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Death and Despair Plus the Other Stuff: Black, Artifacts, and Colorless Cards in Betrayers

Rick completes his excellent Constructed set review today with what many people feel is the strongest color in Betrayers: Black. What cards will be keepers in Standard and Block Constructed? Have a look.

Here’s the last installment of this series. If you missed White/Green and Red/Blue you can find them here and here. What follows should be pretty self-explanatory. Five is very good and one is very bad. Here goes:


Bile Urchin

Block: 3


The Frostling half of Mogg Fanatic seems much better. Like all the other cards in this cycle, Bile Urchin is playable. Not exciting, not that interesting, but playable.


Standard: 1


Not nearly enough.


Blessings of Leeches

Block: 1

Standard: 1


Remember that list of bad creature enchantments? Here’s the grand finale.


Call for Blood

Block: 1

Standard: 1


This is creature removal that removes one of your own creatures in the process. Doesn’t that sound sort of counterproductive? I suppose that with Zuberas and Soulshift creatures you can recoup the card disadvantage, but it’s not going to solve the expensive casting cost.


Crawling Filth

Block: 1

Standard: 1


The best thing to do with this overcosted Spirit is to find a way to sacrifice it and use Soulshift to get something better back from your graveyard.


Eradicate

Block: 4


I’ll start with the bad things. First, it’s not an instant. Second, it’s a little pricey at four mana. Third, it’s bad against decks that have few, if any, creatures. Finally, it’s a dead draw against Black decks. Well, there is one use, which I’ll get to later, but it’s pretty specialized. You also have to wonder why playing Eradicate would be better than Hideous Laughter or Horobi’s Whisper.


There are some very good things about Eradicate, though. If an opponent’s deck is centered around breaking a particular creature, like Kodama of the South Tree or Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, then Eradicate rips apart the combo quite nicely. Remove from the game is also a nice effect when you’re up against Soulshift creatures.


Then you have to look at the evil combos. Use Soilshaper to animate one of your opponent’s basic lands, then Eradicate it. Other basic lands of the same name stay in play, because they aren’t creatures, but your opponent won’t be playing another one of those basics for the rest of the game.


Imagine it’s the Mono Black Control mirror match. You enchant one of your opponent’s Swamps with Genju of the Fens on turn one. At the end of your opponent’s third turn, you activate the Genju during his or her end of turn step. Then you take your turn and hit the still animated land with Eradicate. No more Swamps for him or her. In the late game, you might even consider Eradicating all the Swamps out of your own deck to improve your draws.


Standard: 4


Four mana is a lot in an environment that features Affinity. It doesn’t help that Eradicate will never hit Disciple of the Vault or Arcbound Ravager. And if Mono-Black becomes popular, which looks very possible judging from all it gains in this set, that’s another problem for this spell. But there is one huge reason why Eradicate has potential: It’s an awesome answer to Eternal Witness. Cranial Extraction can accomplish the same feat, but Eradicate actually affects the board, a key difference. It’s also nice that Eradicate can kill Darksteel Colossus, or even Darksteel Ingots that have joined the March of the Machines.


Genju of the Fens

Block: 4


Nantuko Shade is back. It doesn’t hit quite as hard as the original, since you need to activate it with two lands and tap a land to attack, but it’s much harder to stop. There is some tension between pumping the Fen and activating it, making it more of a late-game card than the other Genju. That limitation shouldn’t bother Mono-Black Control at all, of course. And the trade-off for being more of a late game card is that this Genju, given enough time, can dwarf all the others. It is a little annoying that every time an opponent destroys the enchanted Swamp your Genju will be a little smaller after you recast it (until you play another land). But overall this is a tremendously powerful and resilient win condition for Black decks.


Standard: 3


Thomas Wood finished second at New York States with Mono-Black Control. The deck, though underplayed, is still kicking and will have to be better once Betrayers is legal. Though this format places higher demands on the Genju, I think that a few copies could find their way into Wood’s deck of choice. This Genju would give you a recurring win condition that is a great out against opponents who manage to catch Kokusho, the Evening Star with Cranial Extraction.


Goryo’s Vengeance

Block: 3


First you need huge Legends that have evasion. Then you need a way to pitch them into the graveyard. Finally, you need a way to ensure that you draw this reanimation spell. For targets, your best bet is The Unspeakable or one of the Legendary Dragon Spirits. But what sucks is that Goryo is a little too thorough with his vengeance and insists upon removing the reanimated creature from the game at the end of the turn, which means that Kokusho, the Evening Star won’t get to drain life. Soratami Cloudskater and Sift Through Sands are the best bets for discard. And if you want to take the tutor approach, there is always Gifts Ungiven.


Perhaps a better approach is to play a deck with lots of good legendary creatures and then use Goryo’s Vengeance to recover after your best creatures get killed. Here’s where instant and Arcane become especially relevant. Being able to cast every legend in your deck twice is pretty amazing. And you can do sneaky things like Vengeance out a creature during your opponent’s end step or ambush a creature that’s attacking you.


Standard: 2


You gain Bosh, Iron Golem as a reanimation target, but there isn’t anything more impressive. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything that is the equivalent of Putrid Imp or Careful Study. You do get Thirst for Knowledge, which works well with Bosh and is easier to cast than Sift Through Sands. You also gain Zombify and Beacon of Unrest, which makes your reanimation spells more redundant, but they are both pretty slow.


Hero’s Demise

Block: 4


This is a great removal spell. The majority of creature-based decks should have legends in them, and Black has been looking for a removal spell that costs less than three mana. The catch is that there probably will be creatureless Arcane or Honden decks running around, and drawing the Demise in those situations is going to be pretty lame. Then again, in those match-ups drawing Demise wouldn’t be any worse than drawing some other removal spell.


Standard: 1


Legends are not going to be wreaking havoc here. There will be some, but not a lot. If you need removal, there are better, more flexible choices like Terror or Rend Flesh.


Hired Muscle

Block: 3


Giving fear to your creatures isn’t that exciting when one color is immune to it and you have plenty of removal to clear a path through defenses. And rather than wait for Hired Muscle to flip, you could just play a three-power creature for three mana and start swinging right away. Scarmaker does have good synergy with Ninjas, but as non-Spirits they won’t help you add ki counters.


Standard: 1


How do you find the time to charge up Hired Muscle?


Horobi’s Whisper

Block: 5

Standard: 5


Taking this one sentence at a time, this is Dark Banishing, which would be quite good even if the rules text stopped there. Then you move on to the next bit of text.


WOW.


This is easily the best card in this cycle. Though it can take a while to fill your graveyard, that resource is very expendable. Whisper also gives black a way to gain card advantage and tempo.


Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni

Block: 4


A little 1/1 enters the red zone to prick you. All of a sudden, Ink-Eyes jumps out of the shadows and into the fray, smacking you for five times as much damage and bringing the best creature in your graveyard back to life, only on the wrong side of the board. That’s what I call a Ninja surprise. Despite the tremendous potential of Ink-Eyes, you need to take advantage of Ninjutsu to make this card great. Otherwise, you might as well play Kokusho, the Evening Star, which can fly over blockers and doesn’t care if you haven’t left regeneration mana open. But, if you have 1B open, Ink-Eyes can take down the mighty Black dragon and live to tell the tale. And your opponent will desperately throw blockers in front of this Ninja afterward, afraid that Kokosho might rise again and turn traitor.


Standard: 3


As I mentioned several times in the blue review, I think it will be harder to make Ninjas work in this format.


Kyoki, Sanity’s Eclipse

Block: 3


Why would you play this over Kokusho? Kyoki’s ability opens up the possibility of stripping cards from your opponent’s hand during his or her draw step. With Hana Kami, Soulless Revival, and another instant Arcane you could lock your opponent out of sorcery speed spells for the rest of the game. Kyoki also might be a good sideboard option against control decks. It takes a lot of work to make this Demon Spirit turn into something special, but it’s possible.


Standard: 1


It’s hard enough to get Kokusho into play before dying. You have to work even harder to make Kyoki pay off.


Mark of the Oni

Block: 1

Standard: 1


If there were a two mana indestructible Demon, I’d start to consider playing Mark of the Oni. But there isn’t, so this brings the bad enchant creature count up to four.


Nezumi Shadow-Watcher

Block: 3 (Sideboard)


If Ninja’s are a big hit, this Rat will live in the sideboard of many black decks.


Standard: 1


Even if Ninjas manage to break into this format (uncertain at best), decks would put something more flexible in sideboards, a spell that helps in non-Ninja match-ups as well.


Ogre Marauder

Block: 4


This makes the fourth three-power creature for three mana that Black has in this block. One toughness leaves this Ogre in the crosshairs of Frostling, which is unfortunate, but the Ogre’s ability is pretty amazing. The card might as well read: “If your opponent controls only one creature, Ogre Marauder is unblockable.” Even if your opponent has two small creatures that can block, they both die if your opponent wants to stop the marauding. And don’t forget that Ogre is a relevant creature type. I’m sure some other black cards can benefit from the Ogre’s presence.


Standard: 2


With Affinity, Eternal Witness, Vedalken Shackles, and Arc-Slogger running around, this Ogre is much easier to contain.


Okiba-Gang Shinobi

Block: 4


Here’s another sweet Ninja trick. This one offers a damage surprise and card advantage as well. If you get Okiba-Gang into play and manage to hit your opponent, you’re up three-for-one in the war of attrition. That’s pretty devastating. And I’m sure the dreaded Nezumi Cutthroat (MVP of many a Limited game) would be happy to squeeze past an opponent’s defenses so that Okiba-Gang can do its dirty work. Kami of the Waning Moon and Hired Muscle would also be happy to provide assistance.


Standard: 3


Again, I’m skeptical about Ninjas in this format.


Patron of the Nezumi

Block: 4


I think this is the second best Patron. It’s a little harder to cast than the White one, and the Rats that support it aren’t as impressive as the Foxes, but they are much better than the Goblins. Almost no creature can stand in the way of this monstrous Spirit. Although it doesn’t have any evasion, its ability promises that as an opponent searches for answers and chump blocks precious points of life will be lost.


Standard: 4


This is the only Patron that holds its value here, and it’s entirely thanks to Ravenous Rats and Chittering Rats, which both have awesome synergy with the offering mechanic. Mybe Rat Deck Wins will actually become a real deck that can back up its name.


Psychic Spear

Block: 4



It might as well be Duress. I have a hard time imagining a successful deck that eschews both Spirits and Arcanes. Distress costs one more mana, but it’s strictly more powerful. Of course, that doesn’t make Psychic Spear obsolete. Mono-Black Control will just have to play both.


Standard: 1


Leaving the Arcane/Spirit world of Block Constructed behind makes it extremely unlikely that Psychic Spear will see any action.


Pus Kami

Block: 1

Standard: 1


Yet another horribly overcosted Spirit. Maybe I should be keeping a tally of these too. They might give the bad creature enchantments a run for their money.


Scourge of the Numai

Block: 4


And so Suicide Black was reborn, or at least Wizards R&D tried to spoonfeed us again. As long as you pour on the damage, the loss of life should be irrelevant. But since there are some decent Ogre three-drops to choose from, why not give the Demon a companion to play with, like Ogre Marauder or Takenuma Bleeder?


Standard: 1


Imagine how laughable it would be to see Suicide Black go up against Affinity’s free creatures and Ravager/Disciple combo.


Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker

Block: 1

Standard: 1


This is an engine card, so it deserves some attention. As a creature it’s quite fragile, but the Zuberas would be quite synergistic coming back into play for free. But then you look at the last clause: “if Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker is still in play.” That’s the final nail in the coffin. Way too fragile.


Sickening Shoal

Block: 5

Standard: 5


Damn this is good. Thanks to Bushido and all the low toughness creatures running around, this Shoal is actually pretty good even when you pay the real casting cost. Killing creatures at instant speed has always been nice and more significantly, you can kill Black creatures with this spell.


The alternate casting cost turns this spell from decent to really good. Unlike the Blue Shoal, having a bigger X than needed is never a problem. Mono-Black Control’s greatest challenge is surviving the early game. It will gladly sacrifice card advantage in the short run to stay alive. Once the board is more or less under control it can recoup the cards with Night’s Whisper of Phyrexian Arena. In Block, it’s a little harder but splicing Arcanes will do the trick. Speaking of which, one of the most unfair things to do with Sickening Shoal is to play it for free and also splice Horobi’s Whisper onto it for free. In other words, you use two cards to destroy two creatures without paying any mana! The interaction between those two cards is ridiculously good.


Skullmane Baku

Block: 1

Standard: 1


The ability needs to be much better than that if you pay five mana for a 2/1.


Skullsnatcher

Block: 3


The ability isn’t that impressive in this format, though it does help prevent Soulshift from getting out of hand. What I like more is that Black gains another aggressive two-drop that can help Nezumi Graverobber provide early offense. And being able to Ninjutsu the Skullsnatcher into play to deal an additional point of damage is another nice option to have.


Standard: 3


Given the popularity of Eternal Witness, Skullsnatcher is actually something worth considering if you can find an aggressive deck that can support it.


Stir the Grave

Block: 3


This seems really bland. It’s nice to recur your best creatures, but paying an extra mana than the original casting cost isn’t that hot. And is it worth playing Stir the Grave instead of additional threats?


Standard: 1


Too slow.


Takenuma Bleeder

Block: 4


This is an obvious companion to Scourge of the Numai. It’s definitely better than the Scourge because it comes out a turn earlier and the drawback is more manageable. It seems like some sort of aggressive black deck is going to make an appearance.


Standard: 2


Remember what I said about the match-up versus Affinity?


Three Tragedies

Block: 3


Great name, but everything else is disappointingly boring. Black has faster discard that hits relevant targets, like Psychic Spear and Distress. The only tempting situation I can think of where I’d like this card is against a control deck, in addition to those other two discard spells I mentioned.


Standard: 1


If you do want to pay this much mana for discard, which is unlikely, go with Mind Sludge.


Throat Slitter

Block: 4


Hello, Dark-Banishing-on-a-stick. This is definitely good. I’m not sure that black decks need the additional removal, but it would be a fine addition to a U/B Ninja deck and it also opens the door for Mono Black Ninjas. The original spoiler I saw didn’t have the bit about “nonblack,” so originally I thought this card was much better. Judging from all the goodies that the color of death and despair has gotten in this set, not being able to destroy black creatures could be a serious drawback.


Standard: 1


My skepticism about Ninjas in this format remains.


Toshiro Umezawa

Block: 4


It will take a lot of time to unravel this card’s power. Let’s start with the basics. How many good instants are available? A quick search of Gatherer later: Hero’s Demise, Soulless Revival, Rend Flesh, Rend Spirit, Horobi’s Whisper, Reach Through Mists, Consuming Vortex, Peer Through Depths, Toils of Night and Day, Gifts Ungiven, Glacial Ray, Yamabushi’s Flame, Blind with Anger. That seems like enough to work with.


What about synergy? Obviously all the removal spells are great since they will help trigger Toshiro. Soulless Revival is nice because it can help return previously destroyed copies of Toshiro so that you have back-up copies. And Reach through Mists and Peer Through Depths are key because sometimes Toshiro will trigger and you won’t want to replay removal spells.


What if your opponent isn’t playing any creatures? Toshiro can still beat down as a 2/2. And if you want to you can force your opponent to have creatures by using Forbidden Orchard. Then, if you really want to get fancy you can play Night of Soul’s Betrayal, so that Toshiro triggers every time you tap an Orchard.


Standard: 4


With all the additional instants that become available, Toshiro should be even better. But this is balanced out by the fact that Toshiro is a very vulnerable card advantage mechanism.


Yokura, the Prisoner

Block: 5

Standard: 5


Damn, this is the best Juzam Djinn variant ever printed. In some ways it’s even better than the original. The drawback is a joke. You can easily get around it by playing Genju of the Fens, Ogres, and Kokusho, the Evening Star. So, this might as well be a vanilla 5/5. Need I say more?


Black in Review

Block:

Eradicate

Genju of the Fens

Hero’s Demise

Horobi’s Whisper

Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni

Ogre Marauder

Okiba-Gang Shinobi

Patron of the Nezumi

Psychic Spear

Scourge of the Numai

Sickening Shoal

Takenuma Bleeder

Throat Slitter

Toshiro Umezawa

Yokura, the Prisoner


Standard:

Eradicate

Horobi’s Whisper

Patron of the Nezumi

Sickening Shoal

Toshiro Umezawa

Yokura, the Prisoner


Total Spells With Potential: 15


Genju of the Realm

Block: 1

Standard: 1


The difficult casting cost of this card is at odds with the recursion that makes the rest of the Genju cycle so good. If a land enchanted by one of the other Genjus gets destroyed, it’s no big deal. You tap one mana and enchant another land. When Genju of the Realm gets destroyed, you’ve lost a huge investment and tons of tempo. It’s also highly unlikely that this Genju will be able to attack as if it has haste the turn it comes into play.


Baku Altar

Block: 2


In the right deck, this is one of the more reasonable ways to create tokens. By right deck, I’m thinking of one heavily based on Arcanes. The slow nature of charging up the Altar and activating it fits more comfortably in control decks. An aggressive deck will play efficient, real creatures instead. Keep in mind that by the time you play the Altar and activate it once, you could have summoned Kodama of the South Tree.


Standard: 1


Too slow.


Blinding Powder

Block: 1

Standard: 1


I had to check Gatherer to make sure that the spoiler listed this card correctly. It does. This Equipment really is that bad.


Mirror Gallery

Block: 3


That’s a lot of mana, but when you can double up on things like the Honden and Night of Soul’s Betrayal impressive things happen. I could see a three-color Honden deck running two or three copies of this. Of course, when you take advantage of the Gallery and cast additional copies of Honden that are already in play, you’re making your opponent’s eventual answer to the Gallery even more powerful.


Standard: 1


Thanks to Affinity, you can be certain that even if Mirror Gallery hits the board in the most opportune fashion, it will get wiped out before it does any real damage.


Neko-Te

Block: 1

Standard: 1


Another clunker. There actually are some ways make this Equipment perform. The first trick that comes to mind is equipping Kumano, Master Yamabushi with it, making him read 1R: Tap target creature permanently, or 1R: Deal two damage to target opponent. Frostwielder would also be happy wielding the Neko-Te. Even if you can guarantee that this combo comes together in hand, it takes a lot of mana to get it started and just one removal spell ruins the fun.


Orb of Dreams

Block: 3

Standard: 3


Kismet is back, colorless, cheaper, and symmetrical. The obvious combo here is with Hokori, Dust Drinker. And, conveniently enough Mark Gottlieb just explored that possibility here. I guess that you could also play Orb of Dreams as a tempo card. If you can empty your hand and then throw down the Orb it becomes even more difficult for opponents to recover. But is it better than just having another threat in hand? I doubt it. So, I’m giving this card the straight average rating. The effect is powerful, but it’s hard to figure you a reliable and consistent way to abuse it. Note that Hokori does not fall in the reliable category since it is so fragile.


Ornate Kanzashi

Block: 3 (Sideboard)


At first glance, this is terrible, but if you stretch your mind a bit some uses become apparent. In any sort of control mirror-match, this artifact helps you draw extra cards and deck your opponent. I could see Mono Black Control of Arcane decks squeezing a copy of two into the sideboard.


Standard: 1


This card is a casualty of splash damage, thanks to Affinity. Even Mono Black won’t want it, since Persecute is so much better in the mirror.


Ronin Warclub

Block: 2


Clunky. That’s the word. How fast is this? You play it on turn 3, giving up the entire turn. The next turn you play a creature, which grabs the Club as soon as it hits the board, but you can’t attack with the creature that turn because it has summoning sickness. So you have a hefty blocker. Finally, turn 5 rolls around and you actually attack with the Warclub-wielding guy. But what if your opponent has a removal spell? Then you need to cast another creature (if you have) one and wait for summoning sickness to wear off again. It’s clear. This supposedly aggressive card is way too slow.


Standard: 1


Birds of Paradise and Ornithopter make this card slightly better. That means that you can attack with a 2/3 Ornithopter on turn 3. Whoopee!


Shuko

Block: 1

Standard: 1


If there were some sort of creature that benefited from being the target of a spell or ability, then this might be half of a combo. No such creature fits that description, though.


Shuriken

Block: 4


Shore-Yu-Ken! Remember doing that move with Ken and Ryu in Streetfighter 2? Back in the bad-old days of 2D fighting games? Yeah, moving right along…


This reminds me a lot of Cursed Scroll. I know that raises eyebrows. It’s not Cursed Scroll, but this spell can potentially dominate the board. All you need is Ninjas and an opponent who relies on creatures. Playing Ninjas in your deck solves the first condition easily enough. Some opponents will have few, if any creatures, in their decks. Right now, it’s impossible to know what percentage of the field those opponents will represent. Any creature deck will get shredded by Ninjas throwing Shurikens and chances are that that will be a substantial portion of the field.


Standard: 1


Ninjas would have to be good (uncertain) and your opponent would have to lack artifact removal (very unlikely) for this to be good.


Slumbering Tora

Block: 1

Standard: 1


If you want expensive Arcane and Spirit cards in the graveyard and can put them to productive use, then this card starts to be a possibility. Goryo’s Vengeance is an option and so is Zombify. But it’s a shame that the casting cost and activation costs weren’t flipped so that you could wake up Tora on turn three, such a shame that I’m going to give up on trying to make this card good right now.


That Which Was Taken

Block: 1

Standard: 1


Damn! Myojin decks just got broken, because now you can recharge them and use their ability every turn. So all you need to do is load up you deck with mana accelerators so that you can pay eight to ten mana to cast the Myojin and then another nine mana to put that which was taken off the Myojin back on it. And while you’re at it, why not throw in Sway of the Stars and Overblaze too, because even good cards aren’t going to save you if you’re playing this legendary artifact.


Umezawa’s Jitte

Block: 4


My buddy Mark Young was on the wrong end of Umezawa’s Jitte, which he referred to as the Swiss Army Knife, recently at the Betrayers prerelease, or maybe it was a draft? Anyway, it was Limited and the Jitte was bad news. What about Constructed, though?


All that matters is that the creature deals combat damage. It doesn’t matter if it’s to a creature or a player. And the Jitte doesn’t care if the creature dies afterward or if it becomes unattached. Even dealing one measly point of combat damage still gets you two Jitte activations. And what does that mean?


Pumping, creauture removal, or life. Pumping isn’t that exciting, because every color has pump effects of its own or ways to take pumped creatures out of combat. Imagine adding creature removal to a blue or green deck. What about putting life-gain in a Red deck? The other two abilities are golden. Artifacts that allow colors to do things they aren’t supposed to do have always been very powerful. Look at Serrated Arrows, Nevinyrral’s Disk, and Cursed Scroll. The Jitte isn’t on that power level, obviously. But it does allow mono colored decks to break the rules. And the Swiss Army Knife can easily support aggressive and control strategies.


Standard: 1


Affinity doesn’t give you enough time to find get the proper Swiss Army Knife tool online and everything else had anti-artifact stuff to stand a chance against Affinity.


God’s Eye, Gate to the Reikai

Block: 2

Standard: 2


I thought this card might fit in a few highly specialized decks that can sacrifice their lands for something good. Then I realized that this was a legendary land. Then I wondered how much of a difference an extra 1/1 world make. Then I realized that this card is pretty bad.


Tendo’s Ice Bridge

Block: 4

Standard: 4


I’ve always been drawn to three-color decks and I love rainbow lands. If you want to play a bunch of colors, this is rarely the solution. I can only think of two type of decks that would want this land. Either you have a two-color deck with a very slight splash for the second color (probably a non-allied one) where you have lots of one drops (making CIP lands, depletion lands, and Mirrodin’s Core unattractive) or you play a base-Green deck that has plenty of mana fixers, so the Bridge is ideal since it either gives you green so you can fix your mana or it lets you cast your non-green spells immediately. The latter seems like the more likely scenario.


Now that I think about it a little more, maybe five-color Green could make a come-back. If you play City of Brass, the Bridge, Birds of Paradise, Sakura-Tribe Elder, and Kodama’s Reach, along with one-ofs of whatever non-Forest basic lands you need you’ve got a pretty solid mana base. I guess I have to rate this a little bit higher, but remember that you’ve been warned about my bias toward colorful decks.


Everything Else in Review

After the artifact block, it’s not surprisingly that we come up short here. On their own, though, the Shuriken and Jitte are pretty exciting cards. They definitely aren’t broken, but they allow colors to escape their limitations and do things they are supposed to do. As for the Ice Bridge, it’s a pretty specialized rainbow land, but I’m happy to see any sort of land that promotes multicolor decks.


Block:

Shuriken

Umezawa’s Jitte

Tendo’s Ice Bridge

Standard:

Tendo’s Ice Bridge


Top 10 Lists:

The following lists are in no particular order. I don’t think that debating things like whether Yokura, the Prisoner is better than Sickening Shoal is very helpful.


Block:

Shining Shoal

Yokura, the Prisoner

Horobi’s Whisper

Higure the Still Wind

Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

Frostling

Ire of Kaminari

Genju of the Spires

Sosuke’s Summons

Sickening Shoal


Honorable Mentions:

Final Judgment

Fumiko the Lowblood

Toshiro Umezawa

Umezawa’s Jitte

Tendo’s Ice Bridge


Black makes the biggest gains with great cards for aggressive and control decks. Red and Blue are about tied for second. Interestingly, Red seems to have more depth while almost all of Blue’s best spells are creatures. Next in line is White. Though the color gained few cards overall, what it did get is pretty impressive. Green is bringing up the rear. While it gained a number of playable cards, none of them seem unfair enough to compete with the best spells that the other colors got.


As for what the block environment will look like, it’s very hard to say. My gut instinct tells me that control strategies got a bigger boost than aggressive ones. While there are some guys that can beat down hard, like Yokura and Genju of the Spires, they face formidable opponents in Shining Shoal, Sickening Shoal, and Final Judgment. Plus, Ire of Kamirari and Tendo’s Ice Bridge give Arcane and Honden decks a significant boost.


Standard:

Sowing Salt

Terashi’s Grasp

Frostling

Genju of the Spires

Shining Shoal

Iwamori of the Open Fist

Sickening Shoal

Yokura, the Prisoner

Toshiro Umezawa

Horobi’s Whisper


Honorable Mentions:

Eradicate

Ninja of the Deep Hours

Reduce to Dreams

Hokori, Dust Drinker

Kira, Great Glass-Spinner


Getting to a total of ten cards for this list was a struggle. In other words, I don’t see Betrayers having a big impact on Standard. Mono-Black Control gets an undercosted win condition and three great removal spells. In addition, there’s Toshiro, which could lead to the creation of an entirely new archetype.


White gains three very interesting spells that add a lot of depth to the color. Terashi’s Grasp and Hokori, Dust Drinker give White Weenie a boost. I wrote off the Dust Drinker earlier, but now I realize that it is a fine option against opposing control decks, especially when combined with Chrome Mox. Shining Shoal seems meant for W/X Control, but such a deck still seems short on its supporting cast, namely some sort of unstoppable finisher (Eternal Dragon and Decree of Justice were too good).


Red scores some interesting options for beatdown and land destruction, but none of them seem significantly better than tools it already has. Frostling is an awesome one-drop, but is it better than Hearth Kami or Slith Firewalker?


Blue gets three tempting spells, but it’s hard to get really excited about any of them. U/G Control already has a good matchup against Affinity without Reduce to Dreams. Mono-Blue Control might want Dreams in the sideboard, but even then is a four-mana anti-Affinity spell what that deck really needs? Ninja of the Deep Hours and Kira, Great Glass-Spinner seem destined for an aggressive Blue deck, but I highly doubt such a deck can compete versus Affinity.


Finally, there is Green. Iwamori of the Open Fist sure can dish out a beating, but with Kokusho, the Evening Star, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Keiga, the Tide Star, and Meloku the Clouded Mirror already popular and more Legends likely to become so with the release of Betrayers, the Open Fist seems a little too risky for prime-time in maindecks. That leaves green bringing up the rear again, which is just fine since G/R, G/B, G/U, and even Mono-Green are all part of the environment.


That’s it. 165 cards later and I’m mentally exhausted. I hope that my comments have been insightful and helpful. At a minimum at least they’ve sparked some debate and ideas for what looks to be an exciting block format.


Thanks for reading and take it easy,

–Rick

rick at rickrust dot com