Come one Monday morning, it was much to my surprise that I did not see a set review anywhere on StarCityGames.com front-page. The change in formatting to a series of weekly columns certainly excites me. My excitement about reading interesting things about Magic can be seen going up and down throughout the week. Monday, I’m excited because I get to read The Ferrett and Rosewater. Tuesday is less exciting (… despite having the Ferrett, it’s not in a forum that has any resonance for me…) except for Limited Information, and Wednesday was formerly a low point before Frank Karsten took over Online Tech. By the time we get to Friday I’m all excited again because we get Flores, BDM, and Forsythe each and every week. (And me, but my horn is much less interesting to toot.)
With the change to a weekly column with a few floating columns, it seems the five-part set review on StarCityGames.com has finally gone the way of “My Fires.” Instead of one series in five parts, naming each and every single card, I’m going to supply one article breaking down the potential I see across a variety of formats, some of which I may arguably be unqualified to speak upon. That said, let’s get this done in reverse-order fashion, starting with the format in which I have the least experience (Vintage) and crawling back up to Standard, where things make sense to me again. There will be no one-to-five-star ratings. Anything that is making this list is going to do so because it might have an effect in the format in question, regardless of how many stars it may get in some rating system that is all too arbitrary.
Vintage:
First off, let’s just get it out of the way and say that it’s really, really hard to impact the Vintage metagame. So far, most of the cards that have done so have helped to break the ice with previously non-existent deck types (Ravnica’s Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Grave-Troll), fill a niche role in an existing good deck (Champions of Kamigawa’s Uba Mask), be a powerful hoser against something that matters to Vintage (Guildpact’s Leyline of the Void), or work quickly in some fashion as a possible mana-hoser to this wondrous land of Moxes and Lotii (Mirrodin’s Chalice of the Void).
Oh, or be busted in half when taken in context of the card played to its maximum potential (Champions of Kamigawa’s Gifts Ungiven, Fifth Dawn’s Trinisphere). That’ll work too, by the looks of it.
Actually having an impact, though… that’s hard. You get to cheat a little and recognize the fact that some people like to play Fish and its multi-colored variants, so stuff like Jotun Grunt and Kataki, War’s Wage get to make it in by being efficient creatures that multi-task as potentially powerful hosers (Grunt) or mana denial (Kataki). Even with that wider perspective, if there are a dozen cards in a set that Vintage even has to think about, a set is doing very, very well for a modern set.
Vintage spokesperson Stephen Menendian published his take on Planar Chaos in Vintage here, and while I certainly won’t pretend to be better qualified (… the last time I played Vintage, people were still playing Keeper and I could still play four Gush…) I do think I’m looking with less bias to my perspective, and so can think of a way to mention more than just five cards from this set where the color pie has gone kerblooie.
His five card list of cards that might impact Vintage: Extirpate; Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth; Simian Spirit Guide; Phantasmagorian; Seal of Primordium. In context, to be brief… Extirpate is vicious and uncounterable, and can potentially by itself destroy specific decks currently played that focus on the graveyard. Unlike some graveyard hosers, it doesn’t put a permanent into play that can be bounced or destroyed before it has the intended effect (or to conclude the effect, like with Leyline of the Void). It’s also uncounterable to boot, dangerous words indeed on a card that has at least some chance of nailing their entire deck right there (or just hamstringing them enough that your deck can now clearly win the race to do the most broken stuff fastest).
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth was clearly a corner-case, kind of like Uba Mask in the “playable” department, having a limited role in a very narrow (but otherwise good) deck that happens to possibly have a use for it (like making Bazaars tap for mana, after they’re done being abused the hell out of drawing ridiculous volumes of cards). It gets onto his list but really it’s not that interesting, or even particularly likely. When it does get played, it’s still only doing something fair, like minimizing the impact of Null Rod on your manabase, maybe even to the point where you can play your own Null Rods in just such a deck, despite playing a reasonable portion of mana artifacts yourself.
Seal of Primordium has a minimal impact in the land of perfect manabases full of fetch lands and dual lands, and is merely a color-shifted card that has seen some small play in the format… its impact should be expected to be as minimal, unless something unlikely happens. Phantasmagorian is even narrower than that, only being good (so far, maybe, no promises) in Ichorid decks as a means to keep Dredging without a Bazaar of Baghdad currently in play, while serving as both a Black creature (for the purpose of being fed to Ichorid) and a creature with a reasonable body (to staple together into a Sutured Ghoul). It can be used to replace Gigapede in that deck, though it is more awkward in its discard clause, because the potential benefit of being Black when you need to feed Ichorid may be more important than just how effective it is when you need it, so long as it’s doing the job you give it.
Simian Spirit Guide is obvious, being copies 5-8 of Elvish Spirit Guide, a card that has over time seen considerable play in a variety of combo decks. In some of these decks, it’s the Elf who is copies five through eight, because the Ape provides the better color of mana… and it’s possible there are decks that could exist but do not currently that might have that little tip over the edge by getting an Elvish Spirit Guide that they can actually use for their purposes. It won’t exactly shake things up terribly, but it should have an impact.
Now, for things I saw when I looked at Planar Chaos that didn’t make it onto Stephen’s list… though one did earn mention.
Riptide Pilferer – 1U
Creature – Merfolk Rogue
1/1.
Morph U. Whenever Riptide Pilferer deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card.
Decks like Sullivan Solution and Fish turn up time and again in Vintage, and this little creature can fit right alongside the S.S. “niche” creature Dimir Cutpurse very neatly. Headhunter is almost good enough in a creature-poor format like this one, but ultimately proves not to be relevant… making it a Blue card that can be pitched to Force of Will and Misdirection may be the little push that brings “Headhunter 2.0” to the Vintage table. If Vintage remains creature-poor, and Fish-type decks continue to be popular in one capacity or another, this may prove to be the first Vintage-playable Merfolk since Rootwater Thief last saw play in any capacity whatsoever.
Making a card Blue is actually pretty huge for Vintage; a Blue version of Lava Dart or Swords to Plowshares would probably be played three or four times more often than those cards are right now. I figure turning the most efficiently-costed Hypnotic Specter variant of all time, Headhunter, into a Blue card probably has an even greater effect: you take a card that is literally on no one’s radar, and by making it Blue you make it something worthy of serious consideration. Like the most arbitrarily powerful Specter variant, the two-card swing of attacking with Dimir Cutpurse, this little guy might just surprise you… and in the same deck, I’d wager, if Sullivan Solution still has any legs as far as Fish-type variants go.
Venarian Glimmer – XU
Instant
Target opponent reveals his or her hand. Choose a nonland card from it with converted mana cost X or less. That player discards that card.
Stephen says this is probably too slow in Vintage, but when I look at this I see it as a very cheap first-turn Duress that can take Black Lotus, any Mox, Mana Crypt, and Chalice of the Void out of the opponent’s hand for just the one mana… if it doesn’t make the cut main-deck, there may yet be decks that want this out of the sideboard, under the presumption that even if it misses with X=0 you will probably win that game handily. It’s not exactly like Duress, but it may prove to be a good enough replica of Duress to see play.
Oh, and it too is a Blue card that can be pitched to Force and Misdirection, meaning that they also get that little extra bit of forgiveness that “normal” Duress doesn’t have. Everything’s better when it’s Blue! Sadly, however, that more or less concludes our Vintage discussion, meaning it is time to move on to Legacy, a format I have at least played within recent memory, even if my choice of deck was somewhat left of “conventional.”
Legacy:
Magus of the Tabernacle – 3W
Creature – Human Wizard
2/4.
All creatures have, "At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this creature unless you pay 1."
White-based “Stax”-style decks have been played from time to time in Legacy, and one problem it has faced is that a key lock component, Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, is readily vulnerable to Wasteland, making it difficult to control the number of creatures able to actively attack you. Magus of the Tabernacle can help keep creatures off the board and doesn’t die to Wasteland while doing it, though surviving without eating a Swords to Plowshares or cycled Gempalm Incinerator may be an equally challenging task. While its home in Legacy may be very small, it may still be greater than zero in a variety of decks… I can already see it having a potential home in Stax-like decks, and possibly in the mono-White “Parfait” deck that is somehow in favor with various Legacy play-groups.
Sinew Sliver – 1W
Creature – Sliver
1/1.
All Slivers get +1/+1.
Some have said that Legacy is where the good Extended decks of yesteryear have gone to die, and Sinew Sliver is a color-shifted reprint of Muscle Sliver, part of the old Counter-Sliver “trifecta” of Crystalline / Muscle / Winged. This is of course Blue, White, and Green combined, and if you’re going to play a U/W/G aggro deck, Threshold will generally be a better choice. However, if you are looking to play the “new trifecta” of Crystalline / Sinew / Winged, you get the benefits of “just” a two-color manabase, which can take advantage of reduced vulnerability to Wasteland and possibly even run Wastelands itself, something most Threshold decks would consider too ambitious to try themselves. For those who really, really want a reason to play Slivers, you can now play Crystalline / Sinew / Muscle / Winged, and perhaps maybe just maybe go hog-wild while you’re at it so long as you don’t mind the three-color manabase.
A U/W Slivers deck could play similarly to Threshold and have an easier time casting the key Tivadar’s Crusade, among other benefits. It’s a far cry to say this would be automatically better but it may be worth considering the possibility… and I suspect it will be looked into between now and the upcoming Grand Prix in May.
Piracy Charm – U
Instant
Choose one – Target creature gains islandwalk until end of turn; or target creature gets +2/-1 until end of turn; or target player discards a card.
Legacy is an odd format. One of the most crucial things to know about Legacy is that an unanswered turn 1 Goblin Lackey can decimate you, and so anything that can potentially answer a Lackey is worth considering. Blue is generally lacking in real answers to such a threat with just one Blue mana, at least main-deck before up to eight Blasts can come in, which makes anything better than Psychic Purge worth looking into. Piracy Charm kills Lackey, and can be cashed in against everyone else in some kind of reasonable fashion, either for a card or perhaps some other creature like Deadguy Ale’s Dark Confidants. If you’re Blue but not White, and thus do not have Plow, this should at least be on your radar as far as cards that might be something you should consider. it’s a non-BEB main-deckable answer to Goblin Lackey without having to leave the color or rely on having drawn Force of Will first.
Damnation – 2BB
Sorcery
Destroy all creatures. They can’t be regenerated.
Legacy is very much about creatures, with far fewer viable combo decks than most other formats… two of the three biggest decks in the format play men in reasonable quantities. In Legacy this gives the possibility of playing U/W Control to a U/B deck, which could possibly transform the current design of Landstill far from where it is and into something new, or even give us a viable Psychatog deck in the format. (Or, perhaps both… and wouldn’t that be interesting?)
Zvi wasn’t kidding when he said this is something the other formats will have to live with forever… numerous forms of Landstill have been recently mutating at the SCG Dual for Duals events into Black-based decks, and Damnation can bring these “alternate” builds back into line with the more traditional U/W builds by providing the power of an angry God Devil.
Stingscourger – 1R
Creature – Goblin Warrior
2/2.
Echo 3R. When Stingscourger comes into play, return target creature an opponent controls to its owner’s hand.
Goblin decks pretty much auto-add a Goblin-o’War, as a useful tool for getting Threshold-plumped creatures like Werebear and Mystic Enforcer out of the way so they can continue their aggressive push. The de-facto “best deck” in Legacy automatically changes by at least one card thanks to Planar Chaos, with little to no disagreement.
Simian Spirit Guide – 2R
Creature – Ape Spirit
2/2.
Remove Simian Spirit in your hand from the game: Add R to your mana pool.
Goblin Charbelcher decks have showed up in the past in Legacy, and it could be that having Spirit Guide #5-8 pushes this two-land, tons-of-alternate-mana deck to a new level. Simian Spirit Guide casts Rite of Flame, and both are Ritual-type fast mana spells that were previously unseen in Legacy Belcher decks… it could very well be true that Simian Spirit Guide into Coldsnap’s Rite of Flame has a momentous impact on this deck, maybe speeding it up enough to break the barrier into the top tiers.
Extended:
Planar Chaos is a very odd set to port into Extended right now. Thanks to the powerful manabases available to anyone with a couple hundred dollars to shell out for ‘em, the colors of cards are less important right now than how well they work together, with even the faithful translation of the monochromatic “Red Deck Wins” running between two and three colors (… or as many as four, if you’re crazy like me and look at things like Cabal Therapy when considering sideboard options). So a set full of cards that are already available, but in new colors, isn’t really very impressive… even the beatdown deck, with its need for consistency and redundancy, likes to have a Forest, a Mountain, and two Plains in play between its first two land drops. This is already a format that lets you stretch yourself about as thin as you dare, so for the most part a lot of the very similar cards will not have an impact in this particular format.
… Some readers are seeing this as cop-out number three, after talking about a format I only read about and never play (Vintage) and another format I enjoy and play, but only very rarely (Legacy). But the cold and honest truth is that as nifty-keen as it is to see Green get Curiosity and Seal of Cleansing, or Blue pick up Skulking Ghost, this means very little to the uncaring Extended format. Extended cares about new cards only, first and foremost, and only cares about anything color-shifted if it happens to enable a strategy that is previously top tier but needing a slight bump.
Magus of the Bazaar – 1U
Creature – Human Wizard
0/1.
Tap: Draw two cards, then discard three cards.
… If Vintage can make truly ridiculous decks, at least in concept, by adding Bazaar of Baghdad plus Dredge engines, then one could argue that Magus of the Bazaar might have a home in Extended’s version of the Ichorid deck. With maybe fifty percent of the decks in the format actually having an effective answer for him very early in the game, it’s probably too fragile… but it’s at least something to keep an eye out for. If the format shifts far enough away from efficient Red decks, like Flow Deck Wins and Boros Deck Wins, this may have a much higher life-expectancy and thus actually be playable.
Extirpate – B
Instant
Split Second. Choose target card in a graveyard other than a basic land. Search its owner’s graveyard, hand and library for all cards with the same name and remove them from the game.
Cut three mana from Cranial Extraction at the cost of only targeting cards that are in the graveyard somehow, and we already have a card that is reasonable enough at what it does that it’s worth thinking about. Add in a shift from Sorcery speed to Instant speed, and the loss of an option to splice onto Arcane seems pretty fair of a trade-off. Add Split Second, though… add Split Second and things get amazing. Like its predecessor, Cranial Extraction, this fundamentally alters what counts as “correct deckbuilding” when it’s being played, but it does so at a low enough cost that it can actually be effective at fighting combo decks.
It still does nothing against beatdown though, and another strike against it is that most of the “best decks” this will be squaring off against, like TEPS, Aggro Loam, and Scepter-Chant, also happen to play Wishes that make it so that you can’t just “Cranial” them once and expect them to just die under their own crushing dead weight. Two key strikes against it mean that it’s a sideboard card, albeit an amazing one, and thus may not have as much of an effect as is currently prophesied unless it’s being Wished for.
Damnation – 2BB
Sorcery
Destroy all creatures. They can’t be regenerated.
… Let me tell you about my little friend, Psychatog. Psychatog only needs a little teensy-weensie bit of help before it’s a “real” deck, and getting its own Wrath of God is a solid argument for things improving in the near future as far as Dr. Teeth’s playability. The Sudden Shock problem already has reasonable workarounds, like setting up with Upheaval or Teferi first, or maybe even using Counterbalance. Heck, why not do both, add Counterbalance / Top to your Tog deck*, and Cunning Wish can access Muddle the Mixture as your token counterspell (to “Wish for” Counterbalance if needed) and Mystical Teachings to search up a one-of Teferi that then turns up a second Tutor for Doc Teeth.
Like in Legacy, there’s the potential for advancement for a deck that is already very, very close to being “real,” and not just successful occasionally as a rogue strategy. This is one of the few cards that are existent but “just” change colors and have an impact on the game; giving potential Psychatog decks a Wrath might just turn out to be huge. And that’s not even counting other weird decks that might want access to this card, like maybe as a Wish target in the sideboard of TEPS or any of a number of other potential Burning Wish decks.
Sulfur Elemental – 2R
Creature – Elemental
3/2.
Flash, Split Second. White creatures get +1/-1.
This is definitely an odd one… but it’s an odd one that happens to do bad things to some very, very good creatures, like Soltari Priest. It may only be a niche card with occasional use, but its existence should at least be recognized if White creatures like Savannah Lion and Soltari Priest are played as four-ofs.
Blood Knight – RR
Creature – Human Knight
2/2.
First Strike, protection from White.
… Like Sulfur Elemental, this may be the kind of card that Extended can use, being the missing mirror to Silver Knight. Protection from White gets Lightning Helix off your back and makes it so Silver Knight can’t block you, even if you are still vulnerable to burn. Red decks that don’t have access to White might find this useful, at the moment, just as a Red drop that isn’t automatically stymied by a lone Silver Knight. It’s clearly crowded out of Boros by Silver Knight and Soltari Priest, but it may show up in other places.
Mire Boa – 1G
Creature – Snake
2/1.
Swampwalk. G: Regenerate Mire Boa.
River Boa had a home in Extended for years, from Secret Force to PT Junk and any number of other decks over the years that like efficient bodies that fit the curve and are damnably hard to kill. Mire Boa is likewise efficient, curve-hugging, and made of adamantium if you want him to be… plus landwalk abilities aren’t just completely random throw-ins in a format where everyone plays three or more colors. I don’t exactly expect a new Renaissance of Green decks in Extended, but Green already exists in Extended, like in Flow Deck Wins, Flores’ “Haterator” or the newly-emerging Opposition deck. This alongside Troll Ascetic might just be less-than-three.
Timbermare – 3G
Creature – Elemental
5/5.
Haste, Echo 5G. When Timbermare comes into play, tap all other creatures.
Groundbreaker – GGG
Creature – Elemental
6/1.
Haste, Trample. At end of turn, sacrifice Groundbreaker.
Let’s staple these two together, because any Green creature that looks like a burn spell might just be worth your while. Boros has been the dominant Aggro deck for some time now, but these might help change things by increasing the argument behind trying Gruul on for size… Groundbreaker pours on the damage against non-Red decks, while Timbermare seals the deal against other creatures, or is just another hasty man to the face when tapping the opposing men isn’t critical. I wouldn’t quite expect to see Timbermare as a four-of, unless I went up to a PTQ north of say Boston or so, but if nothing else I can see an argument where these might exist and actually do good work.
Necrotic Sliver – 1BW
Creature – Sliver
2/2.
All Slivers have "3, Sacrifice this creature: Destroy target permanent."
Sinew Sliver – 1W
Creature – Sliver
1/1.
All Slivers get +1/+1.
… These two likewise get stapled together, because they might help add to the currently flailing attempts to make a functional B/W aggressive deck. These sorts of decks have somehow been cropping up randomly seemingly with no single origin or root cause behind the belief that B/W “might be good”, but these two working together might help push the argument behind Black and White beating down together and actually, y’know, not being totally the suck. Decks like that already pack Vindicate as a four-of, and seem to be wanting another creature to fit the curve and pull its weight… creature bases starting with Lions, Isamaru, Silver Knight, Confidant, Sinew Sliver and Necrotic Sliver might actually be functional.
This doesn’t mean the deck will suddenly be much better, and I certainly didn’t say the G-word. But it’s better than a lot of the options I’ve seen tried out in that slot, like Rotlung Reanimator, and it might just prove very interesting indeed.
Standard:
Crovax, Ascendant Hero – 4WW
Legendary Creature – Human Lord
4/4.
Other white creatures get +1/+1. Nonwhite creatures get -1/-1. Pay 2 life: Return Crovax, Ascendant Hero to its owner’s hand.
We live in a world where sometimes, just sometimes, big dumb Legendary creatures happen to be really, really good. Skeletal Vampire is one such creature that was laughed at this time a year ago by pretty much everyone (… except of course for Talen Lee, who asked him if he had a sister…), and it’s distinctly possible that Crovax may fill a role that seems to be needed in the future. A lot of people seem to be talking about playing Mono-Green Aggro, because of that deck’s apparent storming of the metagame on MTGO when everyone decided to play control decks that couldn’t beat a bad aggro deck with no reach, and this makes mincemeat out of many of that deck’s most prized creatures. If Skellie (… sorry, I mean “Murray”) can show up in competitive Constructed play in decks like Dralnu du Louvre or Solar Flare, Crovax may see his day in the sun too. Good thing for him he’s not a vampire this time!
Magus of the Tabernacle – 3W
Creature – Human Wizard
2/6.
All creatures have "At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this creature unless you pay 1."
Taxing the opponent’s resources is a good way to stunt their development, and against decks that develop the board early on with creatures, Magus of the Tabernacle offers an asymmetrical effect: you pay four to keep all your stuff, and I’ll pay one to keep mine. Adding a respectable 2/6 blocker helps to tax their resources even more, as they need to commit more creatures to the table (and more mana to keep them around) just to actually attack effectively, against the color that first brought you Wrath of God.
This Magus may see a reasonable amount of play, for exactly that reason… unlike the other Magi, this one has a very immediate impact on the way the game plays, because its ability is continuous instead of an activated ability that needs a turn to start doing something. Anything asymmetrical is worth investigating, and this is most certainly asymmetrical.
Stonecloaker – 2W
Creature – Gargoyle
3/2.
Flying, Flash. When Stonecloaker comes into play, return a creature you control to its owner’s hand. When Stonecloaker comes into play, remove target card in a graveyard from the game.
This card is cleverly disguised as a creature, which I guess it could be if that is what you wanted, but it seems to actually be pinpointed graveyard removal with a reasonable Buyback cost. It may show up in aggro decks that want to hate the ‘yard (but not commit so much as to buy into potentially do-nothing Tormod’s Crypt) or as a control tool against graveyard strategies, as it is an excellent counter to any number of reanimation spells. And can attack for three, if that’s your thing, I guess. Or save a creature from pinpoint removal, sure, why not.
Calciderm – 2WW
Creature – Beast
5/5.
Vanishing 4. Calciderm can’t be the target of spells or abilities.
Blastoderm with whatever plastic surgery Michael Jackson had done to him is still pretty Blastoderm-y, I’d just keep him away from the Meddling Kids. (Little Girl, however, is somehow safe… who knew!) You may not have Fires, but you shouldn’t knock the ‘Derm just because of that lack, he was still “pretty good” in Masques Block Constructed regardless of the fact that he “only” cracks for fifteen, not the full twenty. We all need a little help from our friends to get by, but this is the guy who 3-0s the draft and only needs his team-mates to win a match each so they can split the cards already, not some lazy 1-2 drafter who needs the other two team-mates to somehow win the draft for him.
I’d money-draft with Calciderm, so I guess I should think about playing him, y’know?
Mana Tithe – W
Instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1.
Force Spike returning to us is very relevant to Standard, especially given how the format at the end of Time Spiral Standard seems to be reasonably populated by aggressive decks that hug their mana curves. Adding this as a White ability instead of a Blue one is really, really interesting, and may seem jarring at first… you’re used to thinking about holding onto your best spells against an untapped Island turn 1, so you don’t walk into Spell Snare (… or Force Spike, as it used to be back in the age of dinosaurs).
Seeing an untapped Plains is going to get everyone at least once, as they walk right into a Force Spike that had somehow been camouflaged. “The Spike,” or I guess it’d be ‘The Tithe’ now, is a very efficient counterspell that profits in very efficient formats… and if there’s one thing that Standard has been all about for several years now, it’s efficiency. This won’t be an auto-add, but it may give Blue decks a stronger reason to pair with White instead of Black, in a world where either of them can rouse the ire of an angry God.
Porphyry Nodes – W
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, destroy the creature with the least power. It can’t be regenerated. If two or more creatures are tied for least power, you choose one. When there are no creatures in play, sacrifice Porphyry Nodes.
This is another solid argument for White as a controlling color, with a spell that can act as multiple creature removal packages tied neatly into the price of but a single White mana. Imagine the time this can buy you if your opponent leads off with Savannah Lions or Kird Ape, only to see you drop some honey on the table and watch for their reaction. Further commitment to the board will see their creatures eaten after but a single attack, but the other option is to do nothing on turn 2, and cede the right to attack on turn 3… a bad situation in either case. It may not match up with some of the tools Black has, being able to clear the hand with Persecute the turn before it wipes the board with Damnation, but it is a fast, efficient tool for control against creatures, and should be respected.
Sinew Sliver – 1W
Creature – Sliver
1/1.
All Slivers get +1/+1.
This seems like something of a joke right now, because White’s weenies can be so much better without requiring a tribal theme to pull off success, but presumably with some time-traveling Emmett Brown slivers about to make their way Back from the Future in just a few months, this guy shouldn’t be swept under the rug completely. There are two other Slivers that it shares a color with that further argue for some Sliver loving action, mimicking Vindicate and Goblin Legionnaires, and even if Muscle… I mean Sinew… Sliver doesn’t find an immediate home, it will likely appear in Standard at some point.
Aeon Chronicler – 3UU
Creature – Avatar
*/*.
Aeon Chronicler’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand. Suspend X – X3U. X can’t be 0. Whenever a time counter is removed from Aeon Chronicler while it’s removed from the game, draw a card.
Maro was in the past considered a highly playable card, and it’s beefier in Blue than it ever was as a Green card. It costs just one more for the right to be a sizable creature, and so already is worthy of consideration in a variety of Blue decks as their replacement Dragon-sized finisher. Add to that its pure ridiculousness when played with the Urzatron, to set it up as a Blue Phyrexian Arena that eventually turns into a Huge/Huge man (with haste!), and it will likely make at least some appearance, though there is at least one other creature it may be fighting with for prominence in Tron decks. (See: Torchling.)
Body Double – 4U
Creature – Shapeshifter
0/0.
As Body Double comes into play, you may choose a creature card in a graveyard. If you do, Body Double comes into play as a copy of that card.
This is Zombify / Dread Return / Resurrection made anew as a Blue card, and of the kind of card type (“creature”) best able to be played at a discounted cost… or otherwise abused, such as found off the death of a Protean Hulk with a friend or two. It may not be glorious, but it is functional as such and will at some point appear, if not at Tier 1 then in a reasonable lower-tier deck that doesn’t want to pay full price for something and can take advantage of having a Blue reanimation spell. This is also the only reanimation spell currently in Standard that allows you to somehow jiggle an opponent’s dead creature into play on your side, and is the same color as Compulsive Research and Careful Consideration, generally considered to be the preferred method for getting one of your fatties in the graveyard.
Gossamer Phantasm – 1U
Creature – Illusion
2/1.
Flying. When Gossamer Phantasm becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.
Alongside some other cheap Blue illusions, the flying Blue illusion deck might actually be existent at some point. This slots in alongside Krovikan Mist and helps to pump it as well, meaning that both may just happen to see the fringe of playability at some point. Standard isn’t usually chock full of ways to target a creature with an effect that wouldn’t break it anyway, or cost a card in doing so, meaning Skulking Ghost 2.0 (now with a new paint job!) is not much less fragile than a Blue Mistral Charger.
Piracy Charm – U
Instant
Choose one – Target creature gains islandwalk until end of turn; or target creature gets +2/-1 until end of turn; or target player discards a card.
Again we are looking at this card as Blue pinpoint removal, this time for fast creatures like Savannah Lions or utility problems such as Llanowar Elves and Dark Confidant. This may not have the spectacular alternate uses one might hope for, but it’ll always be worth an opponent’s card, and sometimes it will blunt their early attack while you’re at it. If Funeral Charm is playable in Black, it should be better in Blue… isn’t that the argument from a few pages back? This gives Blue an effect it clearly can’t usually do by itself, and an effect that is often desirable to boot.
Riptide Pilferer – 1U
Creature – Merfolk Rogue
1/1.
Morph U. Whenever Riptide Pilferer deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card.
Yes, yes, me and my Merfolk, I know, I know. I’ve been in love with the Merfolk tribe for years, to the point where Replenish was so good that I just had to Islandwalk all over them. Happy memories aside, and wishful thinking about being able to assemble a playable mono-Blue aggro-control strategy like that one in the future, Riptide Pilferer is a credible anti-control card that can be played cheaply by control decks. We have a potent new tool for Blue decks to use against each other, and another reasonable creature to add to a Blue-Black deck full of creatures that draw cards or force discards (or both!) when they connect with the opponent. With enough of a critical mass of cards like that, suddenly Soul Spike and Commandeer become reasonable free counters, giving us the core of this deck so far:
4 Riptide Pilferer
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Dimir Cutpurse
4 Commandeer
4 Soul Spike
… it doesn’t take much more to make this a silly but viable deck, y’know?
Extirpate – B
Instant
Split Second. Choose target card in a graveyard other than a basic land. Search its owner’s graveyard, hand and library for all cards with the same name and remove them from the game.
This may not have the biggest effect on Standard by being played, but much like Cranial Extraction it does force decks to respect it, and obey its design constraints or lose. Control decks need a greater variety of kill mechanisms to remain functional in the face of opposing Extirpates, instead of relying on just one card, and previously reliable graveyard-based strategies like Martyr-Proclamation or Firemane Angel cannot be considered anything close to reliable so long as this hateful little package is here.
For the decks that didn’t like Tormod’s Crypt and Withered Wretch coming out of Time Spiral, this may be the final nail in the coffin… but if nothing else, there are enough potent (and potentially otherwise playable) tools to battle the graveyard and make such a choice a calculated risk instead of a reasonably safe plan. Stripping out the rest of the copies is pretty harsh, and so is removing interactivity by letting the opponent respond… this is a mean and nasty little card, but thankfully one that is limited in scope. And it better be, because it’s certainly not limited by its mana cost.
Imp’s Mischief – 1B
Instant
Change the target of target spell with a single target. You lose life equal to that spell’s converted mana cost.
Misdirection and Deflection effects are always worth noticing, and this is as cheap as Rebound / Meddle but with its own limitations (loss of life) instead of a targeting restriction. Especially considering that Blue/Black was good before it got a Wrath, and is gearing up to be the most potent control color combination, this fitting in neatly as a Black card will be very relevant.
Damnation – 2BB
Sorcery
Destroy all creatures. They can’t be regenerated.
Wrath of God. Yawn. So interesting to see appear and potentially impact Legacy or Extended, where Black/Blue is not already a strong color combination, and so uninteresting in Standard, where it will have the greatest effect for the entire duration of its lifetime there. Get your four and play ‘em, but don’t pretend they’re anything new.
Dunerider Outlaw – BB
Creature – Human Rebel Rogue
1/1.
Protection from Green. At end of turn, if Dunerider Outlaw dealt damage to an opponent this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Whirling Dervish was, in a previous lifetime, a very credible threat against Necrodecks, and this time it gets to channel the power of the Skull itself. Black is much better at pushing offending creatures out of the way and letting Dunerider Outlaw here finish the job, bloating itself to enormous size on the blood of your enemies.
Null Profusion – 4BB
Enchantment
Skip your draw step. Whenever you play a card, draw a card. Your maximum hand size is 2.
Ah, back to the good old days of broken Black enchantments that draw lots of cards for 4BB, I see? Recycle was close to playable for the entirety of its stay in Standard the first time, and will presumably be as relevant (and as powerful) for the entirety of its stay here in Black-card form. We lack the Rituals to have this be truly broken as a Black card, but there are still plenty of Rituals around if you want them… but you may be stuck trying to pay something near full price for this, making it ultimately “fair”. I doubt there is a use for it at the moment, but as a potential combo work-horse it deserves the nod of respect that reminds us that this may very well crack open a metagame at some point in the future, even if it’s merely drawing multiple cards a turn in a Black-based control deck instead of “being broken.”
Akroma, Angel of Fury – 5RRR
Legendary Creature – Angel
6/6.
Akroma, Angel of Fury can’t be countered. Flying, trample, protection from white, protection from blue. R: +1/+0 until end of turn. Morph 3RRR
This Akroma is much less angry than the White one, which is kind of ironic with that whole “… of Fury” bit of her name. She does however cohabitate nicely with Radha, unmorphing on the fourth turn, while possessing a different but still quite tasty bunch of special abilities. She’ll always be overshadowed by her hasty first-striking twin sister… but I think I like this purple-haired freak better as a redhead.
Lavacore Elemental – 2R
Creature – Elemental
5/3.
Vanishing 1. Whenever a creature you control deals damage to an opponent, you may put a time counter on Lavacore Elemental.
Five power on a creature for three mana is pretty impressive, and this would have been downright amazing in the bad old days of Fires of Yavimaya. With a kick-start from a friend one time, this can upkeep itself quite nicely, meaning it needs a little bit of help to actually turn into a 5/3 for three… but that help is of the kind we like doing anyway, attacking with weenies. This may be a bit of cheap fat you can add to Boros decks, especially ones packing Scorched Rusalka, and might even answer the question of which heavy hitter (if any) to choose between all the various options.
Magus of the Arena – 4RR
Creature – Human Wizard
5/5.
3, Tap: Tap target creature you control and target creature of an opponent’s choice he or she controls. Each of those creatures deals damage equal to its power to the other.
Yes, yes, I know that Karplusan Yeti is currently Standard-legal from Ninth Edition. For one more mana in its real cost, and three more in its activation (both acceptable, when we’re talking about moderately high-cost creatures anyway), you get a 5/5 with a very similar ability. That means it can survive Wildfire, making it a very different card and making it a possible addition to a Red-packing control deck (instead of a junk rare you’re happy to open when 9/9/9 drafting, but would still rather have a Wrath, BoP or painlaind over).
It’s still unfortunately going to be overshadowed by a better “fight me right now!” Red creature, for all of its long and lonely existence. Sad story, really… but not if you’re the Torchling.
Stingscourger – 1R
Creature – Goblin Warrior
2/2.
Echo 3R. When Stingscourger comes into play, return target creature an opponent controls to its owner’s hand.
Echo is a serious handicap in Constructed, or at least Constructed formats without Goblin Warchief to make this guy truly silly. But the ability may just be unique and unusual enough that Goblin o’ War finds a home in Standard as well, instead of the stranger and more esoteric formats that have somehow been mysteriously dominated by Goblins. (I blame Dan Paskins.)
Sulfur Elemental – 2R
Creature – Elemental
3/2.
Flash, Split Second. White creatures get +1/-1.
… Like as mentioned in the Extended portion above, this guy answers the same creatures and thus might be playable in the same kind of deck and for the same reasons.
Torchling – 3RR
Creature – Shapeshifter
3/3.
R: Untap Torchling. R: Target creature blocks Torchling this turn if able. R: Change the target of target spell that targets only Torchling. 1: +1/-1 until end of turn. 1: -1/+1 until end of turn.
Ah, finally, the moment I have been waiting for… getting to be the first non-weasel Internet pundit to say that Torchling is going to be really, really good. For Time Spiral, I pre-ordered four copies of Psionic Blast at ten per copy and never looked back, a decision I expect I will not regret at any time in my life… unless you mean “regret only having ordered four,” because if I’d ordered eight I could have sold ‘em back at 20 and gotten “my” four for free. For Planar Chaos, Torchling is the card I pre-bought, picking up four at five each. We already know he’s nutty in Limited, and in that format might even be better than the original. In Standard, though, this guy is quite the spiffy creature.
First things first, this guy is an amazing control creature. Unless it has shadow, protection from Red, or six toughness, this guy can pick it off the turn it comes into play. So long as there are other creatures in play it can shrug off removal spells pointed its way, possibly even harsher than Morphling (if more limited in application) because wasting a spell or two to finally tap you out of Red mana will have a very unhealthy effect on your opponent’s team. You can’t attack into it unless you have evasion, and you can’t effectively not attack into it and keep creatures in play… damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
As a five-drop that gets more and more insane the more mana you have, this seems like it would have a perfect home in an Urzatron deck, which right there gives you a very solid argument for why you might want to pay U/R Tron over U/W Tron**. Against other control decks, redirecting targeted kill to their creature is a less likely occurrence, they tend to not have quite so many of them lying around… or they’re using global kill anyway. But he’s a controlling creature that works well in the color that brought you Wildfire, and can completely demolish creature-based strategies while swinging for five against control. That makes him a-okay in my book.
Boom / Bust – 1R / 5R
Sorcery / Sorcery
Destroy target land you control and target land you don’t control. / Destroy all lands.
This will immediately see some play for the first part by people who think that they are clever monkeys by targeting their own Flagstones of Trokair, but repeated use will teach them that this card is really bad without their own Flagstones and merely one mana under-costed with it, meaning if they want a Stone Rain they’ll go back to actually using, y’know, a Stone Rain. Six mana for Armageddon is nifty to see but overshadowed by Wildfire, meaning that most decks that will consider using this probably should be looking elsewhere instead. For both halves. Still, it will see some play from the occasional odd deck in which it’s actually correct to play this, or by people who haven’t learned better yet.
Rough / Tumble – 1R / 5R
Sorcery / Sorcery
Rough deals 2 damage to each creature without flying / Tumble deals 6 damage to each creature with flying.
The second split card of note is about as much of a weenie-killer as your standard-issue Pyroclasm, and includes a Dragon-slaying option as well. Seeing how it still doesn’t kill the Dragon you care about the most, leaving the Angel of Wrath flying the friendly skies to smash-you-for-sixville, it’s almost good enough but not quite. The risk of leaving creatures in play when you Pyroclasm is probably worth the reward of having a second option, though… flying weenies are not a very large part of the metagame right at this moment, nor are decks playing both Dark Confidant and Pyroclasm.
Blood Knight – RR
Creature – Human Knight
2/2.
First Strike, Protection from White.
A quality Red weenie shall never be overlooked, and so here we are, not overlooking it. This survives Lightning Helix, Mortify, and Condemn, which is to say most of the best targeted removal from “old” Standard. If efficient Red men are desired, Blood Knight will answer the call and serve admirably… but again this may still be overshadowed in Boros by White’s two-drops, and pairing this with Green likewise may give you more options that fit the mana curve that you want more, like Mire Boa and Scab-Clan Mauler. Remember it, because the cards that are crowding it out at the moment won’t be around forever, leaving him potential room for advancement into a real deck of his own.
Reckless Wurm – 3RR
Creature – Wurm
4/4.
Trample. Madness 2R.
Arrogant Wurm was playable the first time in a format that gave us Wild Mongrel and Careful Study; he only needs a little help to break through into playability. The current set of Madness outlets are either too expensive for real use or too stinky for Constructed, but the rewards for trying to pair Red madness cards with whatever color of discard is pretty clear if you can get Fiery Temper and Reckless Wurm active. Another card waiting for a little help, and thus likely not very playable right now, but one that should make that break into the bigger leagues.
Simian Spirit Guide – 2R
Creature – Ape Spirit
2/2.
Remove Simian Spirit Guide in your hand from the game: Add R to your mana pool.
How many Rituals is too many? Fortunately, not counting towards Storm is a mark against him, as the big mana decks need their Storm count to work right… but if the answer of “how many Rituals do you want” goes past Rite of Flame, Seething Song, and Lotus Bloom, this is your go-to monkey. He doesn’t do anything fair, but that’s not really a “bad” thing, is it?
Hunting Wilds – 3G
Sorcery
Kicker 3G. Search your library for up to 2 Forest cards and put them into play tapped. Then shuffle your library. If the kicker cost was paid, untap all Forests put into play this way. They are 3/3 creatures with Haste that are still lands.
I wouldn’t normally even think of this card, except for the fact that Explosive Vegetation and Skyshroud Claim both saw at least token use in their existing formats. This has the joy of existing in a format that includes dual lands this can find, and a built-in safety clause preventing additional copies from being too useless. My expectation of seeing this hit play is a solid 2% chance of playability, but 2% is still greater than zero.
Magus of the Library – GG
Creature – Human Wizard
1/1.
Tap: Add 1 to your mana pool. Tap: Draw a card. Play this ability only if you have exactly seven cards in hand.
Does anyone really need to be told that Library of Alexandria stapled to an Elf is pretty good, and that Scryb Ranger will both modulate your hand size for him and let you use him twice? I didn’t think so. Fragile, and possessed of an awkward mana cost, sure… but still good.
Mire Boa – 1G
Creature – Snake
2/1.
Swampwalk. G: Regenerate Mire Boa.
River Boa was a mighty force in his day, and may be mighty again soon. Besides the people who salivate at the idea of dropping Moldervine Cloak on him and Swampwalking for five, he’s a nearly indestructible bear with an evasion ability that will see at least some use, great on the attack and still fine at blocking (if that’s your thang). This adds considerably to the high quality of cheap creatures you can play, and sits pretty high on that list to boot. Expect to see Boas and you won’t be disappointed.
Timbermare – 3G
Creature – Elemental
5/5.
Haste, Echo 5G. When Timbermare comes into play, tap all other creatures.
Groundbreaker – GGG
Creature – Elemental
6/1.
Haste, Trample. At end of turn, sacrifice Groundbreaker.
Again these two get stapled together, fitting a very particular kind of deck that may or may not prove to be very good. It’s good to see that the love child of Sligh and Stompy may be showing up at Jamie Wakefield doorstep sometime soon, and just as pleasing to know that it’s got some real game as well. Groundbreaker feels very strange indeed as a Green card, but its use is the same as Ball Lightning’s was and the plan may be similarly quite good.
Essence Warden – G
Creature – Elf Shaman
1/1.
Whenever another creature comes into play, you gain 1 life.
Soul Warden is already seeing play at the moment, and it’s possible that a Green version will be better for the Green-heavy deck that is already playing it. It’s another card we’ve seen a lot already, since it came out back in Exodus, and a new color doesn’t really alter its playability so much as its potential use (as with the Saffi / Crypt Champion combo) or its environment defines it.
Harmonize – 2GG
Sorcery
Draw three cards.
… Right, a Green card. Among other things this slots very nicely into decks like “Snakes on a Desert,” that can use its Green cost as an advantage by pulling heavily upon Wall of Roots. Concentrate was amazing at its time as a Blue card, and instead of being compared to Compulsive Research (where it stacks up very favorably I might add) it gets to break out on its own as a Green card drawing spell, from the color that brought you Curiosity and Ophidian.
Planar Chaos sometimes makes me want to get my head examined. Things don’t always feel like they’re making sense, y’know?
Seal of Primordium – 1G
Enchantment
Sacrifice Seal of Primordium: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
Disenchant was better as a Seal, and Naturalize may get that same chance. Not a card that perks me up and gets me to pay attention, but still a technically better card than the predecessor most of the time.
Cautery Sliver – RW
Creature – Sliver
2/2.
All Slivers have "1, Sacrifice this creature: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature or player." All Slivers have "1, Sacrifice this creature: Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to target Sliver or player this turn."
Necrotic Sliver – 1BW
Creature – Sliver
2/2.
All Slivers have "3, Sacrifice this creature: Destroy target permanent."
Here we have a bit of a cop-out, since they go with Sinew Sliver or they don’t go at all, and they probably want to go together or not at all. Whether B/R/W Slivers is going to be good enough, with the curve of Sinew / Cautery at two, and Necrotic / Sedge at three, is “definitely maybe”. The quality of the spells you can play is very high, as was seen when “Dark Boros” first appeared (… and like “Dark Boros,” Dark Confidant probably hangs out as the non-Sliver two-drop). The consistency of your mana is less high, but with proper tuning can be made to work reasonably flawlessly, just remember to squeeze enough actual counts-as-a-Swamp Black sources to your deck… all of this can be aided by the very snazzy Flagstones of Trokair. Whether it will be better than the other options is the unknown, and may yet rely on the Doc Brown slivers to be seen in Future Sight.
All Five Dragons
Yeah, they’re Dragons. They crack mightily, rule the sky, and do something spiffy. Black-wedge, Red-wedge and White-wedge Dragons all have powerful abilities worth stretching for, while Blue-wedge draws a card for three mana, then plays it for free… a value of unknown quantity besides being up +1 card. And Green dragon becomes huge, but is less worth stretching for as the other two colors are already amazing by themselves (Black and Blue, remember?) without Green’s help.
These bashers will all but certainly see play, especially the three nastiest ones. Especially good is the one that matches up with Lightning Angel, because that deck already has a good build that will probably translate well, thanks to it possessing what are arguably the three best colors before Planar Chaos. Rith, Dromar, and Crosis all saw reasonable play even outside of reanimation strategies, and even Darigaaz and Treva occasionally got in there in Constructed. These Dragons will likewise have their niches, at least so long as the Ravnica manabases still keep in touch with the neo-Invasion Dragons.
Radha, Heir to Keld – RG
Legendary Creature – Elf Warrior
2/2.
Tap: Add G to your mana pool. Whenever Radha Heir to Keld attacks, you may add RR to your mana pool.
Here we see another Red/Green beater, but with a dangerous and unknowable quantity… she can tap as an Elf if that’s what you need, or tap to attack and pop a Tinder Wall if that’s your desire. This will almost certainly see play after Tenth Edition brings us Incinerate as the “good Instant-speed two-mana burn spell,” maximizing her use alongside it and Sudden Shock, though even with Sudden Shock and Char at the moment as the playable instant burn she’ll likely be put to good use. She sits prettily next to “Akroma 2: Redheads Have All The Fun,” and that’s inevitably something that will be tried even if that “something” doesn’t succeed. As people get more and more used to her possible applications, they’ll squeeze more and more out of her mana-cranking attacks, or at least they will once they get over the idea that attacking with her will cause them to mana-burn.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Legendary Land
Each land is a Swamp in addition to its other land types.
Sure, there are obvious applications for this in Standard, where unless you help an opponent who’s playing Black to find their mana, this is strictly better than “just” a Swamp for you. The less obvious but still fun application might be to play four copies in your mono-Green aggro deck, helping you splash for Putrefy between it and Elves of Deep Shadow, and enabling you to Swampwalk the opponent with your Mire Boa to your heart’s content. Little things can have a big impact, and that’s not “just” a draft or Sealed Deck combo to maybe pull off anymore… that may very well have an actual serious impact on Standard, even if it sounds like a silly one.
Standard is the more forgiving format, even if the card-pool is still quite larger than we’re used to seeing in Standard formats. It makes sense that we see next to nothing for the elder statesmen of Magic that let you still play Swords to Plowshares and Force of Will if you want to, more than a few interesting notes for Extended, and the lion’s share of the cards fitting into Standard in one capacity or another. Next week, we’ll kick things off by again attempting to compare the first month of the Extended metagame to the MTGO electronic metagame following the World Championships. We’ll get a better idea of how the Extended metagame evolves, with the hope of using that information to inform us of what might be the best choice to play in the following weeks. With math and numbers and graphs… so bring your thinking caps.
Sean McKeown
smckeown @ livejournal.com
*: Just so you don’t think this is all fluffy theory and no meaty decklists, here’s the first-pass Tog deck that I’ve been cooking…
4 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Spell Snare
4 Counterspell
4 Psychatog
3 Damnation
3 Smother
3 Counterbalance
3 Cunning Wish
3 Fact or Fiction
3 Chrome Mox
3 Circular Logic
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
4 Polluted Delta
4 Watery Grave
4 Snow-Covered Island
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Flooded Strand
2 Mouth of Ronom
2 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
Sideboard:
4 Duress
1 Damnation
1 Extirpate
1 Darkblast
1 Smother
1 Hideous Laughter
1 Stifle
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Echoing Truth
1 Circular Logic
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mystical Teachings
It’s included two key workarounds for the Sudden Shock problem, countering it via Counterbalance or, in a longer game, setting up Cunning Wish into Mystical Teachings for Teferi plus Psychatog, never exposing Psychatog to a Sudden Shock thanks to Teferi’s bending of space and time… if Hiro Nakamura were a Magic card, I bet his casting cost would start with triple Blue. The one card that least fits here is the single Circular Logic in the sideboard, which should be fitting main-deck but sits nicely enough there, as one of multiple cards to be brought in when Smother and Damnation just don’t do anything.
Mouth of Ronom is added again because we respect Teferi, whom as you can see in his appearance here is starting to find more and more roles in the Extended metagame… here he’s an answer to the Sudden Shock dilemma, while in Scepter-Chant he turns the soft lock into a hard one. Likewise I expect it’s just a brief bit of time before he’s starting to see play in U/G Opposition decks, as he’s even less fair than Static Orb when your tokens can outnumber the opponent’s actual relevant permanents. It’s basically a free add in a two-color deck, acts as another piece of spot removal (if a slow one) and asks very little in return (snow-cover your Islands and Swamps, please).
This may not be the end-all, be-all of Extended… but it probably fits the metagame pretty nicely, and I for one think this deck or one very much like it gets slotted right into the testing gauntlet.
**: Fluffy theory aside number two… I think Torchling gives us another excellent reason to play Red in our Blue Tron decks again, as he does many Morphling-like things and his habit of picking a fight with all of the other creatures in play means he can single-handedly murder most beatdown decks. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a significant threat that can be played before you have the Tron active, that becomes even more impressive once you do… the list I’ve been working on for him so far looks like this:
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Tower
4 Urza’s Power Plant
4 Steam Vents
4 Shivan Reef
2 Mountain
2 Island
4 Izzet Signet
4 Mana Leak
4 Remand
4 Repeal
4 Compulsive Research
4 Torchling
3 Wildfire
3 Spell Burst
2 Triskelavus
2 Demonfire
Sideboard:
4 Pyroclasm
4 Riptide Pilferer
4 Annex
3 Rewind
Likewise, as in the Tog deck of (*) above, just because it may not be the end-all, be-all doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of your attention. Torchling probably alters how the deck plays very significantly, and this deck is pointed very well to handle aggro decks while having a respectable game against Control decks and hopefully not just completely and totally dying to Dragonstorm-type combo decks. And be fun to play as you make Torchling beat up all their men.
I like that last part best. But that’s just me.