Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Mirrodin Besieged EDH Set Review: Part 2 (Green)

Ugh, I’m going to hate seeing this cast in EDH. Even when not playing an actual “artifact deck” it seems like I’m almost always the player with the most artifacts on the table. I love my Sol Rings, Signets and Swords! Still, this card already existed as Shatterstorm, and I’ve been doing just fine, so maybe this won’t be as bad as I fear. In case you want a more objective opinion – this is very playable, but somewhat subject to your metagame.

This is easily my favorite of the Zenith cycle, even if it’s probably not the “best” of the bunch. It only gets creatures, and in fact only green ones at that. So it’s a little narrower that I’d like it to be, but I’ve always been a big fan of cards like Wargate and Chord of Calling. This is comparable, if not quite in the same class. I can think of a few decks I’d be more than happy to play this in, regardless.
I’ll just be up front here – I’d rather play Harmonize. This has some potential to give you great card advantage, but realistically it will just miss or be a 1-for-1 far too often. Conceivably, a Mayael the Anima deck may consider this as an option.
When I first saw this, I misread it as being vastly better than what it actually is. That said, a 7/7 Infect guy for five mana is not something to be written off lightly. I imagine there are a few decks that would be happy to run this, one of which is, of course, Rafiq. It is yet another potential one-hit-kill there. Putrefax is probably still the better choice for that deck, but I guess if there’s room for two…
Well, it’s strictly better than Wing Snare and usually better than Plummet in any deck that cares about Poison, but too narrow to be worthwhile outside of an Infect-oriented deck.
Well, that text box sure sounds "you win the game" to me... the knocks against this come from it's ginormous mana cost, plus the fact that graveyard hate is prevelant in most decks. Getting this hosed by a Bojuka Bog or Relic of Progenitus is going to hurt BAD. Many EDH players are excited about this, but I remain skeptical, but optimistic.

 So basically, a Viridian Shaman with Infect? Sure, seems fine. If I’m running Shaman in any decks, I’ll be happy to upgrade it to this guy. The extra green shouldn’t be a problem. The problem is that I don’t think I run the Shaman in anything anymore. I usually look for things with the text “target artifact or enchantment” for versatility… I hate having a dead card in hand.
Man, they keep trying but they still haven’t made something I’d play over Sakura-Tribe Elder and Wood Elves.




















Well, that's it for Part 2. Join me for Part 3 where I will cover Tezzie and the Artifacts. Oh, and a land or two.

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