Innistrad EDH Set Review, Part 4: Red

Blood and fire! Red gets Vampires in this set. Weird, huh? It kinda makes sense, though, now that I've seen how it all turned out.

Yeah, it's a reprint, and a common at that. But it's pretty playable, and EDH players do love their two-for-ones.

The only Dragon in the set needs to be memorable. I think this one is. It almost single-handedly makes me want to reassemble Kaalia. But I think this will be pretty playable in more than just Kaalia decks. Definitely good in Mayael of the Anima and Kaarthus as well.

Sweet. Very playable if you’re needing a board-sweeper and don’t have access to Black or White. Also can do cool things with cards like Stuffy Doll, Spitemare, and especially Repercussion! Should be more or less a staple in mono-Red.

I can’t imagine many EDH decks would have enough Flashback spells to make this worth running. However, it also works with Retrace and Unearth, so a Sedris deck loading up on stuff with those three mechanics and maybe a Yawgmoth's Will? I can see it happening.

Oh good. A way to constantly recur your Time Warp spells. Joy. In all seriousness, this is probably just a tad too expensive/fragile to be as broken as it looks at first glance, but this guy can easily win you the game if he manages to stick around for long. Definitely worth a shot if your deck is loaded with Instants and Sorceries.

Interesting multiplayer applications. In a four-way FFA game, putting this on an opponent could help sway opponents into attacking the cursed opponent instead of you. Probably not as good as Edric does, but it’s something, at least.

This might be my favorite curse in the set… still not sure. But I like it. Really messes up a defensive player’s strategy and forces them to make bad attacking decisions. Then again it might annoy them into just attacking the heck out of you every turn. Reading between the lines a bit, this card also kind of says “Creatures enchanted player controls can’t block unless they have Vigilance.” Use it carefully, use it wisely, and if you do, it should win you some games.

 I really don't think this is good, per se, but I'm already considering it for a potential Nin, the Pain Artist list... we'll see. It requires you to be in Blue, though, and frankly if you're playing Blue already you have like a million better options.

Probably pretty good, but I’m really not the best person to judge Red direct damage X-spells. I find this card to be rather boring, but I expect it to be playable for those who like this sort of thing.

Eh, not the best Vampire in the set, but not the worst either. Flying and Haste are a nice pair of Keywords, though, and this guy can get pretty big pretty pretty quickly. I definitely intend to try him out in my Garza Zol vampire tribal deck, but I don’t see him making the cut in anything else.

Seems like a pretty bad card to me. It’s repeatable removal, which is good, but it looks like it could easily be a dud, unless you’re running heavy library manipulation. Definitely has some potential in a narrow sense, but for the most part it’s rather awkward.

I’m not sure how many decks are going to want this effect for six mana, but ignoring the cost for a moment, it definitely looks like a handy spell to have around for many decks. There really aren’t a lot of creatures that will survive 13 damage, so it’s pretty reliable as a removal spell. The name alone almost makes it worth playing, though.

 This seems like it could be a potentially huge bomb. Definitely a game-ender along the lines of other big-mana spells like Rite of Replication, Insurrection, etc. But it also bears some resemblance to Yawgmoth's Will. Drawing this in the very late game should pretty much be an auto-win unless someone is packing counterspells and instant-speed graveyard hate. I definitely have plans for this spell.

Whenever I see a death-trigger like this one, I can’t help but think of Kresh decks. But at six mana for a 4/2, I’m not too sure this would make the cut. It could definitely be a piece in an infinite-combo, though, if you’re into that sort of thing. I think at 5 mana, or as a 2/2 for 4 with this ability it'd be much better.

Definitely not playable outside of a Vampire tribal deck, but probably good there. I've got a spot reserved for him in Garza Zol, of course, but I can't fathom what use he'd be anywhere else.

Neat for Limited, but slinging around Shocks at the cost of a creature and a Red mana, this is terribly infective for EDH. I don't see a role for this card in the format. But look at that art! HOT!

This guy has his pimp strut going on. A fine one-drop for Vampires, possibly other highly aggressive decks. Pro-Humans is not wildly exciting, but hardly irrelevant either. Narrow playability, but fine in the right sort of decks.

Suggested alternate flavor text:
"Bitch, don't you know who the fuck I am?"