The card is absolute crap for constructed for the same reasons crystal ball is.
I have to disagree. Crystal ball just scrys. This card can put either a land or a token on the battlefield, or it can gain you life. The lifegain is a little weak. With crystal ball, it's a waste of mana if the top card is a card you want anyways. With Satchel, you'll always get something with each activation. I'd say all 3 abilities are quite relevant.
RDW is pretty good. If budget does not permit, skip the fetch lands. Goblin guide is a must. You can skip Koth. I think the core package is lightning bolt, goblin guide, shrine of burning rage, staggershock, spikeshot elder, and some combination of other burn spells. I think Moltensteel dragon is an excellent card to top your curve as it has evasion and the pump can end games.
Infect is relatively cheap. A lot of the bread and butter infect creatures are common/uncommons.
White weenie is not tier 1 but it's never really that bad. I don't think it'll win you tourneys.
Basically just don't play blue as there is no optimal way to play blue without JTMS. Sticking with monocolor will keep the deck consistent and cheap to make.
I don't think any of them will see competitive play, which is fine. I vote Elesh Norn because that's the creepiest white card art ever! It can almost kill anything x/2 upon hitting the table. That's pretty good. The other cards are prone to being removed before having any effect. With Elesh, you can probably kill something, then swing with other dudes right away.
Comments on the other Praetors...
Urabrask: I seriously doubt its constructed playability but it's a good card because it's the cheapest mana cost of them all. Creatures coming into play tapped doesn't do that much in the current meta, and likely the future meta as well. Having opponent's creatures tapped only matters if haste creatures are prominent, or the match is about dropping creature after creature, which is not what we have here.
Vorinclex: If there will be a constructed deck to cheat something out, it'd use Vorinclex. Messing with opponent's mana is pretty powerful. Even if you're not cheating it out, green is the color of ramp. Probably just a pipedream. If you're animating something, there are better things to animate. If you're ramping, you'd surely consider titan before Vorinclex.
Jinny: I think its effect is overrated. At 10 mana, it's almost impossible to hardcast. The opponent does not discard right away. They still get to topdeck. Drawing 7 is powerful but the kind of deck it goes into is kind of narrow. If you draw 7 every turn and don't kill very fast, you run a real chance of decking yourself. And if you're cheating this into play, chances are at that time, you don't have a lot of mana to play out what you draw.
Sheoldred: Good card. I'd still rather play a Skittles or grave titan if I have that much mana. They end the game faster and can have greater immediate board presence.
Praetor's grip gets my vote for top sleeper. Traditionally search opponent's library effects are not very good because it doesn't affect the board and is card disadvantage. Praetor's grip in the current meta will be strong as there are a lot of artifacts so casting cost is not a large issue. Most importantly, you get a card to play. You can preempt singletons which are often swords. Caw blade ain't so tough without SoFaF now is it? Plus you get to use it yourself. In the worst case, if you're stuck on lands, you can grab a land. It's a very flexible card.
Moltensteel Dragon: It's often a 4/4 for 4 mana for any color WITH evasion. The firebreathing can close out games. Sure, you can be afraid of removal. Which is why you don't drain your entire life with it. If you're red, you don't have to pay life. And frankly I see red as the primary color to play this. Other colors have better finishers.
Phyrexian Metamorph: This is getting some hype but I still think it's underrated. It's a better clone in almost every way. Potentially 1 mana less, can be played in any color, copies BOTH artifacts or creatures. Being more fragile is only a small drawback imo.
Vault Skirge: This is like the best common I've ever seen in a long time. It's basically a 1 mana flying lifelink. Lifelink makes the 2 life payment largely irrelevant. And remember, this card IS AN ARTIFACT. And it's black so it's going to dodge removal.
Act of Agression: How good would act of treason be if it was instant? Yes read the card again. It's INSTANT! Instant makes this both a good offense and defense card. Previously you can't get card advantage easily by just playing Act of Treason. Now you can steal an attacker to block and in some cases, they'd lose 1 or both creatures, and you save yourself damage. What a deal. I'd pay 4 life for this effect outside of red in many situations.
I don't think it's constructed playable but it's not that bad of a card. If you're playing infect, you want to play with creatures that naturally have infect. So this card fits best in non-infect based decks.
The removal aspect of this card is too slow to be worth while.
The recursion is the best part, but it's still prone to being 2 for 1ed in response to playing.
Even when you combine all 3 of these functions together, it's still not a great card. I can picture a combo deck that cheats out a 10 power creature and give it infect to win. But other cards do this better.
4 total P/T over 2 bodies for 3 mana is very good. One problem is that it has no evasion or utility value. I highly doubt the golem tribe will take off so the first strike is generally very marginal.
The most critical part is simply the meta right now. It's all about playing caw blade or beating caw blade. Blade splicer does not help you beat caw blade. It's not fast enough and offers no disruption. But I can definitely see this card being played in the future in aggro decks.
Those who are planning on packing these is against guys like jace are in for a horrile surprise when they find ti really doesnt help much.
Sure you want to get rid of Jace asap but the fact it hits, they get to activate (brainstorm most likely) which means they gain a card plus rearrange the top of their deck all before you get to kill it means YOU have actually lost out in the CA race as their hand is the same size but yours is down a card.
You might think you have gained tempo from this but the fact is you had to leave 3 mana open on your last turn to play BW this turn.
Does that sound bad enough? But wait , there's still more! they now have a 3/3 beast you also have to deal with. So you've actually lost out pretty big there. For all you know jace is getting slammed next turn again. If they slap a sword on that beast thats a 5/5 nasty.
Sure you may argue you saved yourself future problems by killing it now but jace is a 4x and giving them a solid body to bash with isn't smart either.
The only real way to deal with jace it not let it hit the table.
Sure its a good answer to titans or land destruction but to kill jace? nopa.
You could say this about any card. Like the best way to deal with a Titan is to not let it resolve. If that's the case, we should all play a deck with 20 counters.
Jace WILL hit the table at least some of the time no matter how you design your deck. You could go the discard route but the issue is that you don't always draw discard at the time they have jace in hand. You could go the counterspell route but again, you don't always have counterspell in hand (especially a hard counter). And you're a sitting duck if you wait all day around jace.
The reality is, just let the Jace get +1 CA. There aren't enough advantageous answers to Jace. Answering it is better than not answering it. And Beast Within is not solely designed to fight Jace. It gives green ways to deal with ANYTHING. And you're in green, you should be able to outclass a vanilla 3/3. Overall, it's such a flexible card I'd gladly play it.
Comparing it to acidic slime says it all. Of course, it's a different color. If I'm playing green, Acidic Slime gets the nod as it deals with other permanent types and deathtouch is a great deterrent.
The environment right now doesn't have a lot of mono colored decks. There are plenty of duals. The value of the imprint damage effect is small at the moment. It might get better when Zendikar rotates.
So basically, Invader Parasite MIGHT be good if the environment is heavy with mono colored decks. Even then, this is a card you want to ramp into as the effect is lessened as the game goes on.
1) Mental Misstep: Maybe not for standard but this will be a star in eternal
2) Tezzeret's Gambit: After some playtesting, this is amazing. 3 (or sometimes 4) mana to draw 2 and can go into any color is great. The proliferate is often not deliberately useful but a nice bonus. This card can see play in many different decks in standard.
3) Dismember: For the same reason gambit is good, dismember is also amazing. 5/5 kills Obliterator, BSA, but sadly not titans. But you'd have to consider the fact that it can be played for just 1 mana and 4 life, or 2 mana and 2 life, or 3 mana. At each option, it's still very good. Oh and it can go into any color.
4) Despise: Ostracize didn't see much love but there is a reason for that. Back then, creatures were not as powerful. Nowadays, most competitive creatures does something when entering the battlefield. Also, the best way to deal with a PW like Jace is to remove it before they even play it. Furthermore, nearly all decks play PW and/or creatures. From testing, it doesn't whiff often and deserves at least SB consideration.
5) Beast Within. Destroy target permanent!!!!! Though from testing, I'd have to admit I hate being forced to target creatures with this. But the flexibility makes it great. 3/3 is still a strong threat not to be ignored.
6) Batterskull: Perhaps not ranked higher solely because you'll never need to run more than 1-2 copies in a deck. This is like BSA. Super efficient for its mana cost.
7) Sword of War and Peace: Will go into existing decks. I expect decks to play 1 copy of each sword.
8) Lashwrite: If mono black takes off, this card is an all star. Monoblack infect + lashwrite is scary and could come from nowhere since equip cost COULD be free.
9)Gitaxian Probe: This is combo's new best friend. It increases consistency. Great card.
10) Vault Skirge: I think it's easy to miss the commons. This guy is a fantastic one drop to enable metalcraft. It has flying and lifelink which should make up the life loss almost immediately. I expect tempered steel based decks to be strong.
i disagree all the praetors are good except the blue one
it make you draw 7 EACH turn
I think only the red Praetor has any chance at constructed play through hard casting. The white one may see play in extended windbrisk heights based weenie aggro.
The blue praetor costs 10 mana. It draws 7 each turn. If I have 10 mana, I don't want to draw cards. I want to play something to win the game. And the opportunity cost is too great. Drawing this before you can cast it is like card disadvantage. The reduction in opponent's hand size is not that relevant unless you use flash. They still draw cards and by then time you have 10 mana, they too can probably play anything they topdeck. It's not even a good animator target. Why animate something to draw more cards instead of winning the game or interact with the board like Angel of Despair.
The green praetor can be compared to Primeval Titan. Titan does something immediately. By the time you cast the green praetor, you are likely tapped out. If so, they have a turn to remove it.
The black praetor is a little too expensive to see play in control. If I want creatures dead, I'd play BSZ. There are much better finishers and these days, control decks are not about fatty finishers. Just play a bunch of weenies and equip them with swords.
The green and black ones are great reanimator targets, especially in multiplayer. In competitive play, there are better things to animate.
Myr Superion2 Artifact Creature - Myr (R)
Spend only mana produced by creatures to cast Myr Superion.
5/6
To me, as cool as it is; it is a really badly designed card for the Myr Tribe. If this card is supposed to interact so well with the Myr Tribe because seven of their creatures are mana producers; then why does it not play nice with Myr Reservoir at all? A card that could help bring out onto the battlefield.
So...lack of interaction with one card makes it bad? What in your opinion would make this card good? You want it to say "Spend only mana produced by creatures or Myr Reservoir to cast Myr Superion"?
Myr Superion2 Artifact Creature - Myr (R)
Spend only mana produced by creatures to cast Myr Superion.
5/6
To me, as cool as it is; it is a really badly designed card for the Myr Tribe. If this card is supposed to interact so well with the Myr Tribe because seven of their creatures are mana producers; then why does it not play nice with Myr Reservoir at all? A card that could help bring out onto the battlefield.
So...lack of interaction with one card makes it bad? What in your opinion would make this card good? You want it to say "Spend only mana produced by creatures or Myr Reservoir to cast Myr Superion"?
Very high power set. I'm impressed by all the nice uncommons. MBS and SoM had a shortage of good cards at lower rarity. NPH makes up for that and more.
I feel most of the playable rares were spoiled in the first batch of spoilers.
Mirai's Wake doesn't force you to pick a color and works for all your creatures and lands. That's key. Caged sun costs 1 more mana and restricts you to a color. So mirari's wake benefits any deck. Caged sun makes you want to play mono color decks with lots of small creatures if you want the full benefit. And I wouldn't want to pay 6 mana for only one of the 2 effects on Caged Sun.
I have to disagree. Crystal ball just scrys. This card can put either a land or a token on the battlefield, or it can gain you life. The lifegain is a little weak. With crystal ball, it's a waste of mana if the top card is a card you want anyways. With Satchel, you'll always get something with each activation. I'd say all 3 abilities are quite relevant.
Infect is relatively cheap. A lot of the bread and butter infect creatures are common/uncommons.
White weenie is not tier 1 but it's never really that bad. I don't think it'll win you tourneys.
Basically just don't play blue as there is no optimal way to play blue without JTMS. Sticking with monocolor will keep the deck consistent and cheap to make.
Comments on the other Praetors...
Urabrask: I seriously doubt its constructed playability but it's a good card because it's the cheapest mana cost of them all. Creatures coming into play tapped doesn't do that much in the current meta, and likely the future meta as well. Having opponent's creatures tapped only matters if haste creatures are prominent, or the match is about dropping creature after creature, which is not what we have here.
Vorinclex: If there will be a constructed deck to cheat something out, it'd use Vorinclex. Messing with opponent's mana is pretty powerful. Even if you're not cheating it out, green is the color of ramp. Probably just a pipedream. If you're animating something, there are better things to animate. If you're ramping, you'd surely consider titan before Vorinclex.
Jinny: I think its effect is overrated. At 10 mana, it's almost impossible to hardcast. The opponent does not discard right away. They still get to topdeck. Drawing 7 is powerful but the kind of deck it goes into is kind of narrow. If you draw 7 every turn and don't kill very fast, you run a real chance of decking yourself. And if you're cheating this into play, chances are at that time, you don't have a lot of mana to play out what you draw.
Sheoldred: Good card. I'd still rather play a Skittles or grave titan if I have that much mana. They end the game faster and can have greater immediate board presence.
Moltensteel Dragon: It's often a 4/4 for 4 mana for any color WITH evasion. The firebreathing can close out games. Sure, you can be afraid of removal. Which is why you don't drain your entire life with it. If you're red, you don't have to pay life. And frankly I see red as the primary color to play this. Other colors have better finishers.
Phyrexian Metamorph: This is getting some hype but I still think it's underrated. It's a better clone in almost every way. Potentially 1 mana less, can be played in any color, copies BOTH artifacts or creatures. Being more fragile is only a small drawback imo.
Vault Skirge: This is like the best common I've ever seen in a long time. It's basically a 1 mana flying lifelink. Lifelink makes the 2 life payment largely irrelevant. And remember, this card IS AN ARTIFACT. And it's black so it's going to dodge removal.
Act of Agression: How good would act of treason be if it was instant? Yes read the card again. It's INSTANT! Instant makes this both a good offense and defense card. Previously you can't get card advantage easily by just playing Act of Treason. Now you can steal an attacker to block and in some cases, they'd lose 1 or both creatures, and you save yourself damage. What a deal. I'd pay 4 life for this effect outside of red in many situations.
The removal aspect of this card is too slow to be worth while.
The recursion is the best part, but it's still prone to being 2 for 1ed in response to playing.
Even when you combine all 3 of these functions together, it's still not a great card. I can picture a combo deck that cheats out a 10 power creature and give it infect to win. But other cards do this better.
The most critical part is simply the meta right now. It's all about playing caw blade or beating caw blade. Blade splicer does not help you beat caw blade. It's not fast enough and offers no disruption. But I can definitely see this card being played in the future in aggro decks.
You could say this about any card. Like the best way to deal with a Titan is to not let it resolve. If that's the case, we should all play a deck with 20 counters.
Jace WILL hit the table at least some of the time no matter how you design your deck. You could go the discard route but the issue is that you don't always draw discard at the time they have jace in hand. You could go the counterspell route but again, you don't always have counterspell in hand (especially a hard counter). And you're a sitting duck if you wait all day around jace.
The reality is, just let the Jace get +1 CA. There aren't enough advantageous answers to Jace. Answering it is better than not answering it. And Beast Within is not solely designed to fight Jace. It gives green ways to deal with ANYTHING. And you're in green, you should be able to outclass a vanilla 3/3. Overall, it's such a flexible card I'd gladly play it.
The environment right now doesn't have a lot of mono colored decks. There are plenty of duals. The value of the imprint damage effect is small at the moment. It might get better when Zendikar rotates.
So basically, Invader Parasite MIGHT be good if the environment is heavy with mono colored decks. Even then, this is a card you want to ramp into as the effect is lessened as the game goes on.
1) Mental Misstep: Maybe not for standard but this will be a star in eternal
2) Tezzeret's Gambit: After some playtesting, this is amazing. 3 (or sometimes 4) mana to draw 2 and can go into any color is great. The proliferate is often not deliberately useful but a nice bonus. This card can see play in many different decks in standard.
3) Dismember: For the same reason gambit is good, dismember is also amazing. 5/5 kills Obliterator, BSA, but sadly not titans. But you'd have to consider the fact that it can be played for just 1 mana and 4 life, or 2 mana and 2 life, or 3 mana. At each option, it's still very good. Oh and it can go into any color.
4) Despise: Ostracize didn't see much love but there is a reason for that. Back then, creatures were not as powerful. Nowadays, most competitive creatures does something when entering the battlefield. Also, the best way to deal with a PW like Jace is to remove it before they even play it. Furthermore, nearly all decks play PW and/or creatures. From testing, it doesn't whiff often and deserves at least SB consideration.
5) Beast Within. Destroy target permanent!!!!! Though from testing, I'd have to admit I hate being forced to target creatures with this. But the flexibility makes it great. 3/3 is still a strong threat not to be ignored.
6) Batterskull: Perhaps not ranked higher solely because you'll never need to run more than 1-2 copies in a deck. This is like BSA. Super efficient for its mana cost.
7) Sword of War and Peace: Will go into existing decks. I expect decks to play 1 copy of each sword.
8) Lashwrite: If mono black takes off, this card is an all star. Monoblack infect + lashwrite is scary and could come from nowhere since equip cost COULD be free.
9)Gitaxian Probe: This is combo's new best friend. It increases consistency. Great card.
10) Vault Skirge: I think it's easy to miss the commons. This guy is a fantastic one drop to enable metalcraft. It has flying and lifelink which should make up the life loss almost immediately. I expect tempered steel based decks to be strong.
I think only the red Praetor has any chance at constructed play through hard casting. The white one may see play in extended windbrisk heights based weenie aggro.
The blue praetor costs 10 mana. It draws 7 each turn. If I have 10 mana, I don't want to draw cards. I want to play something to win the game. And the opportunity cost is too great. Drawing this before you can cast it is like card disadvantage. The reduction in opponent's hand size is not that relevant unless you use flash. They still draw cards and by then time you have 10 mana, they too can probably play anything they topdeck. It's not even a good animator target. Why animate something to draw more cards instead of winning the game or interact with the board like Angel of Despair.
The green praetor can be compared to Primeval Titan. Titan does something immediately. By the time you cast the green praetor, you are likely tapped out. If so, they have a turn to remove it.
The black praetor is a little too expensive to see play in control. If I want creatures dead, I'd play BSZ. There are much better finishers and these days, control decks are not about fatty finishers. Just play a bunch of weenies and equip them with swords.
The green and black ones are great reanimator targets, especially in multiplayer. In competitive play, there are better things to animate.
So...lack of interaction with one card makes it bad? What in your opinion would make this card good? You want it to say "Spend only mana produced by creatures or Myr Reservoir to cast Myr Superion"?
So...lack of interaction with one card makes it bad? What in your opinion would make this card good? You want it to say "Spend only mana produced by creatures or Myr Reservoir to cast Myr Superion"?
I feel most of the playable rares were spoiled in the first batch of spoilers.