Felidar Guardian + Saheeli Rai, just in this damn block... Man, I wished I had pulled the trigger on those Saheeli's earlier on. Standard Splinter Twin-esque right there.
EDIT: Didn't see someone else mentioned this earlier, but yeah, look for this to be a thing.
Sexy legendary sky pirate lady with a killer attack monkey? I'm sold on flavor alone. But she and her simian cohort are quite good for an aggressive red creature package. Conveniently enables Revolt, perhaps making for a RW Revolution deck? Or some other combination, but at the least any Revolt deck I figure will be including red. I will get a full playset for one deck, and a fifth one for one of my EDH projects.
Hrm, I already have four EDH decks that make my friends hate me, do I want a fifth... tempting.
At some point I will have to post up my Rhys the Redeemed Elf-Ball list, which also has turns where it can take 15 minutes, and in that time I have cycled through my entire deck three times and returned it to a normal state while blowing up everyone else's lands, artifacts, enchantments, etc, and then hit them with over 100 100+/100+ elves that all have flying, first strike, trample, haste, and pro-black and pro-red, etc. But this looks very tempting, and I already have most of the parts.
I concur with Crux of Fate. It's one of the few cards I consider a shoe-in. It really is Damnation for 1 more a bulk majority of the time. A corner case here or there where it whiffs against something, but unless you see people cramming tons of dragons into their decks it will almost always be a solid mass removal spell.
Warden of the First Tree has that new Figure of Destiny smell and could do something, I can see the potential, especially with all the effects that love +1/+1 counters right now.
Soulfire Grandmaster... hrm... even without activating its other ability a RW shell might be able to use it just for its lifelink property, turning Lightning Strikes into Lightning Helixes, but I'm definitely on the fence on this one.
Whisperwood... yeah, I'm not feeling it really, either.
Hordechief and the Shaman could be really good in the right shell, but the Shaman is very fragile and it could fall into that gap where it is just overmatched by more reliable cards at the same CMC. Same deal with Hordechief. Curve topper in warriors? Some other aggro deck? Or will it be shuffled off?
And I may have undervalued Tasigur, since his activated ability touched off that "Opponent's choice" sensor in my brain. I will be curious to see what the great players do with this.
And Ugin... well, he'll be an EDH darling at least, and with Tron in Modern could he find a home? I'm not on that scene either right now, so I can only speculate, but is he usable in Standard? I don't know, my opinions on him mostly come from an EDH/Casual POV.
Ok, well while I admit that I REALLY want an Ugin for my Duel Deck Master Series project (making homecrafted duel decks for each mono and dual color combo balanced against each other for pick-up-and-casual-play) so I can have an entirely colorless deck (been brain storming on it, it's rather funny ^_^), I'm kind of glad I didn't invest in a box this time. I was watching the spoilers, and I had a feeling that this set was going to be really weak in the middle; meaning the gap between the most valuable cards and the rest would be rather large. I'm on the fence about Manifest. It seems like it could be fun, but I'm not sure how good it really is. Preliminary info from people that attended the pre-re's is likewise mixed. No idea on Standard viability, as I have been out of the scene for a while. But I like the uncommons, so buying common/uncommon sets and cherry picking rare/mythic singles seems the best route for me. I like a couple of the dragons, and for casual yeah, they can all have a role somewhere, but very little outside of the most obvious rares has really knocked my socks off.
Khans was fun, and is still valuable, even though that value has gone exactly the way I figured it would - Sarkhan, Sorin, Fetches, and a handful of sub-$10 rares used in constructed. I will say I was wrong about Sorin holding top spot, though, as he has been overtaken by fetches. Wingmate and Siege Rhino are right where I thought they would be, along with Dig being a little more valuable than I estimated. But this set? Other than Ugin, Mentor, and another handful of obvious stand-outs, I'm not entirely sure how this lineup will pan out. I have a feeling that after about a month to a month and a half unless something just explodes, the list may only be around 8 cards long. This isn't Dragon's Maze bad, but it might be as weak as Dark Ascension, or close to it.
I have been away from the Magic scene for a while, but coming back to see these prices, I am shocked but I know I really shouldn't be. Between the amount of product opened and the limitations of three-color cards I suppose it was only natural. I AM somewhat surprised to see Clever Impersonator so low, but it's one of those cards I think will creep up to its high point once the set is out of rotation for a year or so. EDH/Cube will have a lot to do with that. Time to start doing some long-term speculating
I've been expecting this as well, which is the common logic admittedly, and I have my eyes on some cards to go even lower before grabbing them. Bloodsoaked Champion is number one on my list to grab as a four-of for some ideas I'm having. Sorin I definitely think will claim top-billing soon, but Sarkhan IS good. Also wondering if the fetches might even hit as low as $8-10 at some point. If they do, I might have to make some trades.
Is it just me, or is it crazy a card like Sagu Mauler is considered nearly bulk material? I mean, a 6/6 for 6 with only 2 colors to devote to, with Trample and Hexproof that can also Morph and pop for just 5... I guess it just does not have a home, and UG isn't popular now, or it just cannot support a card like this? All I know is if I can scrape up some money I intend to buy some up, and so far R_E you have the best price on them from people I do business with, but even my local shop only has them at $2.50/each. I'm still looking at it and wondering when it will pop, or if it is one of those fatties that just fades into the background.
I have toyed with getting back into standard for a while, and Khans has been very interesting for me. I got a box and broke open a ton of Abzan things, and it also got me thinking about Phalanx Leader, which has been a pet card of mine for the past year. I see other people are trying to work with it too, but I wondered if a GW Aggro deck could work, maybe one that had some mid-game recovery. Also, brewing budget decks has always been a hobby, always attempting to come in under a budget and still come out with something useful. This is a list I will be testing:
Average prices taken from TCGPlayer, as per usual. No defined sideboard yet, but there is still some remaining budget to work with there. It is admittedly a simple deck, as most aggro decks generally are, but the potential power of going into a turn 4 play with Favored Hoplite/Phalanx Leader/Abzan Falconer OR Tuskguard Captain with a Reap What Is Sown dropped on them is pretty amusing. And of course spells like Feat of Resistance help protect assets, Return to the Ranks can return your Hoplites, Leaders, and Ainok to the field; High Sentinels of Arashin LOVE being played after a Leader activation or a Reap What Is Sown, and Incremental Growth can almost be an Overrun for the deck with the right cards out. Oppressive Rays is a nice tempo card that can hijack an opponent's early play, and of course Banishing Light can take care of those harder targets (Gods, Walkers, etc). I only included 2 here due to them being almost $2 each... more expensive than the bloody rares. If the counters keep flowing the deck can outrace spells like Anger of the Gods and Drown in Sorrow, but it should have enough gas to get past one or two of them, but a turn 3 AoG will often pooch most strategies, although keeping mana open to drop a Feat of Resistance on Phalanx Leader can save him, and maybe buff another creature long enough to survive.
This is all pretty rough, but I will update as I have a chance to test it out, and also figure what sideboard cards would be the most useful. I'm thinking Ajani's Presence or Ephemeral Shields will likely be a 4-of in the SB at least. The rest I am uncertain of, but suggestions are welcome.
Also got 2 Zurgo Helmsmasher (a better card than I think people are giving credit for) and a Hooded Hydra, a card I definitely want to give a shot. Funny thing, the Bloodsoaked Champion was the ONLY black rare in my entire box. All the other mono-colors had at least 3-5. Just found it strange.
All in all, I really can't *****. I do, however, wish I had more of the better uncommons. But those are easy enough to get.
This deck is utter crap. We already had weenie decks in the recent past, and this is worse. Lots of inconsistent cards, crap like the Dictates which are too slow, and then you have so few spells that can target the Tormented Hero to use its Heroic ability, and Pain Seer because, what, draw? No synergy with the deck. Also Seeker of the Way, so little to use its Prowess, and there are much, much better 2-drops. Like, more Chiefs of the Scale/Edge. Poor removal suite, they should have just added two more Banishing Lights and maybe slipped in a single Hero's Downfall to round things off.
Poor creativity, poor design, poor card selection - lots of bulk rare ***** with only Bloodsoaked Champion standing out. Not even Caves of Koilos is worth much, especially since it was reprinted in the Modern event deck just a while ago, and pains aren't that hard to get a hold of anyway. Hell, the whole value of the deck piecemeal at the moment is less than $20. Considering all the two drops maybe 1-2 Return to the Ranks could be useful. I'll just make my own deck, especially since this deck is more expensive than its contents. I can make a better deck for cheaper, I wager. Utter crap.
I love the "I am going to expose how little I understand about basic statistics" threads that pop up this time every set. That's all this is.
FYI - If I bought a box I would get 1 fetch and 2 Mythics... the $1-3 Mythics. I have ***** for luck.
I have pure **** for luck. For JOU I opened up 2 Worst Fears... which was my... worst fear... best thing I opened in the whole box was the Aegis of the Gods guy, and no one gives **** number 1 about him anymore, either. Only God I pulled was Kruphix. My box value was very, very sad. Meanwhile, my friend buys 1 pack a week and reliably pulls one of the top 3 cards in each set. He was even *****ing that he kept getting the King of Oreskos bastard. I wanted to punch him in the dick, lol.
That said, I have a KTK box on the way. I'm a masochist
I just chalk it up to balancing limited. Be it Shatter or Smelt or any other variant, no one will really care that much in the long run. I'll get my box, I'll open 10 of them, and I'll have some new coasters. ***** happens, and life moves along
There are many factors to consider when thinking on a set's potential power, and its value. Some of these factors include...
Wedge-centric setting - allows for more tools for EDH (a favorite environment of mine) and to introduce new concepts that have only been partially touched on previously.
Set flavor - I enjoy the Mongol-Chinese setting, it's something I've personally longed for, and that will satisfy many other people who value more than just mechanics.
Quality commons/uncommons - there are a great many, and IMO that makes for a healthy set in terms of play balance and Limited environment. Uncommon wedge lands. Common Refuge lands, absolutely great move. Also great for casual markets and players, and let's not forget; casual magic is where WotC makes most of its money, not competitive constructed. Higher profile, yes. Biggest source of income? No.
Reintroduction of Onslaught Fetches - people have begged for it, and Wizards gave them up.
Morph - a caveat here: It's not strictly bad, but after the full set was spoiled I looked over the Morph offerings, and while some seemed good, most seemed... lackluster. In fact, I wonder why some of them have Morph at all, especially when it grants neither a bonus in the way of an ability upon morphing, nor a significant reduction in casting cost. There is less mystery to Morph here, fewer tricks. If someone has a morph creature out, you may not know what it is (without a card that lets you know), but you can likely predict the outcome save for a couple of creatures (like the Spellsnatcher). I have yet to see what it will do in this environment.
Weaker average rares - I have noted there are many rares that are truly "meh" here, and the value once again seems to be concentrated in the Mythics and the Fetches. I expect the Top cards to look something like this
1: Sarkhan (M)
2-6: Fetches (R Land)
7: Clever Impersonator (M)
8: Sorin (M)
9: Surrak (M)
10: Anafenza (M)
11: Wingmate Roc (M)
12: Utter End (R)
13: Butcher of the Horde (R)
14: Narset (M)
15: Savage Knuckleblade (R)
16: Sdisi (M)
17: Empty the Pits (M)
18: See the Unwritten (M)
19: Bloodsoaked Champion (R)
20: Siege Rhino (R)
21: Rattleclaw Mystic (R)
Now technically that's 11 rares of 21 cards, but 5 of those rares are fetches, and highly desirable rare lands always get the big price-tag, Mythic grade prices. The other 6 rares are all around $5-6 in my estimation, but Utter End will climb, once again giving us highly desirable rare removal (*cough*Hero's Downfall*cough), and then you have 5 rares whose existence on the list will depend upon the meta. Beyond these cards there is a gulf between the low and the high of several dollars - only End Hostilities and Dig Through Time float somewhere in the middle ($3-ish). Now being perfectly honest this all looks fairly normal, to how it has been lately, but it does again show, for me, the value is concentrated in the Mythics and chase rare lands. EDH will probably be the deciding factor of the Mythic Khans beyond any standard application, but I believe Anafenza will be desired, as will Surrak. The rest are maybes.
So far this is reminding me of Shards of Alara, which was also heavy on the Mythic value, and led to an environment where you had ***** like Mythic Bant and 5 Color Control wandering around, standard decks that could cost $750-1,000... just mind boggling for me back then (I was running GW Elfball, which did well until 5CC became dominant. Dealing with UB Faeries was bad enough... oh, also a $500 or more deck). But there was also Jund, a $250-300 deck at the time that could take all comers and was a force for a long time. Unlike Alara, KTK has a pro/con situation (Fetches - might help decks, might make them more expensive, or they may not have as much impact since they don't have Shocks to synergize with), and unlike Enemy Fetches in Zendikar which had landfall to work with, but which acts as a boon to Modern and Legacy. In standard, I'm not sure how powerful they will be. Expect the BUG fetches to be most useful if Dredge does anything at all. And then there are those higher quality commons/uncommons, which frankly Alara lacked in number. Alara had a TON of uplayable chaff, particularly at common. And when I mean unplayable, I mean kitchen-table unplayable. I've used Alara block commons and uncommons for more craft projects than I have decks. Theros wasn't even that bad. Avacyn Restored wasn't that bad. But Alara is still remembered as a great block.
And as for power level, comparing one set entering standard to another leaving standard is pointless - standard is what standard is. No more. No less. The only time this is an issue is when one set is CLEARLY inferior to its predecessor AND its current standard partner, so much so that it causes a vacuum of sorts in the meta (I'm looking at you, Kamigawa). Despite what naysayers will say, KTK is no Kamigawa - NO SET IN MODERN MAGIC WILL MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN. What I see in KTK is an attempt to reach out to as many player bases as possible - Modern/Legacy (Fetches, and hey, maybe more. Remember the lesson of Deathrite Shaman), EDH (wedge commanders, more bomby fun spells), casual players (good commons/uncommons, including land support), and Limited players (trying to balance the play to allow for what appears to be a slower format). Its mechanics are not insular, they reach across many sets, and even after it has rotated KTK cards will find homes in many decks for years to come. Raid, Outlast, Dredge, Ferocious, Prowess - whether these mechanics excite or are considered innovative, they are at least versatile enough beyond their own block to avoid the death sentence of insular mechanics.
Also, take that list above - I see that moving and shaking a lot, save for the top 6 places. Sarkhan will not budge from top spot, I don't see it. He's basically a hasty dragon that can Flame Slash or give you massive CA if you get that far. Add that he is Mythic, and so he will remain. The fetches will also likely remain, but they may jostle with Sorin and Surrak if both find footing in standard. But I see things off list that could move up, and low cards at the moment that can climb. Someone else mentioned Desecration Demon. I sang his praises from day one, most other people said it was crap. I hoarded them. In the end, I won out on that. And I can tell you now, there may be a couple Desecration Demons in this set. I'm looking forward to it.
Really then, what I'm trying to say is, don't try to compare Khans to Ravnica, or whatever other set, because those other sets are not in standard (well, RTR is for another week :P), look at it beside the other block and core set it works with, and figure it out. It looks to be a nice change of pace. And control players - calm yourselves. This happens every transition, the death of control is heralded, the creatures are out of control, woe and doom to all! A month passes, the aggro meta is set, and control finds its footing, and bam, Control takes... well... control. At any rate, does anyone REALLY want to go back to Draw/Go *****? Talk about boring. THEY ARE NEVER REPRINTING COUNTERSPELL. STOP. JUST STOP. The meta is the meta, standard is standard, and either you adapt or you sit it out. And don't complain about a lack of "POWER" cards, then later complain about power creep. You can't have it both ways. Or you end up like Yu-Gi-Oh. Does anyone want Magic to become Yu-Gi-Oh? Some might say it has, but if you do, you don't really know. Magic is still healthy, still growing, and looks to continue that way.
TL;DR You can't please everyone, so stop *****ing about the sky falling. Adapt, build, play, or don't. Look to innovate, don't expect the power to just be dropped in your lap.
EDIT: Oh, Clever Impersonator, I forgot, that one I am watching. It could climb above a less favorable Fetch, and might even vie for 2nd or 3rd in time. That is a POWERFUL clone variant...
EDIT: Didn't see someone else mentioned this earlier, but yeah, look for this to be a thing.
At some point I will have to post up my Rhys the Redeemed Elf-Ball list, which also has turns where it can take 15 minutes, and in that time I have cycled through my entire deck three times and returned it to a normal state while blowing up everyone else's lands, artifacts, enchantments, etc, and then hit them with over 100 100+/100+ elves that all have flying, first strike, trample, haste, and pro-black and pro-red, etc. But this looks very tempting, and I already have most of the parts.
Warden of the First Tree has that new Figure of Destiny smell and could do something, I can see the potential, especially with all the effects that love +1/+1 counters right now.
Soulfire Grandmaster... hrm... even without activating its other ability a RW shell might be able to use it just for its lifelink property, turning Lightning Strikes into Lightning Helixes, but I'm definitely on the fence on this one.
Whisperwood... yeah, I'm not feeling it really, either.
Hordechief and the Shaman could be really good in the right shell, but the Shaman is very fragile and it could fall into that gap where it is just overmatched by more reliable cards at the same CMC. Same deal with Hordechief. Curve topper in warriors? Some other aggro deck? Or will it be shuffled off?
And I may have undervalued Tasigur, since his activated ability touched off that "Opponent's choice" sensor in my brain. I will be curious to see what the great players do with this.
And Ugin... well, he'll be an EDH darling at least, and with Tron in Modern could he find a home? I'm not on that scene either right now, so I can only speculate, but is he usable in Standard? I don't know, my opinions on him mostly come from an EDH/Casual POV.
Khans was fun, and is still valuable, even though that value has gone exactly the way I figured it would - Sarkhan, Sorin, Fetches, and a handful of sub-$10 rares used in constructed. I will say I was wrong about Sorin holding top spot, though, as he has been overtaken by fetches. Wingmate and Siege Rhino are right where I thought they would be, along with Dig being a little more valuable than I estimated. But this set? Other than Ugin, Mentor, and another handful of obvious stand-outs, I'm not entirely sure how this lineup will pan out. I have a feeling that after about a month to a month and a half unless something just explodes, the list may only be around 8 cards long. This isn't Dragon's Maze bad, but it might be as weak as Dark Ascension, or close to it.
4 Blossoming Sands
6 Forest
13 Plains
Creatures (20)
4 Favored Hoplite
4 Phalanx Leader
4 Ainok Bond-Kin
3 Abzan Falconer
3 Tuskguard Captain
2 High Sentinels of Arashin
4 Feat of Resistance
4 Reap What Is Sown
3 Oppressive Rays
2 Banishing Light
2 Incremental Growth
2 Return to the Ranks
Cost: $10.66
Remaining budget: $4.34
10/08/2014
5:54am (CST)
Average prices taken from TCGPlayer, as per usual. No defined sideboard yet, but there is still some remaining budget to work with there. It is admittedly a simple deck, as most aggro decks generally are, but the potential power of going into a turn 4 play with Favored Hoplite/Phalanx Leader/Abzan Falconer OR Tuskguard Captain with a Reap What Is Sown dropped on them is pretty amusing. And of course spells like Feat of Resistance help protect assets, Return to the Ranks can return your Hoplites, Leaders, and Ainok to the field; High Sentinels of Arashin LOVE being played after a Leader activation or a Reap What Is Sown, and Incremental Growth can almost be an Overrun for the deck with the right cards out. Oppressive Rays is a nice tempo card that can hijack an opponent's early play, and of course Banishing Light can take care of those harder targets (Gods, Walkers, etc). I only included 2 here due to them being almost $2 each... more expensive than the bloody rares. If the counters keep flowing the deck can outrace spells like Anger of the Gods and Drown in Sorrow, but it should have enough gas to get past one or two of them, but a turn 3 AoG will often pooch most strategies, although keeping mana open to drop a Feat of Resistance on Phalanx Leader can save him, and maybe buff another creature long enough to survive.
This is all pretty rough, but I will update as I have a chance to test it out, and also figure what sideboard cards would be the most useful. I'm thinking Ajani's Presence or Ephemeral Shields will likely be a 4-of in the SB at least. The rest I am uncertain of, but suggestions are welcome.
2 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Siege Rhino
1 Bloodsoaked Champion
1 Savage Knuckleblade
1 Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
1 Rattleclaw Mystic
Also got 2 Zurgo Helmsmasher (a better card than I think people are giving credit for) and a Hooded Hydra, a card I definitely want to give a shot. Funny thing, the Bloodsoaked Champion was the ONLY black rare in my entire box. All the other mono-colors had at least 3-5. Just found it strange.
All in all, I really can't *****. I do, however, wish I had more of the better uncommons. But those are easy enough to get.
Poor creativity, poor design, poor card selection - lots of bulk rare ***** with only Bloodsoaked Champion standing out. Not even Caves of Koilos is worth much, especially since it was reprinted in the Modern event deck just a while ago, and pains aren't that hard to get a hold of anyway. Hell, the whole value of the deck piecemeal at the moment is less than $20. Considering all the two drops maybe 1-2 Return to the Ranks could be useful. I'll just make my own deck, especially since this deck is more expensive than its contents. I can make a better deck for cheaper, I wager. Utter crap.
I have pure **** for luck. For JOU I opened up 2 Worst Fears... which was my... worst fear... best thing I opened in the whole box was the Aegis of the Gods guy, and no one gives **** number 1 about him anymore, either. Only God I pulled was Kruphix. My box value was very, very sad. Meanwhile, my friend buys 1 pack a week and reliably pulls one of the top 3 cards in each set. He was even *****ing that he kept getting the King of Oreskos bastard. I wanted to punch him in the dick, lol.
That said, I have a KTK box on the way. I'm a masochist
Wedge-centric setting - allows for more tools for EDH (a favorite environment of mine) and to introduce new concepts that have only been partially touched on previously.
Set flavor - I enjoy the Mongol-Chinese setting, it's something I've personally longed for, and that will satisfy many other people who value more than just mechanics.
Quality commons/uncommons - there are a great many, and IMO that makes for a healthy set in terms of play balance and Limited environment. Uncommon wedge lands. Common Refuge lands, absolutely great move. Also great for casual markets and players, and let's not forget; casual magic is where WotC makes most of its money, not competitive constructed. Higher profile, yes. Biggest source of income? No.
Reintroduction of Onslaught Fetches - people have begged for it, and Wizards gave them up.
Morph - a caveat here: It's not strictly bad, but after the full set was spoiled I looked over the Morph offerings, and while some seemed good, most seemed... lackluster. In fact, I wonder why some of them have Morph at all, especially when it grants neither a bonus in the way of an ability upon morphing, nor a significant reduction in casting cost. There is less mystery to Morph here, fewer tricks. If someone has a morph creature out, you may not know what it is (without a card that lets you know), but you can likely predict the outcome save for a couple of creatures (like the Spellsnatcher). I have yet to see what it will do in this environment.
Weaker average rares - I have noted there are many rares that are truly "meh" here, and the value once again seems to be concentrated in the Mythics and the Fetches. I expect the Top cards to look something like this
1: Sarkhan (M)
2-6: Fetches (R Land)
7: Clever Impersonator (M)
8: Sorin (M)
9: Surrak (M)
10: Anafenza (M)
11: Wingmate Roc (M)
12: Utter End (R)
13: Butcher of the Horde (R)
14: Narset (M)
15: Savage Knuckleblade (R)
16: Sdisi (M)
17: Empty the Pits (M)
18: See the Unwritten (M)
19: Bloodsoaked Champion (R)
20: Siege Rhino (R)
21: Rattleclaw Mystic (R)
Now technically that's 11 rares of 21 cards, but 5 of those rares are fetches, and highly desirable rare lands always get the big price-tag, Mythic grade prices. The other 6 rares are all around $5-6 in my estimation, but Utter End will climb, once again giving us highly desirable rare removal (*cough*Hero's Downfall*cough), and then you have 5 rares whose existence on the list will depend upon the meta. Beyond these cards there is a gulf between the low and the high of several dollars - only End Hostilities and Dig Through Time float somewhere in the middle ($3-ish). Now being perfectly honest this all looks fairly normal, to how it has been lately, but it does again show, for me, the value is concentrated in the Mythics and chase rare lands. EDH will probably be the deciding factor of the Mythic Khans beyond any standard application, but I believe Anafenza will be desired, as will Surrak. The rest are maybes.
So far this is reminding me of Shards of Alara, which was also heavy on the Mythic value, and led to an environment where you had ***** like Mythic Bant and 5 Color Control wandering around, standard decks that could cost $750-1,000... just mind boggling for me back then (I was running GW Elfball, which did well until 5CC became dominant. Dealing with UB Faeries was bad enough... oh, also a $500 or more deck). But there was also Jund, a $250-300 deck at the time that could take all comers and was a force for a long time. Unlike Alara, KTK has a pro/con situation (Fetches - might help decks, might make them more expensive, or they may not have as much impact since they don't have Shocks to synergize with), and unlike Enemy Fetches in Zendikar which had landfall to work with, but which acts as a boon to Modern and Legacy. In standard, I'm not sure how powerful they will be. Expect the BUG fetches to be most useful if Dredge does anything at all. And then there are those higher quality commons/uncommons, which frankly Alara lacked in number. Alara had a TON of uplayable chaff, particularly at common. And when I mean unplayable, I mean kitchen-table unplayable. I've used Alara block commons and uncommons for more craft projects than I have decks. Theros wasn't even that bad. Avacyn Restored wasn't that bad. But Alara is still remembered as a great block.
And as for power level, comparing one set entering standard to another leaving standard is pointless - standard is what standard is. No more. No less. The only time this is an issue is when one set is CLEARLY inferior to its predecessor AND its current standard partner, so much so that it causes a vacuum of sorts in the meta (I'm looking at you, Kamigawa). Despite what naysayers will say, KTK is no Kamigawa - NO SET IN MODERN MAGIC WILL MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN. What I see in KTK is an attempt to reach out to as many player bases as possible - Modern/Legacy (Fetches, and hey, maybe more. Remember the lesson of Deathrite Shaman), EDH (wedge commanders, more bomby fun spells), casual players (good commons/uncommons, including land support), and Limited players (trying to balance the play to allow for what appears to be a slower format). Its mechanics are not insular, they reach across many sets, and even after it has rotated KTK cards will find homes in many decks for years to come. Raid, Outlast, Dredge, Ferocious, Prowess - whether these mechanics excite or are considered innovative, they are at least versatile enough beyond their own block to avoid the death sentence of insular mechanics.
Also, take that list above - I see that moving and shaking a lot, save for the top 6 places. Sarkhan will not budge from top spot, I don't see it. He's basically a hasty dragon that can Flame Slash or give you massive CA if you get that far. Add that he is Mythic, and so he will remain. The fetches will also likely remain, but they may jostle with Sorin and Surrak if both find footing in standard. But I see things off list that could move up, and low cards at the moment that can climb. Someone else mentioned Desecration Demon. I sang his praises from day one, most other people said it was crap. I hoarded them. In the end, I won out on that. And I can tell you now, there may be a couple Desecration Demons in this set. I'm looking forward to it.
Really then, what I'm trying to say is, don't try to compare Khans to Ravnica, or whatever other set, because those other sets are not in standard (well, RTR is for another week :P), look at it beside the other block and core set it works with, and figure it out. It looks to be a nice change of pace. And control players - calm yourselves. This happens every transition, the death of control is heralded, the creatures are out of control, woe and doom to all! A month passes, the aggro meta is set, and control finds its footing, and bam, Control takes... well... control. At any rate, does anyone REALLY want to go back to Draw/Go *****? Talk about boring. THEY ARE NEVER REPRINTING COUNTERSPELL. STOP. JUST STOP. The meta is the meta, standard is standard, and either you adapt or you sit it out. And don't complain about a lack of "POWER" cards, then later complain about power creep. You can't have it both ways. Or you end up like Yu-Gi-Oh. Does anyone want Magic to become Yu-Gi-Oh? Some might say it has, but if you do, you don't really know. Magic is still healthy, still growing, and looks to continue that way.
TL;DR You can't please everyone, so stop *****ing about the sky falling. Adapt, build, play, or don't. Look to innovate, don't expect the power to just be dropped in your lap.
EDIT: Oh, Clever Impersonator, I forgot, that one I am watching. It could climb above a less favorable Fetch, and might even vie for 2nd or 3rd in time. That is a POWERFUL clone variant...