Oh, the Humanity! Humans in Standard.

Let me preface this by saying this article is not intended or expected to produce a competitive Standard deck. I haven’t played Standard since Rafiq of the Many and the rest of the Bant Shard rotated out. But I don’t like to turn my back on 60-card Magic for too long, as I don’t want to let my 60-card deckbuilding skills atrophy too much. So at worst, this article might produce a deck that’s fun to play in the Casual room on MTGO or maybe, just MAYBE, good enough to make Top 8 at some local FNMs, but it’s not meant to be a serious deck.

Human is actually an extremely common creature type, but has never been officially supported as a true “Tribe” in that there were no cards that specifically referenced them in their ability text. No “Lord” creatures existed, nor other beneficial abilities to push players into playing Humans. Innistrad has changed all that, and quite drastically. There are plenty of Humans in Innistrad, of course, but plenty of cards with abilities that push you into playing Humans as a legitimate tribe. Some are great (Champion of the Parish) and some are not so great (Dearly Departed).

Right now, I imagine the optimal Human deck to be Green/White, though mono-White certainly is well supported enough to be viable… however we’d be cutting off two really strong “Lords” in the form of Mayor of Avabruck and Hamlet Captain. Hamlet Captain is one of the principle reasons I’m even interested in building this deck, so I am not willing to lose Green… besides that, a Mono-White Human deck would be very much like a typical White Weenie deck, which is somewhat less exciting, as I’ve visited that archetype quite often over the years.

Let’s take a look at which Humans are available to us in Standard, at least those that are the most playable. I’ll run these down by mana-cost, starting with one drops.

One Mana

Champion of the Parish – Easily the best one-drop we have access to, this should be an automatic 4x in any Human deck.

Elite Vanguard – Another fantastic, highly aggressive Human for a single W. Also a likely 4x.

Gideon’s Lawkeeper – Not as aggressive, but could be a good side-board option.

Avacyn’s Pilgrim – It might seem a bit odd to include a “mana elf” in a deck with such a low curve, but I think this should also be a 4x.

Two Mana                         

Accorder Paladin – Seems ideal here, as a very aggressive two-drop that also pumps the rest of your guys. Highly playable.

Elite Inquisitor – More of a sideboard card, if anything, but a 2/2 First Striker with Vigilance is still playable.

Grand Abolisher – Not quite aggro enough for the main deck, but a very valuable sideboard option.

Puresteel Paladin – Fantastic in the right deck, but I doubt he’ll have adequate support in this particular deck.

Hamlet Captain – Definitely a 4x, as it’s one of the main reasons I wanted to build this deck.

Mayor of Avabruck – Your other humans get +1/+1… seems like something we might want. It does kinda suck if he flips, but you should have little trouble dropping two guys in one turn to flip him back.

Skinshifter – This guy is tough, as I can’t figure out if I want 4x of him, or zero copies. Seems pretty solid.

Three Mana

Fiend Hunter – Tough call. It seems possible to maindeck this guy, but as a 1/3 for 3 he’d be the least aggro creature in the deck, probably. I’d say 4x sideboard, or a 2x main deck.

Gideon’s Avenger – I’m a big fan of this guy, but if you’re not running other tap effects (such as Gideon’s Lawkeeper) I’m not sure he’s worth it.

Mentor of the Meek – A must-have for this deck, as we’ll likely be dumping our hand quickly, and need to keep our grip full to apply pressure.

Mirran Crusader – Best with some Equipment such as Sword of War and Peace or whatever, but probably still great on his own.

Elder of Laurels – Might be a 2x in a more casual, slow version of the deck. Too expensive for my build, though.

Four Mana

Hero of Bladehold – There’s only one creature powerful enough to be worthwhile above three mana, and this is it. I would love to have 2x of these in the deck, if we can fit them. Note that if we do have Hero, Avacyn’s Pilgrim definitely starts to look necessary.

Variable Cost

Mikaeus, the Lunarch – Probably too slow and costly for a truly aggro deck, but a fine casual card nonetheless.

That pretty much sums up the best of what Humanity has to offer us, for now at least. There are a lot of options here, and there’s no way we can fit all of these cards into a single 60 card deck. But that’s okay, because it gives us room for variance and customization. You should be able to tune the list to suit your playgroup’s power level, and your own personal play preferences. If Elder of Laurels and Mikaeus the Lunarch excite you the most, you can easily play a slower more deliberate version of this deck. Throw in the Lawkeepers and Fiend Hunters to control the board while you build up to critical mass.

Or, you can just see how far you can push the aggro side, and make the deck as fast as possible.

Here’s my starting list:

4x Champion of the Parish

4x Elite Vanguard

3x Avacyn’s Pilgrim

4x Accorder Paladin

4x Hamlet Captain

3x Mayor of Avabruck

2x Skinshifter

3x Mirran Crusader

2x Mentor of the Meek

2x Hero of the Bladehold

3x Beast Within

4x Mutagenic Growth

4x Razorgrass Prairie

4x Sunpetal Grove

4x Forest

10x Plains

For the non-Creature spells, I chose the most generically useful spells I could find, as I have no idea what opposition this deck might encounter. Mutagenic Growth is basically the best Giant Growth variant in Standard right now, and Beast Within is a pretty universal answer to any problematic Creature, Planeswalker or other permanent type.

A suggested sideboard might include:

4x Fiend Hunter

4x Elite Inquisitor

4x Grand Abolisher

3x Celestial Purge

Or something like that. I dunno. Another really compelling option is to run Triumph of the Hordes. It’s an Infect card, yes, so it kinda seems out of place with zero Infect creatures, but I think it might be worth it for the surprise factor. It can really screw up combat math for an opponent, who is expecting you to attack their life total, not poison them out. It can just end a game out of nowhere just as your opponent is starting to stabilize and looks to be clogging up the ground for your attackers. You pretty much have to kill them in one attack if you do cast it, otherwise you basically just skipped that turn, but that’s the appeal of Triumph: that card usually does end the game upon resolution.

Enjoy!

Art Critic's Corner: Innistrad Basics

Welcome to a new feature I'm trying out for the blog. I have a background in art, having studied fine art and commercial art/graphic design for some years. I'm the sort of guy who finds documentaries about fonts utterly fascinating, and usually has at least 1 card in each of my EDH decks that I know shouldn't be there, but I'm playing because I like the art too much.

So it seems only natural that I should combine my love of art with my love of Magic - especially since art plays such a huge, important role in making the game stand out and capture people's attention.

The art in Innistrad, overall, is phenomenal. They really went all-out to capture the mood of 'dark gothic horror' and I'd say the succeeded quite well overall. Of course I'm a huge sucker for all things dark and gothic, so I will readily admit my tastes are heavily biased in favor of this set's theme... but that doesn't mean I don't look at the art objectively. There are plenty of cards in Innistrad whose illustrations don't really thrill me much. But far more of the cards do boast some exceptional work.

For this first article, I want to narrow it down a bit, though. Reviewing a whole set, especially one as fantastic as Innistrad, might be tedious. So, I think I'll just do the Basic Lands of the set. I've already posted about why I think it's important to choose Basic Lands that have an aesthetic that matches the rest of your deck. Basic Lands are the one thing in Magic where you know which specific card you want but have dozens and dozens of options where artwork is concerned.

With that in mind, it seems logical to begin this little experiment by critiquing the Basic Lands of Innistrad. NOTE: I am posting the pictures of each land here, but I'm basic my critiques off the actual physical cards which I have right in front of me as I write. This is because computer monitors are pretty inconsistent in how the display colors, but the actual cards will not vary in this way.

First up, we have the Plains.

Good, subtle use of color here. The sky has just a hint of purple to contrast with the hint of green in the land below. The dark clouds in the sky are rather oppressive and ominous - which works for the mood and theme of the set. Just a hair too much green, though. This clearly isn't a forest, but it also doesn't make me think "white mana" right off the bat.

This artist went for a similar execution as the one above. Greenery below contrasts with hints of pink and purple in the sky above, with dark clouds above suffocating everything beneath. This pieces winds up a bit more colorful than the previous one, though, with more color in the sky, and the little touch of rust/orange in the bottom right corner... this illustration also effectively conveys the right mood, while still evoking a sense of white mana.

I'm a huge Jung Park fan, and was following his work before he started illustrating for Magic. However, this isn't his strongest work. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, it's the weakest of the three Plains arts. But Jung did do some things right here. First of all, does this look like a Plains in the sense that it could be a source of white mana? Yes, to me it does. I also think that this piece utilizes a better prospective than the other two. In the first two, the horizon line is much closer to the bottom of the frame, lending to an elevated perspective, while Jung's piece puts the POV right on the ground, with the horizon much higher. This makes it feel like the veiwpoint of a person standing there on the ground.






Ultimately, I have to give Adam props for the most aesthetically pleasing illustration, though it comes up short in evoking a "white mana" feeling. Jung Park's illustration is the least aesthetically pleasing, but he employs a stronger grasp of perspective, recognizing the importance of POV in this set. Finally, Eytan Zana probably does the best at hitting both points - selling the concept of "Plains" and "white mana" while still making a visually arresting piece through bold use of color.

Next, we've got Islands.

 James Paick is another illustrator I happen to be a big fan of. However, this illustration isn't my favorite work of his. It looks great on-screen, but the printed card is much darker and you loose a lot of that great detail at the bottom of the canyon. Also the rocks on the right side look almost completely black on the printed card, so that the illustration just looks like it's about 65% solid black with no detail. I wish the printed piece looked more like the digital version, but even if it did, this wouldn't be my favorite Island.

 I really dig this one in concept. The battered ship cresting a big wave is just cool as hell. The water and the rocks in the foreground are neat, and a good way to give the art some texture. However, I think Adam Paquette's brush strokes are just a hair too smooth, giving the piece an almost airbrushed look. It reminds me of those tacky paintings people do on black velvet. Despite this flaw I'm still a fan of this Island, and I'm currently using it as the basic of choice in my Garza Zol vampire deck.

After a miss with his Plains artwork, it's nice to see Jung hit a home-run here. I love this illustration. The green/orange contrast to the foliage is superb, and the ghostly hint of a city in the far background adds an element to help capture the mind's eye and draw you into the piece. This is another one where the printed card is a tad too dark, but you at least get some of the color and detail on this one. Definitely my favorite of the three.










All three Islands boast good artwork, but that first one just came out way too dark. I think I can find other Islands that are similar but more visually interesting. Adam's piece has a great hook in the form of the tossed-about ship, but I think he should have worked in some stormy weather and lightining, in place of the big grey cliffs in the background. The foreground is great, while the background is just boring. Jung Park wins this time, with an aesthetic piece where the background is just as interesting as the foreground.

Swamps are next.

First up, Adam Paquette turns in a solid piece. Great use of color and texture make this one his strongest illustration so far. It has that up close and personal feel that was lacking in his Plains illustration, and he utilizes the background as well as the foreground, avoiding the primary flaw in his otherwise great Island piece. This illustration reminds me of Scooby Doo, for some reason, and I'm not convinced that's a bad thing!

 If I have to pick a weakest among the swamps, this one is it, but that's not to say it's a bad piece. The concept nails the mood dead-on, and this is on creepy fucking swamp! My only real complaints are that the horizon line should have been a bit higher to give some more attention to the land, because the sky dominates this piece, while being the least interesting part of it. And the other complaint is that the color values are too monochromatic. James should have used just a tad more color to break up the monotone sky.

And the winner again is Jung Park. This illustration is great. One thing you'll notice if I do this type of column often, is that I tend to dislike monochromatic pieces. Even where it makes sense, I just rarely find monochromatic art interesting or appealing. This piece stands out, to me, though precisely because it manages to be a monochromatic (mostly) illustration, while still being visually arresting and aesthetically pleasing. Partly because it's a graveyard, giving the artist room to add details via the headstones, and partly because the artist utilized a very important technique by including that one little tattered red banner on the right. That one little splash of color both gives the piece a way to break up the monotone greys and blacks, and gives it a way to catch the eye, and hold it.





Adam consistently comes in second with another solid illustration, while Jung shows his grasp of using color and detail to compensate for a lack of broad color palette. Once again, though, James Paick sees another well-executed piece hampered by too-dark printing, and his reluctance to use color value to his advantage.

Now for some Mountain action.

 Finally, a James Paick piece that I love. Frankly, this illustration possesses the same flaws I complained of in his Island and Swamp contributions, but the concept here is unmistakably that of the creepy mountain pass leading up to Dracula's castle (or Oliva's I guess in this case?). The hint of sun breaking through the clouds in the top left gives the piece some much-needed contrast. The printed card still comes out too dark, but the reds in the sky alleviate this problem somewhat. More than anything, though, what's important is that when I look at this peice, I so badly want to follow that mountain road to find out where it goes! Very cool.

I'm starting to see a trend in Adam's work. He likes to put in some man-made element, or some other central feature that doesn't quite belong (like the ship on his Island, or the little boat on his Swamp). It's an effective technique, but like all techniques, it becomes less effective if you rely too heavily on it. Still, Adam hasn't hit that point yet, cause I dig this Mountain art. The blue/red contrast is very effective too. I like this one quite a lot.

There are very, very few Mountain illustrations that I would consider "gorgeous" or "beautiful" but this one deserves both adjectives. From the sky to the flowery field below, this piece is just gorgeous. Even the big rock has it's own appeal. But, the question must be posed: Does a big rock count as a "Mountain"? I don't know but if I were a planeswalker needing to lob a fireball at an enemy, this wouldn't be the first place I'd imagine to draw red mana from. I like to see artists thinking outside the box a bit, but this just doesn't evoke the right feeling to me. It is really pretty, though, so I can definitely see using this one anyway.







It's kind of a toss-up here, as to which I like best. James' is the best concept and evokes the mood the best, but Adam's and Eytan's are both more aesthetically pleasing. All three are quite good in their own rights, which is weird to me, because Mountains are usually the ugliest of the bunch in most sets.

Wrapping up with Forests...

 With the first two Plains we looked at, I appreciated the green/purple contrast utilized in those illustrations. Here, though, it might be a bit too much. Especially since the printed piece looks slightly more pinkish. Finally, James Paick decides to utilize some color, and he winds up overdoing it! Still, it's not bad - it does have that spooky, foggy look to it that fits the set well. This is my least favorite of the Forests but I definitely don't hate it.

Another superb illustration mired by the printed version being too dark to make out the details. I never would have know there was a little rowboat by the creek if it weren't more clearly shown in the digital version. But with the dark tone and the splash of blue in the creek, this is still a great peice, and I definitely think it would fit perfectly into a Blue/Black/Green deck, capturing elements of all three.

Fabulously done. Defintely my favorite Forest, possibly my favorite basic in the set. The fall-colored leaves, with the green grass, and the twisted, gnarled old tree. Perfect concept, perfect execution. When an illustration makes you want this badly to actually BE there, you know the artist has succeeded.












Well, this wraps up my latest attempt at being an art snob. Hopefully this wasn't too disappointing of a distraction from EDH decklists!

Grocery List

UPDATE: I managed to get just about everything on my list - only Liliana remains. I will have to trade for one, or sell a couple of my high-value rares. As for the Nin deck, it's not coming together the way I'd hoped. I'm thinking of scrapping that and going Red/Black instead... not sure yet.


Well, it's Friday. September 30th. The day Innsitrad becomes available for purchase. Sweet!

I have used my limited Excel skills to compile a list of all of the Innistrad cards I want for the decks I currently have together, as well as a Nin, the Pain Artist deck that will be my next project.

This has given me a list of the cards that I need to buy in order to have everything I need for all my decks, so that I don't wind up buying a bunch of stuff that I think is really cool, but then don't have a deck to put it in. I definitely want couple of Bloodgift Demons and a Balefire Dragon or two... at some point down the road. But for now, I don't have a deck to put either of them in, so I would like to prioritize purchases that will go into decks immediately, or those cards that are needed in order for me to build the Nin deck I'm working on.

If I'm just going to stick it into my binder for future use, I can just wait and buy it later. Here is the list of what I need immediately:

Geist of Saint Traft

Grimoire of the Dead

* Liliana of the Veil *

Olivia Voldaren

Past in Flames

Blaspehmous Act x2

Bloodline Keeper

Cackling Counterpart x3

Charmbreaker Devils

Clifftop Retreat

Curse of Stalked Prey

Evil Twin x2

Falkenrath Marauders

Hinterland Harbor

Isolated Chapel

Mentor of the Meek x2

Nephalia Drownyard

Parallel Lives

Runechanter's Pike

Skrisdag High Priest

Snapcaster Mage x2

Stensia Bloodhall

Stromkirk Noble

Sturmgeist

Sulfur Falls x2

Undead Alchemist

Woodland Cemetery

Trepanation Blade

Desperate Ravings

Falkenrath Noble

Intangible Virtue

Make a Wish

Rakish Heir

Runic Repetition

This will satisfy all of my needs for currently-built decks, plus the Nin deck that will be built over the course of this weekend. Hopefully tonight, but we'll see.

I  am a bit dismayed to see a Liliana and TWO Snapcaster Mages on the list, as those are two of the most expensive cards in the set.

On the flip side, I'm relieved that MOST of the other stuff I want is pretty cheap, even Olvia Voldaren isn't all that high anymore. And I don't need quite as many of the new dual lands as I feared, so they shouldn't be too problematic to acquire.

I'm  buying a box and a fat pack, in hopes that I can open the high-end stuff and maybe a cool foil that I can trade. I also have two Vendilion Cliques for trade, which I forgot to bring to work with me... so I'll have to wait to trade those later. Oh well. I guess if I fail to open a Liliana, I can wait a bit, and trade or sell my Cliques to help me acquire one later.

 Hello, all. I'm providing this post as a convenient way to access all 7 parts of my Innistrad EDH Set Review.

• Part 1: White
• Part 2: Blue
• Part 3: Black
• Part 4: Red
• Part 5: Green
• Part 6: Other
• Part 7: Double-faced Cards

Please leave comments if I missed a card, f you think I assessed a card wrongly, or if you just have some cool use for a card in the set.

Enjoy!

Innistrad EDH Set Review, Part 7: Double-Faced Cards

I've made it known that I'm not a fan of the new double-faced cards. It's not that they don't have the traditional Magic back. No, if they'd just redesigned the back of the card or altered it in any way, I'd be severly pissed. But that's not my issue.

It's the physical logistics of playing with such cards that turns me off. I play with sleeves - ALWAYS. Even my draft decks and sealed decks get sleeves. Playing DFC's with sleeves seems like a huge pain in the ass. If you use the actual DFC in a sleeve, if and when you "transform" it, you have to physically remove the card from the sleeve, flip it over, and re-sleeve it. This will increase wear and tear on the card AND the sleeve.

My buddy Chad has the best solution I've heard so far: He bought some clear dragonshield sleeves. He'll use the proxy checklist card provided in the Innistrad boosters to represent the DFC in his deck, but he'll have the DFC sleeved in a clear-backed sleeve so that when he plays the checklist he can just set the DFC on top of it, and then if he meets the transform conditions, he just flips the card over. That way he doesn't have to de-sleeve and re-sleeve constantly.

It's a pretty good workaround and  I hope it works well enough for him to enjoy playing Werewolves - he's been waiting a long time for WotC to make Werewolves a viable tribe, so I hope the tribe winds up being fun for him.

The transform mechanic just doesn't seem fun to me. Some of the cards are cool, but flipping them over is just not appealing to me. That said, there are a few cards I'm willing to put a little effort into accepting the DFC mechanic in order to play.

Let's just go down the list, shall we?

Cloistered Youth/Unholy Fiend
     This one is pretty cool, flavor-wise. It's the old innocent-looking-girl-is-really-something-evil trope, and this captures the flavor well. I definitely don't see this being even remotely playable in EDH.

Thraben Sentry/Thraben Militia
     A 5/4 Trample wouldn't be too terrible in the format, but starting as a 2/2 for 4, it hardly seems worth getting excited over. You might play this if you're running a Soldier tribal deck, but then again you might not.

Civilized Scholar/Homicidal Brute
     The classic Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde trope. Another card where they captured the flavor wonderfully, but made the card nigh-unplayable in the process.

Delver of Secrets/Insectile Abberation
    What were they going for here? The Fly? Or is it meant to be a Franz Kafka-esque Metamorphosis reference? Anyway, a 3/2 Flyer for one blue is cool, but in EDH, this won't have any board impact past, say, turn three or so.

Ludevic's Test Subject/Ludevic's Abomination
     Well, I can hardly stand here and tell you that a 13/13 with Trample "lacks board presence" without losing all credibility. I definitely think this is playable, but I dislike it for the same reason I dislike the Level Up mechanic in EDH - you sink way too much mana into leveling up your guy only to wind up with nothing when someone finally Wraths or Paths your dude when you're one level away from something awesome happening.
This is much the same. Clever players will wait until you've spent 8 to 10 mana on this, then kill it in response to your last hatchling counter.

Bloodline Keeper/Lord of Lineage
    I will play this. I don't care how much of a pain the Transform cards wind up being. This Vampire is friggin' insane. Damn good card. Should be playable in just about any vampire-themed deck, or even in some mono-black decks that just happen to have a few Vampires. This guy brings his own army of vamps with him, so you don't need that many more for him to be potentially good.

Screeching Bat/Stalking Vampire
    Simple, elegant design - gets a five-star review on that aspect. Playability is next to nothing. Great in Limited, probably terrible anywhere else.

Hanweir Watchkeep/Bane of Hanweir
     Junk.

Inquisitor Gang/Wildblood Pack
    This one is actually pretty good. It's not parasitic to the werewolf tribe, as it pumps all attacking creatures. I can see it being playable. It's not good enough or exciting enough to get me to play it, but I do think it's playable.

Kruin Outlaw/Terror of Kruin Pass
    If this card weren't a parastic tribal card, I probably would play it. I like giving all my dudes Doublestrike. I don't see too many decks having enough werewolves to make this good, at least not until the third set comes out.

Reckless Waif/Merciless Predator
    Boring.

Tormented Pariah/Rampaging Werewolf
     Lame.

Village Ironsmith/Ironfang
     Weak.

Daybreak Ranger/Nightfall Predator
    That single red mana on the night side of the card severly limits the number of decks this could go in. The fact that it's mediocre also severly hampers its playability.

Garruk Relentless/Garruk, the Veil-Cursed
     This is a pretty powerful planeswalker, and I would definitely consider it highly playable overall. It's not so good, though, that there's any specific deck that I would say "you NEED this card" for, but if you just happen to open one in a pack, you would likely be happy to fit this into a deck somewhere.

Grizzled Outcasts/Krallenhorde Wantons
     Poop.

Mayor of Avabruck/Howlpack Alpha
     Human lord side is great. I'd love it if it was just that side. I'm less intrested in the Werewolf side, but that's mainly because most of the werewolves suck. Maybe, just maybe, by the end of the block there will be a place for this guy. Not yet.

Uvenwald Mystics/Uvenwald Primordials
     5/5 with W: Regenerate is not terrible. Not exciting either, but not strictly crap.

Innistrad EDH Set Review, Part 6: Other Stuff

This part will cover Multicolor cards, Artifact cards and finally Lands. One more section after this will cover the Double-faced cards.

Multicolor Cards

 Such an awesome card, very flavorful, highly amusing. It’s also quite good. It can be just a regular old Clone if you need it to be, but cloning an opponent’s guy and then offing the original is a nice bonus ability. Definitely going into Wrexial, but I can easily see this being squeezed into almost any UB deck. It’s not going to replace Phyrexian Metamorph for sheer versatility, but it’s ten times more exciting because of the awesome flavor. Just one question: Where’s the evil twin’s goatee?

This guy is good. Really good. I think he could easily helm a Blue/White control strategy without being just a Grand Arbiter Agustin deck with the wrong General. I also kinda want to put him in Rafiq, just cause. Finest Hour + This guy seems like a fun combo. Traft is almost definitely the strongest potential General in the set, though probably not the most fun.

Interesting. This guy is a puzzle, in that he requires solving to be worthwhile. You can’t just throw him into any old deck. I have little interest in him as a General, but he might be cool in a Thraximundar deck, just so long as you have enough token-producers or some other way to enable this guy. I would not have expected the Zombie Legend to be the Johnny-est of the batch, but this guy is definitely made for puzzle-solvers. I'm definitely a fan of this guy - I just don't know if I'll be able to make effective use of him.

Likely to be a fairly popular commander, Olivia is one of the highlights of the set for me, though I like her better as one of my 99 in Garza. I just think that almost any deck Olivia could enable, would be made even better simply by adding Blue. Regardless, she’s highly playable either way. She's not likely to be nearly as strong as Geist of Saint Traft, mostly because W/U is just an overall better combination than B/R... but somehow I think more people will be more excited and interested by Olivia than the musty old ghost.











Artifact Cards

Such an odd, interesting design, and it does something we've never seen before - "milling" a library from the bottom rather than the top. Weird. I don't have much to say - it's not likely to see much play, but it's quirky and unique enough that someone is bound to find a use for it.

 Kinda disappointing. This was one of the earliest illustrations from the set to be shown, and I really was intrigued by the artwork. Oddly, the card does make a lot of sense. The moment I read it, I was immediately surprised that I hadn't actually predicted the card would do just this... it seems so obvious in retrospect. But there are very few cards in Magic that say "flip a coin", and don't immediately lose my interest. This isn't one of those rare exceptions... my interest has withered.

Slow-rolling graveyard hate seems to be a theme here. Makes sense, of course - something like Relic of Progenitus or Bojuka Bog in a set that was all about the graveyard would just be stupid. Some EDH players need to be hit on the head with a shovel until they learn the importance of graveyard hate in the format. Personally, I hope they never catch on - I like reanimating things.

Speaking of reanimating things...

It’s kind of ironic that this mythic Artifact is cooler, more interesting, and arguably BETTER than most of the mythic Artifacts we saw in the block about artifacts. Given the “tap, put counters on it, do stuff” design I have to wonder if this wasn’t originally designed for Scars block, but shipped to Innistrad due to the flavor fitting better with this block. Anyway, something that does Liliana Vess’s ultimate is bound to make EDH players take notice and it’s virtually guaranteed that people will try to make this work. If they do, it’s clearly going to be a game winner. The only question is: Can we make this work?

Well, huh... this is definitely worse than giving your general Doublestrike. But, some decks excel at marching their generals through the red-zone unimpeded by blockers. Rafiq and Thraximundar come to mind.

This is actually quite interesting, though, in Rafiq - the Flail's effect STACKS with Doublestrike... So, I can definitely see this being a role-player in dedicated general-damage decks. It obviously has some potential drawbacks, though.

Clever design! Not particularly exciting as an EDH card, though. Could see very limited play in some of the wonkier Sharuum decks, and could be a metagame choice for players who feel their meta is just oversaturated with Wrath effects. Mostly, I think this will be an uber-casual card, fine for players with smaller card pools and a low-powered metagame. If you and your friends are just breaking into the format and have a limited pool of rares, this one isn't strictly bad...

An unusual card like this is kinda hard to evaluate. It should be pretty good in nearly-creatureless decks, where you might be able to one-shot people by sticking this on your General… I'm thinking a Red/Blue deck with a strong Instant/Sorcery theme. Maybe Nin, the Pain Artist... this could be a nasty little tool in the right deck.

Definitely want to try this out in Wrexial. I can see this being frustrating for an opponent to play against. It’s pretty hard to control or predict the effect, but it should always shave at least one swing, probably two, off of Wrexial’s general-damage clock, while also filling up their ‘yard with goodies for Wrexial to pilfer. Nicely done! I don’t see it being much use outside that deck, though. I'm guessing Ken Nagle just wanted a new toy for his Wrexial deck...

The whole Curse-destroying thing is basically “added-value”: an incidental effect tacked on to the real effect, which is giving you hexproof. So do you want a four-mana artifact that grants you hexproof? If so, this is your lucky day. Maybe later, if some really nasty Curses get printed in the next two sets, the first ability will be a little more relevant, but mostly the correct way to look at this is as a colorless Ivory Mask with a couple of very, very small upsides.

Hardly playable, unless your group is just absolutely overdoing it on the Vampires… But this is, quite simply, one of the most awesome examples of top-down design I’ve ever seen. It’s just absolutely perfect. So many of the equipment cards in this set tried to capture the everyday-object-used-as-weapon flavor, but none of them come close to pulling it off this well. Flawless Victory, Wizards!













Well, that's nearly it. Next we just have to cover the double-faced cards. It might take me just a bit of time to get that one ready - I have to do some photoshoping to get the images formatted... or, maybe, I'll skip the images? I don't know yet... be patient and I'll figure something out. Spoilers for the impatient: The only two I give a fuck about are Garruk and Bloodline Keeper. I'll try to do justice to the others, though.

Innistrad EDH Set Review, Part 5: Green

I'm a bit behind schedule... I wanted to have this all wrapped up before the weekend, in time for the Prereleases. I'll try to have it wrapped up tonight if possible.

Anyway, toward that end, here's Green...

This thing can easily be a 5/5 or bigger, for only two mana. Thing is, though, it just dies to Tormod's Crypt, Bojuka Bog, or any other graveyard nuke. The lack of evasion makes in pretty worthless, despite the cost/size efficiency. It is my long-standing experience that creatures this big without Flying, Trample or some other evasion ability never, EVER connect with an opponent. This might still be played in Dredge decks, though.

This is pretty cool - an updated Creeping Mold that can now deal with Planeswalkers. They needed to make this card, but I think they should have made it BEFORE they made Beast Within, because, frankly, this is kinda dull after BW... Still, I'm sure there are some mono-Green decks out there still rocking the ol' Creeping Mold... this will replace or even supplement CM in those few decks. Everyone else will just run Beast Within.

I get what this is trying to do, and I think it will be good, but it's not fantastic. For one thing, it's basically going to be "Creatures" 90% of the time. And as long as your getting two or three cards back, at least, it's good card advantage. Still, it'd be easier to love this card if it said "card type" instead of "permanent type".

Seems okay. It's like Ezuri, but not Elf-specific. Doesn't give Trample, though, which will be a deal-breaker for some folks. Others won't care so much. Token decks actually don't need trample much because they have enough guys that blockers are usually irrelevant anyway. Seems like this guy will be playable in any deck in which Gaea's Cradle frequently taps for 8 or more mana...

A very amusing design. This is the kind of card you want to play with because it’s cool, flavorful and looks fun, but you aren’t quite sure it’s good enough. I’m probably going to try it out in a few decks and see if it works, but I don’t expect big things from it. Definitely worth pairing up with Doubling Season, though.

Interesting. Can potentially produce a lot of tokens, but an otherwise vanilla 3/4 isn’t the safest thing to be attacking with. Still, this card puts us one step closer to enabling a playable (if not exactly competitive) wolf token deck. Time to dust off those Master of the Wild Hunts and Wren’s Run Packmasters? Maybe.

Another one of those death-triggers that immediately makes me think of Kresh the Bloodbraided and/or Savra... and Hexproof is the one ability you always wish cards like this had, and they usually don't. However, all this guy does is get big, so I'm not sure he's worth four mana or the card slot... after all he's just a worse, slower version of Kresh. Someone with more experience playing Kresh can tell me: is this the card you've been waiting for all along, or is it just "meh"?

So, first off, an 8/8 Trampler for seven mana isn't bad. The fact that, when it dies, it reanimates two creatures to take it's place definitely isn't bad either. It's kinda like Wurmcoil Engine - kill it and suddenly you have two more things to deal with. Here are the parts that are bad: when this dies it self-exiles to prevent shenanigans, and it reanimates at random... I like shenanigans, so I'm not a fan of the self-exile condition, and I dislike the word "random" here, though you can control it's effects by rigging your graveyard. Kind of a lot of work to go through when you could just play Living Death or something. I think this will see some play in the format, but not widespread.

The tremendous popularity of Doubling Season practically guarantees this knock-off will be popular as well. It’s basically half a Doubling Season, and for the most part it seems to be the more relevant half. It doesn’t have the cool interaction with Planeswalkers, or +1/+1 counters, but it’s pretty much a lock that this will be a staple for token decks of all breeds, as well as Riku decks.

There are definitely decks out there that can easily set this card up, but is the payoff going to be worth it? I don’t see it being a huge bomb, but it could wind up as a metagame choice, acting as a potential foil for a certain deck giving you trouble. Kaalia, maybe? I dunno. Probably not going to see a lot of play.

Stupid name; cool card. Another potential inclusion for Dredge and Mimeoplasm decks, but not an auto-include. Would be pretty weak without Trample, but since it does have it, I think it will be fairly playable.

Probably has the best chance at being playable in Ghave decks. I really wish it had Blue in it's Flashback cost, so it'd be playable in Animar decks instead. I don't really see it being worth a card-slot even in Ghave, though. Doesn't have the "oomph" needed for most EDH cards.

 WTF? I don’t even know what to make of this card. So weird. I’m not even going to try to predict what this one will do in the format. By itself, it probably won’t be very good at all, but I have a feeling there are some amusing tricks to pull off that will have the Johnnies of the format cackling like mad scientists.

 This is such a mediocre imitation of Eternal Witness it's laughable that it even tries. Because it bears the faintest echoes of E. Witness, I expect some players to give this a shot as well. Witness is so damn good that even a "bad Witness" can still be good, right? Well, no, not in this case.

Interesting, but deceptively hard to use. The first thing I thought of was Ghave… but then I realized that if I drop this guy, then I am forced to re-cast Ghave afterward, Ghave comes into play as a copy of this guy… meaning he no longer has the ability to pump out tokens. Using him alongside creatures that make tokens is counterproductive. He’s far better with non-Creatures that make tokens. Think Kher Keep, Vhitu-Gazi, Sprout Swarm, Bitterblossom, Awakening Zone, Mobilization…

This is the one 'get-random-cards-back' card that I actually like and think is playable. It's a guaranteed two-for-one, and even if you don't get to hand-pick what you get back, you will almost always get something worthwhile at least. I'd play this one before I'd play any of the other Eternal Witness wannabes in the set. Sweet art, too.