Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Mirrodin Besieged EDH Set Review: Part 2 (Blue)

 I've seen some haters on the forums calling this one "bad". Obviously, these fools have never witnessed the power of Stroke of Genius. That's essentially what this is, just with a steep Blue requirement. So yes, it's only going to be worth playing in Mono-U or probably a U/x deck with a solid mana base. But if you think your deck CAN cast this, you really should be considering it. I love playing Mind Spring, but if all my decks weren't 3-color I'd definitely run this instead.
 Another very amazing EDH card, this would easily be the best EDH card in the set, but being a creature with no built-in resistance to removal, spot or mass, this will be a HUGE target every single time it hits the board. Because of the fact that this will often die too quickly to realize its potential, I’m still inclined to rank Phyrexian Rebirth a bit higher, but this clearly has the most potential to do broken, game-winningly awesome things. It just comes down to how often this will actually realize that potential… I would certainly argue that this guy goes into EVERY Blue deck. Period.
One of the less boring Mind Control variants to come along in a while, but it still pales in comparison to Treachery and Bribery. Even Volition Reins is slightly more appealing. I don’t see this being adopted wide-spread, but in certain decks, it’s sure to find a home. Many EDH players eventually build a “steal EVERYTHING” deck, and this is one more tool for those sorts of decks. A less obvious use for this is in Rafiq decks – with a Rafiq on the board you only need to steal a 4/4 to have a one-shot kill possible. Imagine stealing and Eldrazi or something Trample-y with this. Fun!

 People are getting excited about this one, inexplicably, some even calling it a “better” Vesuvan Doppleganger… Idiots. This is much worse, even though it does have a couple perks. It can come into play on an empty battlefield and live, something most Clone variants can’t do. And it’s only three mana, which is rather cheap. However, it has to be in play a full turn before it becomes anything… this limits its usefulness in many ways. For one thing, it’s much harder to legend-rule a general with it. Even if they cast their General first, you have to pray this survives until your next turn in order to turn it into a copy of said Legend. Secondly, you can’t copy any ETBF abilities, which is a HUGE deal-breaker for me. I can’t see this being playable at all, let alone better than most of the existing Clones.
 Terrible. I liked this for its ability to play mind games with your opponent at first, but then I found out that since you Exile the tutored-for card, it is revealed in the process meaning, your opponent knows what you tutored for. This gives them much more decision-making power, and kills all the fun of this card. Sadly this still isn't the worst Concentrate in the set.
 It should be painfully obvious that this card is explicitly TERRIBLE in EDH, but if you need it broken down for you… EDH is a Singleton format, and with 100-card decks, you’ll completely miss with this most of the time, and the very rare times you DO get something out of it? It’ll be a basic land. It’s a Rampant Growth for three mana, that only works maybe 10% of the time…
I can see this guy being playable in Rafiq, because there he’ll hit for 6 (at least) and draw you two cards. That’s about the only use I see for him, though.
Trinket Mage has a big brother? Yikes. He should see plenty of play, but outside of Sharuum decks there aren’t that many 6-cmc artifacts I’d want to tutor up regularly. Wurmcoil Engine or Steel Hellkite are both great, but not worth running a whole other card just to go get them. No, sadly, this guy will probably most often be used to fetch up Mindslaver. Lame. On the upside, his presence might just make the rules committee consider banning Mindslaver.
THIS is the worst Concentrate in the set... and probably the whole game.

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