Installment number four brings us to... Red! Red often gets shafted, at least in terms of EDH-playable cards, because much of it's forte - burn, direct damage, and cheap aggressive creatures - simply doesn't scale well in a multi-player, 40 life format. But, it does seem like WotC is at least trying to throw Red a few more EDH-worthy cards here and there, so let's see what we get this time around.
Red
It's pinpoint removal for annoying or overpowered lands like Cradle or Maze of Ith, but super fair in that it replaces the land it kills with a non-threatening basic land. And it also replaces itself via the cantrip rider.
This is a near-perfect design, allowing casual tables that shun land destruction in general to have a fair way to deal with powerful utility lands.
Cowards can't block Warriors is still funny even after all this time. But remember when I said that Red's cheap aggro dudes typically don't scale well in EDH? This is a good example of that. About the only place this MIGHT be playable is in Mardu Warriors but even then I'm not certain it makes the cut - not sure how deep that particular well is.
Basically a Red, flying Omnath that, instead of wasting its stored mana when it inevitably gets removed, explodes in a big ball of fire upon its death.
Seems like an auto-include in any Big Mana Red decks like, say, either of the two Mono-Red Nehebs.
Cute design but I don't think UR Spellslinger decks would even want this. Maybe Mono-Red Spellslinger would, if that's even a thing. I guess if you wanted to make a burn deck work in EDH this is potentially one tool you could use to keep the gas flowing, but it's not strictly card advantage, so you'd need more than just this.
I am curious, however, to see if this has any play in a (somewhat) more casual build of Rielle the Everwise. I could ALMOST see this being good in such a deck. Maybe I'll have to try that out, if I get around to building Rielle.
YES.
Also yes. Every Gruul or Jund Lands-Matter deck out there is going to run this. It's especially bonkers in Korvold, which is already a stupid good deck without it. I feel like this is one of those cards that is just too good, but somehow not quite ban-worthy.
Moraug, above, is probably the most broadly powerful Red card in the set, but THIS is the card I'm most hyped about - I mean, it's a card draw spell in Mono-Red that isn't a Wheel!
Sign me right the fuck up.
Cards this wacky are hard to evaluate, because someone very clever will likely find a use for it, but for the vast majority of us, I think we just look at it, say "neat" and then binder it for good.
Meh. Another narrow card that hoses a particular thing that you may or may not see in any given EDH game. But at least it does still do the ping even if the other stuff is largely irrelevant.
Alas, I just do not see this effect being consequential enough to find much purchase in the EDH format. Too small and too slow to really impact most games.
Oh man, I was really loving this card until I got to the last part. I guess a 4/3 with Trample and Haste with absolutely no downside at all would be a bit too good in some 60-card formats, but in EDH it just barely be playable, but I'd 100% for sure have jammed it in Stonebrow.
A 5/4 with Trample and Haste for 5 is just not as exciting. That said, it probably still has a home in Hallar just for the sake of being a non-terrible Red card with Kicker - something that deck will always be happy to see.
Ah, the big splashy mythic with a land on the back side. So far we haven't been too jazzed about these (well, I loved the Blue one even thought I know it's wrong to).
This one... it's fine. I don't hate it. I can see myself playing it, somewhere. I'm just not sure where. Again, Big Mana Red seems the obvious choice, but I'm wondering if it has any other homes besides various Neheb decks.
This is a weird, interesting take on the classic Wheel effect. Firstly, the whole modal DFC thing, but I guess that's not THAT weird. But the fact that you don't just throw away your whole hand, but get to choose what to keep and what to jettison is a very welcome twist. Then, there's also the fact that instead of discarding them you put them on bottom of your library.
For some decks that actually makes this card a little worse - my Feldon deck would LOVE this if you discarded those cardss instead. As would Rielle decks.
Still, this is a FANTASTIC card-selection spell for Red decks that aren't heavily graveyard-reliant. Very cool design!
Another Valakut-themed card and another kinda weird, unique design. So the whole "exile the top card, you can play it this turn" thing is not new to Red, but we're used to seeing these effects leave those cards in Exile forever if you don't cast them right away. This lets you get some value (damage) out of the cards you can't or don't want to cast. Then they end up in your graveyard for potential reuse later, rather than languishing in Exile for the rest of the game.
Also, the landfall ability says "play" not "cast" so if you hit a land and you have any Exploration effects that let you play multiple lands, you can just play the land you exiled and get another shot at something with more juice.
No idea where I play this, but I like it a lot and will definitely try to find some kind of use for it.
I'm not sure if this is good anywhere, but it is absolutely atrocious in EDH. Straight up garbage.
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