Dragon's Maze EDH Set Review, Part 2: Ally Color Guilds

Okay, we've got 5 guilds to cover in this segment, so it's going to be a lengthy post. After much deliberation (about 10 minutes worth), I decided to just "rip the bandage off" as it were, and wrap this up in three more posts. This one concerns the 5 "freindly colored" guilds, you know, White/Blue, Blue/Black, etc. The next part will be enemy colored guilds, like the Orzhov and whatnot. The final post will cover the Guild Champions - the 10-card cycle of Legends for each guild, and the sets very minor Artifact and Land offerings.

So, since we've got a lot of ground to cover, I'll forego further preamble and begin.



Azorius

..."naming Sphinx's Revelation."

This is virtually a vanilla 2/4 in EDH, which of course makes it terrible in our format of choice. Trade these to Standard players.

Not a bad counterspell for EDH, especially against Maelstrom Wanderer. GAAIV players will like it.

Seems good in Limited but pretty bad in EDH.

This has some interesting multiplayer applications, because it bounces any creature that deals any kind of damage, to any recipient. If you can maneuver your opponents into a massive red zone brawl against each other, you can really blow them out with this.

That said, 99% of the time I'd rather just have Aetherize, Evacuation, or even just a Wrath of God.

Yay, another boring Hexproof guy. Friggin' sweet art, though! Gorgeous!

Way to weak for EDH.






















Dimir

In EDH, this is basically the most expensive Mind Twist ever. You're better off just running that, or one it's many variants that are all more mana efficient than this.

Now this is going to see some play. Pretty much every deck in the format has to build in ways to draw extra cards, or risk falling behind after a sweeper or two. A great way to capitalize on opponents' Phyrexian Arenas, Rhystic Studies, or Consecrated Sphinxes.

Just be warned, though: An opposing Consecrated Sphinx can force you to deck yourself and kill you on the spot, if you don't have mana open and some Instant-speed removal handy. Be very careful with this guy, if you think a Sphinx might appear!

Junk.

More junk.

Playable, but there are better removal options in U/B.

Better than the W/U one, but still not very good. Again, U/B has tons of good removal options.





















Rakdos

Complete and utter troll card. If you play this, you are a troll. Period.

Now, this on the other hand, is a legitamate griefer card. I don't like it, and I'm going to hate playing against it, but I have to admit it's a solidly on-point addition to any Griefer deck in these colors.

This is a griefer card too, but I'm not sure it's quite good enough to make the cut in most decks.

If this could hit a player, it'd be great, but as-is, it's just terrible. I keep hoping to see some cute trick with it, involving Stuffy Doll or Boros Reckoner to turn a Wrath into a one-shot kill, but that's probably too cute to be feasible.

LOLWUT

Fairly playable in greifer/punisher decks. Also pretty playable in ANY deck that just wants to punish a notorius Consecrated Sphinx abuser.



















Gruul

While I might wish that this had Trample, Double Strike is a fine ability and I'll happily play this in my Stonebrow deck.

As a Mythic, I don't really see why the grow ability needs the sorcery speed restriction. I don't think it would have been overpowered without it.

Either way, it's solidly playable.

I've tried playing with Heartbeat of Spring/Mana Flare enough to know that this is a trap card. Being a creature instead of an Enchantment actually makes it even worse. You'll play this, hoping it tables, but inevitably one player will just make a ton of mana, play a bunch of bombs, and then end his turn by killing this guy, meaning you spent 5 mana, a card and a turn fueling someone else's huge turn.

That said, it's a lock for group hug decks in these colors.

I can't tell if this is a terrible Overrun or a mediocre Overrun... what I can tell you is, I'd rather be playing Overwhelming Stampede.

I would rather play Flametongue Kavu and/or Spitebellows over this, even without the "at random" rider. With the rider, it's nerfed so far into unplayability, it's almost sad.

This is a really random and janky reprint. I can appreciate it's synergy with Bloodrush, on paper at least, but it's still janky.

Not the most compelling or powerful of cards, but don't underestimate Double Strike.

I normally hate mana dorks in EDH, because they just add more value to your opponents' sweepers by also adding some mana denail to their spells. They're the epitome of "high risk/low reward" in EDH.

I'm not sure the added-value damage this guy does is quite enough to upgrade the "reward" status enough to balance out the risk, but I like it on paper enough to try this guy in my Stonebrow deck. He should easily do 6 or more cumulative damage before eating a Damnation.











Selesnya

This is one of the high-value cards of the set, second only to Ral Zarek at the moment. Whether the hype will live on or die down is anyone's guess, but for now this is my EDH assessment: We'd all love to have one in our Rhys or Ghave decks, but badly enough to pay 20 bucks? I'm leaning towards "not so much". If it drops to a more reasonable $10 or so, then picking one up for a dedicated token deck is more doable.

As exciting and powerful as this card looks to be in 60-card formats, I can't see it being all that compelling in EDH. a 5/5 Trampler isn't the most useless thing in the format, but it still has a decent chance of just sitting around doing nothing. It's a very awesome card, just not for our format of choice.

 Junk.

Oh look, almost Armadillo Cloak. The significant difference between this and the orginal Cloak (aside from AC's way more awesome flavor text) is that you could always put Dillo on an opponent's guy to effectively neuter it as an attacker. You can't do this with Unflinching Courage.

Still, this is a neat sort-of reprint, because it basically allows us to play TWO Armadillo Cloaks in our Enchantress decks!

Now, this is a token-maker I can appreciate. It's 10 power for 4 mana, spread across 4 creatures, which makes it hard to answer 1-for-1. Also, it looks like it'd play well with Rhys and Trostani, and it's BFFs with Deadeye Navigator or Conjurer's Closet.

Weaksauce, even in a token deck.






















Well, that wraps up our look at the 5 allied-color guilds. Next, we soldier on with the enemy-color guilds.

Enjoy!