The Fate Reforged prerelease is just a week away, and while everyone else is going to have their fun cracking packs, I’m going straight to work.
What I want to do differently this time around is look at each and every common and uncommon, especially the cheap ones, and see just how and where they
fit going forward. When Khans of Tarkir was released, in my very first sanctioned match, I was promptly destroyed by Jadine Klomparens and her Seeker of
the Way into Mantis Rider. That match was probably the most important match all year for me, because it taught me that I need to be more thorough in my set
and card evaluation, not only when a set is released, but when metagames form and shift as well.
Frost Walker is one of the first of these cards I want to take a long, hard look at.
A little while back, I built a Sultai Aggro deck that utilized Crystalline Nautilus as a cheap ferocious enabler and undercosted damage dealer. Trading a
mana for the ability to bestow is more of a cross-grade in that deck, but it is now much easier for us to turn on ferocious in our Temur decks without
crowding up our three-drop slot. This also gives us much more aggressive options much earlier than what we’re accustomed to. Yes, it’s weak to everything
short of a banana peel, but the non-damage dealing answer to it, Hordeling Outburst, can be hit with Stubborn Denial on the play and on the draw with an
Elvish Mystic. I’m particularly interested in just how many ferocious cards we can jam into a monsters deck, as Shaman of the Great Hunt is a pretty big
shoe-in for me. The manabase is going to need a bit of a rework, but that was something Temur needed anyways. More blue sources would be nice, since
pre-existing builds only had about ten to twelve blue sources. You can afford to shave some number of mana accelerants as well if you decide to jam more
two-drops, but I like having Elvish Mystic as a four-of to maximize our Knuckleblades.
The next cards I want to look at are Wild Slash and Collateral Damage.
Wild Slash will be Shock most of the time, but Shock happens to be pretty powerful in this format against many of the powerful ones, twos, and some of the
threes in the format. There aren’t too many situations where the preventing of damage will be relevant, but it’s a nice thing to keep in mind against decks
like Heroic. The fact that ferocious isn’t much of a thing with this card allows less incentive for big creature decks to play it, and more incentive for
every other deck that has access to red to play it.
Collateral Damage, on the other hand, is particularly interesting. Sacrificing a creature is a pretty big deal, but in the token decks, it can often be an
upgrade in boardstates where you aren’t getting through. There aren’t very many creatures at three toughness that need to be killed, but it’s certainly
something to think about.
Neutralizing Blast is in direct competition with Disdainful Stroke, but it really depends on a lot of things. What cards are you looking to counter that
don’t overlap? What cards are your deck weak to? Do you need either as much as you need another spell?
Mardu Woe-Reaper is yet another push for aggressive white creatures, as well as being pretty solid against graveyards, of course. Is there a critical mass
of small creatures to make a white-based or B/W Aggro deck work? Spear of Heliod is still legal, and Sorin is pretty good in general. A B/W build also
gives you access to Battle Brawler, which is a pretty good deal.
Goblin Heelcutter is actually one of my favorite commons in the set. It’s very good against the decks that come out of the gate slowly, like Mardu or Abzan
Reanimator, and is pretty good at helping Goblin Rabblemaster do its thing. Bathe in Dragonfire is also very good at helping Rabblemaster, despite it being
a worse Flame Slash.
I actually think it’s a pretty dangerous thing to apply that kind of logic to cards in a new set. A card doesn’t necessarily have to be as good as another
card that doesn’t exist in the format. If it does the job you’re looking for, then use it. I’m sure you’ve heard of players comparing Courser of Kruphix to
Oracle of Mul Daya, but why does that matter if Oracle of Mul Daya was not accessible in the first place? I’m not a fan of comparing things just for the
sake of comparing, and it’s much more valuable to evaluate cards relative to what’s going on in the format, when those things are going on, and on a
tournament by tournament basis.
Jeskai Barricade is a nice tool against aggressive decks for the U/W Control deck, but I can see how Omenspeaker competes for that spot, but Valorous
Stance!?
Probably one of the most influential cards in the set.
It’s pretty interesting, actually. I’m a big advocate for Savage Knuckleblade, but it looks like large creature decks are going to have to lower their
toughness to maximize their effectiveness, which is exactly what Shaman of the Great Hunt wants you to do.
I guess you can tell by now that I’m excited about the mythic 4/2 haster.
While there are a lot of commons and uncommons that are worth a good hard look, I definitely want to take a bit of time to evaluate this one. Monsters
decks are all about snowballing out of control, and Shaman of the Great Hunt allows you to pile up the damage extremely quickly. If you aren’t able to do
that, then draw some cards! My first inclination is to just swap Polukranos out with this in Monsters decks. Yes, it makes you weaker to opposing copies of
Polukranos, but I don’t think that’s a big deal.
Here’s an example. Emphasis on example:
Creatures (29)
- 4 Elvish Mystic
- 4 Stormbreath Dragon
- 4 Goblin Rabblemaster
- 2 Rattleclaw Mystic
- 4 Heir of the Wilds
- 4 Ashcloud Phoenix
- 3 Flamewake Phoenix
- 4 Shaman of the Great Hunt
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (23)
Spells (6)
I also like the fact that it promotes playing wide, so Hordeling Outburst, Goblin Rabblemaster, and Monastery Mentor welcome it pretty well.
Wait…Monastery Mentor!?
Something that’s really important about the mythic cycle is that you are far from locked into playing them in the respective clan’s colors. Shaman of the
Great Hunt is actually quite powerful in Jeskai, as pumping the aforementioned tokens is huge against Siege Rhino decks (just like how Soulfire Grand
Master is also powerful in Mardu, and Brutal Hordechief could be good in an Abzan build), and there wasn’t much of a four-drop anyways. The ferocious
ability also reads in a way that gives you a card per creature, so as long as you keep your Shaman on the board, you’re going to be drawing a good
number of cards.
Creatures (10)
Lands (24)
Spells (26)
Fate Reforged has a lot of gems that are pretty difficult to evaluate, and we’re definitely going to have to work harder to figure out what’s going to work
and what isn’t. Finding the next Seeker of the Way can mean the difference between winning the tournament and working harder than you need to. Will any of
these cards go under the radar? Which common and uncommon do you think will make the biggest impact?