Ask The Drama – The Impact of Planar Chaos: Your Questions Answered

Hello, and welcome to my little corner of our Planar Chaos review, New School Style.

Instead of the normal set reviews that can be boring at times, we’re doing things a

little different. Each day this week, one of the Premium Columnists takes a look at Planar

Chaos in their regular article, and each writes about the impact of the set in their chosen

Magical “field.” Each writer examines Planar Chaos in the style of their own

articles, so to speak… thus we’ve had Nick Eisel looking at Limited, and Richard

Feldman looking at Extended.

My job at StarCityGames.com is to answer questions: generally, the questions I get at [email protected]. I’m here to answer

your enquiries and cover your needs. Therefore, for this week’s theme,

I lifted a bunch of questions from my email and the forums, each one asking about the new set.

Instead of concentrating on the impact of certain cards and certain formats, I’m here to

look at the impact that Planar Chaos has had on you, the readers… Your

questions answered on the New Set On The Block. Let us know how you feel about the idea!

That doesn’t mean that I won’t be covering all the other questions I’ve

received, on Extended and Limited and such. Of course I will. Just wait for next week, and

I’ll supply a huge dose of excellent questions that cover a variety of topics.

To start things off, I have a record with some of the readers as being overly negative

about cards. Indeed, I’ve been accused of having an overly negative opinion at all times.

I am here to set that straight. I am not always negative.

I love a lot of things about the game, and I also like a number of things about Planar

Chaos. I am just more vocal about the things I don’t like, because I think they

need work, than I am about the stuff I do like.

Do I think Planar Chaos is a good set? No, I do not.

Do I like cards like Timbermare; Crovax, Ascendant Hero; and a number of the reprints?

You betcha.

With that out of the way, let’s go to the questions!

This week’s first came to me by way of Allison Cameron:

The hype card of Planar Chaos is Damnation. What impact will it make in Standard? What

decks will it help? What decks will it hinder?

Ah, Damnation… that card seems to come up a lot, and everyone seems to be excited

about it. And rightfully so. If there is any card that will have any impact on a new format,

this card is it. It revitalizes an entire color, devalues another one, and makes it a lot

harder to play certain decks and archetypes.

Just look at the Top Dog right now in Standard: Stupid Green. The fact that White-based

control decks can’t beat the top dog of control decks, Dralnu du Louvre, means that there

are almost no Wrath of Gods around. That is why Stupid Green is so good right now. It

punishes control decks for not being able to deal with untargetable creatures, like Silhana

Ledgewalker and Giant Solifuge. Heck, even Scryb Ranger is incredibly hard to kill. Now add

another color with Wrath in the format, and see that this once “oh so awesome” game

strategy is close to being dead.

But the card is so good, that you shouldn’t just look at the existing decks

it might fit in. Damnation is the card that Mono-Black Control has been missing since its

heyday in Odyssey Block. Back then, it had Mutilate. This time… well, here you go.

Like I said before, even the decks that are playing White these days are playing it mainly

just for Wrath of God. Sure, running White also means you get to play Condemn and

other trickery, but the real backbone of the color is Wrath. The printing of Damnation means

we’ll get to move into Black completely, and cut out White as the middleman.

Black’s spells are, after all, almost all strictly superior to White’s offerings.

This leads me to a question from D.L. Hawkins:

Does Damnation and Extirpate mean that Mono-Black Control is viable in Standard?

Extirpate is another card that has a lot of people up in arms. While Damnation’s

press is all deserved, I don’t think Extirpate is all that special. Versus graveyard

decks, this card is obviously a house. Not only does it take care of the one card that was

bothering you, but it also gets rid of all copies in all pertinent zones. That means

that killing one Life From the Loam kills them all, and getting rid of that single Firemane

Angel means you’ve one less kill condition to deal with. This is awesome. However,

against the average deck – like Stupid Green, or even against decks like Dragonstorm or Tron –

this card’s effect will be minimal. It doesn’t affect the board, and is only going

to affect any particular game in the far future. Remember, the cards you removed from the deck

might have never shown up anyway. It’ll not touch the board state, and won’t have

an impact on the hand unless you get lucky. This means that, to me, it is a sideboard card at

best, as most of the time it is a dead card versus a lot of decks.

That doesn’t mean Mono-Black Control is not going to be a viable deck, because it

looks like it will be. Extirpate will give it an awesome sideboard tool. If I were to whip up a

decklist right now, to start testing with, it would look something like this:

I’ve loaded the deck up with as many tools as possible, and a lot of mana to help power

them out. I am not sure this is a correct version, or if this even beats anything, but

it is what I would look to start testing for the new Standard.

Next up, a question by Ralph Cifaretto:

You’re on record as saying that you dislike Damnation. Are there any cards that you

think will make an impact on Constructed… not obvious cards like Damnation, but more

“fringe” cards that could help existing matchups or form new archetypes?

Note that I don’t dislike Damnation as a card. It is very good. I just don’t

like the fact that it is out there. As for fringe cards, I’ll take a look at a card in

each color that I feel is a little under the radar, but might be a lot better then people

think.

Black: Magus of the Coffers
As you may have noticed in the last question, I made room in my Mono-Black Control deck for

this guy, as I feel he is very good accompanied by obvious powerhouse cards like Urborg, Tomb

of Yawgmoth and Consume Spirit (Drain Life reborn). Sure, the guy isn’t as straight-up

powerful as the original Cabal Coffers, but he’s not bad as a creature in his own right.

He’s Ravenous Baloth sized for only one more mana, and the occasional insanely huge

Fireball he’ll help power out will make it all worthwhile.

White: Crovax, Ascendant Hero
Back when the original Evincar was around, the format was lightning fast, and he was only a

3/3. Nowadays, the Ascendant Hero is a bona-fide threat that is close to impossible to keep

away. This is an amazing creature; one that, given the right deck, can be a true powerhouse.

Blue: Body Double
With this card around, you don’t need to play three-color Solar Flare anymore. Any deck

(White or Black) will have access to both Wrath as well as eight reanimation spells. And

let’s not mention in Block Constructed, where this little beauty in combination with

Careful Consideration could easily power out a quick Akroma… this could be a deck in

itself.

Red: Volcano Hellion
I don’t know if you have ever played with this card in Limited, but it is an unreal bomb,

killing guys like Flametongue Kavu, and then sometimes even sticking around as a huge monster.

I am sure it can serve the same function in Constructed: it’s able to kill almost any

guy, if you have the life, and then either serving as a threat or as a Moat for a turn. That

sounds like a great deal. Now all you need is to find a deck in which it can shine…

Green: Timbermare
Yeah, I know… on this site, no one will underestimate this guy. Even so, I

really think he is even better than that. Basically, this card is a Ball Lightning that sticks

around, and is almost guaranteed to deal those five points, even past blockers. I expect this

to be one of the defining creatures in block, if not in the upcoming Standard, to

battle Damnation and the like. Groundbreaker never looked so weak…

Next up, a question by Tim Riggins:

How do you rank the set’s power-level compared with previous sets? How does Damnation

stand against sets like Urza’s Destiny and Saviors, for example? What cards will this set be

remembered for?

As a second set in the block, this is a very unexciting set, as they usually tend to be. It

is not fair to compare it to Urza’s Destiny or Saviors, as these are last sets in the

block, and as such, are always the most powerful. Looking at other middle sets though, like

last year’s Guildpact, this set does seem to be about par for the course. It has a lot of

playables, but seems very unexciting. It really is all about Damnation. (Which, by the way, is

why you made a nice Freudian slip in your question there…).

I think the cards that will mostly be remembered have to be Damnation, as it’s a

great card of course; as well as Extirpate, as one of the best Graveyard hosers around; and

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, which is just straight-up better then a Swamp… much like Oboro,

Palace in the Clouds was with Islands. As such, Urborg will see play in every deck playing

Black (or Mire Boa). As for other staples, this set will obviously stand out as it gave colors

certain cards and abilities that normally would not see the light of day, and as such will be

remembered for a long time. Think Harmonize, which is awesome; Sunlance, which fills a hole

pretty well; and Poryfyryrrfr Nodes, which is just an insane card for White [I think he means

Porphyry Nodes… – Craig, amused.]. Just the fact that cards like this will not be found

anywhere else in the future will make this a set to remember.

And finally, a question by Eli “Weevil” Navarro:

What do you think are the stronger colors in Planar Chaos Limited now? In TTP Draft? In

Sealed? Are there any surprising cards you think will rock Geneva?

Ah, Planar Chaos Limited… what a format! Looking at Planar Chaos in a vacuum is

pretty useless, as it will always be part of the block. I’ll go over what I feel are the

color rankings, and then I’ll name some cards that I feel are better than I thought they

were at first glance.

Red
Red seems to be the big dog on the block. It has the most playable Planeshifted commons, and

some great removal in Dead / Gone, but what really puts it over the top are its two complete

unreal busted uncommons: Pyrohemia and Rough / Tumble. Whoever has played TTT knows that

Sulfurous Blast is close to the best uncommon in that format, if not the best, and

these cards fill the same role. That means that now there are about three times as many

uncommon Wrath of Gods in one color. It’s easy to see that they will make Red very

popular and playable.

White
With bomb uncommons, common removal, and some great, solid guys, White has a lot of things

going for it. Sunlance is definitely one of the top three commons in the set, and the gating

“rescue” guys like Whitemane Lion have great synergy with a lot of other monsters.

Green
In this set, Green is all about filling holes. It used to have problems laying its hands on

card advantage and evasion. Now, with Giant Dustwasp and Harmonize around, these things are no

longer a concern. The only problem that Green seems to have is that, in its Planeshifted

commons, there are very few strong cards.

Blue
Home of the best common in the set – Shaper Parasite – and another great removal spell —

Pongify – what keeps Blue this low on the scale is the fact that it has very little depth in my

eyes. All of its commons are somewhat playable, but past a Hill Giant all you really have is a

bunch of weak utility creatures that don’t always work. Much like Black having Strangling

Soot and still not being great in TTT, Parasite isn’t enough to get Blue out of the

bottom half of the commons.

Black
But, once again, Black is a dog. It has a tapper (Rathi Trapper), and sub-par removal in a

color that usually gets good removal spells. The rebel theme is fine, but past some

clunky big Black guys, all you get are horrible men again. Better hope you open a rare here.

As for underrated cards, I want to start with a pair of Time Spiral cards that are now

MVPs, but were often found in sideboards before Planar Chaos came to town. Tolarian Sentinel

and Dream Stalker are actual close to first picks in the right decks now, combining with

Reality Acid and Shaper Parasite for reusable removal, and making that a great deck-plan going

in. Red has some great cards to combo with these cards as well, making both synergy and power

available to U/R draft decks. Overall, I think U/R is the best archetype you can currently

draft.

Another card that has completely surprised me with its power is Saltfield Recluse. I though

it was a fine “healer-type” guy, but in the games I have played with him,

he’s often acted more like a Kabuto Moth than anything else. In most games this will be

as good as Sanctum Custodian, which was a complete bomb, and I am starting to think that this

might be first-pick worthy as well. Add to all of that the fact that he’s a rebel, so you

can fetch him with Amrou Scout, and you have a winner.

Veiling Oddity has also surprised me in a positive way, but mostly for Sealed Deck. Early

game this is just a suspend guy, which will do some extra damage when it comes into play.

However, when games go long, as they tend to do in Sealed, the Oddity can be a game winner. It

personally won me at least five games when I played it, and despite it looking like a little

too slow for draft, this can be a bomb in some Sealed builds.

The last card I think you should look to make a splash in Geneva is Dawn Charm. This is the

only Charm that has three excellent abilities, all of which have won me games. This card is an

MVP whenever I see it being played.

And that’s it for this week. Tune in next week for a return to our regular scheduled

program. Make sure to send me your questions at [email protected], and let me know what you think

in the forums.

Later!

Jeroen Remie