Here is my review for this set. I will go over any card that has any sort of interest, or could draw unwarranted interest (e.g. the card looks powerful but has some costs that are too difficult to overcome that people may try to work around and be disappointed with).
* = I don't think this card will be played outside of very fringe/budget decks
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed, or is for very specific decks.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = New staple in EDH. Either a flexible card for many decks, or extremely potent for specific decks.
***** = Will have a massive impact on EDH. If you're in these colors you're likely playing it.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
(I'm using my Progenitus topic to go over all the cards that pique my interest for various builds, and then largely copying/pasting it into my other topics, so if it seems like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time talking about cards that have no potential in a particular build, it's because of that)
**Distended Mindbender - Single-player discard isn't the best in EDH, although you can hit the player that doesn't have a lot of graveyard recursion for some effect. It still seems fairly mediocre.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Elder Deep-Fiend - The flash on this card combined with emerge actually makes it intriguing, as you can sacrifice something in response to something. Tapping things down at instant speed can catch people off guard and buy valuable time.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Emrakul, the Promised End - She's not as oppressive as her original form at first glance, which I guess is a good thing because this means she probably won't get banned. But mindslaver is a VERY powerful effect in EDH. The chosen player gets an extra turn so they have a chance to rebuild, but they will never get back to the board state (or hand) they had before the mindslaver. In addition, the cost reduction means that she can cost 8-10 generic mana in the mid-lategame. Compare that to the other eldrazi titans that hover around 10-11 mana as well, as well as mindslaver costing a total of 10 mana (6 to hardcast, 4 to crack). Of course the major distinction between this and her first form is that she doesn't have annihilator 6 which means cheating her out on turn 3 or 4 isn't game over for the unlucky player(s) that gets attacked. The protections are also weaker. Ultimately I think she will be a nice player in EDH and will definitely teach new players how powerful the mindslaver effect is.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Eternal Scourge - Food chain users eat your heart out. Food chain Prossh combo gets another toy to feed to food chain. This of course would also go into competitive Wanderer decks that also use Food Chain to end games quickly. Of course my wanderer build is more durdly so I won't be playing this as I hate 2-card infinites. There might be other combos that go with this though I can't think of any off the top of my head.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Bruna, the Fading Light - The more playable one of the new eldrazi angel sisters, as graveyard reanimation is more useful than Gisela being a generic midrange beatstick (Gisela is basically a smaller baneslayer angel). Still, with Karmic Guide hogging all the spotlight, plus the fact that her trigger is on cast and not ETB so it can't be looped easily, you probably wouldn't bother with Bruna unless you want more of these kinds of effects.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Brisela, Voice of Nightmares - This card is definitely scary when you note that most removal spells cost 3 or less mana, and things that can kill her at 4+ mana are fairly clunky and you can see them coming. In GW if you can somehow get Brisela plus Gaddock Teeg that's pretty close to a hard lock. Regardless, she probably won't actually meld together often, as it's hard enough to get two specific cards into play in constructed, and have fun doing that in 99-card singleton decks. You can play one of the two sisters as your general but then you're forced into monowhite. Basically, you probably will lose if someone gets her out, but it'll happen very infrequently that you don't have to warp your deck around it. Scary art though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Deploy the Gatewatch - See the Unwritten for planeswalkers. It's very obvious this will only go into superfriends decks and you want at least, like, 30 planeswalkers in the deck so you can more reliably get two walkers out of the deal. You probably want a little bit of library manipulation as well (brainstorm, scroll rack, etc.) to get the big and scary ones (like Ugin and Karn) to cheat out. If you can hit big though, you'll hit big.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Collective Effort - It can remove a fatty, an enchantment, and anthem your entire team, all at the cost of 3 mana. Tapping a bunch of untapped creatures you control means that you likely will need to be a white token deck to reliably do all three modes, but this is a solid card in white token decks.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Faith Unbroken - Could be an interesting tool for voltron decks with auras (mostly Uril, but there could be others). You get a journey to nowhere effect while doubling as an offensive aura. Seems unplayable otherwise though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Ironclad Slayer - Budget voltron decks to get back a key aura or equipment.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Selfless Spirit - One of Boros Charm's watered down modes on a body (though msot of the time you'll be saving your creatures, but saving your noncreatures, like in response to armageddon, is obviously relevant). Still, creatures are much easier to recur (Reveillark, Sun Titan, etc.).
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Sigarda's Aid - We could see a resurgence in white voltron decks on the back of this card. The fact that this is just 1 mana means it's so easy to sneak it, PLUS equipments you play immediately attach themselves to something for free and at instant speed. Flash in swiftfoot boots to fizzle a removal spell, flash in sword of X and Y to eat an attacker, flash in grafted exoskeleton in response to no blocks, etc. Every white voltron deck will play this card and it will be quite scary.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Subjugator Angel - Pricy, but could be a budget way to get an alpha strike in. Usually it's better to just go over the top with an infinite combo though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Thalia, Heretic Cathar - A fairer version of Kismet and the like, but at 3-mana with relevant stats is nothing to sneeze at. The only decks she won't affect are monocolor decks that don't have a lot of creatures and there are a couple of decks that do that (most monoblue decks) but she can slow down a lot of things. Of course the reason to pick her over said Kismet and similar cards is the ability to attack, so this is more for the creature decks that want some hatebears (or big hatebears), etc.
My decks that I would play it in: Most white creature decks
****Thalia's Lancers - Relevant stats and a tutor on a stick? Captain Sisay never looked so fair. And much like Sisay, it says "legendary card", so you can grab your Gaea's Cradle or the like, in addition to something like Elesh Norn.
My decks that I would play it in: Most white decks
**Curious Homunculus - Only for spellslinger decks. It's a fairly slow mana dork, but it can flip into a Goblin Electromancer which is certainly powerful, plus it can swing for a lot after you throw out a bunch of spells. It probably is worse than regular old Electromancer but more copies of that effect can't be bad.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Displace - Pauper gets another tool. Though it's still not bad as a budget option for blink/goodstuff decks.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Docent of Perfection//Final Iteration - I kind of don't like this guy becoming an Eldrazi. I just liked the story, going from Delver in the original Innistrad into Abberant Form in Shadows and I think the eldrazi ending ruined that story. I do like how it basically spits out delvers though. Obviously this only goes into spellslinger decks, and even then it might be too slow. Most spellslinger decks just go infinite with spells and probably have no need to make 1/1s though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Fortune's Favor - I really like the design of this card, being a fairer fact or fiction. FoF was intended to be a deep card with lots of intricacies, but in reality it doesn't really play like that because it's just too good. This is much fairer and we'll see what happens. Regardless in EDH this doesn't seem like it's strong enough.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Identity Thief - On one hand, flickering creatures is always handy. Flicker something you control, flicker out something an opponent controls to get attacker(s) in, etc. On the other hand, it sounds like it'll be more difficult to use than it should.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Imprisoned in the Moon - With the nerf to tuck, these types of cards that strand generals in play are always scary (Darksteel Mutation, Song of the Dryads, etc.), and the fact that blue now gets to jump in on the fun is scarier. In a pinch it can also hit a Gaea's Cradle or something. Most blue decks that want to play fair will likely play this card, although green and white do have these types of effects, but if you want multiple copies of this effect then it'll do good work, and if you don't have green or white this will be welcomed.
My decks that I would play it in: Most blue decks
*Lunar Force - It's Hesitation for 1 more mana but only triggers on an opponent's spell. In EDH it's too easy for an opponent to throw away a bad spell though.
My decks that I would play it in: Most blue decks
***Mausoleum Wanderer - The fact that this is 1 mana will be a huge annoyance. If you can find ways to pump its power at instant speed (flash in other spirits for example) you can catch people off guard and this can become a hard counter.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Mind's Dilation - It sounds like a hilarious effect, but it's 7-mana and if they flip a land you don't get anything, and they can hit mediocre cards, or cards that don't do anything (e.g. flip Green Sun's Zenith).
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Summary Dismissal - Counterspells that get around uncounterable spells (e.g. Supreme Verdict) are always interesting. On top of that, you get stifle. It's similar to Voidslime in a way in that it's a catch-all counterspell. While it does say "all" you usually won't be exiling more than one spell or ability (or storm trigger) so don't get your hopes up. If you can get multiple spells and/or abilities with this card though it'll be quite the blowout. The effect is certainly powerful but I don't have any decks that really want this effect. It's just nice to know that if people get cheeky with their Cavern of Souls or Boseijus, thinking their key spell is safe, you always have an out.
My decks that I would play it in: May or may not play in blue decks
**Unsubstantiate - It's Venser, Shaper Savant's ETB effect for 2-mana, although it only unsummons and not boomerangs. Regardless in combo decks this can be a useful counterspell as it's a fairly versatile card to get something out of the way temporarily while you combo out. I don't really see a place for this card in fairer decks though that want the game to go longer. It's not usually worth a card just to gain some tempo against one player. Could see use in 1v1 though.
My decks that I would play it in: Talrand
*Dark Salvation - Very mana intensive, but it's a removal spell that doubles as a token generator. If zombie tribal is a thing it could be fine. Doesn't seem very exciting otherwise.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Liliana, the Last Hope - Disentomb isn't that bad of an effect in EDH, but I don't see much space for her, and I'm not talking about comparing her to Liliana of the Veil. -2/-1 is close to nothing in EDH, and it's not worth paying 3 mana for a disentomb with a small bonus. She doesn't pass the doubling season test either.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Noosegraf Mob - There are cards that do things whenever a player casts a spell (e.g. Dragonlair Spider, Rhystic Study). The fact that there's a limited number of times this makes zombies without additional help is a bummer, especially at 6-mana. If you can put +1/+1 counters on this you can get a nice stream of 2/2s though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Oath of Liliana - Diabolic Edict that affects each opponent is always handy. Making a single 2/2 is okay for chump blocking but the edict effect is handy for superfriends decks.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Tree of Perdition - This can be a slow but lower CMC version of Sorin markov and the like. Setting life totals to something low in one huge chunk is always scary, but this can look fairer because it's a creature that needs to tap and it can't really do it again until it leaves the battlefield to reset its toughness. The dream of course is to play it in some Doran deck where you swap this toughness with a 40-life opponent to get a 0/40 creature, and then sac it to like Feed the Pack to get 40 2/2 wolves.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Gisa and Geralf - Interesting that a non-zombie creature can be used as a zombie general tribal. Still this sounds like a solid choice for zombie tribal. Note that they cost 4 mana but you usually will want to play it and then cast a zombie from your graveyard so you will usually play it later in the game.
My decks that I would play it in: Possible new deck with this as the general
****Spell Queller - In tempo decks, especially those with instant blink effects, this can be valuable. Many spells do get hit by this, notably many generals that cost 4 or less mana and since most people probably don't want their general stuck under this, they will send their commander back to the command zone and this guy will act as a straight up counterspell. Also note that this has the "Oblivion Ring" wording in that the LTB effect can be triggered before the ETB effect resolves, exiling the targeted spell permanently. It's a fair tempo card but can generate solid value when you build around it.
My decks that I would play it in: Most UW decks with blink effects and tempo gameplan
*Soul Separator - This card is quite flavorful, but it seems too mana intensive to be any good.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Nephalia Academy - Library of Leng on a land. Similar to how Reliquary Tower laughed at Spellbook, this will laugh Library of leng for decks that, for whatever reason, need this effect.
My decks that I would play it in: None
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
N/A
Here is my review for this set. I will go over any card that has any sort of interest, or could draw unwarranted interest (e.g. the card looks powerful but has some costs that are too difficult to overcome that people may try to work around and be disappointed with).
* = I don't think this card will be played outside of very fringe/budget decks
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed, or is for very specific decks.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = New staple in EDH. Either a flexible card for many decks, or extremely potent for specific decks.
***** = Will have a massive impact on EDH. If you're in these colors you're likely playing it.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
(I'm using my Progenitus topic to go over all the cards that pique my interest for various builds, and then largely copying/pasting it into my other topics, so if it seems like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time talking about cards that have no potential in a particular build, it's because of that)
MONARCH CARDS IN GENERAL - Many cards in this set make you the monarch and do things based on who the monarch is. The strength of these cards depends on the difficulty to stay as the monarch. Many cards' strength will greatly vary depending on that. My guess is that if the card only does relevant things while you're the monarch, it's not going to be very good, especially if the trigger occurs at the beginning of your upkeep. For example, Skyline Despot is very mediocre for 7-mana. I don't know if I would play it even if it made the 5/5 flier every single turn, and the fact that you have to be the monarch at the beginning of your upkeep just makes it all the more sketchier. On the flip side, something like Queen Marchesa does look playable, because she does something if someone else is the monarch, which is significantly more likely to happen than you being the monarch.
***Sanctum Prelate - Potentially shutting off many cards from being cast at just 3 mana has some value, although I imagine it will be tough to use this properly, particularly since it only hits noncreatures so you can't name the CMC of a problematic general. You'd have to specifically know what would cause your deck problems. It seems more like a value grey ogre stax piece. It could be quite good in the competitive circles though where many of the spells played are noncreature spells between 1-3 CMC so you can name a low number and shut off a lot of spells.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*****Recruiter of the Guard - CAN YOU SAY "STAPLE"? What have we learned from EDH? 3-mana tutors is the sweetspot for fair costing tutors. 3-mana creatures that tutor become staples. Imperial Recruiter is a strong card, although its price is more because of its rarity, but if it was a $10-20 card it would be played in almost every red creature deck. This guy gets dudes with toughness 2 or less. There are plenty of good ones (Karmic Guide, Eternal Witness, most clones, etc.). It also can be recurred with Sun Titan and Reveilark. I've proclaimed many cards to become EDH staples and whiffed hard on those claims, but this is as close to a surefire thing as Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter making the hall of fame. Just look at your existing white creature-based decks and see what worthwhile creatures this guy could fetch out. Chances are there's a good list.
My decks that I would play it in: Most white creature decks
***Expropriate - Very rarely will anyone let you take an extra turn and there's obviously no reason for you to choose money, so this is basically 9-mana for Time Warp + Blatant Thievery with the upside that this card doesn't target (whereas Time warp and Blatant Thievery do, which means they can backfire via Fork effects, or sacrificing the permanent in response, etc.) though this does exile itself much like all new-world-order time walk effects. That certainly is powerful, but you get what you pay for. The huge mana cost will prevent it from becoming a staple, but like all time walk effects, this is going into Narset decks and her laugh will become even more obnoxious.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Stunt Double - Another 4-mana clone with upside, this time it's tacking on flash, which is certainly a useful ability. It could be a good clone card in a draw-go control deck. However for battlecruiser/casual decks that tap out most of their mana on their turn, you probably would be better off with other clones.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Capital Punishment - This card has a Death Cloud type of feeling, although this card cannot destroy lands in play which is unfortunate for stax decks. Regardless these types of Council's Dilemma cards scale in power with more players in the game, but keep in mind that the type of deck that would play this card is probably the type of deck that would get ganged up on (stax).
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Grenzo, Havoc Raiser - Interesting card with some play to it. It will likely be done in some kind of goblin tribal swarming with tokens to get as many triggers as possible (if he's the general) or a R/x/x token deck (as part of the 99). The first ability can give you some crowd control (goad opponent's small utility creatures) and the second gives card advantage. Most notably, goading works well with his ability, as if the opponent's creatures are attacking, presumably they won't be back to block, allowing more of your guys to get in again.
My decks that I would play it in: Red token decks, or a new deck with him as the general
***Subterranean Tremors - It's an earthquake that can't hit players (meaning it can't kill planeswalkers), but at 5-mana you get a shatterstorm effect while doing 4 to each creature, which isn't too bad. Making an 8/8 is more of a bonus than anything, but it will be difficult to sweep away large creatures in general with this card. Probably only monored will play this card, but it will be playable in monored.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - A 3-mana card that can give card draw (albeit it technically can help other players, but green often has high power creatures) and is a decent mana dork at worse. In other words she can provide some card advantage and mana, the two biggest resources in EDH, albeit she's not terrific at either. This is interesting because many generals usually provide one or the other. In terms of competitiveness she won't be as good as Yisan, the Wandering Bard as repeatable tutoring is too good, but she'll be fine alternatives to Azusa, Lost but Seeking or Omnath, Locus of Mana or other monogreen stompy decks. She also looks playable as part of the 99 if you are just slamming a bunch of huge creatures.
My decks that I would play it in: Maelstrom Wanderer
***Selvala's Stampede - Flashy 6-mana sorcery. I think most people will vote for Free as that isn't real card advantage (since they're coming from your hand and not from your library). You can cheat at least one huge thing in your hand if needed since you have a vote. Hard to say what decks will really want this effect, but it's certainly powerful.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Adriana, Captain of the Guard - Essentially it's a 5-mana 4/4 general that gives a bit of an anthem effect to the team. That's fine but not very exciting. Boros is definitely lacking in the general department and red and white are the two weakest colors in EDH. We'll see if she can make boros relevant. The melee ability in general doesn't seem very strong; it's usually best to focus down players one at a time rather than attack each player and draw attention from everyone.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast - RB or RBx artifacts could be an interesting build. The +1 is fairly weak and ultimates in general are almost impossible to get without Doubling Season or other similar cards, but the -1 is solid since you should have various artifacts that you don't care about (Ichor Wellspring or perhaps already did its job (Mana Vault) and being able to get a semi-putrefy effect is solid. Basically it's a 3-mana card where you can putrefy something once a turn for up to three turns. Saccing artifacts is a cost but depending on what you sac it could even be beneficial as well. That's decent value.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Kaya, Ghost Assassin - She doesn't kill creatures so she doesn't really have an "assassin" feeling to her. In any case, if you're a WB deck that wants to get creature ETBs then maybe she's good (she's 1 mana less than Conjurer's Closet and she can target opposing creatures if necessary), but her -1 is worthless and the -2 is okay but usually is worse than blinking a creature. Keep in mind that PWs die fairly quickly in EDH unless you drop them really early (usually off the back of sol ring or friends) or you set up a monster pillow fort.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*****Leovold, Emissary of Trest - Sultai stax incoming? This guy sounds pretty sick as a general. It greatly hinders players from gaining card advantage (plus unlike cards such as Spirit of the Labyrinth this only affects your opponents), and it is doubly insane with wheel effects (everyone discards their hand and only draws 1, while you refill like normal). Plus the one worry people have about whether or not to play certain cards is if they die before they can do anything, specifically generals. With Leovold, especially with Lightning Greaves attached to him (they need to kill the greaves and then Leovold) or countermagic backup (someone attempts to kill Leovold, you draw a card and then counter the spell), that problem is nicely alleviated. Blue, green, and black are the three best colors in EDH, and now you can make a stax deck with those colors.
My decks that I would play it in: New deck with him as the general
***Queen Marchesa - Interesting that she drops the blue from her previous form (Marchesa, the Black Rose to pick up white. She's the only monarch card that interests me as she does things when you're not the monarch, which generally happens more often than being the monarch. She is also a token generator of sorts, and the tokens actually are decent on their own (deathtouch makes for nice ground blockers in a pinch). Mardu now gets to build a token-theme deck of sorts so we'll see what options they have.
My decks that I would play it in: New deck with her as the general
???Spy Kit - I have no idea what to do with this card. There's got to be something you can do with this, since it's such a unique effect.
My decks that I would play it in: None
Here is my review for this set. I will go over any card that has any sort of interest, or could draw unwarranted interest (e.g. the card looks powerful but has some costs that are too difficult to overcome that people may try to work around and be disappointed with).
* = I don't think this card will be played outside of very fringe/budget decks
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed, or is for very specific decks.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = New staple in EDH. Either a flexible card for many decks, or extremely potent for specific decks.
***** = Will have a massive impact on EDH. If you're in these colors you're likely playing it.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
(I'm using my Progenitus topic to go over all the cards that pique my interest for various builds, and then largely copying/pasting it into my other topics, so if it seems like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time talking about cards that have no potential in a particular build, it's because of that)
ENERGY CARDS - Most energy cards I'm rating will be solely on their own merits. For example, a card like Demon of Dark Schemes which can potentially generate tons of energy at once, and can put that energy to good use. Versus something like Dynavolt Tower which will be mostly used to generate energy, and thus its playability depends on what other cards you play that can put that energy to use. This makes it difficult to rate the latter type of cards as they rely on other cards to reach their full potential, particularly when the dynamics of those cards aren't really known. Whereas something like Demon of Dark Schemes can be played as a standalone card, where you don't necessarily have to play other energy-generating cards to make it playable.
Unless the card generates a ton of energy, you usually shouldn't play the energy card unless it mana ramps you or generates some kind of card advantage. I would avoid playing cards that generate a small amount of energy but mostly only care about beating face with huge P/T.
VEHICLES - Most vehicles are just large creatures that require a crew and pure P/T is not useful in EDH. The vehicles that could be useful are those that can mana ramp or generate some kind of card advantage, either as an artifact or a creature. Crewing a vehicle isn't actually that hard since you'll have a ton of dorks lying around to crew it, so the important thing is whether or not the vehicle does anything to justify a spot.
**Angel of Invention - You often will not be putting the counters on it, so it's a 5-mana anthem that spawns 2 1/1s, which is decent value for token decks.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Authority of the Consuls - Being 1-mana is nice, although if you really want to play this card you really want to care about the lifegain. If having things ETB tapped is what you care about most, you might be better off playing something like Kismet or Blind Obedience. Despite the higher mana costs those cards are simply more potent and more aligned towards what stax/control decks want to do, whereas this card is more for a stream of lifegain triggers.
My decks that I would play it in: Oloro
***Cataclysmic Gearhulk - It's similar to Tragic Arrogance, with the difference being that Arrogance let you choose what each player kept, whereas this leaves you with a 4/5 vigilance but the opponents choose the permanents they keep. (Despite its name, Cataclysm is much different from this card, because Cataclysm was used more for being a mass land destruction card that also acted as a sweeper, whereas this is just a sweeper). In EDH that's a losing trade unless you are a dedicated blink/ETB deck to keep using this over and over. As long as there's no key permanent in play that needs to be removed (like an important general, which you can use spot removal for) and you just want to keep the board clear, it's fine.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Fumigate - It's a sad time that we may not see 4-mana sweepers in standard anymore. Regardless, this is simply not a good card. Unless you are desperate for lifegain, play more efficient sweepers.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Master Trinketeer - Maybe there's a servos/thopters deck? I'm not paying 4 mana to pump out a 1/1 otherwise.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Refurbish - White has a couple of cards that recur artifacts from graveyards, so add this to the list of decent recursion cards.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Aethersquall Ancient - It requires a lot of energy and it doesn't build up energy at a fast rate. If you can generate a lot of energy then this can keep the board clear. It's too slow on its own though. You ideally want 8 energy before playing this so you can immediately clear the board. At 7-mana if you stuff a bunch of energy cards then maybe.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Ceremonious Rejection - 1-mana hard counters are nothing to scoff at even when they're limited in scope. In the right meta this can be quite good.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Dramatic Reversal - This can't untap lands which means it's more limited in scope than Turnabout but it is only 2-mana and it still untaps your mana rocks. Spellslinger decks will probably play this as another way to make infinite mana with Reiterate.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Era of Innovation - It's a reliable but slow way to generate energy. The card drawing is nice but likely you'll play this for the energy.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Glint-Nest Crane - Passable value creature for artifact decks, but artifact decks might be more interested in playing an artifact that can do something similar.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Insidious Will - It's a cute card, but it's 1 mana too expensive for its effects. 4+ mana counterspells are extremely tricky and hard to use, particularly when Cryptic Command sets the bar for 4-mana counters.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Metallurgic Summonings - It's a 5-mana do nothing, but in the right build this can be scary. Making some creatures whenever you cast an instant or sorcery is nice, but being able to recur tons of spells back to your hand is scary. Requiring 6 artifacts in play sounds like a huge task, but when you consider that you'll likely be playing a lot of mana rocks, it shouldn't be that hard to reach. Note that the creatures created by this card are artifacts which count towards the second ability.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Padeem, Consul of Innovation - Blue version of Leonin Abunas except this can draw you cards slowly and can be your general. It doesn't look like a very strong general, though if you want a monoblue artifact general and you don't want to play Arcum Dagsson who draws obvious hate, you could try this one. As part of the other 99 it has some value, but because this doesn't have hexproof it'll be easy to remove this.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Paradoxical Outcome - My initial instinct is that this card won't be very good. I guess you could play this in response to a wrath, but you would probably be better off just countering the wrath instead of having this in your deck if there are cards you have that you are interested in saving. It is a unique effect and that's why I don't think it'll be useless, but I can't think of any situation where this would be really good.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Saheeli's Artistry - Similar to Stolen Identity in that it's a 6-mana sorcery that copies either creatures or artifacts. There are some obvious differences (Stolen Identity ciphers and needs to connect to clone again, this generally is harder to fizzle with removal spells as you will usually have two targets whereas Stolen Identity only has one, etc.), but ultimately the bar for clones is pretty high. It's decent but doesn't really stand out.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Shrewd Negotiation - These types of donate cards are mostly for Zedruu decks, but 5-mana for an exchange effect is still expensive.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Torrential Gearhulk - 6-mana is a lot, so you really want to be a dedicated draw-go deck where leaving up 6 mana doesn't fire off alarms in everyone's heads. Only hitting instants is somewhat restrictive as well, though there are plenty of good instants to get (namely counterspells and removal spells). However you really want to flashback an instant of CMC 5+ before you really get your money's worth with this card, and while there are a couple (Dig Through Time being obvious, even though it's more like a 2-mana card), there aren't numerous amounts of high-CMC instants that are useful in EDH. This does limit the value of the card.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Demon of Dark Schemes - Obviously very similar to Massacre Wurm. Most notably this gives all other creatures -2/-2, including your other creatures, whereas Wurm only hit your opponents' creatures. That does suck, but basically for every 4 creatures that die, you can pay 2B with 4 energy to reanimate a creature, so in that sense killing your X/2s isn't the end of the world. Presumably the energy sticks around even if this dies, so if it comes back you can still use that energy. Wurm can close the game quickly, mostly against enemy token decks, but this seems like it has more value overall because of the reanimation effect. Also being a 5/5 flier is not irrelevant either. Ultimately it's a mini-sweeper stapled with a card-advantage engine all on a respectable body. It's got many qualities for what you want out of your top-end.
My decks that I would play it in: Maybe Prossh
Diabolic Tutor - Don't play this card in EDH. If for whatever reason you do though, get this art. It's hilarious. Also that flavor text can be taken out of context really easily.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Eliminate the Competition - This will be for token decks where you have a ton of disposable creatures to sacrifice, but this generally seems worse than Grave Pact or other similar cards.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Fortuitous Find - Budget graveyard recursion card.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Gonti, Lord of Luxury - Basically when it ETBs you Impulse an opponent's deck, then it's a roadblock for ground creatures thanks to deathtouch. Seems like a decent value card.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Marionette Master - It's basically a 6-mana, huge version of Disciple of the Vault. While Disciple is generally better as it's 1-mana and you usually win with infinite combos anyway (thus this card potentially hitting for more life per trigger isn't that relevant), it's still a decent card for artifact decks anyway. Most of the time you'll play Disciple of the Vault as the first copy and only play this as a backup, if even that. Pumping out three 1/1 artifacts isn't irrelevant though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Midnight Oil - Seems like a slow, crappier Phyrexian Arena. in standard it could see play as multiple Oils draw you cards while the last Oil you play is the one that sets your handsize (even though that's durdly as hell and there are very few times where you have the time to play more than one oil), but in EDH you obviously can't play multiple Oils. You could find a way to donate this to an opponent, but they still get the card draw anyway.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Morbid Curiosity - You probably want to sacrifice something that's at least 3-mana before you feel like you get your money's worth. On top of that it has to be something that you don't mind sacrificing (Mulldrifter) or is beneficial for you to sac (Ichor Wellspring). Seems okay but it's quite limited in scope.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Noxious Gearhulk - 6-mana is a lot, but a creature that is unconditional removal on ETB is nice to have. However compare it to Duplicant. This card is harder to cast and doesn't exile the creature and sometimes it won't be as large in P/T, but this has menace and lifegain. That sounds like a losing trade. It's still a decent ETB value creature but I feel like Duplicant is better unless the lifegain is important.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Underhanded Designs - You have to invest mana into it, so it will be very mana intensive despite being only 2 mana. more often than not it'll just be a slow kill spell.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Cloudblazer - We did it guys! We got a Mulldrifter clone! Same CMC as mulldrifter, where you trade off the evoke and a harder color requirement for 2 life (sorry UG you can't play this card). Lifegain is not a big deal, and losing evoke is actually a big deal (mulldrifter basically let you keep risky hands if it was in your opening hand, and sometimes you want mulldrifter in the graveyard anyway), but it's still 5-mana dude that draws you 2 cards. Goes great with the obvious blink effects, graveyard stuff, etc. If you're interested in Mulldrifter and you're UW, chances are you'll be interested in him too. Redundacy for these types of effects are key.
My decks that I would play it in: Most white-blue creature-based decks, maybe Oloro
***Dovin Baan - Lock down a creature with an important activated ability (Arcum Daggson) and with some politics you may be able to keep it alive for a few turns. The -1 is alright. Unfortunately he doesn't pass the doubling season test but it is very powerful, basically Static Orb for only your opponents. UW or UWx stax decks might be interested.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Kambal, Consul of Allocation - Life gain is not a big deal. But it's a 3-mana dude that continuously drains. If you're interested in playing fair, this is a huge thorn for the noncreature-based decks. Storm decks in particular have to kill this before they go off.
My decks that I would play it in: Oloro
**Restoration Gearsmith - Creatures that recur things from the graveyard upon ETB are generally good, even if none will match up to Eternal Witness. Regardless, there are worse budget options you can play for your creature/artifact deck, particularly without requiring green.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Aetherflux Reservoir - PAY 50 LIFE. Funny enough that's more achievable than you would expect in EDH, though you obviously need to be very dedicated to lifegain, and even then it's still pretty hefty (I am questioning whether or not to really play this in Oloro, as you still need some cards that gain you an exhorbitant amount of life, such as Beacon of Immortality, before you really want this card). You can nuke one player out of the game but you really need to put your life total at a huge amount before you can shotgun down multiple players. It's also going to be embarrassing if it gets stifle'd. Regardless this is a hilarious card.
My decks that I would play it in: Maybe Oloro?
****Aetherworks Marvel - It takes some work, but again, it can help cheat on mana costs, and if you can manipulate the top of your library you can get some scary stuff out. Most likely it can see use in token decks since those generate tons of permanents. It does say "permanent you control", so that includes fetchlands, things that need to sacrifice anyway (e.g. Sakura-Tribe Elder), and so on, but I believe token decks will generate energy the fastest anyway.
My decks that I would play it in: Maybe Prossh
**Animation Module - Kind of slow, but it's a new-world card that can actually give an additional loyalty counter to a planeswalker, which is something that wizards is scared to do ever since Doubling Season started laughing.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Cultivator's Caravan - The baseline for mana rocks that make a mana of any color is 3-mana, so this lines up. The bonus this card has over other similar cards is the ability to become a 5/5 creature. If you're an aggro deck then this could be useful over other 3-mana "rainbow" rocks with the exception of Coalition Relic. If you're midrange or control though you're likely be better off with Chromatic Lantern, Commander's Sphere, etc.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Deadlock Trap - Stax decks can sometimes have trouble dealing with planeswalkers, as many of the hateful stax cards can deal with creatures, artifacts, and lands fairly well. ETBing tapped kind of sucks and you do need multiple ways to generate energy to keep a planeswalker locked down (or maybe use something like Goblin Welder to keep it flipping from battlefield to graveyard and back repeatedly), but it's nice to know this exists as an option.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Filigree Familiar - Some people compared this to Solemn Simulacrum. They're artifacts that can go into any deck, they're 2/2s, and they draw a card when they die. The difference is that this is 1 less mana, but ramp is almost always better than 2 life. It might be more appropriate to compare this to Kitchen Finks where you trade off the persist trigger (which comes with 2 extra life) for a card draw, and nobody is going crazy over Finks. While I don't think this will be stellar in EDH, it is a decent value card, and could be seen if you care about trying to reanimate this multiple times for the card draw. As said multiple times, though, the lifegain isn't that important unless you're playing against more casual, fair decks.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Foundry Inspector - Inferior Etherium Sculptor but having multiples of these effects can't be bad, and if you're a non-blue artifact deck that can't play Sculptor then w/e.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Ghirapur Orrery - In my Zedruu topic I talk about hug effects. Basically, there are two types of hug effects; those that increase players' mana (Mana Flare) and those that increase players' cards (Howling Mine). Generally cards that hug with both effects are very dangerous as those are the ones that allow players to get out of control quickly, and thus unless you're going for a pure group hug deck, you generally only want to focus on one type of hug effect. Here this card hugs both, which means this is dangerous to play, even if this doesn't always help people draw cards immediately. Basically, I don't think I would play this in Zedruu.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Key to the City - Much like many discard-outlets, you really want to make the discard cost not actually be a cost. Discard a fatty is the obvious thing, discard Squee, etc. Since you can only discard once a turn, you also want to make the unblockable effect relevant. So there will be a somewhat narrow build that wants this card. But at 2-mana it's not a huge cost.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Metalwork Colossus - Creatures with just a lot of power and toughness are not great. If you can find a way to make its CMC matter (Bosh, Iron Golem?) then maybe. Or maybe having a sac outlet while this is in the graveyard could see some use. You'll need to build around it to make it work and even then it seems alright.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*****Panharmonicon - This card is going to be in every bloody creature deck that relies on ETB effects. Hell, since this card also affects artifacts, decks with artifact ETB effects will love this card too (Spine of Ish Sah). Be prepared to see this everywhere and make dumb midrange durdle decks even dumber. If you're not on the ETB bandwagon, ready your Torpor Orbs and similar cards because this is going to be everywhere. Pick up foils because so many people will want one for their EDH deck.
My decks that I would play it in: A lot
**Scraphead Scrounger - Low CMC creatures that can come back from the graveyard on an affordable cost are always worth keeping an eye out for, even if it's going to be hard to abuse this because it requires mana and a creature sac.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Skysovereign, Consul Flagship - It has the "Titan" trigger in that it goes off on ETB or attack, which is cool. Lightning bolt is not super good, but it's repeatable and it's evasion. Tap your wood elves and oracle of mul daya and send this thing in the air. Doesn't jump off the page but it sounds solid.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Aether Hub - This is a surprisingly solid card. It's similar to Tendo Ice Bridge except if you can generate more energy this can keep tapping for colored mana. Obviously you do want a stream of energy but since it still taps for colorless it's not like you need to have multiple sources of it. At uncommon, it should be easy on the budget as well. If nothing else, it's a land that generates 1 energy in case you are built around energy.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Enemy Fastlands - Much like the Scars of Mirrodin fastlands, these will be great in low-curve decks.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Inventor's Fair - A land that you can effectively pay 5 mana to cast a Fabricate is definitely nice value, especially since this is a colorless card. Since it's not that hard to get 3 artifacts in play if you really give a damn, this can go into a lot of decks as long as there's a worthwhile artifact to fetch out.
My decks that I would play it in: Some
Here is my review for this set. I will go over any card that has any sort of interest, or could draw unwarranted interest (e.g. the card looks powerful but has some costs that are too difficult to overcome that people may try to work around and be disappointed with).
* = I don't think this card will be played outside of very fringe/budget decks
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed, or is for very specific decks.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = New staple in EDH. Either a flexible card for many decks, or extremely potent for specific decks.
***** = Will have a massive impact on EDH. If you're in these colors you're likely playing it.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
(I'm using my Progenitus topic to go over all the cards that pique my interest for various builds, and then largely copying/pasting it into my other topics, so if it seems like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time talking about cards that have no potential in a particular build, it's because of that)
PARTNER CARDS - The partner ability means it will be difficult to gauge the power level of the card, because one card could work very well with a different partner card, but the large amount of permutations available will make it difficult to quickly determine which partners stand out. Because of that, I'll be basing a partner card's power level on its own merits; would you play it as part of your 99, and could this card be passable as a standalone general, or is this card relegated to partnering with another general?
WHITE
**Duelist's Heritage - Mostly for voltron decks, but it's a way to pump up voltrons without relying on equipment or auras. Not sure if it's better than whatever is available at the time though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Entrapment Maneuver - 4-mana for a combat trick is expensive, so for this to be worth it you need to care about the tokens. However sacrificing is very potent against voltrons, and given how many voltrons soup up their P/T, this can make a lot of tokens. You likely want to reduce the number of creatures they have out though in order to make sure that they can only attack with their voltron, or find a way to only have their voltron swing in (e.g. tax with pillow forts).
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Orzhov Advokist - Pillow fort card. Make people be inclined to not attack you (Ghostly Prison taxed opponents for attacking you, while this gives them a bonus for not attacking you).
My decks that I would play it in: Zedruu
**Selfless Squire - Fogs for a turn and gets huge. There are several types of cards that fog and do some kind of benefit (Comeuppance) so if you want to have this separate from the other huge fog effects you will need to build around it. Note that its last ability triggers for all prevented damage to you, not just from this guy's abilit (e.g. Orbs of Warding), so you likely want to be dedicated pillow fort.
My decks that I would play it in: Zedruu (if some tweaks are made)
*Sublime Exhalation - You need three opponents before this just becomes Day of Judgment, and note that as opponents get knocked out of the game the cost increases back to normal. If you have four opponents it's only 3 mana, but jokes on you, you're playing a 5-man FFA and anything more than 4 total players takes forever. I would only play this in decks where I know it would be, say, three teams of 2, so there are only 3 teams taking turns but you technically have 4 opponents. That's still very narrow.
My decks that I would play it in: None
BLUE
**Coastal Breach - Ignore the fact that every bounce blue sweeper pales in comparison to Cyclonic Rift (let alone how most sweepers are worse than Rift). Better or worse than Crush of Tentacles or Devastation Tide? If you have three opponents this costs 4, which is actually not bad. Tide has more upside though since you can miracle it for just 2 (and miracle also means you can cast it at instant speed if you build around it enough) and Crush can leave behind an 8/8. The other issue is that if you have only two opponents this costs 5 and then becomes strictly worse than Tide. Seems okay overall but not particularly exciting because of that.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*****Deepglow Skate - Is this blue's version of Doubling Season? It won't let planeswalkers enter the battlefield and then immediately ultimate (one of the advantages of doubling season) but it does affect PWs already on your board. You can double charge counters, -1/-1 counters, and of course +1/+1 counters as well. Tons of flexibility and power in the right builds.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*****Faerie Artisans - This creature, at only 4 mana, continuously clones creatures that your opponents play, for no additional mana. However, not all creatures give value, and since you are forced to exile the token, sometimes that creature could do nothing. For example, an opponent could play Consecrated Sphinx and then immediately play Birds of Paradise so you lose your Sphinx token. If an opponent has a big ETB creature (e.g. Terastodon) they will just hold onto it until Artisans leaves play, or if they absolutely have to play the creature. In other words, it will sometimes act as a punisher mechanic. Also, it will generally not affect the hypercompetitive circles as those don't have as many ETB value creatures and are more infinite combos/hyperstax. To improve this card's floor, play some flicker effects, so you can flicker the artisan at will which will let you keep the last token it made (which can also catch people off guard; e.g. in the above example, flicker your artisan before Birds resolves so you keep your Consecrated Sphinx token). It is an extremely powerful card and has the potential to take over a game by itself, but there are some situations where it's not that good.
My decks that I would play it in: Blue creature decks with ETB/flicker theme
***Grip of Phyresis - Is that germ token holding sword of fire and ice? That's amazing. In any case, making this instant speed makes this very interesting. It can throw off a lot of math (were you relying on untapping your lands with sword of feast and famine?). Depending on the attacker and the equipment you steal, you can actually eat the attacker. You likely want to be a voltron deck so you can guarantee that whatever equipment you steal will still retain value (strap the stolen equipment onto your general) but it should be solid.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Manifold Insights - Very few punisher mechanics are playable. I'm not sure this is one of them. If you can argue some politics you could convince an opponent to give you a key card ("Give me this removal spell to kill this permanent or else we lose"). Also this does say "nonland", and any spell is generally better than nothing. If you are intentionally playing a low-power deck you could also maybe convince people to give you certain cards you want. Again, I tend to not like punisher mechanics, but you could try it out in your playgroup and see how it fares.
My decks that I would play it in: None
BLACK
***Cruel Entertainment - On paper it looks like double Mindslaver except your opponents are instead the ones trying to own each other. You likely do not want to let an opponent take control of your turn, but you can likely get two people to kill each other. It's a very tricky card to use though, because they could instead agree to not totally screw each other over. The strength of this card will largely depend on the personalities of the people in your playgroup. Are they spikes who will try to screw with each other the hardest, or are they going to be political? I am rating this high because I think most people will do whatever they can to screw the other player, but again, you must evaluate the players in your playgroup and see whether or not they will do that as well.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Curse of Vengeance - If you want to talk about a card that has a massive amount of variance, this might be the poster boy. You need to cast it early to gain value, and the person has to actually lose the game before it does anything (also assuming it doesn't get destroyed in the meantime). But it ramps up quickly and it could theoretically draw you a lot of cards. Its low floor makes me think this is just flat out unplayable but maybe someone wants to try messing with it.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Curtains' Call - Will usually cost around 4-5 mana. Ashes to ashes is a sorcery and can't get artifact creatures and deals 5 damage to you, but is always only 3 mana and exiles. Not sure if this card will be better than ashes to ashes.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Magus of the Will - Anything that's shades of Yawgmoth's Will has to be insane, right? Well, this is really slow, so unless you two need two Wills, probably not. Playable just because of how insane Will is, but not amazing.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Parting Thoughts - Sorcery speed is a major issue with the card. It's clunky and narrow since you only get a benefit if it had counters. You can draw a lot of cards (and lose a lot of life) but it has a terrible floor.
My decks that I would play it in: None
4-COLOR GENERALS
(NULL-RED)
****Atraxa, Praetor's voice - That's a lot of keywords, making it a decent overall midrange general. Proliferate is also a nice ability. It doesn't really feel like a 4-color card, but it's not bad to play to gain the colors, and proliferate gives you just enough build around, particularly superfriends (losing out on red means you don't get peeps like Dack Fayden and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker which sucks).
My decks that I would play it in: New deck with this as the general
(NULL-GREEN)
****Breya, Etherium Shaper - This does feel sort of 4-color minus green, since it cares about artifacts and green hates artifacts the most of the 5 colors. Regardless, it's a decent token generator but the sac outlet costing 2 mana AND two artifacts is too much so you likely won't be triggering it often. Then again, there are lots of nice sac outlets (Krark-Clan Ironworks) so it's not the end of the world. Giving you red does make her significantly different than Sharuum or Sydri while likely being a similar power level, which means she'll likely be strong.
My decks that I would play it in: New deck with this as the general
(NULL-BLACK)
*Kynaios and Terio of Meletis - For a 4-color general I was hoping for something more than a plain group hug card and it doesn't even give you any control over how to hug (the opponents can either ramp or card draw and they choose which one). You can play them for the colors, but more often than not actually casting these guys will actively hurt you.
My decks that I would play it in: None
(NULL-BLUE)
**Saskia the Unyielding - You can double up your damage on one player, or try and take down two separate players at once. However 3-power for 4 mana isn't even that aggressive without some kind of evasion. It doesn't provide mana or card advantage and it's not even very aggressive on its own, so you need support cards to do anything. Play it if you want the colors, but it's a very underwhelming card.
My decks that I would play it in: None.
(NULL-WHITE)
****Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - So nevermind the fact that the name sounds similar to Maelstrom Wanderer. This is certainly a powerful card. Note that unlike Maelstrom Nexus, ALL your spells you cast this turn gain cascade. Also, multiple instances of cascade stack (again, see Wanderer) so if you give this double strike, or additional combat phases, you can add even more cascades to a single spell. Play spells that have alternate casting costs or ways to reduce their casting cost (Snuff Out, Pyrokinesis, Dismember, some of the cards in this set that have cost reduction like Curtains' Call, etc.) to help maximize the number of spells you can cast that will trigger cascade. You can also play fewer cards that would be dead cascades (Green Sun's Zenith won't be stellar and Arcane Denial won't be as good, but you won't cascade into Chord of Calling on spells that are 3 or less mana).
My decks that I would play it in: New deck with this as the general
PARTNER GENERALS
(AZORIUS)
***Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker - Starts off small but opponents cast a lot of spells every round so this thing can quickly grow out of control. This seems decently aggressive and Azorius doesn't get many of those, which will allow you to build UW in an interesting voltron-ish way.
My decks that I would play it in: New deck with this as the general
(DIMIR)
**Silas Renn, Seeker Adept - That trigger is decent, but it won't be easy forcing through damage with a 2/2. So you need help to get this through, and then you still have to spend mana on the artifact you're casting. It's 3-mana so it comes down early, but how many cheap artifacts will you have in the graveyard to cast that early without using loot/discard effects?
My decks that I would play it in: None.
(ORZHOV)
**Ravos, Soultender - Anthems are worth three mana, so getting this slow recursion bonus sounds about right. But it is slow.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Tymna the Weaver - If you can reliably deal combat damage to one opponent each turn, this becomes a Phyrexian Arena, which is certainly solid. The issue is being able to reliably do that.
My decks that I would play it in: None.
MISC MULTICOLOR
***Ancient Excavation - Interesting "wheel" effect, except traditional wheel effects make you pitch your hand, whereas this lets you keep which cards to keep. Instant speed helps this card and might be decent in draw-go control decks. The basic landcycling is not bad either.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Migratory Route - Meh.
My decks that I would play it in: None
ARTIFACTS/LANDS
****Armory Automaton - This card will be sneaky annoying. You likely only want to play it in voltron decks as it will guarantee that you'll have good equipment to strap to it, but what makes it scary is how it can strip off ANY equipments, including opponents' stuff. Many people run lightning greaves/swiftfoot boots, or Sword of X and Y. Notably, it can force those equipment off to leave the previous wearers vulnerable. This is also ignoring the fact that you can get a hit in to trigger any valuable effects. The opponents can move the equipment off later, but they will often need to spend mana to do so. Against the right opponents, this will be supremely annoying.
My decks that I would play it in: None.
*Boompile - Sweepers that only have a 50% chance of working cannot be relied on to save you. It is 4 less mana total than Oblivion Stone (3 to play and 5 to activate) but I'll take reliability over that 4 mana discount. At least Oblivion Stone will do something when I want it to.
My decks that I would play it in: None.
**Conqueror's Flail - While it's more potent in 4 or 5 color decks, you can play it as a Grand Abolisher type of card, with the difference being in what cards kill these permanents. Of course since it doesn't do anything unless it's equipped, the creature can be killed in response to the equip. Ultimately unless you don't have white and can't play Abolisher, you likely want to be 4 or 5 color before you bother with this, and you probably want a voltron general as well where the pump effect matters more.
My decks that I would play it in: None.
***Crystalline Crawler - If you have a +1/+1 counter theme this is not bad to dump it on to store mana. Since it color fixes you to an extent you could just play it in normal 5-color as well though it's not great there. Thankfully with the change to the mana generation rule, your 2 and 3 color decks can converge this for 4 if you have the right lands out (City of Brass, Darksteel ingot, etc.).
My decks that I would play it in: Some?
***Prismatic Geoscope - Obviously this is almost entirely for 4 and 5-color. If you're 3-color you're better off with Gilded Lotus and unless you need multiples of that effect you won't need this card. Even in 4/5-color, ETBing tapped sucks, but it often will give you perfect mana, though it won't be great for 4/5-color budget builds; you really do need the fetchland + shockland/ABU dual combination. Also one of the reasons to play mana rocks is to give you some protection against Armageddon and similar cards, where this being unable to tap for much mana is a problem.
My decks that I would play it in: Progenitus
****Ash Barrens - This surprisingly looks solid for budget decks that rely on Evolving Wilds or terramorphic expanse for color fixing, and is likely better than those two cards. All three of these cards technically cost you one mana (Wilds and Expanse's basic land ETBs tapped, this costs 1 to cycle) but this can provide you colorless mana if necessary whereas Wilds/Expanse always "cost" 1 mana. Its weakness of course is if this is your only land in your hand it doesn't really color fix you, but that means you have a 1-lander and those are difficult to keep anyway. I'm rating this highly solely because of budget reasons. If you aren't budget then don't play this card. I'm also assuming the card will be budget (like, same price as wilds/expanse).
My decks that I would play it in: All budget decks that are 3-5 colors
Here is my review for this set. I will go over any card that has any sort of interest, or could draw unwarranted interest (e.g. the card looks powerful but has some costs that are too difficult to overcome that people may try to work around and be disappointed with).
* = I don't think this card will be played outside of very fringe/budget decks
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed, or is for very specific decks.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = New staple in EDH. Either a flexible card for many decks, or extremely potent for specific decks.
***** = Will have a massive impact on EDH. If you're in these colors you're likely playing it.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
(I'm using my Progenitus topic to go over all the cards that pique my interest for various builds, and then largely copying/pasting it into my other topics, so if it seems like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time talking about cards that have no potential in a particular build, it's because of that)
**Consulate Crackdown - It's similar to Vandalblast in that it hits all artifacts except yours. Comparable to many other artifact sweepers in general as well, such as Creeping Corrosion. Of course this has its ups and downs; exiling is useful as many artifact decks have graveyard recursion, but the artifacts all come back once this is removed.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Exquisite Archangel - Similar to Resolute Archangel, where they're 7-mana angels that alter your life total in a noticeable way. Personally this doesn't impress me, as most of the time you lose because of an infinite combo which doesn't care about something that lets you restart your life total.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Felidar Guardian - Similar to Restoration Angel, but blinking any permanent you control (other than itself) instead of non-angel creature can lead to some hilarious things (e.g. he goes infinite with Saheeli Rai so we get splinter twin combo T4 kills in standard lulz). The lack of flash and the lower stats (lower power, no flying) are notable drawbacks, but there are nice interactions with being able to blink the things that restoration angel can't get (e.g. blink a mana rock), and being a little easier on the wallet is nice too.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Derevi
****Restoration Specialist - For essentially 1WW you recur an artifact plus enchantment, which actually is quite strong. Most creatures only do one or the other. As an extra bonus you get to decide when to pull the "trigger".
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Various white decks, preferably with creature recursion
***Sram, Senior Edificer - Vehicles are still not that playable in EDH, so it's just drawing cards off your aura and equipment spells, which is still not bad for voltron decks. It's a similar card to Kor Spiritdancer and Puresteel Paladin - 2-mana dudes that help draw cards in your voltron decks. It should slot in decently in said voltron decks or possibly be a monowhite voltron general.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Sram's Expertise - Making a bunch of 1/1s is whatever at 4-mana, so you really want to be cheating in something cool, and you still have to care about the tokens.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
BLUE
*Aethertide Whale - Generates a lot of energy upon ETB but does nothing much besides that.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Baral, Chief of Compliance - Goblin Electromancer with upside and only one color will be quite sick. Obviously for spellslinger decks, but it will be an automatic include in them. The second ability might make it also playable in a control/counterspell control deck as the loot ability is nice too.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Baral's Expertise - One of the best in the cycle, as it affects the board in a meaningful and flexible way while also giving a free spell, which helps make this slot into a lot of different blue decks as a decent value/tempo card. Being able to bounce artifacts is also very relevant. Bounce three threats and cheat in a Rhystic Study or Jace isn't too bad.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Disallow - Voidslime for 1UU instead of GUU will see good amounts of play. Having flexible counterspells is always nice to have. It won't be a broken card but it will be solid.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: most blue decks
*Efficient Construction - It's unfortunate this isn't an artifact itself, but regardless it's a slow but fair way to slowly pump out artifacts. Most artifact combos are just looping from the graveyard over and over again though and not hardcasting much of anything so this likely won't see much play.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Illusionist's Stratagem - +1 mana over Displace for a cantrip. The cantrip probably isn't worth it at this point, as 4-mana starts to get quite pricy.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Mechanized Production - Way too slow and vulnerable for EDH. I wouldn't play this even if Phyrexian Metamorph or Sculpting Steel didn't exist, but the fact that those two cards do exist means this card is straight unplayable. It will be funny if you ever win the game with this (note that your 8+ copies of the artifact do not have to be whatever you enchanted, all the card cares about is if you have 8+ copies of any artifact) but shigs and tiggles don't make you more playable.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Metallic Rebuke - Mana Leak is not bad if you're in a tight meta where mana curves are lower and people often won't have 3 open to pay for their spell. However, you need to improvise for at least 1 before it becomes mana leak and only for 2 does it actually become better, meaning this is not a great early play, and being a great early play is the exact reason why mana leak was so good.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Quicksmith Spy - Maybe it has an infinite combo with something?
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Reverse Engineer - If you improvise for 1 it becomes Concentrate, though you really want to improvise for 3 before you really want to consider playing this. Improvising for only two means it's still generally worse than Thirst for Knowledge, the standard 3-mana draw-three spell for artifact decks.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Skyship Bandit - Literally Thrummingbird except it's a 2/1 instead of a 1/1. The extra point of power has some uses, mostly in being able to trade with 2 toughness creatures, but if your deck doesn't want Thrummingbird, it very likely doesn't want this either.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*****Trophy Mage - Obvious brother (or sister in this case) to Trinket Mage and Treasure Mage, two cards that see massive amounts of play. There are tons of 3-mana artifacts to get, such as Ashnod's Altar, Mimic Vat, Sword of X and Y, many mana rocks, Cloudstone Curio, and the list goes on. 3-mana is always the fair spot for tutors, especially when it comes with a body. Pick up your foils fast because this will be a staple. Like many of these 3-mana dudes that tutor for something, Trophy mage won't be broken, but it will become a staple.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Any blue deck with 2+ critical 3-mana artifacts
*****Whir of Invention - It's obviously a Chord of Calling for artifacts. Chord is a 5-star card and this will easily be another 5-star card as well. With Chord, you don't even need to convoke, just tutoring up a creature at instant speed is strong, and the convoke just made it ridiculous. This will be the same thing; you don't need to abuse the improvise part of the card, it's still going to be very good. The only difference is that Chord's convoke cost allowed you to tap green creatures to pay for the triple green, whereas there aren't many blue artifacts you can improvise, meaning you'll often have to pay at least the triple blue. Still, it's going to be strong.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Any blue deck with critical artifacts
BLACK
*Battle at the Bridge - Ho-hum removal spell, sorcery speed kills it.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Fatal Push - Wizards obviously wanted to name it "THIS IS SPARTA" but they couldn't because something. Regardless, this is actually playable in the right meta (and is very good in modern). If you have a hypercompetitive meta where many of the key creatures are 4 or less mana (Brago, Zur, Arcum, Hermit Druid, etc.), this is basically a 1-mana kill spell. With fetchlands around you can trigger the revolt easily. You may want to have more cards that can leave the battlefield on command so you can get the revolt trigger more reliably, but regardless, any 1-mana kill spell should be on your radar. Pick up your foils because modern is going to love this card and it will cause this to be expensive for a long time.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Gonti's Machinations - The sac ability is terrible, but it seems like an okay energy generator. Crack a fetchland on a turn you're not damaged to get a free energy, etc.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Herald of Anguish - The discard ability seems kind of tacked on but is good, since it triggers at your endstep which helps it generate value faster than if it triggered at your upkeep. The sac ability is a bit hefty as you need 1B and you only get a Disfigure out of it, but artifact decks have a slew of artifacts to toss away. What's more interesting is that black gets a card that loves artifacts, since it's usually white/blue/red that get the artifact love. Not sure if it'll be good enough for artifact decks since they can combo so quickly though, but it sounds good on paper.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Midnight Entourage - Not sure if there are enough playable Aetherborns.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Perilous Predicament - Almost everyone will have a noncreature artifact, but not everyone will have an artifact creature.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Sly Requisitioner - Depending on how many artifacts you have that sacrifice themselves and/or how many artifact sac outlets you have, this might be a decent value card. Most of the time if you're saccing artifacts you're going for an infinite loop though so this won't really do anything.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Vengeful Rebel - Similar to Fatal Push; decent to good in the right meta, and you need to trigger the revolt reliably.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Yahenni, Undying Partisan - Sac outlets that require no mana investment are always something to be aware of. He can't sac himself but whatever. It can also grow fairly quickly, although you're going to play this more as a sac outlet than anything else. While most sac outlets can't compare to the really good ones like Viscera Seer or Phyrexian Altar, this will still be fine.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Yahenni's Expertise - A mini-sweeper is not always relevant in EDH, but being able to cast a spell for free is always dangerous and worth watching out for. Play this and use the free spell on a removal spell to kill a big threat that the mini-sweeper doesn't catch. You really do want to play this card in a meta where the mini-sweeper matters.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
MULTICOLOR
*Spire Patrol - Mini-Frost Titan looks underwhelming. Despite being 2 less mana and with flying, it is 2 colors, and it only taps when it ETBs, and it only affects creatures, and it doesn't have any sort of protection (albeit you probably don't care if a 4-drop with an ETB effect has protection, but still).
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Tezzeret the Schemer - The +1 creates a lotus petal, the -2 is a ho-hum removal spell, and the ultimate is whatever although it does occur fairly quickly. Blue/black does have some trouble ramping if you aren't using dark ritual/high tide so maybe it's not terrible, but he doesn't really impress me.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Tezzeret's Touch - Essentially it's adding black on Ensoul Artifact and gives your artifact back to your hand after it gets blown up. Seems playable because of the recursion but uninspiring.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Tezzeret, Master of Metal - This is only marginally better than Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and that's not even considering it's 6-mana and not 4. Though unlike the Ajanis in this set, this does pass the Doubling Season test.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
ARTIFACT
***Cogwork Assembler - 7-mana for its activation is very hefty, so I imagine it'll be used for infinite combos or something as the ability doesn't require tapping. For example, Krark-Clan ironworks + Myr Battlesphere + this card = infinite colorless mana. Of course artifact decks generally don't have problems generating mana (unless they get hit with a sweeper) and so maybe this being a mana dump will make it good, I don't know.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Crackdown Construct - With any ability that requires no cost to activate and isn't a mana ability, you can get an infinite power and toughness artifact creature, and I'm sure there's a lot of things you can do with that. In standard we get Wandering Fumarole for lulz which is funny as hell, and I know there are other things you can do.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Gonti's Aether Heart - Seems not bad if you're focused on generating energy. If you want to play this card with the idea of taking an extra turn, you'll probably be disappointed, as you would be better off just playing Time Warp effects or something.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Heart of Kiran - Simple beatsticks in EDH don't cut it.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Hope of Ghirapur - Legendary version of Xantid Swarm. You need to have this actually connect while Xantid Swarm just needs to attack, and while this does have flying and is only a 1-drop, it's going to be hard for a 1/1 to force through damage, and you need to sacrifice this for the effect, and it only stops noncreature spells. Granted, this does last for a full turn cycle while Xantid Swarm was more like a Grand Abolisher placed on one player for just the rest of the turn. I guess being legendary maybe you can make colorless voltron or something, but I don't know. Xantid Swarm is better when you attack a player with counterspells to help resolve a combo, whereas this is more like a stax piece on the control/storm player, but this is fairly clunky unless you can play it really early and continuously recur it. It is a relatively unique effect so it isn't unplayable, but I wouldn't be excited to test this out.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Inspiring Statuary - Most artifact decks don't have a problem generating mana, especially if this card only helps power out nonartifact spells which an artifact deck won't have a ton of (especially those that cost a lot of mana). Still, it is something to keep your eye on.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Lifecrafter's Bestiary - Essentially it's a bad Glimpse of Nature, but Glimpse of Nature was more like a deck that enabled storm decks/combo and that kind of thing, whereas this is more of a card that just gives all your creature spells "Kicker G, draw a card". Still should be playable in any case. You obviously want a high number of creatures, maybe 30-40 or more, before you should even consider this.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Merchant's Dockhand - It's a hefty mana cost per turn and tapping some artifacts can be annoying, but it is only 1-mana. Doesn't sound exciting but I imagine there are worse things you can play.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Metallic Mimic - If you have a tribal theme this should be fine for just 2-mana, though it's more for weenie decks as I don't think something like Dragon tribal really needs +1/+1 counters on them.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
BANNEDParadox Engine - I'm not even going to spend much time talking about this card. It's going to get banned really fast. I would be shocked if the RC doesn't ban it. Prophet of Kruphix got hammered and it isn't nearly as insane as this. It combos with way too many things, namely a bunch of mana rocks and/or mana dorks + some dumb enabler. Buyback cards like Capsize becomes bounce everything you want. Put something stupid like Think twice under an Isochron Scepter and it draws your deck. There are tons of combos, and none of them are good for the game. Play the crap out of this card and have fun with it until it gets banned.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Probably everything pending budget
*Peacekeeper Colossus - Most vehicles are still not particularly playable as many of them don't do much except beat face. I guess it might be nice in Depala in case you can't use her to crew vehicles for whatever reason.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Planar Bridge - Obvious parallel to Planar Portal right down to the name. Both are artifacts that cost 6 to hardcast, and this one is 8 mana instead of 6 to find your card and only for permanents but you do put it into play immediately (e.g. sneak in Blightsteel Colossus end of turn). These types of cards are fine in big mana decks that need mana sinks.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Scrap Trawler - Artifact recursion for no additional costs at just 3 mana upfront is not bad. There are some restrictions but it is repeatable, and it should do some nice work.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Servo Schematic - Similar to Ichor Wellspring and Mycosynth Wellspring in that they're 2-mana artifacts that do the same thing upon ETB or hitting the graveyard. Here though I think making a 1/1 flier is worse than drawing a card or fetching a basic land to ensure your next land drop.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Treasure Keeper - Similar to Matter Reshaper except you add one mana, remove the colorless requirement, and there are fewer restrictions on the free card you get when it dies (any nonland card that is CMC 3 or less can be cast for free). Seems decent.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Universal Solvent - Decks get another way to deal with problematic permanents that their colors won't allow them to (e.g. black/red vs enchantments), and it's another tool for Trinket Mage, and is another object that can be recurred with Salvaging Station. Unassuming card that most decks won't play because it is overcosted, but if your deck/colors are desperate it should be good, and artifact decks don't really have problems generating the necessary mana.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Walking Ballista - Functions similarly to Triskelion. Interestingly enough if you pay 6 it ETBs with three +1/+1 counters which is the same as Triskelion. The difference is obviously that Triskelion is better for infinite combos as it always ETBs with the counters while cheating this into play doesn't do anything. It's kind of more like Hangarback walker as they are playable artifact creatures with XX costs.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
LAND
***Spire of Industry - Glimmervoid that requires you to pay 1 life to get the colored mana, but it doesn't disappear if you have zero artifacts in play. It's usually worse than Glimmervoid; 1 life isn't much, but they can add up, and it's not that hard to have at least 1 artifact in play if you are the kind of deck that actually wants to play Glimmervoid. Still, artifact decks likely want to play this anyway, and this could be passable in non-artifact decks although there are usually going to be better options.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
Gonna try something a little different for my set review.
Instead of just copying and pasting my review of the cards that match the deck's colors, I'm just going to link to my Progenitus review (which covers all cards I think will be relevant for EDH) and then put the summary in my respective topics.
The 2 enchants that prevents damage, one is the shield and the other the one I pay 2 life and then I prevent the damage (to resist commander damage)
My plan with the deck is to survive and gain advantaje, last satudrday with my list I won one and loose 3
Game 1, Oloro, Niv-Mizzet (all spell slinger and direct damage), Jeleeva, Shattergang brothers.
Very slow game, the gobling conceded when a Mizzix mastery overloaded was casted by the jeleva player and copied for Niv mizzet guy wich also has an enchant that for each spell you cast you can copy it.
The only thing I missed then was a Rule of law (I have it in the deck)
Game 2, Alesha, Shattergang brothers, Nazan and oloro , I got to be the last man standing against the brothers, mainly because the guy was able to control alesha by pinging her for 3 every turn with a guy that taps for 3 damage, and the cat was an "archenemy" of mine so I focused all my resources supporting the brothers plans until we only get left alive, I drop sanguine bond, then a fumigate and did 14 damage, then in my turn I won with venser journal and oloro trigger
Game 3, Sigarda, Doran the siege tower, Marchesa and Oloro, Sigarda won, doran was lightnyfyed and controlled, got tilted and scooped in turn 5, matchesa allways attacked me and I have problems because I coudn get rid of the boots so my maze of ith was useless, I ended up loosing agains 25 commander damage of sigarda
Game 4, one monogreen thar taps, discard 2 cards and all his forest are 2/2 creatures, Doran the siege tower, marchesa again and oloro, the doran died first, I died second against an army of 3/3 wolf tokens, I got no wrath of the 9 I PLAY in the deck nor the tutor to fetch them, them was monogreen vs marchesa and monogreen won
So far so good, but when you are 10+ life ahead of the others even if you have no many crads in the table you are the focus, so I think I need more protection and more removal.
The idea of the the deck is durdling but resisting, I mean, my playgroup is a paranoid one when they play against me, last saturday one complain was "Ghostly prision is so OP" meanwhile Marchesa attacked me all the turns paying the 2 mana because I am always the higher life total player. But the OP card is GP
So, the deck is full of removal, boardwipes, pillowfor stuff, and some political values.
If they "mess with me" I will drop Humility or godhead of awe or even spreading plague , if they do not attack me I will hold my boardwipes, I want to be left alone until I can steal the victory with a debt to the deathless, aetherflux reservoir, etc.
Any ideas of what cards tu cut to add the list I am posting here?
Thanks in advance and sorry for my english it is not my natal tongue
1) Play more lands and ramp. Rule of thumb is that 50 cards in your deck should be dedicated to lands or ramp. Right now I count 46 for you (36 lands, 10 ramp). especially since maze of ith doesn't make mana. And replace Dimir keyrune, it sucks, your deck is not interested in a 2/2 unblockable creature.
2) More tutors like demonic tutor.
3) Find room for low CMC card draw like painful truths and fact or fiction.
Not sure what to make for your cuts. You just need more games to figure out what cards underperform.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
TLDR
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Emrakul, the Promised End
Eternal Scourge
Collective Effort
Deploy the Gatewatch
Selfless Spirit
Sigarda's Aid
Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Thalia's Lancers
Imprisoned in the Moon
Mausoleum Wanderer
Summary Dismissal
Noosegraf Mob
Tree of Perdition
Shreds of Sanity
Eldritch Evolution
Splendid Reclamation
Ishkanah, Grafwidow
Spell Queller
Tamiyo, Field Researcher
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
Emrakul, the Promised End
Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Thalia's Lancers
Imprisoned in the Moon
Summary Dismissal
Here is my review for this set. I will go over any card that has any sort of interest, or could draw unwarranted interest (e.g. the card looks powerful but has some costs that are too difficult to overcome that people may try to work around and be disappointed with).
* = I don't think this card will be played outside of very fringe/budget decks
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed, or is for very specific decks.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = New staple in EDH. Either a flexible card for many decks, or extremely potent for specific decks.
***** = Will have a massive impact on EDH. If you're in these colors you're likely playing it.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
(I'm using my Progenitus topic to go over all the cards that pique my interest for various builds, and then largely copying/pasting it into my other topics, so if it seems like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time talking about cards that have no potential in a particular build, it's because of that)
**Distended Mindbender - Single-player discard isn't the best in EDH, although you can hit the player that doesn't have a lot of graveyard recursion for some effect. It still seems fairly mediocre.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Elder Deep-Fiend - The flash on this card combined with emerge actually makes it intriguing, as you can sacrifice something in response to something. Tapping things down at instant speed can catch people off guard and buy valuable time.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Emrakul, the Promised End - She's not as oppressive as her original form at first glance, which I guess is a good thing because this means she probably won't get banned. But mindslaver is a VERY powerful effect in EDH. The chosen player gets an extra turn so they have a chance to rebuild, but they will never get back to the board state (or hand) they had before the mindslaver. In addition, the cost reduction means that she can cost 8-10 generic mana in the mid-lategame. Compare that to the other eldrazi titans that hover around 10-11 mana as well, as well as mindslaver costing a total of 10 mana (6 to hardcast, 4 to crack). Of course the major distinction between this and her first form is that she doesn't have annihilator 6 which means cheating her out on turn 3 or 4 isn't game over for the unlucky player(s) that gets attacked. The protections are also weaker. Ultimately I think she will be a nice player in EDH and will definitely teach new players how powerful the mindslaver effect is.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Eternal Scourge - Food chain users eat your heart out. Food chain Prossh combo gets another toy to feed to food chain. This of course would also go into competitive Wanderer decks that also use Food Chain to end games quickly. Of course my wanderer build is more durdly so I won't be playing this as I hate 2-card infinites. There might be other combos that go with this though I can't think of any off the top of my head.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Bruna, the Fading Light - The more playable one of the new eldrazi angel sisters, as graveyard reanimation is more useful than Gisela being a generic midrange beatstick (Gisela is basically a smaller baneslayer angel). Still, with Karmic Guide hogging all the spotlight, plus the fact that her trigger is on cast and not ETB so it can't be looped easily, you probably wouldn't bother with Bruna unless you want more of these kinds of effects.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Brisela, Voice of Nightmares - This card is definitely scary when you note that most removal spells cost 3 or less mana, and things that can kill her at 4+ mana are fairly clunky and you can see them coming. In GW if you can somehow get Brisela plus Gaddock Teeg that's pretty close to a hard lock. Regardless, she probably won't actually meld together often, as it's hard enough to get two specific cards into play in constructed, and have fun doing that in 99-card singleton decks. You can play one of the two sisters as your general but then you're forced into monowhite. Basically, you probably will lose if someone gets her out, but it'll happen very infrequently that you don't have to warp your deck around it. Scary art though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Deploy the Gatewatch - See the Unwritten for planeswalkers. It's very obvious this will only go into superfriends decks and you want at least, like, 30 planeswalkers in the deck so you can more reliably get two walkers out of the deal. You probably want a little bit of library manipulation as well (brainstorm, scroll rack, etc.) to get the big and scary ones (like Ugin and Karn) to cheat out. If you can hit big though, you'll hit big.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Collective Effort - It can remove a fatty, an enchantment, and anthem your entire team, all at the cost of 3 mana. Tapping a bunch of untapped creatures you control means that you likely will need to be a white token deck to reliably do all three modes, but this is a solid card in white token decks.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Faith Unbroken - Could be an interesting tool for voltron decks with auras (mostly Uril, but there could be others). You get a journey to nowhere effect while doubling as an offensive aura. Seems unplayable otherwise though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Ironclad Slayer - Budget voltron decks to get back a key aura or equipment.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Selfless Spirit - One of Boros Charm's watered down modes on a body (though msot of the time you'll be saving your creatures, but saving your noncreatures, like in response to armageddon, is obviously relevant). Still, creatures are much easier to recur (Reveillark, Sun Titan, etc.).
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Sigarda's Aid - We could see a resurgence in white voltron decks on the back of this card. The fact that this is just 1 mana means it's so easy to sneak it, PLUS equipments you play immediately attach themselves to something for free and at instant speed. Flash in swiftfoot boots to fizzle a removal spell, flash in sword of X and Y to eat an attacker, flash in grafted exoskeleton in response to no blocks, etc. Every white voltron deck will play this card and it will be quite scary.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Subjugator Angel - Pricy, but could be a budget way to get an alpha strike in. Usually it's better to just go over the top with an infinite combo though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Thalia, Heretic Cathar - A fairer version of Kismet and the like, but at 3-mana with relevant stats is nothing to sneeze at. The only decks she won't affect are monocolor decks that don't have a lot of creatures and there are a couple of decks that do that (most monoblue decks) but she can slow down a lot of things. Of course the reason to pick her over said Kismet and similar cards is the ability to attack, so this is more for the creature decks that want some hatebears (or big hatebears), etc.
My decks that I would play it in: Most white creature decks
****Thalia's Lancers - Relevant stats and a tutor on a stick? Captain Sisay never looked so fair. And much like Sisay, it says "legendary card", so you can grab your Gaea's Cradle or the like, in addition to something like Elesh Norn.
My decks that I would play it in: Most white decks
**Curious Homunculus - Only for spellslinger decks. It's a fairly slow mana dork, but it can flip into a Goblin Electromancer which is certainly powerful, plus it can swing for a lot after you throw out a bunch of spells. It probably is worse than regular old Electromancer but more copies of that effect can't be bad.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Displace - Pauper gets another tool. Though it's still not bad as a budget option for blink/goodstuff decks.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Docent of Perfection//Final Iteration - I kind of don't like this guy becoming an Eldrazi. I just liked the story, going from Delver in the original Innistrad into Abberant Form in Shadows and I think the eldrazi ending ruined that story. I do like how it basically spits out delvers though. Obviously this only goes into spellslinger decks, and even then it might be too slow. Most spellslinger decks just go infinite with spells and probably have no need to make 1/1s though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Fortune's Favor - I really like the design of this card, being a fairer fact or fiction. FoF was intended to be a deep card with lots of intricacies, but in reality it doesn't really play like that because it's just too good. This is much fairer and we'll see what happens. Regardless in EDH this doesn't seem like it's strong enough.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Identity Thief - On one hand, flickering creatures is always handy. Flicker something you control, flicker out something an opponent controls to get attacker(s) in, etc. On the other hand, it sounds like it'll be more difficult to use than it should.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Imprisoned in the Moon - With the nerf to tuck, these types of cards that strand generals in play are always scary (Darksteel Mutation, Song of the Dryads, etc.), and the fact that blue now gets to jump in on the fun is scarier. In a pinch it can also hit a Gaea's Cradle or something. Most blue decks that want to play fair will likely play this card, although green and white do have these types of effects, but if you want multiple copies of this effect then it'll do good work, and if you don't have green or white this will be welcomed.
My decks that I would play it in: Most blue decks
*Lunar Force - It's Hesitation for 1 more mana but only triggers on an opponent's spell. In EDH it's too easy for an opponent to throw away a bad spell though.
My decks that I would play it in: Most blue decks
***Mausoleum Wanderer - The fact that this is 1 mana will be a huge annoyance. If you can find ways to pump its power at instant speed (flash in other spirits for example) you can catch people off guard and this can become a hard counter.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Mind's Dilation - It sounds like a hilarious effect, but it's 7-mana and if they flip a land you don't get anything, and they can hit mediocre cards, or cards that don't do anything (e.g. flip Green Sun's Zenith).
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Summary Dismissal - Counterspells that get around uncounterable spells (e.g. Supreme Verdict) are always interesting. On top of that, you get stifle. It's similar to Voidslime in a way in that it's a catch-all counterspell. While it does say "all" you usually won't be exiling more than one spell or ability (or storm trigger) so don't get your hopes up. If you can get multiple spells and/or abilities with this card though it'll be quite the blowout. The effect is certainly powerful but I don't have any decks that really want this effect. It's just nice to know that if people get cheeky with their Cavern of Souls or Boseijus, thinking their key spell is safe, you always have an out.
My decks that I would play it in: May or may not play in blue decks
**Unsubstantiate - It's Venser, Shaper Savant's ETB effect for 2-mana, although it only unsummons and not boomerangs. Regardless in combo decks this can be a useful counterspell as it's a fairly versatile card to get something out of the way temporarily while you combo out. I don't really see a place for this card in fairer decks though that want the game to go longer. It's not usually worth a card just to gain some tempo against one player. Could see use in 1v1 though.
My decks that I would play it in: Talrand
*Dark Salvation - Very mana intensive, but it's a removal spell that doubles as a token generator. If zombie tribal is a thing it could be fine. Doesn't seem very exciting otherwise.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Liliana, the Last Hope - Disentomb isn't that bad of an effect in EDH, but I don't see much space for her, and I'm not talking about comparing her to Liliana of the Veil. -2/-1 is close to nothing in EDH, and it's not worth paying 3 mana for a disentomb with a small bonus. She doesn't pass the doubling season test either.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Noosegraf Mob - There are cards that do things whenever a player casts a spell (e.g. Dragonlair Spider, Rhystic Study). The fact that there's a limited number of times this makes zombies without additional help is a bummer, especially at 6-mana. If you can put +1/+1 counters on this you can get a nice stream of 2/2s though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Oath of Liliana - Diabolic Edict that affects each opponent is always handy. Making a single 2/2 is okay for chump blocking but the edict effect is handy for superfriends decks.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Tree of Perdition - This can be a slow but lower CMC version of Sorin markov and the like. Setting life totals to something low in one huge chunk is always scary, but this can look fairer because it's a creature that needs to tap and it can't really do it again until it leaves the battlefield to reset its toughness. The dream of course is to play it in some Doran deck where you swap this toughness with a 40-life opponent to get a 0/40 creature, and then sac it to like Feed the Pack to get 40 2/2 wolves.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Gisa and Geralf - Interesting that a non-zombie creature can be used as a zombie general tribal. Still this sounds like a solid choice for zombie tribal. Note that they cost 4 mana but you usually will want to play it and then cast a zombie from your graveyard so you will usually play it later in the game.
My decks that I would play it in: Possible new deck with this as the general
****Spell Queller - In tempo decks, especially those with instant blink effects, this can be valuable. Many spells do get hit by this, notably many generals that cost 4 or less mana and since most people probably don't want their general stuck under this, they will send their commander back to the command zone and this guy will act as a straight up counterspell. Also note that this has the "Oblivion Ring" wording in that the LTB effect can be triggered before the ETB effect resolves, exiling the targeted spell permanently. It's a fair tempo card but can generate solid value when you build around it.
My decks that I would play it in: Most UW decks with blink effects and tempo gameplan
*Soul Separator - This card is quite flavorful, but it seems too mana intensive to be any good.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Geier Reach sanitarium - Similar to Mikokoro, Center of the Sea. Seems nifty for group hug but not very exciting in anything else.
My decks that I would play it in: Zedruu
**Nephalia Academy - Library of Leng on a land. Similar to how Reliquary Tower laughed at Spellbook, this will laugh Library of leng for decks that, for whatever reason, need this effect.
My decks that I would play it in: None
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
TLDR
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Recruiter of the Guard
Leovold, Emissary of Trest
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
N/A
Here is my review for this set. I will go over any card that has any sort of interest, or could draw unwarranted interest (e.g. the card looks powerful but has some costs that are too difficult to overcome that people may try to work around and be disappointed with).
* = I don't think this card will be played outside of very fringe/budget decks
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed, or is for very specific decks.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = New staple in EDH. Either a flexible card for many decks, or extremely potent for specific decks.
***** = Will have a massive impact on EDH. If you're in these colors you're likely playing it.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
(I'm using my Progenitus topic to go over all the cards that pique my interest for various builds, and then largely copying/pasting it into my other topics, so if it seems like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time talking about cards that have no potential in a particular build, it's because of that)
MONARCH CARDS IN GENERAL - Many cards in this set make you the monarch and do things based on who the monarch is. The strength of these cards depends on the difficulty to stay as the monarch. Many cards' strength will greatly vary depending on that. My guess is that if the card only does relevant things while you're the monarch, it's not going to be very good, especially if the trigger occurs at the beginning of your upkeep. For example, Skyline Despot is very mediocre for 7-mana. I don't know if I would play it even if it made the 5/5 flier every single turn, and the fact that you have to be the monarch at the beginning of your upkeep just makes it all the more sketchier. On the flip side, something like Queen Marchesa does look playable, because she does something if someone else is the monarch, which is significantly more likely to happen than you being the monarch.
***Sanctum Prelate - Potentially shutting off many cards from being cast at just 3 mana has some value, although I imagine it will be tough to use this properly, particularly since it only hits noncreatures so you can't name the CMC of a problematic general. You'd have to specifically know what would cause your deck problems. It seems more like a value grey ogre stax piece. It could be quite good in the competitive circles though where many of the spells played are noncreature spells between 1-3 CMC so you can name a low number and shut off a lot of spells.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*****Recruiter of the Guard - CAN YOU SAY "STAPLE"? What have we learned from EDH? 3-mana tutors is the sweetspot for fair costing tutors. 3-mana creatures that tutor become staples. Imperial Recruiter is a strong card, although its price is more because of its rarity, but if it was a $10-20 card it would be played in almost every red creature deck. This guy gets dudes with toughness 2 or less. There are plenty of good ones (Karmic Guide, Eternal Witness, most clones, etc.). It also can be recurred with Sun Titan and Reveilark. I've proclaimed many cards to become EDH staples and whiffed hard on those claims, but this is as close to a surefire thing as Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter making the hall of fame. Just look at your existing white creature-based decks and see what worthwhile creatures this guy could fetch out. Chances are there's a good list.
My decks that I would play it in: Most white creature decks
***Expropriate - Very rarely will anyone let you take an extra turn and there's obviously no reason for you to choose money, so this is basically 9-mana for Time Warp + Blatant Thievery with the upside that this card doesn't target (whereas Time warp and Blatant Thievery do, which means they can backfire via Fork effects, or sacrificing the permanent in response, etc.) though this does exile itself much like all new-world-order time walk effects. That certainly is powerful, but you get what you pay for. The huge mana cost will prevent it from becoming a staple, but like all time walk effects, this is going into Narset decks and her laugh will become even more obnoxious.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Stunt Double - Another 4-mana clone with upside, this time it's tacking on flash, which is certainly a useful ability. It could be a good clone card in a draw-go control deck. However for battlecruiser/casual decks that tap out most of their mana on their turn, you probably would be better off with other clones.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Capital Punishment - This card has a Death Cloud type of feeling, although this card cannot destroy lands in play which is unfortunate for stax decks. Regardless these types of Council's Dilemma cards scale in power with more players in the game, but keep in mind that the type of deck that would play this card is probably the type of deck that would get ganged up on (stax).
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Grenzo, Havoc Raiser - Interesting card with some play to it. It will likely be done in some kind of goblin tribal swarming with tokens to get as many triggers as possible (if he's the general) or a R/x/x token deck (as part of the 99). The first ability can give you some crowd control (goad opponent's small utility creatures) and the second gives card advantage. Most notably, goading works well with his ability, as if the opponent's creatures are attacking, presumably they won't be back to block, allowing more of your guys to get in again.
My decks that I would play it in: Red token decks, or a new deck with him as the general
***Subterranean Tremors - It's an earthquake that can't hit players (meaning it can't kill planeswalkers), but at 5-mana you get a shatterstorm effect while doing 4 to each creature, which isn't too bad. Making an 8/8 is more of a bonus than anything, but it will be difficult to sweep away large creatures in general with this card. Probably only monored will play this card, but it will be playable in monored.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - A 3-mana card that can give card draw (albeit it technically can help other players, but green often has high power creatures) and is a decent mana dork at worse. In other words she can provide some card advantage and mana, the two biggest resources in EDH, albeit she's not terrific at either. This is interesting because many generals usually provide one or the other. In terms of competitiveness she won't be as good as Yisan, the Wandering Bard as repeatable tutoring is too good, but she'll be fine alternatives to Azusa, Lost but Seeking or Omnath, Locus of Mana or other monogreen stompy decks. She also looks playable as part of the 99 if you are just slamming a bunch of huge creatures.
My decks that I would play it in: Maelstrom Wanderer
***Selvala's Stampede - Flashy 6-mana sorcery. I think most people will vote for Free as that isn't real card advantage (since they're coming from your hand and not from your library). You can cheat at least one huge thing in your hand if needed since you have a vote. Hard to say what decks will really want this effect, but it's certainly powerful.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Adriana, Captain of the Guard - Essentially it's a 5-mana 4/4 general that gives a bit of an anthem effect to the team. That's fine but not very exciting. Boros is definitely lacking in the general department and red and white are the two weakest colors in EDH. We'll see if she can make boros relevant. The melee ability in general doesn't seem very strong; it's usually best to focus down players one at a time rather than attack each player and draw attention from everyone.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast - RB or RBx artifacts could be an interesting build. The +1 is fairly weak and ultimates in general are almost impossible to get without Doubling Season or other similar cards, but the -1 is solid since you should have various artifacts that you don't care about (Ichor Wellspring or perhaps already did its job (Mana Vault) and being able to get a semi-putrefy effect is solid. Basically it's a 3-mana card where you can putrefy something once a turn for up to three turns. Saccing artifacts is a cost but depending on what you sac it could even be beneficial as well. That's decent value.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Kaya, Ghost Assassin - She doesn't kill creatures so she doesn't really have an "assassin" feeling to her. In any case, if you're a WB deck that wants to get creature ETBs then maybe she's good (she's 1 mana less than Conjurer's Closet and she can target opposing creatures if necessary), but her -1 is worthless and the -2 is okay but usually is worse than blinking a creature. Keep in mind that PWs die fairly quickly in EDH unless you drop them really early (usually off the back of sol ring or friends) or you set up a monster pillow fort.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*****Leovold, Emissary of Trest - Sultai stax incoming? This guy sounds pretty sick as a general. It greatly hinders players from gaining card advantage (plus unlike cards such as Spirit of the Labyrinth this only affects your opponents), and it is doubly insane with wheel effects (everyone discards their hand and only draws 1, while you refill like normal). Plus the one worry people have about whether or not to play certain cards is if they die before they can do anything, specifically generals. With Leovold, especially with Lightning Greaves attached to him (they need to kill the greaves and then Leovold) or countermagic backup (someone attempts to kill Leovold, you draw a card and then counter the spell), that problem is nicely alleviated. Blue, green, and black are the three best colors in EDH, and now you can make a stax deck with those colors.
My decks that I would play it in: New deck with him as the general
***Queen Marchesa - Interesting that she drops the blue from her previous form (Marchesa, the Black Rose to pick up white. She's the only monarch card that interests me as she does things when you're not the monarch, which generally happens more often than being the monarch. She is also a token generator of sorts, and the tokens actually are decent on their own (deathtouch makes for nice ground blockers in a pinch). Mardu now gets to build a token-theme deck of sorts so we'll see what options they have.
My decks that I would play it in: New deck with her as the general
???Spy Kit - I have no idea what to do with this card. There's got to be something you can do with this, since it's such a unique effect.
My decks that I would play it in: None
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
TLDR
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Demon of Dark Schemes
Nissa, Vital Force
Cloudblazer
Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
Aetherworks Marvel
Panharmonicon
Inventor's Fair
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
Authority of the Consuls
Cloudblazer
Kambal, Consul of Allocation
Aetherflux Reservoir
Here is my review for this set. I will go over any card that has any sort of interest, or could draw unwarranted interest (e.g. the card looks powerful but has some costs that are too difficult to overcome that people may try to work around and be disappointed with).
* = I don't think this card will be played outside of very fringe/budget decks
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed, or is for very specific decks.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = New staple in EDH. Either a flexible card for many decks, or extremely potent for specific decks.
***** = Will have a massive impact on EDH. If you're in these colors you're likely playing it.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
(I'm using my Progenitus topic to go over all the cards that pique my interest for various builds, and then largely copying/pasting it into my other topics, so if it seems like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time talking about cards that have no potential in a particular build, it's because of that)
ENERGY CARDS - Most energy cards I'm rating will be solely on their own merits. For example, a card like Demon of Dark Schemes which can potentially generate tons of energy at once, and can put that energy to good use. Versus something like Dynavolt Tower which will be mostly used to generate energy, and thus its playability depends on what other cards you play that can put that energy to use. This makes it difficult to rate the latter type of cards as they rely on other cards to reach their full potential, particularly when the dynamics of those cards aren't really known. Whereas something like Demon of Dark Schemes can be played as a standalone card, where you don't necessarily have to play other energy-generating cards to make it playable.
Unless the card generates a ton of energy, you usually shouldn't play the energy card unless it mana ramps you or generates some kind of card advantage. I would avoid playing cards that generate a small amount of energy but mostly only care about beating face with huge P/T.
VEHICLES - Most vehicles are just large creatures that require a crew and pure P/T is not useful in EDH. The vehicles that could be useful are those that can mana ramp or generate some kind of card advantage, either as an artifact or a creature. Crewing a vehicle isn't actually that hard since you'll have a ton of dorks lying around to crew it, so the important thing is whether or not the vehicle does anything to justify a spot.
**Angel of Invention - You often will not be putting the counters on it, so it's a 5-mana anthem that spawns 2 1/1s, which is decent value for token decks.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Authority of the Consuls - Being 1-mana is nice, although if you really want to play this card you really want to care about the lifegain. If having things ETB tapped is what you care about most, you might be better off playing something like Kismet or Blind Obedience. Despite the higher mana costs those cards are simply more potent and more aligned towards what stax/control decks want to do, whereas this card is more for a stream of lifegain triggers.
My decks that I would play it in: Oloro
***Cataclysmic Gearhulk - It's similar to Tragic Arrogance, with the difference being that Arrogance let you choose what each player kept, whereas this leaves you with a 4/5 vigilance but the opponents choose the permanents they keep. (Despite its name, Cataclysm is much different from this card, because Cataclysm was used more for being a mass land destruction card that also acted as a sweeper, whereas this is just a sweeper). In EDH that's a losing trade unless you are a dedicated blink/ETB deck to keep using this over and over. As long as there's no key permanent in play that needs to be removed (like an important general, which you can use spot removal for) and you just want to keep the board clear, it's fine.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Fumigate - It's a sad time that we may not see 4-mana sweepers in standard anymore. Regardless, this is simply not a good card. Unless you are desperate for lifegain, play more efficient sweepers.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Master Trinketeer - Maybe there's a servos/thopters deck? I'm not paying 4 mana to pump out a 1/1 otherwise.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Refurbish - White has a couple of cards that recur artifacts from graveyards, so add this to the list of decent recursion cards.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Aethersquall Ancient - It requires a lot of energy and it doesn't build up energy at a fast rate. If you can generate a lot of energy then this can keep the board clear. It's too slow on its own though. You ideally want 8 energy before playing this so you can immediately clear the board. At 7-mana if you stuff a bunch of energy cards then maybe.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Ceremonious Rejection - 1-mana hard counters are nothing to scoff at even when they're limited in scope. In the right meta this can be quite good.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Dramatic Reversal - This can't untap lands which means it's more limited in scope than Turnabout but it is only 2-mana and it still untaps your mana rocks. Spellslinger decks will probably play this as another way to make infinite mana with Reiterate.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Era of Innovation - It's a reliable but slow way to generate energy. The card drawing is nice but likely you'll play this for the energy.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Glint-Nest Crane - Passable value creature for artifact decks, but artifact decks might be more interested in playing an artifact that can do something similar.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Insidious Will - It's a cute card, but it's 1 mana too expensive for its effects. 4+ mana counterspells are extremely tricky and hard to use, particularly when Cryptic Command sets the bar for 4-mana counters.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Metallurgic Summonings - It's a 5-mana do nothing, but in the right build this can be scary. Making some creatures whenever you cast an instant or sorcery is nice, but being able to recur tons of spells back to your hand is scary. Requiring 6 artifacts in play sounds like a huge task, but when you consider that you'll likely be playing a lot of mana rocks, it shouldn't be that hard to reach. Note that the creatures created by this card are artifacts which count towards the second ability.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Padeem, Consul of Innovation - Blue version of Leonin Abunas except this can draw you cards slowly and can be your general. It doesn't look like a very strong general, though if you want a monoblue artifact general and you don't want to play Arcum Dagsson who draws obvious hate, you could try this one. As part of the other 99 it has some value, but because this doesn't have hexproof it'll be easy to remove this.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Paradoxical Outcome - My initial instinct is that this card won't be very good. I guess you could play this in response to a wrath, but you would probably be better off just countering the wrath instead of having this in your deck if there are cards you have that you are interested in saving. It is a unique effect and that's why I don't think it'll be useless, but I can't think of any situation where this would be really good.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Saheeli's Artistry - Similar to Stolen Identity in that it's a 6-mana sorcery that copies either creatures or artifacts. There are some obvious differences (Stolen Identity ciphers and needs to connect to clone again, this generally is harder to fizzle with removal spells as you will usually have two targets whereas Stolen Identity only has one, etc.), but ultimately the bar for clones is pretty high. It's decent but doesn't really stand out.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Shrewd Negotiation - These types of donate cards are mostly for Zedruu decks, but 5-mana for an exchange effect is still expensive.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Torrential Gearhulk - 6-mana is a lot, so you really want to be a dedicated draw-go deck where leaving up 6 mana doesn't fire off alarms in everyone's heads. Only hitting instants is somewhat restrictive as well, though there are plenty of good instants to get (namely counterspells and removal spells). However you really want to flashback an instant of CMC 5+ before you really get your money's worth with this card, and while there are a couple (Dig Through Time being obvious, even though it's more like a 2-mana card), there aren't numerous amounts of high-CMC instants that are useful in EDH. This does limit the value of the card.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Demon of Dark Schemes - Obviously very similar to Massacre Wurm. Most notably this gives all other creatures -2/-2, including your other creatures, whereas Wurm only hit your opponents' creatures. That does suck, but basically for every 4 creatures that die, you can pay 2B with 4 energy to reanimate a creature, so in that sense killing your X/2s isn't the end of the world. Presumably the energy sticks around even if this dies, so if it comes back you can still use that energy. Wurm can close the game quickly, mostly against enemy token decks, but this seems like it has more value overall because of the reanimation effect. Also being a 5/5 flier is not irrelevant either. Ultimately it's a mini-sweeper stapled with a card-advantage engine all on a respectable body. It's got many qualities for what you want out of your top-end.
My decks that I would play it in: Maybe Prossh
Diabolic Tutor - Don't play this card in EDH. If for whatever reason you do though, get this art. It's hilarious. Also that flavor text can be taken out of context really easily.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Eliminate the Competition - This will be for token decks where you have a ton of disposable creatures to sacrifice, but this generally seems worse than Grave Pact or other similar cards.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Fortuitous Find - Budget graveyard recursion card.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Gonti, Lord of Luxury - Basically when it ETBs you Impulse an opponent's deck, then it's a roadblock for ground creatures thanks to deathtouch. Seems like a decent value card.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Marionette Master - It's basically a 6-mana, huge version of Disciple of the Vault. While Disciple is generally better as it's 1-mana and you usually win with infinite combos anyway (thus this card potentially hitting for more life per trigger isn't that relevant), it's still a decent card for artifact decks anyway. Most of the time you'll play Disciple of the Vault as the first copy and only play this as a backup, if even that. Pumping out three 1/1 artifacts isn't irrelevant though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Midnight Oil - Seems like a slow, crappier Phyrexian Arena. in standard it could see play as multiple Oils draw you cards while the last Oil you play is the one that sets your handsize (even though that's durdly as hell and there are very few times where you have the time to play more than one oil), but in EDH you obviously can't play multiple Oils. You could find a way to donate this to an opponent, but they still get the card draw anyway.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Morbid Curiosity - You probably want to sacrifice something that's at least 3-mana before you feel like you get your money's worth. On top of that it has to be something that you don't mind sacrificing (Mulldrifter) or is beneficial for you to sac (Ichor Wellspring). Seems okay but it's quite limited in scope.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Noxious Gearhulk - 6-mana is a lot, but a creature that is unconditional removal on ETB is nice to have. However compare it to Duplicant. This card is harder to cast and doesn't exile the creature and sometimes it won't be as large in P/T, but this has menace and lifegain. That sounds like a losing trade. It's still a decent ETB value creature but I feel like Duplicant is better unless the lifegain is important.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Underhanded Designs - You have to invest mana into it, so it will be very mana intensive despite being only 2 mana. more often than not it'll just be a slow kill spell.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Cloudblazer - We did it guys! We got a Mulldrifter clone! Same CMC as mulldrifter, where you trade off the evoke and a harder color requirement for 2 life (sorry UG you can't play this card). Lifegain is not a big deal, and losing evoke is actually a big deal (mulldrifter basically let you keep risky hands if it was in your opening hand, and sometimes you want mulldrifter in the graveyard anyway), but it's still 5-mana dude that draws you 2 cards. Goes great with the obvious blink effects, graveyard stuff, etc. If you're interested in Mulldrifter and you're UW, chances are you'll be interested in him too. Redundacy for these types of effects are key.
My decks that I would play it in: Most white-blue creature-based decks, maybe Oloro
***Dovin Baan - Lock down a creature with an important activated ability (Arcum Daggson) and with some politics you may be able to keep it alive for a few turns. The -1 is alright. Unfortunately he doesn't pass the doubling season test but it is very powerful, basically Static Orb for only your opponents. UW or UWx stax decks might be interested.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Kambal, Consul of Allocation - Life gain is not a big deal. But it's a 3-mana dude that continuously drains. If you're interested in playing fair, this is a huge thorn for the noncreature-based decks. Storm decks in particular have to kill this before they go off.
My decks that I would play it in: Oloro
**Restoration Gearsmith - Creatures that recur things from the graveyard upon ETB are generally good, even if none will match up to Eternal Witness. Regardless, there are worse budget options you can play for your creature/artifact deck, particularly without requiring green.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Aetherflux Reservoir - PAY 50 LIFE. Funny enough that's more achievable than you would expect in EDH, though you obviously need to be very dedicated to lifegain, and even then it's still pretty hefty (I am questioning whether or not to really play this in Oloro, as you still need some cards that gain you an exhorbitant amount of life, such as Beacon of Immortality, before you really want this card). You can nuke one player out of the game but you really need to put your life total at a huge amount before you can shotgun down multiple players. It's also going to be embarrassing if it gets stifle'd. Regardless this is a hilarious card.
My decks that I would play it in: Maybe Oloro?
****Aetherworks Marvel - It takes some work, but again, it can help cheat on mana costs, and if you can manipulate the top of your library you can get some scary stuff out. Most likely it can see use in token decks since those generate tons of permanents. It does say "permanent you control", so that includes fetchlands, things that need to sacrifice anyway (e.g. Sakura-Tribe Elder), and so on, but I believe token decks will generate energy the fastest anyway.
My decks that I would play it in: Maybe Prossh
**Animation Module - Kind of slow, but it's a new-world card that can actually give an additional loyalty counter to a planeswalker, which is something that wizards is scared to do ever since Doubling Season started laughing.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Cultivator's Caravan - The baseline for mana rocks that make a mana of any color is 3-mana, so this lines up. The bonus this card has over other similar cards is the ability to become a 5/5 creature. If you're an aggro deck then this could be useful over other 3-mana "rainbow" rocks with the exception of Coalition Relic. If you're midrange or control though you're likely be better off with Chromatic Lantern, Commander's Sphere, etc.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Deadlock Trap - Stax decks can sometimes have trouble dealing with planeswalkers, as many of the hateful stax cards can deal with creatures, artifacts, and lands fairly well. ETBing tapped kind of sucks and you do need multiple ways to generate energy to keep a planeswalker locked down (or maybe use something like Goblin Welder to keep it flipping from battlefield to graveyard and back repeatedly), but it's nice to know this exists as an option.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Filigree Familiar - Some people compared this to Solemn Simulacrum. They're artifacts that can go into any deck, they're 2/2s, and they draw a card when they die. The difference is that this is 1 less mana, but ramp is almost always better than 2 life. It might be more appropriate to compare this to Kitchen Finks where you trade off the persist trigger (which comes with 2 extra life) for a card draw, and nobody is going crazy over Finks. While I don't think this will be stellar in EDH, it is a decent value card, and could be seen if you care about trying to reanimate this multiple times for the card draw. As said multiple times, though, the lifegain isn't that important unless you're playing against more casual, fair decks.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Foundry Inspector - Inferior Etherium Sculptor but having multiples of these effects can't be bad, and if you're a non-blue artifact deck that can't play Sculptor then w/e.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Ghirapur Orrery - In my Zedruu topic I talk about hug effects. Basically, there are two types of hug effects; those that increase players' mana (Mana Flare) and those that increase players' cards (Howling Mine). Generally cards that hug with both effects are very dangerous as those are the ones that allow players to get out of control quickly, and thus unless you're going for a pure group hug deck, you generally only want to focus on one type of hug effect. Here this card hugs both, which means this is dangerous to play, even if this doesn't always help people draw cards immediately. Basically, I don't think I would play this in Zedruu.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Key to the City - Much like many discard-outlets, you really want to make the discard cost not actually be a cost. Discard a fatty is the obvious thing, discard Squee, etc. Since you can only discard once a turn, you also want to make the unblockable effect relevant. So there will be a somewhat narrow build that wants this card. But at 2-mana it's not a huge cost.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Metalwork Colossus - Creatures with just a lot of power and toughness are not great. If you can find a way to make its CMC matter (Bosh, Iron Golem?) then maybe. Or maybe having a sac outlet while this is in the graveyard could see some use. You'll need to build around it to make it work and even then it seems alright.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*****Panharmonicon - This card is going to be in every bloody creature deck that relies on ETB effects. Hell, since this card also affects artifacts, decks with artifact ETB effects will love this card too (Spine of Ish Sah). Be prepared to see this everywhere and make dumb midrange durdle decks even dumber. If you're not on the ETB bandwagon, ready your Torpor Orbs and similar cards because this is going to be everywhere. Pick up foils because so many people will want one for their EDH deck.
My decks that I would play it in: A lot
**Scraphead Scrounger - Low CMC creatures that can come back from the graveyard on an affordable cost are always worth keeping an eye out for, even if it's going to be hard to abuse this because it requires mana and a creature sac.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Skysovereign, Consul Flagship - It has the "Titan" trigger in that it goes off on ETB or attack, which is cool. Lightning bolt is not super good, but it's repeatable and it's evasion. Tap your wood elves and oracle of mul daya and send this thing in the air. Doesn't jump off the page but it sounds solid.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Aether Hub - This is a surprisingly solid card. It's similar to Tendo Ice Bridge except if you can generate more energy this can keep tapping for colored mana. Obviously you do want a stream of energy but since it still taps for colorless it's not like you need to have multiple sources of it. At uncommon, it should be easy on the budget as well. If nothing else, it's a land that generates 1 energy in case you are built around energy.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Enemy Fastlands - Much like the Scars of Mirrodin fastlands, these will be great in low-curve decks.
My decks that I would play it in: None
****Inventor's Fair - A land that you can effectively pay 5 mana to cast a Fabricate is definitely nice value, especially since this is a colorless card. Since it's not that hard to get 3 artifacts in play if you really give a damn, this can go into a lot of decks as long as there's a worthwhile artifact to fetch out.
My decks that I would play it in: Some
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
TLDR
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Deepglow Skate
Faerie Artisans
Divergent Transformations
Benefactor's Draught
Atraxa, Praetor's voice
Breya, Etherium Shaper
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder
Armory Automaton
Ash Barrens
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
N/A
THIS PAGE COVERS ALL COMBINATIONS OF PAIRS FOR THE PARTNER GENERALS
https://badaro.github.io/edhpartners/partners.html
Here is my review for this set. I will go over any card that has any sort of interest, or could draw unwarranted interest (e.g. the card looks powerful but has some costs that are too difficult to overcome that people may try to work around and be disappointed with).
* = I don't think this card will be played outside of very fringe/budget decks
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed, or is for very specific decks.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = New staple in EDH. Either a flexible card for many decks, or extremely potent for specific decks.
***** = Will have a massive impact on EDH. If you're in these colors you're likely playing it.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
(I'm using my Progenitus topic to go over all the cards that pique my interest for various builds, and then largely copying/pasting it into my other topics, so if it seems like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time talking about cards that have no potential in a particular build, it's because of that)
PARTNER CARDS - The partner ability means it will be difficult to gauge the power level of the card, because one card could work very well with a different partner card, but the large amount of permutations available will make it difficult to quickly determine which partners stand out. Because of that, I'll be basing a partner card's power level on its own merits; would you play it as part of your 99, and could this card be passable as a standalone general, or is this card relegated to partnering with another general?
WHITE
**Duelist's Heritage - Mostly for voltron decks, but it's a way to pump up voltrons without relying on equipment or auras. Not sure if it's better than whatever is available at the time though.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Entrapment Maneuver - 4-mana for a combat trick is expensive, so for this to be worth it you need to care about the tokens. However sacrificing is very potent against voltrons, and given how many voltrons soup up their P/T, this can make a lot of tokens. You likely want to reduce the number of creatures they have out though in order to make sure that they can only attack with their voltron, or find a way to only have their voltron swing in (e.g. tax with pillow forts).
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Orzhov Advokist - Pillow fort card. Make people be inclined to not attack you (Ghostly Prison taxed opponents for attacking you, while this gives them a bonus for not attacking you).
My decks that I would play it in: Zedruu
**Selfless Squire - Fogs for a turn and gets huge. There are several types of cards that fog and do some kind of benefit (Comeuppance) so if you want to have this separate from the other huge fog effects you will need to build around it. Note that its last ability triggers for all prevented damage to you, not just from this guy's abilit (e.g. Orbs of Warding), so you likely want to be dedicated pillow fort.
My decks that I would play it in: Zedruu (if some tweaks are made)
*Sublime Exhalation - You need three opponents before this just becomes Day of Judgment, and note that as opponents get knocked out of the game the cost increases back to normal. If you have four opponents it's only 3 mana, but jokes on you, you're playing a 5-man FFA and anything more than 4 total players takes forever. I would only play this in decks where I know it would be, say, three teams of 2, so there are only 3 teams taking turns but you technically have 4 opponents. That's still very narrow.
My decks that I would play it in: None
BLUE
**Coastal Breach - Ignore the fact that every bounce blue sweeper pales in comparison to Cyclonic Rift (let alone how most sweepers are worse than Rift). Better or worse than Crush of Tentacles or Devastation Tide? If you have three opponents this costs 4, which is actually not bad. Tide has more upside though since you can miracle it for just 2 (and miracle also means you can cast it at instant speed if you build around it enough) and Crush can leave behind an 8/8. The other issue is that if you have only two opponents this costs 5 and then becomes strictly worse than Tide. Seems okay overall but not particularly exciting because of that.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*****Deepglow Skate - Is this blue's version of Doubling Season? It won't let planeswalkers enter the battlefield and then immediately ultimate (one of the advantages of doubling season) but it does affect PWs already on your board. You can double charge counters, -1/-1 counters, and of course +1/+1 counters as well. Tons of flexibility and power in the right builds.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*****Faerie Artisans - This creature, at only 4 mana, continuously clones creatures that your opponents play, for no additional mana. However, not all creatures give value, and since you are forced to exile the token, sometimes that creature could do nothing. For example, an opponent could play Consecrated Sphinx and then immediately play Birds of Paradise so you lose your Sphinx token. If an opponent has a big ETB creature (e.g. Terastodon) they will just hold onto it until Artisans leaves play, or if they absolutely have to play the creature. In other words, it will sometimes act as a punisher mechanic. Also, it will generally not affect the hypercompetitive circles as those don't have as many ETB value creatures and are more infinite combos/hyperstax. To improve this card's floor, play some flicker effects, so you can flicker the artisan at will which will let you keep the last token it made (which can also catch people off guard; e.g. in the above example, flicker your artisan before Birds resolves so you keep your Consecrated Sphinx token). It is an extremely powerful card and has the potential to take over a game by itself, but there are some situations where it's not that good.
My decks that I would play it in: Blue creature decks with ETB/flicker theme
***Grip of Phyresis - Is that germ token holding sword of fire and ice? That's amazing. In any case, making this instant speed makes this very interesting. It can throw off a lot of math (were you relying on untapping your lands with sword of feast and famine?). Depending on the attacker and the equipment you steal, you can actually eat the attacker. You likely want to be a voltron deck so you can guarantee that whatever equipment you steal will still retain value (strap the stolen equipment onto your general) but it should be solid.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Manifold Insights - Very few punisher mechanics are playable. I'm not sure this is one of them. If you can argue some politics you could convince an opponent to give you a key card ("Give me this removal spell to kill this permanent or else we lose"). Also this does say "nonland", and any spell is generally better than nothing. If you are intentionally playing a low-power deck you could also maybe convince people to give you certain cards you want. Again, I tend to not like punisher mechanics, but you could try it out in your playgroup and see how it fares.
My decks that I would play it in: None
BLACK
***Cruel Entertainment - On paper it looks like double Mindslaver except your opponents are instead the ones trying to own each other. You likely do not want to let an opponent take control of your turn, but you can likely get two people to kill each other. It's a very tricky card to use though, because they could instead agree to not totally screw each other over. The strength of this card will largely depend on the personalities of the people in your playgroup. Are they spikes who will try to screw with each other the hardest, or are they going to be political? I am rating this high because I think most people will do whatever they can to screw the other player, but again, you must evaluate the players in your playgroup and see whether or not they will do that as well.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Curse of Vengeance - If you want to talk about a card that has a massive amount of variance, this might be the poster boy. You need to cast it early to gain value, and the person has to actually lose the game before it does anything (also assuming it doesn't get destroyed in the meantime). But it ramps up quickly and it could theoretically draw you a lot of cards. Its low floor makes me think this is just flat out unplayable but maybe someone wants to try messing with it.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Curtains' Call - Will usually cost around 4-5 mana. Ashes to ashes is a sorcery and can't get artifact creatures and deals 5 damage to you, but is always only 3 mana and exiles. Not sure if this card will be better than ashes to ashes.
My decks that I would play it in: None
***Magus of the Will - Anything that's shades of Yawgmoth's Will has to be insane, right? Well, this is really slow, so unless you two need two Wills, probably not. Playable just because of how insane Will is, but not amazing.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Parting Thoughts - Sorcery speed is a major issue with the card. It's clunky and narrow since you only get a benefit if it had counters. You can draw a lot of cards (and lose a lot of life) but it has a terrible floor.
My decks that I would play it in: None
4-COLOR GENERALS
(NULL-RED)
****Atraxa, Praetor's voice - That's a lot of keywords, making it a decent overall midrange general. Proliferate is also a nice ability. It doesn't really feel like a 4-color card, but it's not bad to play to gain the colors, and proliferate gives you just enough build around, particularly superfriends (losing out on red means you don't get peeps like Dack Fayden and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker which sucks).
My decks that I would play it in: New deck with this as the general
(NULL-GREEN)
****Breya, Etherium Shaper - This does feel sort of 4-color minus green, since it cares about artifacts and green hates artifacts the most of the 5 colors. Regardless, it's a decent token generator but the sac outlet costing 2 mana AND two artifacts is too much so you likely won't be triggering it often. Then again, there are lots of nice sac outlets (Krark-Clan Ironworks) so it's not the end of the world. Giving you red does make her significantly different than Sharuum or Sydri while likely being a similar power level, which means she'll likely be strong.
My decks that I would play it in: New deck with this as the general
(NULL-BLACK)
*Kynaios and Terio of Meletis - For a 4-color general I was hoping for something more than a plain group hug card and it doesn't even give you any control over how to hug (the opponents can either ramp or card draw and they choose which one). You can play them for the colors, but more often than not actually casting these guys will actively hurt you.
My decks that I would play it in: None
(NULL-BLUE)
**Saskia the Unyielding - You can double up your damage on one player, or try and take down two separate players at once. However 3-power for 4 mana isn't even that aggressive without some kind of evasion. It doesn't provide mana or card advantage and it's not even very aggressive on its own, so you need support cards to do anything. Play it if you want the colors, but it's a very underwhelming card.
My decks that I would play it in: None.
(NULL-WHITE)
****Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - So nevermind the fact that the name sounds similar to Maelstrom Wanderer. This is certainly a powerful card. Note that unlike Maelstrom Nexus, ALL your spells you cast this turn gain cascade. Also, multiple instances of cascade stack (again, see Wanderer) so if you give this double strike, or additional combat phases, you can add even more cascades to a single spell. Play spells that have alternate casting costs or ways to reduce their casting cost (Snuff Out, Pyrokinesis, Dismember, some of the cards in this set that have cost reduction like Curtains' Call, etc.) to help maximize the number of spells you can cast that will trigger cascade. You can also play fewer cards that would be dead cascades (Green Sun's Zenith won't be stellar and Arcane Denial won't be as good, but you won't cascade into Chord of Calling on spells that are 3 or less mana).
My decks that I would play it in: New deck with this as the general
PARTNER GENERALS
(AZORIUS)
***Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker - Starts off small but opponents cast a lot of spells every round so this thing can quickly grow out of control. This seems decently aggressive and Azorius doesn't get many of those, which will allow you to build UW in an interesting voltron-ish way.
My decks that I would play it in: New deck with this as the general
(DIMIR)
**Silas Renn, Seeker Adept - That trigger is decent, but it won't be easy forcing through damage with a 2/2. So you need help to get this through, and then you still have to spend mana on the artifact you're casting. It's 3-mana so it comes down early, but how many cheap artifacts will you have in the graveyard to cast that early without using loot/discard effects?
My decks that I would play it in: None.
(ORZHOV)
**Ravos, Soultender - Anthems are worth three mana, so getting this slow recursion bonus sounds about right. But it is slow.
My decks that I would play it in: None
**Tymna the Weaver - If you can reliably deal combat damage to one opponent each turn, this becomes a Phyrexian Arena, which is certainly solid. The issue is being able to reliably do that.
My decks that I would play it in: None.
MISC MULTICOLOR
***Ancient Excavation - Interesting "wheel" effect, except traditional wheel effects make you pitch your hand, whereas this lets you keep which cards to keep. Instant speed helps this card and might be decent in draw-go control decks. The basic landcycling is not bad either.
My decks that I would play it in: None
*Migratory Route - Meh.
My decks that I would play it in: None
ARTIFACTS/LANDS
****Armory Automaton - This card will be sneaky annoying. You likely only want to play it in voltron decks as it will guarantee that you'll have good equipment to strap to it, but what makes it scary is how it can strip off ANY equipments, including opponents' stuff. Many people run lightning greaves/swiftfoot boots, or Sword of X and Y. Notably, it can force those equipment off to leave the previous wearers vulnerable. This is also ignoring the fact that you can get a hit in to trigger any valuable effects. The opponents can move the equipment off later, but they will often need to spend mana to do so. Against the right opponents, this will be supremely annoying.
My decks that I would play it in: None.
*Boompile - Sweepers that only have a 50% chance of working cannot be relied on to save you. It is 4 less mana total than Oblivion Stone (3 to play and 5 to activate) but I'll take reliability over that 4 mana discount. At least Oblivion Stone will do something when I want it to.
My decks that I would play it in: None.
**Conqueror's Flail - While it's more potent in 4 or 5 color decks, you can play it as a Grand Abolisher type of card, with the difference being in what cards kill these permanents. Of course since it doesn't do anything unless it's equipped, the creature can be killed in response to the equip. Ultimately unless you don't have white and can't play Abolisher, you likely want to be 4 or 5 color before you bother with this, and you probably want a voltron general as well where the pump effect matters more.
My decks that I would play it in: None.
***Crystalline Crawler - If you have a +1/+1 counter theme this is not bad to dump it on to store mana. Since it color fixes you to an extent you could just play it in normal 5-color as well though it's not great there. Thankfully with the change to the mana generation rule, your 2 and 3 color decks can converge this for 4 if you have the right lands out (City of Brass, Darksteel ingot, etc.).
My decks that I would play it in: Some?
***Prismatic Geoscope - Obviously this is almost entirely for 4 and 5-color. If you're 3-color you're better off with Gilded Lotus and unless you need multiples of that effect you won't need this card. Even in 4/5-color, ETBing tapped sucks, but it often will give you perfect mana, though it won't be great for 4/5-color budget builds; you really do need the fetchland + shockland/ABU dual combination. Also one of the reasons to play mana rocks is to give you some protection against Armageddon and similar cards, where this being unable to tap for much mana is a problem.
My decks that I would play it in: Progenitus
****Ash Barrens - This surprisingly looks solid for budget decks that rely on Evolving Wilds or terramorphic expanse for color fixing, and is likely better than those two cards. All three of these cards technically cost you one mana (Wilds and Expanse's basic land ETBs tapped, this costs 1 to cycle) but this can provide you colorless mana if necessary whereas Wilds/Expanse always "cost" 1 mana. Its weakness of course is if this is your only land in your hand it doesn't really color fix you, but that means you have a 1-lander and those are difficult to keep anyway. I'm rating this highly solely because of budget reasons. If you aren't budget then don't play this card. I'm also assuming the card will be budget (like, same price as wilds/expanse).
My decks that I would play it in: All budget decks that are 3-5 colors
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
+ Mystic Remora
+ Snapcaster Mage
+ Painful Truths
+ Kambal, Consul of Allocation
- Vizkopa Guildmage
- Beacon of Immortality
- Phyrexian Arena
- Phyrexian Processor
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
TLDR
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Restoration Specialist
Baral, Chief of Compliance
Baral's Expertise
Disallow
Trophy Mage
Whir of Invention
Heroic Intervention
Rishkar, Peema Renegade
Paradox Engine (will likely get banned)
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
Restoration Specialist
Baral, Chief of Compliance
Baral's Expertise
Disallow
Trophy Mage
Whir of Invention
Paradox Engine
Here is my review for this set. I will go over any card that has any sort of interest, or could draw unwarranted interest (e.g. the card looks powerful but has some costs that are too difficult to overcome that people may try to work around and be disappointed with).
* = I don't think this card will be played outside of very fringe/budget decks
** = Will appear once in awhile but is generally outclassed, or is for very specific decks.
*** = Keep an eye out on this card. Appears highly volatile in terms of playability.
**** = New staple in EDH. Either a flexible card for many decks, or extremely potent for specific decks.
***** = Will have a massive impact on EDH. If you're in these colors you're likely playing it.
If I don't talk about a card that is in the set that's because either it's a reprint or I think it's not going to do anything at all.
(I'm using my Progenitus topic to go over all the cards that pique my interest for various builds, and then largely copying/pasting it into my other topics, so if it seems like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time talking about cards that have no potential in a particular build, it's because of that)
WHITE
*Call for Unity - Play Cathars' Crusade instead.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Consulate Crackdown - It's similar to Vandalblast in that it hits all artifacts except yours. Comparable to many other artifact sweepers in general as well, such as Creeping Corrosion. Of course this has its ups and downs; exiling is useful as many artifact decks have graveyard recursion, but the artifacts all come back once this is removed.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Exquisite Archangel - Similar to Resolute Archangel, where they're 7-mana angels that alter your life total in a noticeable way. Personally this doesn't impress me, as most of the time you lose because of an infinite combo which doesn't care about something that lets you restart your life total.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Felidar Guardian - Similar to Restoration Angel, but blinking any permanent you control (other than itself) instead of non-angel creature can lead to some hilarious things (e.g. he goes infinite with Saheeli Rai so we get splinter twin combo T4 kills in standard lulz). The lack of flash and the lower stats (lower power, no flying) are notable drawbacks, but there are nice interactions with being able to blink the things that restoration angel can't get (e.g. blink a mana rock), and being a little easier on the wallet is nice too.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Derevi
****Restoration Specialist - For essentially 1WW you recur an artifact plus enchantment, which actually is quite strong. Most creatures only do one or the other. As an extra bonus you get to decide when to pull the "trigger".
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Various white decks, preferably with creature recursion
***Sram, Senior Edificer - Vehicles are still not that playable in EDH, so it's just drawing cards off your aura and equipment spells, which is still not bad for voltron decks. It's a similar card to Kor Spiritdancer and Puresteel Paladin - 2-mana dudes that help draw cards in your voltron decks. It should slot in decently in said voltron decks or possibly be a monowhite voltron general.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Sram's Expertise - Making a bunch of 1/1s is whatever at 4-mana, so you really want to be cheating in something cool, and you still have to care about the tokens.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
BLUE
*Aethertide Whale - Generates a lot of energy upon ETB but does nothing much besides that.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Baral, Chief of Compliance - Goblin Electromancer with upside and only one color will be quite sick. Obviously for spellslinger decks, but it will be an automatic include in them. The second ability might make it also playable in a control/counterspell control deck as the loot ability is nice too.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Baral's Expertise - One of the best in the cycle, as it affects the board in a meaningful and flexible way while also giving a free spell, which helps make this slot into a lot of different blue decks as a decent value/tempo card. Being able to bounce artifacts is also very relevant. Bounce three threats and cheat in a Rhystic Study or Jace isn't too bad.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
****Disallow - Voidslime for 1UU instead of GUU will see good amounts of play. Having flexible counterspells is always nice to have. It won't be a broken card but it will be solid.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: most blue decks
*Efficient Construction - It's unfortunate this isn't an artifact itself, but regardless it's a slow but fair way to slowly pump out artifacts. Most artifact combos are just looping from the graveyard over and over again though and not hardcasting much of anything so this likely won't see much play.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Illusionist's Stratagem - +1 mana over Displace for a cantrip. The cantrip probably isn't worth it at this point, as 4-mana starts to get quite pricy.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Mechanized Production - Way too slow and vulnerable for EDH. I wouldn't play this even if Phyrexian Metamorph or Sculpting Steel didn't exist, but the fact that those two cards do exist means this card is straight unplayable. It will be funny if you ever win the game with this (note that your 8+ copies of the artifact do not have to be whatever you enchanted, all the card cares about is if you have 8+ copies of any artifact) but shigs and tiggles don't make you more playable.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Metallic Rebuke - Mana Leak is not bad if you're in a tight meta where mana curves are lower and people often won't have 3 open to pay for their spell. However, you need to improvise for at least 1 before it becomes mana leak and only for 2 does it actually become better, meaning this is not a great early play, and being a great early play is the exact reason why mana leak was so good.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Quicksmith Spy - Maybe it has an infinite combo with something?
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Reverse Engineer - If you improvise for 1 it becomes Concentrate, though you really want to improvise for 3 before you really want to consider playing this. Improvising for only two means it's still generally worse than Thirst for Knowledge, the standard 3-mana draw-three spell for artifact decks.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Skyship Bandit - Literally Thrummingbird except it's a 2/1 instead of a 1/1. The extra point of power has some uses, mostly in being able to trade with 2 toughness creatures, but if your deck doesn't want Thrummingbird, it very likely doesn't want this either.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*****Trophy Mage - Obvious brother (or sister in this case) to Trinket Mage and Treasure Mage, two cards that see massive amounts of play. There are tons of 3-mana artifacts to get, such as Ashnod's Altar, Mimic Vat, Sword of X and Y, many mana rocks, Cloudstone Curio, and the list goes on. 3-mana is always the fair spot for tutors, especially when it comes with a body. Pick up your foils fast because this will be a staple. Like many of these 3-mana dudes that tutor for something, Trophy mage won't be broken, but it will become a staple.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Any blue deck with 2+ critical 3-mana artifacts
*****Whir of Invention - It's obviously a Chord of Calling for artifacts. Chord is a 5-star card and this will easily be another 5-star card as well. With Chord, you don't even need to convoke, just tutoring up a creature at instant speed is strong, and the convoke just made it ridiculous. This will be the same thing; you don't need to abuse the improvise part of the card, it's still going to be very good. The only difference is that Chord's convoke cost allowed you to tap green creatures to pay for the triple green, whereas there aren't many blue artifacts you can improvise, meaning you'll often have to pay at least the triple blue. Still, it's going to be strong.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Any blue deck with critical artifacts
BLACK
*Battle at the Bridge - Ho-hum removal spell, sorcery speed kills it.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Fatal Push - Wizards obviously wanted to name it "THIS IS SPARTA" but they couldn't because something. Regardless, this is actually playable in the right meta (and is very good in modern). If you have a hypercompetitive meta where many of the key creatures are 4 or less mana (Brago, Zur, Arcum, Hermit Druid, etc.), this is basically a 1-mana kill spell. With fetchlands around you can trigger the revolt easily. You may want to have more cards that can leave the battlefield on command so you can get the revolt trigger more reliably, but regardless, any 1-mana kill spell should be on your radar. Pick up your foils because modern is going to love this card and it will cause this to be expensive for a long time.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Gonti's Machinations - The sac ability is terrible, but it seems like an okay energy generator. Crack a fetchland on a turn you're not damaged to get a free energy, etc.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Herald of Anguish - The discard ability seems kind of tacked on but is good, since it triggers at your endstep which helps it generate value faster than if it triggered at your upkeep. The sac ability is a bit hefty as you need 1B and you only get a Disfigure out of it, but artifact decks have a slew of artifacts to toss away. What's more interesting is that black gets a card that loves artifacts, since it's usually white/blue/red that get the artifact love. Not sure if it'll be good enough for artifact decks since they can combo so quickly though, but it sounds good on paper.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Midnight Entourage - Not sure if there are enough playable Aetherborns.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Perilous Predicament - Almost everyone will have a noncreature artifact, but not everyone will have an artifact creature.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Sly Requisitioner - Depending on how many artifacts you have that sacrifice themselves and/or how many artifact sac outlets you have, this might be a decent value card. Most of the time if you're saccing artifacts you're going for an infinite loop though so this won't really do anything.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Vengeful Rebel - Similar to Fatal Push; decent to good in the right meta, and you need to trigger the revolt reliably.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Yahenni, Undying Partisan - Sac outlets that require no mana investment are always something to be aware of. He can't sac himself but whatever. It can also grow fairly quickly, although you're going to play this more as a sac outlet than anything else. While most sac outlets can't compare to the really good ones like Viscera Seer or Phyrexian Altar, this will still be fine.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Yahenni's Expertise - A mini-sweeper is not always relevant in EDH, but being able to cast a spell for free is always dangerous and worth watching out for. Play this and use the free spell on a removal spell to kill a big threat that the mini-sweeper doesn't catch. You really do want to play this card in a meta where the mini-sweeper matters.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
MULTICOLOR
*Spire Patrol - Mini-Frost Titan looks underwhelming. Despite being 2 less mana and with flying, it is 2 colors, and it only taps when it ETBs, and it only affects creatures, and it doesn't have any sort of protection (albeit you probably don't care if a 4-drop with an ETB effect has protection, but still).
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Tezzeret the Schemer - The +1 creates a lotus petal, the -2 is a ho-hum removal spell, and the ultimate is whatever although it does occur fairly quickly. Blue/black does have some trouble ramping if you aren't using dark ritual/high tide so maybe it's not terrible, but he doesn't really impress me.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Tezzeret's Touch - Essentially it's adding black on Ensoul Artifact and gives your artifact back to your hand after it gets blown up. Seems playable because of the recursion but uninspiring.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Tezzeret, Master of Metal - This is only marginally better than Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and that's not even considering it's 6-mana and not 4. Though unlike the Ajanis in this set, this does pass the Doubling Season test.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
ARTIFACT
***Cogwork Assembler - 7-mana for its activation is very hefty, so I imagine it'll be used for infinite combos or something as the ability doesn't require tapping. For example, Krark-Clan ironworks + Myr Battlesphere + this card = infinite colorless mana. Of course artifact decks generally don't have problems generating mana (unless they get hit with a sweeper) and so maybe this being a mana dump will make it good, I don't know.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Crackdown Construct - With any ability that requires no cost to activate and isn't a mana ability, you can get an infinite power and toughness artifact creature, and I'm sure there's a lot of things you can do with that. In standard we get Wandering Fumarole for lulz which is funny as hell, and I know there are other things you can do.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Gonti's Aether Heart - Seems not bad if you're focused on generating energy. If you want to play this card with the idea of taking an extra turn, you'll probably be disappointed, as you would be better off just playing Time Warp effects or something.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Heart of Kiran - Simple beatsticks in EDH don't cut it.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Hope of Ghirapur - Legendary version of Xantid Swarm. You need to have this actually connect while Xantid Swarm just needs to attack, and while this does have flying and is only a 1-drop, it's going to be hard for a 1/1 to force through damage, and you need to sacrifice this for the effect, and it only stops noncreature spells. Granted, this does last for a full turn cycle while Xantid Swarm was more like a Grand Abolisher placed on one player for just the rest of the turn. I guess being legendary maybe you can make colorless voltron or something, but I don't know. Xantid Swarm is better when you attack a player with counterspells to help resolve a combo, whereas this is more like a stax piece on the control/storm player, but this is fairly clunky unless you can play it really early and continuously recur it. It is a relatively unique effect so it isn't unplayable, but I wouldn't be excited to test this out.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Inspiring Statuary - Most artifact decks don't have a problem generating mana, especially if this card only helps power out nonartifact spells which an artifact deck won't have a ton of (especially those that cost a lot of mana). Still, it is something to keep your eye on.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Lifecrafter's Bestiary - Essentially it's a bad Glimpse of Nature, but Glimpse of Nature was more like a deck that enabled storm decks/combo and that kind of thing, whereas this is more of a card that just gives all your creature spells "Kicker G, draw a card". Still should be playable in any case. You obviously want a high number of creatures, maybe 30-40 or more, before you should even consider this.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Merchant's Dockhand - It's a hefty mana cost per turn and tapping some artifacts can be annoying, but it is only 1-mana. Doesn't sound exciting but I imagine there are worse things you can play.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Metallic Mimic - If you have a tribal theme this should be fine for just 2-mana, though it's more for weenie decks as I don't think something like Dragon tribal really needs +1/+1 counters on them.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
BANNEDParadox Engine - I'm not even going to spend much time talking about this card. It's going to get banned really fast. I would be shocked if the RC doesn't ban it. Prophet of Kruphix got hammered and it isn't nearly as insane as this. It combos with way too many things, namely a bunch of mana rocks and/or mana dorks + some dumb enabler. Buyback cards like Capsize becomes bounce everything you want. Put something stupid like Think twice under an Isochron Scepter and it draws your deck. There are tons of combos, and none of them are good for the game. Play the crap out of this card and have fun with it until it gets banned.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: Probably everything pending budget
*Peacekeeper Colossus - Most vehicles are still not particularly playable as many of them don't do much except beat face. I guess it might be nice in Depala in case you can't use her to crew vehicles for whatever reason.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Planar Bridge - Obvious parallel to Planar Portal right down to the name. Both are artifacts that cost 6 to hardcast, and this one is 8 mana instead of 6 to find your card and only for permanents but you do put it into play immediately (e.g. sneak in Blightsteel Colossus end of turn). These types of cards are fine in big mana decks that need mana sinks.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Renegade Map - I'd rather play Wanderer's Twig or Mycosynth Wellspring if I wanted these cheap artifacts that got me basic lands.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Scrap Trawler - Artifact recursion for no additional costs at just 3 mana upfront is not bad. There are some restrictions but it is repeatable, and it should do some nice work.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
*Servo Schematic - Similar to Ichor Wellspring and Mycosynth Wellspring in that they're 2-mana artifacts that do the same thing upon ETB or hitting the graveyard. Here though I think making a 1/1 flier is worse than drawing a card or fetching a basic land to ensure your next land drop.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Treasure Keeper - Similar to Matter Reshaper except you add one mana, remove the colorless requirement, and there are fewer restrictions on the free card you get when it dies (any nonland card that is CMC 3 or less can be cast for free). Seems decent.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
***Universal Solvent - Decks get another way to deal with problematic permanents that their colors won't allow them to (e.g. black/red vs enchantments), and it's another tool for Trinket Mage, and is another object that can be recurred with Salvaging Station. Unassuming card that most decks won't play because it is overcosted, but if your deck/colors are desperate it should be good, and artifact decks don't really have problems generating the necessary mana.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
**Walking Ballista - Functions similarly to Triskelion. Interestingly enough if you pay 6 it ETBs with three +1/+1 counters which is the same as Triskelion. The difference is obviously that Triskelion is better for infinite combos as it always ETBs with the counters while cheating this into play doesn't do anything. It's kind of more like Hangarback walker as they are playable artifact creatures with XX costs.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
LAND
***Spire of Industry - Glimmervoid that requires you to pay 1 life to get the colored mana, but it doesn't disappear if you have zero artifacts in play. It's usually worse than Glimmervoid; 1 life isn't much, but they can add up, and it's not that hard to have at least 1 artifact in play if you are the kind of deck that actually wants to play Glimmervoid. Still, artifact decks likely want to play this anyway, and this could be passable in non-artifact decks although there are usually going to be better options.
MY DECKS THAT I WOULD PLAY IT IN: None
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Gonna try something a little different for my set review.
Instead of just copying and pasting my review of the cards that match the deck's colors, I'm just going to link to my Progenitus review (which covers all cards I think will be relevant for EDH) and then put the summary in my respective topics.
Amonkhet
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Anointed Procession
As Foretold
Pull from Tomorrow
Shadow of the Grave
Harsh Mentor
Harvest Season
Manglehorn
Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
As Foretold
Pull from Tomorrow
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Hour of Revelation
Solemnity
Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign
Razaketh, the Foulblooded
Ramunap Excavator
The Locust God
The Scarab God
The Scorpion god
Mirage Mirror
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
Crested Sunmare
Solemnity
Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign
Razaketh, the Foulblooded
Mirage Mirror
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
TLDR
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Kindred Discovery
Kheru Mind-Eater
Patron of the Vein
Izzet Chemister
Kindred Summons
Arahbo, Roar of the World
Edgar Markov
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist
Kess, Dissident mage
Mairsil, the Pretender
Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist
Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
The Ur-Dragon
Hammer of Nazahn
Ramos, Dragon Engine
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
N/A
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
TLDR
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Tocatli honor Guard
Arcane Adaptation
Revel in Riches
Captivating Crew
Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun
Hostage Taker
Tishana, Voice of Thunder
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
Tocatli honor Guard
Arguel's Blood Fast // Temple of Aclazotz
Hostage Taker
Vona, Butcher of Magan
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
TLDR
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS OVERALL (no particular build or deck)
Ravenous Chupacabra
Vona's Hunger
Blood Sun
Tendershoot Dryad
World Shaper
Journey to eternity
Storm the Vault /// Vault of Catlacan
Immortal Sun
Silent Gravestone
MOST EXCITING/INTERESTING/RELEVANT CARDS FOR THIS DECK
Ravenous Chupacabra
Vona's Hunger
Silent Gravestone
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
I save all of my writeups for all of my topics in notepad files, I c/p'd the wrong one >_>
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Last saturday I played it and perform very well but I am missing somethings, I want to add this list of cards to my deck but I dont know what tu cut
Aurification[card]
[/card]NO Mercy
Endurance contest
Sidri galvanic genious
Aetherflux reservoir
Exquisite blood
crested sunmare
Righteous aura
The 2 enchants that prevents damage, one is the shield and the other the one I pay 2 life and then I prevent the damage (to resist commander damage)
My plan with the deck is to survive and gain advantaje, last satudrday with my list I won one and loose 3
Game 1, Oloro, Niv-Mizzet (all spell slinger and direct damage), Jeleeva, Shattergang brothers.
Very slow game, the gobling conceded when a Mizzix mastery overloaded was casted by the jeleva player and copied for Niv mizzet guy wich also has an enchant that for each spell you cast you can copy it.
The only thing I missed then was a Rule of law (I have it in the deck)
Game 2, Alesha, Shattergang brothers, Nazan and oloro , I got to be the last man standing against the brothers, mainly because the guy was able to control alesha by pinging her for 3 every turn with a guy that taps for 3 damage, and the cat was an "archenemy" of mine so I focused all my resources supporting the brothers plans until we only get left alive, I drop sanguine bond, then a fumigate and did 14 damage, then in my turn I won with venser journal and oloro trigger
Game 3, Sigarda, Doran the siege tower, Marchesa and Oloro, Sigarda won, doran was lightnyfyed and controlled, got tilted and scooped in turn 5, matchesa allways attacked me and I have problems because I coudn get rid of the boots so my maze of ith was useless, I ended up loosing agains 25 commander damage of sigarda
Game 4, one monogreen thar taps, discard 2 cards and all his forest are 2/2 creatures, Doran the siege tower, marchesa again and oloro, the doran died first, I died second against an army of 3/3 wolf tokens, I got no wrath of the 9 I PLAY in the deck nor the tutor to fetch them, them was monogreen vs marchesa and monogreen won
So far so good, but when you are 10+ life ahead of the others even if you have no many crads in the table you are the focus, so I think I need more protection and more removal.
The idea of the the deck is durdling but resisting, I mean, my playgroup is a paranoid one when they play against me, last saturday one complain was "Ghostly prision is so OP" meanwhile Marchesa attacked me all the turns paying the 2 mana because I am always the higher life total player. But the OP card is GP
So, the deck is full of removal, boardwipes, pillowfor stuff, and some political values.
If they "mess with me" I will drop Humility or godhead of awe or even spreading plague , if they do not attack me I will hold my boardwipes, I want to be left alone until I can steal the victory with a debt to the deathless, aetherflux reservoir, etc.
Any ideas of what cards tu cut to add the list I am posting here?
Thanks in advance and sorry for my english it is not my natal tongue
EDH: RWB Edgar Markov The current updated decklist is here
EDH: WUB Oloro, Ageless ascetic The current updated decklist is here
EDH: UWG Phelddagrif, The current updated decklist is here
EDH: WUB Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign The current updated decklist is here
EDH: WUB Alela, Artful provocateur The current updated decklist is here
EDH: GB Hapatra, vizier of poisons The current updated decklist is here
2) More tutors like demonic tutor.
3) Find room for low CMC card draw like painful truths and fact or fiction.
Not sure what to make for your cuts. You just need more games to figure out what cards underperform.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)