"If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original." – Ken Robinson

This week is going to be pretty straightforward. Avacyn Restored has been fully spoiled and now that the whole set is here, I wanted to talk about what I feel are the best cards in each color and why. 

Pretty simple right? 

Let’s get to it!

White: Terminus

For me, this is the scariest card in the set. History has shown that six-mana Wrath effects have always straddled the line of playability. Sometimes these effects at six mana are great (Akroma’s Vengeance / Austere Command) and other times not so much (Final Judgment). I feel as though Terminus looks at the line that these other effects have straddled and blows it away. There are two reasons for that:

1.) It puts all creatures on the bottom of libraries. It’s strange that putting a creature on the bottom of a library is oftentimes more powerful than actually destroying it, but in the case of this format, it’s much more powerful. With undying being such a relevant mechanic (Strangleroot Geist / Geralf’s Messenger), more powerful creatures having regenerate (Thrun, the Last Troll / Wolfir Avenger), and graveyard use being on the incline (Moorland Haunt / Sun Titan / Unburial Rites), relying on Day of Judgment to do clean up duty is a risky proposition. It’s a time like this where control mages should be thankful that this effect has been brought back into their repertoire.

2.) Its miracle cost is one white mana. This is the dangerous part. What makes Day of Judgment and other Wrath effects fair (for lack of a better term) is that when they’re cast, oftentimes that’s the only action made that turn by the player casting it. Terminus’ miracle cost changes that. Now the possibility of someone playing a Wrath effect and another spell (a creature to start attacking or a planeswalker to pull ahead for example) is a very real possibility.

A turn 5 involving a miracled Terminus + a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad isn’t that unlikely in my opinion. I could also see something similar taking place in a white creature mirror where someone manages to peel a Terminus when behind on the board and then deploys the threats in their hand to quickly take over the game. 

I could also see Terminus making a small splash in Legacy as the go-to Wrath effect for Caw-Blade type decks. It’s incredibly easy to set up with Brainstorm (all of the miracle cards are to be fair, but this one actually seems worth the effort unlike Temporal Mastery) and can be cast on the opponents turn for a grand scale blowout if necessary.

Blue: Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Last week, I gave my initial thoughts about Tamiyo, the Moon Sage:

Five mana is a little expensive, but four mana would be too cheap. It defends itself well enough, but is this really better than Jace, Memory Adept? And why is someone from Kamigawa Block walking around with Angels, Demons, Werewolves, Devils, and Vampires?

While I still don’t have any idea why a planeswalker from Kamigawa Block is hanging around with Angels, Demons, Werewolves, Devils, and Vampires, I can tell you a one thing I learned in the past seven days:

I compared this card to the wrong Jace.

Comparing this card to Jace, Memory Adept is fundamentally wrong. The only things Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and Jace, Memory Adept have in common is that they’re both blue, both cost five mana, and both have fantastic artwork.

That’s it.

Jace, Memory Adept is much better suited for a control deck as a unique win condition while also serving as a small card advantage engine. Its home is in board control decks like U/B Control or Esper Control, mostly because it cannot defend itself (which is part of the reason it’s never seen a lot of play).

So where does Tamiyo, the Moon Sage fit in? Good question:

Mythic

Cedric Phillips

Test deck on 08-29-2010

Standard

Creatures (23)

• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Noble Hierarch
• 4 Knight of the Reliquary
• 4 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
• 3 Dauntless Escort
• 4 Lotus Cobra

Planeswalkers (6)

• 2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
• 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (25)

• 4 Forest
• 2 Plains
• 3 Island
• 2 Seaside Citadel
• 1 Marsh Flats
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 3 Verdant Catacombs
• 4 Celestial Colonnade
• 1 Sejiri Steppe
• 1 Stirring Wildwood

Spells (6)

• 4 Mana Leak
• 2 Eldrazi Conscription

Sideboard

• 2 Jace Beleren
• 3 Telemin Performance
• 2 Deprive
• 4 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 4 Obstinate Baloth

Now clearly Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and Jace, the Mind Sculptor are two very different cards on paper, but I believe their roles to be very similar given the context of this type of deck and the type of decks that Tamiyo, the Moon Sage will see play in moving forward.

For those who are unaware, Mythic was a deck that could produce a lot of mana very quickly. It had a great early game and an explosive late game due to Sovereigns of Lost Alara. Where it lacked was bridging the gap between those two spots.

And by lacked, I mean it could only play four Jace, the Mind Sculptor instead of seven.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor was the one card responsible for bridging that gap. If you hadn’t found Sovereigns of Lost Alara, that was Jace’s job. If you were being beaten down by a threat that your mana dorks couldn’t handle, that was Jace’s job. And if the game state was even and you needed a way to pull ahead, once again, that was Jace’s job.

Now I feel as though that will become Tamiyo’s job. 

Tamiyo defends itself much in the same vein that Jace, the Mind Sculptor does, and it can be argued that it actually does it better because it adds a counter of loyalty instead of removing one.  

While Jace has the better card drawing ability in the abstract, Tamiyo’s is nothing to make light of because different formats call for different things. Card selection was a lot more important in Mythic than card density because Mythic was looking to find one card to win the game: Soverigns of Lost Alara.

With our current Standard format, card density is more important because one singular threat will rarely win a game. This format is all about throwing as many haymakers as possible and whoever has drawn more of them has likely won the game. That’s where Tamiyo will shine. Not only is it a haymaker in itself, but it can also lock down their haymaker and draw you into more of your own haymakers to overwhelm your opponent.

As far as ultimates are concerned, I like to mostly ignore those. If you’re able to activate the ultimate on any planeswalker, you’ve likely won the game, so saying that one is better than the other is a rather pointless exercise.

In short, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage is the real deal.

Black: Griselbrand

Truthfully, this is the last card I wanted to cover in black, but I seriously couldn’t find another black card that was even close in power level. A lot has been said about Griselbrand and its interaction with Necrotic Ooze, but I think Griselbrand is going to be seen in a lot of different places:

1.) Reanimator in Legacy. I’ve never been much of a fan of Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur in Reanimator because things rarely go the way they’re supposed to when it’s cheated into play. Oftentimes, it’s killed by a one-mana removal spell without ever generating the advantage that its controller planned on.

With Griselbrand taking its place, if someone is relying on Swords to Plowshares to take care of their problems (and by someone I mean most of the format), not only are you going to get seven cards for your investment but you’re seven-point life loss is actually going to be completely negated. 

And don’t get me started on if they can’t kill it…

2.) Frites in Standard. I’ve never been a huge fan of Frites in Standard. The main reason I’ve felt that way is because outside of Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, I’ve never really liked their reanimation targets. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with Wurmcoil Engine or Inferno Titan, but neither one has ever really excited me much.

Griselbrand excites me. 

All of the current threats in Frites are very good cards, but they take some time to win the game and therefore give your opponent some time to get themselves out of trouble. Griselbrand is the kind of reanimation threat that demands an answer immediately or the game will end. You can’t realistically expect to shrug off a blow from Griselbrand the same way you can with Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite or Wurmcoil Engine because a blow from Griselbrand means seven free cards. 

This is the kind of threat Frites needed to take it to the next level.

Red: Zealous Conscripts

Do you remember the days when you only had to play against Threaten-type effects in sideboarded games? You probably enjoyed that right?

Those days are long gone.

A lot of people are afraid of what new Standard is going to look like. Because of how oppressive Cavern of Souls is (trust me, we’re going to get to that one!), people are afraid that new Standard is going to be a place for Titans to reign supreme. While I mostly disagree with that assessment, if that happens to be the case Zealous Conscripts is your new best friend. Let’s talk about all of the things this card can do:

1.) Steal Titans and attack with them.

2.) Steal planeswalkers and activate them.

3.) Untap things tapped by Tamiyo, the Moon Sage / Frost Titan.

4.) Steal Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite (notice the three toughness?) and attack with it and friends.

5.) Steal Griselbrand.

6.) Steal Hero of Bladehold and punish an opponent for playing it.

7.) Steal a Birthing Pod and activate it.

8.) Steal a Sword and use it yourself.

9.) Steal an Intangible Virtue / Honor of the Pure and make your opponent’s blocks pitiful.

There are a million things that make this card better than Act of Aggression, the go-to for this type of effect, but the biggest one is that this guy is a maindeck card. No one ever expects to play against threaten effects game 1. Not only is that going to change, but I think it’s going to become the norm because of Zealous Conscripts.

It’s really easy to build a deck full of haymakers. It has become even easier to do that because of Cavern of Souls. And now we’ve been given a way to punish people for this type of deckbuilding.

Thank. God.

Green: Wolfir Avenger

Talk about a card that Jackie Lee needed! Wolfir Avenger is a huge upgrade for G/R Aggro and could be the card that puts it over the top. 

As many of you have probably found out first hand, Daybreak Ranger has never quite lived up to its lofty expectations. Its Human form isn’t large enough to put the necessary pressure on an opponent and flipping it in a format full of Vapor Snag and Forbidden Alchemy isn’t realistic. Add in the fact that a deck like Wolf Run Ramp doesn’t care what version of it is in play when neither side is big enough to compete with Primeval Titan, and it’s easy to see why it’s never quite broken the mold.

Wolfir Avenger, on the other hand, does a lot of things that Daybreak Ranger could only dream of:

1.) Flash. The first, and more important, keyword is flash. By now, we probably know how insane of an ability flash is, but it should never be overlooked when a card has it. Being able to interact on opponent’s end step is extremely powerful and should be noted as such. This alone makes it a great way to interact with U/W Delver.

2.) Regenerate. Regenerate is an ability often overlooked. Most see it as a way to win wars against Day of Judgment, and while that’s true, this isn’t its only application. Wolfir Avenger is a card that is probably going to get in a lot of fights with other creatures, so being able to regenerate itself is invaluable. I see it getting into a lot of wars with opposing Strangleroot Geists and coming out on top.

3.) 3/3. It’s funny how much of a difference a 3/3 is than a 2/2 in Magic, but it makes all the difference in the world in an aggressive deck. As I said earlier, what really holds Daybreak Ranger back is that it simply isn’t aggressive enough for its cost. It’s cool that is does a bunch of other things, but being cool doesn’t win games of Magic. 

Wolfir Avenger is aggressively costed, has two relevant abilities, and can fill a need in the curve of a deck that desperately needed an efficient three-drop. This guy isn’t flashy like a lot of the cards in Avacyn Restored, but I feel that it will fill a role and will do so admirably.

Land: Cavern of Souls

The card that ruined Magic! How could you do this to us Zac Hill?

Much like Temporal Mastery, let’s all take a deep breath and examine what’s really going to happen here. I’ve heard some varying opinions on Cavern of Souls, and here’s what I think of them:

1.) "It’s going to make Wolf Run Ramp unbeatable!" It’s very easy for Wolf Run Ramp to jam four of these in their mana base and say their U/W Delver matchup is fixed. And I think in the first few weeks of the format that will actually be the case. I believe that Cavern of Souls is going to make Wolf Run Ramp the best deck in the immediate future. It’s when the U/W Delver players decide to adjust their decks that we have something to be worried about. 

We’ve all seen things like this happen before. When U/B Faeries was the best deck many moons ago, cards like Volcanic Fallout and Great Sable Stag were printed to solve the problem. And while they did a nice job at slowing down the dominance of U/B Faeries for a period of time, Faerie decks identified the problem, identified solutions to the problem, and then went back on to their winning ways. U/W Delver players will have to go through the same process in order for them to keep their stranglehold on the format. 

And I fully expect them to.

2.) "Goblins is going to dominate Legacy now!" Anyone who says this doesn’t have a fundamental understanding of how Goblins works in Legacy. As someone who has played Goblins in every Legacy tournament that I have entered for the past 1.5 years, let me explain:

Cavern of Souls does make Goblin Lackey uncounterable, but the problem wasn’t that Goblin Lackey could be countered by Force of Will or Daze. The problem was that Goblin Lackey is a 1/1 that has to deal a point of damage in order for it to be relevant. Think of how difficult that is to do in Legacy.

If Goblins in on the play, here’s what the opponent can do to stop a Goblin Lackey:

– Swords to Plowshares
– Path to Exile
– Lightning Bolt
– Chain Lightning
– Delver of Secrets
– Nimble Mongoose
– Mother of Runes
– Stifle
– Darkblast
– Ghastly Demise
– Innocent Blood
– Forked Bolt
– Maze of Ith
– Force of Will

If Goblins is on the draw, here’s what the opponent can do to stop a Goblin Lackey besides everything else listed above:

– Tarmogoyf
– Dark Confidant
– Stoneforge Mystic
– Scavenging Ooze
– Just about any other two-mana creature
– Brainstorm for an answer
– Ponder for an answer
– Daze it

Of all of these situations listed above, only two of them are counterspells.

The ability to have your Goblins uncounterable via Cavern of Souls is nice to have available, but Goblins always preyed on decks that relied on countermagic (example: Counterbalance decks). The decks that Goblins has never wanted to play against were decks that had access to a lot of spot removal (example: decks with a lot of Swords to Plowshares / Path to Exiles and Snapcaster Mage) because Goblins is a deck of critical mass. The entire deck relies on every other card in the deck to work:

• Gempalm Incinerator relies on other Goblins being in play.
• Goblin Warchief makes your Goblins cost less and gives them haste.
• Goblin Ringleader finds other Goblins.
• Goblin Matron finds other Goblins.
• Goblin Piledriver receives his bonus from other Goblins attacking.
• Siege-Gang Commander requires other Goblins to be effective

If anything, Cavern of Souls is a trap for Goblins because it makes them more open to losses via Wasteland / Price of Progress. One advantage Goblins has over a lot of other aggressive decks in Legacy is that it gets to play a relevant amount of basic lands. By buying into the Cavern of Souls hype, a Goblins player is taking away one of their advantages for little to no gain.

I believe that Cavern of Souls is going to be a very good card for many years to come. I also knew that an overreaction to the card was going to occur. When a card this different comes around, it’s only natural for that reaction to take place. What people need to recognize is that counterspells outside of Mana Leak aren’t seeing that much play, so to say that Cavern of Souls solves a huge problem is a lack of understanding of what you’re actually losing to in the games that you’re playing.

I think the place that Cavern of Souls really shines is how it gives a deck like Zombie Pod in Standard a much better mana base. It now makes it reasonable to cast Diregraf Captain on turn 3 instead of hoping things work out perfectly with just eight blue mana sources.

It makes a deck like Elementals in Modern a lot more attractive because now you have access to so many lands that tap for five colors (Primal Beyond, Ancient Ziggurat, Cavern of Souls, and Reflecting Pool).

What it doesn’t do is make Mana Leak obsolete.  

Cedric Phillips

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