Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’ve got a lot of Zendikar to talk about, whether it’s partial spoilers such as my Warren Instigator getting some abilities, a rarity, and a mana cost; our new Wrath of God, a.k.a. Day of Judgment; Zendikar Planeswalkers on the loose; a Financial News Update and more. Let’s go!
So last week Wizards of the Coast dropped the equivalent of an atom bomb on the player populace: Not only did they remove Wrath of God from Magic 2010, they have effectively removed it from Magic for the next two years, if not longer. Have you seen Day of Judgment?
This card is both Wrath of God and not Wrath of God. I for one welcome it, and see it as a positive change for the game. But before we get all excited and start calling me a Wizards of the Coast shill again, let’s take a look at why it’s awesome:
1) It makes Regeneration matter
This is the biggie. The fact is, in the entire history of Magic, regeneration has mattered very, very little. When I think of regenerators, I think of huge monsters like Silvos and efficient beaters like Troll Ascetic. The problem is, both of those cards fold to Wrath of God because of the “no regeneration” clause. Silvos couldn’t stand up to a Dark Banishing, Nekrataal, Expunge, or any other Black removal spell that wouldn’t let the creature regenerate. Troll Ascetic was designed specifically to foil Slice and Dice / Astral Slide decks, with its regeneration clause almost extraneous in terms of matter outside of Limited environments.
With Day of Judgment, Wizards has given regeneration actual meaning, and any new aggressively costed regenerators in Zendikar will suddenly be much, much powerful than before because Hallowed Burial will no longer be in the format, and this Wrath of God can’t stop them. Another note: How interesting would it be for a new control deck to take advantage of regeneration mattering now? And by that I mean the deck would play a scary regenerator, untap, cast Day of Judgment, and then regenerate their creature to give them a huge monster next turn on an empty board? Control decks are all about making the last monster that sticks kill you, and this sounds like an excellent way to make that happen.
2) It gives control decks the four mana reset button required to keep aggro in check
I don’t know if you noticed the speed of this format, but you can hit low single digits in just a few turns, whether it’s Mono Red or G/R aggro. First turn Tattermunge Maniac, followed up by Hellspark Elemental and Ball Lightning, with no blockers, means you’re at 9 life in 3 turns. On Turn 4 they return Hellspark Elemental, attack with both, put you at 4, then they stare at their Lightning Bolts and Flame Javelins with glee. Banefire is just icing on the fiery, burning cake.
Kithkin has similar explosive openings, and these openings have to be put in check somehow. A four mana reset button still gives Wizard of the Coast license to make awesome dudes, but gives those who don’t like simply smashing with them options to get rid of them as well. And while Hallowed Burial and Martial Coup are nice, four mana is what you need to make this Wrath really matter.
3) It provides Zendikar an awesome chase rare you’re always happy to open
Yes, there is something to be said about wanting to buy and open product simply because you want what’s in there. Day of Judgment, from now until a three-mana Wrath of God comes along, will always be an awesome rare to open. You will always high five your buddies when you open a foil one, and it will be playable in a huge variety of formats for many years to come.
Now the detractors are having a field day complaining about having to buy Wrath of God all over again, but remember that removing a “throwaway” line off Wrath of God is more impacting than you may realize, both for the long-term health of the game and making your packs worth opening.
I personally can’t wait to get my set of these bad boys and now am really excited to see what crazy regenerating monsters are available in Zendikar.
Zendikar Koan
For this week we’ll start by talking about Warren Instigator. You remember where we left off last week, right?
Warren Instigator
(Red)
“Danger, danger! Come out of the safety of your holes!”
And here was my guess for the card last week, which of course turned out to be very much in the wrong:
Warren Instigator
3R
Uncommon
Creature – Goblin Warrior
Haste
Creatures have haste and must attack each turn if able.
3/2
Now with that out of the way, let’s take a look at what we’ve got this week:
Warren Instigator
RR
Mythic Rare
Creature – Goblin Berserker
Double Strike
?/?
Okay, check that out! Of course it had to be a Mythic Rare after I so confidently stated last week it was not. So, what do we know? Well, apart from Protean Hydra, this is the cheapest Mythic Rare ever printed. Double Strike on a two mana creature hasn’t happened since Boros Swiftblade, a card that won many tournaments and along with Gaea’s Might rocked Extended for some time. This means that any pump spell is going to make this guy ridiculous, and aggressively costed must be an understatement.
Another interesting aspect is his creature type. Goblin -Berserker-. This is important. There are currently four other Berserker creatures in Standard, and three of them have Haste while the other must attack each turn if able. This makes me think that the Instigator either has haste or provides it. My guess? This awesome double striker also has haste! Woo!
Also, look at the huge amount of space left in the text box. This, to me, says it has another ability and possibly a Landfall ability, as it’s the primary keyword for the block and could do all sorts of things. So what could that ability be? How strong could this fella actually be? Here’s my guess for Warren Instigator before we see the entire card next week:
Warren Instigator
RR
Mythic Rare
Creature – Goblin Berserker
Double Strike, haste
Landfall – Put a 1/1 red Goblin creature token with haste and double strike into play.
1/1
This to me fits the Berserker role thanks to haste, provides an awesome block-based ability, and creates mini copies of itself with which to battle with. However, the Landfall ability could be a power/toughness pump, it could give other creatures double strike, it could even be larger than a 1/1, which will be far and away above the curve for a creature with Double Strike.
What do you think? All I know is, many clandestine sources have told me that this card is ridiculously good and we’ll definitely be seeing it at the tournament tables, so get those guesses in! I’ll feature the final card as we bask in the glory of Warren Instigator next Friday.
Moving on, we have three new Planeswalkers in Zendikar, and two of them are being slow-rolled much like Warren Instigator. On magicthegathering.com Wizards of the Coast has been spoiling Sorin Markov, a Planeswalker who seems to be leading the way for a new Mono Black Control deck in Zendikar Standard. Take a look at what we got so far:
Sorin Markov
3BBB
Planeswalker – Sorin
+2: Sorin Markov deals 2 damage to target creature or player and you gain 2 life
–X: ?
-7: You control target player’s next turn.
4 Loyalty
So, um, wow? Yes, wow! Sorin is fantastic. And if you doubt it, let me explain why.
The thing with Planeswalkers is, you can easily dismiss them as being underpowered when you first see them. Garruk “just” untaps two lands. Jace “just” draws a card. Elspeth “just” makes a token. But when you realize that these abilities are basically infinite copies of the spells they mimic do you realize their true power. The most obvious comparison with Sorin is Ajani Vengeant, a Planeswalker whose second ability closely mirrors Sorin’s first. But there’s a very important difference. One, Sorin is 50% more expensive, and much more color specific. Second, while Ajani deals and gains one more life, he goes down to just 1 Loyalty with his ability and can’t use it two turns in a row, while Sorin goes up to a whopping 6 and happily uses this ability each turn, going up two Loyalty counters a whack. Third, his Mindslaver ultimate ability is incredibly crushing and is very Vampire-like, as long as you’re into the classic mythos and not that Twilight sparkles-in-the-sunlight crap. Last, we don’t even know what the second ability is, so having a Vicious Hunger than keeps pumping up your Planeswalker to ridiculous levels is some good in my book.
What does his second ability “need” to be? Well, in order for Sorin to be truly successful, he needs a way to deal with the creature spread that may or may not be in play by the time you get to 3BBB. My hope? Barter in Blood. If not, Innocent Blood will work too. In other words, while Vicious Hunger is cute, the ability to deal with Baneslayer Angel is paramount. If this second ability has anything in regards to board control or sweeping or whatever, you best pick up Sorin early and often or get burnt by the waited-too-long syndrome that seems to strike far too many of us.
The other Planeswalker being slow-rolled is Chandra Ablaze, a.k.a. Chandra is All Fiery And Stuff And Also Burninates. Kinda silly name, but wow, look at that mana cost! A whopping six mana in a red deck? We haven’t seen successful red decks play spells that cost nearly that much since Mirrodin Standard and the Big Red deck that won using Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author], mana burn, Jinxed Choker, and Arc Slogger. We know her Loyalty is 5 counters, even higher than Sorin, and she has a plus ability and two minus abilities. What could they be to possibly justify this cost and what deck could possibly use her? We’ll find out more as the weeks of spoilers continue.
Finally this week we got a confirmation on the Prerelease foil: Rampaging Baloths, that I told you was a 4/4 last week, is now confirmed as a 6/6! Yes, that is a 6/6 trampling ass-whipper that makes 4/4s just by playing lands. I don’t know about you, but Terramorphic Expanse and Rampant Growth just got so much better in my eyes. We’ll cover more Zendikar spoilers as I get them over the upcoming weeks.
Up next is your Financial News Update courtesy of Kelly Reid from QuietSpeculation.com. So until next week Magic players, this is Evan Erwin. Tapping the cards… so you don’t have to.
Evan “misterorange” Erwin