On the Eve of the Next Era

Dark Ascension previews start in the morning, and that's exciting enough to get even the most negligent blogger to dust off his blog. And what better way to kick off DKA preview season than by looking at the one card that they already revealed:

Faithless Looting R
Sorcery
Draw two cards, then discard two cards.

Flashback 2R

A red Careful Study... holy... cow... on a cow sandwich! Does everybody realize what this means? RDW has a way to get rid of the cards they want least: Lands! But more importantly by giving red more digging capability, it decreases the reliance on blue as a combo color stabilizer. But the primary place where this card shines is Reanimator decks and Flashback decks.

The card is self-explanatory though: draw two cards, discard the two cards you want the least at that moment, and then do it again sometime later for 3 times the cost. It's like Desperate Ravings... only you don't feel like you're in Las Vegas.

Let's think about it for a second. In terms of reanimating style decks: the ability to sift through your deck and hand makes it possible to adjust your hand accordingly to what you more likely want... but more importantly, it lets you to splash for burn instead of (or with) control. Grixis reanimation... scary. Or Jund Reanimation... or BR reanimation... the possibilities are seemingly endless.

But more importantly than the addition to red to reanimation things, you have to worry about Red and Blue together more now than ever... especially in those small things called eternal formats. Why? Generally Red-Blue combo decks work by having red to deal the killing blow and blue to stabilize and generate advantage. A balance that often deals deadly blows to opponents while they check their twitter accounts on their cell phone because their jerk opponent is taking ten minutes (and that's going as fast as they can) to build up and deal enough damage to win a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament (by the way, the starting life for Yu-Gi-Oh is 8000).

In Standard, Faithless Looting is going to help power red decks and support Burning Vengeance as well as be a draw card for decks with red looking for draw power.

In modern... Pyromancer's Ascension, Grapeshot, and Splinter Twin... that's really all I have to say... although Red Deck Wins and Burning Vengeance may storm onto the scene as well.

Legacy: Goblins! Combo! RUG! All those things that makes me wonder if part of Wizards purpose is to challenge blue's title of "Most despised color." But ultimately, what makes me uneasy about Faithless Looting has very little to do with Faithless Looting itself. The card itself is a -1 that if used to the max draws four cards and discards four cards over the course of a game. That's kind of a crummy card on the surface because who wants a -1 to discard something you were going to find out you needed in two turns.

What makes me uneasy is that all those strategies out their that it helps may not deserve the help this card is going to provide. You know, kind of like giving every country on the planet their own nuclear program. On the surface it looks like a good idea (if you're brain damaged) because everyone is equal, but then some moron decides to abuse the idea and makes everyone miserable... and dead.
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Mockingbird

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