• Scattered Groves replaces Temple Garden
• Ash Barrens replaces Safewright Quest
• Jade Mage replaces Selesnya Guildmage
The +1/+1 mode just isn't as good when the core creatures are growing to be more spread out. Repeatable 1/1 chump blockers is the most appealing part of this and doubling at 6 and 9 being achievable makes this a good swap.
• Gnarlwood Dryad replaces Death-Hood Cobra
With multiplayer, this is attacking less, so having to hold up mana for deathtouch makes the snake pretty bad, even if it can block fliers. This one turns into a threat when drawn late to help end games.
• Deathcap Cultivator replaces Avacyn's Pilgrim
This solves the problem of bad mana dorks. In smaller settings, 1/1 bodies can be made relevant fairly easily. This setting needs more longevity when flooding out late. Deathtouch is natural even if this change prevents the deck from moonlighting as a commander deck.
• Clear Shot replaces Dromoka's Command
This is a questionable change, but it makes it harder for this to 2-for-1 combat tricks, allows it to BE a combat trick, and allows deathtouch creatures to damage big creatures without dying. The blow out scenario is also lessened with awkward interactions with removing aura-based removal in combat.
• Choking Restraints replaces Contagion Glasp
This interacts with a slightly different set of threats. Instead of being expensive and targeting utility creatures, it's cheap, and stops big creatures before being a mana sink to deal with creatures with abilities late.
• Provoke replaces Detainment Spell
Doesn't answer threats as easily, but allows social play and deals with utility creatures with no card cost.
• Blessed Alliance replaces Martial Law
This interacts with a slightly different set of threats but does untap creatures tapped down by tappers. Detain is awkward and was ultimately just a 1 for 1.
• Faith Unbroken replaces Vow of Duty
This has better gameplay as the vow typically clogged the board and didn't answer utility creatures. This cleans up utility creatures decently, especially those that accrue value over time.
• Elder of Laurels replaces Seedcradle Witch
This is less-dependent on the ability to ward off early plays and is less of an oppressive ability.
• Unstable Obelisk replaces Selesnya Keyrune
This is more tension and ramp-desiring / pay off. This may be less useful midgame though. This is one of the few remaining ways of getting an aura off your big threat.
• Become Immense replaces Beast Within
This targets combat rather than being efficient, flexible removal. This slot no longer destroys auras and doesn't leave behind a 3/3 token to be dealt with.
• Prepare // Fight replaces Test of Faith
Untap combat trick has more play to it than a flash aura that eats deathtouchers.
• Ainok Bond-Kin replaces Phyrexian Revoker
Early game 2/1s are just bad now and utility creatures are less important than in 1v1
• Heliod's Emissary replaces Wiltleaf Cavaliers
Aggro needs a bit more assist than beefy vigilance. This is now a mana sink and adds to delirium
• Benevolent Offering replaces Briarhorn
Testing out flying tokens and life gain. Might be too much of a liability, but Briarhorn was always too much of a blow out.
• Dragonscale General replaces Auriok Bladewarden
Trying something new.
• Sentinel of the Eternal Watch replaces Coalition Honor Guard
Flagbearers are significantly more awkward in multiplayer where they prevent opponents from killing each other's creatures.
• Conifer Strider replaces Acidic Slime
• Domesticated Hydra replaces Kavu Primarch
Golgari Decoy is now on the watch list because there are very few things it can actually interact against in a satisfying way compared to before. I think there are fewer permanent buffs it can acquire but it still may have enough buffs for it to be usable.
Being able to allow anyone to aim a naturalize at a creature or planeswalker is way more relevant than being able to hang on to your 8th best card a small amount of the time.
The card seems nuts and I worry it'll be taken up mostly by the 2-mana-ramp-or-bust crowd than the people who were already playing Liquimetal Coating for the weird interactions. Granted, having a higher baseline opens up that line of fun to people with stricter deckbuilding requirements and Coating will likely remain budget.
Cauldron of Souls also enjoys this. It being an artifact may make it one of the best options available to certain colors for doing that sort of thing.
Are they really going to foil stamp each and every common?
It's too bad Forbidden Orchard isn't $3 anymore.
Compared to Prying Blade, the numbers are much better since you can move the equipment and stockpile mana without losing mana in the process. The point of toughness is a nice, if small, upgrade. Both and Dowsing Dagger want evasion to make the ramp happen and of all of these, [/card]Dowsing Dagger is the card I prefer the most.
Sword of the Animist probably has a higher power level than this giving increasingly more mana each turn its in play, but takes a little longer to get going. Treasure tokens have some inherent unique utility by being artifacts though, so budget decks with Goblin Welder or Goblin Engineer will want to take note.
To fit into the mana rock slot, it will also need a reliable amount of either low mana bodies, evasive bodies, and ideally both in one. Looter il-Kor is a card I fit in a lot of places, but Cartographer's Hawk, Topplegeist or Cavalry Pegasus can be relevant to various other decks. At least at present, cheap evasive bodies are conveniently the same thing white wants to run to reacquire the Monarch from other players, so the pieces of the deck can align in that way.
Still, for the needs of white decks, I prefer Dowsing Dagger first. It just needs a single hit to get the ramp and it's nearly free to play the turn you cast it when you have an opening to trigger it. Once in play, Thespian's Stage can copy it as more ramp and a few other cards can untap it for extra mana.
This new card is 15 cents though, so the budget baseline is at least pretty solid for the decks that can play it.
It's important to note that you can play the 2-drop on turn 4 and then another spell right after to get a spirit, making the first spirit easier to get if you play this as a 4- or 5-drop. This may be the better way to play this since it makes the most of the limited cards you have access to.
So what does it want? Mana rocks like Mind Stone are perfect since they give you back mana to continue casting spells in the same turn. Mind stone and Commander's Sphere specifically let you sacrifice them to draw cards to find more spells. That helps and, especially for monowhite, will be a very common source of ramp. Cartographer's Hawk also fits in this space, both ramping and giving another spell to cast. This also wants your spells to be individually less expensive and able to be played at sorcery speed more often. Seal of Cleansing is perfect for being cheap and being able to be deployed in advance without actually using it. Treasures are also useful since you can convert the temporary mana into permanent spirits when they enable multiple spells in a turn or a better combination of spells.
How many spirit tokens is worth 2 mana off a creature that's gong to die when the board is wiped? 1? 2? Later on when you can eat the tokens to fuel skullclamp, it's probably decent, but for later in the game, there are going to be more options. Still there will likely be homes where everything lines up. It's likely not building a commander deck around, but decks that already have cards in this space can be combed to optimize for it.
Steward of Solidarity is a similarly budget option I keep looking back at every now and again as a low mana way to create 'clamp fuel early in the game. It doesn't require any sequencing, scales with untap effects, and generates fuel at a rate that is easier to think about. The bodies lack flying, which means they have more narrow uses, though.
The card itself seems worse than Guard Duty both outright and also in the context of this tribal set.
But I could be wrong.
I miss Stab Wound.
Actually WB angels also probably can pick this up late since it's just going to fly over the 0/4. It seems stronger there, but probably less needed than in elves.
Basically it's a card that control decks can use on non-utility creatures that aggressive decks won't want unless they're evasive.
Lorwyn had giants in white-red, but why were they white at that time? I don't remember but given that they don't like white having big creatures at common, moving giants from white into blue makes a lot of sense even before you consider the frost giant trope.
Will we see a tribal-oriented jeskai giant for commander?
Counterpoint 1: If life gain decks have powerful finishers, they can at least kill people off after gaining arbitrary infinite life instead of the game continuing to drag on.
Counterpoint 2: Life totals don't matter so much in play groups with mill, infect, infinite combos, and voltron. (Though encouraging life gain decks will encourage more of these over time; granted some amount of people are going build life gain decks regardless of the finishers available.)
Counterpoint 3: White has the worst/fewest finishers in commander compared to the other colors. (Black and red have incidental pinging. Green and blue can go over top with card advantage, overruns, and alternite wincons.) So (especially mono) white decks need more finishers printed :: mono white decks tend to be more lifegain focused than others, especially when you strip out the equipment voltron decks that win via commander damage.
I get why these exist, but it's still a journey every time I see them.
Which is +100 life at minimum, but you start gaining additional +12s for each of the 25 triggers that remain as soon as you hit the threshold.
And also everything gets +12/+12.
We'll need to find out how Vorinclex got here and whether that happens before or after the story beat hinted at in the trailer, assuming the trailer is anything to go by for what will happen.
IE: Is the travel from Mirrodin to here something caused by the bifrost blade vs something the phyrexians were cooking up vs Tezzeret's Bridge Body?
Did Vorinclex travel here before or after the bifrost blade was stolen? (Assuming that the theft implied in the trailer is an event that is happening this set.)
We know at least one card in the set produces poison counters, which we've only seen from phyrexians since the last time, but we don't yet have solid confirmation that there ARE other phyrexians this set. I think it's likely that there may be less than 5, though alternatively, it would give the vikings monsters to battle. I am doubtful they would introduce us to a new plane in the middle of a war with phyrexians given that they decided to not do that when going back to mirrodin the last time and this time we have Kaldheim and an allusion to 9 other Realms they're connected to. I would expect us to at least visit most of them before Kaldheim is properly invaded.
Like, the simplest read of the information we have is that Tibalt connected mirrodin to Kaldheim after stealing the blade, but given how early things are, this is still just a hypothesis and for all we know, Vorinclex's arrival happens right as we leave the plane to explore Strixhaven.