Mirrodin Besieged EDH Set Review: Part 2 (Green)

Ugh, I’m going to hate seeing this cast in EDH. Even when not playing an actual “artifact deck” it seems like I’m almost always the player with the most artifacts on the table. I love my Sol Rings, Signets and Swords! Still, this card already existed as Shatterstorm, and I’ve been doing just fine, so maybe this won’t be as bad as I fear. In case you want a more objective opinion – this is very playable, but somewhat subject to your metagame.

This is easily my favorite of the Zenith cycle, even if it’s probably not the “best” of the bunch. It only gets creatures, and in fact only green ones at that. So it’s a little narrower that I’d like it to be, but I’ve always been a big fan of cards like Wargate and Chord of Calling. This is comparable, if not quite in the same class. I can think of a few decks I’d be more than happy to play this in, regardless.

I’ll just be up front here – I’d rather play Harmonize. This has some potential to give you great card advantage, but realistically it will just miss or be a 1-for-1 far too often. Conceivably, a Mayael the Anima deck may consider this as an option.

When I first saw this, I misread it as being vastly better than what it actually is. That said, a 7/7 Infect guy for five mana is not something to be written off lightly. I imagine there are a few decks that would be happy to run this, one of which is, of course, Rafiq. It is yet another potential one-hit-kill there. Putrefax is probably still the better choice for that deck, but I guess if there’s room for two…

Well, it’s strictly better than Wing Snare and usually better than Plummet in any deck that cares about Poison, but too narrow to be worthwhile outside of an Infect-oriented deck.

Well, that text box sure sounds "you win the game" to me... the knocks against this come from it's ginormous mana cost, plus the fact that graveyard hate is prevelant in most decks. Getting this hosed by a Bojuka Bog or Relic of Progenitus is going to hurt BAD. Many EDH players are excited about this, but I remain skeptical, but optimistic.

 So basically, a Viridian Shaman with Infect? Sure, seems fine. If I’m running Shaman in any decks, I’ll be happy to upgrade it to this guy. The extra green shouldn’t be a problem. The problem is that I don’t think I run the Shaman in anything anymore. I usually look for things with the text “target artifact or enchantment” for versatility… I hate having a dead card in hand.

Man, they keep trying but they still haven’t made something I’d play over Sakura-Tribe Elder and Wood Elves.




















Well, that's it for Part 2. Join me for Part 3 where I will cover Tezzie and the Artifacts. Oh, and a land or two.

Mirrodin Besieged EDH Set Review: Part 2 (Red)

This has such an awesome ability, I really want to give this guy a good review, but objectively, he's quite fragile. Also, I keep thinking he has Flying because of the art. Overall, I guess he's kinda bad, but if you build around him just a little, he could do some disgusting things.

I like him, and I hope he finds a good home.

Well, okay! This could actually be pretty good in aggro Goblin builds. I think he’ll do just fine there…

 Holy SHIT that is some amazing art. One of the best Dragon illustrations of the last few sets, easily. Unfortunately, it's wasted on one of the more disappointing dragons of the last few sets. His ability just doesn't line up with what most Red EDH decks want to do. And seven mana is just too steep for what is basically going to be a frech-vanilla 5/5 flyer with Haste.

... so disappointing!

 I don’t really see why this is Mythic. Next to Hero of the Bladehold, he just seems “meh”… it’s probably way better than I imagine, at least in Constructed, but I don’t see him being great in EDH at all. I’d rather have Flametongue Kavu any day.

 Good solid utility… this will see some play. It’s not exciting or anything, but it’s certainly good. “Exile” is so much better than “Destroy” in EDH, where virtually every deck has some form of recursion. And it’s a strict 2-for-1, unless you’re so desperate to nuke an opponent’s Sword of Fire and Ice that you’ll happily target your own Signet too (because this isn’t an “up to two” card – you HAVE to have two targets to cast this). Beware of sac effects, though, because a crafty opponent can sac one of the two targeted artifacts in order to save the other one… (Ed note: I guess I was wrong on that last part. Oh well, that makes this card even better!)

Ha ha ha, this is pretty bad overall, but it would be so frickin’ awesome to see someone “Threaten” an opponent’s Mindslaver and use it on them. That possibility alone is what makes this card awesome.

 I’m not a big fan of X spells that do damage in EDH. I like Death Grasp well enough, and Profane Command is simply fantastic, but Fireball and the like are pretty lame to me. I feel like if I’m not using it to outright kill an opponent it isn’t worth casting. I’m just saying this so you’ll understand that I’m not the best person to objectively rate this card, but if I had to guess I’d say this was fairly playable. The shuffle-back-in effect is nice and all, but it’s still just a boring card to me. Experienced Red Mages should be able to make up their own minds…

This card is much easier to rate. The “opponents” option is just pathetic in a 40-starting-life environment for one thing. The “creature” half is a tiny bit better, and will be fine against a few decks, but 3 damage is usually not enough to kill anything truly scary or important. Basically this is just more tech against tokens and that is all it will ever be.

Mirrodin Besieged EDH Set Review: Part 2 (Black)

 Much like his Mirran twin, this guy is just too small to be a realistic threat in the EDH world. He does have a slight upside in that Infect makes him a slightly better blocker, but he's still pretty underpowered. Even die-hard Infect players should give this one a pass, but they probably won't.

Alright, so we get two playable board sweepers in this set. Nice. This is probably the best one of the Zenith cycle, although I greatly prefer the Green one, as it seems more fun and creative. But the Black variant is hugely powerful, and should see plenty of play, despite having stiff competition in the form of Damnation and Decree of Pain. Profane Command also competes as a XBB spell, and is rather more versatile.

 I've been known to play Doom Blade in an EDH deck now and then. It's not super, but it usually does the trick. So will this, usually. It's really just a metagame call as to which restriction is tougher: "non-black" or "non-artifact".

The existence (and vast superiority) of Puppeteer Clique means that this won’t get played much, unless the Clique is such an MVP in your deck that you want the redundant effect. Or, if you just don’t HAVE a Puppeteer Clique, this could be an okay stand-in. As someone who LOVES robbing my opponents graveyard, I should love this card… but I don’t. It’s playable, but Black just has access to many better versions of this effect.

 Woah! This is right up there with Phyrexian Rebirth and Consecrated Sphinx in power and potential. He’s nearly a Titan in stats, as a 6/5 for six, which is good. He has an ETBF ability that is often going to at least have a small impact on the board, and this is supplemented by a nice triggered ability that, if left on the board for long, will wreck an opponent’s life total. Furthermore, against certain decks (namely, Token decks) he can easily be a one-card, instant-win combo. His mere existence will make Rhys and Rith players quake in their seats.

I initially skipped this without planning to even mention it. However, after seeing it in action at the prerelease I decided to at least post it here for props. It's a solid card-advantage machine, in a subtle way. First off, you are getting a 2-for-1 deal, that much is obvious. But if the two creatures you get back cost your opponent a card each to get rid of, you are really getting more like a 4-for-1. It's still probably not quite EDH material but it IS better than I thought...

 If a deck is already running Tainted Strike, there's a good chance it would want this too. One has surprise, the other has permanence. There are situations were either could be better than the other.

I can’t fathom why you’d want this even in an Infect-heavy deck. It’s just a big stupid guy for a slight discount, with a significant drawback. There are better options even with so few Infect guys currently in print.

 Pretty weak, sadly. I was really counting on her being more playable. She's not terrible, mind you, but a little on the weak side for EDH. I imagine her art will convince a few players to overlook this fact, however.

Expensive removal is expensive! And all that extra mana, just so you can Proliferate? That’s a pretty narrow bonus that might not do anything at all. If you have a deck that is just all about the Proliferation, this card is for you… otherwise it is crap.

Mirrodin Besieged EDH Set Review: Part 2 (Blue)

 I've seen some haters on the forums calling this one "bad". Obviously, these fools have never witnessed the power of Stroke of Genius. That's essentially what this is, just with a steep Blue requirement. So yes, it's only going to be worth playing in Mono-U or probably a U/x deck with a solid mana base. But if you think your deck CAN cast this, you really should be considering it. I love playing Mind Spring, but if all my decks weren't 3-color I'd definitely run this instead.

 Another very amazing EDH card, this would easily be the best EDH card in the set, but being a creature with no built-in resistance to removal, spot or mass, this will be a HUGE target every single time it hits the board. Because of the fact that this will often die too quickly to realize its potential, I’m still inclined to rank Phyrexian Rebirth a bit higher, but this clearly has the most potential to do broken, game-winningly awesome things. It just comes down to how often this will actually realize that potential… I would certainly argue that this guy goes into EVERY Blue deck. Period.

One of the less boring Mind Control variants to come along in a while, but it still pales in comparison to Treachery and Bribery. Even Volition Reins is slightly more appealing. I don’t see this being adopted wide-spread, but in certain decks, it’s sure to find a home. Many EDH players eventually build a “steal EVERYTHING” deck, and this is one more tool for those sorts of decks. A less obvious use for this is in Rafiq decks – with a Rafiq on the board you only need to steal a 4/4 to have a one-shot kill possible. Imagine stealing and Eldrazi or something Trample-y with this. Fun!

 People are getting excited about this one, inexplicably, some even calling it a “better” Vesuvan Doppleganger… Idiots. This is much worse, even though it does have a couple perks. It can come into play on an empty battlefield and live, something most Clone variants can’t do. And it’s only three mana, which is rather cheap. However, it has to be in play a full turn before it becomes anything… this limits its usefulness in many ways. For one thing, it’s much harder to legend-rule a general with it. Even if they cast their General first, you have to pray this survives until your next turn in order to turn it into a copy of said Legend. Secondly, you can’t copy any ETBF abilities, which is a HUGE deal-breaker for me. I can’t see this being playable at all, let alone better than most of the existing Clones.

 Terrible. I liked this for its ability to play mind games with your opponent at first, but then I found out that since you Exile the tutored-for card, it is revealed in the process meaning, your opponent knows what you tutored for. This gives them much more decision-making power, and kills all the fun of this card. Sadly this still isn't the worst Concentrate in the set.

 It should be painfully obvious that this card is explicitly TERRIBLE in EDH, but if you need it broken down for you… EDH is a Singleton format, and with 100-card decks, you’ll completely miss with this most of the time, and the very rare times you DO get something out of it? It’ll be a basic land. It’s a Rampant Growth for three mana, that only works maybe 10% of the time…

I can see this guy being playable in Rafiq, because there he’ll hit for 6 (at least) and draw you two cards. That’s about the only use I see for him, though.

Trinket Mage has a big brother? Yikes. He should see plenty of play, but outside of Sharuum decks there aren’t that many 6-cmc artifacts I’d want to tutor up regularly. Wurmcoil Engine or Steel Hellkite are both great, but not worth running a whole other card just to go get them. No, sadly, this guy will probably most often be used to fetch up Mindslaver. Lame. On the upside, his presence might just make the rules committee consider banning Mindslaver.

THIS is the worst Concentrate in the set... and probably the whole game.

Mirrodin Besieged EDH Set Review: Part 2

Time for Part 2 of my EDH set review of MBS. We'll do the colored spells starting with White.

A damn fine Knight, 3/1 Battle cry for 1W is a bargain. Still not good enough for EDH, as this guy basically just attacks and that's all. He's to small to be a relevant threat in EDH, which is a common problem with most White creatures in this block.

Removal is removal, so I’m obliged to give this common a passing reference at least. But just to be clear: this is bad removal. These kind of tempo effects are pretty lackluster in EDH, where games are typically much slower already. Also, 5 mana removal should usually be of the "Wrath" variety.

 This is a reprint, which I usually don’t go into in these reviews, but this is one I expect to see some play. And I do think it’s playable. Two mana is not a bad cost to destroy something like Sword of Fire and Ice or Citanul Flute – you’d be happy if it did only that most of the time. So, the life-gain aspect is just added value. But would I trade the ability to hit Enchantments for some incidental life gain? Probably not, unless I had a Sharuum deck in my meta.

 Another common I feel warrants mention, because it does have an appealing effect, at first glance. Still, I think it’s a bit weak for most EDH decks, and I wouldn’t consider this even for my Sharuum decks – there are simply better options available.

This one has a very high “wow” factor, which makes it hard to rate objectively. It’s probably not EDH-worthy, but it is a possible strategy to run this along with a handful of other Battle-cry creatures in a token deck to make alpha strikes a bit easier. Not entirely unplayable, perhaps, but for the most part it would seem out of place in EDH.














I’m not a big fan or Journey to Nowhere or O-Ring in EDH – removal that dies to other removal is usually pretty bad, and can come back to bite you in the ass later on. This guy is both MORE fragile, and LESS versatile, so he seems downright terrible to me. You should have no trouble finding something better. That said, if you don’t play him as removal, instead abusing him as a repeatable “blink” for your own ETBF-effect Artifacts, he might be okay… if you can find a way to do so.









Nice! It's too bad White Weenie isn't actually a viable strategy in EDH, or this guy might be an all-star. But, such is not the case, and this guy is just too damn small to make an impact.

Finally, our first real bomb of the set! Let’s get the negatives out of the way first. I hate that this makes a Horror token. I guess in context of the Mirrodin set and storyline it makes sense, but taken on it’s own it’s just a flavor nightmare. I’d rather they saved this for a set were they could just make the token and Avatar token or something. Or if they’d made this a black Sorcery, that’d be okay. But that’s nitpicking, isn’t it?

Another issue is that it only counts creatures actually killed by this card, so if your opponent has a sac outlet – say, Dimir House Guard or something – they can just sac all their men in response to considerably shrink your resulting Horror token.

Still, in EDH it’s often possible to follow up a Wrath effect with a creature in the same turn. This just packs it all into one card – it clears the board AND helps you rebuild. For six mana, it’s not a bad investment, and if you can still drop another creature, that puts you in a very enviable position. One of the best EDH cards in the set, for sure.



Okay, by itself, this thing is a 4/4 Flying Lifelinker. Not bad, but for six mana including a heavy triple White investment, you kinda want more, don’t you? Compare this to Baneslayer and it just looks downright horrid. Maybe that’s not fair, though – many cards look bad next to BSA. Okay, compare it to bargain-bin all-star Battlegrace Angel – it still looks pretty bad, doesn’t it?













IT’S CATURDAY! POST SOME FUCKING CATS!

A fine card in it's own right, this will be played more for the fact that it makes kitties than anything else. Custom-made lolcat tokens will be the next big thing, I assume.

Mirrodin Besieged: EDH Set Review, Part 1

Alright folks, it's that time. The Mirrodin Besieged visual spoiler is up; all the cards are now publicly available to peruse and discuss, which is precisely what I mean to do. I will be discussing the cards' relevance and playability in EDH specifically, but don't blame me if I give passing mention to other formats. Yet the focus will remain solely on EDH viability.

I will discuss every rare/mythic in the set, and many of the uncommons. I will skip most of the commons, as 90% will be simply horrid in the EDH format, so to save time and eliminate redundancy I will usually only discuss a common (or even an uncommon) if I think it's playable or possibly so.

I will kick things off by discussing the Legenday creatures in the set, and looking at their potential as Generals as well as just cards in your deck.

And now... The Legends!

  Thrun, the Last Troll. This guy is pretty neat, I have to say. He's extremely difficult to get rid of once on the board, but you can't be proactive and counter him either. Basically old school Wrath and other "cannot be regenerated" sweepers will do the trick, as will Hallowed Burial, Final Judgement and a few other niche spells. Pinpoint removal is worthless, and any "wrath" without a regen clause will likely fail as well.
   A 4/4 for four mana, he's efficient and sturdy, no slouch in combat... in most formats. In EDH, he'll be a bit on the small side, but probably not totally irrelevant.
   As a general, he could certainly work out okay - the last Legend we had with "super shroud" was a pretty big hit, so Thrun could do alright. I'm not a fan of mono-color decks, but I do know this guy has some stiff competition in mono-G, so I expect him to be fairly obscure as a general, no where near as popular as Uril.
   The more common use for this guy will be just as a good mid-range guy in a counterspell-laden format. You'll often want bigger threats, but he can come down fast enough to get into the red zone before it's too clogged up. Overall, he's playable, but not a star.

   As a General, she is going to have to work extra hard to get me interested. She makes deck building an interesting puzzle, but I don’t really like generals with such a strong “build-around-me” concept, and her ability in particular I think would make a very boring deck.

   As just a card in your deck, she’s going to be worth running simply as a 3/3 with First Strike and Deathtouch. I’ve been waiting a long time for those two abilities to appear on a creature together, and in that department she certainly delivers. I don't think every B/G deck will want to run her, but she'll make the cut in some of those.

So, neither of the new Legends make much of a splash with me, but neither are they strictly horrible. Glissa might be ideal for an extremely clever "Johnny" and Thrun would make a great General in a newer, low-powered play group. 

With the next  post, we'll get into the meat of the set, and starting with the White cards.

Enjoy.

Weak Sauce

So… it’s been a while, no?

Yeah, I’ve been busy - busy not playing Magic, unfortunately. I’ve barely even thought about Magic in the last few weeks, what with the holiday rush and whatnot. Oh, and I got Call of Duty: Black Ops for Christmas, so I’ve been rather distracted…

But even despite those other endless excuses, it just hasn’t worked out that I’ve been able to get the regular group together for Magic in a while. So as a result my interest, and inspiration for content has dried up.

The good news – Mirrodin Besieged spoiler season is finally in full swing. It has been trickling in slowly – agonizingly slowly – for weeks now, but suddenly the floodgates have opened and the rumor mill is deluged with new info and new cards.

In order not to be redundant later on, I will attempt to refrain from discussing individual cards for now. I plan to do an EDH set review as I did for Scars, so I’ll save that content for later. However, one new card has me just itching to write something up, so I’ll just post it with the comment that I am already pretty sure this will be an EDH staple, possibly one of the most EDH-worthy cards in the set.

Based on the name, I was really hoping this would be a Wrath + Resurrection, and perhaps it WAS that at some point but was maybe altered for power-level reasons… I don’t know. But even though it doesn’t have a straight reanimation ability, being able to wipe the board and drop a dude afterwards all on one card is a terrific ability. It’s going to compete with Martial Coup in some decks, probably, but it will certainly be played.

Oh, and then there’s this little gem:

 Already, I dread hearing people intentionally mispronounce this as “Constipated Sphinx”. And before you accuse me of putting the idea into people’s heads in the first place… well, firstly, I think you give me too much credit – like maybe 10 people in the universe read this blog. And secondly, you give the human race too much credit – someone else will think of it, and it will happen, even if I keep my trap shut.

That said, I suspect Ken Nagle had a hand in the design of this card. It seems utterly tailor-made to EDH, and I suspect it will go in every deck ever, although I’m not sure it’s THAT amazing. Still, the potential for card advantage is so damn high it will be very hard to make a convincing argument NOT to play this guy.

There. That’s enough banter for now. I’ll save the in-depth analysis for my inevitable EDH set review, but I just had to share my excitement over these two cards right away. I’m already looking forward to this set, though some of the other spoilers make me think it’s not going to be the surprise home-run Scars turned out to be. Still, I am certainly confident there will be a few more playable cards revealed…

In the mean time, I’ll try to tear myself away from Black Ops to post at least once a week, but no promises. I’m about to hit Prestige 2…