New sets are a big reason that Magic has been going on for so long. Over the years, there have been some sets that I’ve loved, and of course, some that I’ve hated (though none angered me more than the Dark Sovereigns expansion for Vampire: the Eternal Struggle nee Jyhad). Whatever the case may be, new sets bring with them the potential for massive change.
Change can be exciting, even when we hate it. Our new deck idea might be ready to roll off and take the world by storm, and then we find that we can no longer actually play it because some other deck has come up with the new cards, and either inadvertently trump ours or makes our own decks the victim of incidental deck hate, as people gun for the new big deck.
If I’m not mistaken, the release of Future Sight gives us the largest card pool we’ve ever seen for Standard, and perhaps the most powerful. It’s not just that we have Coldsnap, it’s also the inclusion of all of the Timeshifted cards of Time Spiral, a collection of cards whose power density is, in general, a bit larger than what we’re generally accustomed to in a typical set. Just a few years ago, when Mirrodin was released, Standard was only 1190 cards. Once Future Sight is legal, we’ll have over 1800 cards to work with. The bar is a lot higher when it comes to deciding which cards are going to be the ones that matter than ever before.
That said, there are a lot of people who aren’t particularly excited about just the kind of impact that Future Sight is going to have on their decks. In a lot of ways, I have to say that I’m in agreement with them. There are certainly a great number of cards that I’m very, very pleased with, but far less than the massive power of a Time Spiral, which threw the world upside down.
So, without further ado, here is my mini set review of the Top 5 cards from each of the colors that I think are going to impact Constructed.
Black
#5 — Yixlid Jailer
1B
Creature – Zombie Wizard
2/1
Cards in graveyards lose all abilities.
While this guy is pretty small and doesn’t particularly make for any strong decks all by himself, he does do a pretty good job of messing with a huge swath of cards. We’ve played cards like Withered Wretch in the past because of the ways that it can mess with graveyard-based strategies, but Yixlid Jailer does much the same job versus the vast majority of these things, and without costing any mana. Yes, it doesn’t actually stop spells that target the graveyard — cards like Regrowth or Resurrection. True, it doesn’t stop state-based things like Threshold or the graveyard count for Circular Logic or Avatar of Woe. But it does turn off pretty much everything else. Ichorids suddenly don’t seem nearly so great, and the entire Dredge mechanic gets a kick between its legs. Even when it isn’t actually directly affecting an opponent, at least it is still beating for two on the cheap, and it might have some added bonus as a Wizard or Zombie.
#4 — Shimian Specter
2BB
Creature — Specter
2/2
Flying
Whenever Shimian Specter deals combat damage to a player, that player reveals his or her hand. Choose a nonland card from it. Search that player’s graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with the same name as that card and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
Shimian Specter suffers the same problem that Abyssal Specter before it suffered: it’s somewhat slow for its non-disruptive stats. As a 2/2, it’s even more vulnerable, especially with all of the Sudden Shocks (not to mention Seals and the rest) that can take it out licketty-split.
On the other hand, even cards like Abyssal Specter have seen play, and their disruptive elements aren’t nearly as strong. The Shimian Specters ability is more akin to that of a Thieving Magpie, where each successive hit is all the more likely to help make the opponents game all that less likely to be won, especially for control and combo decks. Toss in a little bit of bounce, and a Specter can do even more damage. Only its fragility really holds this one back.
#3 — Tombstalker
6BB
Creature — Demon
5/5
Flying
Delve (You may remove any number of cards in your graveyard from the game as you play this spell. It costs 1 less to play for each card removed this way.)
Really, Tombstalker is only on this list for one simple reason: he can be incredibly cheap. Sometimes, he can be incredibly cheap, incredibly quickly.
Avatar of Woe is bigger and has a more potent ability, but it can be much, much more difficult to actually be able to cast the Avatar in any reasonable amount of time. On the other hand, a Tombstalker can hit the table pretty easily on turn 3, with even the smallest amount of help. A single dredging of a Stinkweed Imp is likely to make the Tombstalker cost BB, and two dredgings of Darkblast will definitely do it. Tombstalker isn’t particularly exciting in a “wow” kind of way. It can just be a seriously fast beatdown for a deck that doesn’t care about its grave.
#2 — Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
2BB
Legendary Creature – Zombie Warrior
X/X
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of Swamps you control.
1B: Regenerate Korlash.
Grandeur – Discard another card named Korlash, Heir to Blackblade: Search your library for up to two Swamp cards, put them into play tapped, then shuffle your library.
Korlash’s name seems more appropriate for a Spellfire card than for a Magic card, but that aside, Korlash is one of the most exciting cards I’ve seen in some time. Legends have always had this problem that you almost never want to actually play four of them unless they are so insanely broken that you are nearly demanded to (see Umezawa’s Jitte). Korlash (and his friends) obviously break that rule.
The thing about Korlash, though, is that in a dedicated “Swamp” deck, he can be quite big, quite quickly. Seeing him as a 4/4 for four with Regeneration is already pretty solid. Add into that the ability for him to “sneak” into being a 6/6, and it begins to seem pretty strong. A late game Korlash is more likely to start sneaking into the 8/8 or 10/10 category, swinging in for a Corrupt’s amount of damage each turn.
Back in the day, I would always try to fit in Nightmare to decks that I was working on. They never ended up making the cut, for one reason or another. Korlash is far better than Nightmare because of his cost. It also is worth mentioning that Korlash’s Grandeur ability doesn’t restrict you to search for basic Swamps, and so you could very easily make yourself a multi-color Korlash deck, and expect to be able to use the extra Korlash or two you might draw as a fantastically power land selection ability. Initially, I considered this to be the best Black card in the set. Stephen Menendian, however, showed me that I was wrong.
#1 — Street Wraith
3BB, Creature — Wraith
3/4
Swampwalk
Cycling-Pay 2 life. (Pay 2 life, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
I’ll admit it. I missed seeing this card for what it was: a bona-fide way to make your deck actually be only 56 cards. Other things, like the various Baubles and such that have been printed, fall short of this because of a simple reason: mana or time. If they are free, they have a time delay that stops them from actually truly shrinking your deck to a 56-card deck, or they cost some small amount of mana.
In some decks, or in some formats, you’re not going to care about paying two life. Particularly in combo decks or in format where the game is going to be over too quickly for two life to actually matter, Street Wraith can truly shine in those decks. Don’t expect it to see much play in every format, though. The Wraith needs the right environment for two life not too be too great a cost.
Blue
#5 — Logic Knot
XUU
Instant
Delve (You may remove any number of cards in your graveyard from the game as you play this spell. It costs 1 less to play for each card removed this way.)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays X.
This is probably the closest we’re going to come to seeing a spell called “Counterspell” for some time. A lot of times, you won’t have anything else to do with whatever mana that you have laying around, so you might just turn this card into a somewhat bad Power Sink. You’ll probably be fine with that, however. If you need to, you can always augment that Powersink with your graveyard, which is always great.
Other times, however, you’ll have sufficient unnecessary cards in your graveyard that you’ll be able to make your Logic Know cost you a mere UU in mana. That, by itself, is enough to make this card noteworthy. Also, note how it increases in power with cards like Locket of Yesterday (though this can certainly reduce the power of Locket, by its very nature). Any time that you can get a quasi-“Counterspell,” it seems worthwhile to take note.
#4 — Delay
1U
Instant
Counter target spell. If the spell is countered this way, remove it from the game with three time counters on it instead of putting it into its owner’s graveyard. If it doesn’t have suspend, it gains suspend. (At the beginning of its owner’s upkeep, remove a counter from that card. When the last is removed, the player plays it without paying its mana cost. If it’s a creature, it has haste.)
Yes, another counter… Like much of this set, Delay is not flashy, it just gets the job done. Particularly for aggro-control and combo decks, Delay simply sets a spell aside for a few turns, fully expecting to kill you before the spell resolves. In a way, this is unprecedented. Mana Leak, Remand, and Memory Lapse have a lot of things that make them problematic for both kinds of decks, and while Delay is not without its own problems, it certainly seems well suited to these decks in ways that these earlier spells are not.
Delay also has a fun way of messing up the timing of spells. Certain cards, like countermagic or combat tricks, really need to happen at a specific time, and arbitrarily happening at some other time is not a great deal for them. Probably, some clever people will come up for excellent reasons for Delaying their own spells, but that is another story all on its own.
#3 — Maelstrom Djinn
7U
Creature — Djinn
5/6
Flying
Morph 2U
When Maelstrom Djinn is turned face up, put two time counters on it and it gains vanishing. (At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from it. When the last is removed, sacrifice it.)
People have called this card bad. I think that they are wrong.
Obviously, a morph is a fairly unexciting creature on its own. Turning it over can make it far more exciting, and running a morph overload can be very burdensome for opponents trying to make sense of what they ought to kill. In an aggressive deck akin to Skies, a Maelstrom Djinn feels a lot like 10-12 free damage.
People have run Ball Lightning for a long time. Even a card like Unstable Mutation has seen a reasonable amount of play. With the reprinting of cards like Psionic Blast, Maelstrom Djinn truly does help make a reasonable case for an incredibly short clock. In addition, any of those Vesuvan Shapeshifters out there that choose to copy him get to be 5/6 for as long as they want. That’s pretty good beats.
#2 — Magus of the Future
2UUU
Creature – Human Wizard
2/3
Play with the top card of your library revealed.
You may play the top card of your library.
Magus of the Future is no Future Sight. He’s more fragile to a huge amount of spells. He doesn’t really work with running broad creature sweeping that you got to run with Future Sight. He just is, on paper, a weaker card.
But in some ways he’s better than Future Sight. Future Sight is one of those terribly broken cards that was help back, primarily by the difficulty in quickly getting UUU2, and a lack of reasonable elimination spells in Blue to help keep you alive in the meantime. These days, Blue is chock-full of elimination, and the alternative card draw in Standard is relatively weak. You can probably expect that a Magus of the Future is going to dominate a game after being in play for even the shortest amount of time. And, who knows, maybe you’ll be willing to chump block with him sometimes too.
#1 — Pact of Negation
0
Instant
Pact of Negation is blue.
Counter target spell.
At the beginning of your next upkeep, pay 3UU. If you don’t, you lose the game.
People have gone on and on about this card. I’m sure that most of you already know how powerful this card is in protecting a combo that is in the process of going off. I’m sure that you also know that this card is not going to be so great at protecting that same combo deck from disruption. And I’m sure that you also know that if you need to, you can run it in conjunction with a card like Angel’s Grace or Platinum Angel to survive “death” triggered by this card.
Yes, this card is not Force of Will. But it is a free counter that can just win you the game if you’re playing in the most solitaire intensive of environments. The more solitaire-ish the environment, the more this card begins to soar over force of will. If you are playing a deck that can win incredibly quickly, expect this one to be a fantastic way to help guarantee the delivery of a game.
Green
#5 — Magus of the Vineyard
G
Creature – Human Wizard
1/1
At the beginning of each player’s precombat main phase, add GG to that player’s mana pool.
Effects like Magus of the Vineyard are very dangerous. Giving your opponent a significant resource before you get access to it can be an incredibly risky proposition, especially versus the most explosive of decks. There are complicated ways around this (with cards like Teferi and such), but in some instances, the Magus of the Vineyard provides a huge challenge to an opponent. Use that mana, Blue/White control deck!
Clearly, for this card to work, you need to be able to exploit the mana that you get from it very quickly. This Magus gives you such a jump on your curve, some truly extraordinary things are possible. Holding down your opponent’s answering extraordinary things is the challenge. Discard is one option; prayer another. The thing about a Magus is that, unanswered, a deck that runs it is likely to roll over any opponent. If, that is, you don’t just lose from playing it in the first place.
#4 — Sprout Swarm
1G
Instant
Convoke (Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its total cost by 1 or by one mana of that creature’s color.)
Buyback 3 (You may pay an additional 3 as you play this spell. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
Put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play.
Obviously, this is a Limited powerhouse. Anyone who has played against this in Limited will attest to that. But Constructed?
Even without help, a Sprout Swarm is a terrible frustrating threat against a control deck. In a deck that has attained a high amount of mana, it can completely shut down the ability of an aggressive deck to attack. In both of these situations, there might be a better card for the specific situation, but Sprout Swarm does each job fairly admirably.
Sprout Swarm can go infinite very easily. In many different ways. I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to come up with all of the ways that you can find yourself with infinite Saprolings.
# 3 — Baru, Fist of Krosa
3GG
Legendary Creature – Human Druid
4/4
Whenever a Forest comes into play, green creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain trample until end of turn.
Grandeur – Discard another card named Baru, Fist of Krosa: Put an X/X green Wurm creature token into play, where X is the number of lands you control.
I like Baru a lot, though less than his friend Korlash. He’s a very solid beatdown creature, and can cause some truly huge amounts of damage to come across the board in a surprisingly easy fashion. That said, he’s incredibly vulnerable to control strategies employing Wrath of God and Damnation.
The trick is to make sure that you drop him when he’s going to be useful. A lot of times, I’d expect that you wouldn’t drop him on turn 5, but rather on turn 6 to give a free Stampede to your men. If an opponent is mana light or without any answers, and you happen to draw multiples of this guy, I could easily see you being able to toss a fairly insane amount of damage at them.
#2 — Heartwood Storyteller
1GG
Creature — Treefolk
2/3
Whenever a player plays a noncreature spell, each of that player’s opponents may draw a card.
I don’t play much in the way of multi-player Constructed, so I’m not going to talk about him there (though, I imagine he might be a complete beating in Emperor). The biggest thing about this guy to me is the way that he can completely change the way an opponent plays, and how he’ll nearly always replace himself if they try to eliminate him.
It isn’t that hard to choose to play a deck that is nearly all creatures (if not all creatures). Bennie Smith wrote up an excellent decklist involving Heartwood Storyteller and a variety of Blue or Blue/Green creatures that mimic the effects of spells. Heartwood Storyteller even would seem to have an impact on incredibly high-powered games. I imagine this guy being dropped on the table, and potential drawing a ridiculous number of spells versus any control or combo deck, even in very high-powered formats. I don’t know about you, but if my opponent lets me draw 5-6 spells, I wouldn’t mind giving them one back to cast a counter, or an Abeyance.
#1 — Summoner’s Pact
0
Instant
Summoner’s Pact is green.
Search your library for a green creature card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
At the beginning of your next upkeep, pay 2GG. If you don’t, you lose the game.
For a combo deck, this might just be the more powerful card between it and Pact of Negation. A lot of combo decks involve creatures these days, and some of those creatures are incredibly critical. If you don’t plan on actually letting another turn pass, Pacts’ drawbacks are completely irrelevant.
Tutors are always a big deal, but we’ve never really seen truly free tutors before this. There are probably some decks that wouldn’t even need to be a combo deck to employ this card. Expending eight mana to get a Loxodon Hierarch right now might just be enough to stay alive. But for the combo deck, often assembling the combo is far more important than doing much of anything else. In Vintage, people are talking about using this thing to fetch Elvish Spirit Guides and the like, while I’m sure all kinds of nefarious ideas exist for other guys to fetch. Personally, the proactive approach to a tutor seems better to me than a defensive counter. I’ve generally preferred discard and Orim’s Chant-like effects to be my method of locking out an opponent while I go off anyway.
…
Next week, Red, White, and the rest of the cards’ respective Top 5s, and the Top 5 of the set overall. I’ll throw in one of my pet decks, for a little bit of spice, and it is jam packed with new cards.
Until then!