What is interesting about Standard is that, right now it is an environment defined by creatures.
Why are creatures interesting? Because creatures are monstrously complex doodads.
Take a look at a sorcery spell. It has a casting cost, it goes on the stack, it does it’s thing, then it leaves play, rarely returning again. They’re like doors. Doors are not interesting. You can have the coolest door in the known universe. It can have flashing bells and whistles with golden hooks and so on….
But it’s a still a door. And a sorcery spell is still a sorcery spell.
You can’t even do any neat stack tricks with sorceries. They’re paid to be boring. There is no”Wrath in response!” or”Concentrate in response!” No way. They do their thing, with few tricks. Occasionally you might see something neat like”Upheaval, float three mana, cast Psychatog afterwards” but really, who wants to see that?
Creatures, though – creatures are neat. Creatures can do stuff. They not only sit on the table and glare at each other menacingly, they occasionally attack and then maybe sometimes another creature blocks. Sometimes they chump block. Sometimes they’re tokens and get whisked off into oblivion when the Aether pops: Sometimes they tap to make you discard cards. I’m sure people might argue instants can do cooler things since they go on the stack – but can instants swing for two? No, they can not. Attacking for two is the best thing since sliced bread – or perhaps whatever was better than slicing bread before that.
While it’s all fun and games before this paragraph, the fact of the matter is, current standard is based on creatures. I’ve been playing standard, and the main things I see on the table winning games are creatured. Tog decks come in two variants: Old-school U/B and new-school, twelve-inch hot tog. Both of those run seven creatures, which will not make them creature-beatdown decks, but it does them firmly in the”win condition vulnerable to kill” pile. The modern environment is one where Terminate is not only likely to have a target, it’s likely to be a key play.
However, I’m going to discuss the environment that comes after Terminate, and the rest of the best-block-ever printed cycles off to extended land and never come back. I mean, we might see Kicker in three years, but a lot of IB’s better cards and mechanics might not see the light of day for a long, long time – if ever. I’ll miss you, Lightning Angel.
The first thing to mention about upcoming standard is that, unless things changed dramatically, we’re going to be looking at a lot of U/G for at least the first month or two, unless I’m really missing something while looking over those Onslaught spoilers. U/G can produce 6/6 fliers, it gains a lot of card advantages, it can counter bombs, and it retains momentum over a long game. The only card modern U/G loses from the maindeck is generally Yavimaya Coast. This can be replaced with City of Brass, so the deck will remain. It does have vulnerabilities, of course.
The second thing to mention is that the resulting Tier One control deck will either remain U/B Tog, or be Upheaval based, or be U/W based. U/W Loses only one dual land in the changeover, and gains a decent one for its trouble, and also gets either Mobilization or Exalted Angel (who has common ground with Cow – namely, Rakavolver) as its win condition. U/W doesn’t seem to have much cohesion with Upheaval, though, as Doctor Teeth remains a solid post-Upchuck drop. Playing a morphed angel after Upheaval does not count as a good play – no sir! I can’t really make solid bets on which deck will dominate, of course, simply because I haven’t seen how Tog reacts to losing Fact or Fiction, but gaining Read the Runes.
It would be interesting to see a more humble U/B based around Shadowmage Infiltrator, or – dare I say it? – wizards… But I don’t personally see it happening. Wizards, on a whole, looks too slow to deal with turn 2 Mongrel, turn 3 Arrogant Wurm, turn 4 Roar – and the Infiltrator is both blockable by U/G’s Mongrels and the aggro black/x decks which rears their ugly head.
Aggro black, both of the mono and green/black, may very well show up: While your mana might be a trouble, aggro black meshes well with Green’s various madness creatures and Roar of the Wurm. Undead Gladiator likes Rootwallas, enjoys trading with Mongrels and ‘Moebas, and certainly like coming back to your hand or forming card advantage duty. And what better way to win the U/G matchup than just Smothering away their key cards? It’s not guaranteed, of course, but B/G looks like it might be a better deck in a long matchup – or at least against ‘Tog.
Essentially, the format looks like it’s going to see a lot of green. Green, after all, definitely got the pick of the litter in Onslaught – and since Green is the creature colour, here I will take a look at my favourite creatures in the new Standard. Hopefully, I won’t make too many bad picks and horribly embarrass myself: I really should play a good hundred draft games beforehand, shouldn’t I?
Note that I’m not going to mention every single good creature in Standard. I’ll try to point out my favourites, and things I think need mentioning.
White
In a format dominated by high quality, hard hitting green creatures, it’s hard to play the colour with the worst overall spot removal – barring Reprisal, which is bloody amazing these days. White has good creatures, of course. It just seems sometimes that all those creatures are 2cc or less, and everything over that is either horribly overpriced for what it does or a legend.
1cc
Weathered Wayfarer
It’s hard not to like this little guy. A 1/1 for W isn’t bad – although lately white has been getting 1/2s for that cost. The Wayfarer is a cleric, meaning he fits into cleric decks or works well with Master Apothecary.
His ability is, of course, his real selling point. While we’re not really sure if the spoiler’s promised ability to search for any land is”for real” – but if it is, the Wayfarer offers the ability to search for sack-search lands (as I’m calling them). While this doesn’t sound like a big deal, keep in mind you can play the sack-search land, bringing your land counts to parity, then sacrifice the sack-search, and use the Wayfarer while the ability is on the stack.
The Wayfarer is more of a controllish card, requiring you to spend time searching for land to see his full benefit. At the same time, control decks often want to play those extra lands to, you know, cast counterspells. Still, what could be a very powerful card.
Devoted Caretaker
I am still fond of this creature. It is a 1/2 for one mana, which remains good in my book. It is, of course, a cleric, which means it sits happily in cleric decks alongside its holy brothers. The ability, like Wayfarer’s, requires an activation cost where you might not want there to be one. But it is very powerful! Remember, the Caretaker’s ability can shield your enchantments from spell-based targeted destruction and keep important things like Opposition on the table.
2cc
Whipcorder
Everything I need to say about Whipcorder I’ve already said, but just to cover the key points: It’s a solid weenie simply due to the fact it can be used early on and later on in the game. It does not have evasion, but it does deal with your opponent’s biggest threat. You can keep a Tog out of the game for quite a while.
Longbow Archer
This guy is old-school, man! It’s hard to imagine that years later, due to a mishap with a blue incarnation, the Longbow Archer’s ability to block fliers may actually make him a better than White Knight card. He may need some friendly assistance from Divine Sacrament or Daru Encampment to trade with Mongrels and so on, but the fact he can block the Wonder-blessed might very well turn a game on its head.
True Believer
It’s a bear as far as combat math goes, a cleric to add to Master Apothecary’s pile of love, and makes you immune to many of the nastiest tricks out there. No Edict, no Discard, no burn to the dome… Works quite nicely, if you ask me.
3cc
Lieutenant Kirtar
Get this: He’s a bird and a soldier – and also a legend, which is bad, but he’s a 2/2 flier for three. Nothing special without other cards to back him up, barring the ability to remove an attacker or potential for abuse with Sigil of the New Dawn. But evasive soldiers (or just 6/6 Wurm killers) are very important any way you slice it.
Master Apothecary
It’s funny: We’ve got Soldiers and we’ve got Clerics. They’re both pretty good, but not quite good enough. Had Wizards of printed all the Soldier and Cleric cards as”Knights” – or just, dang,”Paladins” – you would probably be seeing a rocking good white weenie deck come November.
Either way, the Master is a fairly potent card and we’ll all know it. I don’t really need to talk about how neat this card works with True Believer, Beloved Chaplain, and other high quality clerics, do I?
4cc
Commander Eesha
The only white creature over three worth mentioning unless you’re playing control with Exalted Angel*, Eesha does cost four mana. This is true. She also blocks Arrogant and Roaring Wurms ’til the board stabilizes, and can never be blocked. Also immune to Smother and hard to burn out, she may very well be a clutch stabilization card in November for White decks looking to lay a little enchantment love.
Green
Green used to suck. Green used to be this bad colour that you only played if you wanted Wall of Blossoms, Birds, and other wacky stuff. While that is actually untrue, as Green has had its share of power cards in the last few years, designers have placed a cinder block on the gas pedal driving this colour. More, more, more. It’s almost hard to imagine playing all these sicko-good-creatures.
1cc
Well, yes. The birds remain an old staple; funny, they even work in bird deck. That may end up being more of drawback, if people do awful things like playing Airborne Aid.
Llanowar Elves
We know the Elves are living on borrowed time, as they’re cycling out of Standard when 8th rolls around, but we also know Elves may very well be a”big deal” in Onslaught. Llanowar Elves are just staple stuff; they’re quick on the table, they quicken your pace, and they have pretty good artwork in 7th.
Basking Rootwalla
It’s hard to imagine this guy is going to be getting better when Invasion rolls out, but look at the cards he meshes with: Reading the Runes, Undead Gladiator and Gigapede. Nothing screams good card like card advantage, Edict defence, and the ability to be a threat all by his li’l ol’ self. You will be playing these, but I might as well make a 0cc slot for him given how he’s getting on the board.
2cc
Wild Mongrel
To quote the venerable Geordie Tait;”Screw You And The Mongrel You Rode In On.” He’s being played. He will continue to be played. Enough has been said in the last year about him. Oh yes, but now he’s Smother-bait.
Werebear
Threshold decks might not die. They might, indeed, be second-string to Madness decks – but this is a deck that can use Upheaval effectively and that very well might be important. If it remains a force in the environment, expect to see the Werebear swinging happily in that deck.
3cc
Call of the Herd
I haven’t personally seen a lot of Call tokens on the other end of the board – or even on my side of the board – too often lately. When Invasion rolls out, the two nastier call bouncers (Recoil and Repulse) find their way off the table. While Aether Burst remains in Standard, the lack of Impulse-style card advantage might help re-establish Call of the Herd. It may simply be that Call doesn’t fit in modern decks; however, it’s getting a bit better.
Wirewood Savage
Is it worth dropping this on turn 2 in a beast deck over an Anurid Brushhopper? I don’t know, but here’s the case for the Savage.
First, Savage turns all your beasts into card-advantage machines. Every one of them is a cantrip. In fact, speaking of Brushhopper, he triggers the Savage’s ability when he returns from his hops. That helps ease the cost of his Hopping and move through your deck. Beast Attack becomes ludicrous, obviously, not only giving you two beasts but two cards in the deal.
Look at it like this: Against U/G, while you might start out slower, the huge pile of extra beast-drawn cards will solidify your match in the late game. All the Madness in the world can’t get around you doing stuff like double-drawing off Beast Attack. Ravenous Baloth will, in turn, allow you to use life gain interactively and extend your board time, slowing down a U/G deck’s assault and giving you time to put that massed card advantage to work. So it might very well work.
Arrogant Wurm
While not exactly a true three-drop, I think this guy gets put in this slot so often during games that he’s more used to being played for three than five. Which I assume was the plan all along.
The Wurm gets better, meshing with the previously mentioned cards to continue the path of insane card advantage and instant blocking blah blah so on.
4cc
Ravenous Baloth
A pivotal card in beast decks, the Baloth represents an efficient and potent creature – with the added ability of allowing you extra time to put the muscle of your beasts into your opponent’s threat. This card has already been reviewed by a few people, but I’d just like to point out how silly this gets with the Savage and Beast Attack. Ten mana, over two turns, netting eight life and two cards alongside two 4/4s? Yeesh.
Phantom Centaur
The Centaur is one of the sickest cards to come out in a while. 5/3 for four mana is good. Hey, it’s pro black and burn only reduces its size by a touch during combat. While the Centaur may end up being passed over in beast decks, it looks like one of the most vicious black hate cards to come out of the board. If you really want, you can play Shared Triumph, name”Spirit,” and all your phantoms become immortals. Joy.
Roar of the Wurm
Those 6/6s for four aren’t getting any smaller, now are they? Repulse, Recoil, and Deed are going out, and I don’t see any great bounce coming up through Onslaught. On with the Wurms.
(Does anyone else hate this card’s art? Otaria’s Wurms look like mole worms.)
Red
Everyone said to themselves that Onslaught would be the Red set. I swear, people kept telling me that! They said it enough times that I even began to believe them. I have no idea if this actually counts as”The red set,” but I sure as Hell don’t think it’s the Red set. The pickings are decent, not outright horrible… But the lack of a single good burn spell makes me a sad panda. I know I’m talking about creatures, but traditionally, Red is the burn colour. Well, apparently burn is out of fashion; I mean, they reprinted Shock. That leaves us with Goblins…
1cc
Goblin Sledder
Back when this guy was called Mogg Raider, he got passed over for the superior one drops in Jackal Pup and Mogg Fanatic. Granted, we don’t have either of those cards, so this might very well be Red’s prime goblin one drop… Barring Raging Goblin, of course, assuming you care for a point of haste damage.
The Sledder is no more than a combat math fudger. He’s probably more suited to Limited formats, but that doesn’t mean the ability to sack one goblin to save another is somehow a bad thing. A decent one drop.
Grim Lavamancer
You know why this guy is Grim? Because he’s the best card in Odyssey Block red and he doesn’t really care for his surroundings very much. Regardless, he’s one of the best red cards printed in a long, long time, being a literal Shock-o-matic. He gets better in the here and now, what with the friendly sack lands providing him with even more food to make lava shocks out of.
Anyways, the card is good. You might very well combine him with Book Burning** or just use up dead goblins for fodder. Fine with me.
2cc
Goblin Piledriver
1/2s for 1R are something pretty rare in red. I mean, you’ve got Dwarven Miner, Atog and some Kobolds. Now two mana for a 1/2 creature with protection from blue? That sounds a lot more like a white card.
The Piledriver is a well-priced, strong package. Protection from Blue has always given ‘Tog fits, and while they may be able to side in Smother to kill the piledriver, he still requires an answer. Besides that, his better ability is awesome: Three goblins and he’s swinging for five damage. That’s not bad for a red creature! He combos nicely with Relentless Assault, which might make that card playable in standard or extended. Swing for five, swing for nine sounds fun.
Dwarven Blastminer
It remains to be seen whether or not there will be a lot of non-basic lands shown off in November decks. Both the”comes into play tapped” and enemy painlands are going out, which makes for three to eight less non-basics per deck, if not outright removing three colour decks with an enemy colour.
If there are a lot of non-basics, the Blastminer is a great card. He’s most likely going to be sideboarded in or Wished for, which suits me fine.
Sparksmith
Would this fellow be playable? Against offensive decks like U/G or white weenie, he represents a cheap and easy way to rid yourself of various smaller creatures, or set up chump blockers with additional damage, allowing you to trade weaker creatures for more impressive ones.
If you do manage to do, say, four damage to kill an Arrogant Wurm and take four damage in the process, it’s not really such a bad trade since it gets the Wurm off the board where it won’t be dealing anymore damage to you.
3cc
Dwarven Bloodboiler
Much like the previously mentioned Clerics and Soldiers situation, Dwarves and Goblins really do wish they would work together. I would be quite happy if Wizards printed something like”Dwarven Mastertrader” that made all goblins dwarves and all dwarves goblins – but that sounds a touch unlikely to happen.
Regardless, assuming you can cast it, the Bloodboiler’s ability should be readily apparent, as it is very damning to combat math. If he is alone, he offers only +2/+0 – but if he’s backed up one or two other dwarves, you can start trading goblins with Wurm tokens and other fun stuff. There need to be more good dwarves to save this card, though.
Hell-bent Raider
One of my favourite cards in Odyssey block, the Raider is burdened by being too little meat for too much mana. Red doesn’t get bears with three abilities for two mana… But two mana is where this guy would really shine. He’s locked into a position where at three mana he’s 2/2, and if he was four mana he’d only be 3/3 or 4/3.
But are the Raider’s abilities good? Haste is haste; it either slips extra damage through or does nothing. First strike stacks well with Bloodboiler, Fever Charm, Reckless Charge, or any other burst of power. His last ability is only really good when your hand has a high percentage of madness cards, or the need to get to threshold is readily apparent.
4cc
Blistering Firecat
Ball Lighting is essentially converting three mana into six points of damage. The main point that the card is fast and highly effective at winning damage races comes from sitting at three mana – which was, when it was printed, pretty damn good.
The Firecat is definitely an attempt to produce a”new” Ball Lightning, since Ball Lightning is one of the”best” cards in Red (and also going out of Extended in November) and the comparisons are painfully obvious. The ‘cat sits at four mana for 7/1, which would be great if it stuck around. As it stands, it’s a pretty good way to put temporary pressure on your opponent, but the ‘cat is worse than Ball Lightning.
The Morph ability eases mana restrictions in two colour decks, but I can’t see green or black wanting to splash this when they have better creatures to play anyways. This card may, however, fit nicely into a Frog-in-a-blender style deck.
Fledgling Dragon
There’s not a lot to say about this card. It’s a bit small for it’s casting cost pre-threshold, but Red does have some good threshold cards nowadays (as does red with green) so you may not really drop it on the table before threshold.
The real point is whether it’s worth the effort to play this for four mana, when green has cheaper thresholders. Well a Shivan’s a Shivan, and evasion + firebreathing will end many games very rapidly. There is that Wonder card, of course…
Jeska, Warrior Adept
Fire/Ice is going out of the environment, while U/G is king of the beatdown decks, and might be for a while. Jeska kills off Looter, activated ‘Moebas, and Rootwallas. She can block Arrogant Wurms and Mongrel, often living to tell the tale. That makes her one of red’s best reactions to everything in U/G madness, pardoning those big ol’ Roar tokens. Haste means, while at four mana she’s a bit slow to the party, she’s active the minute she gets there.
Jeska answers many of the questions U/G puts out – but how good is she against other decks? I am not so sure of that, either. I might end up putting this in red decks, but I haven’t tested Onslaught T2 that much so that’s questionable.
Black
Aggro-black decks have existed well into the past of Magic. There is something outright unfair about swamp, tap, Dark Ritual, Hypnotic Specter, go. Onslaught presents a number of fairly aggressive black creatures, which are backed up by Chainer’s Edict and Smother – two of the best, most versatile kill spells – and Blackmail with Duress, providing a number of very solid aggro-black options. Whether or not black wants to go with another colour (green or red for aggro, I would assume), remains predominantly a control colour or goes mono-black, you will see black creatures on the table come November.
1cc
Entrails Feaster
Graveyard removal has been fairly big lately, with the presence of very nasty Incarnations sitting in people’s graveyards, and mean flashback cards which promise large, annoying fat creatures.
The Feaster doesn’t deal with sorceries or instants; however, it does definitely deal with Incarnations in a turn or two. The drawback to the Feaster is either a huge issue or a non-issue, based on whether or not the Feaster is actively chomping up graveyarded creatures.
I don’t think the Feaster is maindeck worthy; however, you can sideboard or Living Wish for one to remove your opponent’s incarnations and recurrable creatures, giving you a fatty in the process should creatures be dying (I hear they do that sometimes). Creatures have to keep dying for the Feaster to keep attacking – but that’s what Smother and Edict are for.
Festering Goblin
It’s a one-drop that can take a 2/2 with it to the grave, remove opposing small creatures, acting as a 1/1 or an Afflict if you need it. I’m not sure how playable this card is; however, it does remove Merfolk Looters while providing a chump blocker.
2cc
Nantuko Shade
The Shade’s only drawback is that he discourages playing in a multicolour deck; beyond that, he sits as a potent, powerful creature that hits the table early and continues to be a force in the late game, much like Whipcorder. Of course, Shade just gets big enough to deal with any problem.
Wretched Anurid
3/3s for two mana are pretty good deals, even in Green. In Black, there is this and Rotting Giant… And this is clearly the better card. While the Anurid has the potential to deal a lot of damage to you, it also has the potential to do a lot of damage to your opponent, or dying while taking something else down. In some ways this belongs more in a deck that runs fewer creatures and more disruption – which, of course, fits into black’s gameplay just fine.
3cc
Rotlung Reanimator
I really don’t know what to make of this card: On one hand, you’re looking at a Gray Ogre with the penumbra ability. It’s actually better than Penumbra Bobcat, which I personally found to be playable when playing against heavy Monoblack fields. The Reanimator goes the next step, giving you a Zombie whenever any cleric on the table kicks the bucket. This can result in a serious overabundance of zombie tokens should there be a number of clerics and a Wrath goes off.
On the other hand, it’s a Gray Ogre. And those are kinda bad. Even if you get a two-for-one, it’s still just two Gray Ogres.
Undead Gladiator
Three mana for three power is pretty good. Granted, you can get green creatures with three or four toughness, but 3/1s are about as good as it gets in black. The Gladiator both cycles and has a”return to hand” ability. This makes the card interesting in that it performs two duties; both allow you to filter through your deck and make sure any extra land you draw can turn into another card, should you have enough mana to do so. It’s a touch expensive, of course.
4cc
Grinning Demon
An obviously powerful card is this one. 6/6 for four is, well, really good as we all know. The morph ability is pretty nice as well. If you want to save two points of life, simply play him morphed, then unmorph after your upkeep and you’ve skipped some pain.
It isn’t quite as easy to swallow as Juzam’s drawback – but obviously, this card belongs in aggro decks where the game will either go your way or go the other way regardless of a few points done by the demon. Keep him morphed but on the table when the game is stalled, of course. A good new black addition.
Mortivore
Speaking of giant fat creature, good ol’ Morty has the drawback of needing creatures in the graveyard before he gets big – but come on, he can be much larger than Grinning Demon without a real drawback once he gets that big. I think this is more of a card I will be wishing for in some of my matchups, but it’s worth mentioning seeing as it really is a great card.
Blue
Blue is not a creature colour, but there are a few entries worth putting in here, of course. I’m not really going to be quite as serious in the blue section as I was in the others, obviously, but that’s not to say Blue doesn’t have good creatures.
1cc
Imagecrafter
You may have noticed at some point in Onslaught previews that”creature type” is going to be very important. Through this point the Imagecrafter offers two main advantages for his humble U for 1/1 body.
The first is that the crafter is a Wizard. If there ever is a Wizard deck, having an actual one-drop Wizard with a decent ability will be important.
The second is that he can change creature types. This will make fun tons of fun, like getting on the Shared Triumph bandwagon or disrupting other creature-type based strategies… Assuming those cards ever come around, of course, but the Goblins sure will.
Hapless Researcher
Another one-drop Wizard. Not quite as good as Imagecrafter, but he has an okay ability if you need madness activation (r/u wizards???) and will serve as perfect Voidmage bait. Speaking of which…
2cc
Voidmage Prodigy
I know Kai’s card was supposed to be”better” than this and I know the art doesn’t live up to other created cards – but frankly, it’s still a great, solid card. It’s UU for 2/1, which is good – not great, but in blue two for two power is pretty rare without drawbacks. It has morph, which personally I think is pretty useless, and just uses up more mana than it’s worth.
The ability is great, though. It turns every Wizard in your deck into a counterspell – and man oh man, we all know how powerful counterspell is. It’s true that they become more expensive per”counter,” but your opponent is going to get to the fifth turn and just see a literal sea of counterspells on the board. Even if it’s just him and an Imagecrafter, there’s something to worry about. Good card.
Merfolk Looter
While debating the Tog vs. U/G matchup with a friend of mine, we came to the conclusion that the Looter is what puts U/G past Tog. Wonder is great, but the Looter is what allows U/G to keep the pressure on no matter what. The Looter allows the U/G deck to gain ridiculous card advantage. It’s basically just”draw a card” every turn for no mana and for little initial down payment.
Aquamoeba
It’s obvious what the ‘Moeba does, but it really is a good card even if you were playing mono-blue. You probably won’t though. I noticed last night while working on a beast deck (I’ll write an article later, assuming it works!) that blue actually has a number of beasts. This is one of them. I didn’t think it could get anymore ridiculous – but yeah, you can have flying Ravenous Baloths and draw cards off playing the Moeba with the savage.
3cc
Patron Wizard
Assuming there ever is a competitive Wizard deck in Standard, it is fairly likely that the Patron Wizard will find his way into such a deck. The card, of course, functions much the same way it always had – offering a force spike for every tapped wizard. There’s good synergy between this guy and little Wizard dorks like Imagecrafter, allowing you to protect your Wizardly investments without even expending cards in the early game.
Wormfang Drake
It’s still a 3/4 flier for three mana, drawback or no drawback. Amusing the”drawback” isn’t much of a drawback if you combine this card with, say, a Werebear and an Upheaval. Look, the board is clear! Look, I don’t even need to recast the ‘bear! Yeah I’m just having fun. I don’t know if it’s playable. I should probably mention better cards… But I happen to like the Drake.
Callous Oppressor
Lemme get this straight: You take Seasinger, right? And then you change its drawback from a hard-to-get-around one to a really easy one that will only really affect it in block. I mean, lemme take a look at the match up in U/G… Oh yeah, here we go. He names Wurm and I start using his Wild Mongrels and Merfolk Looters to chump block his Wurms. He names Looter and I start using his Wurms to kill him. Any deck that doesn’t run burn and runs two or more creature types is going to hate seeing this card on the other side of the table. Most likely a sideboard card – but still, good.
4cc
Nameless One
The Lord of Wizards – and yes, his ability is morph. Compare this to the other”~less One”s, and you really don’t like this card. Wow, if he’s the only Wizard I have, I can play him Morphed and he’s a 2/2! I’m sure glad he doesn’t have another, useful ability like the other ones.
But anyway, while I hate the Morph, it’s hard to get a cheaper fatty in blue in a Wizards deck. Four mana for 4/4 or more isn’t too bad or too difficult to do.
Thought Devourer
While I was off rambling to myself about how great W/G beasts would be, I somewhat misplaced the fact that Blue actually (already) has several good beasts, including some Wormfangs and so on. While Thought Devourer doesn’t actually have the best of synergy with Wirewood Savage, it’s a 4/4 for four and it has evasion. If the drawback becomes too much of a hindrance you can just sacrifice it to Ravenous Baloth, but I doubt that you won’t have a use for this. So it might just see play, but maybe not soon. The manabase sorta doesn’t support it without enemy painlands, though.
So, how many of these creatures do you think will see play? How far off are my bets? Frankly, I should probably sit down with some decks and test them out with friends… So I will. Sometime next week I’ll report my findings and make fun of myself for all the mistakes I’m sure I made.***
* – Doubtless One, might very well be worth playing should a few more good clerics come ’round these parts. With three other clerics on the table, which is fairly possible with a given mana curve (Wayfarer, True Believer, Master Apothecary, Doubtless One) it’s 4/4 and it’s Spirit Linked. That’s a good way to win damage races.
** – Take six now or take six later and give me threshold roofletoofle.
*** – I am aware that I did not mention several creatures. I chose creatures simply based on what comes to mind or whether or not they were worth writing about. Obviously, with a couple weeks of hard testing I’ll have built a conclusive pool of information, and then I’ll even produce deck lists. So people no e-mails with”OMG YOU FORGOT THIS” because, I probably just didn’t like what I wrote about it… Namely, Tempting Wurm.