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Acquiring A Legion Of MEN: The Top Legions Cards To Trade For

There are the Hyped-Up Cards, the cards that may or may not be good, and the cards that are solid gold but nobody knows or accepts this fact yet. A good example of a Hype card from this set would be the Mistform Ultimus – I mean sure, he’s a Squirrel Cat Beast Efreet Island Fish Dragon Townsfolk Druid Bandit Lord – but that doesn’t mean he’s good, even if he pretends to be a Necrosavant, Walking Dead, and Ball Lightning at the same time. After all when you get right down to it, the Ultimus is just a damn dirty ape.

First, I would like to say congrats to Eugene for his PT top 8 in Chicago. Go, Champ, go!


Now on with the article.


They’ve really done it this time. Wizards has created a format where in the prerelease drafts there can only be one path to victory – swinging with men. Mike Flores would be proud. He probably is. He probably wishes he was playing Magic right now so he could swing with tight men. I think he wrote an entire article about that once – go look it up, it’s a blast to read.


Just to give you a scope of what the Prerelease drafts look like, imagine this scenario – Fred is playing against Bob and bob has four cards in hand. Thus, Fred can determine that Bob probably has four men in hand. They are all men – always men.


But yet some men are better than others – like Birds of Paradise, John Shuler, or Wild Mongrel. What are the best men in this set? What should we be trading for? Which man is solid gold and which is the wooden nickel? That is what I am here to answer. That is right – you are reading another one of my”What to trade for” articles. I bet you didn’t even notice.


Like always – I will reiterate something about trading for cards in a new set. There are the Hyped-Up Cards, the cards that may or may not be good (only time will tell), and the cards that are solid gold but nobody knows or accepts this fact yet.


A good example of a Hype card from this set would be the Mistform Ultimus – I mean sure, he’s a Squirrel Cat Beast Efreet Island Fish Dragon Townsfolk Druid Bandit Lord Keeper Wizard Legend – but that doesn’t mean he’s good, even if he pretends to be a Necrosavant, Walking Dead, and Ball Lightning at the same time. After all when you get right down to it, the Ultimus is just a damn dirty ape.


The A List – Solid Gold:


Hollow Specter

1BB

Creature – Specter

2/2

Flying

Whenever Hollow Specter deals combat damage to a player, you may pay X. If you do, that player reveals X cards from his or her hand and you choose one of them. That player discards that card.


Rare


Willbender

1U

Creature – Wizard

1/2

Morph 1U (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)

When Willbender is turned face up, change the target of target spell or ability with a single target.


Uncommon


Clickslither

1RRR

Creature – Insect

3/3

Haste

Sacrifice a Goblin: Clickslither gets +2/+2 and gains trample until end of turn.

Rare


Seedborn Muse

3GG

Creature – Spirit

2/4

Untap all permanents you control during each other player’s untap step.

Rare


Glowrider

2W

Creature – Cleric

2/1

Noncreature spells cost 1 more to play.

Rare


Tribal Forcemage

1G

Creature – Elf Wizard

1/1

Morph 1G (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)

When Tribal Forcemage is turned face up, creatures of the type of your choice get +2/+2 and gain trample until end of turn.

Rare


Akroma Angel of Wrath

5WWW

Creature – Angel Legend

6/6

Flying, first strike, trample, haste, protection from black, protection from red

Attacking doesn’t cause Akroma, Angel of Wrath to tap.

Rare


Planar Guide

W

Creature – Cleric

1/1

3W, Remove Planar Guide from the game: Remove all creatures from the game. At end of turn, return those cards to play under their owners’ control.

Rare


Bane of the Living

2BB

Creature – Insect

4/3

Morph XBB (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)

When Bane of the Living is turned face up, all creatures get –X/-X until end of turn.

Rare


Keeper of the Nine Gales

2U

Creature – Bird Wizard

1/2

Flying

T, Tap two untapped Birds you control: Return target permanent to its owner’s hand.

Rare


Windborn Muse

3W

Creature – Spirit

2/3

Flying

Creatures can’t attack you unless their controller pays 2 for each creature attacking you. (This cost is paid as attackers are declared.)

Rare


Graveborn Muse

2BB

Creature – Zombie Spirit

3/3

At the beginning of your upkeep, you draw X cards and you lose X life, where X is the number of Zombies you control.

Rare


Withered Wretch

BB

Creature – Zombie Cleric

2/2

1: Remove target card in a graveyard from the game.

Uncommon


The B List – Could be hot, but maybe not:


Brood Sliver

4G

Creature – Sliver

3/3

Whenever a Sliver deals combat damage to a player, its controller may put a 1/1 colorless Sliver creature token into play.

Rare


Synapse Sliver

4U

Creature – Sliver

3/3

Whenever a Sliver deals combat damage to a player, its controller may draw a card.

Rare


Rockshard Elemental

5RR

Creature – Elemental

4/3

Double strike (This creature deals both first-strike and regular combat damage.)

Morph 4RR (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)

Rare


Riptide Director

2UU

Creature – Wizard

2/3

2UU, T: Draw a card for each Wizard you control.

Rare


Goblin Goon

3R

Creature – Goblin Mutant

6/6

Goblin Goon can’t attack unless you control more creatures than defending player.

Goblin Goon can’t block unless you control more creatures than attacking player.

Rare


Magma Sliver

3R

Creature – Sliver

3/3

All Slivers have”T: Target Sliver gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of Slivers in play.”

Rare


Gempalm Incinerator

2R

Creature – Goblin

2/1

Cycling 1R (1R, Discard this card from your hand: Draw a card.)

When you cycle Gempalm Incinerator, you may have it deal X damage to target creature, where X is the number of Goblins in play.

Uncommon


Gempalm Strider

1G

Creature – Elf

2/2

Cycling 2GG (2GG, Discard this card from your hand: Draw a card.)

When you cycle Gempalm Strider, all Elves get +2/+2 until end of turn.

Uncommon


Caller of the Claw

2G

Creature – Elf

2/2

You may play Caller of the Claw any time you could play an instant.

When Caller of the Claw comes into play, put a 2/2 green Bear creature token into play for each nontoken creature put into your graveyard from play this turn.

Rare


Aphetto Exterminator

2B

Creature – Wizard

3/1

Morph 3B (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)

When Aphetto Exterminator is turned face up, target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn.

Uncommon


Vile Deacon

2BB

Creature – Cleric

2/2

Whenever Vile Deacon attacks, it gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of Clerics in play.

Common


Well that’s the whole story – I pick for best card of the set is the Uncommon Willbender. The set may induce new strategies to be tried. I am particularly looking to see the beatdown cleric decks.


It seems like many of the best cards are uncommon – I really applaud Wizards for using this strategy of assigning rarity, it makes it easier for people to make Constructed decks and has a positive effect on Limited play. For instance, Withered Wretch is a card that is decent in Limited, but will most likely see Constructed play as a support beatdown card that is not too hard to find. While I did not like OBC or the Madness deck, I did like the fact that you could buy the whole deck for about $20 or less. This makes is easier for people to play the game competitively even when their wallet is looking thin – after all, this is a game of strategy, not an arms race.


For those of you who have been waiting eagerly for more of my articles, I must apologize for the delays. Keep the faith – I have no plans to quit writing or quit the game, I just may have to tone it down a notch.


Till next time,

Nate Heiss

Team CMU