Mirrodin Besieged EDH Set Review: Part 3

Hi kids! Today we're going to cover the remainder of Mirrodin Besieged. Mostly this will be Artifacts, but will also cover the lands/multicolor portion, which is like 3 cards... well, let's get started.

 We'll start with the elephant in the room. I'll just be blunt and say it: this guy isn't going to live up to the hype. Yes, he's and indestrcutible one-hit-kill machine. He'll be played and he'll be good... but he won't be Emrakul. Even Red can effectively deal with this guy now, thanks to Into the Core.

That all said, he is quite a potent threat, so I do expect him to be quite good in any deck that can reasonably expect to cast him, or cheat him out somehow. Mono-G ramp now has an acceptable replacement for Emrakul.

Oh, one other thing... if you DO play this guy, beware of Bribery or Acquire. Mwah ha ha!

 So this is effectively a colorless Lhurgoyf that can just move to a new creature. Seems nice... but how good is Lhurgoyf in EDH? Not very, at least in my experience. I rate this one as unplayable.

 This cute little guy could find a home in Kemba decks, or any other deck that specifically goes for the Equipment Voltron strategy. Other than that, he's pretty useless for most decks.

 This thing is so weird. It causes life loss and Poison effects, which just seems redundant. The mill aspect is virtually worthless too, for EDH. This can help an Infect deck push through their Poison on a stalled board, but I'm not sure they'd want to spend so much mana to do it.

 I'll take my Greaves over this any day. This does have it's own appeal, but I find that most targeted removal in my metagame is of the RFG variety. For that reason I prefer Shroud over Indestructible.

I do expect people to play this, and I'm not necessarily saying it's wrong to do so. I wouldn't, is all.

 This card has such an awesome and fun effect, I want to put it in every deck just to see what wackiness can occur. However, since it works for everyone, it can blow up in your face pretty easily. I would strongly suggest that you relegate this to group hug, chaos and other deck types where winning is not that important. There are probably ways to mitigate the symmetry to your benefit, but I don’t really care about such applications. I’m just interested in seeing this thing create mind-raping rules nightmares.

 I'm pretty sure I didn't ask for a "fixed" Disciple of the Vault. But whoever DID ask for such a thing is probably pretty disappointed in this card.

This is awkward… it’s only going to be playable against artifact decks, but as an artifact itself, it will just die to your mass-artifact-removal (which, if you are running this kind of tech against Sharuum or whatever, you’re obviously running Shatterstorm effects too). That MIGHT kill them on the spot, but it probably won’t and then you don’t have THIS anymore, so… yeah. Awkward.

 A Minion Reflector for Artifacts and a nice, easy way to break the Singleton rule of EDH, this isn’t a terrible card by any means. However, Minion Reflector is much less narrow and hasn’t seen a great deal of play in EDH. It has its fans, sure, and this will definitely find some avid supporters as well. Having two of something IS usually better than having one of it, after all. I do have to wonder how much this and Prototype Portal will compete for a slot...

 Cute. If there is in fact a Myr Tribal deck out there in EDH-land, this is a must-run. I haven’t seen one yet, though.

 They must have really been proud of Necrotic Ooze to print essentially the same card in the very next set… except this one is pretty lame in comparison. You’ll get an in-depth comparison of the two later, but for now, I’ll just say that this is pretty bad, in my opinion.

 This isn’t terrible or terrific. Infect decks will probably be able to play this and be satisfied with it; it does kill in two hits, after all. Not too appealing elsewhere, though.

 You’d think that a Pithing Needle that could attack and block would be an improvement over the original, right? WRONG. This guy is much worse than the Needle, precisely because he’s a creature. That just makes him SO much more fragile. He’ll die to incidental board sweepers all the time, and his combat stats are hardly significant in EDH. The correct way to look at this guy is “a Pithing Needle that is much easier for your opponents to get rid of”.

Hmm, not bad… It is best in a deck that already seeks to abuse Niv-Mizzet as it provides some redundancy in effect, and you’re obviously already running lots of card-draw. It’s playable enough, if: A) your deck draws a ton of extra cards, and B) artifact hate isn’t too rampant in your metagame. I like it, possibly more than I should, and I kinda hope to see this showing up in some decklists.

 Oh good lord. Undoubtedly there are many folks out there who will squeal with delight to see this card printed… I am not among them. Obviously, if you haven’t guessed by now, I’m generally not a big fan of any card that makes Sharuum/Dagsson decks even more broken (but have little to no use outside those archetypes).

 Yet another card in this set with AMAZING art, but a mediocre ability. If you are trying to enable metalcraft, this isn't a terrible choice, but overall it just makes whatever creature you Equip it to susceptible to even more removal. That's basically NEVER going to be worth a measly +1/+1 bonus to me. Shame, I was looking forward to collecting foils of this one for all my decks...

 Darksteel Ingot is better. It costs 1 more mana, but you get unlimited use AND Indestructibility out of the deal. Heck, Coalition Relic and even the Ravnica Signets are more appealing. I can’t imagine being desperate enough for mana-fixers to give this a second thought.

 WTF? This thing is wonky. Master Transmuter and Venser, the Sojouner both immediately spring to mind… This could be played in decks that can abuse it, but it’s far too clunky to use elsewhere, though I suppose it could be a (overcosted) Vindicate for mono-U decks. It’s a nice outside-the-box design, and outside-the-box deck builders should enjoy this.

 Man, I just don’t get it… so far the new Swords are rather unexciting and fail to live up to the standard set by Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Light and Shadow… and these new ones are MYTHIC for crying out loud! If anything, you’d expect them to be better than the originals. But no, WotC is dropping the ball big time with these. And as disappointing as it is, it may just be a blessing in disguise. SoFI and SoLS are so damn ubiquitous it’s actually kind of nice not having to agonize over which pair of Swords to run… or just imagine trying to find three cards to cut to run all five Swords. This particular Sword, though, is at least playable in EDH, whereas Body and Mind was patently terrible in the format. The “green half” is pretty good, actually – Bear Umbra is getting played, after all. In fact, certain decks will play it just for that ability alone. But the “black half” is rather weak and boring. It should have at least been “at random”. Oh well.

 With the name Titan Forge, you’d expect it to make 6/6’s. I’ll take 9/9’s any day, though. I don’t really think this is playable, except just as a fun card that will very occasionally do awesome things. I do realize there are ways to speed up the process (Doubling Season in particular seems amusing), but even with help, it’s still an artifact that makes artifact creatures – very fragile and will usually just get blown up before you get a single token out of it. I will probably try to use this in my Sharuum deck anyway, though, just for the fun-factor if nothing else.

This is a fun card. I don’t know how good it is, really, but it seems pretty neat. It’s almost like a Buyback creature – you can play it, and then let it bounce back to your hand, netting the tokens in the process. Then you just hang on to it until someone kills all your tokens, and start the process all over again. I definitely think it’s playable, but it seems a bit under the curve for most decks. You should almost certainly be able to find something better for its slot, but it is conceivable that there are a few decks out there that really want just this sort of ability.










And the last few cards of the set, then we're done!

 And, the Planeswalker we all knew was coming… Tezzeret 2.0. On one hand, he does seem more powerful than his previous incarnation. On the other, he’s just kinda boring… he basically just does the same thing as Tezzie 1.0 but in slightly different ways. Which makes sense… but it’s just tough to get excited about it. It is worth noting that 4 mana seems to be the magic number for Planeswalkers – all the best ones cost four. His Ultimate is pretty easy to pull off compared to most others, and it can outright kill a person on the spot fairly easily. All in all, he’s definitely playable, but not very interesting.

 Yeah… pretty sure not too many people are going to want to play this, which such a steep downside. It could find a home in group hug of course, (as does nearly any card that might help you opponents more than yourself). Perhaps aggressive goblin or token decks could conceivably make use of this. Even that seems like a big if.

A very good land, and one that Skithyrix decks will be quite happy to run. Any deck with a modicum of Infect will be happy to supplement that strategy with this card. It could even pop up in Rafiq decks - even with just Putrefax and this, you have a reasonable chance at Poisoning you opponent to death fairly easily.

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.