Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re basking in the glory of M12. Yes, our new core set is here, Garruk, Primal Hunter is shaping up to be one hell of a Planeswalker, and your metagame is prepared to fire off in new directions. Let’s go!
M12 is here!
So our new core set is upon us and boy is it sweet. First up, we have to talk about Garruk, Primal Hunter. Yes, it practically turned into a drinking game to see the amount of fake Garruk spoilers pile up, but eventually the real Slim Shady showed up and he is fan-freakin-tastic. You thought the new Chandra was good? You ain’t seen NOTHIN yet. With a +1 that makes a 3/3 — I repeat, his PLUS ONE is a THREE/THREE is none too shabby. Who else does something like that? Oh hi, Elspeth, Knight-Errant. You sure defined a format and have seen plenty of Legacy play.
But that mana cost. That’s where he makes you second guess yourself. Five mana planeswalkers are bad…right? But…you do realize that five mana in green is basically four. Running a playset of Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves will give you plenty of Turn 4 Garruk action on a consistent basis, and that is good times.
And how about that second ability! Wizards has certainly juiced the card advantage in green ards in M12, with Hunter’s Insight working fantastically with the new Hexproof creatures, and here’s Garruk with just the right wording so you don’t get hosed. With such a ubiquitous wording you’ll never have to target a creature to draw cards off of, meaning you don’t get blown out by removal spells and can also draw from Shroud creatures you control. A bit fringe, but nice.
Regardless, his ultimate is just a Timmy paradise, a mass of wurms with which to beat your opponent senseless. But Planeswalkers are not defined by their ultimates, they are defined by their ability to impact the game immediately and help you win it. Garruk does both in spades with Harmonize/Tidings wrapped in an ability while also protecting himself and not having to -1 for a 3/3 like his original version.
My thoughts? They don’t put a planeswalker on sleeves for nothing. Garruk was engineered to be awesome and awesome he is. While it may take the removal of Zendikar block and its Splinter Twin slash Valakut metagame before he shines the brightest, he is for me the best Planeswalker in M12 not close. Well done WotC!
Moving on, Adaptive Automaton aka a Lord For All Seasons, as it were, to make a wonderfully obscure film reference, is like the hammer for all of the nails in your tribal library — you need a Squirrel lord? He’s in there. Looking for another Illusion lord to sit next to the super-sweet Lord of the Unreal? Gotcha covered. This is a guy who is just a perfect design and fills the hearts of tribal players everywhere with joy. Love Elves? Goblins? Dragons? Turtles? Yes, we have a turtle lord! High five internet.
Next is Skinshifter. A really, really good creature guys. Replaces Fauna Shaman as your go-to sexy green rare of the set, and you know they wouldn’t take away Ms. Survival If You’re Nasty for just any rare. Skinshifter is expected to be bashing face soon and with a quickness — remember, that 4/4 he turns into has -trample-. No chump blocking for you, and big enough to run over the Overgrown Battlements and Wall of Omens of the world. If you’re ready to invest in some beatdown, grab you a set of these guys.
Next? Goblin Grenade. Srsly. Goblin. Grenade. Is. Awesome. This card is what you want to be doing – throwing Goblins at your opponent’s face, dealing a whopping five damage, making the red deck have a new Goblin-fueled angle that is just as scary as the straightforward burn your face and finish you with Grim Lavamancer and Koth plan. So when you finally ‘shut down’ your opponent’s Goblin Guide with a 3/3 or better, that may be exactly what your opponent wanted to happen.
But look who popped up – Sutured Ghoul! I mean, I hope there are no doubters at this point, Innistrad is graveyard based and it’s cards like these and the reprinted Zombie Infestation that make those blocks awesome. Normally this guy is reanimated and then given haste in some fashion, like with the Scourge common Dragon Breath. Mill your library, make some huge/huge, put it on the battlefield and Dragon Breath does the rest. We’ll see if there’s a similar combo popping up in Innistrad.
Next to Sutured Ghoul? Sorin’s Vengeance! Now THAT’S a friggin picture right there. Bloody sword comin right atcha? Daaamn. Also, how about that 10 point drain life for seven folks. Look, I know we still have Corrupt in the format for a short time, but the beauty and elegance of Sorin’s Vengeance combined with Sorin Markov is not to be dismissed. But how about that Smallpox! Oh hell yeah! This spell is awesome, the ability to manipulate this spell to do what you want it to do is fantastic, and it signals, yet again, that Wizards may want Mono Black Control to officially “Be A Thing” again.
Mono Black Control is a deck that time and time again people want to happen, a deck that hasn’t really seen play since Kokusho, Persecute, and Death Cloud were all in the same deck, and before that it had Cabal Coffers, Tainted Pact, Chainer’s Edict and more. Basically, you have to REALLY juice the Black spells to make that deck work, and where is the card advantage?
Remember those cards from Innistrad I spoke of last week? There was one I didn’t list, in Bloodgift Demon. This five mana 4/4 flier is a Phyrexia Arena on a stick…but Phyrexian Arena was a very powerful turn 3 play, and often crucial to getting the card advantage happening asap. Will this flyer be enough? This creature existing also lowers the likelihood that one of Liliana’s new abilities will be minus or plus one: lose 1 life and draw 1 card, which many hoped it would be.
Anyway, back to M12. Can you say Manabarbs? I knew ya could! You playing red? You should remember this card exists. Blue/White control’s bane, this card does wicked unfair things, wicked fast. For you red mages, you’re welcome. More sick reprints? Distress is another awesome black spell that is welcome in any control deck. Ponder is also returning for those tired of writing “4x Preordain” on deck registration sheets, you may now officially change this to 4x Ponder in the fall.
Lastly I want to cover the Scepter, Crown, and Throne artifact cycle. Firstly, I think this is brilliant. I love leaving breadcrumbs for new players. See this card? It connects with this card and these two cards make this card RIDICULOUS and so on. You want to lead them down the path of putting cards and interactions together, and these cards are perfect at what the design team was trying to do. I think this is a brilliant cycle and those who get to live in Magical Christmas Land will have some serious fun with these guys. Also, you know this cycle is just made for the bad beat stories, as someone gets crushed by the lucksack who gets all three in sealed…along with two copies of whichever piece manages to get destroyed. Just awesome.
So that’s M12 everybody. Prereleases are this weekend, so hit up your local shop and get your gamin on. There’s of course a lot more I didn’t cover, but that’s Magic. We’ll be back here next week with our new metagame – the decks, the strategies, and the power that will be barreling its way into Cincinnati as the Open Series rolls into town next weekend.
And that’s all I got. I want to thank you guys for watching and remember: Until next time Magic players, this is Evan Erwin. Tapping the cards…so you don’t have to.
Evan “misterorange” Erwin