In case you hadn’t yet noticed, in lieu of a traditional card-by-card set review stretched over a week or two, StarCityGames.com is going with one columnist on one particular angle on the new set per day. For this week’s Flores Friday, Craig has asked me to take a look at what I intuit will be the Top 20 cards for Constructed, as well as the Bottom 10 (the most overrated). As you might have guessed, I had more than twenty in my Top 20 (I am nothing if not enthusiastic for new cards), so I just shifted some to my overrated pile. Really? you ask… It’ll all make sense in a few minutes.
Top 20 Future Sight Cards for Constructed Play
Formats: Standard, possibly others
This card is the rocks. It has the same number of super powers as mana in its cost, and all three of them are relevant. The body is just fine for a low-to-mid cost flyer.
As you probably did, my first intuition was that "this card hoses Dragonstorm," but that’s not precisely true. I do think that it should create a very solid disincentive to playing Dragonstorm. Here is my theory: I don’t want to deal with it. I just don’t, if I can help it. All kinds of players push off things that should beat them and say "I don’t really lose to that," but the fact of the matter is, they lose to something, and they mistake the fact that they have some cards or some plan against the hate brought to bear in their direction for having a good matchup. Me? I don’t want to deal with it. I don’t want to play Dragonstorm if some people will come with Mindcensors just like I don’t want to play Firemane Angel if they run Extirpate. Can I win? I’ll probably win. But I can’t string probably after Probably after PROBABLY all day and expect to win the tournament. I’m not more powerful than math.
If Dragonstorm can find the first Hellkite, they’ll just direct a point to the Mindcensor and set up 19 or so (here is a good spot where the extra point from Hunted Dragon will make a difference). I think Mindcensor is cute against Onslaught duals and such, but I don’t know if it will trouble Extend. It will definitely see some Standard play… and probably die to Sulfur Elemental.
Formats: linear – unknown
Here’s the thing: It isn’t hard to see where this card could see play; it’s obviously meant to be played with Amrou Scout and Blightspeaker. The question is whether a Rebels linear deck (probably B/W) is viable in any format. If we still had Mercadian Masques in Extended, I could see this card in that format. The problem is that White Weenie is definitely not good enough for present day Legacy. There’s just no way. You’re dead before you can search the first time.
Therefore the card is Standard or Block, if anywhere. Where it is good, it will be outstanding… really exciting.
Formats: Standard, possibly Block, possibly Extended, possibly others
I just like the idea of a land that can Dredge. One of the main complaints we had about Nightmare Void mid- and end-games in Ravnica Block last year was that if you went long with the ‘Void, you would have to stop playing lands (unless you alternated in Life from the Loam)… it was like going all-in on a Masticore; you had to win with it. I just like the idea of being able to Dredge back a land. It’s also a reasonable defensive measure against Detritivore, if not great, and Wildfire recovery (again fine, but probably not great).
Sure, coming into play tapped sucks, but this is the only card of its kind in the game. Thumbs up.
Formats: Standard, Block, possibly others
BDM’s question is if people will actually still play Cancel in Block now that Delay is available. I think they still will, but not as universally as they did in, you know, the Top 4 of the Pro Tour, where almost every deck had four copies.
I never thought Cancel was good enough in Standard… Delay will swap spots with Mana Leak, Rune Snag, and Remand (okay, probably not Remand). Standard actually has more than enough strong soft counters at U1. Delay is better than Mana Leak and Rune Snag in the abstract – certainly in Blue-on-Blue geared for the long game – but the fact that it can’t actually counter a spell permanently will weigh heavily on many deck designers.
Here are the things you have to remember…
1) Delaying a Counterspell is very good.
2) Playing Teferi successfully after Delaying something or other is even better.
Formats: Standard, Block, possibly Extended
This card will 100% see play in Standard if Rakdos is (continues to be?) viable. It will probably see some number of slots thanks to Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, which energizes the color fixing. I only mention Extended because players like Feldman and Hill have already shown a willingness to summon Sungrass Prairie or whatever (leave me alone, I know the right name, okay?)… Maybe some soul will enjoy a B/R strategy.
Mechanically, Graven Cairns is not only the strongest of the Future Sight duals, it is one of the best models that has been templated in years.
Formats: Possibly Standard, possibly Block
I know Ichor Slick probably wasn’t on your short list, but it certainly can’t be considered "overrated" and I wanted to talk about it.
Ichor Slick isn’t that much worse than Last Gasp (a card that was awesome last year). You don’t really resent paying retail for Rift Bolt. You probably pay retail more than you Suspend, I’d guess. This is like a hard cast Rift Bolt, basically.
The upside is of course that you get a -3/-3 cantrip – essentially uncounterable – for six. I think it’s like some Citanul Woodreaders. You pay three when you have to, and pay more when you can. While Ichor Slick is obviously a million times worse than Sudden Death at the same cost specifically for killing Teferi, it’s actually fine at Watchwolf management. It should be highly playable, depending on how the metagame unfolds.
Formats: Standard, Block, possibly Extended
It’s a Juzam Djinn!
It’s a Nightmare!
Yes, yes. This card is very good. As I said on the mother ship, Korlash is probably the second best standalone card in the set. Even without Grandeur, he’s right around a 4/4 for four, and is limited in butt kicking only by, um, nothing.
I already thought Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth was very good. It’s better than very good with Korlash. Choose superlatives amongst yourselves.
Formats: Possible in various
I don’t know it Linessa is strong enough main deck in any Constructed format outside of Extended. I choose Extended only due to the potential of playing with Oversold Cemetery, which can be the nuts if you don’t get your Linessa killed. Then again, getting her killed is sort of temporary.
She seems a bit fragile for the Wild West of Standard, but might be a good enough sideboard card against one of the non-Black, non-Red decks in either Standard or Block. Then again, Blind Seer was main deck in numerous premiere event Top 8 decks, so it’s not like there isn’t any precedent for do-nothing Blue Hill Giants; this one actually does something.
Formats: Standard, Block, Extended, Legacy
It’s kind of like Blood Moon, only it can beat. You figured that out already? Okay. How about being a creature is good because, um, you can beat (or block, I guess, but no one ever blocks in Constructed), but it is also easier to kill a creature than an enchantment for most decks, at least main deck. You heard that one too? Okay! I’ve got it! I thought it was a Goblin for a while. You did too? Man… When I was 13 it was hard to get ahold of, say, a Playboy, but today these kids can download… You’re downloading that in the background while reading this? You pesky kids!
Formats: Standard, Extended, Legacy
Standard – Free Dread Return fodder in the Dredge deck.
Extended – Free Dread Return fodder in the Ichorid deck (some versions).
Legacy – I’ll get back to you on this one. Or Patrick will.
Formats: Possibly Standard, possibly Extended, possibly Block
First of all, you probably didn’t know this because you are unwashed but Orim, Samite Healer made Top 4 of the Pro Tour in 1998. Constructed!
Oriss is just better than Orim most of the time, even without Grandeur. With Grandeur… It’s not like you can’t lose or something, but you should have a pretty significant edge if the opponent can’t, you know, take a turn. Sudden Death is still an issue, but if you’ve got some way to recycle Oriss, you should be able to, you know, get out of one Sudden Death.
Unlike some of the other cards on this list, Oriss isn’t an automatic, but she’s eminently breakable.
Formats: Legacy, basically any format actually
This is hands-down the strongest card in the set. People who take exception with the whole "this is better than Force of Will" comment probably take comfort in the fact that while "you can only play Arcbound Ravager in a ‘modular’ deck," you can play Squire in almost any deck that can make one White mana. And today? With Ravnica lands, that’s an awful lot of decks!
When we speak in superlatives, we speak in superlatives, meaning if something is the best, we talk about it like it’s the best, in its best context. That is, while Force of Will was very nice in any number of decks, it was at its height in broken combo decks, where it could be played proactively, and we have to think about it in that context. Pact of Negation is just absurd. You can use it to jack Storm count in Dragonstorm, or protect your Dragonstorm combo. I assure you it would be in the nizzut hizzigh Legacy deck but it won’t be legal in time.
*****/*****
Formats: Probably Standard, possibly others
The main thing this does well is counter Demonfire, but Demonfire is no longer the first or second best end-game card as it was six or seven months ago. Hill Giants that counter Gifts Ungiven are probably good enough… it’s not like they were going to give White Draining Whelk, even in this Block, and in some ways this card is better anyway.
Formats: Probably Standard, possibly others
It’s pretty easy to get this to infinite. I like infinite!
Okay, I don’t like infinite. You saw right through me. I like, um… like a 2/1 for three or a 4/4 for five or so. However if you are mean-spirited and have something like two Forests, two Sprout Swarms, and say four Lockets, you can have like, um, DI Saprolings. Eight, at least.
Formats: Whichever ones have combo decks.
This card is already getting reasonable buzz as a pair of scissors cutting deck size from 60 to 56. Yes, I think that 3/4 beats will commence more often than they are planned for.
Formats: Legacy, possibly others
Too bad this card is missing Columbus by a week. 100% it would be in the winning deck, along with one – if not two – other cards on this list.
I don’t think I’d risk death, or even spend four mana, to find a fair Green creature. This card is only fun in that it can generate free mana or complete any number of small combos that win very quickly.
Formats: Standard, possibly others
This isn’t the best standalone card in the set, nor even the most powerful of the Grandeur cycle, but it’s probably my favorite new card. I bet Kai Budde loves this card. He loves a Dragon.
As we talked about last week, the combo is with Weird Harvest. You can actually just go second or third turn Seething Song, Tarox Bladewing; third or fourth turn Weird Harvest for two. The larger formats have better combo decks, but I think this one could be good… More like Sneak Attack than Dragonstorm.
Formats: probably Block, possibly Standard
This card is like a cross between a Cursed Scroll and a Hammer of Bogardan. Any method of sneaking in – swarm, Soltari Priest, whatever – gets you a free three for five, which is actually three cheaper than Hammer recursion… but getting the guy in is a headache that Hammer recursion was designed to circumvent. Good card, though.
Formats: Standard… lots of formats that have cards
The first thing I thought of was Pact of Negation, but completing the ‘Tron, finding a singleton Urborg, and any number of other specialty lands is also serviceable. I’ll likely be playing four come Regionals.
Formats: Standard, possibly others
First turn, Lightning Axe your pap, discarding Golgari Grave-Troll…
You get the idea, right?
It’s much more likely Magus of the Bazaar or Greenseeker will set this up, but I just wanted to highlight the speed potential of the card. I think it’s downright scary.
Top 10 Most Overrated Cards
Blade of the Sixth Pride
I have this card at highly playable, but it’s probably overrated in that lots of people have it at highly playable… and it will still die to a Sulfur Elemental for free. It’s obviously awesome top-down, but it’s not exactly Watchwolf, and is terrible on defense.
Dryad Arbor
I don’t see how this is even playable. I’ve seen it more than once as "better than a Forest." What planet are these people on? Say the opponent has, um, an anything. God. This just gives them Sinkhole or the equivalent of a two-card combo. Awful 99% of the time.
Edge of Autumn
This is playable but I’m not in love with it. I know it’s nice to draw a card, but I wouldn’t want to play this card, with its additional cost, just to do that, especially since I can’t front side it in a long game.
Gibbering Descent
This is definitely a potential Flagship, but I don’t see it as being a great one, not yet. Six is quite a bit to disrupt a real combo deck, and you’re probably looking for five mana even to cheat it into play. Once fully online, it’s obviously great; the question is how to you get it fully online without dying first in any matchup it will matter.
Imperiosaur
I don’t think most of this guy’s supporters realized that how, shall we say, "Elven" Magic worked. I just don’t see this as being consistent… or if it is, I’m playing a horrible deck.
Keldon Megaliths
I like this card, but you’ve kind of got to know some stuff before you add this to your list… It could easily be worse than Mountain in Block RDW. That said, the ability for Mono-Red to be able to deal with Soltari Priest isn’t something you can ignore.
Magus of the Vineyard
I never liked the original. It seems to me that you are inviting bad luck with this card.
River of Tears
Chapin had it at the top of his lands list, but there are a fair number of downsides to consider, with being unable to cast Black cards on the opponent’s turn the most significant.
Take Possession
Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. Yeah, I used to go around saying that seven is the new six. Yeah, you’ll probably smash someone with it… It still costs seven, and this list isn’t about the worst cards, but seeks to highlight "overrated" instead.
Venser, Shaper Savant
I like this guy quite a bit… but I’m probably overrating him myself at this point. I keep seeing him as a slightly more expensive Man-o’-War without remembering that cards that cost four are supposed to win outright, not randomly bounce something. Venser does a lot of things pretty interestingly, and maybe "well" (time will tell), but Venser is still very likely a niche card (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
That’s it for this week!
LOVE
MIKE