This is really important so I want to get this comment out of the way first. Planar Chaos is going to be the most played set in casual Magic history. Period. No set before and probably after will be as heavily played in casual Magic. How do I know? Simple.
Want to draw a bunch of cards in Green? Play Harmonize. Want to play bounce in Red? Play Dead/Gone. Want to play actual creature removal in Blue? Play Pongify. Want to play countermagic in White? Play Dawn Charm. Want another Berserk? Play Fatal Frenzy. And so it goes. These cards will likely never be seen again in these colors, at least not in the next few years. In five years, take a look through the casual decks around the table and in your deckbox, and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
We interrupt this article to bring you the following side rant: I am getting a little frustrated at Wizards about something so minor that I can’t believe they are still doing it. What is it? The spoiler lists and checklists. What’s my grief?
Starting around Exodus, cards began to be printed with a collector number on the bottom. This number was added to the card to assist those, like myself, who collected the entire set. They could easily organize their set by these numbers, and then find out exactly what cards are missing. Incidentally, this is the exact same purpose of a checklist. The sealed deck registration lists you get at tournaments are listed in this way as well. This collector numbers are in alphabetical number by color, so all of one color, then all of the next, and so forth. When you have a hole, you know exactly what color it is in additional to where it falls alphabetically — this is great!
However, the sortable spoilers available at Wizards cannot be sorted by collector number. Therefore, when a new set is released, like Planar Chaos, I cannot sort by collector number. In fact, I can’t even sort by color. Now, this second problem is typically addressed once the set is released and they publish more spoilers and checklists. Even then, however, it is not completely finished.
Take a look at Time Spiral. In Time Spiral you have a sortable spoiler that cannot be searched either by color or by collector number. Then you have the Spoiler List, which is not listed by color nor collector number. Finally, you have the checklist. Now, if any document should be compatible with the collector numbers, it should be the checklist. Since they have the exact same function, they should be in the same order, right? However, that’s not the case.
It used to be the case that the checklist was in collector number order, but recently they went to a plain alphabetical order for their sets. Therefore, Wizards does not provide one format that is compatible with the very collector numbers they print on cards. It wouldn’t take much to fix this, and they used to do it, so I am flummoxed as to why the online system would not do this one thing for collectors. End Side Rant
Bonjour mes amis! Welcome back to another installment of that series that explores all things casual. Today I am going to be looking at the new Planar Chaos set with an eye towards Five Color. During the next few weeks, you can expect to see tons of articles and discussion on the new set, including numerous set reviews. As such, I try to distinguish my set reviews from theirs.
How? First of all, my review is done from the point of view of a popular casual format, not an official Wizards one. Secondly, I won’t be listing each and every card. I don’t want to have to figure out a hundred ways of saying “Good in limited, bad in constructed,” or, “There’s already a better card out there,” and you probably don’t want to read them either. As such, I’ll just be highlighting the cards I think will make an impact or those that people have been talking about.
A quick overview of Five Color: Five Color is a casual format that allows all Type One legal sets. Decks must have at least 250 cards and 20 cards of each color. Due to the quirky nature of the format, we maintain our own banned and restricted list, which you can find at www.5-color.com. We have generous mulligan rules, and if you want to play for ante against an opponent, go right ahead, we don’t mind.
As such, we have an established set of cards from across the Magic spectrum. In order for a card to see play, it has to be better than the established cards. That’s why you rarely see new burn in 250 decks, we have Lightning Bolt, how well can new burn compare to that? The same is true with countermagic, where we have the classics.
Therefore, cards have to do something different. Now, due to the casual nature of Five Color, you can expect to see a wide variety of cards in various decks. Everybody has pet cards. Please understand that simply because I do not include a card in this review does not necessarily translate into never expecting to see it at all in a Five Color deck. If your favorite new card is not on the list, no worries. These are just the cards that I expect to see regularly, or at least considered by multiple players.
As a reminder, I will begin with White and then proceed around the color wheel of happiness until I hit Blue, then I’ll head over to multicolor and artifacts and whatnot.
White
White’s power appears to be mainly in the Timeshifted cards, where several are strong enough to warrant consideration for your decks.
Calciderm — Blastoderm was always a solid card, and White is a good color for it, since many decks that might want another Blastoderm would be aggro decks, and there are a lot of great aggro cards in the history of White to select from. As a result, Calciderm fits nicely alongside White oriented decks that have a strong aggro component.
Dust Elemental — It’s big in a color that often does not have big, cheap creatures, but it comes at a price. Slap it down when damage is on the stack to save dying creatures, and get a big beater at the same time. I think will experiment with this, being seduced by its cheap price and large body. However, I doubt it will stay in decks permanently.
Mana Tithe — Is a Force Spike in White playable? If you like Force Spike and you play a lot of White, then this is the happiest you’ve ever been. Otherwise, it’s not that much.
Mesa Enchantress — On the other hand, this is a great card. Enchantment love in White is almost as strong as Green, with such goodies as Land Tax running around. Enchantress decks not only get a new enchantress, but it’s in a different color so if their mana is devoid of Green, they still have options. I expect to see this in decklists and on my tables soon.
Porphyry Nodes — It’s cheap and really strong against weenie decks. Unfortunately, a lot of decks that are not aggro tend to avoid playing a lot of White, especially since the printing of Damnation will remove the Wrath of God excuse for playing heavy White. If you have the mana in a White oriented deck that seeks a weenie control card, then this is fine. Otherwise, go elsewhere, young man.
Green
The theme is new stuff in Green that will get played, because “Green is In” this month, in all of the cool decks. There are also a few fun cards to pay around with, like Wild Pair.
Ana Battlemage — It’s no secret that the previous Green Battlemage is among my favorite cards of all time. The Ana Battlemage does have a few things going for it, specifically discarding three cards, in addition to the Backlash ability. Sure, in multiplayer the second kicker is pretty good, but in normal duels with Five Color, it’s not that hot. The discard is nice, but for six mana? This battlemage does not live up to the glory of its previous incarnation.
Evolution Charm — The land fixing element is gravy. A friend and I were discussing how useful landcyclers and Krosan Tusker were because they had uses later in the game besides getting mana. The Evolution Charm does as well. The Raise Dead ability is nice, although the Jump ability isn’t all that great. Still, the card is nice enough to warrant some consideration.
Gaea’s Anthem — Will weenie decks want this in addition to Glorious Anthem? Probably not, since Glorious Anthem gets next to no play in Five Color as it is. To be fair, this card is in the major color of most decks (since Green smoothes out mana, virtually every deck focuses on Green). As such, it may fit where the double White of Glorious Anthem did not. I guess we’ll see, but I still doubt much of an impact will be found here.
Groundbreaker — Alright then, if a Green Glorious Anthem doesn’t get play, what about a Green Ball Lightning. Absolutely. Ball Lightning gets virtually no play because of the triple Red, but triple Green is suddenly playable in many decks. It’s still not the best casting cost ever, but it’s pretty good, and I expect to see it in for some time.
Harmonize — And a Green Concentrate? Yes, this will get tons of play as well, and for the exact same reasons mentioned above. Green is good. This will get more play than Concentrate. After all, Blue has better card drawing by far — Fact or Fiction, Deep Analysis, arguably Ancestral Vision, Ancestral Recall, and so forth. However, Harmonize isn’t that much worse, and considering that it will be a main color of many decks, I expect to see it played often and regularly for years to come.
Hedge Troll — This was Timeshifted to the wrong color if it was to make an impact. W/G already got a 3/3 beater in Watchwolf, and this might have been a better card had it been in a different color other than Green paired with White.
Hunting Wilds — It gets two dual lands. Other than that, it’s a boring spell whose kicker will rarely be paid.
Jedit Ojanen of Efava — Again, the Green heavy element here matches well with the normal requirements of many decks. As a result, not only is this a solid beater, but it’s almost assuredly an unblockable attacker against every opponent. Its ability to spit out bears while it attacks also provides some defense.
Magus of the Library — Since it also taps for mana, this is a strong card. It can occasionally draw you a card and normally accelerates your mana. Remember the double Green, while still a liability, it not as much of one for Green.
Mire Boa — Just as good as the original in Five Color, so if you need more, here it is.
Seal of Primordium — Including a Seal of Cleansing is often a good idea for tutors that get enchantments to grab it as removal in an emergency. Normally it’s used as one of the White slots in a deck, but if you’d rather have your Seal in Green, now you can. I still wouldn’t play more than one Seal, total, between the two of them.
Timbermare — It’s good at getting that first hit in, which still makes it a Green Lava Axe for four mana. However, the echo is a bit pricey, much more so than the normal price. Are you going to wait until six mana before you play it, or just get the one hit in? This may be one case where the power drop is not worth the extra versatility.
Wild Pair — I like to tutor, and this is certainly an interesting, albeit initially expensive, way to do so. I’d would not be surprised in someone builds a toolbox deck around a certainly combination of power and toughness in order to fully use this card.
Red
Red gets a lot of goods, from amazing creatures to an actual burn spell and more. Red is the most improved color with Planar Chaos cards, and it’s a good start on the long road to Red equilibrium.
Akroma, Angel of Fury — Since it is not as good of a reanimation target as Akroma Mark One and it’s heavy Red, which is the least played color in 250, I doubt this will get as much play as it might have if we saw it in another color. A Green Akroma? It’d be played all over the place. A Blue Akroma? Absolutely nuts. A Black Akroma? Very playable. Red? Not so much.
Blood Knight — The first serious Red beater that challenges other colors for a great two drop. White Knights, Silver Knights, Pump Knights, and more have all been in the WW or BB slots. This is the first seriously good RR creature to challenge the other colors. Red aggro needs more creatures to break into decks, but this is a great start to eliminating the reduction of Red in most decks.
Boom/Bust — You can sacrifice a land to take out a land, which is an ability that will be used occasionally to shut off a color. You can also Armageddon, but for two more mana. Well, we actually have Armageddon for real, so that’s no great shakes. We also have had Raze for a while. I doubt this will see much play.
Dead/Gone — Shock has just been eliminated from everyone’s deck for Dead/Gone. You probably weren’t playing it anyway but just in case. Bounce meets Shock in an instant package that is just gravy. This is great for Red, another card to pull us in its direction, and a card I doubt I will ever see replaced in decks.
Fatal Frenzy — If you like Berserk but don’t want to pay the price of the original, don’t worry, we’ll just print another for ya.
Lavacore Elemental — Ouch. Play it on the third turn, attack with your one and/or two drop, then add a time counter or two to your newly minted 5/3 beater. All in a splashable casting cost. This has the potential to be very, very powerful, and I know that I’ll be experimenting with these guys in my aggro Five Color deck.
Reckless Wurm — It’s not a Basking Rootwalla, but it gives old school Madness decks a new creature to fiddle with in a brand new color for Madness creatures.
Simian Spirit Guide — In Five Color, I doubt you’ll see this much. You don’t even see Elvish Spirit Guide that much, and Simian probably less.
Stingscourger — We all like bounce and we all like creatures. Does a Grizzly Bear with a good Man-o’-War ability see play even with a high Echo cost? I guess we’ll find out. I suspect that people will enjoy this card for a while, then trim it out when it plays to rarely being as good as advertised.
Black
Black has a few goodies. Sometimes you have difficultly finding Black cards in certain decks after the obligatory tutors and whatnot are added. This set gives you a few new choices to round out your slots, including the ever-popular Wrath of… er… Damnation.
Big Game Hunter — The combination of a Reprisal on a creature with a cheap madness cost is solid. It gives madness decks one more tool, which includes both another creature and removal for bigger creatures. Obviously, in normal play, you’d normally rather have a Bone Shredder or something, but the Big Game Hunter shines in a madness oriented deck.
Brain Gorgers — Everything I just said about a madness creature that also acts as removal applies here, except realize that this is usually just a Madness Diabolic Edict, which is still really good.
Damnation — Obviously, this is a good card and the banner for the set. I already mentioned that this may give control decks that were playing a heavy White component due to Wrath of God an excuse to abandon the color and just leave the base 20 cards that are required of all colors. It’s a good adjunct for a Wrath based strategy. No wrath variant has ever cost four mana like the original did. (Unless you count Retribution of the Meek as a variant, and it only costs three). As such, this is a great card for general control as well as an excuse to reduce the reliance on White in control.
Dash Hopes — For me, this is the new split card Counterspell/Lava Axe (the old split card Counterspell/Lava Axe was Mage’s Contest). I think it will be a lot of fun to play around with. I do not, however, think it will be good enough to get a lot of Five Color play, but I may become one of my own pet cards, so I’m mentioning it now.
Extirpate — This is pretty lousy in Five Color, and I doubt anyone will play it. It doesn’t draw you a card and although it shuts down all copies of the targeted card, your opponent may not even draw another copy. We do have 250 cards in the deck, after all.
Mirri the Cursed — Although she’s not bad, and the haste and flying and first strike and counters do represent an ability laden creature, her double Black cost is a real turnoff. Plus, she’s Shockable and Lightning Boltable even with a counter. She’s too fragile for the long game and too expensive for the short game.
Null Profusion — It was not unheard of for Recycle to be seen in the occasional Five Color deck, although hardly common. This will see some play, undoubtedly especially in decks that specialize in cheap cards with a combo element, and there are numerous decks that meet this description.
Temporal Extortion — We have Time Warp. This ain’t getting played.
Blue
Blue brings removal and a few adjunct cards for various strategies. I expect a few Blue cards to see regular play from here on out, such as Magus of the Bazaar and Serra Sphinx.
Body Double — This is okay, but not great. It’s probably best in a reanimation deck as a “reanimation” spell in Blue. Normally you look to Blue for great discard like Careful Study. Then you play a Black spell to reanimate a discard fatty. However, if you don’t draw your Black mana, you can use this as your Blue “reanimation” spell, although it’s a bit pricey. That’s the basic role I see this playing in Five Color.
Dichotomancy — This is not as good as the hype, so beware. It only works on tapped non-land permanents, so if you suspend it, it’s essentially a Fog. It will resolve, your opponent didn’t attack, so you get nothing. That’s simply not powerful at all. And forget the uber-expensive cost, you aren’t playing.
Magus of the Bazaar — This is probably the best of the Magi in this set. For the simple tap ability, you can fuel a variety of decks from reanimation to enchantment decks to madness decks. Draw and discard at your leisure.
Ovinize — I like removal and I like Blue. Put your hands together for Ovinize. It won’t be played much after the first month or two when it is still fresh enough to make an impact. Expect to see it more around the kitchen table than in competitive Five Color decks.
Piracy Charm — Everybody respects the classic Funeral Charm but no one plays it. I doubt that changes much in Blue.
Serra Sphinx — This is a solid card for Blue. Will a Blue Serra Angel make an impact? Yeah, it probably will. After Green, Blue is the most commonly emphasized color in Five Color decks. Serra Angel may not make the cut because of the double cost, but in Blue, that cost diminishes. To be fair, we have creatures like Moroii and Serendib Efreet running around, so the Sphinx is never going to be the bee’s knees of Blue, but it’ll get some play for a long time to come.
Multicolor
There are some dragons here. The slivers are junk.
Intet, the Dreamer — Intet gives you some seriously powerful card drawing when it hits for 2U, allowing you to playa card for free while Intet remains in play, all on a 6/6 body. That’s pretty solid, plus Intet is already in two of the three more commonly played colors in Blue and Green. It should see occasional play.
Numot, the Devastator — Taking down lands can be useful at cutting off an opponent’s mana base and deny a color or two. Taking out two lands at a time is even better. In a five color deck with a large size, you can imagine how fragile mana bases can be at times. Numot will push a fragile manabase until it shatters.
Oros, the Avenger — Sure, it hits itself (just as Dromar bounces itself 60% of the time), but it can keep the board clean of most weenies while serving for six every turn. It’s solid for control decks, but the colors are a bit off from what you would normally expect such a deck to play. As a result, this may end up in the “nice idea, bad application” pile.
Teneb, the Harvester — Obviously good for a reanimation strategy, Teneb might be almost as good as Reya and a solid target to reanimate if you can’t get her. He still flies, hits for 6, and reanimates more bodies. His colors fit a reanimation strategy almost perfectly, so he’s pretty good.
Vorosh, the Hunter — Vorosh is embarrassing because he is the only other dragon with two of the top three colors and then probably the third most emphasized color in Black. As arguably the easiest of the dragons to cast, he has one of the worst abilities. Ick. (Sure, he can still beat, but compared to its brethren, it’s just not that exciting. Why? Because, he kills just one turn faster. A 6/6 flyer will deal 20+ damage in four attacks. Vorash will deal 20+ damage in three. Consider how much faster Teneb might kill, or how easily the other might dominate the board, and you get the idea).
Artifacts
There are no artifacts in Planar Chaos
Lands
Urborg isn’t really worth exploring. Play it if you want.
…
Well, there we are at the end of another article of happy cards. I hope that you are as excited about Planar Chaos as Evan Erwin is. After all, he claimed it was one of the most exciting sets he’s ever seen. If we are all as happy and as satisfied, we can be content that Wizards did a fantastic job.
Remember my prediction about these cards getting lots of play, and pick up extras, because you will need them.
Until later,