With just over one week left until the Alara Reborn prerelease, we’ve started to see a good chunk of the new cards from MagicTheGathering.com and other official spoiler sources, and what we see so far is cause for excitement. If you are spoiler-averse and have been keeping away from seeing the cards before their release, this is not the article for you. Feel free to check back here at Magical Hack in two weeks’ time, as we’ll be taking advanced looks at Alara Reborn until the prerelease!
Now for the rest of us, whom I tend to think of as the majority once you get past the barrier of ‘wanting to read about Magic on the Internet’, we have some resources we can bring to bear. This week we’ll be looking at the official spoilers, found here on the Alara Reborn mini-site… and next week we shall check in with mtgsalvation.com to see how the unofficial spoiler is doing. Alara Reborn is going to be an all-gold set, which has some far-reaching implications. While Hybrid mana has been seen back on cards again, proving itself to be just now ‘evergreen’ enough to start to seep into general circulation even when it is not the theme of an expansion, it does so only on cards that will always require two different colors of mana, just ones that aren’t picky enough to care which companion color, Green or Black, you pay alongside the core of Red mana that is required for your Jund cards. These restrictions prevent the set from having any one-mana creatures, and from having any lands… that is, without some other mechanic in place to allow for alternate casting costs. Creative use of brainpower may very well allow for things that function as one-drops or look like lands, and it is this creativity in the face of restrictions that we look forward to exploring more as the set is revealed to us.
Our plan, then, for this article, is to have a walk down spoiler lane, and take a good look at everything they have shown to us so far… and to discuss their possible implications on Constructed and Limited play. These two things are not after all created equal, and with not just the Prerelease but also Regionals right around the corner for us it’s important to think in both modes.
For Constructed purposes, this card is essentially blank… except and unless it is getting abused, that is. It’s costed so low because the actual price is so high, that you can’t even realistically consider playing it in Constructed unless your deck is 40+ artifacts, a good number of which are Lands. So… unless it slots into an Affinity deck to do something crazy, it will never have a home. For Limited, it’s sacrificing itself and four other artifacts, and there is a small but nonzero chance that may be worthwhile given the fact that you may be able to play artifacts as lands among your mana-base. It is, however, probably even less likely to have a good home in Limited than it might have in your Affinity decks, as most of the time you’ll be asking to sacrifice most of the army you’d be capitalizing on, throwing attackers into the graveyard for the right to be able to attack again. It’s cute, that counts for something, right?
Limited has to love a hasty 6/6 legendary Zombie that throws Diabolic Edicts every time he taps to attack and gets bigger for every one that resolves. It’s actually a pretty frightening creature from the perspective of riding it from behind to a game-win, as it has some seriously bomb-y qualities: it attacks out of nowhere, thus changing the race drastically in your favor, as let’s face it he’s printed as a six but swings as a seven… and it seriously throws the opponent’s creatures out of the way while he does it, giving it the potential to lock the opponent out of the game with just a few removal spells. Long enough, that is, to kill you with its huge power… so you’ll only be locked out of the game for a turn or two. For Constructed, well, it’s a seven-mana spell that while awesome doesn’t win you the game, and thus compares unfavorably to Nicol Bolas and Cruel Ultimatum in the same colors. It would be an awesome reanimation target, but that’s not exactly a common tactic nowadays.
Dragon Broodmother is a nasty creature to face down in Limited, but unfortunately too expensive for sixty-card decks, where it faces down poorly against Broodmate Dragon at everywhere except the kitchen table. While a flying Verdant Force that can make little Dragon-lings that can very quickly get out of hand is something worth considering, it’s too expensive to consider for a beatdown deck and already outclassed by Broodmate Dragon’s already-available eight power plus relative invulnerability to one-for-one removal. So for sixty-card Magic, Broodmother is something of a miss. 40 cards? Have you ever tried to beat a Verdant Force in play? It’s not easy. Neither is it easy to beat even run-of-the-mill Dragons… so staple the two together and you have a game-swinging bomb.
A card that no doubt Mike Flores will love, fitting the Jund colors for his Jund Ramp deck and functioning as an expensive but one-sided Wrath of God-type effect. It’s a kiddie card at its very best, which is about what it takes to convert from Timmy-magic to Spike-magic, and while I’m sure far more use will be put to this card in casual games than in tournament Magic, it will appear without doubt at both, due to the fact that it’s one-sided, absurdly powerful, and never goes dead. For 40-card Magic, this is stupidly good, because Fireballs and non-one-sided Wrath effects are already incredible, and this is a Fireball that is a one-sided Wrath effect. The best we can say is thank goodness it’s Rare, because as an uncommon it would define every sealed deck pool in the format to playing it and playing to beat it.
Jenara is another bomby Limited creature, its low cost and aggressive nature making it an ideal turn-three play that you might just ride for the rest of the game. Nothing else you can do in subsequent turns will be quite as good as just pumping more white mana into Jenara, who attacks for five on turn four and seven on turn five. It’s a downright scary Limited card, and thankfully its Mythic status means we won’t be losing to her in that context too often. In Constructed we have a little less to worry about from her, since we will be living in a world where single-card threats are easily manhandled with Terminate or Path to Exile, so you can’t just ride it by itself… but here instead she’ll be a turn 2 play thanks to Noble Hierarch, and swinging for six that first time instead of five. Jenara is pretty ridiculous either in beatdown or control, and can readily be expected to show up in both soon at a Regionals near you.
And here we have a creature that can dominate Limited play without affecting Constructed, unlike his predecessor. Defiler of Souls is literally an Abyss, though not one that affects a single creature from the set he is printed in. It is also, however, a 5/5 flier… the kind of creature that swings a Limited game immediately in your favor and keeps it there as you beat them into a bloody pulp. For its stats and cost, it’s quite attractive for Limited; for its ability, perhaps somewhat underwhelming as it’s clearly a symmetrical effect and one that can be hard to really capitalize on to your own advantage. For Constructed, well, it’s easy to forget about.
And here we have Artifactkroma. The comparison to Akroma is inevitable and not entirely unfavorable, as what you lose in Haste and Trample you make up for with Lifelink and losing the legendary status. It’s immune to Red and thus Terminate, but not Black… so while Terror doesn’t work because it’s a black AND artifact creature, Black can theoretically kill it. Unmake will do it, but new tournament staple Maelstrom Pulse will not, not because of protection from Black but instead because of the Sphinx’s innate hatred of things Green. Comparing it to Akroma will inevitably end poorly, however, because Akroma never lived in a world with a functional Swords to Plowshares equivalent, and Sphinx of the Steel Wind in sixty-card formats will undoubtedly run afoul of Path to Exile. While a Sphinx in play will dominate the game, the big problem will be keeping it in play, which is easier said than done. Its key interaction, I suspect, is “ridiculous Artifact creature to cheat into play with Master Transmuter.”.. which is at best a fringe card for Constructed right now. For Limited… again, huge flier with massive upsides, game dominating Mythic rare, whee. The idea of having one of these at the top of my curve for an Esper deck is downright exciting, but not actually distinctly different from the excitement I get from having a Sharding Sphinx or one of the other bomb Esper rares. Even if it is way, way cooler to kill someone with Artifactkroma.
For its stats in Limited it is clearly quite a powerhouse; we played Sighted-Caste Sorcerer for beating down with and this guy gets a +0/+2 for the right to cost Blue mana instead of colorless. Beating down as a 2/4 instead of a 2/2 is huge, as is the benefit of having an Artifact creature with Exalted printed on it. One of my favorite Draft archetypes at present is to pick Windwright Mage perhaps more highly than it deserves, and pump it with Exalted when I attack… and inevitably one of the problems is the Bant creatures with Exalted, while good, aren’t artifacts, so some of my deck’s natural synergy fades away. Ethercaste Knight solves that problem, at common, and thus saves me from ever playing Outrider of Jhess ever again (I hope). For Constructed, well, he’s not the most aggressive of two-drops, though surviving Volcanic Fallout on a creature that functionally attacks for two is worth pondering. I have it on good account, however, that there is a much more impressive creature we will be able to play for the same casting cost, who will inevitably overshadow Ethercaste Knight. The Knight is a gold-mine for flavor goobs, since its concept is awesome and it gets good art to go with its flavor text, and will be a core common for the set in Limited play… but it doesn’t have what it takes to make it to sixty-card formats as something other than a proxy or as filler in a deck that shouldn’t be played in the first place.
Already I am hearing no love for this creature, despite being a functional mana-fixer who has a huge presence and serves an amazing capacity in Limited play. Recall that it is a common that will answer a significant chunk of the existing “huge flier” problems, taking down any non-Rare flier in the block and living to talk about it… and it is a common that fixes mana, making it reasonably equivalent to the Basic Landcyclers that are deemed quite playable indeed in Conflux. If I had to choose between Pale Recluse and Sylvan Bounty, either to pick or to play in my deck, there would be no question: Spider, every time. For Limited, it’s an easy call and a powerful common. For Constructed, however? Two-fifths of the Basic Landcycling ability is printed on the card, fetching a forest or plains (or Sapseep Forest or Murmuring Bosk or Mistveil Plains, I guess) and providing an option on a 4/5 later in the game. Sadly this second ability, “awkward creature,” isn’t as good… six mana after all can get you two 4/4 fliers, not one creature that if you get lucky will be alive when it comes time to block one of those. Constructed is not its home unless we can put its landcycling to an advantage… and who knows, we might yet, as it will get to interact with M10 and Zendakar still, the latter of which we have suspicion might be a Basic Land Matters set thanks to the dinosaur-seeming theme and the potential to have Imperiosaur on the Futureshifted Reprints list. Jon Becker hasn’t counted this guy out yet… neither should you, True Believers.
Double Strike is a dangerous ability, and one that makes this at worst a slightly-better 4/4 for 4 in Limited play… aka a “powerhouse” for either beatdown or controlling strategies, as for the most part you can reliably expect to have a Hill Giant on turn 4, and this is all upsides from there. Add in a pump spell and Twinclaws get frighteningly dangerous, labeling it as obviously a power uncommon. For Constructed, however, we have harsher criticisms… but again, Double Strike is a dangerous word in Constructed, and this critter has it. In Extended you can contemplate it, Boros Swiftblade, Viashino Slaughtermaster, Skyhunter Skirmisher, Hearthfire Hobgoblin and Kinsbaile Cavalier along with your choice of pump spells or Blazing Shoals, while in Standard you still get to play all of those creatures save for Boros Swiftblade. 4/4’s for 4 have made it into Constructed within recent memory thanks to clutch extra abilities, and Double Strike is one that may just tip the scales in its favor, especially given that you have the ability to play it in either G/W or G/R.
Are you excited? I’m excited. Better yet, Pat Chapin is excited, and that is something that should perk your attention and get you to take notice. In Limited this is at worst a cantrip removal spell with benefits, but is very likely to be two removal spells or a removal spell plus Elephant Ambush, aka “patently ridiculous.” Thanks to a free spell at instant speed and no extra mana stapled on to pay for it, even though it is inherently random what you get as that free card, it’s very unlikely that there is going to end up being an exchange where you end up unhappy. It helps that it’s a triggered ability rather than a part of the spell’s resolution, and that it says “may” play it, so you’ll never have the cantrippy part countered by removing the creature from play in response, nor will you ever flip over a Giant Growth and be forced to save the one creature in play because you were super unlucky. For Constructed, well, this is a less exciting spell by itself… but far more exciting in its implications on deckbuilding, because it is keyworded and thus inevitably has friends. Imagine the following spell: U, Sorcery, Cascade. Discard two cards. I don’t know about you, but I would play this spell in a heartbeat, since it actually says U: Draw three cards then discard two. Remove an Ancestral Visions in your library from the game. That’s the fair version of the card, rather than the broken version that tutors up Black Lotus or casts Balance. Admittedly, we can’t have one-mana spells… so instead make it UB and since we added a mana it’s an Instant instead. Still no relevant rules-text besides Cascade and “discard two cards,” still in consideration for the second-best card drawing spell in Extended, except for when it’s even better than that and being twisted to the purposes of evil. This spell by itself may not have ramifications for Constructed, but it reveals to us a very high-powered mechanic for Constructed, and one we can’t wait to see more of.
For humor value, mix this card with some Shadowmoor block cards and hilarity ensues, turning things with -1/-1 counters into one-toughness creatures. At that, it’s a solid answer to Kitchen Finks the second time around, which we have to at least keep in mind as this is still a Rishadan Airship-sized creature for beating down, and one that can provide some serious trickery while we’re at it, seriously downgrading monsters while potentially upgrading Spectral Procession tokens. While the trained response for 60-card decks is not to look at it twice, it seems pretty clear to me that this would be a mistake, even if you never actually cast it. For Limited, well, it’s an aggressive flier and one that can win a creature stalemate in either of two ways, making more fliers like itself or turning huge creatures into flimsy 3/1s that are laughable compared to their prior 5/5 stature. It’s solid for Constructed and great in Limited, so what’s not to love?
This creature is unfortunately flawed, in that it is made to look so competitive for Constructed and ends up being relegated to the trash heap, though it is worth noting that it ‘goes off’ with Cream of the Crop. Outside of Cream of the Crop in Standard it’s not going to see play, and due to its expensive cost for only moderate body it’s not going to see play in a wider format, even if you can cast Congregation at Dawn with it. For Limited, however, its failings are less obvious… and as good as it is to duck drawing lands or mana artifacts later in the game, it’s terrible to duck drawing spells, as this is where the bulk of one’s creature removal lies. That said, unless your deck is 23 creature spells you’re not going to see good return on investment with his ability, not even guaranteed to get a fresh card in your hand every turn even if sometimes just sometimes he’ll go crazy and explode two or three creatures into your hand at one clip. Admittedly, he likely gets better for each and every Elvish Visionary you draft… but as a Limited creature, which is most likely to be the place he has an impact, he’s sort of “meh.”
This is clearly not a Limited card, though I guess if your opponent has a bomb or two you can’t be faulted for siding this in to try and contain a card you can’t otherwise ever deal with. For Constructed, however, it’s Cranial Extraction with damage-dealing bennies, and Cranial Extraction is a card that saw significant play in its lifetime even if it probably saw more play than it deserved, and definitely saw most of this play thanks to the movement of Michael J. Flores’ pen. Adding damage to an already solid spell is just all upsides, and it is a spell that is every bit as important now as it was then… we’re just naming different cards, like Cruel Ultimatum instead of Early Harvest. It’s the rare so far that has me most thankful it’s a regular Rare instead of a Mythic Rare, as otherwise the price would shoot ridiculously through the roof.
This no doubt makes someone somewhere a very happy man, while it just sort of makes me wonder why they couldn’t have pushed the card a little bit harder and made it an Instant, so at least you can gain the most advantage by getting to replay your creatures first if you wait until end of turn. For Constructed, it’s unplayable in serious formats, and for Limited it’s too expensive for what it does and probably would still be too expensive for what it does even if you got to replay the creatures first. This unfortunately makes it pure chaff, though I imagine it will rock more than its fair share of Elder Dragon Highlander games.
Here the word “other” is a dirty word, because it leaves it a mere 2/2 for 4, clearly overshadowed by cards that don’t need friends to do something. In Constructed, it will in fact give Doran +3/+3, but Rafiq of the Many will give Doran +1/+1 and then double him, for +7/+7 even before accounting for possibly having a turn-one Noble Hierarch to push it to +8/+8. The creature swarm decks that might want a scaling Glorious Anthem effect unfortunately pop out monocolored creatures, and thus Glorious Anthem is probably preferred as at least it doesn’t disappear if Wrath of God or Volcanic Fallout rears its ugly head. For Limited, well, it’s guaranteed to give each other creature you have from the same set at least +2/+2, and here the word “other” is dirty but clearly overshadowed by the words “you control,” and since things are going to go awry far less often than they would in Constructed, this is a solid and reliable creature. Just don’t make an attack that suddenly turns bad if he gets killed in the middle of it and you’ll be quite happy indeed.
A 3/2 with Haste for either Gruul or Rakdos mana is a great deal, and thus this creature has some interesting ramifications for Constructed, even if he is competing for a tight number of spots in the Red-Black Blightning decks… he can potentially follow up Figure of Destiny and attack for three on turn two, which is the awesome power that lends credence to thinking of gaming with this card. For Limited it helps to remember that it triggers off of every other creature in the set, and thus a considerable portion of your deck… and there is nothing at all wrong with an aggressive, cheap Red creature. There is probably even going to be an archetype that is reliant on getting this creature late in pack three in multiples, fixating on the fast-damage-dealing nature of B/R, as this is a threatening common when everything goes right.
Think of this less as a creature that mills the opponent to death, and thus a component of a milling strategy, but instead a sneaky way to write “When this creature attacks, defending player loses five life.” It doesn’t need to connect to damage the opponent, and the damage is downright severe in limited, where one swing accounts for one-quarter of your library at the start of the game, and one-third by the time he comes into play. A turn-five Nemesis attacks for a turn-eight kill in limited, and the story is not so dissimilar in Constructed, where its considerable frame (3/7) stands up to a lot of rough treatment and plays an excellent defensive game until you’re ready to start attacking for the win. Given most Blue decks tend to go slowly, he’ll probably need four hits to win, though again it’s worth noting he doesn’t need to get through to hit. Against a Bitterblossom, they don’t get to play Forcefield, they get to block the incidental three damage he would technically deal, while his real source of damage is dealt the moment he tapped to attack. He thus swings like a Meloku and blocks like a tree, making him a Limited powerhouse and a uniquely potent card for Standard, which has in the past put similar-shaped cards like Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore to good work in the right context.
Like and unlike Nemesis of Reason, in that it is a three-power, five-mana Blue creature that can end the game deceptively quickly, in this case because an attack unchecked can add as much as a Cruel Ultimatum’s worth of extra damage to the opponent’s noggin. As a Limited creature, it attacks for significant damage in the air and is Looting while it does so, which is to say it wins more while it does its winning thing, and that is hard to begrudge this powerful rare Dragon, as it should keep you heartily in the race with card selection even as it ups the speed of the race in your favor. For Constructed, it’s a potent build-around-me card, though again one that is neutered by a single Bitterblossom, which at least the Nemesis of Reason is able to work around. Its advantage is that it can end the game in two hits, as opposed to Nemesis’ probable four, but the downside of having to actually connect sees me predicting that Nemesis of Reason sees play first.
Prior to this card, we’d only seen colored artifacts out of Esper, and here we have a legendary piece of Grixis equipment. For admittedly something of a hefty mana cost, you get +3/+3, first strike, and the potential to turn blocking creatures into 2/2 zombies… and while that hefty mana cost is going to make the card prohibitive for Constructed play, it’s about right for Limited, as is the mix of +3/+3 and First Strike (“chumpblock me!”) with its Zombie-making ability (“don’t chumpblock me!”). It’s a solid equipment card and one that has a good tension to it, just expensive enough to actually cost you an investment of a chunk of time but one that gives solid rewards in either damage or a growing army when you start to attack with it. It also doesn’t say “combat damage,” so crazy stuff can ensue with pingers as well as attackers. Constructed unplayable, a solid Limited rare that is dutifully restrained by its careful balance, up to and including a hefty Grixis investment to even be able to cast it in the first place.
Ah, Terminate… welcome back to the world of the living, now pick up a shovel and get to work. Still a common, still one of the very best removal spells ever printed, still going to be a powerful common for Limited play and format-defining for Constructed, where it and Path to Exile team up to make life very hostile indeed for any single creature you may decide to play and thus turn things even more firmly in the direction of stuff-that-generates-more-than-one-creature-per-card, like Broodmate Dragon, Siege-Gang Commander and Spectral Procession. Red gains a good answer to Wall of Reverence while Black gains a removal spell that doesn’t care about stuff like ‘being an artifact’ or ‘hey wait I’m black too!’ when it comes to kill you. The benchmark of an efficient removal spell in both 40- and 60-card decks, And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
Speaking of efficient, here we have a Vindicate that makes up for its inability to target lands with the bonus of hitting close relatives, taking out all the Bitterblossom tokens and being a one-for-one removal spell for an entire Spectral Procession, not to mention multiple Processions. As the latest inheritor of the Putrefy legacy, Maelstrom Pulse is guaranteed to see Constructed play, as B/G is a powerful and beloved color combination and Vindicate is generally regarded to be one of the very best one-for-one removal spells ever printed. But here we trade that one-for-one nature for its ability to be a Stone Rain, never again hitting a land but instead having the capability to destroy each and every single Tarmogoyf in play, not merely one. For Limited, it’s a top-quality removal spell, effectively an Oblivion Ring for BG1 unless something unusual happens. For Constructed, it’s likewise a top-quality removal spell, and its chances of working harder than Oblivion Ring does go sharply up as 60-card decks tend to be made of four-of’s. Right as Terminate and Path to Exile work to increase the validity of token-based strategies, Maelstrom Pulse works to undermine that trend, not caring where they came from or how many of them there are, just killing them all at once. The trio of Terminate, Maelstrom Pulse and Lavalanche add some severely hostile creature-removal spells to the Jund arsenal, especially when you realize that the hyper-efficient Maelstrom Pulse isn’t limited to ‘just’ creature-kill but handles artifacts, enchantments, and Planeswalkers with equal aplomb.
As the last cards to show you, I’m choosing to go out with a bang rather than a whimper, at least as far as I’m concerned. We see a new set of common dual lands, limited unfortunately to the five allied colors but still excellent for common mana-fixing, and thus a critical hinge for the new Limited format. In Shards, you have uncommon shard-lands and two common cycles, the Obelisks and Panoramas. In Conflux you have Rupture Spire, Kaleidostone, and Unstable Frontier to help you with colored mana at common and uncommon, and in Alara Reborn you have the Borderposts and that’s it presumably, as these are the closest and probably only “land-analogues” you’re likely to see. Comparatively, they stand up very well: they’re basically Shivan Oasis and Salt Marsh, solid Invasion-era mainstays, at common instead of uncommon; they require a basic land, which should be plentiful in Limited, and are common instead of uncommon, thus appearing every bit as often as those vital but ill-loved Panoramas. Unlike Panoramas, these lands favor the beatdown strategy, providing two colors of mana at a reasonable cost you’re willing to pay, not a cost that involves skipping your second turn to do nothing… and sometimes just sometimes these mana-fixers will do something curious, accelerating you like an Obelisk would or performing shenanigans with Etherium Sculptor, or even just giving you a second colored mana of a key color a turn earlier than you’d otherwise get it. So for Limited they are clearly great. What about Constructed?
Are you excited? I’m excited.
Admittedly, three of the five are no big deal in Constructed, unless you want to work some magic with Bloom Tender on your side. Which two matter depends on which format you’re playing… in Extended it’s the two red ones, which give you more Artifact lands in your red deck to play Shrapnel Blast at a reasonable cost, costing a land that comes into play tapped (and needs a basic Mountain to work with) but gives you a dual land that is Shrapnel Blast fodder. This lets you do some crazy things like play Shrapnel Blast and Tarmogoyf in the same deck, as your requirement for a basic land is after it’s in play not in your hand, so you can play Bloodstained Mire and Wooded Foothills for Mountains or singleton Stomping Ground, four Great Furnace and four Firewild Borderpost and get to game with Mr. Tarmogoyf AND the five-to-face-tastic Shrapnel Blast. In Standard, though, the two that matter are the White ones… as the interesting thing they do here is give you a ‘land’ that doesn’t actually count as a land in play, and thus one that lets you break the parity on Knight of the White Orchard very easily, working up a free land on turn two on the draw and actually being able to give you one turn three on the play without missing ‘land drops’, since these are effectively lands but don’t count as them. Imagine a mana-base for a U/W deck that looks like this:
Lands:
8 Plains
4 Island
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Mystic Gate
Artifacts:
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Mind Stone
Creatures:
4 Knight of the White Orchard
Let’s concept this in a Reveillark shell, since frankly this is where my mind keeps going when I try to make good use of Knight of the White Orchard in this way. Ready? Let’s go!
Turn 1: Plains, play Fieldmist Borderpost #1 to replace that Plains in play.
Turn 1, opponent: Opponent plays a land and does stuff not relevant to this example.
Turn 2: Re-play Plains, tap Plains and Fieldmist Borderpost to play Mind Stone.
Turn 2, opponent: Opponent plays a land and does stuff not relevant to this example.
Turn 3: Play Knight of the White Orchard and get a free land; play your land for the turn, having three mana untapped and ready to use on turn three and access to five mana next turn even if you miss your land-drop. Probably evoke Mulldrifter this turn to follow up on your acceleration with more cards.
For extra oomph, you can add a second Borderpost on turn 2, paying for it off the Mind Stone and replacing the land you’d otherwise be playing on turn three with the card. Then you have zero lands to your opponent’s two, and three artifacts that tap for mana but no “lands” in play.
Borderposts let you finally crack Knight of the White Orchard wide open into an obviously-amazing mana-accelerating card-advantage creature, being a 2/2 Sakura-Tribe Elder that doesn’t get sacrificed to do his thing. The Borderposts make me wonder just what other little advantages might be hidden in there to run with, among cards we are already playing or are thinking about… Block Constructed is playing a surprising number of Realm Razers, after all, and these “lands” break the symmetry of that right there by not disappearing when he comes knocking, and thus plays defense against it as well as providing synergy to a deck including it, and thus are likely to be key players in Block Constructed as well, as the first Borderpost you add to your deck is equivalent to or better than the second cycle of tri-lands you play in your deck, potentially accelerating you or surviving a Realm Razer while also possibly working well in Esper, letting you have artifact lands to go with your Master of Etherium. Pay attention to these guys, don’t dismiss them… they’re easy to underestimate, but have some significant corner-case benefits that make them more than worth your while.
Sean McKeown
s_mckeown @ hotmail.com