Today in our EDH Set Review for the upcoming Guilds of Ravnica, we're knocking out the rest of the mono-colored stuff, as well as the colorless bits. Once again, we have a lot of ground to cover, so we're cutting short the preamble.
Definitely not meant for EDH play. The kind of spellslinger decks that are likely to be able to cast 3 spells a turn, don't really want a single 3/2 flyer as the payoff.
And this, too, is basically unplayable in EDH.
Okay now this I think we can work with. Nivix Cyclops on steroids can get some work done. Eight tougness means this thing is likely to actually survive attacks, and in a Spells Matter deck, it shouldn't be hard to get the power into double digits.
The 2 damage part isn't likely to make much of a splash in the format of going big or going home, but the other option can kill everything from Sol Ring to Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. Seems good, but Red is already pretty damn good at killing mana rocks, so I'm not sure how much this guy matters outside of Goblin decks.
It's a small payoff for the spellslinger archetype, but that could be a plus. At least initially, the effect is small enough to be more annoying than threatening, meaning this can get some incremental value before anyone makes a concerted effort to get rid of it.
Might show up in some mono-Red decks, but overall, this just isn't a card that most EDH decks can get any real mileage out of.
Eh, we're used to Red getting the shaft, though. A lot of their design space tends to produce cards that are fine for single opponents with 20 life, but do not scale well when you add more opponents with higher life totals.
This seems kinda janky, but I love that they are experimenting with ways to let the non-draw colors have some card draw. This and Stolen Strategy from Battlebond are interesting designs and both are likely to see some play.
Goblin tribal fodder, I guess. Krenko, maybe?
Greater Good, meet Impervious Greatwurm. Sac, draw 16? Seems legit.
Man, what a weird design! Weird art, too.
Card itself seems pretty awful. A four-mana 6/6 is great and all, but it comes with one hell of a potential downside. But, in the same set, we have a five-mana 6/6 that's pure upside, in a color that is much less about undercosted beef. What is R&D even doing?
Compares pretty poorly to Seasons Past and All Suns' Dawn; multicolored cards only is just a bit too restrictive. I guess if you're playing a deck with a very high % of gold cards, maybe. Even then, maybe not.
Oh are we still on Gate-based ramp, WotC? Cause that was such a hit last time...
For reals, though, don't play this unless you are on 5C Maze's End.
Hey, look, Experiment Two is in the set, even though the Simic guild aren't! Neat.
Not a fantastic card for EDH, however. Probably worse than Scute Mob despite having (conditional) Trample.
Solid card draw for Green, not that it needed it all that badly. Still, good clean design, relevant to Green's biggest shtick. I like it.
Good value, but probably not the best payoff for setting up a high Undergrowth number. I might be biased, however, as the art totally icks me out.
Holy crap, what a terrible card! Woof.
Basically garbage. Only goes in 5-color decks, but those decks basically never want effects this janky. And even when they do, there are better janky things you can do.
This will get played more than it should, I suspect. It's not absolutely terrible, per se, but it's also probably not quite impactful enough even in deck that want some variation of this effect. See also, Codex Shredder - a card that is arguably better than this, but still isn't actually all that good.
Still, it's Trinket Mage-able, and cheap to use, so I expect it to be played anyway.
This cycle is, at least in two-color decks, probably a bit better than the Cluestones we got last time. But at the same time, they are still lightyears behind Signets. Certain color pairs will want these more than others.
Basically, any Locket that contains either Blue or Green as one of it's colors should see pretty close to zero play. But the ones that don't contain either of those two colors (Boros, Orzhov, Rakdos) might be alright running theirs.
Also the Lockets are basically unplayable in decks of 3 or more colors.
Decent if unexciting for decks that care a good deal about +1/+1 counters. Ghave, Anafenza, Marath, etc. Usually worse than Opal Palace, but can at least put counters on your non-Commander creatures, provided they are multicolored. Underwhelming, but you'll still be obligated to run it in those types of decks.
God, why do they keep making Rupture Spires?!
Seriously, I don't even think this is playable in Maze's End decks... though of course I'm not speaking from experience. For the five to ten of you out there still trying to win with Gates, I'm guessing you are pretty disappointed as well.
All told this was a pretty disappointing batch of cards. But we're now to the point we get to look at the multicolor stuff, which should - hopefully - provide a much better yield of playables. Guess we'll find out together in the next installment!
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