The time leading up to a new set release is one of the most exciting in Magic. When previews begin to be released, you’re able to see new cards almost every day and start brainstorming how they’re going to affect your favorite decks and your favorite formats. It’s a very fun experience. Oftentimes there’s a card that you just can’t wait to build a deck with. Sometimes it will work out and sometimes it won’t, but you inevitably have a lot of fun trying.
When reviewing the preview cards from Born of the Gods, one thing that immediately jumped out at me was the power of some of the white weenie creatures. First we have Brimaz, King of Oreskos, a 3/4 for three mana that has the added bonus of creating a 1/1 Cat Soldier token whenever he attacks or blocks. The 3/4 body is solid on its own and matches up well against a lot of the burn and removal spells that are seeing play in Standard right now.
Shock, Magma Jet, Lightning Strike, and Pharika’s Cure are all left needing help when attempting to deal with the legendary Cat Soldier. Even Devour Flesh will likely not be enough. If Brimaz isn’t the only creature you have in play when you cast him, his tokens will probably get you far enough ahead on creatures that Devour Flesh won’t be an issue for you at all.
Although black will also have direct targeted removal that Brimaz will be prone to, he has the bonus of being nearly singlehandedly able to shut down a Desecration Demon. No other creatures in the black deck will be able to block it profitably, and even if it’s bouncing off a Gray Merchant of Asphodel every turn, you’re still netting a creature to keep the Demon locked down, allowing you attack with more creatures. Brimaz also gives the white deck another "must-deal-with threat" against Supreme Verdict decks. It already has Precinct Captain, which has a similar effect. When Precinct Captain starts hitting or Brimaz starts attacking, especially if you’re also able to resolve a Spear of Heliod, those creatures must be dealt with pretty quickly or the control deck will have no chance of coming back.
The white weenie that I’m most excited about (or to be more frank, most scared of) is Spirit of the Labyrinth. A three-power creature for two mana is already a decent inclusion in a white-based aggro deck. Add in the ability of this guy and you’ve got a home run. Against control decks it will prevent them from digging for Supreme Verdict with cards like Divination or Sphinx’s Revelation. It doesn’t stop your opponent from digging with Jace, Architect of Thought, but that’s okay since if they play Jace and use the minus ability the Spirit of the Labyrinth will likely kill it anyway.
Spirit of the Labyrinth’s passive ability doesn’t have a tremendous amount of impact against nonblue decks. It can certainly make Underworld Connections a little worse because your opponent will be forced to use it on your turn instead of their own. Also, in the rare case when your opponent has two copies of Underworld Connections in play, the second one will be rendered useless.
The thing that scares me the most about Spirit of the Labyrinth is its impact in Legacy. In particular, Death and Taxes will hugely benefit from it. This is already the nightmare matchup for my deck of choice, Sneak and Show, and Spirit of the Labyrinth will prove to make the matchup even worse. With Spirit of the Labyrinth in play, Ponder becomes a really bad search card, Preordain does practically nothing, and Brainstorm is rendered completely useless.
In fact, casting Brainstorm nets you minus two cards and doesn’t search at all. When the Death and Taxes player gets an Aether Vial on two, even taking the chance of casting a Brainstorm is a huge risk since if they do indeed get to Vial in the Spirit you have to put two cards from your hand on top of your deck after no gain, making the game very likely over on the spot.
Here’s a Standard Mono-White Aggro deck to try out once Born of the Gods is released and you’ve been able to collect a few copies of these new creatures:
Creatures (30)
- 4 Dryad Militant
- 4 Precinct Captain
- 4 Boros Elite
- 4 Daring Skyjek
- 3 Banisher Priest
- 4 Soldier of the Pantheon
- 3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
- 4 Spirit of the Labyrinth
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (22)
Spells (7)
One of the new cards that looks like it will be very impactful in Standard is Bile Blight. While black isn’t lacking in two-mana removal spells, what it is lacking in is two-mana removal spells that are as versatile as Bile Blight. Bile Blight can also be used as a combat trick. So while it might not remove something like an Advent of the Wurm token on its own, it has the capability of shrinking the token, allowing something like Nightveil Specter or Gray Merchant of Asphodel to finish it off in combat.
The ability to remove multiple copies of Pack Rat in addition to being a reliable way to remove Nightveil Specter could prove to render Pharika’s Cure, which has seen a recent rise in popularity, obsolete. Even Devour Flesh, which has become a four-of in a lot of Mono-Black Devotion lists, will likely be shaved in favor of Bile Blight.
Another interesting thing about Bile Blight is that it can prove to be effective against Elspeth, Sun’s Champion. Anyone who has played Mono-Black Devotion against a deck with Elspeth has likely played a game in which you cast a Desecration Demon and your opponent played Elspeth and made three tokens. The opponent’s intention is to sacrifice a token every turn to keep the Demon locked down. A single Bile Blight will remove all of the opposing Elspeth tokens, making this a much more dangerous gambit for the Elspeth player. The Elspeth player will be much more inclined to play the Elspeth and use the minus ability to remove Desecration Demon immediately. But if you have a Mutavault in play, Elspeth will be left defenseless, and thus the opponent might not have that option.
I don’t expect that Bile Blight will make much of an impact in Modern or Legacy because of the vast assortment of other more efficient removal spells that are available, but its impact in Standard should be huge.
Mono-Black Devotion is probably the best deck in Standard at the moment. One weakness it has is to mono-red hyperaggressive decks. While decks like this have fallen off the radar a bit recently, you never know when they might make a comeback. One of the cards that I find most interesting of the previews so far is Drown in Sorrow.
Drown in Sorrow is a strictly better version of Infest. Infest actually saw some play this past year in Modern at the World Championship in Josh Utter-Leyton’s sideboard. Certainly going forward if someone wants to sideboard this effect, they will opt for Drown in Sorrow instead. Although the effect is extremely powerful, it’s narrow enough that even in the current Standard metagame Drown in Sorrow will probably only be a sideboard card.
That being said, Drown in Sorrow epitomizes what I look for in a sideboard card—a cheap card with a very powerful effect that can nearly swing the game on its own in the matchups it’s for. Against a white-based aggro like I talked about above or a mono-red hyperaggressive deck for instance, this card acts like a black Supreme Verdict. To make things even worse for weenie decks, Drown in Sorrow is a Supreme Verdict that doesn’t kill many of the black deck’s creatures: Nightveil Specter, Desecration Demon, and Gray Merchant of Asphodel.
Here’s what I imagine Mono-Black Devotion will look like after the release of Born of the Gods:
Creatures (16)
Lands (26)
Spells (18)
Sideboard
Phenax, God of Deception seems like one of the most fun previewed cards to this point. I’ve always enjoyed cards that provide unique and alternate ways to win the game, and Phenax does just that.
Phenax also has some real fun combos, such as Duskmantle Guildmage, whose second ability can be used in combination with Phenax and other creatures to do a lot of damage very quickly, and Consuming Aberration, which kills extremely rapidly in combination with Phenax. Providing all your creatures with a tap ability that can be combined with the inspired mechanic ensures that your creatures are able to become tapped every turn even if you’re unable to make profitable attacks. Phenax in combination with Pain Seer specifically gives you a makeshift Dark Confidant, which you can use when you want to and simply stop tapping if your life total becomes an issue.
Phenax’s 4/7 body is nothing to scoff at either. Given the fact that it grants the mill ability to all your creatures, including himself, getting your B/U devotion to seven will prove very valuable. At five mana, Phenax is probably still a little underpowered. I’m not sure how much competitive play he’ll see, but I’m very much looking forward to having some fun with him. Here’s the first deck I want to try:
Creatures (19)
- 4 Desecration Demon
- 1 Consuming Aberration
- 4 Nightveil Specter
- 4 Duskmantle Guildmage
- 3 Pain Seer
- 3 Phenax, God of Deception
Planeswalkers (8)
Lands (25)
Spells (8)
Sideboard
Kiora, the Crashing Wave is one of the most exciting cards that have been previewed from Born of the Gods. A planeswalker with three very good abilities, she will almost certainly find a home somewhere in Standard. Kiora’s plus ability can prevent any permanent the opponent controls from dealing damage until your next turn. What this means is that Kiora can always neutralize your opponent’s biggest creature. It also means that your opponent will almost always be forced to overcommit to the board if you have Kiora in play. This will prove to make Supreme Verdict particularly potent in combination with Kiora.
Kiora’s minus ability can also be quite useful. Drawing an extra card is always great of course. But also putting an extra land into play is an ability that you can definitely build your deck to take advantage of. Kiora could be good in a control deck where she is used to keep control of the board as well as to power extra lands into play for bigger Sphinx’s Revelations or in a ramp strategy where you try to get more lands into play to cast powerful spells and creatures as quickly as possible.
One major problem with Kiora is that she really isn’t very good when you’re losing. If you’re already facing down a couple creatures before putting Kiora into play, it might be difficult to keep her around for very long. Because she only enters the battlefield with two loyalty, if anything goes wrong, it will probably be her end even though her loyalty can be increased to three right away. In Legacy and Modern, where Lightning Bolt is a heavily played card, four mana for a planeswalker that dies to a single copy of Lightning Bolt is likely too large of an investment.
Here’s a Bant Control deck featuring Kiora:
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (10)
Lands (25)
Spells (20)
Sideboard
And a RUG Planeswalker deck:
Creatures (19)
Planeswalkers (14)
- 2 Jace, Architect of Thought
- 1 Ral Zarek
- 1 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
- 3 Chandra, Pyromaster
- 3 Xenagos, the Reveler
- 4 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
Lands (23)
Spells (4)
What do you guys think about Born of the Gods so far? What card is your favorite? Are there any cards that you think are going to be very impactful that are flying under the radar? What brews are you really looking forward to trying out, whether for competitive play or just for fun?