I swear, the older I get, the longer these titles become. You’d think I was a graduate student.
I’ve already posited that I will most likely be playing some flavor of Green deck for Regionals, as there are just too many good cards in that color not to play Green. Between all the mana-fixing, graveyard recursion, anti-artifact and enchantment weapons wrapped up in an army of tidy little beaters, you have the best creature base in the game, bar none. In addition, with all the mana fixing available, Green in combination with just about any other color (or colors) is proving to be viable.
What goodies will Saviors of Kamigawa bring to the table to for the plethora of Green decks swarming the red zone?
Firstly, we can ignore most cards that require a lot of Spirit/Arcane interaction. That might be powerful in KBC, yes, but Spirit/Arcane decks have yet to make much (if any) impact upon the Standard environment. So while the various Kirin and such are powerful cards, they’re not going to get a going-over here, since I’m just looking at established archetypes.
That’s about two-thirds of the set. Certainly makes my job much easier.
Mostly-Green Aggro
Once again, I ask that it not be called mono-Green, since these decks are all splashing one if not more colors. I’m sure no one really cares, just as no one cared that, technically, the end of the millennium was January 1, 2001, not 2000, but I shall rail on nonetheless in the name of nitpickers everywhere. George Will, Arthur C. Clarke, William Safire and I shall be knocking on your doors otherwise.
Arashi, the Shattered Sky
The instant-speed Hurricane is a nice feature. But to be honest, if I’m afraid of fliers, Matsu-Tribe Sniper is my choice. This guy is just too darn expensive.
Ayumi, the Last Visitor
Just another reason not to run those Legendary lands.
Endless Swarm
What would you rather have for eight mana — Rude Awakening or this?
Yeah, that was pretty easy.
Masumaro, First to Live
Don’t get me wrong, he’s a house and a half, but MGA is built around fast beats, usually topping out a Meloku the Clouded Mirror, and you need lots of cards in hand to make him a threat. A 14/14 that can block Darksteel Colossus and live to tell the tale? Great. A 4/4 for six mana? Not so great.
Give me Kodama of the North Tree any day.
Shattering Vines
For the price of an extra Green mana, you get a cantrip…. if you have enough cards in your hand. Being of the bird-in-the-hand mindset, I’ll stick with my Naturalizes, thank you very much.
Shinen of Life’s Roar
This, weirdly enough, is the best card for the MGA archetype in Saviors that I’ve seen. If you need to get past a creature stall, then insta-Lure here is your guy.
I’ve never seen MGA get into that situation, mind you, but it’s possible.
Stampeding Serow
I stand corrected: This is the best creature I’ve seen for MGA in Saviors I’ve seen. Compared to Iwamori of the Open Fist’s drawback, this is nothing (and there is the obvious synergy between Viridian Shaman, Eternal Witness, and Wood Elves as well).
I wish we had a Wall of Blossoms to play with (Haru-Onna? Uh, no), but bouncing an Eternal Witness each turn definitely goes in the “some good” file.
A great, great card. And it’s not even rare. What’s not to like?
Manriki-Gusara
It looks attractive against a field of Swords of Fire and Ice and Umezawa’s Jittes — but this is Green we’re talking about. It already eats artifacts for lunch, with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
Pithing Needle
This is an interesting concept, but it’s too narrow in the application. I suppose it’s reasonable against decks that lean heavily on a single permanent, like Vedalken Shackles and Arc-Slogger — but Green decks already have better, more versatile answers to these cards. If you are really afraid of permanents, Damping Matrix is a much better card (which you would never run in a Green deck, obviously, since it shuts down most of your creature base).
The verdict: The only Green card worth of making the cut is Stampeding Serow, but he gives you the foundation of a pretty potent little engine. (Remember Elf and Nail?). You can have your five-power trampler and not have to worry about a free Kokusho, the Evening Star! That’s a winner in my book.
G/W
I include this color combination mostly as an afterthought — but I’ve seen a few effective instances of this deck, and Troll Ascetic + Worship is a lock against more than one deck in the field.
Enduring Ideal
While I wouldn’t try to fit this into my current thinking, since I see Green decks as being primarily beatdown-oriented — but with the mana acceleration available, this might be workable in something along the lines of Honden.dec. Otherwise, it’s virtually unplayable.
Honor’s Hand
A slightly better White Knight. Not a bad little beater, but unfortunately, the bulk of the Black removal you are going to run into tends to be either of the non-targeted variety (like Barter in Blood) or global removal like Hideous Laughter or Death Cloud.
With the double-White casting cost, he’s better off in the latest futile attempt to make White weenie a Tier 1 deck. Give him pro-Red, let’s talk.
Kataki, War’s Wage
Great; now they print the Affinity-killer. If you are afraid of Equipment, this might not be a bad choice, but just about every G/x deck is running some kind of artifact support, and White weenie couldn’t use this card since its so Equipment dependent in the current environment.
Promise of Bunrei
The synergy with Sakura Tribe-Elder is obvious, and if you can pop the Promise on turn 3, you’ve got an efficient little army. It’s not quite as good as Beacon of Creation, but if you were to trying to create a G/W deck built along the lines of the current Equipment-heavy White weenie decks, this is a must.
Reverence
The good news: all those Beacon tokens, Spirit tokens and Blinkmoth Nexii are not going to touch you. The bad news: everything else is. Perhaps worth a sideboard slot if you’re going the “win with Ascetic and Worship” route.
The verdict: G/W really wasn’t considered all that playable before Saviors, and I see little reason why that should change now.
G/U
One of my favorite color combinations in the current Standard, it doesn’t get much from Saviors of Kamigawa — save for one card.
Eternal Dominion
This card intrigues me, since G/U (which usually runs a full complement of Birds of Paradise, Sakura Tribe-Elder and Kodama’s Reach), can get up to ten mana fairly easy. However, for eight mana, I can have Rude Awakening and actually win the game and keep playing spells, rather than giving my opponent’s time to perhaps draw an answer. Maybe in KBC, but not Standard.
Ideas Unbound
Let’s compare this to Thirst for Knowledge. T4K is a bit more splashable, and instant speed. Ideas Unbound costs one less, is sorcery-speed, and forces a discard of three, not one or two.
Ideas Unbound does give you the opportunity to unload dead cards and has synergy with Sensei’s Divining Top, but you only have so many slots open in G/U. I’ll stick with Thirst for Knowledge. In a reanimation-style deck, however, this might be a better fit.
Minamo Scrollkeeper
He’s a fine wall, but his ability is rather pointless. If I’m running any Walls, they’ll tap for mana.
Murmurs from Beyond
Strictly speaking, Thirst for Knowledge is far superior. Once Mirrodin Block rotates out, this could be an acceptable substitute. Until then, back to KBC with you!
Twincast
There seem to be two opinions about this card. One, it’s very good and will see lots of play in Standard. The second is sweet-merciful-God-in-heaven-above-hommina-hommina-hommina!
I lean towards the second, just without the drooling.
This card can be (and probably) is insane in U/G. You have a number of spells you can duplicate in your own deck — most notably Naturalize, Kodama’s Reach and Bribery (and seven mana is not difficult to reach quickly with this deck). You can copy a Cranial Extraction, Tooth and Nail, Reap and Sow, an opponent’s Kodama’s Reach, Shrapnel Blast, Fireball, Condescend, Rend Flesh, Plow Under, et cetera, et cetera.
And you can use it again with Eternal Witness.
My advice is to get a four of them now before you have to start mortgaging the house.
The verdict: Saviors didn’t really deliver that much to the G/U archetype in terms of numbers of cards, but Twincast may deliver the punch needed to take it to Tier 1.
G/R
Another archetype that’s rising with a bullet up the charts. Will Saviors cough up some love for this color combination?
Adamaro, First to Desire
Obviously, you’ll want to cast this card early in the game, when your opponent still has a hand full of cards, and he’ll do better when your opponent is stuck with a hand full of cards, hence, he’s a great fit for a Ponza deck, and possibly R/G, if you are going the land destruction route. With Chrome Moxes, Ponza can drop this fatty on turn 2. Getting double Red by turn 2 is pushing R/G a little too hard, especially since you don’t have any decent dual lands to fall back on.
Gaze of Adamaro
Like Adamaro, First to Desire, but in convenient instant form! Just think, that could be five, six, seven damage!
It could also be zero. And it doesn’t target creatures. The burn in Saviors is pretty sub-par if you ask me.
Burning-Eye Zubera
It’s a decent Hill Giant, with a spiffy ability, but there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to use the built-in ability, as it’s very situational in combat. Curse those three-power blockers, I say! This card goes in the “nope” pile.
Homura, Human Ascendant
This is a great, great card…in a B/R deck. Should you get him into play, he’ll certainly attract his share of chump blockers, but your opponent will be in no hurry to see him shuffle off to the graveyard. If you are playing B/R, however, you have any number of cards, such as Barter in Blood or Death Cloud that can dispose of him, where, in death, he will serve you far better.
Of course, this would require B/R actually being a playable color combination in Standard, which it isn’t…yet.
Jiwari, the Earth Aflame
Any large Red creature is going to be held to the Arc-Slogger standard for R/G — namely, “Is this creature better in the deck than Arc-Slogger?” More fragile at 3/3, and being unable to target an opponent, and the channel ability being very Red-intensive, the answer is clearly “no.”
Thoughts of Ruin
While the comparisons to Armageddon are obvious, the more appropriate parallel is with Tectonic Break, a card that saw a lot of play in the original Ponza decks. This would be a good fit in R/G built along the lines of the old Son of Hermit decks. Play out some mana creatures/acceleration, set your opponent back with Stone Rain, Creeping Mold, and Plow Under, then drop the Red ‘Geddon. Beat down with Ascetics and Arc-sloggers. Season to taste. Enjoy.
The final verdict: We seem to be continuing along the lines of about one keeper per color, and I’d say that while Red seems to be the weakest in terms of being a Green support color, Thoughts of Ruin is a welcome addition.
It’s odd that there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of cheap burn in this final set, either.
G/B
Death Cloud-based G/B (or The Rock, if you prefer) has been hanging around the Tier 1 lounge for some time. Did Santa bring fun toys or lumps of coal in Saviors?
Actually, considering the Black-ness of the deck, it might prefer the coal.
Endless Torment
The trouble with all of the epic spells is that, if you’re behind, you are essentially throwing the dice, taking the chance that you can win via the epic mechanic before your opponent can beat you. And not being able to cast a spell for the rest of the game is a huge drawback.
Endless Torment may be the best of the epic spells, but it has horrible synergy with Death Cloud, as it’s obviously going to require a fair amount of mana and a full hand to be effective.
Hand of Cruelty
If White weenie actually starts getting scary, then, yes, by all means, include this dork.
Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Now we’re talking. You have a creature that serves-double duty as beatdown machine and global sweeper. Running Kagemaro means you can run fewer removal spells such as Barter in Blood and Hideous Laughter, which means more room for card drawing spells such as Night’s Whisper…which, in turn, makes Kagemaro better.
Quoth Cleveland: “Oh, that’s just nasty.”
Kuon, Ogre Ascendant
It’s not impossible to think that this guy could be flipped fairly easily, but that does leave the problem of “how do you win?” (Guardian Idol and Blinkmoth Nexus are the obvious solutions.) Not to mention that while he is a beefy 2/4 for three mana, that triple Black means he isn’t coming out any time early.
I think he has a home in mono-Black, perhaps, but not in B/G.
Measure of Wickedness
Oh my, this card intrigues me. I can see this mechanic being the foundation of a block in the future. I can also see major headaches based upon timing rules of what hits the graveyard when. I’m already feeling a little queasy.
The only problems I see are that it doesn’t impact the board and it can definitely backfire on you if you don’t have all your ducks in a row. But in a controllish deck — which G/B definitely is — this can make for a devastating finisher.
The verdict: Again, not too much to write home about, the best of the lot being Kagemaro, which I imagine will find a home with Kokusho forming, if not your next WWE Tag Team champions (which isn’t too hard to believe given the current state of tag teams within the E), a potent one-two punch for G/B in the near future.
The final verdict? It seems every deck got one card, but that one card improved the deck considerably. MGA got a trampling fatty with a drawback that can actually be a boon. G/U got the new Fork. G/B got the epitome of an aggro-control creature and G/R picked up a situational Armageddon.
All four of these decks have been flitting around the flame that is Tier 1. Do these additions give these archetypes the oomph they need to take down MUC and Tooth and Nail?
You’ve got one month to find out.