Hello friends, and welcome back to The Kitchen Table. I hope that your past week has been pleasant and happy!
Today I want to write a quick article about the new M10 cards, and mention the ones that I think have some value, especially those for Five Color. However, as regular readers know, I have recently begun to discuss other casual formats in their card evaluations, so that you can get something out of this, even if Five Color is not your favorite format (although it should be).
Okay, Five Color, for those interested, is a casual format that requires a minimum deck size of 250 cards, 20 cards of each color and uses Vintage legal sets with generous mulligan rules and more. Check out the B&R list and forums over at their website.
Now, I generally do not mention every little card that is new under the sun, because that is boring. This is casual land, so anything that is going to get played is going to get played, no matter what I say. All I can do is perhaps highlight a few cards of particular interest for you to get started.
One quick caveat: I am preparing this article from the MTGSalvation Spoiler. It is possible that there are errors, and if so, I apologize, but them’s the breaks. I have had errors in articles before that were built off unofficial spoilers because the unofficial spoiler was wrong.
Okay, with that done and out of the way, let’s get to the article you want to read.
White:
Baneslayer Angel: Rough on your opponent. A lot of people are yelling about how good this is, and they are right. Because of its Mythic nature, it will have a super-huge price attached for a 5/5 with five abilities — although two aren’t that hot. I mean, occasionally you might dice past a Keiga or something, but usually the protection abilities will do nothing. Still, a 5/5 flyer with lifelink and first strike is pretty hot. Pick these up and try them out in Five Color mid-range or regular casual Magic.
Captain of the Watch — Your obligatory soldier lord, nice for casual soldier decks. If you aren’t playing a solider deck, don’t worry, because he brings some to the party. I suspect he’ll have more of an impact in Standard than in other formats like Five Color.
Elite Vanguard — This is the obvious power card of the color and the set. This will instantly earn a spot in Five Color aggro decks as soon as the set is released. In fact, cards are legal in Five Color from the prerelease so I expect some will have a full set by now. It’s great for your casual decks because it can put some pressure early on fellow players. A quick two powered one drop can often deal a large amount of damage before a casual combo or control deck can set up.
Harm’s Way — Everybody remembers fun cards like Kor Chant and Kor Dirge. They were a great way of saving a creature and killing another, and getting a 2 for 1. Harm’s Way is a more limited but cost effective way of doing the same thing. It’s custom built for creature combat, so unless you expect a lot don’t play it. I expect to see this as a nice trick in a White deck instead of Five Color or decks with access to things like Symbiosis.
Honor of the Pure — Yeah, great, better than Crusade, yadda, yadda. I find it boring because it is obvious how to use it. Play it in your White Weenie deck and that’s it.
Open the Vaults — Replenish remains restricted in Five Color, so this could be Replenish 2-5 for your deck. It’s not a true Replenish because it is symmetrical and brings back artifacts too, but it does have value. Note it is a cheaper and more powerful Roar of Reclamation.
Planar Cleansing – This is great because it is the first card since Akroma’s Vengeance to do what it did, and Akroma’s Vengeance is so good because of it. This also hits Planeswalkers, unlike the Vengeance. It’s very White, and perhaps too White to see played regularly in Five Color decks but I expect to see this regularly in multiplayer games. This will be a force at the multiplayer table.
The Smiths — Anyone else think the Armorsmith and Swordsmith are going to be annoying as commons? They also add a lot of bulk to your solider deck because they are four more lords each. Between them, Field Marshal, Captain of the Watch and Daru Warchief, you have a lot of solider pumping going on.
Green
Acidic Slime — I love this card. Creeping Mold was okay, but too expensive. Adding one mana to get it as a 187 ability on a 2/2 deathtouch makes it very appealing to me. I love 187 creatures, and this may be one of my favorites. I can see some Five Color decks running this, but not too many, because it’s slow against aggro. In casual land, you always want LD in case you run up against annoying lands like Volrath’s Stronghold, Kor Haven, and whatnot. You don’t want to run dedicated LD, however, because it’s not that nice in most casual groups. Now you can Avalanche Riders a land or Indrik Stomphowler an artifact or enchantment. Nice!
Ant Queen — I think there are going to be a lot of people who like playing around with her, and she does have the 5/5 for 5 mana thing going.
Awakener Druid — I just wanted to take a moment and say that I think this is a very clever card.
Borderland Ranger — Instantly gets played in Pauper Prismatic Singleton.
Elvish Archdruid — I think WotC decided back during Lorwyn to make tribal decks not even hard anymore. You used to have to do some work to find the cards for a nice elf deck, but you were rewarded with a nice synergetic deck. Now you have Priest of Titania on your Elvish Champion, and other cards like Immaculate Magistrate kicked Timberwatch Elves all over the place. It’s too easy now. They are the proverbial fish in the proverbial barrel. Now you get lords that make the very creatures they pump, like Cemetery Reaper and Imperious Perfect.
Fog — Yay for Fog coming back to Green! I totally agree that it fits here better than in White.
Great Sable Stag — One of many rare creatures with a large number of abilities and size too. This has three abilities and is a 3/3 for 3 mana. Baneslayer Angel is a 5/5 for 5 mana with five abilities. The Stag is fine as a card, and I suspect it will get some play in casual land, but probably not that much in Five Color, where it has protection from, at most, around 40% of someone’s creature stock.
Kalonian Behemoth — He’s certainly big. I’m not sure I like a big Green creature with no evasive ability. It doesn’t have to be trample, but if I’m paying 7 mana for something, I don’t want it to be chump blocked by Drudge Skeletons or a Spectral Lynx.
Lurking Predators — This card is so powerful in multiplayer that it will get you killed. This card is to multiplayer what Invincible Hymn was to Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy. I pulled the Hymn after a while, it just wasn’t fun to gain that much life with one card. Lurking Predators feels like that in multiplayer. It is so powerful it will get destroyed, or it will get you offed. I’m not sure I’d advise playing cards that turn you into Public Enemy #1 without winning you that game, and this doesn’t win you the game because you don’t control when it triggers or what you get (by itself).
Master of the Wild Hunt — This is weird, and I’m not sure why they included it. I like it, but it’s odd.
Nature’s Spiral — I hope we don’t end up restricting this in Five Color.
Protean Hydra — It looks like a good card, but I want to play with it to make sure. I suspect other casual players will be doing the same.
Runeclaw Bears — This is a bit silly. Why pull Grizzly Bears for a card that is still a bear, and exactly the same? It seems like you are pulling them out JUST to pull them out, that’s unfair. It’s not like we needed yet another Grizzly Bear.
Windstorm — I like the fixed Hurricane. This should be the Hurricane card in every new set.
Red
The Red section feels very weak. Want to know why? There’s no land destruction! The only LD card costs Five mana and it’s just an Edict. It’s no wonder they reprinted Lightning Bolt, because they had to give it power somewhere.
Act of Treason — I think Threaten was perfectly flavorful.
Capricious Efreet — It’s like they decided to make Jalum Grifter into an actual card! It’s also a Craw Wurm sized creature in Red. I wonder why they went with that instead of something else, like a 5/5 or something?
Goblin Chieftain — Here is another example of how tribal cards have become too easy. Let’s tack on Goblin King with Goblin Warchief at a 3 mana price! It’s crazy. Here’s a dumb question, how come it just doesn’t say, “Goblin creatures you control have haste?” I don’t get that. Oh, and I also don’t get why the damage prevention spell prevents damage to a permanent instead of a creature. Are we going to see artifacts with toughness without being a creature or something?
Magma Phoenix — I love how killing this ends up popping everything and everybody for three damage. I also enjoy how this Phoenix does not require it to be your upkeep to bring it back, unlike many of Phoenixes.
Black
They really pushed vampires in this set, didn’t they?
Cemetery Reaper — See my comments above about how it’s too easy these days. To be fair, Lord of the Undead might be better, I’d have to play around and see. Certainly it was more powerful than the other lords that just granted landwalk.
Disentomb — I can’t think of any reason to have made up this instead of reprinting Raise Dead.
Doom Blade — Just note that before you start thinking of this as better than Terror because it can hit artifact creatures that it also allows for regeneration. It does not kill Marsh Boa.
Howling Banshee — This is a very flavorful card and I expect to see it get played at multiplayer on a regular basis. It’s a solid body with a Sizzle attached that hits yourself too, but that’s okay, because it doesn’t make you as much of a target.
Kelinore Bat — I actually think Feral Shadow would have been better for two reasons. First, it would have given you an opportunity to have a Shadow, which is a very flavorful and iconic undead creature from fantasy that is missing from the set. Secondly, you’d get the cool Nightstalker creature type in there too.
Rise from the Grave — The Black Zombie part is cool, and the ability to get a creature from any graveyard makes it powerful for multiplayer.
Sign in Blood — This will get played in Pauper Prismatic Singleton decks.
Xathrid Demon — For years the cards that were made in homage to Lord of the Pit were not that great, because Lord of the Pit itself was not that great. Now they’ve finally gone and made an actual good Lord of the Pit variant. This is one creature I like.
Blue
Divination — This will also see play in Pauper Prismatic Singleton.
Djinn of Wishes — I know WotC is really patting their back on this one, but it’s a bit obvious, isn’t it? It’s also underpowered compared to other creatures. I would have liked for it to have had one more ability. Then it would have been symmetrical like other creature s 5/5, 5 mana, 2 abilities + 3 wishes.
Hive Mind — I don’t get how this card did what WotC wanted the cards in this set to do. I don’t get how it’s a vitally important ability or a flavorful iconic fantasy thing or anything. I just don’t get this at all.
Merfolk Sovereign — Notice how this one is a lot more underpowered than the others? One makes a bunch of Zombies, another gives all goblins haste, another combines a lord with one of the most powerful tap abilities on any Green creature. This one can tap, it doesn’t have it naturally, to make one merfolk unblockable. Hmm. I am underwhelmed.
How many merfolk? Two, one is a utility creature.
How many elves? Three, including one utility creature
How many zombies? Three, and the lord can make their own, and creatures brought back with Rise from the Grave
How many goblins? Four, and one of those is Siege-Gang.
Not only does Blue get the worst lord, but it also gets the smallest number of creatures to use it with.
Sphinx Ambassador — In duels with lots of 4x creatures in decklists, this is okay. In casual games where decks have more like 1 or 2 ofs, and perhaps more than 60 cards, this is downright nasty. It’s too expensive for any tournament.
Artifacts:
Pithing Needle — Here’s a question for you. WoTC included many cards that have been printed before, but changed their name in order to get more aligned with classic fantasy expectations and genres. Sometimes, these changes were very close — like Raise Dead to Disentomb or Runeclaw Bears from Grizzly Bears. Sometimes they were far away, like Counsel of the Soratami to Divination, which I totally get. Why wasn’t this one changed? I don’t know any fantasy games, books, RPGs, TV shows, with slaughtering needles. You can have easily reconcepted this card as something else, and printed it as is. My guess is that WoTC felt having two Pithing Needle cards around might be bad for tournaments, but I’d like to know for sure, because it is jarring in the set full of generic fantasy elements to find this.
Lands:
The new duals are fine, but not that great. Five Color is not going to want them. I’d rather have four Glacial Fortress than four Coastal Towers in a U/W deck, but Coastal Tower has been largely outdated anyway, with the Tri Taps from Shards and the Snow taps from Coldsnap each being better.
Gargoyle Castle — Many have noted this card’s ability to really win in the end game. I think printing it was a mistake, and here is why:
How many cards in this set can kill it before it becomes a creature? Just one — Acidic Slime. That’s going to be really hard to stop in a draft or a sealed and so forth with clever land destruction. I remember playing Stronghold-Stronghold-Stronghold at the prerelease and it was bad because there were only thee shadow creatures and no artifact destruction. Drafting a Bullwhip or Hornet Cannon was better when there was no way it would get destroyed. There should have been more LD, both because there should be more, period, than one card in the set, and it would let you actually have more mechanics in Red, plus then you would have answers to Gargoyle Castle before it sacrificed.
I like a lot of the cards in this set and their ability to really capture the flavor of Alpha is unmistakable, but the LD thing is really disappointing.
Playing with people’s lands and/or mana was a key part of Alpha. You had Winter Orb, Stasis, Stone Rain, Ice Storm, Sinkhole, Ankh of Mishra, Dingus Egg, Armageddon, Volcanic Eruption, Balance, Chaos Orb, Conversion, Tsunami, Flashfires, Cyclopean Tomb, Evil Presence, Phantasmal Terrain, Drain Power, Mana Short, Gaea’s Liege, Gloom, Icy Manipulator, Kudzu, Manabarbs, Lifetap, Power Surge, Psychic Venom, and arguably Kormus Bell and Living Lands. That’s a lot of cards that tap lands, get mana from lands, destroy lands, make some take damage from lands, and more.
How many cards in this set monkey with someone’s lands or mana: Convincing Mirage, Manabarbs, Yawning Fissure, and Acidic Slime. Alpha had 27 or 29 and M10 has 4. That’s not an homage, that’s a missing picture.
…
That concludes another article. I hope that you found some benefit in today’s jaunt through cards new and interesting. Next week I expect I’ll do my normal “Decks With the New Cards” article, so look for that. I hope you all have a beautiful day.
Until later…