Last week I left my house in New Mexico and started a drive across the country to a new apartment in Philadelphia, which is just a short 1,936 miles. I made the drive in three parts, stopping to sleep in St. Louis and Pittsburgh. It’s no coincidence that I planned the trip to put me into CMU during the Future Sight Prerelease, so I was looking forward to a weekend filled with more Magic than I’d played in the past few months.
When I arrived Wednesday night we did some random drafts, including the standard TTP as well as the slightly out-of-date OLS. We wanted to draft CCB, but the store was out of Champions, so we just went to Chili’s instead. Friday, FNM night, was more of the same, and we went to bed with just a few hours to go until it was time to leave for scenic Buttler, PA to destroy the Prerelease.
PES, the tournament organizer for western Pennsylvania, runs eight-man drafts, 32-man flights, and the main event, which is usually 7-8 rounds and pays out at least one box of product to each Top 8 finisher. I registered for the main event, as did my old roommates and a handful of friends. At the end of the day, I was only 5-2, which stuck me in 11th place. On the other hand, five of the people I’d ridden with were in the Top 8, so we had plenty of product with which to draft.
Over the rest of the weekend we completed a large number of TPF drafts, as well as one Unhinged draft that ended with Nick Eisel flying across the hotel room and landing directly in the middle of a match I was playing. As such, I present my initial impressions on drafting the full Time Spiral block.
Red Commons
Ghostflame – Ghostflame is very straightforward; it kills most of the things that you want dead, including your opponent. Many of the good morphs can’t flip up and live through it (Gathan Raiders, Whip-Spine Drake, Fathom Seer, Shaper Parasite, etc), and you’ll have a good shot at taking out whatever face-up creature is bothering you. The colorless factor is rarely going to be relevant, but I’m sure there will be some game where you get to kill a Soltari Priest with this thing.
Gathan Raiders – The simple presence of Gathan Raiders in Future Sight gives a lot of power to your random morph. This is because of how devastating it will usually be for your opponent to run into this man. All sorts of things can go wrong when he’s flipping into a simple 3/3, but when you’re actually using the cost to get Hellbent then there is not much that will be able to effectively handle the massive swing. Note also that this card fits into an Ichor Slick curve of Morphing and Unmorphing on turns 3 and 4.
Riddle of Lightning – A friend of mine was initially comparing this to Erratic Explosion when we saw it on the spoiler, but the first round of play has shown that the most likely target for the Riddle is your opponent. Many games can be easily won by dealing five or six and finding a large man to put into play, and when that’s not the best course of action you’re still left with an instant-speed removal spell.
Flowstone Embrace – The Embrace is exciting because it’s pretty much a guarantee that the target will wind up dead. Thrill of the Hunt might stop it from working right away, but next turn you’ll get another shot at it. It also kills creatures like Mire Boa and the black Augur without having to worry about regeneration. Finally, it can combo with Tolarian Sentinel, if you return the Aura to your hand in response to activating the ability.
Fomori Nomad – There isn’t much to say about the Nomad other than that he is large. He attacks and blocks well, he combos with Riddle well, and in general he is just a good man to have in your deck.
Fatal Attraction – Using this as a simple Shock will be the standard, since trying to use it for the full four can run afoul of a large number of cards, from a Disenchant effect to something like Dream Stalker. Still, a Shock is a Shock, and like the Flowstone Embrace, you can combo this Shock with Dream Stalker.
Henchfiend of Ukor – By listing this card where it is, I am assuming that you can pay the Echo. When that’s the case, he’s an unusually fine man for the cost, since his Echo isn’t so high that you’ll be skipping your next turn. The hybrid firebreathing is also fairly powerful, and I saw more than one game end with this man off the top for eight or more in the late game.
Grinning Ignus – There are three modes for this guy. The first, and the one that I’ve seen used most often, is as a sort of Suspend Dark Ritual. You play him on turn 3, and then on turn 4 you fire out a six-drop. The second mode is as a Storm count booster, where you can turn any extra Red mana into an extra copy of whatever storm spell you’re trying to set up. The last mode, when all cute tricks have failed you, is as a 2/2 for three mana, and really, you could do much worse.
Rift Elemental – It is going to be difficult to set this man up with a regular Suspend spell, but the times when you get to accelerate out your Ephemeron, Infiltrator, or Dustwasp might well make up for the games when he’s a simple 1/1 for one. If, on the other hand, you can combo him with one of the cycle of uncommon Suspend spells that re-Suspend on resolution, then you can build your own machine gun.
Emberwilde Augur – A 2/1 for two mana isn’t very exciting these days, since one toughness is a huge liability. In addition, you can’t simply sacrifice him in response to the Pyromancer activation that’s taking him out. Still, he’ll be playable in aggro decks where a vanilla 2/1 isn’t the worst thing in the world on turn 2, and where a potential burn spell in the late game might be enough to win it for you.
Homing Sliver – Slivercycling is great just because of how it works. Usually this man will be in your deck when you have a very strong Sliver to dig up. When you get lucky and draw the good slivers naturally, then this one will get to pick the abilities up. When you don’t, he’ll happily take one for the team.
Bogardan Lancer – Flanking creatures really want to be in play quickly, but this one needs to wait for another one of your guys to connect before he can join the party. He’s not complete trash, but having one in my deck would be a sign to me that something is wrong.
Black Commons
Ichor Slick – Black’s top common is just that because of everything that it can do. You can simply cast it when you need a man dead and you need it now. You can cycle it when it’s not doing anything for you. You can pitch it to Trespasser, Raiders, or one of the new creature-shapers. And when it all comes together you can kill a guy at instant speed and draw a card. The only problem for the Black drafter at the table is that this is a great card to splash, since when you don’t have your splash land you can just cycle it away.
Gathan Raiders – Black might not be able to simply play this guy face-up like Red can, but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone play the Raiders face-up. He is especially potent in Black decks due to the number of Madness cards you can abuse with it, including Future Sight‘s Ichor Slick and Grave Scrabbler.
Death Rattle – Unfortunately for Black, Future Sight has not provided any easy way to take out the Durkwood Baloths and Sporoloth Ancients of the world. Still, Delve is a very strong mechanic to put on a removal spell, since now an opponent with just 1B or so can easily threaten an instant-speed removal spell. This might not kill every creature out there, but it will kill most of them and it will usually do so on the cheap.
Deepcavern Imp – I’ve never been embarrassed to play vanilla 2/2 flyers for four mana, and this guy gets two more hits in than they would. In exchange you have to give up a card to his Echo cost, but again, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing for your average Black deck. At worst you can pitch an extra land or a spell you don’t reasonably expect to cast, but at best you can take out a threat with Dark Withering. He’s also a Rebel, so Scout and Blightspeaker can dig you up a common flying threat these days.
Mass of Ghouls – According to the card’s new frame, Frost Ogre is from the future. I loved Frost Ogre in his day, since he trades with everything and just smashes face when there’s nothing to trade with, and this guy is no different. Black can do a fairly effective job of clearing the way for him, and when you run up against a Green fatty deck, you can just block their giant with him.
Augur of Skulls – Regeneration is a very good ability for an Augur to have, since your opponent has a decent amount of say over whether or not you’ll be able to activate them. In addition to protecting himself, this Augur has a very relevant ability, and in any game where you can get him into play early, your opponent will have to manage their hand very carefully. Finally, he’s a simple Drudge Skeleton, keeping the opposing 4/4s and 5/5s at bay while you set things up.
Grave Scrabbler – Most Madness spells up to this point have been good on their own and great when you can cheat them into play. Grave Scrabbler is pretty dismal on his own, since no one looks forward to casting vanilla 2/2s for four mana. On the other hand, when you can Madness him, he’s extremely exciting. Keep in mind that he can dig up your teammate’s creatures in Two-Headed Giant PTQs.
Cutthroat il-Dal – A 4/1 for four in this format is essentially unplayable, due to the number of cards like Prodigal Pyromancer that are running around. The chance that you’ll be able to fire him into the red zone for four “unblockable” damage doesn’t make up for this, since it requires you to be Hellbent and since it can still just get picked off by an opposing Shadow creature.
Oblivion Crown – Sometimes you will have ten Madness spells in your deck, and when you’re in those situations the Crown might make it in. Outside of the Madness theme deck, though, this card does not offer nearly enough to make the cut.
Putrid Cyclops – I guess that there will be games where you’ll be playing this man on turn 3 and actively looking to find a land to play next turn, but there will also be a lot of games where you’ll be looking for gas on turn 3 instead of mana. Then there are the times when you’ll draw him in the late game, and he’ll be almost guaranteed DOA.
Frenzy Sliver – In a dedicated Sliver deck that included evasion slivers like Two-Headed or Pulmonic, this guy could potentially represent a lot of damage. On the other hand, Two-Headed Sliver and Pulmonic Sliver represent a lot of damage on their own, and don’t really need help from this guy to close out a game. That leaves him as a 1/1 for two, that every now and again will get to hit for two damage.
Grave Peril – This card is basically sideboard material only, and then only when your opponent has a bunch of Suspend creatures that you would otherwise have a hard time dealing with. It does nothing against Black by virtue of its own rules text, but it does a similar amount of nothing to Green decks due to Thallids and Sprout Swarm. It isn’t even that good against White decks that can save their guys with Momentary Blink and Whitemane Lion.
Lost Hours – You can stop your opponent from casting their spell for two turns, but the only times you’ll catch them with a great spell in hand are those when they weren’t planning on casting it for a turn or two anyway. Otherwise they’ll just fire whatever it is you’re looking for off in response.
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These are all impressions that I have after a few days of play with the new set, so I’m certainly willing to believe that these orders will shift slightly over the coming weeks. Still, CMU has a pretty good history of figuring these things out quickly, so I doubt that I’m too far off on any one card.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me in the forums, via email, or on AIM.
Benjamin Peebles-Mundy
ben at mundy dot net
SlickPeebles on AIM