Rise of the Eldrazi? NicotineJones has wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under his feet! NJ has applied his prophetic foresight to the cards of ROE. Do yourself a favor and get the scoop on the hidden gems and overhyped junk therein!
NJ’s Capsule Review of ROE is located here.
This article is part of the Rise of the Eldrazi Alliance. Wizards of the Coast is working with Good Gamery, among other fan web sites, to help drum up excitement for the upcoming set. Take a look at the humorous and/or strategic content generated so far, and stay tuned for more new ROE-related articles and ‘chops!
They’re here!
Corpsehatch, Mammoth Umbra, Mnemonic Wall, Pathrazer of Ulamog, Prey’s Vengeance, and Valakut Fireboar. These are the Monday 6, the six cards given to Good Gamery (among other fan web sites) as part of a spoiler pool.
What follows are the six cards, each with commentary by four of GG’s top Magic players/evaluators:
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Peebles (Benjamin Peebles-Mundy) Peebles is an accomplished Magic player and prolific writer for StarCityGames. He played in five Pro Tours, finishing 15th in LA and 22nd in San Diego, and invented Ghost Dad alongside NicotineJones. He is highly involved in the GG community, and is both a GG forum admin and chat op. |
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Llarack (Jarvis Yu) Llarack is an awesome Magic Player on Good Gamery. He finished 17th at GP Denver, 27th at GP Philly, day 2 at GP Seattle, 5th place at SCG 5k Richmond, and is currently 8th in the running for MODO Extended Player of the Year. As both a skilled player and a GG chat op, he is universally considered simply… amazing. |
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NicotineJones NJ is a longtime member of the community whose ability to analyze and speculate about new cards has earned him mad respect. He invented Ghost Dad alongside Peebles, and he’s written several capsule set reviews for Good Gamery, which have been vital in helping our community get a jumpstart on emerging metagames. |
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Sti (Stuart Wright) Hailing from England, Sti boasts a European Championships ’03 Top-8, three Pro Tour Top-16 finishes, and 2nd Place Great Britain Nationals ’07, and has impressive ratings in both Constructed and Limited formats. He’s also written for StarCityGames. Read his commentary using a British accent. |
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Peebles I pick Brainspoil and I play Befoul, so I’d be picking and playing Corpsehatch pretty high if it didn’t have the whole token-making thing going on. With that tacked on top, I expect to be picking it very high. Having seen only 7 cards from the new set (and therefore being in a position of extreme authority on the topic), I assume that you won’t be getting so many Eldrazi Spawns that you’ll be able to regularly fire out twelve-drop Eldrazi fatties, so the tokens will probably either chumpblock or immediately sacrifice themselves to effectively reduce the cost of Corpsehatch to 1BB, letting you make another play in the same turn. |
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Llarack This card seems unplayable in constructed unless standard slows way the hell down (which I doubt it will for at least another two years). In limited, it’s probably really good unless if RRR (triple Rise) draft turns out to be really fast, which it isn’t looking like with a bunch of expensive cards spoiled so far. |
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NicotineJones Corpsehatch won’t make it in constructed play, but it’s a fine limited card that both buys you some time and accelerates you to a huge monster. Like, for instance, an Eldrazi. |
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Sti This is a solid limited card and, while a bit expensive, it does provide two chump blockers to help with it being a bit slow. The mana generation is more of a constructed effect and this card is a bit too costly unless you really want Eldrazi for some reason. |
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Peebles How good +3/+3 and Vigilance will be is pretty tough to call at this point, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t relatively dominating. The actual fun part of this card to look at is Totem Armor, which is a pretty good attempt at fixing the automatic two-for-one drawback of auras. I don’t think it gets all the way there, as your man is still vulnerable to being removed by something like Journey to Nowhere, or killed while the Umbra is still lurking on the stack, but at least a Corpsehatch off the top won’t completely blow you out. |
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Llarack This also seems quite unplayable in constructed since 4W enchant creatures are not where you want to be, especially with the existence of Journey to Nowhere, Oblivion Ring and Path to Exile. Depending on the amount of removal and bounce in RRR, this card could be really good or really bad. Only time will tell with this one. |
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NicotineJones [Like Corpsehatch,] Mammoth Umbra won’t make it for constructed play either. The good news is that size plus vigilance tends to dominate a limited board, and double-blocking kill your pantsed-up dude will only kill the enchantment. Like all expensive enchant creatures, you’re vulnerable to getting blown out by removal, but if you want to build a monster this is a pretty good way to go about it. |
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Sti This is another “limited-only” outside of some sort of combo. It has the traditional problem of auras, where you have to be careful to avoid removal in response to this. I do, however, feel this is worth the risk, as it gives you a very large creature that can both attack and defend even if they kill it once. You do want to take it out against blue decks, as having the creature bounced is a backbreaking tempo swing. |
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Peebles Is there anyone here who didn’t play with Izzet Chronarch? If you managed to miss Ravnica, the general idea is that you’re paying a lot for a body that’s not too impressive, so what really matters is what you have in your deck to buy back. If you can rebuy removal spells or things like Peel from Reality, the effect is pretty sick. If you can only rebuy Twitch, you probably don’t need to spend five mana on a Kraken Hatchling. |
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Llarack This could conceivably see play in Zendikar / Eldrazi block constructed as a card in a control deck. It makes Day of Judgment a lot better, since you can blow the Day of Judgment early and then return it back with this guy, and force them to commit another guy just to get around this. The value of this card is also very dependent on how fast or slow RRR is. You can basically count on there being reasonable removal to get back with this thing, though. |
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NicotineJones The only way Mnemonic Wall makes it in constructed is if there’s some kind of a slide effect that makes recursion possible. I think its prospects are grim for limited play, too– 0/4 for 5 mana is just not a good deal. |
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Sti To be played in constructed you really need some sort of blue deck that doesn’t mind tapping out and returning a removal spell, as a deck full of counterspells can’t really afford to tap out for just a 0/4. Zac Hill built a grixis deck of this style but it hasn’t proved very popular so far. In limited the type of deck that wants this effect probably prefers the more defensive body over something like the 2/2 body Scrivener provides. |
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Peebles This is a gigantic creature. If there were no way to ramp him out, then it would be a strange deck indeed that ever ran him what with the whole eleven mana up front. However, Corpsehatch shows that there will at least be some support for Eldrazis, and boy if you can get this guy into the attack step you will be quite the satisfied little child. Plus he’s got like at least 20 fingers. |
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Llarack This just seems like a worse Phyrexian Colossus that you can’t cheat out at all. Also, why isn’t this thing an artifact? If there are more counterparts to Eye of Ugin in Rise itself, then I guess this thing might be played in constructed at some point. 11 drops rarely make the cut in limited, unless if there is a common Eldrazi mana cost reducer or if this format is actually as slow as Onslaught block. |
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NicotineJones Pathrazer of Ulamog is outclassed by the Eldrazi we’ve already seen elsewhere for constructed play. In limited, it’s nasty if you can get it down; we’ll see if the rest of the set provides tools to do that. 11 mana is just a ton of mana, though, so it’ll need plenty of help. |
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Sti The high costs of these Eldrazi cards makes me wonder if there will be a number of cards that reduce their cost like Eye of Ugin. |
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Peebles Two doses of +2/+2 is (who would have thought) both better and worse than one dose of +4/+4. I think that the “average” use for Prey’s Vengeance will be to ambush an attacker of theirs and then push through an attacker of yours, which sounds pretty nice to me, but I know that at some point I’ll be alpha-striking and wishing that it would just give me the full effect right now. Rebound, like Totem Armor, is also vulnerable to having the target disappear in response, but I think overall it’s a pretty reasonable ability. As an aside, Kodama’s Might was +2/+2 for G with that set’s keyword on it, so I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a card standing in for Glacial Ray (especially since they can avoid the two-for-one if they have a sacrifice outlet). |
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Llarack This card seems to be the most exciting of the cards to me. You can use it early on in some sort of aggressive deck mirror, then get another +2/+2 the next turn for value. The trouble is, it’s not particularly great in Boss Naya, so its usage seems limited to Eldrazi Monument green and this card is sort of underwhelming there. This seems reasonable for limited since you get value out of it as a pump spell and then basically a free bonus +2/+2 next turn. |
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NicotineJones Prey’s Vengeance is a card that might make it in constructed. Normally, it’s going to be a solid combat trick when you play it initially– +2/+2 is generally enough of a boost to swing creature combat your way. The second turn, the other guy just doesn’t block your pumped man. Like any creature pump, instant-speed removal is sad times for you. In constructed, you are basically paying for 4 damage to the face spread over two turns that you can sometimes use as a combat trick. That probably isn’t good enough, but sometimes very fast green aggro decks exist that want Giant Growth type cards anyway and in that context this may nose over the line. It gets better if the world is full of toughness-based removal, since it can counter some of that. The rebound mechanic could be interesting with storm and similar mechanics, though. |
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Sti People have played cheap Green pump in constructed before and this card will often deal four damage over two turns for a very cheap price. It does have to compete with Vines of Vastwood, but it does have the advantage of being cheaper and spreading the pump effort over two turns can allow you to force through a creature twice in a row. In limited this type of effect can be used to provide a tempo boost, removing a creature for only one mana in a sense and the second casting can help you to finish them off before they can stabilize. |
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Peebles Sometimes you really want to attack with your Kami of Old Stone. In that case, wouldn’t it be lovely to hit for seven damage instead of one? While I don’t think that there will be too many cases of Fireboar-related death, he’s a great blocker and he’s in the color that’s most-likely to be able to clear out the tiny guys that would stymie his attacks, so I think that he’ll be pretty threatening to play against. It’s nice that being a 1/7 blocker leads your opponent to attack with more guys just to get damage through, making it more likely that you’ll be able to live the dream and get your Firecat on. |
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Llarack If people don’t play removal and somehow a five drop is good enough to hit several times, then yeah, you want this card in constructed. Otherwise, I give it a huge thumbs down. I have an unhealthy love for cards like this in limited. Suffice it to say, I think it’ll probably make your maindeck more often than not, and gets better with each removal spell you have in your limited deck. |
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NicotineJones Valakut Fireboar is the kind of man I’m predisposed to like– huge butt, hard to kill, does something useful. There is no way it makes it in constructed, but in limited it’s not a bad way to sit back, block some guys, and bide your time for a burn salvo. They have to keep blockers back against the Boar most of the time, because racing a 7-power creature isn’t an option; if they get aggressive you could remove a blocker or two to punish them for their impatience. I think the Boar will be reasonably good at creating ground stalls in limited, but it still isn’t a high pick. |
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Sti This is another limited card that fits best in a defensive Red deck. It provides a large body to protect you, with the threat of attacking for a large number. In practise they will normally have a creature held back to deal with a 7/1, but the very threat of this does force them to hold something back. |
Want to weigh in yourself? Hit the forum link below. We’d love to have you join in on the discussion.
Awake, thou that sleepest! It’s Worldwake! NicotineJones applies his prophetic foresight to the cards therein. Take heed, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of foreign lands, which will become a snare in your midst.
NJ’s Capsule Review of Worldwake is located here.
NicotineJones applies his prophetic foresight to all sorts of Zendikards! Heed his words, or as Wisdom herself would say: “Because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind.”
NJ’s Capsule Review of Zendikar is located here.
The usual disclaimers: I don’t play MTG anymore, I haven’t shuffled up in years, and I’m mostly out of touch with the modern metagames. Every one of these I do is a little less useful than the one before it.
If this isn’t your kind of thing, you shouldn’t bother, but if it is and you do and you want to comment/agree/disagree/expand/ask me to expand on something, I make an effort to read and respond to everything in the discussion thread.
I only evaluate cards in the context of constructed play, and I only talk about cards that I think have a shot at seeing play in block, standard, or extended. If I don’t talk about a card, it’s because I don’t think that it’s constructed caliber.
This set is on the whole quite weak, but I think that block is likely to be a varied metagame and that a bunch of these cards fit in at the block level.
Ardent Plea – 1WU
Enchantment (Uncommon)
Exalted
Cascade
For this and for several of the other cheaper cascade spells, you’re not playing it because you want the spell effect; you’re playing it because you want to tutor for something and have built your deck such that cascade gets you one particular effect. Giving up everything with a CMC of 1 or 2, other than your cascade target, is a huge sacrifice in some formats and almost no sacrifice at all in other formats. In a format with this many CIPT lands, it’s less expensive than it might otherwise be so that’s something.
Similarly, the quality of the targets varies by format. If this is getting a Balance effect, then it’s very strong; in the past you might have been willing to mess with your deck enough to guarantee Skullclamp or Jitte or Grim Monolith. Right now, I guess you can go get Bitterblossom and that isn’t bad, but I don’t think it’s enough to make you swear off all other cheap spells, even if you can fill in with stuff like Shriekmaw.
Specific to Ardent Plea, I can see this getting play if a) 3 drops aren’t much better than 2 drops and b) you have a curve that has a billion 2s and no real 3s. I don’t think that’s the case right now but it has been at a number of times in the past.
Ethercaste Knight – WU
Artifact Creature – Human Knight (Common)
Exalted
1/3
If there’s a million billion Pyroclasms in the format, ok, maybe.
Fieldmist Borderpost – 1WU
Artifact (Common)
You may pay {1} and return a basic land you control to its owner’s hand rather than pay Fieldmist Borderpost’s mana cost.
Fieldmist Borderpost comes into play tapped.
{T}: Add {W} or {U} to your mana pool.
These basically suck for constructed unless you can get some additional added utility out of the fact that they’re a multicolored artifact. Would it have killed them to make it not CIPT if you paid the actual mana cost, or to let you bounce nonbasics?
Meddling Mage – WU
Creature – Human Wizard (Rare)
As Meddling Mage comes into play, name a nonland card.
The named card can’t be played.
“This violent wasteland is an indictment of its people. These cowards lack the will to oppose disorder.”
2/2
Hey, Pikula is still good! What do you know. This will see play all over the place, just like it always has.
Sovereigns of Lost Alara – 4WU
Creature – Spirit (Rare)
Exalted (Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, you may search your library for an Aura card that could enchant that creature, put it into play attached to that creature, then shuffle your library.
4/5
You’re going to need some kind of redundant tutor effect to make this worth building around, but 6 mana for a guy who swings next turn as an 8/9 flier that makes people drop their hand is potentially pretty good. This is especially true since he has sort-of-haste. On the minus side, you have to put bad cards in your deck to make him happy and he’s expensive, so yeah probably not so much.
Brainbite – 2UB
Sorcery (Common)
Target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a card from it. That player discards that card.
Draw a card.
If everyone’s swapping 6+cc haymakers then stuff like this starts to look almost attractive. Almost.
Mind Funeral – 1UB
Sorcery (Uncommon)
Target opponent reveals cards from the top of his or her library until four land cards are revealed. That player puts all cards revealed this way into his or her graveyard.
#26/145
This is going to reliably put a *lot* of cards in the yard, although you need something else to actually deck people. Maybe you have card interactions that want you to do that or maybe decking gets to a critical mass.
Mistvein Borderpost – 1UB
Artifact (Common)
You may pay {1} and return a basic land you control to its owner’s hand rather than pay Mistvein Borderpost’s mana cost.
Mistvein Borderpost comes into play tapped.
{T}: Add {U} or {B} to your mana pool.
See previous Borderpost comments.
Anathemancer – 1BR
Creature – Zombie Wizard (Uncommon)
When Anathemancer comes into play, it deals damage to target player equal to the number of nonbasic lands that player controls.
Unearth {5}{B}{R}
2/2
One of the few game-changers in the set, Anathemancer gives an actual disincentive to running 26 nonbasics. It’s *still* not a great pressure creature if it’s doing less than ~4 damage for you on the way in, and you’re probably not unearthing it, but it may mean that life is a bigger issue in control on control rumbles than it would otherwise be.
Deathbringer Thoctar – 4BR
Creature – Zombie Beast (Rare)
Whenever another creature is put into a graveyard from play, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Deathbringer Thoctar.
Remove a +1/+1 counter from Deathbringer Thoctar: Deathbringer Thoctar deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
3/3
Murders token creatures and I guess that’s a big deal right now. Really wanted to have devour. Probably too expensive but may fill an important niche anyway.
Demonic Dread – 1BR
Sorcery (Common)
Cascade
Target creature can’t block this turn.
Probably the weakest of the cheap cascade spells, since you need a target for it.
Terminate – BR
Instant (Common)
Destroy target creature. It can’t be regenerated.
You can’t do this for any cheaper. Will see play everywhere except possibly extended, and even there it’s a strong contender.
Thought Hemorrhage – 2BR
Sorcery (Rare)
Name a nonland card. Target player reveals his or her hand. Thought Hemorrhage deals 3 damage to that player for each card with that name revealed this way. Search that player’s graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with that name and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
Not as good as people are going to think it is, but it’ll see play in exactly the same situations that Cranial correctly saw play. The damage isn’t a total red herring– planeswalkers– but it’s pretty much irrelevant. You have to be able to put a major dent into someone’s strategy for Extracting them to be a good plan, just like always.
Veinfire Borderpost – 1BR
Artifact (Common)
You may pay {1} and return a basic land you control to its owner’s hand rather than pay Veinfire Borderpost’s mana cost.
Veinfire Borderpost comes into play tapped.
{T}: Add {B} or {R} to your mana pool.
Supra.
Bloodbraid Elf – 2RG
Creature – Elf Berserker (Uncommon)
Haste
Cascade (When you play this spell, remove cards from the top of your library from the game until you reveal a nonland card that costs less. You may play it without paying its mana cost. Put the removed cards on the bottom in a random order.)
3/2
The best of the cascade spells by a fair margin. You can play this productively in an aggro deck; even if you’re just hitting burn, it’s still plenty fine.
Dragon Broodmother – 2RRRG
Creature – Dragon (Mythic Rare)
Flying
At the beginning of each upkeep, put a 1/1 red and green Dragon creature token with flying and devour 2 into play. (As the token comes into play, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. It comes into play with twice that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
4/4
Not as good as Broodmate but still might see play. Broodmate is real good and maybe you want 5 of them.
Firewild Borderpost – 1RG
Artifact (Common)
You may pay {1} and return a basic land you control to its owner’s hand rather than pay Firewild Borderpost’s mana cost.
Firewild Borderpost comes into play tapped.
{T}: Add {R} or {G} to your mana pool.
Once more with feeling!
Predatory Advantage – 3RG
Enchantment (Rare)
At the end of each opponent’s turn, if that player didn’t play a creature spell this turn, put a 2/2 green Lizard creature token into play.
Predatory Advantage will crank out creatures on a very regular basis, and the creatures are a nontrivial size. This is a fine way to leverage time into a win, although it’s totally outclassed by stuff like Bitterblossom and may be straight outsized in block.
Spellbreaker Behemoth – 1RGG
Creature – Beast (Rare)
Spellbreaker Behemoth can’t be countered.
Creature spells you control with power 5 or greater can’t be countered.
5/5
The stats get you are a reasonably good deal. Not sure there’s enough countermagic floating around to justify playing him right now, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be at some point in the future.
Vengeful Rebirth – 4RG
Sorcery (Uncommon)
Return target card from your graveyard to your hand. If you return a nonland card to your hand this way, Vengeful Rebirth deals damage equal to that card’s converted mana cost to target creature or player.
Remove Vengeful Rebirth from the game.
I actually like this guy a lot, since it provides two turns worth of action in a lategame situation. It is, however, slow as shit, and its value as removal is very much contingent on opposing threats being cards you can kill with single-target burn. Not sure that’s true right now.
Violent Outburst – 1RG
Instant (Common)
Cascade
Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.
I don’t think this is good enough to see play for its effect+cascade, so it’s probably limited to uses that abuse Cascade. It is, however, instant and does not require a target, so in a vacuum it’s the strongest of the 3-cc cascade spells.
Vithian Renegades – 1RG
Creature – Human Shaman (Uncommon)
When Vithian Renegades comes into play, destroy target artifact.
3/2
Sure yeah whatever. An extra point of power on Uktabiridian Shamrangutan isn’t going to change anybody’s life, but its predecessors were good enough to see play and so is this.
Captured Sunlight – 2GW
Sorcery (Common)
Cascade
You gain 4 life.
Bloodbraid Elf is an aggro effect, and it goes in a deck that has a bunch of cards you can flip that do something useful no matter what the board situation may be– creatures and burn. This is a controlling effect. Controlling decks tend to play a combination of removal and resource-gathering spells at their low drops. Removal is conditional; resource-gathering is not. If you’re in a situation where your opponent just played a threat and you flip a resource card, then this is a misspent turn; ditto if your opponent does not have a threat and you do flip removal.
If your deck has a bunch of Rampant Growths at the low slots, then Captured Sunlight may be a great deal; if you need those slots to play Path to Exile and Oblivion Ring, then not so much.
Dauntless Escort – 1GW
Creature – Rhox Soldier (Rare)
Sacrifice Dauntless Escort: Creatures you control are indestructible this turn.
3/3
No big deal here, but in a sweeper-heavy environment– or just in an environment where lots of guys are banging into lots and lots of other guys– Escort might see some play. 3/3 for 3 mana isn’t totally tragic anyway.
Knotvine Paladin – GW
Creature – Human Knight (Rare)
Whenever Knotvine Paladin attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each untapped creature you control.
2/2
Knotty is regularly going to swing as a very large dude, and he has synergy with Elspeth and especially with Ajani Not-Vengeant. I think that there are probably too many other good options, but it may be that the lure of flopping down Procession or the like after Knotvine is just too strong.
Mycoid Shepherd – 1GGW
Creature – Fungus (Rare)
Whenever Mycoid Shepherd or another creature you control with power 5 or greater is put into a graveyard from play, you may gain 5 life.
5/4
Backloading the life gain is significantly worse than frontloading it, and I think you basically never get to trigger Shepherd off of another creature’s death, but it’s pretty big and the lifegain is substantial. This is so, so not Loxodon Hierarch, though.
Qasali Pridemage – GW
Creature – Cat Wizard (Common)
Exalted
{1}, Sacrifice Qasali Pridemage: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
2/2
An excellent package. 2 mana for a 2/2 exalted seems reasonable, even without a built-in Naturalize. I think that zapping enchantments may turn out to be a bigger bonus than it has been in the past.
Reborn Hope – GW
Sorcery (Uncommon)
Return target multicolored card from your graveyard to your hand.
Regrowth is kind of unexciting unless you’re doing something abusive with it.
Wildfield Borderpost – 1GW
Artifact (Common)
You may pay {1} and return a basic land you control to its owner’s hand rather than pay Wildfield Borderpost’s mana cost.
Wildfield Borderpost comes into play tapped.
{T}: Add {G} or {W} to your mana pool.
Again and again.
Identity Crisis – 2WWBB
Sorcery (Rare)
Remove all cards in target player’s hand and graveyard from the game.
Any control mirror needs to be prepared for this; it is a game-winner. I think it’s costed just outside the range where aggro and even midrange decks will be able to play it comfortably.
Tainted Sigil – 1WB
Artifact (Uncommon)
{T}, Sacrifice Tainted Sigil: You gain life equal to the total life lost by all players this turn. (Damage causes loss of life.)
Sigils corrupted by outsiders do not lose their power, only their purity.
If there’s something awesome you can do by paying a bunch of life, then this is compelling; otherwise not so.
Zealous Persecution – WB
Instant (Uncommon)
Until end of turn, creatures you control get +1/+1 and creatures target opponent controls get -1/-1.
This is totally unremarkable unless you are playing a bunch of little tiny dorks yourself and are also expecting to fight against other people who are playing a bunch of little tiny dorks. However, my understanding is that that statement defines a good chunk of the present standard metagame, so pencil the ol’ ZP in.
Double Negative – UUR
Instant (Uncommon)
Counter up to two target spells.
Other than Cascade, I don’t think you get this to fire, but countermagic is expensive anyway so maybe somebody wants this.
Lord of Extinction – 3BG
Creature – Elemental (Mythic Rare)
Lord of Extinction’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in all graveyards.
*/*
Lord of Extinction is the new Sutured Ghoul, if anybody ever wants a Sutured Ghoul again.
Maelstrom Pulse – 1BG
Sorcery (Rare)
Destroy target nonland permanent and all permanents with the same name as that permanent.
On reflection, I think this is slightly worse than Vindicate, but Vindicate was really good and being able to take out tokens or randomly 2-for-1 some guy is useful too. This should see play in standard and in block, although probably not in extended.
Putrid Leech – BG
Creature – Leech (Common)
Pay 2 life: Putrid Leech gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Play this ability only once each turn.
2/2
Beats up everything else that costs less then 4 mana, and lots of things that cost more. I can see this sneaking in somewhere.
Cerodon Yearling – RW
Creature – Beast (Common)
Vigilance, haste
2/2
Vigilance mostly sucks here, but two mana for a 2/2 haste is a reasonable deal and might squeak it in. Haste is very good.
Lorescale Coatl – 1GU
Creature – Snake (Uncommon)
Whenever you draw a card, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Lorescale Coatl.
2/2
Gets very respectably-sized quickly. Not sure being big is enough, but if it is then the Coatl is a contender. Bonus points for being easy to cast off of a Hierarch. I’m not sure that it’s worth trying to dick around with card draw to make the Brain Snake bigger, but rather you can simply appreciate him for the big growing hunk of p/t that he is.
Vedalken Heretic – GU
Creature – Vedalken Rogue (Rare)
Whenever Vedalken Heretic deals damage to an opponent, you may draw a card.
1/1
I think the time of the Phid has just plain passed us by.
Sphinx of the Steel Wind – 5WUB
Artifact Creature – Sphinx (Mythic Rare)
Flying, first strike, vigilance, lifelink, protection from red and from green
No one has properly answered her favorite riddle: “Why should I spare your life?”
6/6
Unless you’re cheating her out, I think there are better uses for your mana, but if you’re cheating anything out this is a decent contender.
Thraximundar – 4UBR
Legendary Creature – Zombie Assassin (Mythic Rare)
Haste
Whenever Thraximundar attacks, defending player sacrifices a creature.
Whenever a player sacrifices a creature, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Thraximundar.
6/6
So is this. Thrax is probably trump if there’s a reanimator mirror sometime in the future.
Dragon Appeasement – 3BRG
Enchantment (Uncommon)
Skip your draw step.
Whenever you sacrifice a creature, you may draw a card.
To be useful this has to be abusive, and I think it’s too expensive to be abused.
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund – 4BRG
Legendary Creature – Dragon (Mythic Rare)
Flying, haste
When Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund comes into play, gain control of all Dragon creatures in play and untap them.
Dragon creatures you control have haste.
7/7
Obviously, this is a strong answer to your opponent’s Broodmate. Outside of that– and that might be a really big deal in block– I’m not sure you want it at all.
Lavalanche – XBRG
Sorcery (Rare)
Lavalanche deals X damage to target player and each creature he or she controls.
Alara’s burning blood cannot be contained by mere earth and stone.
The upside of this is that it does considerable damage to your opponent, and there’s enough incidental burn floating around between Ultimatums and Regrowthbolt and Banefire that accidentally doming somebody is a perfectly reasonable way to win a fight. The downside is that it’s super expensive. I suspect that it sees plenty of play in midrange decks and up, but I don’t think you can support it unless you’re planning on casting it for at least 3-4 and that means you better have 26+ mana sources.
Finest Hour – 2GWU
Enchantment (Rare)
Exalted
Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, if its the first combat phase of the turn, untap that creature. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase.
This card is freaking amazing when it goes off. Rafiq into Finest Hour, with no other enhancement whatsoever, does 24 points of damage. Other exalted dudes get somewhat less impressive but still great results. I think this might be a reasonable two-of, since it adds a commendable burst, but a lot has to go right for it to function at peak efficiency.
Flurry of Wings – GWU
Instant (Uncommon)
Put X 1/1 white Bird Soldier creature tokens with flying into play, where X is the number of attacking creatures.
This is a fog, typically, in the worst case. That matters because Fog is a card that you never want to put in your deck, but that you often want to have in your hand. That said, you need to get 3 guys out of this to be happy with it as a creature generator, and since a lot of the time you’re not getting 3 guys you have to expect 4 some of the time. I don’t think that happens often enough for this to make the grade.
Jenara, Asura of War – GWU
Legendary Creature – Angel (Mythic Rare)
Flying
{1}{W}: Put a +1/+1 counter on Jenara, Asura of War.
Wounded soldiers looked up, grateful for her appearance. But she passed over them, her eyes firmly on their foe.
3/3
Tidy little package. I think Jenara isn’t an all-star but does provide a useful dimension against a lot of people; she’s quite hard to kill with toughness based removal, can brawl effectively early, and in the late game can become big enough to fight with anybody. Her legendary status probably means you won’t want a full boat.
Wargate – XGWU
Sorcery (Rare)
Search your library for a permanent card with converted mana cost X or less and put it into play. Then shuffle your library.
I think Wargate has a shot. It’s bad at doing everything it does, but versatility is sometimes useful too.
Maelstrom Nexus – WUBRG
Enchantment (Mythic Rare)
The first spell you play each turn has cascade.
Nexus is Future Sight on crack. I think this is probably the most important new card in the set for the control wars. Once you land this, you’re just in an amazing position in terms of accruing resource advantage; you’ll be getting Capsules all over the place, removal for free, et cetera, et cetera.
Esper Stormblade – {wb}U
Artifact Creature – Vedalken Wizard (Common)
As long as you control another multicolored permanent, Esper Stormblade gets +1/+1 and has flying.
2/1
One of the more promising dudes like this. There’s a nice critical mass of good two-color dorks on both the WUB and the GWU axes.
Trace of Abundance – {rw}G
Enchantment – Aura (Common)
Enchant land
Enchanted land has shroud.
Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, you may add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
It’s basically Fertile Ground except that it’s not as good at manafixing. Fertile Ground is good enough, and this may be good enough too if you don’t want your resource acceleration to be dependent on creatures.
Read the article at this Thread Link.
Same deal as usual. If I don’t talk about a card, I don’t think it’s going to see play in any constructed format.
I mostly care about block, standard, and extended.
I’ll make an effort to respond to comments/criticisms/arguments; I usually make a couple of big mistakes per review and then a bunch of little ones, and often the comment thread illuminates those mistakes in a timely fashion.
Again, it’s been quite some time since I have actually played MTG, so take this all with a generous pinch of salt.
Archon of Justice
3WW
Creature – Archon
4/4
Flying
When Archon of Justice is put into a graveyard from play, remove target permanent from the game.
It used to be that you were getting a pretty good deal when you paid 5 mana for your 4/4 flier, but that is increasingly no longer the case—5 mana is when creatures start to get really, really powerful. Obviously the effect is nice, but I can’t ultimately see this being a great card since it is actively difficult to trigger the rfg effect when you want it triggered.
If you were fighting a straight up attrition war, or otherwise were in a situation where you cared about getting a 2-for-1 and didn’t care how long it took you to do it, then Archon would be attractive.
Endless Horizons
3W
Enchantment
When Endless Horizons comes into play, search your library for any number of Plains cards and remove them from the game. Then shuffle your library.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a card you own removed from the game with Endless Horizons into your hand.
I see Endless Horizons as a potential sleeper hit. The effect is powerful and many decks in the past would have wanted it on their side, but it may suffer from its block— unless there’s something Charbelchy out there (and I guess there might be) this isn’t powerful enough for extended and the incentive to have a manabase that is largely composed of non-plains cards is very strong as long as Lorwyn block is legal.
Flickerwisp
1WW
Creature – Elemental
3/1
Flying
When Flickerwisp comes into play, remove another target permanent from the game. Return that card to play under its owner’s control at end of turn.
The body is actually all right for 3 mana if you can find something useful to do with the effect. Options include resetting perms that run themselves down somehow, reusing CiP effects, and killing auras. There’s not too many CiP effects at less than 3 mana, so that puts the kibosh on that a little bit.
At 2/2 this probably would have been interesting in some respect with Reveillark, which is probably why it’s 3/1.
Hallowed Burial
3WW
Sorcery
Put all creatures on the bottom of their owners’ libraries.
Important in block, largely irrelevant elsewhere.
Glamerdye
1U
Instant
Change the text of target spell or permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another.
Retrace (You may play this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)
Sometimes cards like this find a narrow usually-sideboard application, and this is a pretty potent version of the archetype.
Inundate
3UUU
Sorcery
Return all nonblue creatures to their owners’ hands.
It’s possible that this could see some use as a SB card if there’s a blue-based creature deck that has a matchup that tends to bog down.
Wake Thrasher
2U
Creature – Merfolk Soldier
1/1
Whenever a permanent you control becomes untapped, Wake Thrasher gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
It’s pretty burly on offense, but I think the fragility and total lack of evasion or utility kill it. Merfolk is a phenomenal creature type to have, though.
Ashling, the Extinguisher
2BB
Legendary Creature – Elemental Shaman
4/4
Whenever Ashling, the Extinguisher deals combat damage to a player, choose target creature that player controls. He or she sacrifices that creature.
The problem with this guy is that he’s only good at beating up small things and he isn’t that large—he’s going to get chumped a lot. The good news is that he’s got 4 toughness and is black, which sometimes is enough since that lets you dodge a lot of removal. Would have been nice if he’d been able to nail pro-black creatures, but alas. Might make it in block but frankly I doubt it.
Necroskitter
1BB
Creature – Elemental
1/4
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
Whenever a creature an opponent controls with a -1/-1 counter on it is put into a graveyard, you may return that card to play under your control.
This is another pretty resilient guy who could be very annoying against decks that want to attack you on the ground. It is however mildly annoying that if you steal the other fellow’s persist guy, they get it back the next time it dies.
Nightmare Incursion
5B
Sorcery
Search target player’s library for up to X cards, where X is the number of Swamps you control, and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
I wanted to point out the specific circumstances under which this would be a viable SB card but frankly they’re not going to happen so don’t worry about it too much. (You need a deck that plays 15ish swamps going up against a deck that has a very limited number of win conditions.)
Raven’s Crime
B
Sorcery
Target player discards a card.
Retrace (You may play this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)
While Crime isn’t godly, it’s a very inexpensive way to consistently control the other fellow’s ability to hold cards in hand. If you’re a mana-flooded aggro deck with this as one of your action cards, you’re probably still going to lose anyway but at least you can try to make your opponent pull some of their answers off the top of the deck. This is also one of the best ways to rapidly turn the game into a low-resource slugfest— an opening like Swamp, Crime, Swamp, Crime, Crime is really going to hamper the other guy’s ability to play his normal manacurve to its conclusion, although obviously you’re light on resources yourself in that scenario. In that respect it reminds me a little bit of Pox and related cards.
I think this may wind up seeing extended play at some point.
Soul Snuffers
2BB
Creature – Elemental Shaman
3/3
When Soul Snuffers comes into play, put a -1/-1 counter on each creature.
If this is 187ing things, then it’s pretty solid. Otherwise, not so much.
Chaotic Backlash
4R
Instant
Chaotic Backlash deals damage to target player equal to twice the number of white and/or blue permanents he or she controls.
Backlash could wind up being pretty important at the block-ish level. There are a lot of white token-generators, and sending one of these to the face isn’t a bad response to Cloudgoat Ranger.
Flame Jab
R
Sorcery
Flame Jab deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
Retrace (You may play this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)
This is kind of like super-ghetto Lava Dart and probably fits in a lot of the same places. If there are many 1-toughness dorks to kill, the stock goes up.
Puncture Blast
2R
Instant
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
Puncture Blast deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
Standard-issue 3 damage for 3 mana. This stuff normally floats around the periphery of playability.
Rekindled Flame
2RR
Sorcery
Rekindled Flame deals 4 damage to target creature or player.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if an opponent has no cards in hand, you may return Rekindled Flame from your graveyard to your hand.
4 for 4 at sorcery speed isn’t good but it isn’t awful, and if you get to do it twice that’s pretty cool. Unfortunately I think it’s too easy for the other guy to keep you from recovering Flame for it to do its trick.
Stigma Lasher
RR
Creature – Elemental Shaman
2/2
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
Whenever Stigma Lasher deals damage to a player, that player can’t gain life for the rest of the game.
This is not rocket science here—the more lifegain there is in the environment the better Stigma Lasher looks. 2 mana for a wither bear doesn’t have you pumping the fist but it’s acceptable if the other trick is going to be useful for you.
Also, Fiery Justice you.
Thunderblust
2RRR
Creature – Elemental
7/2
Haste
Thunderblust has trample as long as it has a -1/-1 counter on it.
Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner’s control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)
Now we’re talking. This is a huge hasty beatstick that needs to be killed twice. It hates clogged boards and requires a heavy red commitment, and both of those things are a problem, but if you are a deck that can cast this and keep the table clean it’s going to be very, very annoying for your opponent. Also, comes out t3 off of a Smokebraider and off of a Soulstoke you get to keep it with a counter on it.
Unwilling Recruit
XRRR
Sorcery
Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gets +X/+0 and gains haste until end of turn.
Threaten has been good enough in monored or near-monored decks in the past and this is better than Threaten in those decks.
Bloom Tender
1G
Creature – Elf Druid
1/1
T For each color among permanents you control, add one mana of that color to your mana pool.
Potentially explosive, especially if your manabase is larded with hybrid spells in other colors. There are a couple of attractive 1CC hybrid creatures that you would potentially want to play; Figure of Destiny is probably top among these and that sets you up for some very big t3s. That said, I don’t think you can count on getting more than 1 mana out of Bloom Tender regularly. It’s still better than something like Leaf Gilder, though.
Helix Pinnacle
G
Enchantment
Shroud
X: Put X tower counters on Helix Pinnacle.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are 100 or more tower counters on Helix Pinnacle, you win the game.
This is a win condition you might like if you’re the kind of person who likes this sort of win condition.
Nettle Sentinel
G
Creature – Elf Warrior
2/2
Nettle Sentinel doesn’t untap during your untap step.
Whenever you play a green spell, you may untap Nettle Sentinel.
My feeling is that the drawback is annoying too often for this to see play, but it’s got a chance. Better in environments where you can reasonably expect to trade off a 2/2 early.
Primalcrux
GGGGGG
Creature – Elemental
*/*
Trample
Chroma – Primalcrux’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of green mana symbols in the mana costs of permanents you control.
I’m a sucker for big beaters with trample, and Primalcrux is almost always going to be the biggest guy on the board. 6 mana and having to play monogreen is a big price tag, though.
Twinblade Slasher
G
Creature – Elf Warrior
1/1
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
1G: Twinblade Slasher gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Play this ability only once each turn.
Solid, but there are a lot of things that want you to spend mana on them right now. Still, this is a legitimate one-drop that stays combat-relevant after bigger things hit the table. I think this sees standard-level play.
Scarecrone
3
Artifact Creature – Scarecrow
1/2
1, Sacrifice a Scarecrow: Draw a card.
4, T Return target artifact creature card from your graveyard to play.
edit: I thought about saying something about Scarecrone and wasn’t going to, but apparently I left it in the list, so here goes. The second ability is quite strong. You can do a number of abusive things by recurring artifact creatures, and the price is not excessive. However, the body is pretty weak and I think that the available suite of artifact creatures just aren’t good enough to make this sing right now.
Balefire Liege
2(R / W)(R / W)(R / W)
Creature – Spirit Horror
2/4
Other red creatures you control get +1/+1.
Other white creatures you control get +1/+1.
Whenever you play a red spell, Balefire Liege deals 3 damage to target player.
Whenever you play a white spell, you gain 3 life.
Tacking a lava spike on to all of your red spells is very exciting, but 5 mana is still a lot to pay for that privilege and an underwhelming body.
Batwing Brume
1(W / B)
Instant
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn if W was spent to play Batwing Brume. Each player loses 1 life for each attacking creature he or she controls if B was spent to play Batwing Brume. (Do both if WB was spent.)
If there’s a WB deck that wants to race another deck, the Brume may find a fit in the SB.
Crag Puca
(U / R)(U / R)(U / R)
Creature – Shapeshifter
2/4
o(u/r): Switch Crag Puca’s power and toughness until end of turn.
3-mana 2/4s occasionally wind up being useful just because they have a huge ass and are generally good at fighting other things that cost 3 mana or less.
Deity of Scars
(B / G)(B / G)(B / G)(B / G)(B / G)
Creature – Spirit Avatar
7/7
Trample
Deity of Scars comes into play with two -1/-1 counters on it.
o(b/g), Remove a -1/-1 counter from Deity of Scars: Regenerate Deity of Scars.
This is one hard, hard beastie to take down, and it has evasion, and it hits hard, and it’s in an attractive color combination. I think this sees quite a bit of play in standard and block.
Duergar Hedge-Mage
2(R / W)
Creature – Dwarf Shaman
2/2
When Duergar Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Mountains, you may destroy target artifact.
When Duergar Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Plains, you may destroy target enchantment.
Acceptable as an Uktabi Orangutan or as a walking disenchant in the appropriate color, if your mana justifies it.
Evershrike
3(W / B)(W / B)
Creature – Elemental Spirit
2/2
Flying
Evershrike gets +2/+2 for each Aura attached to it.
Xo(w/b)o(w/b): Return Evershrike from your graveyard to play. You may put an Aura card with converted mana cost X or less from your hand into play attached to it. If you don’t, remove Evershrike from the game.
I really, really wanted this to be awesome, and I don’t think it is, quite. It does do a pretty good job recycling Prison Terms, though.
Figure of Destiny
(R / W)
Creature – Kithkin
1/1
o(r/w): Figure of Destiny becomes a 2/2 Kithkin Spirit.
o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w): If Figure of Destiny is a Spirit, it becomes a 4/4 Kithkin Spirit Warrior.
o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w): If Figure of Destiny is a Warrior, it becomes an 8/8 Kithkin Spirit Warrior Avatar with flying and first strike.
Plan on getting Figure to 2/2 most games, but it’s not pushy about when you pay the mana. Sometimes you’ll get it to 4/4 rapidly, and although it won’t happen particularly often there will probably be times you make it a 4/4 the turn it comes down and swing for the fences with an 8/8 the turn after. It might not be quite good enough for extended, but it’ll see standard play.
Gwyllion Hedge-Mage
2(W / B)
Creature – Hag Wizard
2/2
When Gwyllion Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Plains, you may put a 1/1 white Kithkin Soldier creature token into play.
When Gwyllion Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Swamps, you may put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
Probably is good enough to see play in mono-white decks.
Hag Hedge-Mage
2(B / G)
Creature – Hag Shaman
2/2
When Hag Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Swamps, you may have target player discard a card.
When Hag Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Forests, you may put target card in your graveyard on top of your library.
Not terrible as a plus-size Ravenous Rats.
Inside Out
1(U / R)
Instant
Switch target creature’s power and toughness until end of turn.
Draw a card.
Well, it does kill Wall of Roots and Doran, and cantrips while doing so; those are useful qualities so in the right metagame maybe somebody wants to play this guy.
Mirror Sheen
1(U / R)(U / R)
Enchantment
1o(u/r)o(u/r): Copy target instant or sorcery spell that targets you. You may choose new targets for the copy.
Insert commentary about obvious Early Harvest stuff here. I can’t say that I see another use for it right off the bat. It’s probably somewhat better than Reiterate for that function, but it’s not a blowout.
Nobilis of War
(R / W)(R / W)(R / W)(R / W)(R / W)
Creature – Spirit Avatar
3/4
Flying
Attacking creatures you control get +2/+0.
This guy was so much better as originally spoiled, with haste instead of flying. As is, I don’t think it sees much play.
Overbeing of Myth
(G / U)(G / U)(G / U)(G / U)(G / U)
Creature – Spirit Avatar
*/*
Overbeing of Myth’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.
At the beginning of your draw step, draw a card.
I want to like this guy, and I think stapling a Howling Mine to the forehead of what is likely to be a reasonably-sized creature is a great idea in principle. I worry that the mana will be difficult and I worry that there will be too many times that Overbeing isn’t big enough.
Pyrrhic Revival
3(W / B)(W / B)(W / B)
Sorcery
Each player returns each creature card in his or her graveyard to play with an additional -1/-1 counter on it.
Peebles thought that this had a chance of being a player in something like Reveillark, where you could return a full yard and just push people’s faces in with the renewed CiP effects. I think there’s something to that plan. It could also be good enough in some kind of more conventional draw/discard Reanimator strategy.
Quillspike
2(B / G)
Creature – Beast
1/1
o(b/g), Remove a -1/-1 counter from a creature you control: Quillspike gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
Obviously the combo with Devoted Druid is potent but brittle, and in a deck with Profane Command you may wind up getting a significant number of oops-I-win kills even through some resistance. I think that the combo is too fragile to be the centerpiece of a deck, but if it turns out that you’re not punting too many games otherwise because you keep drawing these goddamn Quillspikes then game on. Devoted Druid is a playable card on its own merits, so the cost of having access to the combo is low.
Rendclaw Trow
2(B / G)
Creature – Troll
2/2
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner’s control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)
Persist dudes that beat up other persist dudes are cool. Maybe not good enough, but cool.
Restless Apparition
(W / B)(W / B)(W / B)
Creature – Spirit
2/2
o(w/b)o(w/b)o(w/b): Restless Apparition gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner’s control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)
I can see this being a pretty good card in a controlling strategy, where your plan is to just kind of run it out there and block something random with it on t3 and then to use the threat of pumping it to hold off the other fellow afterwards while you do something instant-speed with your mana.
Rise of the Hobgoblins
(R / W)(R / W)
Enchantment
When Rise of the Hobgoblins comes into play, you may pay X. If you do, put X 1/1 red and white Goblin Soldier creature tokens into play.
o(r/w): Red creatures and white creatures you control gain first strike until end of turn.
Obviously this is no Decree of Justice, but we don’t have Decree of Justice right now. I think that the ability to generate a large number of creature tokens is essentially pretty good and this does so at a very reasonable price, plus gives you some first-striking mojo if that turns out to be worth anything.
Sapling of Colfenor
3(B / G)(B / G)
Legendary Creature – Treefolk Shaman
2/5
Sapling of Colfenor is indestructible.
Whenever Sapling of Colfenor attacks, reveal the top card of your library. If it’s a creature card, you gain life equal to that card’s toughness, lose life equal to its power, then put it into your hand.
This is only as good or as bad as an expensive indestructible creature is in the environment. 2/5s are mostly good at blocking things, so it would have been nice if the other ability triggered on upkeep instead of on attack, but whatever.
Spitting Image
4(G / U)(G / U)
Sorcery
Put a token into play that’s a copy of target creature.
Retrace (You may play this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)
Getting to 6 mana with this guy will make it quite difficult for the other fellow to kill you with big creatures, since you always have the option to mirror his drops and will usually have the option to continue to do so. I think this is a pretty strong card for a deck that hits 6 mana fast and doesn’t mind tapping out. That said, if you’re copying your own fatties then this is probably win-more; so it wants to be played in a situation where both players have fat.
Stillmoon Cavalier
1(W / B)(W / B)
Creature – Zombie Knight
2/1
Protection from white and from black
o(w/b): Stillmoon Cavalier gains flying until end of turn.
o(w/b): Stillmoon Cavalier gains first strike until end of turn.
o(w/b)o(w/b): Stillmoon Cavalier gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
Double protection is always nice, although it’s hard for me to get excited about the pumpknight suite of abilities anymore. Mana is more precious than it once was and creature quality is higher.
Unmake
(W / B)(W / B)(W / B)
Instant
Remove target creature from the game.
If you can swing the mana, this is clean, simple removal. It needs to fit into something that’s already a deck, though. Kithkin can probably play this quite handily.
Cascade Bluffs
Land
T Add 1 to your mana pool.
o(u/r), T Add UU, UR, or RR to your mana pool.
Fetid Heath
Land
T Add 1 to your mana pool.
o(w/b), T Add WW, WB, or BB to your mana pool.
Flooded Grove
Land
T Add 1 to your mana pool.
o(g/u), T Add GG, GU, or UU to your mana pool.
Rugged Prairie
Land
T Add 1 to your mana pool.
o(r/w), T Add RR, RW, or WW to your mana pool.
Twilight Mire
Land
T Add 1 to your mana pool.
o(b/g), T Add BB, BG, or GG to your mana pool.
All very nice lands to have in the mix. You do need to be a little careful—playing 3 colors with 12 hybrid lands is going to get you manascrewed regularly. That said, I think you’re fine with between 6 and 8 lands that make colorless by default in a typical deck.
Check out NicotineJones’ Shadowmoor constructed review here.