Like you, I have been following the numerous Tenth Edition Previews on MagictheGathering.com. X looks to be a really exciting new set. I didn’t see any easy compilation of the changing cards on the official Mothership, but I did find a list that purports to be “completed,” “cross-checked,” and “verified” at MTGSalvation.com. I am working on new Standard decks for U.S. Nationals weekend, so I figured any kind of big cheats jump start would be a good thing. Here are my initial thoughts on the plusses and minuses of Tenth Edition versus Ninth Edition, based on the above website; if the data is inaccurate… Well, that’s what happens when you use unofficial spoiler information as the basis for Magic articles.
As should be obvious to you by this point, if you aren’t interested in hearing an even speculative perspective on an as-yet unreleased new set, click your back button now and check in after Game Day.
I am not including all of the additions and subtractions that I have pulled from the spoiler versus present Gatherer information; in fact, I’ve cut down my list several times from first draft (does anyone really want to read about the fact that Starlight Invoker made a Pro Tour Top 8?)… For now, this is mostly just my short list for gap design opportunities… That, or thinking out loud on some interesting cards.
White
New Additions:
Aura of Silence
This is a really interesting one to me given some of the trends of the past couple of years. Disenchant coming back in Time Spiral was supposed to be a reality folded hiccup… Aura of Silence competed with Disenchant when Aura of Silence was in print, both in Standard and in Extended. This card seems like it would be pretty wicked against certain types of decks, pre-empting their middle turns action mana. It’s no worse than a Seal of Primordium once online (obviously). That said, in Magic, 3 < 2.
Condemn
This is a nice addition to the Core Set. Obviously a tournament staple.
Luminesce
I don’t see Dragonstorm as being very good any more (see below); I suppose eating up the slots of two different cards that have had at some points universal adoption over the last ten years, the last two members of the Circle of Protection cycle, makes this an interesting card for the format… Not on my short list for now.
Mobilization
I was thinking about this card versus Sacred Mesa for Standard. Forget about the fact that Sacred Mesa has dropped in popularity in recent months; that is 100% metagame-dictated and it can easily bounce back. Obviously flying > vigilance, but I figured that when you win with either card, you are usually winning on swarm volume, so I decided to map out three mana activation versus two mana activation minus a Pegasus per turn to compare them. For the non-math nerds / possibly lazy:
| Mana | Mobilization* | Sacred Mesa* |
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
|
3
|
1
|
0
|
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
|
5
|
1
|
1
|
|
6
|
2
|
2
|
|
7
|
2
|
2
|
|
8
|
2
|
3
|
|
9
|
3
|
3
|
|
10
|
3
|
4
|
|
11
|
3
|
4
|
|
12
|
4
|
5
|
* In net tokens.
Pariah
This is a card that has already gotten my creative juices flowing. I figured that –Worship / +Platinum Angel was the end of the equation, but when the two cards were originally printed, Pariah and Worship actually competed, and in some cases, were played in the same decks. Pariah was never as popular, because it is in some ways easier to answer or crack, but it is still a good card. I can see playing this with Paladin en-Vec, Voice of All, Troll Ascetic, and Hedge Troll in Standard… Probably the best reason to play a Hedge Troll, actually.
True Believer
Probably the most important of White’s crop of pedigreed brand new two-drops (Starlight Invoker, Steadfast Guard). True Believer never beat combo by itself, but at least it demanded a card, probably slowed down Fundamental Turn by a rip or so. Certainly this is a fine card.
Goodbye to…
Blinding Angel
I’ve always thought this was a good one… No idea why it did nothing in Standard this time around as it was brilliant in Masques Block and run pretty heavily in pre-Flametongue Kavu. No difference this time, though.
Blinking Spirit
At one point this was one of the most dominating threats in Standard. I certainly lost my second PTQ to it back in 1996. That said, no one played it this time around. No difference again.
Chastise
This is a card that I think should have mattered more. The last time I ran it was ~2003 in Nassiferson B/W in Standard… That said, I think there were a lot of decks looking for precisely this ability. Another do nothing loss, obviously.
Circle of Protection: Black, Circle of Protection: Red
Circle of Protection: Red actually matters. Two weeks ago Pat Sullivan was asking me to brainstorm how to beat Circle of Protection: Red in Standard… Not really an issue anymore. I have run both cards over the years, but honestly, I didn’t think Circle of Protection: Red was very good this time around. Even with no Disenchants, I beat a ton of them on the way to winning New York States last October.
Ivory Mask
From my perspective, this is potentially the biggest loss for White in the switch. I guess the fact that there is no Gifts Ungiven / Yosei deck to hose as there was a year ago makes it less of a sting, and we have a five mana option from Future Sight as well… Still, this was a powerful card with a fairly unique effect.
Leonin Skyhunter
Awesome card that no one played. No huge loss.
Peace of Mind
Though not very many people played this card, don’t forget Peace of Mind was a fairly important Solar Pox component as first unveiled. I was actually trying to figure out how to break it this week… There is still Skullmead Cauldron if you want to toss Firemane Angels.
Sacred Ground
I’m not really sure about this one. I wish I played it at Regionals 2004, but Seth Burn made fun of me and said I had The Fear. Obviously I lost to Flashfires in a matchup that I could lose no other way. Obviously. Overall I think Sacred Ground was a bad card. I just remember MikeyP drawing it in playtesting the turn after he had been stuck with a Ruination (Maher Oath) and Brook North saying “way to shut the barn doors after the horses are already out.” When I first started testing Vore for Team PTQs last year I beat three of these one game to the tune of a perfect victory.
Savannah Lions
Obviously a gigantic loss.
Weathered Wayfarer
I wanted to play this in the same deck as Peace of Mind. I probably like this card too much… It’s more-or-less a do-nothing.
Worship
Gigantic loss.
White seems to be in net negative land for Ninth-to-X. Ivory Mask, Sacred Ground, Savannah Lions, Weathered Wayfarer, and Worship are all fat losses. Beacon of Immortality may make for a strong new combo deck, but Condemn seems like the strongest new card in the abstract…
Blue
Additions:
Cephalid Constable
This never saw a lot of play in Odyssey Block… Believe me this is a breakable one. It might even find space in the current Riptide Pilferer slot in Blue versus some other Blue.
Peek
No one ever remembers this one… Except maybe Richard Feldman and Gadiel. This will probably be awesome. I love the cheap cards that do only a little but that little helps you win a lot, and “draw a card” is tacked onto the back.
Persuasion
We tend to underrate Persuasion because it is worse than Control Magic and far worse than Treachery. We still ran it in the Kibler’s R/U/G, and it’s probably a fine spell to tap out for.
Twincast
Very interesting inclusion… Probably best in Blue-on-Blue as a kind of Counterspell, but also powerful against big burn spells &c. I don’t know if this makes up for Mana Leak on two, though.
Goodbye to…
Annex
I actually love seeing this go. This was sometimes a hard card to beat for good decks. It never seemed to do enough in really good decks… Usually had to be there as a set-up card despite the fact that it had an unconditionally powerful effect.
Battle of Wits
I don’t know why this makes me sad, but it does. I’m actually going to go play a bunch of worthless MTGO games with Battle after I finish this article, as a kind of mourning.
Confiscate
Fairly big loss for Blue… Take Possession makes this much less significant, of course, but it doesn’t change the fact that Confiscate was at least previously a heavily played and sometimes devastating threat.
Mana Leak
Arguably Blue’s biggest loss, Mana Leak was our Counterspell replacement. I think it will be interesting to watch Blue on two in the coming months, and again after Ravnica rotates (Remand). Rune Snag will hold this spot in the short term, but after that? Remove Soul is still around. Chad Kastel played Remove Soul over Remand in Jushi Blue when he came in second at New Jersey States in 2005, and the Japanese have played Remove Soul as a two-of or so in numerous decks. Flashfreeze is also very good, but probably not main deck playable. Like I said, interesting. [No love for Delay? — Craig.]
Rewind
I actually have no great love for Rewind but Tsuyoshi told me to play it last year, so what was I supposed to do? I have Rewind in a great many decks right now… It’s part of my R-package that includes Remand and Repeal (all three make it as four-ofs in the first drafts of almost every Blue deck I make in Standard). The loss of Seething Song in Red is going to shift incentives away from Gigadrowse, making Rewind is a less important / strategic / necessary answer spell.
Sleight of Hand
This is one that is good for the game and bad for the game, and bad for Blue. It’s good for the game because Sleight of Hand was mostly used in evil decks like Dragonstorm… Not that that matters as much for now. It’s bad for the game in that it was also used in good decks like Miracle Grow and Vore (jump down to Green). The loss to Blue in general is significant, helping to contribute to its net negative for Ninth-to-X.
Temporal Adept
Temporal Adept is one of the most awesome cards. However, it has seen little play in the last two years… Not much impact in terms of present decks, obviously.
Zur’s Weirding
This card is hot and cold. Right now it’s cold, but it could easily go hot at any moment. I actually thought the time was right for a return to U/R/W with Firemane Angel (again) from base-Lightning… but no Weirding removes one of the six or so hybrid plans that made U/R/W attractive for, say, U.S. Nationals. I would have liked to see this one stay.
I actually think Peek is the best card Blue got (maybe Twincast). The losses by comparison are staggering. Blue got hammered with this transition… It will probably still be the best color in Standard and everything.
Black
Additions:
Agonizing Memories
This card is awesome and has always been underplayed. I think it will be very good in Mono-Black Control in Standard. Agonizing Memories your bad cards, Stupor your good cards? Mad Genius Erik Lauer taught me that in 1997 with his 28 land, 4 Dark Ritual, 4 Mind Stone deck (second in the first Toronto). I can see this as a good B/R strategy with Red’s Muse and the incomparable Graven Cairns. I don’t know if Agonizing Memories makes up for Persecute… The cards are very different. At the very least you have to probably have to play lots of Agonizing Memories versus only one Persecute (though I only played one Agonizing Memories in Napster, so maybe that’s not true at all). This one will take a little testing.
Deathmark
Very strong card, somewhat underplayed to date… I’d guess it’s because Deathmark is a Coldsnap card and people forget it exists. This will probably move to a firm tournament staple with X.
Graveborn Muse
I can’t say I was ever a huge fan of this card, but it certainly made an impact in a couple of decks when it was legal in Standard last time (see U.S. Nationals 2003). Obviously Graveborn Muse is no Phyrexian Arena replacement… They just don’t go in the same kinds of decks. The one thing I really don’t like about it is that it is just awful against the kinds of strategies Black is already bad against, and uncontrollable when it’s good, at times.
Rain of Tears
Awesome addition for Black! I remember hating this card when it first came out… Worse than Sinkhole and worse than Icequake and pretty much worse than Choking Sands. That didn’t stop Rain of Tears from being a key component of the original Napster. Three-mana mana denial is a nice tool for Black… We’ll see how this develops.
Terror
This is a big one for Black. It should be a really popular sideboard card from the outset.
Goodbye to…
Execute and Slay
No one has played these for months.
Persecute
I think this is probably the biggest single loss in all of Ninth-to-X. Black has really learned to lean on Persecute, and tons of strategies have jumped on this spell, from Solar Flare to The Masterpiece. Head Games maybe?
Phyrexian Arena
I don’t play this card very often, but I recognize it as being close to Tier 1… A pretty big loss for Black.
Zombify
For now this doesn’t matter very much due to Dread Return, Body Double, Vigor Mortis… Zombify was splashable, though. Its rotation should still matter.
I want to call Black a net negative due to the losses of Persecute and Phyrexian Arena, but it also got back several really strong cards. I’d call this one a wash, but Persecute really hurts, especially with three more months of House Guard and Clutch engines in Standard.
Red
Additions:
Beacon of Destruction
This was always the strongest of the Beacons. Do you have any idea how much damage “five” is? No Sensei’s Divining Top makes Beacon of Destruction less nakedly stupid… But if there is room enough in the world (a deck) for two five-mana burn spells, I can see this one playing nicely with Riddle of Lightning. It should see a less-than-medium amount of play, but it will see play.
Incinerate
Bingo!
Lavaborn Muse
This didn’t see any play last time, but with The Rack a popular strategy right now and B/R equipped with the strongest dual land since Underground Sea, I can see this Muse grabbing a lot of metagame share up this year. Discard and burn spells… Can they Voltron together to make a competitive deck?
Mogg Fanatic
Other bingo!
Siege-Gang Commander
Obviously an exceptional card… I don’t know if it will be a big threat in Standard without the rest of the Goblins machinery behind it. Tapping five actual lands for a small guy and some buddies on your own main phase is not really the most exciting prospect, you grok?
Squee, Goblin Nabob
The Patron Saint of Do-Nothing! How to break him? I’m going to try it with Compulsive Research, Careful Consideration, Life from the Loam, and Stormbind. I told Kowal, and he said that I gave away the Flores secret of deck design (“overload the linear and cross your fingers”). Take that for what you will. Razormane Masticore anyone?
Goodbye to…
Blood Moon
This card is actually kind of lame. It doesn’t deal any damage, and it costs a fair amount of mana. I have a theory that most of the people who have lost to this over the years were going to lose to something anyway. We have a Magus that does the same thing.
Form of the Dragon
This is my favorite card of all time, design-wise. With no Seething Song and no Enduring Ideal, this probably wasn’t going to see a lot of Standard play anyway.
Kird Ape
Gigantic loss for Red… Except it was replaced by Mogg Fanatic, which makes everything okay again.
Magnivore
Again, unpopular as of late, despite being a super strong card… This won’t be immediately missed.
Seething Song
On the other hand, Seething Song’s loss is crippling to multiple strategies. Luckily I hate basically every deck that has ever summoned a Seething Song. I couldn’t be happier about this.
Stone Rain
It’s hard to say how big a loss this is. No UrzaTron means less need for a Stone Rain sideboard. Few if any dedicated LD decks are in the metagame. On the other hand, it feels strange. I don’t know what to think about this one.
Volcanic Hammer
This makes me very sad. Volcanic Hammer was such a lesson to all of us. I think the consistent downgrading of burn spells in Standard and even Extended actually made us better deck designers and players. The fact that the Korlash deck was eventually sideboarding Volcanic Hammer as a redundant Last Gasp is just a glorious combing of strategic role players (I should know… I put them in Patrick’s sideboard). I would have been fine with keeping this, even if it meant not getting the alternative, awesome, strictly better, version.
Oh well… We get Incinerate!
Wildfire
A year ago it would have been pretty significant, but this isn’t much of a loss at this point. I was testing on MTGO the other night and my U/R ‘Tron opponent couldn’t even cast this because I had Thrill of the Hunt in the graveyard already. Detritivore is seeing much more play, and probably for good reason. I assume this will be back after a couple of years, and look forward to that.
Red is the gigantic winner of this transition. While it is paradoxical that the loss of Seething Song, a Red card, would help the color, remember that Seething Song is not a real Red Deck card, but in fact a villainous combo card. Without it in the format, actual Red Decks get one thousand times better. Incinerate and Mogg Fanatic? The big loser might be Black. How can it keep Dark Confidant in play?
Green
Additions:
Birds of Paradise
Welcome back! I know you didn’t actually leave the format thanks to Ravnica, but having both you and Llanowar Elves in the Core Set is just special. That’s how I feel it should go.
Civic Wayfinder
This is a really solid card. I think that it will go back to being highly appreciated when Breeding Pool et al leave Standard. I’ve actually played it over Yavimaya Dryad in some decks.
Quirion Dryad
This guy and Tarmogoyf in Standard at the same time? It might be time to forge a new legend of U/G aggro.
Root Maze
If the loss of Seething Song weren’t enough to bone combo decks… This one is a Wakefield special.
Sylvan Scrying
Pretty awesome. This opens up so many possibilities. There aren’t as many Karoos in Standard right now… What about one Karoo? Bullet utility lands – Desert, Quicksand, &c. – should start appearing.
Troll Ascetic
The only question is what are we going to attach to this guy?
Goodbye to…
Biorhythm
Not much need for this extremely expensive threat with no Martyr decks in the format at present.
Early Harvest
Went from best deck to completely unplayed… No significant loss at present.
Greater Good
It looks like Green didn’t really lose very much.
Green lost like nothing, while making notable gains across its specialties. You can actually make the argument that Green fished ahead of Red because it’s lost nothing immediately important.
Artifacts:
Citanul Flute
If there is enough mana… Watch out! This was the trademark of the multiple Team YMG Top 8s in one of the most broken formats of all time. Hump and Dougherty were summoning Avalanche Riders every turn, thanks to Tinker.
Legacy Weapon
It’s probably not the right format for this card… Don’t forget it’s there, though.
Pithing Needle
Artifacts really made out in Ninth-to-X. This is of course one of the most popular answers of its time. Look for it… um, everywhere.
Platinum Angel
What do you think about two of these ladies next to Mishra? The Mishra deck certainly has the mana. One Platinum Angel is a target, but two can be pretty hard to beat… Remember she puts you on a decent clock. I don’t think this card is as strong of a tournament card as Worship, but I do think she will be awesome, somewhere.
Razormane Masticore
This, on the other hand, is a card that never really realized its potential, but is now being given a second chance. I’m pretty excited about Razormane Masticore, actually. It’s good with Mishra and great with Squee.
Sculpting Steel
I think I got to a point where I was just imagining every one of these cards in the Mishra deck, with Mishra already in play. Sculpting Steel might be too greedy, actually, but you can understand my exuberance given the setup notion, right? I think it could be as popular as, say, Jester’s Scepter.
Goodbye to…
Fellwar Stone
Prismatic Lens is more popular, and Mind Stone will be far more popular, I’d guess. No one played Fellwar Stone, largely because in-color Signets did the same thing for two-color decks, generally better, and the color distribution was more controllable even in three-color decks.
Jester’s Cap
Kind of a minor loss, but not insignificant. Jester’s Cap was a Cranial Extraction for the Cranial Extraction-less. It would have been interesting to see this card’s interaction with, say, Mishra or Academy Ruins.
Artifacts did great on this switchover, losing two unpopular cards and gaining a ton of inevitably popular threats and answers. Pithing Needle is going to be a chase card of the set.
Lands
Additions:
Faerie Conclave, et al
All of these are awesome, except probably the Watchtower. Treetop Village will be the most popular, Spawning Pool the most underrated.
Terramorphic Expanse
I’m not sure if this will be good enough for Standard… It hasn’t been so far. That said, almost universal adoption in Block can’t be all bad. If polychromatic is going to survive in Standard after Ravnica Block rotates out Hallowed Fountain and so on, we may have to go to this card… But not in the short term.
Goodbye to…
Urza’s Mine, Urza’s Power Plant, and Urza’s Tower
I have been on both sides of the ‘Tron, and I think at this point, the rotation was basically a necessity… Tooth, BlueTooth, U/R ‘Tron, various decks in the Top 8 of Worlds, the most recent major Standard event… This rotation should help to keep the format fresh, or at least from degenerating into certain patterns over the next couple of years.
That’s it.
LOVE
MIKE
PS: Tomorrow is the first of two Time Spiral Block Constructed PTQs at Neutral Ground. In my forums last week, Richard pointed out that my manabase didn’t really make any sense, but I had independently gone to a more B/U-centric mana base rather than the Green, which rode a legacy of having to play a 1G two-drop. I also think that with the Searches I had too much mana. This is the first rebuild that I ran:
4 Coalition Relic
4 Prismatic Lens
4 Damnation
4 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
1 Sudden Death
2 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Aeon Chronicler
4 Careful Consideration
4 Foresee
2 Ana Battlemage
1 Riftsweeper
4 Dreadship Reef
1 Forest
2 Island
4 River of Tears
6 Swamp
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Urza’s Factory
I shifted the Harmonize to Careful Consideration, largely to discard excess Urborgs. I added the second Island to accomplish the mana, but kept most of the unique elements.
After testing a little, I decided I just wanted more Tendrils:
4 Coalition Relic
4 Prismatic Lens
4 Damnation
4 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
2 Sudden Death
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Aeon Chronicler
4 Careful Consideration
4 Foresee
4 Dreadship Reef
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 River of Tears
6 Swamp
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Urza’s Factory
I cut the Forest main deck for a Mountain, with the plan of going Detritivore after sideboarding, with Ancient Grudge an easy play and splash (and it’s not like the Green cards had to leave entirely).
We tested a bit this week at Neutral Ground. Even if Riftsweeper is no longer a consensus main deck card, I found Aeon Chronicler a bit slow against the fastest beatdown decks. After playing a bit with DraftCap creator Mark Schmit, and he ran some very useful input… My current build actually looks a fair bit like Kowalash:
4 Coalition Relic
4 Prismatic Lens
4 Damnation
4 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Careful Consideration
4 Foresee
2 Snapback
4 Dreadship Reef
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 River of Tears
6 Swamp
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Urza’s Factory
Snapback is very good. Basically you lose to G/W if you can’t contest a Griffin Guide, or you’re too greedy to properly contest it because you’re Foreseeing when you should be spending a Damnation (I do this too much); Snapback is a powerful answer to Griffin Guide, Temporal Isolation, and Mystic Enforcer. I’m definitely siding up to four and maybe playing some Dead / Gones, too.
I really like drawing cards in this format. Obviously I respect Mystical Teachings, but two cards for four mana is a lot different from two cards for ten mana, if you grok. Good luck tomorrow!