MTG Salvation

For when the blue player would like one last super desperate "please let there be a Counterspell in my top 5 cards so I don't lose the game" card in their deck. Snark aside, this is close to being "Scry 5, draw a card" with some nonsignificant upside at instant speed for 3 mana.

Is this maybe actually kinda good? Like, if you have enough 1-2 mana instants already in your deck to where you're getting to freecast what you find a reasonable amount of the time, the fact that this card has the fail case of drawing you the best card out of your top 5 might actually make it worth trying out in some decks.

I was not expecting our latest Mazemind Tome/Treasure Map variant to be a vehicle, but here we are I guess. I'm not entirely sure what kind of deck is in for this card, because you probably want *some* number of actual creatures in your deck so you don't have to rely on it ticking all the way down to attack with it, but you also have to be a deck that's ok with just durdling around activating this a bunch of times.

I guess I could see it out of the board in midrange decks against control or maybe in control mirrors where you are kinda okay with a durdly source of card advantage that eventually will be turning sideways? I don't know....weird card.

I feel like this card is wanting something like Consulate Dreadnought alongside it to really maximize it's potential in constructed formats. Because the potential of the curve of 1 drop vehicle into this on 2, turn 3 play something that can crew this and swing with your 3/4 flier and 7/11 sounds kinda hot.

This versus Thoughtcast is the old Treasure Cruise versus Dig Through Time debate. Since it's unlikely that you can afford to max out on both of them, the question (more or less) boils down to "are you consistently looking for *specific* cards as opposed to pure velocity?"

Unlike the white one we've seen so far, this one looks a lot more like a card you will happily draft and play in most any red deck. A 3 mana 2/2 first striker isn't the *worst*, and the fact that every turn it sits in play and you have an extra mana, you get to ping your opponent for one is pretty decent.

Obviously if you have more shrine support the card does get progressively sillier, but I think for limited, the base case is plenty reasonable on its own.

I'm glad to see the batching of "samurai or warrior" on all these cards. As much as WotC has been making some questionable design decisions over the past few years, I really appreciate them putting gameplay over strict flavor with this (because I'm not even sure we've seen a single warrior creature so far), showing that they've taken lessons from the problems on OG Kamigawa block being very insular in a lot of ways, and worked to make cards that *feel* Kamigawan, but also play well with other established themes in the game.

Go ahead and fire off that Boom // Bust on turn 2, and just keep your 5 mana instant-speed Armageddon in the holster....love it.

I really like that fact that this puts counters on ANY creature. Similar to Luminarch Aspirant this can place your opponent into the spot of "I only have one removal spell, do I use it on the creature giving out the counters or the beefy one currently wearing the counters," which is better than I would've expected from an uncommon one drop.

For EDH purposes at least, it is another(?) way to take infinite turns with Sage of Hours in mono blue. All you need is a card like Riptide Chimera or Words of Wind and enough mana to cast this for at least X=4 (since Sage will always get one counter just for being targeted each time). Janky infinite turn combo here we go!

I have to imagine this being one of greens better common creatures in the set. Sure, it can't attack, but unless your deck is *super* aggressive, a 2 mana 3/3 reach that is also incidentally a 5 mana plummet is pretty much always going to trade for at least one card of your opponents, and being only 2 mana, it's probably going to be an even or up in mana trade.

I seem to remember Moat Piranhas being better than they appear at first glance in limited, and this just stacks on even more value. Reach is fantastic on a defensive creature, the Channel ability is great, and it's even an enchantment to trigger any enchantment-matters payoffs.

So you're telling me I can now fetch my main deck singleton graveyard hate card off of the playset of Stoneforge Mystic I'm already running? Sold!

But in all seriousness, I can't imagine a SFM deck in any format that isn't running at least one of this in the sideboard, if not a copy in the main deck, going forward.

Seems like a card potentially tailor-made for Ruby Storm in Legacy. Lets you do lines like Seething Song into Bonus Round into Rite of Flame, cast this and even if you only have those 3 spells in your graveyard, you just spent 4 cards, have a storm count of 7, and have 21 red mana in your pool.

Quote from Lectrys »

I can imagine Wrenn and Six having a field day with this land, though.

Yea, Wrenn is all about this cycle of lands. You could already sort of do this with either cycling lands or canopy lands, but being able to have your 2 mana PW tick up to essentially draw you spells (maybe not great ones, but still) seems gas. The opportunity cost of these lands is just so low, that I expect even the ones that don't have a huge effect to see a good bit of play, because in a decent number of decks, at least the first basic you replace with one of these lands is pretty much all upside.

I think something should have been banned from the Delver core other than Ragavan to be honest. How many cards have been banned out of Legacy in recent memory (at least in part) for the stated reason that they make Delver too good? Off the top of my head we have:
Wrenn and Six
Treasure Cruise
Gitaxian Probe
Dreadhorde Arcanist
Deathrite Shaman
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Underworld Breach
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

That's...a lot. Now, that being said, there are a few cards on here that are just arguably busted, Delver or no, but still. If a deck archetype is continually poised to take over a format the moment it gets one new pushed card, given the fact that Wizards is CLEARLY not going to stop printing crazy pushed cards with their current design philosophy, maybe the better long-term option would be to target something like Daze to weaken the Delver core some and leave more wiggle room for future cards to enter the format and not require bannings.

So a Grizzly Bear with a cheap activated ability providing a little bit of value alongside a very expensive, repeatable dragon token-making ability that requires you to jump through a bunch of hoops...where have I seen this before? I do think this is a very interesting and cool design, but I feel that a LOT would have to go this cards way before it could break into a 60-card format.