Hello everyone, and welcome to my take on the Financial Value of Morningtide. I’m Ben Bleiweiss, and I’m the General Manager here at StarCityGames.com. One of my main job responsibilities here at this website is to come up with prices for all of the cards – old cards, current cards, and yet-to-be-released presold cards. I’ve been doing this job for over five years now, and I’ve been writing articles about the cards to get (and get rid of) at prereleases since the Champions of Kamigawa set.
While nobody is 100% accurate in writing this sort of list, my hit/miss mark tends to be pretty high. My last review was, of course, for Lorwyn. While I slightly underestimated the value of Faeries (as a tribe) and Planeswalkers, the majority of my advice in that column was spot on. For the second set in a row, the card I most viewed as a sleeper was also the card that had the highest jump in price once people started playing with it (Tarmogoyf for Future Sight, Sower of Temptation for Lorwyn), so let’s hope I continue this trend!
All information in the column about Morningtide is taken from the spoiler at MTGSalvation.com. Their spoiler can be found here. Their spoiler was completed right at the beginning of this week, so I’ve had time to peruse the entire set (as a whole), since Monday. All credit for information used for this article is given to them, as is blame for any information on their spoiler that is incorrect.
I liked the system I used for the Lorwyn article, so I’m going to use it again here. I’m going to break up the sections in this article by color. Sections will be divided into Rares that I feel are worth picking up now, cards Rares that I feel should be traded while their value is high, Rares that might go up in value but are a little more iffy, bulk Rares (don’t touch these!), and good Commons/Uncommons (so you can fill out your playsets or get foils). Let’s get started with White!
White
Get These:
Idyllic Tutor ($3-$5) : Fabricate, for Enchantments. For a deck that wants to run Idyllic Tutor, it’s an amazing card – three mana to get the exact enchantment you want. There are already decks that exist which want this card (Mirari’s Wake decks, Enduring Ideal decks), and other decks that will love this card because Enchantments tend to be the ideal silver-bullet type card. These are selling low right now, and I would recommend getting them before they climb in value.
Kinsbaile Cavalier ($2-$3) : The reason that Slivers are so popular are because every Sliver is a lord – a creature that pumps up other creatures of the same tribe. Fury Sliver was the Sliver that gave all slivers double-strike, and it was not popular because it cost six mana – prohibitively high for a Sliver, given that most cost in the 2-4 mana range. This is why Kinsbaile Cavalier, a Fury Sliver for Knights, is being valued lowly right now – people are unfairly comparing it to the other tribe’s higher-costed alternative. Knights are going to be big – they have a Goblin Lackey and effective beatdown creatures. Kinsbaile Cavalier is a reasonably-costed lord which reads “all Knights deal double damage”. That is very good for four mana. It is much better a card than the bulk-rare value it is currently selling for. Pick these up now, while they are cheap.
Preeminent Captain ($4-$5) : This is Goblin Lackey for White. Make no mistake about it – it is even improved in some regards. Goblin Lackey came out the first turn (which is a plus), and there are better Goblins than Soldiers (which is also a plus). Preeminent Captain doesn’t need to damage an opponent to put a creature into play for free (which is major), it puts a creature into play attacking when it attacks (which is ridiculous!), and it is a 2/2 first-striker for three mana (which is acceptable). Remember – all Changelings are Soldiers. There are some ridiculous things you can do with this guy, and getting (possibly multiple) instances of dropping free 3-5 mana creatures with Haste is insane. Preeminent Captain compares to cards like Goblin Lackey (which is a solid $12-$15 uncommon) and Aether Vial (a solid $4 uncommon), and will only get better as more and more Soldiers are printed in Magic. I would not be surprised to see this card hitting the high single-digit to low double-digit range once people get a chance to play with it.
Reveillark ($2-$3) : Compare this to Kinsbaile Borderguard, below. The Borderguard gives you a 2/2 or 3/3 guy (most likely) who puts a couple of 1/1’s into play when it dies. Reveillark gives you a 4/3 flyer for five (which is acceptable) who returns two of your guys when it dies – guys not restricted by mana cost, but by power. Martyr of Sands seems like a starting point for this ability. I don’t think this will be a high-dollar card, but I think it will find a solid niche in certain decks, especially since it is easily splashable.
Trade These Away:
Indomitable Ancients ($1-$2) : Yes, 2/10 (or 12 power/toughness combined) for four mana is off the charts. Yes, this guy combos great with Doran. He also dies to every removal spell out there, doesn’t provide much offense without Doran, and has absolutely no special abilities besides a butt. Moreover, I don’t see most players opening a vanilla 2/10 creature in their pack and going “wow, I’m sure glad this is the rare!”, meaning that it should be relatively easy to pick these up in exchange for more splashy cards, if you’re so inclined.
Kinsbaile Borderguard ($2-$3ish) : This is a fancified Benalish Commander for Kithkin. It is pushed harder in power level than the Commander, but it has similar drawbacks – it is nearly useless on an empty board (if you don’t already have multiple Kithkin in play, it’s not big enough to matter), and its second ability won’t be great unless, again, you already have multiple Kithkin in play. Even if you go first turn Kithkin, second turn Kithkin, third turn Borderguard, you’re ending up with a 3/3 that makes two 1/1 creatures when your opponent Wraths. That’s not horrible, but it’s not exciting given that Soldiers (and not Kithkin) are the more powerful White Tribe post-Morningtide. With all things considered, pick up Field Marshal as your 3-drop lord of choice instead. He’s a guy who is going to go up in value.
Possible Sleepers:
Feudkiller’s Verdict ($2ish) : Strict life-gain spells have been pushed harder and harder in recent years. Gone are the days of Natural Spring and Stream of Life – nowadays you’re looking at aggressively costed lifelink creatures (Brion Stoutarm, Knight of Meadowgrain), guys who give you massive amounts of life when they come into play (Loxodon Hierarch), or creatures which double as hugely advantageous lifegaining spells (Martyr of Sands). So on the surface, Feudkiller’s Verdict looks like a pretty blah spell – six mana for ten life. However, it’s the second clause on this card that makes is more attractive. What if Feudkiller’s Verdict had been a WW4 5/5 Creature that caused you to gain 10 life when it came into play? That would be a lot more attractive! Well, Feudkiller’s Verdict isn’t as abusable as that card (it would be ridiculous with Momentary Blink and the such), but it a huge chunk of life gain that will more often than not leave you with a huge creature. I would discount this as an option for Constructed, despite the high mana cost.
Stonehewer Giant ($1-$2) : Right now, there aren’t good enough pieces of equipment in Standard to justify playing a guy who fetches, probably at best, a Loxodon Warhammer. These aren’t the days when Godo would fetch out Jitte or a Sword of Fire and Ice. However, Wizards is committed to printing equipment cards in the future, and Stonehewer Giant is a 4/4 Vigilant guy even without the fetching-equipment ability, so his value goes up in proportion to any equipment that is printed in the future. The ability is extremely strong and can save you a lot of mana (for W1, you could, for instance, theoretically play and equip Loxodon Warhammer, which would normally cost six mana), so I would pick up a playset while the value of Stonehewer Giant is low, because his value could go up based on equipment printed in the future.
Don’t Touch These (Bulk Rares):
Good Commons/Uncommons (Get These in Foil!):
Ballyrush Banneret (The Planeshift Familiars return, except for tribes.)
Stonybrook Schoolmaster (Great for both Merfolk and Wizard decks.)
Blue
Get These:
Grimoire Thief ($2-$4): The latest variation on Jester’s Scepter, but tied to an aggressively-costed Merfolk creature. Merfolk have ways to tap creatures without needing them to attack, and Springleaf Drum can take care of the rest, if necessary. I see this guy being extremely popular with the casual crowd, which usually means a sustained value over a period of time. Merfolk are beginning to get extremely popular (Lord of Atlantis is seeing a lot of increase in value the past month), so I would keep an eye on any playable Merfolk as a potential for an anti-control Islandwalk deck.
Slithermuse ($2-$3) : This is not Windfall, which costs one less and makes both players discard their hands and draw all-new cards, but Balance of Power, reduced by a mana and attached to a potential 3/3 body. Is Balance of Power playable at a cost of U3? I could see this getting play in decks that either burn through cards fast (Merfolk, playing to the board, counterburn) or that intentionally use cards that lose card-advantage for large effects (Chrome Mox). At worst, Slithermuse is a 3/3 creature for four mana. At best, it’s a 4-5 card-drawing effect for four mana, which is quite good.
Vendilion Clique ($5-$6) : This is a natural fit for the Blue control decks that have done fantastic in Standard. For three mana, you Duress your opponent’s best card from their hand, plus you get a 3/1 flyer, at three mana. Three mana for an instant-speed three-power flyer is already a good deal – throw in the ability to take away an answer or threat from your opponent’s hand, and you’ve got a Constructed powerhouse. Expect Vendilion Clique to see the same value and level of play as Teferi and Venser.
Trade These Away:
Declaration of Naught ($3-$4) : For two (or three) mana, you can counter one specific spell, potentially multiple times. Once you play Declaration of Naught, you pretty much lose an open Blue mana for the rest of the game. In general this isn’t a great thing. Compare this, though to another card: Meddling Mage. It is Meddling Mage as an enchantment (harder to kill, but can’t attack), in a mono-color (no White Splash) with an upkeep of U. Is Meddling Mage any good with an Upkeep cost and without a 2/2 body? Well, probably not – this also has one heck of a time stopping Storm spells, since every instance of the spell must be countered. I don’t think that Declaration of Naught is worthless (it is definitely tournament playable), but it is going to be overvalued initially – see Disrupting Shoal, Last Word, Pact of Negation, and virtually every Rare Blue counterspell that isn’t Cryptic Command.
Mind Spring ($4-$5) : Again, it’s not that Mind Spring is a bad card, it’s that there are better alternatives out there for card drawing. Compare this to Careful Consideration (two cards for four mana, four total card drawn) at UU2, Counsel of Soratami (UU2 for two cards versus U2), Mulldrifter (U4 and recurable draw-two on a 2/2 flyer versus UU3 for three cards), or Tidings (UU3 for four cards, versus UU4 for four cards). While Mind Spring isn’t as good as other printed draw spells pound-for-pound, what it does have is versatility. Yes, it’s worse than Tidings or Counsel of Soratami, but it can also be both cards at the same time. This is Braingeyser, except with one small drawback – it can’t be used to deck an opponent/make them draw cards, which is what made Braingeyser-retool Stroke of Genius such a valuable piece of combo engines.
Possible Sleepers:
Sigil Tracer ($2-$3) : Twincast, Fork – copy spells which have been popular and held their value. Ones that have not: Reiterate, Mischievous Quanar. Low-cost one-time-use copy spells have been popular. Higher-cost reusable ones have not. Sigil Tracer falls in the middle – it’s the lowest cost reusable Fork/Twincast printed, but is there a deck that needs to copy multiple spells? There’s always the chance of an Owling-Mine type deck re-emerging, but at the least it’s a creature with a popular effect in a popular tribe.
Don’t Touch These (Bulk Rares):
Knowledge Exploitation, Notorious Throng, Supreme Exemplar
Good Commons/Uncommons (Get These in Foil!):
Disperse: (Hoodwink that hits creatures instead of lands. Very splashable and playable)
Distant Melody: (Compares very favorably to Allied Strategies, but at a lower mana cost)
Negate: (An extremely solid counterspell – Annul, Envelop and Flash Counter rolled into one, with the ability to counter Planeswalkers as well)
Sage of Fables: (The Wizard Lord, and one that can provide card advantage)
Stonybrook Banneret: (A familiar for Wizards and Merfolk)
Black
Get These:
Maralen of the Mornsong ($3-$4) : I’ve heard the arguments against Maralen – your opponent will get to tutor first, your opponent will just find an answer to Maralen. Well look, I wouldn’t play Maralen in a defensive deck, I would play her in an offensive deck where I actively pursued a The Rack/Discard strategy. At the point where you drop Maralen, your opponent isn’t going to be able to draw extra card to get out of The Rack range, and is losing three life a turn when already facing an onslaught. Forget the tutor effect for a moment – for three mana, you are making your opponent lose three life a turn, plus you prevent them from drawing cards. That is very strong, and in the case where you can protect Maralen, you’re making your opponent lose six life (before your next turn) plus tutoring up another way to protect Maralen (or a card to pile on death to your opponent). In addition, Maralen is also an Elf. That is important given that B/G Elves is already a Tier 1 deck.
Mind Shatter ($9-$10) :I am not entirely convinced that Mind Shatter will remain in the $10 range. There is that potential, given that Profane Command (another BBX spell) is getting played in both Standard and Extended, and it has hit this price. Mind Shatter is Mind Twist with an extra Black mana tacked on, and Mind Twist is a card which had, at one point, been banned entirely from Vintage for being too powerful. (Nowadays, it’s not only unbanned, but unrestricted). Part of the power behind Mind Twist was Dark Ritual and Lake of the Dead. There is no Dark Ritual in Standard anymore (at least without dipping into Red). Mind Shatter also scales badly versus other discard spells in the same way that Mind Spring scales badly against other draw spells. The two advantages that Mind Shatter has is that A) it forces random discard versus chosen discard, and most cards in Standard right now that force discard are a chosen card – Stupor exempted, and B) Mind Shatter can singlehandedly take out a control player with a single cast. I would tend to think that Mind Shatter will drop in value from its $9-$10 peak right now, but I do not think so strongly enough that I would recommend trading them away just yet – if Mind Shatter drops in value, it’ll be a few weeks after release of Morningtide.
Scarblade Elite ($2-$3) : Pick these up now. They are way too low for the cost. It’s an Elf, it can tap to kill any creature (no targeting restrictions like Terror), and it keys off of not just Assassins, but Changelings. This turns Nameless Inversion into a second-use Terror. While there aren’t many other good Assassins available right now, there are enough tournament playable Changelings to make this guy worth getting.
Trade These Away:
Auntie’s Snitch ($2-$3): Look, you’re getting a 3/1 creature that can’t block for three mana. If you have a first turn goblin/rogue, you’re getting a 3/1 creature for two mana. That’s still below the curve of most weenie creatures right now, including Wren’s Run Vanquisher, Goldmeadow Stalwart, or Oona’s Prowler. It is true that he can be recurred, but the body isn’t really impressive enough to warrant having him come back for seconds, especially late in the game.
Bitterblossom ($5-$7) : There isn’t really a precedent for this effect, but for the cost there is – Phyrexian Arena. How comparable is getting a 1/1 flyer each turn to drawing an extra card a turn? It’s very tough to gauge this card’s true power level without seeing it in play, but you don’t get any appreciable gain until your third turn, at the earliest – one turn to play Bitterblossom (turn 2) and one turn to get a 1/1 flyer (third turn), which can’t attack until your fourth turn. While you do get a free evasive attacker (or speedbump) for one life a turn, I just can’t help but feel that Bitterblossom has too little of an effect for the cost – you’d rather be drawing two cards a turn than getting a 1/1 creature a turn for the loss of a life a turn.
Earwig Squad ($4-$6) : People are going nuts over the prowl cards right now, and the Prowl cards are indeed decent in certain decks. However, there are other cards in this set that circumvent mana costs entirely (see Preeminent Captain, above), and they are much more effective. Earwig Squad, without prowl being paid, is a 5/3 creature for five mana. Nobody is super-excited about Mass of Ghouls. If you do hit with a Goblin or Rogue, if Earwig Squad is in your hand, you get a 5/3 Jester’s Cap for three mana. That’s good, but given that you’re relegated to playing a tribe that isn’t even in the top 3 in Standard right now (or after Morningtide), it’s just not a $5 card.
Possible Sleepers:
Stenchskipper ($2ish) : This is a finisher for Goblin decks in the way that Emperor Crocodile was the finisher, long ago, for Elf decks. The difference is that Stenchskipper lasts until end of turn if your other Goblins die (whereas Emperor Crocodile died immediately if someone unsummoned your last creature), and Stenchskipper is a hefty 6-power evasion creature. This guy is just large and evasive enough to find a place in Goblin decks, where he can’t often be chump blocked before taking out a nearly-third of an opponent’s life total.
Don’t Touch These (Bulk Rares):
Fendeep Summoner, Weirding Shaman
Good Commons/Uncommons (Get These in Foil!):
Frogtosser Banneret (Potentially the best common in the set. Will likely push Goblins back to Tier-1 in Extended, thanks to eight Warchief.dec)
Oona’s Bladeguard (The best of the Faerie Rogue cards, and one that might see abuse)
Prickly Boggart (The main enabler for Prowl decks)
Red
Get These:
Countryside Crusher ($10-$12) : This is one of the top 3 cards in the set, if not the best. Countryside Crusher is already a 3/3 for Three (good for Red), is a cheap Giant (good for Giants), and has two very-upside special abilities – the ability to get +1/+1 for every land that goes to your graveyard (from anywhere – this includes discarding, milling, activating fetch lands, resolving Devastating Dreams), and the ability to mill past lands from your library, to ensure that you draw action cards every turn. Either of these abilities would make Countryside Crusher a Constructed player. The two of them together makes Countryside Crusher a build-around card that can both win games on its own, and fit into a more evolved strategy of a Life From the Loam or Boom/Bust Flagstones of Trokair deck.
Taurean Mauler ($4-$6) : Wizards really pushed some Changelings in this set, and Taurean Mauler is one of them. It’s playable in any tribal deck, plus it keeps getting bigger as long as your opponent keeps playing the game. Is it as good as the Crusher? No. Is it playable and does it fit into Goblins, Giants, and Elementals? Yes.
Titan’s Revenge ($2-$3) : Compare this to Demonfire and Disintegrate. You don’t get uncounterable (which was key with Demonfire) and you don’t get to remove creatures from the game (key with Disintegrate), but what you do get is the ability to potentially cast Titan’s Revenge multiple times a game with only one spell. Fanning the Flames took three mana for this effect – Titan’s Revenge only takes a good set-up with Clash. Is it worth paying an extra R mana for a 30-50% chance to buyback Titan’s Revenge for Free? I’d say yes.
Trade These Away:
NONE!
Possible Sleepers:
LIghtning Crafter ($2ish): The champion creatures haven’t made a huge impact in Constructed so far, including the huge 10/2 Nova Chaser. Is this better for a Goblin deck than the hasted-Juggernaut in Changeling Berserker? Lightning Crafter is like Kamahl, Pit Fighter, except two mana cheaper, and a lot harder to kill than a one-toughness guy. Could this be a contender for a Goblin deck? Even if it’s not tournament worthy, this will be extremely popular among casual players, as the effect as about as high as you can get for a non-competitive casual favorite.
Sensation Gorger ($2-$3) : Three mana to repeatedly draw four extra cards a turn. Each player draws four, but for a Goblin/Burn deck, that probably will be enough. It is a bit small as an offensive weapon (2/2 versus, say, 3/3 and growing for Countryside Crusher), but the effect is powerful. This will also be popular with casual players, especially the multi-player crowd.
Shared Animosity ($1-$2) : Compare this to Coat of Arms. It only influences your creatures, comes down two turns earlier, and only affect power. Coat of Arms is a $6-$10 card (depending on set). I don’t see Shared Animosity as a $1 bulk rare, given that it is a budget alternative to Coat.
Don’t Touch These (Bulk Rares):
Boldwyr Heavyweights, Borderland Behemoth, Vengeful Firebrand
Good Commons/Uncommons (Get These in Foil!):
Brighthearth Banneret (More Familiar goodness)
Shard Volley (Did Red need another mana-efficient Burn spell? Apparently so!)
Green
Get These:
Chameleon Colossus ($9-$10): This is another changeling creature that Wizards really pushed for this set. A 4/4 Protection from Black Changeling already would have made the cut in several already-existing Green decks, due to the amount of Shriekmawage running around right now in Standard. That Chameleon Colossus can virtually put the game away on his own thanks to the “double his power/toughness) ability is just gravy on the train. This is the perfect cross-section of all three player types (Timmy, who loves a big creature, Johnny, who sees a math problem to be solved, and Spike, who sees a 4/4 Pro-Black beater for four mana), and will hold value because he will be highly sought after.
Leaf-Crowned Elder ($6-$7) : This is my pick for the current sleeper Rare of the set. Pick these up now before they go really high in value. A good 4-drop is usually a combined power/toughness of eight (4/4, as in Loxodon Hierarch, or Chameleon Colossus). Leaf-Crowned Elder has a little more toughness than power, but this just makes him work well with Doran. Speaking of which, Leaf-Crowned Elder also lets you play Treefolk and Shaman cards (not just creatures) for free. This includes any changeling spell (Nameless Inversion), any Treefolk (Doran comes to mind), and any Shaman (Masked Admirers, Riftsweeper, Troll Ascetic, Viridian Shaman). This is like flipping up Dark Confidant cards, at no life, and getting to play them for free. Want to go nuts? Combine with Cream of the Crop or Sensei’s Divining Top. Treefolk were already borderline playable, and between this and Murmuring Bosk (and Doran already showing up everywhere), I believe that Leaf-Crowned Elder will end up being a Standard powerhouse.
Scapeshift ($5) : I don’t exactly know what to make of Scapeshift, to be honest. It’s not exactly a combo enabler in the way that Channel the Suns or Natural Balance were, since the lands it gets come into play tapped. On the other hand, you can get any lands, meaning you can go from a board of basics to a board with four Treetop Villages and two other fancy-lands, an entire Urzatron, and/or four Cloudposts and multiple Vesuvas. I’m not sure if it’s good enough for honest Constructed play, but I do see the mass-tutoring effect being a powerhouse in the casual crowd – this gets you all the lands from your deck that you want at once, at one low cost. Consider this in the same category of cards that keeps Doubling Season in the $7-$8 range.
Unstoppable Ash ($2-$3) : This is a guy you can use Treefolk Harbinger to fetch, or use Bosk Banneret to Champion on turn 3. It’s a 5/5 trampler for four that basically can’t be killed fairly – it’s either out of the attack or straight-by-spell. It also makes your other dudes virtually impossible to kill on the attack, so when you’re going for a fat-on-fat battle with huge guys (potentially powered by Doran), your guys will always win. This is essentially the mirror-breaker in the Treefolk matchup.
Trade These Away:
Gilt-Leaf Archdruid ($2ish) : Might be popular with casual players, but I don’t think there is enough interest in Druids, as a tribe, to make this guy highly desired. If you come across someone at the prerelease who really wants to make a Druid deck, trade him off.
Rhys the Exiled ($2-$3) : This is a bad Wellwisher, or a bad Troll Ascetic. Yes, it’s nice to put him in the company of those two creatures, but he’s a REALLY bad Wellwisher and a REALLY bad Troll Ascetic. I don’t see this making the cut in most decks, and I don’t see casual players wanting to sacrifice Elves at cross-purposes of how this card gains life.
Possible Sleepers:
Cream of the Crop ($2-$3) : Once Cream of the Crop is in play, all of your creatures turn into mini (or maxi) Impulses, setting up your draws for the rest of the game. Mirri’s Guile was played to some degree because it could set up draws – Cream of the Crop lets you both set up draws, and get rid of cards you don’t want by sending them to the bottom of your deck. It is cheap enough to drop early, allowing you to maximize its usage in, say, a mid-range Green beater deck. Note: Does not combo well with Doran!
Reach of Branches ($2ish) : When Treefolk start becoming a constructed staple in Standard, Reach of Branches will contend for a slot in that deck. Just by playing lands, you end up with a 2/5 Treefolk each turn. Yes, you have to tap out to play it each turn – but you also get the ability to return a card to your hand by playing lands (good against Discard) along with a recurring creature spell. This is better than, say, Auntie’s Snitch, because it is easier to return (playing a land versus attacking and hitting with a creature) and fits in a tribe that has a lot more promise right now.
Don’t Touch These (Bulk Rares):
Greatbown Doyen
Good Commons/Uncommons (Get These in Foil!):
Bosk Banneret (Treefolk definitely needed the help to reduce costs, and a 1/3 body is on par with Sunscape Familiar)
Bramblewood Paragon (Wren’s Run Vanquisher and Imperious Perfect are pre-existing Warriors for Green)
Fertalid (Double Rampant Growth and a blocker)
Wolf-Skull Shaman (A virtual auto-include in Elf decks)
Artifact/Land
Get These:
Door of Destinies ($3-4) : This is the prerelease card, and the value is currently being suppressed because of this. As time has told, if the prerelease card is good (Korlash, Kaldra pieces, Ink-Eyes, Wren’s Run Vanquisher, Lotus Bloom), both the prerelease card and the normal version of that card will hold and maintain value. Door of Destinies compares well to Coat of Arms – it comes out a turn earlier, and it continues to pump your future creatures after a Wrath. No, it doesn’t immediately turn your four 1/1 snakes into four 4/4 snakes. It does let you turn your post-Shriekmaw/Damnation Elves into 5/5 and 6/6 creatures, that pump all future creatures. It also only pumps your own creatures (versus Coat of Arms, which pumps all creatures), and it keys off of tribal spells (in addition to creatures).
Murmuring Bosk ($15-$20) : I believe this is on par with the Ravnica-block Duals, and then some. Murmuring Bosk counts as a Forest (unlike every other tribal land, which were all non-basics), so you can fetch it with any spell that gets a Forest (Yavimaya Dryad, Onslaught Fetch Lands). This gives the Doran decks, which are already a powerhouse, a huge mana-fixing boost. You get not only Green mana, but access to both Black and White mana on one easily-tutorable land. This card will immediately be played in a large number of Extended decks, and is a huge help for Treefolk decks and honestly, any deck wanting to run base-Green with a splash) in Standard as well. Mutavault is valued higher right now, but Murmuring Bosk, I believe, will be valued higher in the end for its extreme mana-fixing capabilities in all the right colors.
Mutavault ($15-$20) : People are calling Mutavault the new Mishra’s Factory, and for the most part that is accurate. Mutavaults can’t pump one another, but they can help fix any tribal strategy out there, which is most decks in Standard and a few in other formats as well. You also get a “Free” 2/2 attacking/blocking creature. This is solid, splashable in virtually any deck that wins through non-combo means, and will be popular for casual and competitive players alike.
Primal Beyond ($3ish) : Previous recent lands with mana-restrictions have been prohibitive to play (see Pillar of the Paruns). However, Primal Beyond tops Pillar for three reasons – 1) An elemental deck probably has a lot more usable spells than a multicolored-spell deck, 2) There are a lot of really good Elemental cards out there that want a splash outside of Red (the main elemental color), including Mulldrifter and Shriekmaw, plus any Changeling spell or creature, and 3) It can tap for a colorless for any non-Elemental spell. Obviously you only want this if you’re playing elementals, but I think it will hold value because Elementals are playable, and because it is being currently compared unfavorably to Pillar of the Paruns.
Trade These Away:
NONE!
Possible Sleepers:
Rustic Clachan ($1-$2) : Would you want to play this outside of a Kithkin deck? Unlike other tribal lands, you’re not getting more than one color of mana out of the Clachan, but what you are getting is the ability to turn a late-game land into a +1/+1 counter on a creature. Is that great? No, but it’s servable. This is probably better than playing four Plains in any given deck that is a majority White (and has creatures), including Soldier decks.
Don’t Touch These (Bulk Rares):
NONE!
Good Commons/Uncommons (Get These in Foil!):
Cloak and Dagger (Playable in Rogue decks)
Obsidian Battle-Axe (Playable in Warrior decks – basically Lightning Greaves with +2/+1 instead of untargetablility)
And that’s it for this set release! Morningtide’s power level is very high, and I would rate it just under Future Sight as the set in the past few years that has the highest number of playable Rares versus total Rares in the set. This makes it a very good set to buy, because chances are you’re going to open up a card that is either useful to you, or useful to someone that is willing to do some trading. Have fun at the prerelease tournament, and please don’t neglect the Treefolk – they are better than you think right now.
Ben