3-4 you can instantly refill the whole thing. From there it should be extremely easy to keep playing ramp and threats all the while knowing that people will never be able to run you out of cards. Even if they answer your threats, who cares? You can always Divine Favor into more! Outside of Reanimator/Ramp this is a solid 7 drop that will almost always provide value so you can almost think of it as a Diluvian Primordial of sorts. For colors such as Black and White that can easily Blink/Recur threats this is especially appealing because always having as many cards as the player with the most is kinda sweet. This is especially true in Blue-based metas that may be plagued with cards like Mystic Remora and Rhystic Study. It's clearly not on the same level as actual Primordials but it's pretty damned close so if you're merely looking for another generic beater to fill out the top of your curve. If you can reliably draw ~4 cards with this thing then it's amazing which means that for some players in some metas this is going to be solid option to consider in basically any shell that can reliably hit 7 mana.
Constructed/EDH Grade C+
Cube Grade D
Scytheclaw: I've never seen Quietus Spike be a relevant card so my default assumption in that this thing is unplayable. I need to stress that this is NOTHING like Sorin Markov and/or Magister Sphinx. There is a universe of difference between instantly setting someone's health to 10 (especially in formats such as EDH) and playing a card that requires a creature dealing combat damage. Ultimately this isn't a card that will actually kill a player off on its own nor does it have much relevance in a MP setting. It's too slow and conditional given that you need to support it with other things to actually finish the job. Until shown otherwise I have no reason to think that this card will be a key player in the global multiplayer sphere.
Global Grade D
Seal of the Guildpact: In EDH this will never edge-out Gilded Lotus and it's too close to Caged Sun to play the "big mana" role for ramp decks. In Constructed it's way too slow and since it's too conditional for Cube I don't expect this thing to see any play. I think that people tend to overrate these kinds of cards in general because they often don't realize that they're useless for Artifacts/activated abilities/etc. and that always matters more than you think. I get that you can chain things like Impulse and Steam Augury together on the cheap with one of these play and maybe combo off with a Storm finisher or whatever but even then this will never be the best way to support that strategy. You don't see Pearl Medallion et al. in every Constructed/EDH deck of their respective colors for a reason. A 5 mana variation with a marginal upside isn't a powerful Magic card and won't see much play outside of niche UR, UW or BUR combo decks.
Global Grade D
Thought Vessel: Now this is a home-run. Wizards legitimately hit the ball out of the park with this design. Multiplayer decks frequently lean on busted card draw spells such as Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, Necropotence, Greater Good, Syphon Mind, Ad Nauseam, Necrologia, Consecrated Sphinx, Recurring Insight, etc. and sometimes you really do need a hand size greater than 7. For someone like me who plays in big 6-8 player games turn 1-2 Thought Vessel into Syphon Mind is a huge game and that's not exactly for a lot to go right. After all, Reliquary Tower is too expensive for your average-Joe and since Spellbook and its many variants are all completely unplayable from a competitive perspective the casual scene has been in dire need of having this effect printed on a powerful + affordable card. I love that Wizards is trying to get people to play with more ramp and this is the perfect way to go about about it in my mind. I've always said that I'd much rather run out a Mind Stone on turn 2 than some dorky creature and you can bet your boots that this will be replacing those in my lists with large amounts of card draw. To anyone out there who questions the power-level of a Prismatic Lens, don't. I've played a number of Fractured Powerstones/Prismatic Lenses/etc. in competitive Constructed/EDH lists because you frequently can't afford to have your mana rocks ETBT. You need to be able to dump your entire hand as quickly as possible (often by turn 2-3) and that often means using that 1 immediately in order to cast another piece of ramp. In that sense this is a legitimately competitive card that just so happens to have limitless casual applications as well. I'm a huge proponent of anything that can get people to play with more ramp in their lists so even if you have to trick them, hey, that's fine with me! Much like Everflowing Chalice and Mind Stone I consider this to be an instant staple that people should actively acquire for current/future decks. This is especially true for Blue Mages out there who want to use Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, Recurring Insight, Consecrated Sphinx, etc. to draw all of the cards.
Global Grade C
Closing Thoughts:Blade of Selves and Thought Vessel are incredibly solid 2 drops that can make the cut in countless archetypes across every major mutiplayer format. The casual scene has desperately needed an affordable alternative to Reliquary Tower and slapping it on a generic ramp spell is exactly what the doctor ordered. Otherwise the Blade is an easy 1-2 of for every value-based deck loaded with creatures that have strong ETB triggers. It really is like Rite of Replicationing every turn for 4 mana and past a certain point that effect just plain isn't beatable for fair decks. Clearly it's too slow to beat dedicated combo/MLD/etc. and other unfair strategies but for the 99% who play fair, interactive decks this thing is absolutely perfect. With respect to Vessel it also transcends any one archetype/strategy because you can literally jam ramp in any of your decks and you'll probably see a noticeable increase in speed, consistency and power. I guarantee you that things like Carpet of Flowers and Basalt Monolith are the best cards that no one is playing so you may as well start somewhere even if it's simply a budget Reliquary Tower for your Recurring Insight decks.
Land
Command Beacon: Let's get something out of the way right off the bat. This is a land that taps for mana and that has a useful effect. As such there's a floor on how bad it can be in EDH. People who argue that these kinds of cards are "bad/weak/marginal" aren't suggesting that the effect, in a vacuum, is actively detrimental. It's clearly not. Rather, they're arguing that running colorless lands comes with a very real opportunity cost in the sense that they take the place of other colorless lands which you could also be running. Decks can only support so many, especially if you're playing a ~3+ color General, so almost nothing is a "must play" when it comes to your mana base. This is especially true in a format where some of the best Red spells are things like Blood Moon and Ruination so don't start thinking that nonbasic lands don't carry inherent risks. Your deck isn't "strictly better" just because it has fewer Basics. When I personally read this card I'm unimpressed. The ability to save some mana on my Commander in the mid-to-late stages of the game doesn't entice me to start jamming this into my lists. It's not a bad effect, please don't misunderstand otherwise, I simply wouldn't run this over many alternatives. That being said it's certainly an interesting effect and it's one that I think players will need to test for themselves. Every meta is different with respect to speed + size + competitiveness so it's entirely possible for these kinds of lands to do work. I personally play a lot of ultra-cutthroat EDH, think turn 3-5 wins and as such I can't envision many scenarios in which I can take advantage of this specific ability. However, for someone who plays 25 turns of magic over 2.5 hours paying 5 for an otherwise 13 mana General may very well be a relevant play in a huge % of your games. That's the thing about utility lands; there's no magic answer that fits everyone. I can't tell you how good Homeward Path will be for you. It could worthless or it could be the best card in your deck and everything in between. This card could easily be useless because maybe you're playing a 5 color deck that never casts its in General in the first place. Maybe it's amazing in your Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest deck because you literally can't win without him. There's simply no easy answer and it's going to depend largely on what you're already running and how badly/frequently/consistently you need to stick your general in order to win. I realize that you can make that argument for any card but I'm mostly here to shove the "Rhystic Studys" down your throat until you start coughing them up. When it comes to cards such as this my "expertise" doesn't account for much because this card doesn't have such a cut-and-dry power-level.
Closing thoughts: The thing is playable but unexciting.
Wizards knocked it out of the park with this one. I tip my hat to the design team because they clearly knew what they were doing and what people wanted to see. Myriad is a home-run mechanic that I hope see many, many times in the future and I want them to explore as much of its design space as possible. Otherwise they created a throng of new staples that can see play in countless shells/archetypes/strategies and made sure to include things for casuals and competitives alike. Even the cards that "didn't quite get there" or that I may have given a relatively low grade are still relatively fun and powerful and I fully expect to play against (and lose to) most of them at some point in my life. If every release could be as successful as this one I would die a happy man because of what it would mean for the future of Magic. I can't wait to get my hands on some of these cards and to start fooling around with them because they're some of the most powerful, unique and awesome multiplayer playables that we've seen in some time.
Isn't Wretched Confluence better than you give it credit for?
It's an instant so it can change battles, it draws cards or relevant dead guys and it does so thrice.
Oh. Uhm... Isn't the Sandstone Oracle also happy in white decks?
Isn't Wretched Confluence better than you give it credit for?
It's an instant so it can change battles, it draws cards or relevant dead guys and it does so thrice.
-2/-2 isn't killing a creature. You have to pump -4/-4 into any worthwhile threat and since both other modes are "draw a card" (one way or another) I don't see why this would see any more play than Annihilate does (which is none). I understand that sometimes it can "Sudden Spoiling" if they run a lot of small things into a bunch of your medium-to-small things but that rarely-if-ever occurs in my games. I don't think that it's a better card than Profane Command, another card that sees next-to-no play, and since you can only afford to run so much spot removal in MP that usually has to be reserved for cheap spells such as Slaughter Pact, Go for the Throat, Snuff Out, Murderous Cut, etc. For this card to see play the first mode would have to actually kill a creature because as it stands it's way too expensive for way too niche of an effect. And no, I don't really want to play with an instant version of "Harrowing Journey" as my fail-case. The 3 life matters because you're not getting a discount on the mana at all and, let's face it, it's not as though people are clamoring to play with Jace's Ingenuity. A bad version of an already weak card isn't very enticing. If the draw didn't cost life, ok, sure, I might consider that. You don't want to jam things like Necrologia in 100% of all decks, especially if Gray Merchant of Asphodel is banned in your meta. Since it does I can't bring myself to actually call it playable because I would never add it to any of my decks/Cubes nor do I think that anyone else should. -2/-2 is just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too weak for a 5 CMC removal spell and if you ever have to double-up on the effect then you're sad. Since I expect that to be the case far more often than not (Hell, you need all 3 just to kill a Titan) I'm extremely underwhelmed but the thing.
That being said my analysis of the card is lazy at best so I'll update that entry. I'm mostly bitter at how freaking bad it is compared to the Blue one.
Ta Prid3, nice review. There's a few cards I thought you might mention that didn't, but good job all the same.
I can see where Thought Vessel will be useful, hello Trade Secrets!
This set has the most cards I'm interested in since Innistrad. We've had a few dud sets so far, but this one actually has a few playables for us MP/EDH players.
We'll have to agree to disagree on Wheel. I maintain that it's absolutely awful in fair decks and that it's virtually impossible to significantly benefit from resolving one. In the context of unfair decks, yes, I love the card. It's fantastic. I still think that it's absurdly overrated in fair decks though. In fact, it's straight-up unplayable as far as I'm concerned. I realize that every meta is different but it's just one of those cards that's never been good for anyone in our circles. It, much like cards such as Jace/Goyf/Jitte/etc. is amazing in duels but in multiplayer it's hopeless outclassed and/or actively bad in most instances. I just don't understand how you can put that card in your fair deck and expect to consistently put yourself in a winning position by resolving it. I've played against the card a fair amount in Cube which is the best example that I can think of when it comes to fair decks playing Wheel. It wasn't a card that boasted a significant win % and frequently sat in the SB. Far more often than not it was a mostly dead-draw that figured to help everyone else out as much as you. After all, when you're playing Battlecruiser Magic like we do it doesn't really matter what your hand contains as long as it has cards. This isn't like Limited where you're sifting through marginal commons waiting for your big rares to pop up. Everything is either ramp, a draw spell or some absurd bomb and it really doesn't matter how/where/when you draw them. We had to cut the card eventually (this happened after we started moving away from 2 card combo kills in the Cube) because it stopped being played period. We cut Jace (the good one) for the same reason. No matter how good these cards are in duels/in the right setting they can also be downright terrible. I can obviously only speak for myself but these kinds of cards have always been actively bad for us and I'm going to preach what I know.
With respect to the Rite, I swear that I read it 3-4 or times and still came to the conclusion that you didn't get a token. I don't know how, I'm just an idiot I suppose, but that changes things. I think that I read the thing correctly the first time (I knew that I wanted to play in Wildfire decks) but for some reason when I looked at it again to write my review I was convinced that you didn't get the token yourself. It still has the problem that your opponents don't have any incentive to gift you a win but at least "choosing to do nothing" doesn't stop the card cold. I'll update my review shortly.
With respect to the Vessel, not every deck is 2 or more colors and there's no reason why lists can't run more than Signets. This is especially true in formats such as EDH. I've seen Reliquary Tower do insane work in Ad Nauseam decks, Recurring Insight decks, Necrologia decks, Necropotence decks, the list goes on and on. I've also played literal Fractured Powerstone in a number of those (this is EDH mind you) because there's only so many mana rocks that ETBU. Moreover, it's important to remember that your meta is small so you don't see strings of Syphon Minds every game. That's a turn 3 play off of a Vessel and for someone like me who plays in ~8 player games I'd like to keep those cards if at all possible. I've also seen countless people play Land Tax decks only to discard many, many cards to hand size and so I can certainly think of ways to make it relevant. This is of course ignoring the typical Blue BS as seen on cards like Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, Consecrated Sphinx, Recurring Insight, etc. Powering those cards out is no joke and there's a lot of value in keeping everything that you draw. Hell, Forbid alone is enough incentive to shoot past 7. Besides, real talk, how many decks do you actually see with ramp in them? Not because they're bad, don't get me wrong, but because casual players just plain don't add them to their decks? Ramp is criminally underplayed in my opinion and for the life of I don't understand why more people don't play Karoos, Mind Stone, Basalt Monolith and other absurdly powerful Magic cards. Hell, even Hedron Archive has vastly exceeded my expectations. I thought that it was a bad Worn Powerstone but in practice the card is actually very good. Still, the fact remains that only a trivial % of the MP decks that you see posted include ramp and anything that Wizards can do to change that is a step in the right direction in my mind. People like that effect and actively want to play with it to the point where you see Spellbook played in nonzero decks. Putting in on a legitimately decent card is a-ok with me.
With respect to "is Fractured Powerstone a home-run," I've played it in a number of competitive monocolor EDH decks. Go ahead and look up the number of mana rocks that ETBU and that tap for actual mana (not fake mana like Jet Medallion). It's significantly fewer than you probably think. This is the first one since Fellwar Stone with a relevant line of text (that comes to mind anyways, I don't count Prismatic Lens and the Talismans are only playable in multicolor decks).
First of, thanks for such a comprehensive list. It touches many relevant points, e.g. Overrun effects in green. Especially your judgement towards Wheel-effects is spot-on.
But your evaluation of Blade of Selves and Skullwinder seem a bit enthuastic. There is no reason to assume that your spell is so much stronger than theirs. The Blade on the other hand is a terrible draw in any head-ups situation. Playing mostly 3 to 4 player games I just don't find them that much exciting. Good cards, definitely. But more than that? I would have to play them to say.
Oh. Uhm... Isn't the Sandstone Oracle also happy in white decks?
You're not the first person to say this to me. Is there something that I'm missing? I'm not trying to be argumentative, I just can't think of a compelling reason to play it in White decks over cards like Sun Titan, Luminate Primordial, Angel of Serenity, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Iona, Shield of Emeria, etc. White is good at making land drops but it doesn't have much in the way of actual ramp so these kinds of middling 7 drops don't really interest me. This is a great card to cast on turn 3 after you've emptied your hand but on turn 7 I'm not looking for a 4/4 flier and some cards. Rather, I want my big finishers to be big finishers and not some conditional draw spell. The reason why I like the card in Red and Green is because Red is very good at cheating it into play and the hand size thing works well with Faithless Looting type effects. When it comes to Green, again, you can run out a ton of Wild Growths and Basalt Monoliths to jam one on turn 3 and draw back up to 6 or 7. With White aren't you usually just creeping up to 7 lands and casting it the fair way? That's not unplayable or anything, don't get me wrong, I'm just wondering why people seem to be interested in playing this in White. The color lacks card draw, I get that, but there's already things like Mind's Eye and Staff of Nin that you can cast the "fair and slow" way. The problem has never been that "options don't exist period." Rather, it's always been "the options are all expensive and Artifact-based." As such I personally don't see why another expensive Artifact-based solution figures to significantly benefit the color. It's possible that I'm overlooking the Emeria, the Sky Ruin synergy and that maybe this thing is a total bomb in the later stages of the game.
Maybe I should put this another way. This card, to me, is "as good" in White as it is in any color. If you're just playing 7 lands, casting this and drawing cards, how does White specifically come out on top? Is it just because the color doesn't have any card draw and not because the card is actually good? Like, if Black/Blue don't want this because "it's a bad card" (or whatever), do winning White decks want it? Or do losing White decks want it so that they can say that they drew cards? Again, I'm just trying to to spark some discussion because you're not the first person to tell me this but I personally don't see it. My personal stance is that if no color but White wants to cast this "the fair way" then I don't see why White would be happy to field it. if, however, we're operating under the premise that this is a good card for any deck of any color then that's worth discussing too. As of now I don't have this labeled as a generic "Primordial" but maybe I should. Maybe this is a generically good card for any deck of any color. If anyone has any input on this topic I'd love to hear it. Is this a solid 7 drop for every deck of every color?
But your evaluation of Blade of Selves and Skullwinder seem a bit enthuastic. There is no reason to assume that your spell is so much stronger than theirs. The Blade on the other hand is a terrible draw in any head-ups situation. Playing mostly 3 to 4 player games I just don't find them that much exciting. Good cards, definitely. But more than that? I would have to play them to say.
When it comes to the Blade I think that it's mostly a difference of meta size. For someone like me there's basically no such thing as a "head's up" situation. When you sit down at a 6-8 player game (like I do) when someone wins it's not by an inch but rather by a mile. What I generally face is people all trying to play "infinite value" decks that bounce/recur/blink/revive powerful creatures and spells ad nauseam. When someone eventually wins it's off of a card like Insurrection or Upheaval or Exsanguinate. This is because it's virtually impossible to grind people down when everyone is just mass blinking/bouncing/recurring their threats which are always things like Eternal Witness/Clones/Titans/Primordials/etc. This is why it doesn't register with me when people say "Mortivore is bad at killing the last player off" or "Syphon Mind is a weak topdeck when you get the final 2-3 players." I never find myself "in the finals" because there almost never is "a finals." Blade, for someone like me, is Rite of Replication every turn for 4-6 mana. When the card is dead, and it will go dead, I will have either already lost or already won an enormously large % of the time. What I personally see when I read that card is something that says "no, I actually just win these value wars." It's not possible to beat someone who's replication his Gray Merchant of Asphodels and/or Sylvan Primordials and since the plan is obviously to cast the Blade as a 6 drop and "surprise people" they need to have the answer right then and there or the game probably just ends.
Now, I am in no way, shape or form saying that my games look like your games. In fact, there's absolutely no way that your 3 player games have the same dynamics/politics/nuances as my 8 player monstrosities. Every meta is different and there's no one right or wrong way to analyze multiplayer games in that sense. The example that I always turn to is Carpet of Flowers. For some of us, myself included, we've had to emergency ban the card on numerous occasions because it's literally a better version of Sol Ring that you get to play 4 of in a format with a free mulligan. I know that on exactly turn 1 it's worse but until you've played against it in a format where someone is casting an Island every turn don't do mental gymnastics to try and argue that it's a weak/marginal/conditional card. In a duel? Sure. In a 3 player game? Sure. In an 8 player game where everyone wants to play Blue/Black/Green and owns Fetchs/Shocks/etc.? Yeah no. Still, hey, they card might be terrible for you. I could easily see that being the case. Ultimately there's no one right answer but the same time that doesn't make either of us inherently right or wrong. I'm excited about the Blade because that card is "never bad when it matters" for someone playing 8 player games. Still, hey for someone who plays small 3-4 player games I can easily see it being weaker.
With respect to the Skullwinder, my personal experiences differ from yours. Someone has a bad draw, a bad deck, their graveyard exiled, cards that I can beat, they're going to lose, they're my ally, I need them to recur a card so that we can answer a threat in play, on and on and on. Again, this boils down to 8 vs 3 player games moreso than anything else because when you tell me "everyone almost always a great card to recur" (or something along those lines, I'm not trying to put words in your mouth but you get the idea) that's not in-line with what I've experienced for the past decade. People miss land drops. People pull out a homebrew that didn't quite get there. People play decks with a weaker gameplan than you. Far more often than not this card will have a mostly irrelevant drawback as far as I'm concerned and I'm more than happy to play an E.Witness that's a better blocker and that's easier to cast. Moreover, I'm also saying that I'm fine with initiating a 2-horse race as my fail-case. Anyone who's ever played with/against Trade Secrets probably knows what I'm talking about. The fact that one other player benefits isn't actually a big deal from an overall win % perspective. If you build up two titans that face-down one another "in the finals" that's still way better than trying to beat ~6 players "the fair way." That is, even when there are no "soft spots" to pick on the sheer fact of the matter is that a "50% chance to win" still beats 12.5% or 25% or whatever the average is given the number of players. Clearly there's more to it than that but you know what I'm trying to say. You'll still take a coinflip if your baseline probability of winning is 20% or 25% or whatever. Am I saying that it's always 100% drawback free? Absolutely not. I recognize that some % of the time E.Witness will vastly out-perform it. Why this doesn't bother me is because costs matter a great deal when it comes to multiplayer so if E.Witness is an $8.00 card then it's simply not an option for most players. If an arguably weaker version is, hey, I'm in! Again, the key concept that I need to stress here is that "the 2-horse race" is a perfectly acceptable fail-case and a huge % of the time you can target the guy who missed 3 land drops at no real cost. The power-ceiling of the card is absurd and even under nightmare scenarios you're not unhappy with the result.
In all seriousness though, I agree with you. I can't think of any good mono white decks want to wait until turn 7 to play this fairly and hope that the clause doesn't screw you over by that stage of the game. I mean, if you're playing mono white, you're probably playing some sort of token/white weenie/equipment/life gain strategy, in which case all of the following cards are probably going to be better:
your evaluation of Blade of Selves and Skullwinder seem a bit enthuastic. There is no reason to assume that your spell is so much stronger than theirs.
So what? Still good! Suppose, out of 4 players, you get Runeclaw Bear and someone else gets Centaur Courser. What do the remaining two players get? Nothing! So, on average, you did better than your opponents. Same with Arcane Denial.
True, but in a head-ups situation Arcane Denial still prevents the card that would have lost you the game. Skullwinder gives them another chance at trying! Look, I know it's good and your argument isn't false. Neither is Prid3 with his evaluation. But as he mentioned, 'Am I saying that it's always 100% drawback free? Absolutely not.'
First, sorry guys but this post probably will have some typos and misspelling, but then again english is not my native language.
Multiplayer is the main format we play and most games in our area are 5-6 player. This may sound biased, but never once i've found Prid3's evaluatons to fail on delivering.
Metas aside, the main issue i have with some comments here, are bout the reprints/functional reprints. Skullwinder will do wonders in ours games since Eternal Witness costs on average, in our currency, 3 times the amount it cost on USD. Witness goes for something like R$30,00( brazilian money, but i suppose you guys knew it )and that's a lot, some jobs pay less than that for a day of work. So, not trying to start a flame war or saying that Prid3 is always right, but as far i'm concerned, being reprinted or having acess to similar effects is also an important thing when discussing multiplayer games, especially if it's kitchen table games, or working on a budget.
Btw, i've also used some of your advices when build decks Xyx, so thanks, and keep doing your good job guys.
Still not with you on the black Confluence though.
But hell, I'm playing a small and pretty fair meta, that probably helps.
I'm legitimately not sold on the fact that "I'm right." I never really considered the fact that the Oracle could be used a generic 7 drop for any deck of any color to act a pseudo Primordial. Clearly it's not Sylvan Primordial, no one here is suggesting otherwise, but is it that far off from being a Diluvian Primordial? Not really no. I think that this is a legitimately interesting discussion point because even in White, let's face it, there's so many ways to Blink this thing and with Emeria, the Sky Ruin he's easy to recur as well. That sounds pretty good to me actually. I think that I may have jumped the gun on this one and it's entirely possible that it is perfectly fine to play this guy "the fair way." Again, I'm interested in hearing what other people think about it.
Wouldn't those players have won all the same if they had "only" gotten to keep their 7 best cards? I don't really see where the insane value of the 8th(/9th/30th/100th) card comes from.
Not in cutthroat metas where every deck has Fact of Negation, Swan Song, Counterspell, Mana Drain, Cryptic Command, Force of Will, etc. There's a lot of "untap, cast my broken mana, cast a bunch of discard spells, go off with Exsanguinate" or something similar. This is especially true for Necropotence decks which is relevant in formats such as EDH when your general is something like Zur the Enchanter or Sidisi, Undead Vizier. "Competitive Magic" basically means "Blue Magic" for someone like me (Blue/Black/Green) so a lot of times it's not as simple as "cast Ad Nauseam and win." You often need to dig deep for targeted discard, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, etc. but at the same time you still need your rituals and combo pieces and such too. It's no walk in the park to craft a 7 card combo hand that can fight past multiple pieces of interaction. In that sense there's a lot of value in keeping 15 or 20 card hands fueled by cards like Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, Syphon Mind, Recurring Insight, etc. Any deck can blindly combo-off early on and hope for the best. That only takes you so far. More often than not the safer bet is to wait until you can stick a Defense Grid, cast a Thoughtseize or two and wait untl you have Swan Song backup.
I get that a rock that costs 2 and immediately taps for 1 is a decent baseline that you'd play in "card selection challenged" Commander decks even if it just said "and you get a slap in the face", and that the "no hand size" rider is basically free (and better than a slap in the face), but "home-run"/"ball out of the park"?
Not on the level of primordials/titans/Consecrated Sphinx, but it's probably better than I initially thought. The only scenario where you cast this for no additional value is where everybody is hellbent (you too, probably), at which point a 4/4 flyer is still decent. It's just... seven mana!
The pricetag is what initially turned me off too. To expand on my reasoning a bit, I personally don't see a 4/4 flier and see a "game ending threat" so what I mostly see is 7 mana for a conditional draw spell. I know that "conditional" isn't the most fair description, I'm not suggesting that you'll frequently get no value from it, but it doesn't read "draw 4 cards" or whatever. I think that this is a card that most of us will simply have to play with before we can get a feel for its power-level. 7 is a lot of mana but if it draws ~4 cards on average then it's quite savage.
]Did you know there's one in the same deck as Skullwinder? Eternal Witness has been reprinted a gazillion times. There's even one in the UG Commander deck as well. Fortunately it also has a Skullwinder!
Isn't it still roughly $8.00 at most LGSes and close to that online? To the best of my knowledge it's not an inexpensive card to acquire.
First, sorry guys but this post probably will have some typos and misspelling, but then again english is not my native language.
Multiplayer is the main format we play and most games in our area are 5-6 player. This may sound biased, but never once i've found Prid3's evaluatons to fail on delivering.
Don't stress the language barrier. You did an excellent job of communicating your thoughts and ideas! Anyways, I think that my opinions will more accurately reflect your own experiences because we both play in large large metas. The difference between 3-4 and 5-6 is significant in my experience which is why when I generally "butt heads" with someone over a card evaluation it's usually in the context of "small meta" vs "large meta." Either way I wanted to touch on the fact that I've heard your story time and time again. That is, people outside of Canada and the US frequently have trouble obtaining certain cards for reasonable prices which is why these "functional reprints" of sorts are always so exciting.
By the way, I've been meaning to ask, do letter Grades help people? Sometimes when I review cards I feel as though it's hard to distinguish the "good" from the "bad" with words alone because it's obviously a spectrum and there's infinite places to land on it. I feel like saying "this card is an A" or "this card is a C" helps more than explaining its uses/synergies/archetypes because it sums-up the power-level in one concise letter. it also means that even for the people who don't want to read my books they can just skip the letter grades and look for As and Bs and kinda ignore everything else. Any opinions/suggestions as to how to format these kinds of reviews would be appreciated.
Most part of the time we do 6 player commander or big FFA casual games, and as such, pretty much everyone's deck is brewed to work with scaling cards.
Every now and them, when we go to our lgs and meet with some random guys playing there, we invite them to play with us, and it's really funny to watch those damned "duel duds" get their asses handed back to them, in a silver plate. I know that its a meta thing but never once i saw my friend lose with is Waste Not deck, and our lgs if filled with competitive modern players. So yeah, the game does get out of control when you cross the 4 players threshold.
Btw, even a worst version of Eternal Witness, is still ridiculous helpful. Even so, im finding a little hard to like Blade of Selves, it's so OP that i can't see it staying on the table long enough to even equip it to something.
Most part of the time we do 6 player commander or big FFA casual games, and as such, pretty much everyone's deck is brewed to work with scaling cards.
Every now and them, when we go to our lgs and meet with some random guys playing there, we invite them to play with us, and it's really funny to watch those damned "duel duds" get their asses handed back to them, in a silver plate. I know that its a meta thing but never once i saw my friend lose with is Waste Not deck, and our lgs if filled with competitive modern players. So yeah, the game does get out of control when you cross the 4 players threshold.
Btw, even a worst version of Eternal Witness, is still ridiculous helpful. Even so, im finding a little hard to like Blade of Selves, it's so OP that i can't see it staying on the table long enough to even equip it to something.
The joke in our meta is Jace, the Mindsculptor being a 4 mana Brainstorm. We had to cut it from our Cube eventually because it went from being a card that saw "some play" to "little play" to "no play" to "why is this still in the Cube?" Every time someone cast the thing (be it Cube/Constructed/EDH) it would come down, tick once and die. This is why I have such a negative outlook on PWers in general and explains why I'm basically never excited to see new ones.
I think that Blade of Selves basically pays for itself after one activation in ~6 player games so even if you run it out "as a 6 drop" that doesn't seem bad to me. I hope that you're at least going to test it it :).
By the way, I've been meaning to ask, do letter Grades help people? Sometimes when I review cards I feel as though it's hard to distinguish the "good" from the "bad" with words alone because it's obviously a spectrum and there's infinite places to land on it. I feel like saying "this card is an A" or "this card is a C" helps more than explaining its uses/synergies/archetypes because it sums-up the power-level in one concise letter. it also means that even for the people who don't want to read my books they can just skip the letter grades and look for As and Bs and kinda ignore everything else. Any opinions/suggestions as to how to format these kinds of reviews would be appreciated.
The simple answer to this is: Yes, it helps! One thing I would like to see would be a top 5 list on the bottom. Those doesn't need to be picked by grading, but individual taste and excitement. Also no long explanation is needed. It's just always so much fun thinking about top-lists and comparing them.
By the way, I've been meaning to ask, do letter Grades help people? Sometimes when I review cards I feel as though it's hard to distinguish the "good" from the "bad" with words alone because it's obviously a spectrum and there's infinite places to land on it. I feel like saying "this card is an A" or "this card is a C" helps more than explaining its uses/synergies/archetypes because it sums-up the power-level in one concise letter. it also means that even for the people who don't want to read my books they can just skip the letter grades and look for As and Bs and kinda ignore everything else. Any opinions/suggestions as to how to format these kinds of reviews would be appreciated.
The simple answer to this is: Yes, it helps! One thing I would like to see would be a top 5 list on the bottom. Those doesn't need to be picked by grading, but individual taste and excitement. Also no long explanation is needed. It's just always so much fun thinking about top-lists and comparing them.
Really really well done review Prid3! I agree with basically everything you have said and you pointed out many synergies I didn't even think of.
When talking about Meren you mentioned that skullclamping a 1/1 doesn't trigger an xp counter. Why not?
Woops, for some reason I must have been thinking about like a "whenever you sacrifice a creature" trigger or something like that. That clearly triggers an Experience Counter.
Didn't expect that Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest would have to do with just a C-. I agree that it's not as good as Meren of Clan Nel Toth because you need to build around the ability as where Meren just provides value in any deck that can run it.
It's true that the card requires multiple creatures in play to become a big threat, which isn't really a problem for me. Boardwipes are rare in my meta, so getting multiple creatures in play is common.
Pair the card with goodies like Smallpox and you have yourself an instant army. Ogre Slumlord can help gain a sizable army in a short time. Think about stacking the triggers properly with Smallpox.
With the latest Eldrazi we have even more options to get creatures with a self-sacrificing ability it's very easy to trigger the ability on demand. I don't see anything to dislike.
Didn't expect that Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest would have to do with just a C-. I agree that it's not as good as Meren of Clan Nel Toth because you need to build around the ability as where Meren just provides value in any deck that can run it.
It's true that the card requires multiple creatures in play to become a big threat, which isn't really a problem for me. Boardwipes are rare in my meta, so getting multiple creatures in play is common.
Pair the card with goodies like Smallpox and you have yourself an instant army. Ogre Slumlord can help gain a sizable army in a short time. Think about stacking the triggers properly with Smallpox.
With the latest Eldrazi we have even more options to get creatures with a self-sacrificing ability it's very easy to trigger the ability on demand. I don't see anything to dislike.
Is it even that special though? Is that much better than Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, Deathreap Ritual, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Bloodgift Demon, Lord of Extinction, Dictate of Erebos, on and on and on? Isn't basically just another boring 5 drop that doesn't provide card advantage, doesn't offer immediate value, that has a condition, that needs a board of creatures, etc.? I'm not saying that the card is outright bad or anything, a C is a C and means "a deck full of these won't be easy to beat" but is it really that much/better worse than any number of alternatives? That card, to me, is forgettable. You can put it in your deck and it'll be fine but I'm not actively excited to see it. I gave it "C-" as opposed to C or C+ mostly because it's conditional and vulnerable to mass removal. Every meta is different and I'm not trying to speak for everyone but I generally expect multiplayer tables to include Wraths which is why I'm unenthused to field too many of these kinds of threats. It's good when you hit your land drops, curve out with threats, land him, sac come things, etc. but assuming those nearly perfect conditions won't most cards look good? Wouldn't Gray Merchant also be nice on a big board? Or Dictate of Erebos? That's what separates a B from a C for someone like me. A C is a mostly replaceable card that does good work but at the same time it could be any number of alternatives.
Still, it's entirely possible for this type of trigger to be game-winning so if anyone else thinks that they'd rate it higher please feel free to speak up. When your own meta is filled with mass removal it's hard to develop a taste for these kinds of threats which is why I like to hear from other people as well.
A: Oppressive cards with a relatively unique effects that figure to routinely dominate games in which they're left unchecked. Most of them are going to be insanely powerful "build-around-mes" that'll dramatically increase the overall power-level of any deck that they're slotted in to. These are format definers that can completely warp fledgling metas. Think Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Humility, Consecrated Sphinx, Primeval Titan, Repercussion.
B: Formidable cards that don't offer anything truly unique and that aren't oppressive. People shouldn't have to bend over backwards in order to beat them but decks full of these won't just roll over to any old brew. Think Syphon Mind, Earthquake, Wrath of God, Fact or Fiction, Lurking Predators.
C: Powerful cards that winning decks will want to play. They're not going to blow you away but you'll rarely be disappointed with their performance. A deck full of these won't crush a table but a solid foundation of Cs should be good enough to keep you competitive. Think Vampire Nighthawk, Clever Impersonator, Taurean Mauler, Thragtusk, Restoration Angel.
D: Marginal playables that're unexciting to field. It's not that you can't or shouldn't play them, just don't expect them to yield impressive win %s. Most fun, cool, niche, build-around-me, etc. cards will fall into this category alongside the ones that you'll unhappily field given a lack of alternatives. I don't recommend playing Ds if you can avoid it and I strongly advise that you look for suitable alternatives if it's a realistic option.
F: Weak cards that're unlikely to boast respectable win %s that probably shouldn't be played.
+/-: Used to denote a better or worse N. That is, a B+ represents a strong B whereas C- implies a weak C.
White
Bastion Protector: I like this card a fair amount. When I personally play White in EDH it's often a Prison deck featuring things like Hokori, Dust Drinker, Brago, King Eternal or even Derevi, Empyrial Tactician at the helm. A cheap threat that you can run out early on to protect them feels relatively powerful to me because you often only need to buy a turn or two before they seize control of the game. Forcing players to kill Bastion Protector first is a very real speed-bump because people are only going to be playing so much spot removal and having to "waste it" on a Nessian Courser isn't what they want to be doing. Hell, they won't be able to afford to do so a huge % of the time. I'm not exactly sure how powerful these kinds of cards figure to be for more casual players but I don't see you wouldn't want to protect your Roon of the Hidden Realm, Rafiq of the many or whatever. The fact you can curve the Protector into your General is huge by the way. It makes her many orders of magnitude more useful than an Aegis Angel type effect that comes afterwards. I could easily see this being a staple in the format but at the same time I wouldn't be surprised to see her omitted from the best versions of the best decks either. It mostly depends on your meta and what you're trying to do with your deck. Still, your general tends to be the most important card in your deck so anything that you can do to efficiently and effectively protect it has always been amazing for me. As such I have to this that this going to be a total staple for the format even at the highest levels of competition.
Constructed/Cube Grade N/A
EDH Grade B
Dawnbreak Reclaimer: I wasn't hyped for this card initially but for the life of me I can't think of a way for it to actually backfire. At the end of the day your opponent has to choose something that you actively put in your deck and if you're anything like me then it's probably something immensely powerful. Your worst creature is still a card that you purposely added to your deck so how bad can it really be? Obviously she's somewhat vulnerable to removal but given that it triggers at EOT that doesn't exactly give people much time to interact with it. Technically "it dies to removal" which is sketchy on most 6+ CMC spells but if Consecrated Sphinx has taught us anything it's that you can't dismiss threats on that assumption alone. My biggest issue with this card is that I can't think of a compelling reason to play it over cards such as Reveillark, Karmic Guide, Sun Titan, Angel of Serenity, Emeria Shepherd, on and on and on. Even in formats such as EDH there's such a thing as "too many 6 drops" and I don't think that this makes the cut in the higher-end lists. Still, it's a 6 drop that provides something reasonably close to immediate value and if left unchecked it will do a number on the rest of the table. I generally dismiss drawbacks on cards such as these (and this one is no exception) primarily because you'll still take a 2-horse race every day of the week. Much like Trade Secrets you can take advantage of weak/inexperience players, ones with weak decks or even someone who had a bad draw to mostly offset the risk of helping someone else. Moreover, even when you can't it's still fine to just bolster the two of you because facing down one "final boss" still beats trying to slog through an entire table. Ultimately I don't think that we're looking at a new staple but at the same time I think that casual decks can certainly consider fielding it as a generic value 6 drop.
Global Grade C
Grasp of Fate: FINALLY! It's about freaking time that I can tell people to stop playing Oblivion Ring in their White decks. That horrendous 1-for-1 at Sorcery speed has been a mainstay of the casual MP community since its inception despite the fact it's not a card that can actually win games of magic for you. Not only is it expensive, slow, marginal and in one the worst MP colors to begin with but it was even a temporary solution that could be interacted with. While Grasp of Fate may share some of those weaknesses it's still an incredibly powerful card with countless multiplayer applications. Facing 6 players? Remove up to 6 things! That's AWESOME! The "up to" is relevant for politics and other fluffy nonsense but at long last we have a powerful, versatile and relatively cheap answer for White that doesn't lose all its luster given the increased number of players. Whereas Quarantine Field was a horrendous 6-8 mana pile of trash this thing scales amazingly well for low price of 3 CMC. If someone doesn't have something worth removing, whatever, no big deal. Don't make enemies if you don't have to. Still, the option is always there to exile the biggest threat from each opponent and the price is a total steal. I'm extremely grateful that Wizards has printed this card and hope that we continue to see these kinds of "direct ports" for key spells/effect in every color. This is a must-have staple for everyone so get your hand on a whack of copies. It can literally slot into any deck that can reliably cast it so unless you desperately need the ability to exile your own Necropotence (or whatever) this should replace 99.99% of the O-Rings that are currently seeing way more play than they deserve.
Global Grade A+
Herald of the Host: Myriad is the greatest mechanic that I've ever seen which could not have been implemented worse. They decided to throw on 5+ mana aggressive creatures which have to deal combat damage to accomplish anything relevant. They're all terrible blockers with low-toughness, die to removal, generate a lot of aggro and need to connect with people before they do anything relevant. I understand that you can sacrifice the tokens for value post-combat but since the cards feel inherently win-more that's not enticing me to play with them. I could be missing something but as it stands I think that the cycle of Myriad creatures is quite weak in general and I don't plan on playing any of them in any multiplayer setting. If someone can find something cool to do with them, I'm in. I would love to be wrong about these things. My current disposition is that they're basically useless and until proven/shown otherwise I'm not interested in trying to make them work.
Global Grade D
Kalemne's Captain: 5 mana for a 5/5 doesn't interest me in the slightest and paying 12 mana to exile Arts/Enchs seems equally dreadful. Given that White has access to cards such as Austere Command and Planar Cleansing I struggle to think of any deck in any format that would want to play with this thing. The ability to exile threats is nice and all but not worth the doubled mana cost. Be it Constructed/Cube/EDH I don't think that this has a home.
Global Grade D
Oreskos Explorer: Hell yes. Moreso than anything else I love it when Wizards prints cheap, powerful threats that scale well into a multiplayer setting. Much like Land Tax, Tithe, Weathered Wayfarer, Gift of Estates and Knight of the White Orchid this is a solid turn 3 play for any White deck in any format. It's also one that naturally pairs with things like Flickerwisp, Restoration Angel, Sun Titan, etc. which means that you should almost ways feel good about slamming one of these things into play. before moving on let me start by dispelling a common myth that I hear from time-to-time. You don't have to do anything special to make these kinds of cards insanely valuable. Sure, if you can add cards like Karoo, Orzhov Basilica and Fieldmist Borderpost to your "Land Tax" decks if you really want. That being said let me assure you that absolutely don't have to. Far more often than not you'll be able to run this type of spell out on turn 3 (before playing your land obviously) for instant value without having to worry about doing any extra work. If you were going to play Azorius Chancery anyways, hey, awesome! I love taking advantage of free synergies like these. It's totally unnecessary however and you can literally jam this into White deck in any format and I can guarantee you that you'll love the results. Now, if you don't think that you need to hit 7-9 land drops, think again. There's always cards like Emeria, the Sky Ruin, Luminate Primordial and Emeria Shepherd which you can employ to take advantage of the wonderful bounty that he provides. Moreover he tutors up any Plains be it Mistveil Plains, Tundra, Sacred Foundry or otherwise. This means that while he's happy enough to play for mono-White by no means is he shy about spreading the love in 2-5 color decks as well. White isn't a color that has much actual card draw but at least it can make its land drops at which point it can often lean on cards such as Emeria, the Sky Ruin to act as lategame card advantage engines. It can also abuse cards like Goblin Charbelcher to OTK players because it's incredibly easy to remove every land from your library if you're so inclined. Otherwise you can also pair these kinds of cards with Scroll Rack to generate a great deal of card advantage over time. Still, even ignoring all of that this is just an amazing turn 3 play regardless of what you're trying to do because virtually every strategy/archetype wants to hit its land drops. Given that this thing is easier to cast than Knight of the White Orchid and that it has a higher power-ceiling (I do realize that the lands go into your hand) I'm personally going to be acquiring a ton of these to field in every MP setting. From Cube to EDH to Constructed this is a card that I want in most of my White decks because it doesn't ask anything from you to be amazing. It's just always going to be that card that you can run out on turn 3 to draw 3 cards and clog up the ground a bit.
Global Grade B
Righteous Confluence: This is a straight miss for me. All 3 modes seem like complete and utter trash and there's no way in Hell that I'm going to cut things like Grasp of Fate/Return to Dust/Austere Command/etc. from my lists in order to make room for it. I don't know why everyone seems to think that gaining 15 life is worth 5 mana and a card (it's not) so unless your meta is swimming with Enchantment-based decks that also have a bunch of Replenishes I can't think of a good reason to turn to this thing. As much as I'd like the humor the idea that it's a "good token generator" off-the-top of my head things like Mastery of the Unseen, Sacred Mesa, White Sun's Zenith, Benevolent Offering, Increasing Devotion, Cloudgoat Ranger and a throng other alternatives all have it trumped as far as I'm concerned. I realize that whole > the sum of the parts but in this instance that sum doesn't add up to much in the first place.
Global Grade D
Shielded by Faith: Auras are mostly trash but this one has some potentially interesting applications. First of all Sun Titan decks can consider fielding one to build a Vigilant + Indestructible recursion engine which can always pass the savings onto whatever it is that you're bringing back. It also might have a home in the Bogle deck as both a form of defense and an easy way to protect Kor Spiritdancers. Otherwise Bruna, Light of Alabaster EDH decks may want this type of effect since it's the cheapest and most powerful version printed to date. Zur the Enchanter usually fetches Vanishing as its primary defensive spell but since I don't actually play that deck myself I'm not sure if this makes the cut in the best versions of the archetype. Casual builds will undoubtedly field this thing but I'm not well-versed enough enough with the General to know whether or not this is competitive at the highest levels of play. I'll defer this one to actual experts of the archetype.
Constructed/EDH Grade D
Cube Grade F
Closing Thoughts: The only must-haves are the cheap, scaling spells in Oreskos Explorer and Grasp of Fate. Both are perfectly playable in EDH, they're both going in my Cube and they're both easy 4-ofs in any White Constructed deck. Since I'm always way more excited to see colors get 2-3 drops as opposed to 6-7 drops I personally think that Commander 2015 was a slam-dunk for White since both of these cards help the color fill out your early-game curve without having to spend much money and/or field bad cards.
Æthersnatch: We've seen this type of spell before in Kheru Spellsnatcher, Desertion, Spelljack, Commandeer, etc. but it's never been this clean. This is the first true "Confiscate target spell" that we've seen and in formats such as MP and EDH which are often filled with overpowered bombs such as Syphon Mind, Sylvan Primordial, Insurrection, etc. that's an extremely powerful effect. Still, the problem with all of these cards is that they're incredibly unwieldy. Holding 6 mana up is a significantly taxing opportunity cost because it's difficult to make meaningful plays while doing so. MP/EDH aren't formats where you can usually afford to sit around doing nothing because eventually people will start cobbling heinously degenerate combos/synergies/board states together which will ultimately spell your demise. This is why you generally see permission such as Pact of Negation, Swan Song, Counterspell, Mana Drain, Forbid, Cryptic Command and Force of Will played. They're cheaper and thus enable you to more easily defend yourself and/or win counter wars. Having your 6+ CMC spell fall to a Swan Song is an enormous swing and that's why you generally see people play the cheaper permission whenever possible. The reality is that while it's nice to live the dream and Æthersnatch an Exsanguinate for 40 (or whatever) in practice you're usually better off advancing your gameplan while holding your cheap permission up. In slower, more casual metas this type of spell will probably shine but if you're trying to protect and/or thwart degenerate gameplans then it's simply too expensive and awkward to rely on.
Global Grade D+
Broodbirth Viper: A 5 drop with a small body, no evasion and that has to deal combat damage? Color me unimpressed. Even in a world where you can attack a player having a bad draw and get this thing to survive it's still "just fine" which isn't where you usually want to find yourself in a MP setting. I'm perfectly happy to work for a card if the payoff is there, I've killed a lot of people with Hydra Omnivore + Kessig Wolf Run, but I don't want to work to draw cards when I can just cast a Mystic Remora/Rhystic Study/Recurring Insight and call it a day. As such I don't expect this thing to see much competitive play nor do I recommend trying to make it work.
Global Grade D-
Gigantoplasm: A Clone that goes infinite with Reveillark? Yep, that's going to see a ton of play in Simic/Azorius/Bant blink decks. For those wondering how this works, you can have Gigantoplasm copy Reveillark, turn Gigantoplasm into a 0/0 using its activated ability, have him die and use Reveillark's death trigger to recur himself and another <=2 power creature from your Graveyard. You can either use this as a generic mass revival engine for every creature with power <= 2 in your graveyard or you can add something like Blood Artist and/or Bitter Ordeal to clench victory immediately. It's a win-win either way. From Brago, King Eternal to Momir Vig, Simic Visionary to Roon of the Hidden Realm they're all going to strongly consider playing this thing because even when you're not going infinite it's still a Clone with a reasonable upside and that's perfectly playable in most MP spheres. Note the effect doesn't end at end of turn so this guy figures to be a relevant threat at every stage of the game which is perfect for "go big or go home" formats such as MP and EDH. Even if you're not making a 0/0 there's nothing wrong with an 8/8! This is especially relevant for a color like Blue in Constructed because it's so hard to find good blockers that threaten big Green beaters. Now you can copy that Sea Gate Oracle (or whatever) but still turn him into a 5/5 (or whatever) to avoid being overrun. The key here is that your fail-case is a Clone, a card that you're always happy to have, and best-case scenario is that you have another infinite combo with the right setups and/or a scaling threat. This is an easy competitive staple in my mind and I'm personally going to be acquiring them for Constructed, EDH and Cube.
Constructed/EDH Grade B
Cube Grade C
Illusory Ambusher: Err... another conditional 5 drop creature that draws cards? ... Thanks? I think that people tend to overestimate these kinds of cards in general as compared to ones such as Jace's Ingenuity. On the surface it doesn't seem like "getting attacked by a 3+ power creature" is a daunting requirement but the issue that people frequently overlook is that you don't actually want to tap your mana until the last possible second in formats such as MP/EDH (or any format for that matter). EOT of the preceding player? Sure, go ahead and cast your draw spell. Odds are you don't need to hold mana up for counters/removal/etc. any longer. Still, do you really want to tap out on the proceeding player's attack step though? Not really no. From a pure card advantage standpoint I think that this type of card will almost always win-out over a "traditional" draw spell (such as Fact or Fiction) but that doesn't tell the whole story. The condition of "I have to tap out at a terribly inopportune moment" is a very real drawback. As such I don't expect this type of threat to see any competitive play in traditional combo/control strategies. Now, where I don't mind this card is in Chain Reaction/Blasphemous Act decks that include cards such as Swans of Bryn Argoll. Having another creature-based threat that can can randomly draw 13 cards is incredibly useful. Nin, the Pain Artist comes to mind for EDH because that is a lot of cards that you can draw. Either way what I'm trying to showcase here is that I personally see this as a combo card moreso than a generic draw spell that can sometimes ambush a threat. I'm not holding my breath on having this be some sort of top-tier playable across multiple decks/archetypes but at the same time I don't see the harm in picking up a playset and jamming them in a deck with 4x Soulfire Grand Master, 3x Nin, the Pain Artist, 4x Boros Reckoner, 4x Swans of Bryn Argoll and a whack of burn such as as Blasphemous Act. Oh, before I forget, I should probably discuss the fact that this card "dies to removal" which is technically another strike against it as opposed a generic draw spell that will "always work." Clearly Counterspells are still a thing but you know what I mean. Anyways, while these concerns are certainly relevant I personally don't assign much weight to them. I'm going to play powerful cards/creatures even if they die to removal because doing something marginal/fair is only ever going to take you so far. I find that it's people who actively works towards an unfair/degenerate/powerful gameplan that find themselves doing well and consistently winning games even if it sometimes blows-up in their face. What I'm trying to say is that in a vacuum I'd rather be the person trying to get a 9-for-1 with Illusory Ambusher than ones "playing it safe" and taking a 3-for-1 with a card like Jace's Ingenuity. I'm clearly just using random numbers and examples here, don't focus too hard on them, the point is that I'm more than willing to take risks because I know that playing it safe can only take you far. I often feel as though 75% of players want to pull-off the "fly under the radar" strat in which they silently build up an insurmountable advantage without anyone taking notice. When everyone is playing as safe as possible it's hard to grind out a win "the fair way." You sometimes have to stick your neck out and go for the play that will put you over-the-top.
Constructed Grade C
EDH/Cube Grade D
Mirror Match: On the one hand any mass copy effect can be sweet since MP/EDH tends to be filled with creatures with powerful ETB triggers. Sure, you don't get to keep them, but when it comes to things like Mulldrifters/Titans/Primordials then it doesn't really matter. You get to Plague Wind someone's board and generate a bunch of value in the process. On the other hand it's a 6 mana conditional "removal/Fog spell" that relies on having an opponent turn a large number of creatures sideways at you. In that sense I have no idea how to assess these kinds cards because I've never had them played against me and no one seems to add them to their decks on the forums either. It reminds me of Domineering Will in many ways, a card which seems "pretty good," but the fact that I've yet to see it played outside of the precon means that I don't have a good bead on how effective these kinds of cards are in general. My gut tells me that they're mostly trash because I would much rather use that 6 mana to cast a spell such as Recurring Insight or Consecrated Sphinx but on another level I don't like hating on cards that I've never played with. Much like Æthersnatch I see another 6 mana condition spell that I don't want to hold mana up for because if people play around it or simply elect to direct their attention elsewhere then you've just Time Walked over your turn. I'm personally lumping this thing with the other unplayables of the format for now but if someone wants to comment on these kinds of combat tricks please feel free to share your experiences with them. Again, I literally never get to see them played so it's tough for me to say how effective their average use-case is.
Global Grade D
Mystic Confluence: Sayonara Jace's Ingenuity! You won't be missed! A bad Cryptic Command is still an absurdly powerful Magic card and I expect to see this played as a powerful budget alternative that's significantly less demanding on the old manabase. The first mode doesn't quite read "counter target spell" so sometimes you'll have to select it twice but that's not really the end of the world in my mind. Far more often than not you're countering a big, game-winning spell cast on-curve so they frequently won't have the extra 3-6. Both other modes essentially read "draw a card," either by bouncing one of your own value critters or by grabbing a new one, so you can't go wrong either way. These kinds of "counter-draw" cards are frequently paired with Snapcaster Mage/Eternal Witness/Archaeomancer-esque recursion effects so the option bounce is a huge boon compared to a card such as Dismiss. Still, even if you ignore those there's any number of cards like Augur of Bolas, Sea Gate Oracle, Mulldrifter, Diluvian Primordial, etc. that are all equally amazing to bounce. Otherwise there's nothing wrong with "counter your spell, draw 2 cards" and it doesn't always matter if you have to to pay 5 mana for it. Now, I will stress that the first mode isn't as stellar as we'd all like it to be and I'm not trying to suggest otherwise. You don't see Mana Leak make the cut in most competitive MP decks for a reason; games run long and ramp is often prevalent so paying an extra 3 is easily do-able. Yes, we all remember the games where you counter that 40 point Exsanguinate with a Force Spike but far too often those soft counters wind up costing you games as they go dead. Lastly, no, this card doesn't have the same inherent weakness that Æthersnatch possesses. While it's true that 5 CMC counters are slow you're never punished if you choose to hold mana up for this thing. Even if no one casts a scary spell you can always fire it off as a draw spell (any combination of creature bounce and card draw will work fine) so the fail-case is that you run out your Jace's Ingenuity and not feel too bad about it. I'm not saying that Ingenuity is an especially powerful card or anything but it's certainly not horrendous and that's the absolute worst-case scenario. All things being equal that's not a terrible place to be. Either way the key thing here to remember is that even if this isn't better than Cryptic Command it's still really freaking good and the fact that it's easier to cast is way more relevant than it seems. For budget-minded players who can't afford amazing mana bases and $50.00 Dismisses this is a fantastic alternative. Buy 4 and feel good about playing them in just about everything. I know that I will.
Global Grade B
Synthetic Destiny: Mass Polymorph's 5-8? Yes please! I've never experienced much success with Polymorph decks because the fact of the matter is that one big threat is virtually never going to be enough to win a multiplayer game. From Progenitus to Blightsteel Colossus to to Worldspine Wurm to Emrakul, the Aeons Torn they're all beatable. As such I personally think that you need to "go bigger" if you're looking to clear a MP table and that's where these kinds of "mass effects" shine. All you need are some Khalni Garden/Awakening Zone type effects and then it's just a matter of hitting 6 mana and going off. The cool thing about Synthetic Destiny is that since the deck can now run a ton of copies of the effect (don't forget about Proteus Staff!) as long as you play self-shuffling threats such as Eldrazi and Colossi you've never going to lose to a string of removal/interaction barring a ton of mass exile. Even if your first wave goes down you can always rebuild and fire off another a few turns later. Otherwise, the fact that this card is an instant means that you can sometimes catch people off-guard but more than that it allows you to play through permission. Cast Synthetic Destiny on the second mainphase of the preceding player (gets countered), untap, cast Mass Polymorph. Game! Take that control mages! It's also worth noting that you can respond to mass removal with this card to "beat it" and that fact extends to a board that you may have already Mass Polymorphed into play. It also means that you can build extremely degenerate Upheaval style decks that cast this, nuke the board, then run the table over with an army of behemoths. I do realize that most of these sequences are 10+ mana (barring Balance) but that's obtainable in many MP/EDH settings. Clearly this isn't a generic playable that you'll just slam in your Blue decks for no reason but for the people who want to build around Proteus Staff/Mass Polymorph style enablers this an exciting and competitive new addition to the roster. I'm personally going to snap 4 up as soon as I reasonably can.
Constructed Grade B
EDH Grade C
Cube Grade F
Closing Thoughts: Blue got a fair number of powerful spells but most of them belong in niche/specific archetypes and/or require specific synergies. The only "must-have" card for everyone is Mystic Confluence because I can guarantee you that it's way closer to Cryptic Command than it looks. The ability to counter a spell and draw 2 cards (either by returning a value creature or ripping new ones) is incredibly powerful and if worst comes to worst you can just fire off a Jace's Ingenuity at EOT and not feel too bad about it.
Banshee of the Dread Choir: Black has too many busted 5 drops to even consider running this type of threat. From Gray Merchant of Asphodel to Sidisi, Undead Vizier to Bloodgift Demon to Living Death to Crux of Fate to Dictate of Erebos there's no shortage of significantly more powerful option. Even as someone who plays Iname, Death Aspect EDH I don't plan on acquiring this thing.
Global Grade D-
Corpse Augur: I've been waiting for this type of a threat for a very long time. A generically powerful 4 drop that doesn't lose to removal, that trades well with Green creatures and that curve naturally into Sidisi, Undead Vizier and/or Gray Merchant of Asphodel is exactly what casual Black decks have needed to fill out their curves. Moreover, this card isn't a dead draw later on because eventually it's going to draw 5+ cards and it's even on a creature that you can easily recur. From Entomb to Buried Alive to Stinkweed Imp it's not exactly difficult to fill your bin which means that this thing can get easily out-of-hand past a certain point. It's even a Zombie which is relevant for Unholy Grotto and it's also an excellent card to pair with things like Disciple of Bolas and Smothering Abomination which tend to play well with cards like Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat. Those decks are always interested in drawing more cards and putting massive amounts of lifegain to use so that they can then clear the table out with cards like Exsanguinate and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. I need to stress that being a creature is amazing because it's so easy for Black to Phyrexian Reclamation, Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, Oversold Cemetery, Necromancy, Palace Siege, etc. it back into play. This isn't a busted combo card that you'll play in your "turn 3 win" decks but since that represents such a small fraction of Kitchen Table Magic I can't think of this as anything other than a complete staple. As an avid Black Mage I'm going to acquiring many, many playsets of these because I've always wanted some dorky 4 drop that actually beat removal. Things like Crypt Ghast, Phyrexian Obliterator, Graveborn Muse, Mindslicer, etc. are more are all swell Magic cards but sometimes you want something that no one has any incentive to mess with.
Global Grade B-
Daxos's Torment: Oh... goody... an aggressive + conditional Black 4 drop that dies to removal and that basically can't block. That's exactly what I want to be fielding in a MP setting /sarcasm. This thing could be a 4 mana 5/5 Flyer with Haste and it still wouldn't be remotely playable (especially in EDH) so there's absolutely no reason to purchase/play with it.
Global Grade F
Deadly Tempest: Worse than Life's Finale, better than Extinguish All Hope, still many orders of magnitude weaker than alternatives such as Toxic Deluge and Damnation. If token decks are plaguing your meta then it's an interesting tech option but even then I can't say that I would bother playing it over something like Crux of Fate which is cheaper to cast. Every meta is different but I personally haven't experienced much success with these 6 mana Wraths so it doesn't really matter how many of them get printed as far as I'm concerned. The first has virtually never made the cut in my Cube/EDH/Constructed decks so there's not exactly much hope for the 2nd and 3rd either. As I always say every Wrath of God is playable in a MP setting and this one is no exception but you'd only ever play it as a budget "last resort" and not as something that you're actively happy to sleeve up for the job.
Global Grade C-
Dread Summons: I like that Wizards is trying to print "Shared Traumas" that aren't completely unplayable and this is a big step in the right direction. For someone like me who frequently plays in 6-8 player games it doesn't take much for this to put 20 power into play and since basically every Black deck is a graveyard-based deck in formats such as EDH you can also think of it as a "draw spell" of sorts. It's a bummer that the Zombies ETBT but that's simply how Wizards likes to print these kinds of cards so for the time being we'll just have to take it on the chin. Much like Army of the Damned and Empty the Pits it's a big splashy finisher that puts "big mana" to use which is perfect for the color that access to Cabal Coffers, Crypt of Agadeem and Crypt Ghast among other things. I still don't think that mill itself is even remotely competitive as a win condition but even if you're playing a generic value deck (say The Mimoeplasm) having a graveyard full of goodies is almost a big a help. From Animate Deads to Mortivores there's also plenty of ways to abuse the critters that other players are pitching so you're really using every part of the buffalo with this type of effect. Now, the drawback to this type of card is that it continues to get weaker and weaker as A) your meta shrinks in size and B) it increases in competitiveness and C) other players in your meta field graveyard-based strategies. Fast spell-based decks generally don't care about mill (unless you haphazardly nuke key combo pieces) and the amount of power that this thing generates can vary wildly based on player number and creature prevalence. In your typical ~4 player match with ~20 creature decks (or ~35 in EDH) it takes a long time for this to reliably produce a sizable army so I really do think of it as a card that will only shine in very large 6+ player games that aren't filled with fast combo decks.
Global Grade D+
Scourge of Nel Toth: So let's get a few things out of the way. It's a Zombie for Gravecrawler, you "cast" it for Vengevine, it's a sac outlet from your graveyard, it pairs well with Bloodghast and it loves self-mill such as Buried Alive, Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Grave-Troll. That's swell and all but the problem that I have with this guy is that it's a big dumb conditional flier. That is, a 7 mana 6/6 flier ism't a card that I would ever elect to field in a MP setting so you have to cheat thing thing into play early on to get any semblance of value out of it. After all, I personally hate fair, creature-based win conditions and the last thing that I'd ever want to try and do is clear a MP table out by turning a dorky 7 mana flier sideways. I also think that aggressive threats such as Gravecrawler and Bloodghast are usually horrendous (unless you're Skullclamping them) because you're never going to be able to race a table and the inability to block is an enormous drawback. However, since you must sacrifice 2 creatures to recur this thing your hands are tied unless you're willing to pay 6 mana total using Reassembling Skeletons. Still, who the Hell wants to play 6 mana 6/6 fliers in multiplayer? Certainly not me. I think that this is a cool card with lots of interesting synergies/interactions but I don't think that it's an especially competitive one. It's mostly unplayable in EDH (too conditional, too low impact), it's completely unplayable in Cube (way too conditional) and so I personally recommend treating it as a Constructed card. For example, you can play a 4x Buried Alive deck and fetch this + 2x Bloodghast and hopefully get some Vengevines in to the mix as well. That's not overpowered or anything but it's certainly going to be serviceable in some metas. It's still a big dumb beater that can block and recur for basically nothing so if that's enough to get the job done it's not a bad place to be.
Constructed Grade C
EDH Grade D
Cube Grade F
Thief of Blood: I think that people are unfairly dismissing this card. It's not a 6 mana Æther Snap and/or Spike Cannibal. Right off the bat it kills all Planeswalkers dead. From Tibalt to Ugin it doesn't matter how many are in play nor how many counters that they have. In larger metas that may feature "Super Friends" style decks filled with the things this can prove to be very relevant as a reliable + reusable way to keep their numbers in check. Moving on it's another Dark Depths enabler. I'm not saying that you'd ever play this card for that reason alone but it's going to matter some % of the time. Before everyone starts shoving Vampire Hexmage down my throat, bear in mind that they serve completely different purposes. You don't put Hexmage in your deck because you want a 2/1 for 2 in a MP setting. No, you put that card in your deck to enable a combo kill. Sometimes she can kill a 'Walker and/or block but that's not why she's in your list. Thief of Blood on the other hand is a removal spell + threat (one that can legitimately kill people) who doubles as a combo piece if needed. Moreover, it's creatures and not a spell. This is extremely relevant in formats such as EDH since decks are usually way better at tutoring for creatures than they are for spells. From Sylvan Tutor to Wordly Tutor to Eladamri's Call to Survival of the Fittest to Chord of Calling to Birthing Pod... the list is endless. Furthermore, creatures are significantly easier to recur than spells. Most Black Constructed/EDH decks are going to start with cards like Phyrexian Reclamation, Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, etc. so it's trivial to recur this thing as needed. Whereas Vampire Hexmage comes back, kills one thing and dies this leaves a relevant body body behind and has a significantly more powerful impact on the game. Otherwise, yes, it's a Spike Cannibal! For every +1/+1 counter, every Loyalty counter, every Charge counter, etc. this flier gets +1/+1. It's not unreasonable in the slightest to think that this can reliably hit play as 10/10+ flier. People seem to like glossing over that fact but this will easily OTK people in big 6+ player games and even in 4 player Pods it's still going to be huge a large % of the time. Don't forget that as you're producing this threat you're also killing every 'Walker, neutering every Everflowing Chalice, taking the bite out of those Forgotten Ancients, thanking that Scavenging Ooze for his hard work, on and on and on. Clearly this isn't some inherent bomb that will work for everyone but at the same time I don't see why you'd ever dismiss it completely. There's more than enough going here to justify acquiring 1-2 of these because if you ever need an answer to a Planeswalker-based deck or a +1/+1 counter list then this is a fine option.
Constructed Grade C-
EDH Grade C+
Cube Grade D
Wretched Confluence: Yeah no. This is a fancier version of Annihilate and should see about as much play. Profane Command barely sees any action and it's roughly twice the card that this POS is. After all, let's not kid ourselves into thinking that giving a creature -2/-2 is the same thing as killing it. It'll nuke random utility threats/mana dorks but realistically you have to pump at least -4/-4 into anything worthwhile. Since both other modes essential read "draw a card" (one way or another) I don't see why this would see any more play than Annihilate does (which is none). I understand that sometimes it can "Sudden Spoiling" if they run a whack of small critters into a bunch of your medium-to-small things but that rarely-if-ever occurs in my games. Multiplayer isn't usually about creature-based combat in my experience and there's very few things that actually get into the Red Zone. Again, I don't even think that it's better than Profane Command which is another card that sees next-to-no play. Why? Well, since you can only afford to run so much spot removal in MP that usually has to be reserved for cheap spells such as Slaughter Pact, Go for the Throat, Snuff Out, Murderous Cut, etc. that are easy to hold mana up for. For this card to see any legitimate amount of play the first mode would have to reliably kill a creature because as it stands it's way too expensive for way too niche of an effect. And no, I don't really want to play with an instant version of "Harrowing Journey" as my fail-case. The 3 life matters because you're not getting a discount on the CMC at all and, let's face it, it's not as though people are clamoring to play with Jace's Ingenuity. A bad version of an already weak card isn't very enticing. If the draw didn't cost life, ok, sure, I might consider that. You don't want to jam things like Necrologia in 100% of all decks, especially if Gray Merchant of Asphodel is banned in your meta. Given that it's not I can't actually bring myself to call this a playable. I would never add it to any of my decks/Cubes nor do I think that anyone else should. -2/-2 is just way too weak for a 5 CMC removal spell and if you ever have to double-up on the effect then you're sad. Since I expect that to be the average use-case far more often than not (Hell, you need all 3 just to kill a Titan) I'm extremely underwhelmed but the thing.
Global Grade D
Closing Thoughts: As an avid Black Mage the only card that personally interests me is Corpse Augur. He hits so many key criteria that I'm looking for in a 4 drop. He beats removal, he scales well into the lategame, he threatens big Green beaters, he's recurrable with Unholy Grotto, he curves well into Sidisi, Undead Vizier, he draw draw cards, on and on and on. I know that he isn't fancy and I'm not suggesting that he's going to win games outright but this is what I personally want to be casting on turn 4 in my Constructed decks. The other cards are too weak/niche and won't be acquired unless I need them for a specific reason.
Awaken the Sky Tyrant: A 4 mana 5/5 flier (no conditions, no drawbacks) would be unplayable trash in every MP format. This card is... sigh...
Global Grade F
Dream Pillager: Um... really? You couldn't throw Red a bone and give them a somewhat legitimate draw spell? Just this 7 mana POS? Even as someone who frequently plays Lightning Greaves, Mimic Vat, Feldon of the Third Path and Sneak Attack I still can't imagine a deck that would be actively happy to sleeve this thing up. It's so bad. Why is it 7 mana? Why is it tiny? So many depressing questions, so few answers.
Global Grade D
Fiery Confluence: First of all I'm slamming this into my Cube because the critter nuke + Arttifact destruction are always relevant and it's nice that you can now play a Shattering Spree that isn't useless when you need to clear the board. For Constructed this is the first Flame Rift style spell that we've seen in a long time so the burn deck, albeit horrendous, got a small boost in that sense. I still think that it's nearly impossible to win playing one but some people just want to watch the world burn (literally) and this is a fantastic card for said individuals. For those of us who want to win games of Magic, eh, not so much. With respect to EDH this is close enough to being a staple that everyone should try it. A 4 mana Anger of the Gods that doesn't exile isn't fantastic and a Shattering Spree with a ceiling is somewhat marginal but both effects are powerful and desirable to the point where you should almost always play with them. I personally see this as stapling two effects that I actively desire together with the upside of sometimes getting them both. If it proves to be unplayable, so be it, but it's a cheap board control spell that keeps mana rocks/Equipment in check without being a dead draw when you need to nuke some critters. Outside of EDH all bets are off because not everyone is as fond as Artifact-based ramp as I seem to be and playing this as a bad Earthquake isn't worthwhile.
Constructed Grade C-
EDH Grade C
Cube Grade C+
Magus of the Wheel: We all need to have a quick pow-wow and discuss something about "Top X Best Cards" lists that really bothers me. They are often incredibly misleading to newer/less experienced players because they don't bother to explain why a card is powerful in the first place. For a card like Demonic Tutor that doesn't matter but something like Wheel of Fortune I personally feel as though you shouldn't blindly label it as a powerful card and pass that information on to new players. Wheel of Fortune is amazing in the sense that combo decks can use it to draw ridiculous amounts of cards in order to dig for key combo pieces that will allow their controller to win the game on the spot. This circumvents the drawback of having each opponent draw 7 cards which would otherwise be considered a crippling flaw. When you're literally playing it as a 3 mana draw 7 then it's horrendously busted which is why all of those crazy all-in combo decks that you see run it each and every time. Now, the problem is that 99.99% of you don't play all-in combo decks. Most of you play somewhat fair + budget decks that play Magic as opposed to Solitaire. That's fine, I do too, but Wheel of Fortune is a terrible, yes, TERRIBLE Magic card in fair decks. A spell that draws each opponent 7 cards which they are then allowed to play is atrocious. There's no possible way to argue that you figure to consistently come out on top from having that event occur. All things being equal at least 1-2 others will benefit more than you given that they didn't need to invest cards/mana but still got to see the same 7 cards. Sure, you get to control the timing, but that only accounts for so much. Please do not add this to your generic creature + spell deck that wants to drag things to the ultra-lategame. I get that Red lacks draw spells in general but this isn't the solution that you're looking for.
Moving on to degenerate combo decks, it's unclear as to which will be able to support a creature that needs to untap. Obviously things like Hermit Druid see a fair amount of competitive play but that card legitimately wins the game outright whereas the Magus here doesn't. Draw 7s will frequently enable game wins but there's a world of difference between "frequently" and "assuredly." That being said it's still a draw 7 and so even if this never sees plays in the best versions of the best Red decks the "good versions" are probably excited to see another powerful draw spell for the color. I do realize that Lightning Greaves is a thing but Reforge the Soul isn't an especially exciting card so I'm not going to hold my breath on a conditional variation breaking the mold. The problem with this card is that it signals to the table that you're going to win next turn (probably) but it doesn't actually do anything the turn that you play it. This should push the other players to either interact with you or try for their own combo kills which you will then struggle to thwart with your Nessian Courser. Even with that in mind I still plan on acquiring these, probably 5 or 6, because I do want to test this card in a competitive MP setting. Having a 3 drop that reads "you win the game if you can untap with me" is pretty good all things being equal so I have to think that there's some combo shell out there that will be able to make good use of the guy.
Constructed/EDH Grade C
Cube Grade D
Meteor Blast: This is a terrible version of Mizzium Mortars that I would simply never play. I get that Battlefield Thaumaturge is a card and I do realize that it can go face but neither provide me with enough incentive to actually sleeve this incredibly marginal effect up. I personally think of this as having the average use-case of dealing 12 damage for 6 mana and that's simply not an effect that interests me in the slightest.
Global Grade D
Mizzix's Mastery: Past in Flames and Mind's Desire just had a love-child and I let me assure you that it's going to make waves in every major multiplayer format. BUR are fanatic dig/loot colors in general which can employ cards such as Faithless Looting, Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Wild Guess, Frantic Search, Desperate Ravings, Fact or Fiction, Syphon Mind etc. to fill-up your graveyard with powerful spells. Once you start factoring in rituals such as Dark Ritual, Rite of Flame, Cabal Ritual, Seething Song and Mana Geyser it's easy to envision scenarios in which you combo kill the entire table with one fell swoop using cards such as Pyromancer Ascension and Storm finishers such as Tendrils of Agony. Even outside of degenerate spell-based combo decks it's still a Recoup/Memory Plunder of sorts that has the ability to go full-on Yawgmoth's Will when needed. Casting every spell in your graveyard is a huge game regardless of your deck's contents so even if you're just re-casting things like Time Warp, World at War and Mob Rule that's still fine too. Much like Volcanic Vision I think of this as a Blue/Black/Green card more than a Red one when it comes to fair decks however. The problem with Red spells is that they tend to be things like Earthquake, Fork and Insurrection that have absolutely no synergy with one another. In fact, they're downright terrible together. I'm not trying to make blanket statements and suggest that Red never does anything else but in general I think that these kinds of cards are significantly less powerful than they seem inside their actual color. Now, outside of Red is where you have my attention. Black tutors/draw spells, Blue extra turn spells/draw spells/theft effects, Green ramp/tutors/9+ CMC bombs and more are all cards that I want to be casting alongside one another. Even if you don't win the game on the spot using a combo kill, let's be real, the game is still going to end. This is an absolute must-have staple so don't be shy about picking some up. Much like Past in Flames the effect is so incredibly overpowered that there'll always be something worthwhile that you can do with it even if it's literally just going to act as Past in Flames #5-8 in Constructed and #2 in EDH.
Constructed Grade A
EDH Grade A
Cube Grade C
Rite of the Raging Storm: My favorite thing to do in Red is to Wildfire/Devastation/Obliterate people with something like Daretti, Scrap Savant, Predatory Advantage and/or Assemble the Legion in play. It's horrifically degenerate, outrageously unfun for the other players and makes for a terrible experience overall. It's perfect! Judgmental opinions aside the fact of the matter is that sometimes you just want to make everyone else suffer so even if you don't play these kinds of decks every game sometimes it's fun to whip them out every now and then. As long as you don't make a habit of defaulting to things that are ridiculously unfun it shouldn't be a big problem. Now, the real question is how does this card rank as a finisher in those kinds of lists? On the one hand 5 Hasted power each turn is an insanely quick clock. Under ideal circumstances this can run laps around a card like Assemble the Legion and clear the table out in a handful on circuits. On the other hand what incentive do people have to actually kill each other off and allow you walk away with the match uncontested? Absolutely none. Realistically they should simply choose to do-nothing and/or take out a key threat while leaving everyone else intact. As such I'm skeptical of its competitive applications. At the end of the day the onus is mostly on your opponents to kill themselves so you're mostly banking on people playing poorly and making bad decisions. That's obviously going to work some % of the time but not against anyone "worth beating" so to speak. After all, if this is simply a 5 power Hasted creature on your turn then that's not exactly much of a clock. A player or two will probably still die but some of them will get back up-and-running. I still think that it's a powerful option but by now you've probably correctly guessed that it's also inherently flawed. That being said this is only one of many possible applications for the card. Red has no shortage of Vicious Shadows type spells that benefit from having creatures die and even if you just run this out naked on turn 3-5 it's reasonable to think that far more often than not players will bash each other to bits with it. It won't win the game outright but it's certainly going to deal a lot of damage. Moreover, this is a very good card if you're a "weak" player trying to beat a "better" one. If your strength lies in politics moreso than cards or bankroll it's still easy to use these kinds of effects to squash a key threat. Much like Mob Rule there's not much counter-play to this type of effect. If everyone decides to gang-up on someone they're probably going to lose. Multiplayer is self-correcting in many ways and this is a great example as to why that is. With respect to this card's final verdict, for the time being I'm going to "hope for the best" and pray that people make poor decisions. If enough of them decide that "the game is over anyways" and/or "I'll get attacked anyways" and/or "I just don't want to lose next" then this could easily slaughter a table over a handful of circuits and that seems fairly ridiculous to me. I'm personally going to acquire some for my various Wildfire decks but if the card ultimately proves ineffective I won't be afraid to cut it. I think that these kinds of cards tends to get worse over-time and/or as players become more familiar with them which is even more reason to only play these kinds of decks "every now and then." I can't provide you with a more definite answer than that because ultimately your opponents have the final say in the matter and I can't even speak for the ones in my own meta just yet.
Global Grade B-
Warchief Giant: This card is busted. It's a stupendously powerful beater that pairs well with all of Red's "take an extra attack phase" cards, its "sacrifice a permanent" cards, its "whenever a creature ETB/dies" cards, its "double damage" cards, and its "put a copy of a creature into play" cards. A sample list includes things like Aggravated Assault, World at War, Scourge of the Throne, Goblin Bombardment, Greater Gargadon, Pandemonium, Warstorm Surge, Vicious Shadows. Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, Mimic Vat, Feldon of the Third Path, Sneak Attack, Flameshadow Conjuring, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and more. 15 hasted power is already nuts on a 5 and there's so many ways to abuse this thing.
Updated Grade A
Closing Thoughts: Warchief Giant is straight busted and everyone needs 4. Mizzix's Mastery is also one of the best recursion spells in the game as both of its modes provide an insane return on investment. Even if you're not trying to Storm off with rituals it can still cast things like Enter the Infinite for 4 mana and that's something that anyone can get behind. For those of you looking for something a bit more degenerate I do highly recommend testing Rite of the Raging Storm out because curving one of those into a Jokulhaups can easily provide people with enough incentive to "hurry on to the next game." As to how the card will fare in fair decks, I'm not entirely sure, but it does seem kinda sweet doesn't it? I'm really not sure on that one but I'm liking what I see so far. Otherwise I do recommend grabbing a Fiery Confluence for Cube/EDH if nothing else but in the right metas it seems perfectly reasonable for Constructed as well.
Arachnogenesis: The best Fog ever printed is still a Fog. I won't lie and pretend that I've never seen Tangle/Moment's Peace/Constant Mists blow someone out but at the same time it's been at least 10 years since I've played a MP deck that won by turning creatures sideways as its primary gameplan. To give you an idea I've personally lost exactly once to a Fog (Tangle) roughly 15 years ago when it was first printed and that's because I still had no idea how to play Magic. Nope, not even the Maze's End deck has ever won a game in our meta. As such I would happily start everyone's decks with as many Fogs/Walls as they desired and that's usually a sign that a card isn't very powerful. After all, stopping one combat phase from one opponent sometimes has its uses but in general it's such a worthless effect that I'll never be able to consider these legitimate playables. That being said this is probably the closest thing to a truly playable Fog that we've ever seen. If it's not the best then it's certainly close because this one legitimately improves your board and some % of the time you'll blow a token/combo deck out of the water. Nice Pestermite + Splinter Twin and/or Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest friend! The Spiders can even gang-block as much as they want and the fact that it puts a whack of creatures into play means that this is much more than a simple defensive spell. It can go from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds flat if your deck happens to have cards like Beastmaster Ascension, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Craterhoof Behemoth, etc. in it. The problem is that ultimately this isn't a consistent effect that you can control so it's significantly weaker than it seems as a token generator. Since the base card is a Fog, a card which I personally think is unplayable, I'm not excited to try and work for it. I expect a lot of other people to happily play this in their decks but since I personally think that creature-based aggression is horrendous I don't want to add cards to my deck that focus on it.
Global Rating C-
Bloodspore Thrinax: The love-child of Master Biomancer and Mycoloth is interesting and much like his Master he loves to see Forgotten Ancient already on the field ready to move some counters around. That being said the problem with this type of spell is that it's worthless unless you draw it early-on and have it dodge removal. Whereas a card like Beastmaster Ascension can be played before or after you establish a board the aforementioned buffers don't offer that luxury. This thing is clearly powerful if you can curve a mana dork into it, eat the dork, have it survive and proceed to produce an army of tokens/critters. That being said if you acquire the army first then draw this after you're hooped. I generally dislike these kinds of cards in that sense because I would much rather build a board of tokens/weenies and then tutor up a big finishers such as Craterhoof Behemoth and/or Kamhal, Fist of Krosa using things like Green Sun's Zenith, Survival of the Fittest, Chord of Calling, Fierce Empath, etc. Otherwise this is another Persist enabler (much like Melira, Sylvok Outcast) in the sense that it pairs with any sac outlet and any persist threat to go infinite. Because he's expensive and conditional he's not even close to being the best option available but it's still worth keeping that in mind. You obviously don't have to play him in combo decks but let's face it; there's a reason why you don't see many Master Biomancers in competitive lists. For every game that they blow you away there's another 2 or 3 where they fail to deliver. To me this card represents "consistency," not "power" because the decks that want this effect now have another way to acquire it. I don't think that those are the best decks to be playing but there's nothing wrong with trying to make them work and seeing how far you can take them. After all, every meta is different and if you can dodge removal and get the right draw these kinds of cards can easily win games on their own.
Constructed/EDH Grade D+
Cube Grade D-
Caller of the Pack: Well this is the best of the cycle and it's not particularly close. An 8 power Trampler that hits everyone kills insanely quickly and your Myriad copies can take full advantage of effects like Kessig Wolf Run, Greater Good and Xenagos, God of Revels to end games on the spot. 7 might seem like a lot of mana but that's actually easily do able on turn 3 in the Carpet of Flowers/Wild Growth/Utopia Sprawl into Grim Monolith/Somberwald Sage/Basalt Monolith style ramp deck. That's more-or-less a turn 5 kill which isn't half-bad. It's also worth noting that cards like Dense Foliage and Steely Resolve exist so killing him can sometimes be easier said than done. Ultimately this is still a 7 drop that dies to removal (at no benefit) and that has to attack so realistically it's not a busted Magic card. Still, at least the payoff is there if you can get it to work which is more than I can say about most other cards. Again, I fully expect this thing to die to removal at no benefit but I like that there's an actual payoff for connecting with this thing. 8 is a lot more than 4-5 and the Trample means that you can't just chump it. These "Hydra Omnivores" are a lot of fun to play around with and I do plan on trying to smash people for millions with this guy.
Global Grade B
Centaur Vinecrasher: Much like Terravore, Knight of the Reliquary and Titania, Protector of Argoth which came before it Green now has access to a critical mass of threats that pair well with Armageddon/Wildfire style mass land destruction (MLD). While the newest iteration is weaker and more conditional in the sense that you can't simply curve one into MLD it's still entirely possible to build up to 8 mana or whatever and cast them both together. This is especially true in formats such as EDH where you're going to playing with a ton of Artifact-based mana ramp and/or mana dorks anyways. Moreover, the inception of Retreat to Coralhelm means that Knight of the Reliquary decks are now able to quickly and easily bin their entire manabase if desired which further enhances the potency of these types of threats. Otherwise their obvious application is their interaction with Fetchlands as they effectively scale from each and every one. In a multiplayer setting this is relevant for the 'Vore and the Vinecrasher because most competitive decks will include a fair number of them. Even if you ignore MLD and combos it's trivial to have these things grow immensely large as the game progresses from Fetchlands alone. They're also the primary way in which you'll recur your Centaur Vinecrashers because otherwise you're relying on niche effects such as the one that Knight of the Reliquary possesses. That is, you can still beat people "the fair way" with these kinds of threats but you obviously have plenty of incentive to pursue more degenerate alternatives if you're playing to win. Before I move on I'll throw out a quick word of caution. While these kinds of cards are fine in big metas filled with Fetchlands they lose most of their luster in smaller ones without them. I'm not saying that it's always "all or nothing" but clearly the card is significantly weaker when everyone is casting basic lands and Guildgates. That is, if you're not building a degenerate Armageddon/Retreat to Coralhelm style deck you'll have to carefully assess and consider the merit to fielding a threat that relies on having your opponents play certain kinds of cards. The example that I like to use is Carpet of Flowers. For some people it'll literally be the strongest card in Magic that frequently surpasses Sol Ring but for others it'll be a stone-blank. I don't know what the people in your own personal meta play and I never will so these kinds of decisions ultimately fall on you.
Constructed Grade D+
EDH Grade D
Cube Grade D-
Ezuri's Predation: Now this is a card that I want to start ramping in to. Not only does it produce an insanely large + wide army while simultaneously nuking your opponent's key utility threats but it also pairs insanely well with cards that care about having creatures ETB and/or die. From Elemental Bond to to Æther Charge to Warstorm Surge to Vicious Shadows there's no shortage of ways to do so and that's where you'll get your 8 mana's worth when everything is said and done. While expensive it's imperative to remember that Green is THE ramp color and with cards like Carpet of Flowers it's trivial to be firing these off on the 4th or 5th turn if needed. Green decks looking for some midgame mass removal should definitely consider fielding 1-2 of these because anything that doubles as mass removal and a win condition is perfect for ramp decks. It doesn't win the game on the spot but it's pretty damned close which is why this thing is way more exciting than an In Garruk's Wake or whatever. You should definitely pick some of these up because they have applications in every multiplayer format.
Global Grade C
Great Oak Guardian: This is technically a Splinter Twin/Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo enabler but at 6 CMC I sincerely doubt that it even makes the cut in the EDH versions of the list. Otherwise I think that these "trap cards" are relatively weak for the same reasons that I think Fogs are marginal. It's too difficult to convert their effect into an actual game win in a format where turning creatures sideways is the worst possible way to try and win games. I get that every meta is different and that in some these kinds of cards can lead to insane blowouts but as someone who doesn't play against many "Red Zone" decks myself it's impossible for me to get excited about these kinds of cards. Multiplayer combat, to me, tends to be one gargantuan threat buffed with Haste/Unblockable/Evasion that goes for a kill while everything else sits back on D. That is to say that I personally don't experience much in the way of big alpha strikes and/or back-and-forth races. I clearly can't speak for anyone else but I've never been impressed by fair, midrange decks since they just plain don't seem to win many games. It's far too difficult to race every combo/control/prison/ramp deck before they do something way more powerful than turn a 5/5 sideways and hope for the best. With respect to being a generic "Overrun" finisher I once again think that it's mostly unplayable because it doesn't provide Trample. I'll leave it at that for now because I'll cover Green finishers with the next card and explain why these aren't the droids that you're looking for.
Global Grade C
Pathbreaker Ibex: Green finishers need to be A) creatures B) "instant" and C) give your team at least +2/+2 and Trample. This is why virtually every competitive deck plays Thunderfoot Baloth, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and Craterhoof Behemoth as opposed to any number of alternatives. The Ibex here doesn't an immediate impact, it needs to be able to attack first, whereas the others do. As such it'll never be a top-tier finisher in the color because it fails to meet all of the essential criteria. Feel free to run it if you're so inclined just be aware that there are superior alternatives within the color.
For those wondering why the "creature" tag is important, bear in mind that Green decks tend to start with cards such as Green Sun's Zenith, Survival of the Fittest, Fierce Empath, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Chord of Calling, Birthing Pod, etc. Green is good at finding creatures but terrible at finding spells. The "instant" requirement is essential for beating removal/interaction because you don't want to provide your opponents with an opportunity to respond/react/plan for your big swings. This is why you'll basically never see a card like Siege Behemoth being played. It's too slow and easy to plan for. With respect to the +2/+2 and Trample, anything less than 2/2 isn't enough to push your weenies past blockers and Trample is essential for ensuring that you actually finish the job once and for all. On the surface Joraga Warcaller style threats might seem acceptable but if all you do is force chump blocks then lose your threats to removal then you haven't actually accomplished anything meaningful.
Global Grade D
Skullwinder: Hello must-have staple! Why yes, I do want to play up to 8x Eternal Witnesses in my Constructed decks and I'll play any number in Cube/EDH. This card is bonkers because unlike Witness it's a legitimately good blocker that trades at every stage of the game and it's even easier to cast. Moreover, because you're frequently recurring threats such as Genesis Wave, Sylvan Primordial, Nissa's Revelation, Tooth and Nail, etc. it doesn't actually matter what the other person takes because odds are no cards in their GY is better than your bomb. It's also worth noting that it's extremely easy for cards like Genesis Wave and Tooth and Nail to chain together infinitely at which point it's actually irrelevant as to what they recur because they'll never have an opportunity to cast it. Still, again, even in a fair deck that doesn't rely on a combo kill why do you care if someone else gets a Regrowth if the card that you're bringing back is a See the Unwritten or Defense of the Heart or whatever? You don't! For anyone wondering why this card is much better than a "Regrowth" (i.e. a spell) it's because Green is very good at finding creatures but terrible at finding spells. I know that you're probably sick of reading this but things like Green Sun's Zenith, Survival of the Fittest, Woodland Bellower, etc. all make the creature subtype extremely important. Moreover, your big spells tend be things like Genesis Wave, Lurking Predators, Tooth and Nail, etc. which why it's so important that your recursion comes with a body. Get your hands on these early and often because this is shoe-in for Green decks across every major multiplayer format for years to come. This is the second coming of Eternal Witness and it will see as much play.
Global Grade A
Verdant Confluence: I personally think that this card is crap. The first mode is basically nothing as far as I'm concerned and I'd expect to use it less than 5% of the time. It's not actively bad or anything but the size of my creatures is irrelevant when I'm playing Green and I'm not interested in pursuing cute synergies in general. You'll have the biggest stuff, not close, and you'll never lose games because you couldn't cobble enough damage together. The second mode is significantly weaker than it looks because it can't recur a huge % of your most important spells. It's bombs such as Tooth and Nail that actually win games and this thing can't touch them. No Genesis Wave, Chord of Calling, See the Unwritten, Tooth and Nail, Nissa's Revelation, nothing. I've also never had a high opinion of Restock and this is basically the same card as far as I can tell. VC recurs one more card and/or puts a land into play but costs more mana and has more restrictions. It's a wash in my mind. Either way if I didn't want the first I certainly don't want the second. Otherwise the "search for basic lands" clause doesn't interest me. I think that people underestimate expensive ramp and unfairly classify it as 'too slow" or "win more" but even I have my limits. This isn't Boundless Realms; it's Nissa's Renewal. I know that when it comes these to these kinds of cards you have to look at the whole and not the sum of the parts but I'm positive that I don't want to put Restock in my Green decks and I refuse to believe that this is a superior version of the card until proven otherwise. That is, until I have this thing played against me or have someone smarter than me explain why it's powerful/worthwhile I can't think of a compelling reason to play with it. It's entirely possible that I'm under-valuing its ability to recur 2-3 card combos but even then I maintain that Restock is already a card that see 0 play and that does the job better + cheaper.
Global Grade D
Closing Thoughts: Skullwinder is the stand-out pick for Green that everyone needs to get their hands on. You could find homes for any number of them because they literally slot into any Constructed/Cube/EDH deck imaginable. Otherwise I think that it would be wise to pick up a couple copies of Caller of the Pack for your ramp decks but that one's significantly less important than Skullwinder. You want Eternal Witnesses in your decks (even if you don't think you do, trust me, you do) so gobble these up whenever you can and start going to turn recurring your Genesis Waves and Nissa's Revelations all day every day.
Anya, Merciless Angel: Given that we already have Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and Aurelia, the Warleader I can't say that I'm excited to see another big dumb aggressive Angel in RW. The obvious combo card to pair her with is Heartless Hidetsugu which is fine for Constructed but nigh impossible to reliably assemble in EDH. What are you going to do, turn to White/Red creature Tutors? Ha! Have fun casting Gamble. I actually like Gisela a fair amount but that's because she's so much more than a big dumb flier who hits people in the face. Anya... not so much. Her fail-case is a generic 4/4 flier for 5 which is obviously unplayable so unless you're consistently able to Earthquake the table down (or whatever) you're stuck with a fairly weak card in your deck and/or as your General. She obviously kills fast and hard if you can activate her rage mode but what does that prove? There's countless powerful cards/Generals that always do something so why waste your time with a Serra Angel? I'm not sold on this card and don't expect it to see much play in any format.
Global Grade D
Arjun, the Shifting Flame: The obvious application of Mindmoil is to pair it with anything that cares about drawing cards. Chasm Skulker, Psychosis Crawler, Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar, Thought Reflection, etc. and more all spring to mind for that. In Constructed I'd rather have the cheaper + more durable Enchantment but in EDH the ability to slap that effect on your General means that you can actually build around it. Sticking with Constructed for now you've never played with or against Mindmoil for a very good reason and suffice it to say that Arjun won't be making waves as some busted combo enabler. That deck technically got more consistent but since it wasn't an archetype in the first place that doesn't change anything. At best he's a fun 6 drop that just so happens to pair well with cards like Chasm Skulker and Psychosis Crawler.
EDH (as your General, he's crap in the 99) is where this guy starts to look legitimately broken. Given that you can fill your deck with cheap/free cantrips and ritutals (such as Rite of Flame, Ponder, Preordain, Gitaxian probe, Brainstorm, Seething Song, etc.) this guy sees jillions of cards very quickly and ultimately is great at assembling key combo pieces. As long as your kill involves mostly permanents (think Power Artifact/Wake Thrasher/Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt Monolith, Hive Mind + Pact of the Titan, etc.) it shouldn't be difficult to assemble them. Moreover, you can also field the guy in generic Storm decks that chain spells (cantrips, rituals, etc.) into things like Past in Flames and Mizzix's Mastery in order to win the game on the spot. You may need to hit a Pyromancer's Swath along the way but where there's a will there's a way. The de facto general for that strategy is currently Melek, Izzet Paragon and ultimately I don't know which one is superior. Pyromancer Ascension + Future Sight is one Hell of a combo and as such Melek generally makes comboing off trivially easy 1-2 turns after you untap with him. Moreover, Melek plays better with permission whereas Counterspells are awkward to field in Arjun decks. In that sense I doubt that a semi-random General such as Arjun can overthrow the current king but at the same time I don't actually play Melek myself so I'm no expert on the archetype. I've lost to him on turn 4-5 a number of times but I don't have any experience piloting the deck myself. I'm going to defer to actual experts on this one but either way Arjun strikes me as being extremely powerful/degenerate and I do expect him to see competitive play. He might not be S or even A tier but even as a high B/low A combo General that effect seems ridiculously strong to have permanent access to in a 100 card singleton format.
Constructed/Cube Grade D
EDH Grade B+ as General, D in the 99
Daxos the Returned: As an EDH General in an Enchantment-based shell supported by cards like Flickering Ward this guys seems fun and fair. You're never going to see him facing down the other top tier generals at the most cutthroat tables but as a generic C tier "value general" that plays a straight-forward, interactive game of Magic I have no doubt that this would be a solid option to pursue. Outside of EDH (as a General, these cards are terrible in the 99) the card is basically unplayable because that's how the "experience counter" cards are balanced. They're supposed to be played as Generals. Yes, sure, technically you could still run this as a generic threat and hope for the best. It wouldn't be good, you know it, I know it, Wizards knows it, everyone knows it. Still, hey, it's perfectly ok for cards to fill a niche role/function and nothing else. I'm not going to say much else on the matter because this isn't an EDH subforum and I don't feel like listing the 100 obvious cards to put in the BW Enchantment deck. There's more appropriate places to find those if that's what you're looking for.
Constructed/Cube Grade N/A
EDH Grade C
Ezuri, Claw of Progress: See Daxos. Worth nothing that this card is nuts with Sage of Hours which will be good in EDH. Green has tons of ways to tutor for the thing and it goes infinite almost instantly.
Constructed/Cube Grade N/A
EDH Grade C
Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas: See Anya/Daxos.
Constructed/Cube Grade D
EDH Grade C
Karlov of the Ghost Council: Finally another card that I can actually talk about. When I personally play the 4x Soul Warden 4x Soul's Attendant 4x Ajani's Pridemate deck my Pridemates routinely grow to 30/30+ by turn 5-6 if they live that long. With that growth in mind Karlov here figures to be an OTK + Terminate machine in the right shells. I've been anxiously awaiting a second copy of the Pridemate for quite some time which is why I was so excited to see Serene Steward in the previous set. She was obviously too weak to see play as a 4-of but the first/second were certainly passable. Still, none of that matters any more because this card is crazy powerful in the Soul Sister archetype. Not only does the card grow immensely large almost immediately but it also functions as an extremely powerful and efficient form of removal. And it even exiles no less! I'm absolutely stoked to get my hands on a playset of these because I happily jamming the full 4 (Legend or not) in my lifegain decks as a powerful form of aggression and interaction. As much as I rag on people who build decks that turn creatures sideways in order to win all bets are off when my 2 drop is hitting for 20 on the fourth turn and then proceeding to exile 2 key threats. Clearly you play Karlov here in any WB lifegain deck but whenever possible you want many small triggers over a single big one. Exsanguinate only gives him +2/+2 regardless of what it hits for. This means that you want more things like Thrull Parasite and fewer things like Debt to the Deathless to support him. I'm not saying that those big drain spells are bad or anything but I'm mostly trying to reinforce the idea that Soul Warden makes him way bigger way faster (and allows him to remove more troublesome threats!) than something like Death Grasp. Now that get to field the full 8 Ajani's Pridemates you have way more incentive to go for numerous small triggers as opposed to a couple of big ones and beat in mind that recursion isn't a problem for WB so don't worry if you lose them early and often. From Phyrexian Reclamation to Return to the Ranks to to Immortal Servitude to Diabolic Servitude to Living Death it's not hard to bring them back as needed.
Constructed Grade B+
EDH Grade C+
Cube Grade C
Kaseto, Orochi Archmage: See Daxos, except ignore the part where I say "this is a fine C tier General." This card sucks.
Constructed/Cube Grade F
EDH Grade D-
Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest: Since the other BG General is infinitely more interesting I won't spend too much time on this one. With respect to being an EDH General Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord is similar except he immediately wins the game when you find Lord of Extinction, Phyrexian Devourer, etc. so I'm not holding my breath that Mazirek can compete with that. Obviously any Legend can be run "for fun" but there's plenty of other places that you go to look for that type of info. With respect to being a generic playable in the 99 and/or in Constructed/Cube this is a 5 mana creature that cares about having multiple other creatures in play so my interest-levels aren't especially high. You have to work very hard to "build an Overrun" of sorts which means building a big board, dodging removal, saccing some stuff and then beating people down. Since that's basically the worst way to try and win a game of multiplayer Magic I can't see myself actually sleeving this thing up in much of anything. Moreover, Black is the color that has access to cards like Living Death and Dictate of Erebos already and I personally don't put much weight in buffing my squad. I'd much rather drain the table out with Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat than try to turn creatures sideways. As I'm sure countless others have pointed-out she triggers off of "any" sacrifice which does include things like Fetchlands but that's not a huge bonus as far as I'm concerned. People are frequently popping those early on but there's so many that hit the bin past a certain point. It's possible that I'm unfairly dismissing this card but I'm really not interested in conditional 5 drops that care about having a board full of creatures. Either way if I had to build a deck that includes this type of card it would look something like:
7x Forest
3x Swamp
4x Golgari Rot Farm
4x Golgari Guildgate
4x Jungle Hollow
1x Grim Backwoods
1x Svogthos, the Restless Tomb
4x Viscera Seer
4x Satyr Wayfinder
4x Zulaport Cutthroat
4x Blood Artist
4x Catacomb Sifter
4x Grim Haruspex
3x Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
4x Wake the Dead
4x Living Death
Meren of Clan Nel Toth: The Golgari Gods must be smiling upon me because this is another card that I can actually discuss. Forget about experience counters, this is a 4 mana 3/4 Palace Siege that can sometimes goes full-on Debtors' Knell. In the context of a generic Golgari sacrifice deck that's amazing and there's no two-ways about it. When I personally evaluate "EOT of turn" triggers" I consider it to be "immediate value" which means that Meren, to me, is a card that you can run out on turn 4 and feel good about. She does technically still "die to removal" but realistically speaking that isn't a serious concern. Far more often than not she'll recur a threat and everything past that is gravy. As I explained during my Mazirek analysis I'm a big fan of playing drain-based Bx decks full of Viscera Seers, Zulaport Cutthroats, Blood Artists, Wake the Deads, Living Deaths, etc. that pair perfectly with these kinds of "death matters" value cards. Whereas Grim Haruspex, Smothering Abomination, etc. draw cards sometimes the thing that you want is sitting in your Graveyard and that's where threats such as Liliana, Heretical Healer and Meren of Clan Nel Toth shine. It's nothing for them to recur things like Blood Artist immediately and to keep doing so on future turns as well. Another cool interaction is that Fleshbag Marauder style threats pair amazing well with Meren because they're both easy to recur and they trigger her Experience Counters. It's nothing to bring one back every turn for free to put the screws on creature-based strategies. Moreover, Meren supports numerous creature-based combo kills with are traditionally found in BGx EDH decks. The main ones are Mikaeus, the Lunarch + Triskelion and Necrotic Ooze + Phyrexian Devourer + Triskelion both of which are easy assemble with things like Survival of the Fittest, Buried Alive and Greater Good. This applies to Constructed too obviously but since this more of an EDH thing I'm focusing on that aspect for now. Anyways, Meren here is A) in the right colors and B) great at supporting these kinds of combos because she can always recur your key cards as needed. This is especially true if you're playing a Skullclamp, Contamination deck that abuses recursive beaters such as Bitterblossom, Bloodghast and Nether Traitor. As always these kinds of decks usually love to have things like Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos floating around because they can make it almost impossible for creature-based strategies to compete.
Global Grade B
Mizzix of the Izmagus: Another "I'm a Commander" card that doesn't realistically have applications outside of EDH. Much like Arjun she seems like a solid combo general and I can easily envision scenarios in which you kill the table off 1-2 turns after resolving her. After a Ponder, Impulse and Intuition your spells are only going to cost 1-2 mana tops which seems exceptionally powerful. She feels like Omniscience to me (I'm being hyperbolic but you get what I'm saying) in the sense that you can chain draw spells and tutors together for basically nothing until you assemble your combo kill. As I previously explained with Arjun the current de facto General for that strategy is Melek, Izzet Paragon and as someone who's never built the deck (and only played against it and handful of times) I have absolutely no idea which of these 3 is the best of the bunch. I know a (potentially) broken General when I see one and I don't doubt that she's a solid option but I couldn't tell you one way or another if Mizzix here is superior. My gut says that Mizzim here will be the new top-tier choice but I'll defer to EDH experts on this one. Otherwise she's clearly trash in Constructed because way too much has to go right for her to do work. Still, again, this is a degenerate General so people looking for something competitive can definitely turn to her.
Constructed/Cube Grade N/A
EDH Grade A
Closing Thoughts: Since this isn't an EDH forum the only must-have staple is Meren of Clan Nel Toth. In addition to being a solid General she's a fantastic addition to the 99 and could see play in any BGx Constructed/Cube deck as well. You could completely remove the "Experience Counter" line of text and it realistically wouldn't matter because a cheap threat that Raise Deads is still fine and it really doesn't take much for her to start Animate Deading your key threats. As long as you're playing a creature-based deck there's always an argument to playing a couple of her in the MD. Otherwise the only standout playable in my mind is Karlov of the Ghost Council. Ajani's Pridemate with a built-in Terminate/Unmake activated ability seems ridiculously powerful to me but you do kind of need to pair him with things like Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant to get him to shine. Unlike Meren you can't just jam him into any WB deck and expect him to carry you to victory. That being said he's a 2 drop who can absolutely win games on his own which is why I'm happy enough to urge my readers to acquire him. I know that I'm going to happily play 4 in a ton of lists in the near future.
Blade of Selves: WOW! Just, WOW! This card is going to single-handidly redefine the way that we look at Equipment usage in multiplayer. You know that card Rite of Replication? Imagine getting that every turn. For 4 mana. YEAH. The ability to consistently replicate your Eternal Witnesses/Mulldrifters/Gray Merchant of Asphodels/Sun Titans/Sylvan Primordials/etc. is an enormous game because for people like me this will nearly affect 100% of the creatures in 100% of our decks. I am blown-away by how powerful this effect is and I cannot wait to start messing around with it. I think that at "6 CMC" it's too slow for the ultra-competitive versions of my decks but for everything else this is going to be my new de facto equipment. Not "might be," not "could be," this will be. I actually think that cards like Umezawa's Jitte and Batterskull are incredibly overrated because they don't actually do anything relevant in my mind. Jitte is decent at killing small creatures but otherwise I don't really care about lifegain nor creature-based combat and I can't remember the last time that I've played a deck that's won by attacking someone multiple times with a midrange threat. I'm more of a "one-and-done" kinda guy who would rather make a Bonehoard Unblockable or clear the path with a Toxic Deluge/Mutilate. In smaller games I can see the value in these types of threats but in bigger 4+ player games filled with ramp/card draw/combo kills/Titans/etc. I really don't care if someone takes the time to mess around with these kinds of Equipment. I've also always disliked running Swords in general so I'm always happy to field new and powerful alternatives. They're always useless against some of the players and back-breaking against others which means that they often lead to early exits in otherwise prolonged games. This extends to Cube moreso than other formats because I hate taking the time to Cube with friends only to have someone die on turn 5 to a card that they couldn't interact with. Before your scream "hypocrite" just remember that I'm not opposed to uninteractive kills in general. I simply like to make sure that if I'm playing a BS deck that I get it over with quickly and not merely kill someone off 15 minutes into a 2 hour game. When it comes to Constructed/EDH I don't care for most Equipment because I find that they're too low-impact when you're not playing a deck that wins by turning creatures sideways (hint: mine never do). I know that people seem to love Jitte and treat it like some amazing support player but I think that it's mostly trash against everything but the weakest decks/strategies at the table. Rant aside what I love about Blade of Selves is that this card has legitimately powerful MP applications. My deck full of powerful utility creatures with strong ETB triggers can employ it to generate absurd amounts card advantage. I don't care about hitting someone for 8 and gaining 8 life. I do however want to Rite of Replication my Gray Merchant of Asphodel. I'm personally slamming this into my Cube and you better believe that I'm going to be jamming it in my Constructed and EDH decks as well. It works with all of the creatures that you want to play anyways so I'm positive that this will be a big role-player for quite some time. This is the first time in a long time that I've been actively excited to jam a piece of Equipment in one of decks and I cannot wait to see this thing in action. It's my favorite card in the set and it's so not remotely close that it's not even funny.
Global Grade A+
Sandstone Oracle: I love this card so much. Finally Red has a threat that it can cheat into play with Goblin Welder, Trading Post and/or Daretti, Scrap Savant in order to draw cards. No more terrible Staff of Nin! Between Faithless Looting and Daretti himself it's easy to get him in the bin and then it's just a matter of "Trash for Treasureing" him back. This is an amazing addition to that archetype, be in Constructed or EDH, so please grab these if you enjoy playing that archetype. With respect to generic ramp decks this card is better than it looks. Take your uber basic 4x Wild Growth, 4x Utopia Sprawl/Carpet of Flowers, 4x Basalt Monolith, 4x Somberwald Sage/Worn Powerstone deck. That's as ABC as you can get. This card allows you to dump your hand on turns 1-3 and then on turn 3-4 you can instantly refill the whole thing. From there it should be extremely easy to keep playing ramp and threats all the while knowing that people will never be able to run you out of cards. Even if they answer your threats, who cares? You can always Divine Favor into more! Outside of Reanimator/Ramp this is a solid 7 drop that will almost always provide value so you can almost think of it as a Diluvian Primordial of sorts. For colors such as Black and White that can easily Blink/Recur threats this is especially appealing because always having as many cards as the player with the most is kinda sweet. This is especially true in Blue-based metas that may be plagued with cards like Mystic Remora and Rhystic Study. It's clearly not on the same level as actual Primordials but it's pretty damned close so if you're merely looking for another generic beater to fill out the top of your curve. If you can reliably draw ~4 cards with this thing then it's amazing which means that for some players in some metas this is going to be solid option to consider in basically any shell that can reliably hit 7 mana.
Constructed/EDH Grade C+
Cube Grade D
Scytheclaw: I've never seen Quietus Spike be a relevant card so my default assumption in that this thing is unplayable. I need to stress that this is NOTHING like Sorin Markov and/or Magister Sphinx. There is a universe of difference between instantly setting someone's health to 10 (especially in formats such as EDH) and playing a card that requires a creature dealing combat damage. Ultimately this isn't a card that will actually kill a player off on its own nor does it have much relevance in a MP setting. It's too slow and conditional given that you need to support it with other things to actually finish the job. Until shown otherwise I have no reason to think that this card will be a key player in the global multiplayer sphere.
Global Grade D
Seal of the Guildpact: In EDH this will never edge-out Gilded Lotus and it's too close to Caged Sun to play the "big mana" role for ramp decks. In Constructed it's way too slow and since it's too conditional for Cube I don't expect this thing to see any play. I think that people tend to overrate these kinds of cards in general because they often don't realize that they're useless for Artifacts/activated abilities/etc. and that always matters more than you think. I get that you can chain things like Impulse and Steam Augury together on the cheap with one of these play and maybe combo off with a Storm finisher or whatever but even then this will never be the best way to support that strategy. You don't see Pearl Medallion et al. in every Constructed/EDH deck of their respective colors for a reason. A 5 mana variation with a marginal upside isn't a powerful Magic card and won't see much play outside of niche UR, UW or BUR combo decks.
Global Grade D
Thought Vessel: Now this is a home-run. Wizards legitimately hit the ball out of the park with this design. Multiplayer decks frequently lean on busted card draw spells such as Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, Necropotence, Greater Good, Syphon Mind, Ad Nauseam, Necrologia, Consecrated Sphinx, Recurring Insight, etc. and sometimes you really do need a hand size greater than 7. For someone like me who plays in big 6-8 player games turn 1-2 Thought Vessel into Syphon Mind is a huge game and that's not exactly for a lot to go right. After all, Reliquary Tower is too expensive for your average-Joe and since Spellbook and its many variants are all completely unplayable from a competitive perspective the casual scene has been in dire need of having this effect printed on a powerful + affordable card. I love that Wizards is trying to get people to play with more ramp and this is the perfect way to go about about it in my mind. I've always said that I'd much rather run out a Mind Stone on turn 2 than some dorky creature and you can bet your boots that this will be replacing those in my lists with large amounts of card draw. To anyone out there who questions the power-level of a Prismatic Lens, don't. I've played a number of Fractured Powerstones/Prismatic Lenses/etc. in competitive Constructed/EDH lists because you frequently can't afford to have your mana rocks ETBT. You need to be able to dump your entire hand as quickly as possible (often by turn 2-3) and that often means using that 1 immediately in order to cast another piece of ramp. In that sense this is a legitimately competitive card that just so happens to have limitless casual applications as well. I'm a huge proponent of anything that can get people to play with more ramp in their lists so even if you have to trick them, hey, that's fine with me! Much like Everflowing Chalice and Mind Stone I consider this to be an instant staple that people should actively acquire for current/future decks. This is especially true for Blue Mages out there who want to use Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, Recurring Insight, Consecrated Sphinx, etc. to draw all of the cards.
Global Grade C
Closing Thoughts: Blade of Selves and Thought Vessel are incredibly solid 2 drops that can make the cut in countless archetypes across every major mutiplayer format. The casual scene has desperately needed an affordable alternative to Reliquary Tower and slapping it on a generic ramp spell is exactly what the doctor ordered. Otherwise the Blade is an easy 1-2 of for every value-based deck loaded with creatures that have strong ETB triggers. It really is like Rite of Replicationing every turn for 4 mana and past a certain point that effect just plain isn't beatable for fair decks. Clearly it's too slow to beat dedicated combo/MLD/etc. and other unfair strategies but for the 99% who play fair, interactive decks this thing is absolutely perfect. With respect to Vessel it also transcends any one archetype/strategy because you can literally jam ramp in any of your decks and you'll probably see a noticeable increase in speed, consistency and power. I guarantee you that things like Carpet of Flowers and Basalt Monolith are the best cards that no one is playing so you may as well start somewhere even if it's simply a budget Reliquary Tower for your Recurring Insight decks.
Command Beacon: Let's get something out of the way right off the bat. This is a land that taps for mana and that has a useful effect. As such there's a floor on how bad it can be in EDH. People who argue that these kinds of cards are "bad/weak/marginal" aren't suggesting that the effect, in a vacuum, is actively detrimental. It's clearly not. Rather, they're arguing that running colorless lands comes with a very real opportunity cost in the sense that they take the place of other colorless lands which you could also be running. Decks can only support so many, especially if you're playing a ~3+ color General, so almost nothing is a "must play" when it comes to your mana base. This is especially true in a format where some of the best Red spells are things like Blood Moon and Ruination so don't start thinking that nonbasic lands don't carry inherent risks. Your deck isn't "strictly better" just because it has fewer Basics. When I personally read this card I'm unimpressed. The ability to save some mana on my Commander in the mid-to-late stages of the game doesn't entice me to start jamming this into my lists. It's not a bad effect, please don't misunderstand otherwise, I simply wouldn't run this over many alternatives. That being said it's certainly an interesting effect and it's one that I think players will need to test for themselves. Every meta is different with respect to speed + size + competitiveness so it's entirely possible for these kinds of lands to do work. I personally play a lot of ultra-cutthroat EDH, think turn 3-5 wins and as such I can't envision many scenarios in which I can take advantage of this specific ability. However, for someone who plays 25 turns of magic over 2.5 hours paying 5 for an otherwise 13 mana General may very well be a relevant play in a huge % of your games. That's the thing about utility lands; there's no magic answer that fits everyone. I can't tell you how good Homeward Path will be for you. It could worthless or it could be the best card in your deck and everything in between. This card could easily be useless because maybe you're playing a 5 color deck that never casts its in General in the first place. Maybe it's amazing in your Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest deck because you literally can't win without him. There's simply no easy answer and it's going to depend largely on what you're already running and how badly/frequently/consistently you need to stick your general in order to win. I realize that you can make that argument for any card but I'm mostly here to shove the "Rhystic Studys" down your throat until you start coughing them up. When it comes to cards such as this my "expertise" doesn't account for much because this card doesn't have such a cut-and-dry power-level.
Closing thoughts: The thing is playable but unexciting.
Top 5 Cards of the Set
5. Mystic Confluence
4. Mizzix's Mastery
3. Skullwinder
2. Grasp of Fate
1. Blade of Selves
Wizards knocked it out of the park with this one. I tip my hat to the design team because they clearly knew what they were doing and what people wanted to see. Myriad is a home-run mechanic that I hope see many, many times in the future and I want them to explore as much of its design space as possible. Otherwise they created a throng of new staples that can see play in countless shells/archetypes/strategies and made sure to include things for casuals and competitives alike. Even the cards that "didn't quite get there" or that I may have given a relatively low grade are still relatively fun and powerful and I fully expect to play against (and lose to) most of them at some point in my life. If every release could be as successful as this one I would die a happy man because of what it would mean for the future of Magic. I can't wait to get my hands on some of these cards and to start fooling around with them because they're some of the most powerful, unique and awesome multiplayer playables that we've seen in some time.
Overall Set Grade: B-
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
It's an instant so it can change battles, it draws cards or relevant dead guys and it does so thrice.
Oh. Uhm... Isn't the Sandstone Oracle also happy in white decks?
My meta: 3 or 4 player free for all, anything goes but boring games or broken decks cause a vote to end that game.
-2/-2 isn't killing a creature. You have to pump -4/-4 into any worthwhile threat and since both other modes are "draw a card" (one way or another) I don't see why this would see any more play than Annihilate does (which is none). I understand that sometimes it can "Sudden Spoiling" if they run a lot of small things into a bunch of your medium-to-small things but that rarely-if-ever occurs in my games. I don't think that it's a better card than Profane Command, another card that sees next-to-no play, and since you can only afford to run so much spot removal in MP that usually has to be reserved for cheap spells such as Slaughter Pact, Go for the Throat, Snuff Out, Murderous Cut, etc. For this card to see play the first mode would have to actually kill a creature because as it stands it's way too expensive for way too niche of an effect. And no, I don't really want to play with an instant version of "Harrowing Journey" as my fail-case. The 3 life matters because you're not getting a discount on the mana at all and, let's face it, it's not as though people are clamoring to play with Jace's Ingenuity. A bad version of an already weak card isn't very enticing. If the draw didn't cost life, ok, sure, I might consider that. You don't want to jam things like Necrologia in 100% of all decks, especially if Gray Merchant of Asphodel is banned in your meta. Since it does I can't bring myself to actually call it playable because I would never add it to any of my decks/Cubes nor do I think that anyone else should. -2/-2 is just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too weak for a 5 CMC removal spell and if you ever have to double-up on the effect then you're sad. Since I expect that to be the case far more often than not (Hell, you need all 3 just to kill a Titan) I'm extremely underwhelmed but the thing.
That being said my analysis of the card is lazy at best so I'll update that entry. I'm mostly bitter at how freaking bad it is compared to the Blue one.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I can see where Thought Vessel will be useful, hello Trade Secrets!
This set has the most cards I'm interested in since Innistrad. We've had a few dud sets so far, but this one actually has a few playables for us MP/EDH players.
That said, there's very few 4-of's I'll be buying, mainly just singles to bump up some of my decks.
Corpse Augur, BLADE OF HOLY CRAP THIS IS RIDICULOUSLY OVERPOWERED!!!!!!, Grasp of Fate and Skullwinder look like the only 4-of's I'll be picking up so far, maybe a set of Mizzix's Mastery too.
Prices will dictate the numbers of course.
I simply think the dumbest deck of all time will be a deck full of ETB effects with Blade.
<cue card MP ban>
.....Just sayin
What did you have in mind?
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
We'll have to agree to disagree on Wheel. I maintain that it's absolutely awful in fair decks and that it's virtually impossible to significantly benefit from resolving one. In the context of unfair decks, yes, I love the card. It's fantastic. I still think that it's absurdly overrated in fair decks though. In fact, it's straight-up unplayable as far as I'm concerned. I realize that every meta is different but it's just one of those cards that's never been good for anyone in our circles. It, much like cards such as Jace/Goyf/Jitte/etc. is amazing in duels but in multiplayer it's hopeless outclassed and/or actively bad in most instances. I just don't understand how you can put that card in your fair deck and expect to consistently put yourself in a winning position by resolving it. I've played against the card a fair amount in Cube which is the best example that I can think of when it comes to fair decks playing Wheel. It wasn't a card that boasted a significant win % and frequently sat in the SB. Far more often than not it was a mostly dead-draw that figured to help everyone else out as much as you. After all, when you're playing Battlecruiser Magic like we do it doesn't really matter what your hand contains as long as it has cards. This isn't like Limited where you're sifting through marginal commons waiting for your big rares to pop up. Everything is either ramp, a draw spell or some absurd bomb and it really doesn't matter how/where/when you draw them. We had to cut the card eventually (this happened after we started moving away from 2 card combo kills in the Cube) because it stopped being played period. We cut Jace (the good one) for the same reason. No matter how good these cards are in duels/in the right setting they can also be downright terrible. I can obviously only speak for myself but these kinds of cards have always been actively bad for us and I'm going to preach what I know.
With respect to the Rite, I swear that I read it 3-4 or times and still came to the conclusion that you didn't get a token. I don't know how, I'm just an idiot I suppose, but that changes things. I think that I read the thing correctly the first time (I knew that I wanted to play in Wildfire decks) but for some reason when I looked at it again to write my review I was convinced that you didn't get the token yourself. It still has the problem that your opponents don't have any incentive to gift you a win but at least "choosing to do nothing" doesn't stop the card cold. I'll update my review shortly.
With respect to the Vessel, not every deck is 2 or more colors and there's no reason why lists can't run more than Signets. This is especially true in formats such as EDH. I've seen Reliquary Tower do insane work in Ad Nauseam decks, Recurring Insight decks, Necrologia decks, Necropotence decks, the list goes on and on. I've also played literal Fractured Powerstone in a number of those (this is EDH mind you) because there's only so many mana rocks that ETBU. Moreover, it's important to remember that your meta is small so you don't see strings of Syphon Minds every game. That's a turn 3 play off of a Vessel and for someone like me who plays in ~8 player games I'd like to keep those cards if at all possible. I've also seen countless people play Land Tax decks only to discard many, many cards to hand size and so I can certainly think of ways to make it relevant. This is of course ignoring the typical Blue BS as seen on cards like Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, Consecrated Sphinx, Recurring Insight, etc. Powering those cards out is no joke and there's a lot of value in keeping everything that you draw. Hell, Forbid alone is enough incentive to shoot past 7. Besides, real talk, how many decks do you actually see with ramp in them? Not because they're bad, don't get me wrong, but because casual players just plain don't add them to their decks? Ramp is criminally underplayed in my opinion and for the life of I don't understand why more people don't play Karoos, Mind Stone, Basalt Monolith and other absurdly powerful Magic cards. Hell, even Hedron Archive has vastly exceeded my expectations. I thought that it was a bad Worn Powerstone but in practice the card is actually very good. Still, the fact remains that only a trivial % of the MP decks that you see posted include ramp and anything that Wizards can do to change that is a step in the right direction in my mind. People like that effect and actively want to play with it to the point where you see Spellbook played in nonzero decks. Putting in on a legitimately decent card is a-ok with me.
With respect to "is Fractured Powerstone a home-run," I've played it in a number of competitive monocolor EDH decks. Go ahead and look up the number of mana rocks that ETBU and that tap for actual mana (not fake mana like Jet Medallion). It's significantly fewer than you probably think. This is the first one since Fellwar Stone with a relevant line of text (that comes to mind anyways, I don't count Prismatic Lens and the Talismans are only playable in multicolor decks).
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
But your evaluation of Blade of Selves and Skullwinder seem a bit enthuastic. There is no reason to assume that your spell is so much stronger than theirs. The Blade on the other hand is a terrible draw in any head-ups situation. Playing mostly 3 to 4 player games I just don't find them that much exciting. Good cards, definitely. But more than that? I would have to play them to say.
You're not the first person to say this to me. Is there something that I'm missing? I'm not trying to be argumentative, I just can't think of a compelling reason to play it in White decks over cards like Sun Titan, Luminate Primordial, Angel of Serenity, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Iona, Shield of Emeria, etc. White is good at making land drops but it doesn't have much in the way of actual ramp so these kinds of middling 7 drops don't really interest me. This is a great card to cast on turn 3 after you've emptied your hand but on turn 7 I'm not looking for a 4/4 flier and some cards. Rather, I want my big finishers to be big finishers and not some conditional draw spell. The reason why I like the card in Red and Green is because Red is very good at cheating it into play and the hand size thing works well with Faithless Looting type effects. When it comes to Green, again, you can run out a ton of Wild Growths and Basalt Monoliths to jam one on turn 3 and draw back up to 6 or 7. With White aren't you usually just creeping up to 7 lands and casting it the fair way? That's not unplayable or anything, don't get me wrong, I'm just wondering why people seem to be interested in playing this in White. The color lacks card draw, I get that, but there's already things like Mind's Eye and Staff of Nin that you can cast the "fair and slow" way. The problem has never been that "options don't exist period." Rather, it's always been "the options are all expensive and Artifact-based." As such I personally don't see why another expensive Artifact-based solution figures to significantly benefit the color. It's possible that I'm overlooking the Emeria, the Sky Ruin synergy and that maybe this thing is a total bomb in the later stages of the game.
Maybe I should put this another way. This card, to me, is "as good" in White as it is in any color. If you're just playing 7 lands, casting this and drawing cards, how does White specifically come out on top? Is it just because the color doesn't have any card draw and not because the card is actually good? Like, if Black/Blue don't want this because "it's a bad card" (or whatever), do winning White decks want it? Or do losing White decks want it so that they can say that they drew cards? Again, I'm just trying to to spark some discussion because you're not the first person to tell me this but I personally don't see it. My personal stance is that if no color but White wants to cast this "the fair way" then I don't see why White would be happy to field it. if, however, we're operating under the premise that this is a good card for any deck of any color then that's worth discussing too. As of now I don't have this labeled as a generic "Primordial" but maybe I should. Maybe this is a generically good card for any deck of any color. If anyone has any input on this topic I'd love to hear it. Is this a solid 7 drop for every deck of every color?
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
When it comes to the Blade I think that it's mostly a difference of meta size. For someone like me there's basically no such thing as a "head's up" situation. When you sit down at a 6-8 player game (like I do) when someone wins it's not by an inch but rather by a mile. What I generally face is people all trying to play "infinite value" decks that bounce/recur/blink/revive powerful creatures and spells ad nauseam. When someone eventually wins it's off of a card like Insurrection or Upheaval or Exsanguinate. This is because it's virtually impossible to grind people down when everyone is just mass blinking/bouncing/recurring their threats which are always things like Eternal Witness/Clones/Titans/Primordials/etc. This is why it doesn't register with me when people say "Mortivore is bad at killing the last player off" or "Syphon Mind is a weak topdeck when you get the final 2-3 players." I never find myself "in the finals" because there almost never is "a finals." Blade, for someone like me, is Rite of Replication every turn for 4-6 mana. When the card is dead, and it will go dead, I will have either already lost or already won an enormously large % of the time. What I personally see when I read that card is something that says "no, I actually just win these value wars." It's not possible to beat someone who's replication his Gray Merchant of Asphodels and/or Sylvan Primordials and since the plan is obviously to cast the Blade as a 6 drop and "surprise people" they need to have the answer right then and there or the game probably just ends.
Now, I am in no way, shape or form saying that my games look like your games. In fact, there's absolutely no way that your 3 player games have the same dynamics/politics/nuances as my 8 player monstrosities. Every meta is different and there's no one right or wrong way to analyze multiplayer games in that sense. The example that I always turn to is Carpet of Flowers. For some of us, myself included, we've had to emergency ban the card on numerous occasions because it's literally a better version of Sol Ring that you get to play 4 of in a format with a free mulligan. I know that on exactly turn 1 it's worse but until you've played against it in a format where someone is casting an Island every turn don't do mental gymnastics to try and argue that it's a weak/marginal/conditional card. In a duel? Sure. In a 3 player game? Sure. In an 8 player game where everyone wants to play Blue/Black/Green and owns Fetchs/Shocks/etc.? Yeah no. Still, hey, they card might be terrible for you. I could easily see that being the case. Ultimately there's no one right answer but the same time that doesn't make either of us inherently right or wrong. I'm excited about the Blade because that card is "never bad when it matters" for someone playing 8 player games. Still, hey for someone who plays small 3-4 player games I can easily see it being weaker.
With respect to the Skullwinder, my personal experiences differ from yours. Someone has a bad draw, a bad deck, their graveyard exiled, cards that I can beat, they're going to lose, they're my ally, I need them to recur a card so that we can answer a threat in play, on and on and on. Again, this boils down to 8 vs 3 player games moreso than anything else because when you tell me "everyone almost always a great card to recur" (or something along those lines, I'm not trying to put words in your mouth but you get the idea) that's not in-line with what I've experienced for the past decade. People miss land drops. People pull out a homebrew that didn't quite get there. People play decks with a weaker gameplan than you. Far more often than not this card will have a mostly irrelevant drawback as far as I'm concerned and I'm more than happy to play an E.Witness that's a better blocker and that's easier to cast. Moreover, I'm also saying that I'm fine with initiating a 2-horse race as my fail-case. Anyone who's ever played with/against Trade Secrets probably knows what I'm talking about. The fact that one other player benefits isn't actually a big deal from an overall win % perspective. If you build up two titans that face-down one another "in the finals" that's still way better than trying to beat ~6 players "the fair way." That is, even when there are no "soft spots" to pick on the sheer fact of the matter is that a "50% chance to win" still beats 12.5% or 25% or whatever the average is given the number of players. Clearly there's more to it than that but you know what I'm trying to say. You'll still take a coinflip if your baseline probability of winning is 20% or 25% or whatever. Am I saying that it's always 100% drawback free? Absolutely not. I recognize that some % of the time E.Witness will vastly out-perform it. Why this doesn't bother me is because costs matter a great deal when it comes to multiplayer so if E.Witness is an $8.00 card then it's simply not an option for most players. If an arguably weaker version is, hey, I'm in! Again, the key concept that I need to stress here is that "the 2-horse race" is a perfectly acceptable fail-case and a huge % of the time you can target the guy who missed 3 land drops at no real cost. The power-ceiling of the card is absurd and even under nightmare scenarios you're not unhappy with the result.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
In all seriousness though, I agree with you. I can't think of any good mono white decks want to wait until turn 7 to play this fairly and hope that the clause doesn't screw you over by that stage of the game. I mean, if you're playing mono white, you're probably playing some sort of token/white weenie/equipment/life gain strategy, in which case all of the following cards are probably going to be better:
Skullclamp
Mask of Memory
Puresteel Paladin
Mentor of the Meek
Sky Hussar
Well of Lost Dreams
Land Tax + Scroll Rack
Or even ye old Mind's Eye at 5 mana. 7 mana just seems like a LOT in mono white to me...
WUBG Atraxa Superfriends
WRBG Saskia's Angry
UBRG Yidris Valuetown
WUBR Breya "not just for infinite combos anymore" Etherium Shaper
mana]W[/mana]UR Narset the Nerfed
WBG Ghave counters madness
BRG Prossh, Token Master
UBG Tasigur Seedborn Control
WU Brago Bouncy Castle
WB Karlov Voltron
B Erebos/Drana MBC
R Feldon jank
Still not with you on the black Confluence though.
But hell, I'm playing a small and pretty fair meta, that probably helps.
My meta: 3 or 4 player free for all, anything goes but boring games or broken decks cause a vote to end that game.
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Multiplayer is the main format we play and most games in our area are 5-6 player. This may sound biased, but never once i've found Prid3's evaluatons to fail on delivering.
Metas aside, the main issue i have with some comments here, are bout the reprints/functional reprints. Skullwinder will do wonders in ours games since Eternal Witness costs on average, in our currency, 3 times the amount it cost on USD. Witness goes for something like R$30,00( brazilian money, but i suppose you guys knew it )and that's a lot, some jobs pay less than that for a day of work. So, not trying to start a flame war or saying that Prid3 is always right, but as far i'm concerned, being reprinted or having acess to similar effects is also an important thing when discussing multiplayer games, especially if it's kitchen table games, or working on a budget.
Btw, i've also used some of your advices when build decks Xyx, so thanks, and keep doing your good job guys.
I'm legitimately not sold on the fact that "I'm right." I never really considered the fact that the Oracle could be used a generic 7 drop for any deck of any color to act a pseudo Primordial. Clearly it's not Sylvan Primordial, no one here is suggesting otherwise, but is it that far off from being a Diluvian Primordial? Not really no. I think that this is a legitimately interesting discussion point because even in White, let's face it, there's so many ways to Blink this thing and with Emeria, the Sky Ruin he's easy to recur as well. That sounds pretty good to me actually. I think that I may have jumped the gun on this one and it's entirely possible that it is perfectly fine to play this guy "the fair way." Again, I'm interested in hearing what other people think about it.
Not in cutthroat metas where every deck has Fact of Negation, Swan Song, Counterspell, Mana Drain, Cryptic Command, Force of Will, etc. There's a lot of "untap, cast my broken mana, cast a bunch of discard spells, go off with Exsanguinate" or something similar. This is especially true for Necropotence decks which is relevant in formats such as EDH when your general is something like Zur the Enchanter or Sidisi, Undead Vizier. "Competitive Magic" basically means "Blue Magic" for someone like me (Blue/Black/Green) so a lot of times it's not as simple as "cast Ad Nauseam and win." You often need to dig deep for targeted discard, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, etc. but at the same time you still need your rituals and combo pieces and such too. It's no walk in the park to craft a 7 card combo hand that can fight past multiple pieces of interaction. In that sense there's a lot of value in keeping 15 or 20 card hands fueled by cards like Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, Syphon Mind, Recurring Insight, etc. Any deck can blindly combo-off early on and hope for the best. That only takes you so far. More often than not the safer bet is to wait until you can stick a Defense Grid, cast a Thoughtseize or two and wait untl you have Swan Song backup.
All of my competitive Blue/Black decks play things like Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, Syphon Mind, Recurring Insight, Consecrated Sphinx, etc. and mana ramp. I think that it's an extremely competitive magic card in that sense.
The pricetag is what initially turned me off too. To expand on my reasoning a bit, I personally don't see a 4/4 flier and see a "game ending threat" so what I mostly see is 7 mana for a conditional draw spell. I know that "conditional" isn't the most fair description, I'm not suggesting that you'll frequently get no value from it, but it doesn't read "draw 4 cards" or whatever. I think that this is a card that most of us will simply have to play with before we can get a feel for its power-level. 7 is a lot of mana but if it draws ~4 cards on average then it's quite savage.
Isn't it still roughly $8.00 at most LGSes and close to that online? To the best of my knowledge it's not an inexpensive card to acquire.
Don't stress the language barrier. You did an excellent job of communicating your thoughts and ideas! Anyways, I think that my opinions will more accurately reflect your own experiences because we both play in large large metas. The difference between 3-4 and 5-6 is significant in my experience which is why when I generally "butt heads" with someone over a card evaluation it's usually in the context of "small meta" vs "large meta." Either way I wanted to touch on the fact that I've heard your story time and time again. That is, people outside of Canada and the US frequently have trouble obtaining certain cards for reasonable prices which is why these "functional reprints" of sorts are always so exciting.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Every now and them, when we go to our lgs and meet with some random guys playing there, we invite them to play with us, and it's really funny to watch those damned "duel duds" get their asses handed back to them, in a silver plate. I know that its a meta thing but never once i saw my friend lose with is Waste Not deck, and our lgs if filled with competitive modern players. So yeah, the game does get out of control when you cross the 4 players threshold.
Btw, even a worst version of Eternal Witness, is still ridiculous helpful. Even so, im finding a little hard to like Blade of Selves, it's so OP that i can't see it staying on the table long enough to even equip it to something.
The joke in our meta is Jace, the Mindsculptor being a 4 mana Brainstorm. We had to cut it from our Cube eventually because it went from being a card that saw "some play" to "little play" to "no play" to "why is this still in the Cube?" Every time someone cast the thing (be it Cube/Constructed/EDH) it would come down, tick once and die. This is why I have such a negative outlook on PWers in general and explains why I'm basically never excited to see new ones.
Waste Not is RIDICULOUS lol. My current favorite deck casts it on turn via Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Lotus Petal, Gemstone Caverns, Dark Ritual, etc. into a turn 2 Dark Deal, Delirum Skeins, Pox, Ill-Gotten-Gains, etc.
I think that Blade of Selves basically pays for itself after one activation in ~6 player games so even if you run it out "as a 6 drop" that doesn't seem bad to me. I hope that you're at least going to test it it :).
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
When talking about Meren you mentioned that skullclamping a 1/1 doesn't trigger an xp counter. Why not?
BChainer, Dementia Master(Big Mana/Reanimator)
BRRakdos, The Showstopper (Mass Life Loss/Ramp)
BUThe Scarab God (Zombie Tribal/Control)
BWKarlov of the Ghost Council (Life Gain)
BGJarad, Golgari Lich Lord (Stompy/Dredge)
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher (Tokens/Non-infinite Combo)
Great idea, I'll start doing that.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Woops, for some reason I must have been thinking about like a "whenever you sacrifice a creature" trigger or something like that. That clearly triggers an Experience Counter.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
It's true that the card requires multiple creatures in play to become a big threat, which isn't really a problem for me. Boardwipes are rare in my meta, so getting multiple creatures in play is common.
Pair the card with goodies like Smallpox and you have yourself an instant army. Ogre Slumlord can help gain a sizable army in a short time. Think about stacking the triggers properly with Smallpox.
With the latest Eldrazi we have even more options to get creatures with a self-sacrificing ability it's very easy to trigger the ability on demand. I don't see anything to dislike.
Is it even that special though? Is that much better than Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, Deathreap Ritual, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Bloodgift Demon, Lord of Extinction, Dictate of Erebos, on and on and on? Isn't basically just another boring 5 drop that doesn't provide card advantage, doesn't offer immediate value, that has a condition, that needs a board of creatures, etc.? I'm not saying that the card is outright bad or anything, a C is a C and means "a deck full of these won't be easy to beat" but is it really that much/better worse than any number of alternatives? That card, to me, is forgettable. You can put it in your deck and it'll be fine but I'm not actively excited to see it. I gave it "C-" as opposed to C or C+ mostly because it's conditional and vulnerable to mass removal. Every meta is different and I'm not trying to speak for everyone but I generally expect multiplayer tables to include Wraths which is why I'm unenthused to field too many of these kinds of threats. It's good when you hit your land drops, curve out with threats, land him, sac come things, etc. but assuming those nearly perfect conditions won't most cards look good? Wouldn't Gray Merchant also be nice on a big board? Or Dictate of Erebos? That's what separates a B from a C for someone like me. A C is a mostly replaceable card that does good work but at the same time it could be any number of alternatives.
Still, it's entirely possible for this type of trigger to be game-winning so if anyone else thinks that they'd rate it higher please feel free to speak up. When your own meta is filled with mass removal it's hard to develop a taste for these kinds of threats which is why I like to hear from other people as well.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
BChainer, Dementia Master(Big Mana/Reanimator)
BRRakdos, The Showstopper (Mass Life Loss/Ramp)
BUThe Scarab God (Zombie Tribal/Control)
BWKarlov of the Ghost Council (Life Gain)
BGJarad, Golgari Lich Lord (Stompy/Dredge)
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher (Tokens/Non-infinite Combo)