It’s Time To Put My Money Where My Mouth Is

It’s one thing to have an opinion.

“Chandra, Torch of Defiance is the third-best planeswalker ever printed!”

“Combustible Gearhulk is actually playable!”

“Syndicate Trafficker is what black needs to be a playable aggro deck in Standard!”

“Madcap Experiment will be broken in conjunction with Platinum Emperion in Modern!”

…and so on. They say opinions are like…

Jim! Get a hold of yourself!

No, wait, let me start over.

Opinions are always plentiful during preview and Prerelease season. Magic is a very complicated game, and adding over 200 new pieces to interact with the thousands of pieces already existing is quite the puzzle to be put together. Very often we end up with formats, like last Standard, that last for months and are still never fully solved. As such, when a new set comes out, everyone is going to have an opinion on something, and many of them are going to be wrong.

Today we’re going to go beyond opinions, and look at the cards I have chosen to preorder from StarCityGames.com from Kaladesh. Just saying an opinion is great, because even if you’re wrong, you don’t really lose anything. Today however I put my money where my mouth is and give you an inside look at the cards I’ve chosen to add to my collection in anticipation of #SCGINDY.

I will be going over notable omissions at the end, and please note that I tend to not bother with preordering commons and uncommons as I usually acquire them at the Prerelease. All prices were as of 9/20, as they tend to fluctuate during preorder season.

It’s not an extremely long list, but it is full of cards that I both believe in and that I feel are undervalued at the moment. Let’s dive in.

4 copies at $1.49 each.

Whatever happened to the old “Æ” symbol like on cards like Æther Burst? [Copy Editor’s Note: This happened.]

Magic is dying!

Why do they keep changing things!

This is different and I don’t like it!

Okay, I’m over it.

We start with one of the more comboish cards in the set, Aetherflux Reservoir. In a lot of ways Aetherflux Reservoir resembles Tendrils of Agony as a four-mana combo-kill card. The big difference, of course, is that Tendrils of Agony had to be the last spell you played, while Aetherflux Reservoir needs to be first in line.

Eight spells is the baseline for a lethal Aetherflux Reservoir, and in older formats, casting eight spells in a turn is not that difficult of a thing to accomplish. Of course, the number of spells you need to cast can vary with your life total, and you can use lifegain to accomplish your 50-life goal as well. It’s also not that difficult to gain a ton of life in older formats as well, as cards like Martyr of Sands do this very effectively.

However, I’m actually more interested in Aetherflux Reservoir as a combo card in Standard. Artifact sets tend to bring combo to the party, and I think Standard might see its first combo deck in a while. More on that later.

Three copies at $7.99 each.

I spent a lot of time discussing the Gearhulk cycle last week, so I won’t delve too far into them.

Cataclysmic Gearhulk is a great card that I expect to see a good amount of play over the life of the format in a variety of decks. I think it will wax and wane depending on the texture of the format, but $8 for a good Standard mythic is very reasonable. It also just has the chance to be a staple and shoot up to $20 overnight.

Three copies at $19.99 each.

I think Dovin Baan has gotten lost in a lot of the Chandra/Nissa hype.

Dovin Baan feels great to me. It’s a four-mana planeswalker that goes up to four loyalty while defending itself and draws cards while gaining life; what more could you ever want? The ultimate is pretty lackluster, but on the whole Dovin Baan compares pretty favorably to Jace, Architect of Thought. Like Jace, it can help force your opponent into overextending into Fumigate; like Jace, it plays right into a control deck’s strategy of wanting the game to go as long as possible.

The question is how good blue and white will be. Black has most of the premium removal spells in the format, and we aren’t exactly awash with great counterspell options. Dovin would slot very well into a Jeskai or Esper Superfriends deck, hanging out with Chandra, Jace, and Nahiri or Jace, Liliana, and Ob Nixilis. It’s honestly hard to know exactly where Dovin goes, but the power is there.

This is probably the most speculative of my preorders and I’m probably buying with my heart and not my brain here. I would not be surprised if Dovin Baan ends up being a fringe role-player in the $10 range, but I just want control to be good so badly that I’m ready to buy in.

Heart on my sleeve, Islands and Plains in my sleeves!

Four copies at $1.99 each.

Fleetwheel Cruiser is the second-best Vehicle in Kaladesh and an absolutely fantastic aggressive card.

Most of the Vehicles have similar problems to Equipment. You pay a cost upfront and don’t always get the payoff until later. Like Equipment, Vehicles are worthless on an empty battlefield and do nothing to help you get back into a game. As such, typically only the cheapest and most efficient Equipment was playable, as it had to be easy to use and have a high payoff to be worth it.

Fleetwheel Cruiser is much more than a Vehicle, though.

Fleetwheel Cruiser is more like a four-mana Lava Axe that leaves behind a powerful but somewhat expensive Vehicle when it’s done doing its job. You’re paying four mana for the Lava Axe, and getting the Fleetwheel Cruiser for later attacks is the bonus. This is great!

Also extremely relevant is how well Fleetwheel Cruiser battles the format’s various planeswalkers. On turn 4, Fleetwheel Cruser comes down and kills almost every relevant planeswalker in the format one on one: Chandra, Torch of Defiance; Dovin Baan; Liliana, the Last Hope (on the play); Saheeli Rai (on the play); and so on. This is a very powerful tool for an aggressive deck to possess, and Fleetwheel Cruiser also plays very well against mass removal and sorcery-speed removal.

This card is great and I would be very surprised to see this card flop.

Four copies at $1.49 each.

Speaking of great haste creatures, Lathnu Hellion is absurd and I can’t believe it hasn’t gotten more hype.

Just at face value, Lathnu Hellion is two turns’ worth of a three-mana 4/4 haste creature. When compared to burn spells or past creatures like Keldon Marauders, this rate is fantastic. Yes, your opponent can kill it, and yes, your opponent can just block it, but either way that’s still a fantastic deal for only three mana.

Of course, that’s only look at Lathnu Hellion at face value. There are plenty of cards in the set that create more Energy counters, and keeping your three-mana 4/4 around is a pretty good use of Energy. If your opponent kills your Lathnu Hellion the first turn you attack with it, you also get to use that extra Energy for other purposes and get even more value.

Whether it’s in a mono-red deck or some sort of R/G or U/R Energy deck, I expect Lathnu Hellion to be a force for the entire time it is in Standard. It’s worth every penny.

Two copies at $5.99 each.

See Cataclysmic Gearhulk.

Only two copies because Noxious Gearhulk feels more like a piece of the puzzle to me than a full-on plan.

Four copies at $.75 each.

Earlier we spoke about Aetherflux Reservoir being a possible combo card in Standard, and Paradoxical Outcome is why.

There have been a number of combo decks in various formats using cards like Retract to bounce and replay a bunch of free artifacts for some sort of value. The problem is that they require another tool to be reasonable, be it Puresteel Paladin, Vedalkan Archmage, or whatever.

Paradoxical Outcome is the Retract plus the card draw engine, all in one card.

Of course, the missing piece is the kill card. There is no Grapeshot or Brain Freeze in Standard.

…but there is Tendrils of Agony.

I haven’t even begun to consider how one would build a deck like this yet, but Paradoxical Outcome is a card seething with power— well worth the $3 investment.

Four copies at $.99 each.

Mama Nalaar doesn’t look like much at first glance. She’s only a 2/2 for three mana with no extra combat abilities, and she doesn’t kill anything or deal any extraneous damage. However, there’s a lot of text in that text box.

After reading it all, it’s clear that Pia Nalaar is three power for three mana spread across two bodies, one of which has evasion. She can pump up the important evasive body or other artifact creatures, and in a pinch she can neuter a few blockers to make for a lethal alpha strike. That’s a lot of value for only three mana.

Pia Nalaar isn’t a format-defining card, but she is a solid role-player that will likely see a lot of play in both aggressive and artifact-based red decks.

Four copies at $2.99 each.

Scrapheap Scrounger is amazing.

Despoiler of Souls was a fringe-playable card when it was legal, and Scrapheap Scrounger makes Despoiler of Souls look like Chimney Imp. At first glance I thought Scrapheap Scrounger cost three mana, because that is what I would expect it to cost, and I was still impressed. A two-mana 3/2 is a very good rate, and Scrapheap Scrounger is very easy to recur over and over again.

Scrapheap Scrounger is a shoo-in to any aggressive black or artifact-based deck and plays very well with the already-proven Haunted Dead / Prized Amalgam engine. It comes down too early and hits too hard to ignore but is ready to create card advantage and come back over and over again as the game drags on.

I also can’t wait to see this card in action in my Cube, as it supports my artifact theme while providing black with a much-needed two-drop. I love this card!

One copy at $4.99.

Earlier on I said that Fleetwheel Cruiser was the second-best Vehicle in Kaladesh. Now let me introduce you to the best.

Smuggler’s Copter is extremely pushed and offers a very high power level at a very low cost. Two mana for a 3/3 flier with upside would be completely absurd, and Smuggler’s Copter is not far off from that. Having a Crew cost of only one means pretty much any random creature can crew it, and it’s so cheap and efficient that the payoff is very high. Looting has always been a great ability for aggressive decks, as drawing too many lands is almost always a death knell.

But wait, there’s more!

We could probably keep going, but the list of cards that Smuggler’s Copter synergizes with in Standard is probably long enough for an entire article by itself. It’s a madness enabler, a graveyard enabler, a delirium enabler, and artifact enabler… and it was already playable without all of these synergies!

Smuggler’s Copter is one of the best cards in the set and I don’t think it’s particularly close.

So why only one copy? That was all that StarCityGames.com had left!

Four copies at $2.99 each.

Speaking of Toolcraft Exemplar, it’s about time we got some playable one-drops that aren’t just Savannah Lions!

Toolcraft Exemplar is a great Wild Nacatl-sized one-drop. Like Inventor’s Apprentice, it is fairly easy to turn on, and it only gets better as the game goes on. Often when aggressive decks stall out in the mid-game, the battlefield begins to stall behind the opponent’s superior creatures. In these situations, Toolcraft Exemplar gets even better.

But what it really comes down to is that Toolcraft Exemplar is a one-mana creature that can attack for three damage on turn 2 with minimal effort. That is very powerful. My only worry is its weakness to Liliana, the Last Hope, but most aggressive one-drops are going to be weak to Liliana.

It’s nothing too fancy, but I would not be surprised if Toolcraft Exemplar helps to define aggression in the new Standard format.

Four copies at $5.99 each.

Another Gearhulk, which I’ve already discussed; however, I have especially high hopes for Torrential Gearhulk. If there is going to be a good control deck in the format, Torrential Gearhulk is likely to be the go-to finisher.

Four copies at $14.99 each.

The last of the Gearhulks. I expect huge things. Green was already one of the best colors in the format and adding the best Gearhulk can only help.

And yes, I bought four copies. In a few months people are going to feel silly for putting any less than four in their decklists.

Notable Omissions

Just as interesting as cards I chose to preorder are cards I chose not to.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance is great. I think she’s currently a bit overrated, but more than anything I think she’s a bit overpriced. I would be highly surprised if she managed to stay over $50, even if she sees a good amount of play. I’m also unsure of her place in the format right now, so I’m content to stay away and bite the bullet later if I have to.

I’m taking a simliar “wait and see” approach to Nissa, Vital Force. She seems powerful, but again, I’m not sure where she slots in. $25 is not an awful price, but until I see more, I’m happy just sitting back and seeing what happens.

Sensing a theme here? Planeswalkers are notoriously hard to evaluate, and I’m more than happy to give them some time to see how they play out. Saheeli Rai does not impress me too much, but it’s also quite likely I am wrong, like I am on most three-mana planeswalkers.

I think Fumigate is fantastic, but given an environment full of planeswalkers and Vehicles, it does not seem like a good time for a five-mana Wrath of God, no matter how good it is. This is also the kind of card that will always be a buck or two and I’ve got no problem picking it up later.

The new fastlands are awesome and will be major players in Standard, just like the painlands were, but I’m in no rush to pick them up. They will only go down in price as more product is opened.

#SCGINDY

Team MGG starts testing for #SCGINDY this weekend and I can’t wait to dive into new Standard. Many of the cards I’ve preordered look like a ton of fun and there’s much to unpack with the new mechanics. I just hope I can brew up a reasonable control deck!

What’s on your preorder list?

Challenge Thursday

Last week’s Challenge Thursday was a blast. The challenge? “(Standard) Frenzied Tilling! Splendid Reclamation + Omnath, Locus of Rage,” thanks to @spellslinger87.

All I can say is we made tons of 5/5s and won a lot of games:

This deck was a blast to play and really felt like it had legs, and I look forward to experimenting with Splendid Reclamation in the new Standard.

This week though we are in for another challenge:

This week we will be having an early 5:00 PM Eastern edition of Challenge Thursday, which means the poll will be ending at 4:00 PM. This will give me an hour to build my deck.

Why are we doing Challenge Thursday early this week? I’m excited to announce I will be taking part in the Streamer Showdown tonight at 9:00 PM Eastern! It will be a Cube draft with many other great streamer personalities.

Challenge Thursday, then a Streamer Challenge?

What more could you want?

Tune in today at 5:00 PM Eastern to see what challenge wins the vote, and then stay on until 9:00 PM to see if I can take down the Streamer Showdown!