With the change of seasons comes a new set of Magic Cards, and of course with a new set of Magic Cards comes a prerelease tournament of which you will no doubt WOAHARGHHBLUBBABABA!!1! Sorry about that. That was just as painful to me as it was to you, because I know you don’t like surprises. That’s why we’re here today, to prepare for this here upcoming Prerelease. To ensure that for us there will be no surprises, no woaharghh! And certainly no blubbababa.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about getting dressed up in camo-gear and war paint, memorizing every part of every site’s spoiler down to the collectors numbers, flavor text and artist credits, and making sure the venue’s exits are clear and that the S.W.A.T. team are on standby. I’m merely suggesting you educate yourself enough that you may be able to prevent your opponents playing into their outs and from there the win bracket.
The format in question is a new one. There will be none of this second or third set nonsense, it will be all base set and all-round unfamiliarity, so let’s recap what we know already. The set will follow a multi-colored theme a little like Invasion block crossed with Odyssey block. There appear to be many cards in this set which help enable the multi-coloredness, none of which are really worth mentioning here. Unless of course, you’re the kind of person who will be petrified at the idea of a two-color land or a Talisman that filters mana on the opposing side of the table. If this is the case, then please remember to bring your medication with you this weekend. The event staff cannot be held responsible for you missing the start of every round just because you’re hiding in the bathroom or refusing to come out from behind one of the huge promotional posters and so on.
Each color combination will be represented by the time the third set has been released, but for this set we will only see four of those ten color-pairs or “Guilds” as they have been named by the powers that be. The mathematicians in the audience will no doubt have noticed that four pairs is eight instances of color, which obviously means that some colors will be favored more than others. The colors getting the short end of the stick are Red and Blue, each appearing in only one Guild so far.
Because the mana fixers tend to center around the Guilds themselves, you’re probably going to have to lean towards the Guild combinations if you wish to build a cohesive deck, or at least one that has workable mana. This means that if you want to play Blue, you’ll probably want to pair it with Black, and if you’re going to play Red you’ll most likely match it with some White. Green is paired with both White and Black, and obviously Black with Blue or Green, and White with Red or Green. It will obviously be possible to play a color combination outside of that, but let’s hope you’re not forced in to doing so just because your bad beats started at the registration stage of the tournament.
With all of the above in mind, I think the color combinations you’ll see the most will be the following. Possibly even in equal strengths, although I think I would prefer two dominant colors and the third being a splash.
Green/White/Red
Green/Black/Blue
White/Green/Black
Although taking a Guild and splashing a third off-color is most likely fine, too, so that could give you something like this.
Green/White splash Blue
Green/Black splash Red
Blue/Black splash Red and so on.
I don’t think there will be much point in sticking to two colors outside of draft, and even then you are probably rewarded for double-dipping rather than not.
Now on to some of the mechanical bits, also known as the part where I discuss stuff that could happen to you if you’re not careful. Bare in mind that you’re unlikely to meet any given Rare over any of the Uncommons or especially the Commons, so usually I will just not plain mention Rare cards to give us a chance at clocking in with this shebang somewhere under 3000 words! Also, any card that is listed below is not necessarily a card worth adding to your deck, but could still cause you problems if Random Joe McScruberson has failed to cull it from his playables pile. What we’re trying to do here is eliminate those rough-beat stories that usually start out something like “oh man, he was playing totally playing Strange Inversion…”
The first thing that seems apparent is that they are still trying to make Enchant Creatures appealing. Wait, wait, sorry. They’re called “Auras” now or something like that. Anyway, we’ve been provided the following tempting morsels to go out and play with.
Flight of Fancy
3U, Enchantment – Aura, Common
Enchant creature
When Flight of Fancy comes into play, draw two cards. Enchanted creature has flying.
Strands of Undeath
3B, Enchantment – Aura, Common
Enchant creature
When Strands of Undeath comes into play, target player discards two cards. {B}: Regenerate enchanted creature.
Galvanic Arc
2R, Enchantment – Aura, Common
Enchant creature
When Galvanic Arc comes into play, it deals 3 damage to target creature or player. Enchanted creature has first strike.
Faith’s Fetters
3W, Enchantment – Aura, Common
Enchant permanent
When Faith’s Fetters comes into play, you gain 4 life. Enchanted permanent’s activated abilities can’t be played unless they’re mana abilities. If enchanted permanent is a creature, it can’t attack or block.
The Faith’s Fetters obviously goes on one of their guys, and the Flight of Fancy is clearly headed for one of yours, but the other two can quite happily be played on anyone’s child, pet or appointed mascot. You’re getting the ability you’re after anyway, and it’s sometimes even safer to plant it on one of theirs if you suspect they’re gonna try and take the target out from under you while your precious spell languishes on the stack. If we’re mentioning Strands of Undeath, then also of note is this wee beauty.
Consult the Necrosages
1UB, Sorcery, Common
Choose one – Target player draws two cards; or target player discards two cards.
Don’t play out every last land in your hand unless you want to find yourself ditching good cards to either of these spells. Anyway, back to those Enchantments. The other thing to be wary of is that the residual abilities may not be hanging around forever either. Your guy could be happily flap, flapping on over when…
Leave No Trace
1W, Instant, Common
Radiance – Destroy target enchantment and each other enchantment that shares a color with it.
Sundering Vitae
2G, Instant, Common
Convoke (Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by {1} or by one mana of that creature’s color.) Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
Seed Spark
3W, Instant, Uncommon
Destroy target artifact or enchantment. If {G} was spent to play Seed Spark, put two 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens into play.
…When suddenly it falls out of the sky and gets eaten by a mob of screaming Saprolings. Now you may not care so much if you’ve already drawn two cards and they’re just spent another on the sticky aftermath, but the point is still a valid one. Also, if you haven’t figured it out already, it’s certainly worth considering running a piece of Enchantment removal in the main deck this weekend.
The other thing that can go wrong when you’re trying to utilize one of those *cough* Auras is the prospect of instant speed removal. This stuff will cost you the card and stop you from receiving any benefit from it what-so-ever, and if that’s not a good excuse for listing some of that stuff, I don’t know what is.
Disembowel
XB, Instant, Common
Destroy target creature with converted mana cost X.
Last Gasp
1B, Instant, Common
Target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn.
Fiery Conclusion
1R, Instant, Common
As an additional cost to play Fiery Conclusion, sacrifice a creature. Fiery Conclusion deals 5 damage to target creature.
Darkblast
B, Instant, Uncommon
Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn. Dredge 3 (If you would draw a card, instead you may put exactly 3 cards from the top of your library into your graveyard. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, draw a card.)
Clutch of the Undercity
1UUB, Instant, Uncommon
Return target permanent to its owner’s hand. Its controller loses 3 life. Transmute {1}{U}{B} ({1}{U}{B}, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as this card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Play only as a sorcery.)
Lightning Helix
RW, Instant, Uncommon
Lightning Helix deals 3 damage to target creature or player and you gain 3 life.
Putrefy
1BG, Instant, Uncommon
Destroy target artifact or creature. It can’t be regenerated.
Devouring Light
1WW, Instant, Uncommon
Convoke (Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by {1} or by one mana of that creature’s color.) Remove target attacking or blocking creature from the game.
Cleansing Beam
4R, Instant, Uncommon
Radiance – Cleansing Beam deals 2 damage to target creature and each other creature that shares a color with it.
That last one gives me the heeby-jeebies. I can’t see myself wanting to be on the losing end of one of those, can you? Anyway, with Instant speed removal must come the Sorcery speed type stuff, so lets move on to that.
Brainspoil
3BB, Sorcery, Common
Destroy target creature that isn’t enchanted. It can’t be regenerated. Transmute {1}{B}{B} ({1}{B}{B}, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as this card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Play only as a sorcery.)
Rain of Embers
1R, Sorcery, Common
Rain of Embers deals 1 damage to each creature and each player.
Rolling Spoil
2GG, Sorcery, Uncommon
Destroy target land. If any {B} was spent to play Rolling Spoil, all creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn.
Blockbuster
3RR, Enchantment, Uncommon
{1}{R}, Sacrifice Blockbuster: Blockbuster deals 3 damage to each tapped creature and each player.
Keening Banshee
2BB, Creature – Spirit 2/2, Uncommon
Flying When Keening Banshee comes into play, target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
Ribbons of Night
4B, Sorcery, Uncommon
Ribbons of Night deals 4 damage to target creature and you gain 4 life. If {U} was spent to play Ribbons of Night, draw a card.
Twisted Justice
4UB, Sorcery, Uncommon
Target player sacrifices a creature. You draw cards equal to that creature’s power.
Twisted Justice being mostly okay at best much of the time, but will naturally be quite devastating if you are caught with your pants down. It’s cards like that one that make this whole thing worth while I think. When you ponder chumping with some random plebe, you can consider this card and think that it could be worth keeping around. You know, just in case.
Usually at this point I would break out the combat tricks, and there is plenty of time for that yet, but I would like to take a moment to talk about one of the new mechanics known as “Dredge”. Here is a Dredge card.
Greater Mossdog
3G, Creature – Hound 3/3, Common
Dredge 3 (If you would draw a card, instead you may put exactly 3 cards from the top of your library into your graveyard. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, draw a card.)
Don’t be mistakenly thinking you can stop yourself losing to decking altogether with one of these cards. If you can’t mill that many cards, you’re not getting the card back and you’re drawing normally. If you have Dredged a little too enthusiastically in the earlier parts of the game, this may even be fatal for you. Another thing to realize about Dredge is that the Blue-based Guild appears to have cards and abilities that mill people’s libraries. This could be fun to do on yourself to start the Dredge engine a rollin’, but be very wary of Island-baring opponents who may well be able to deck you out long before you thought it was possible. In the interest of preserving your Dredge cards, or possibly as a weapon against them, I feel it prudent I bring up this card.
Shred Memory
1B, Instant, Common
Remove up to four target cards in a single graveyard from the game. Transmute {1}{B}{B} ({1}{B}{B}, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as this card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Play only as a sorcery.)
To prevent much more high-falootin’ abuse of the English language, I now feel it prudent to move on to the combat tricks. Combat trickery can come in many forms, from increasing a creature’s power and toughness, to preventing some damage or even blowing up a key blocker with some well placed removal. Either way, this can be one of those crucial moments in a match, and knowing your opponent’s possible outs could very well be the difference between “scoop” and “smash” at the end of any given combat step.
Boros Fury-Shield
2W, Instant, Common
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt by target attacking or blocking creature this turn. If {R} was spent to play Boros Fury-Shield, it deals damage to that creature’s controller equal to the creature’s power.
Wojek Siren
W, Instant, Common
Radiance – Target creature and each other creature that shares a color with it get +1/+1 until end of turn.
Gaze of the Gorgon
3(B/B), Instant, Common
({B/G} can be paid with either {G} or {B}.) Regenerate target creature. At end of combat, destroy all creatures that blocked or were blocked by that creature this turn.
Dogpile
3R, Instant, Common
Dogpile deals damage to target creature or player equal to the number of attacking creatures you control.
Gather Courage
G, Instant, Common
Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Convoke (Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by {1} or by one mana of that creature’s color.)
Seeds of Strength
GW, Instant, Common
Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Rally the Righteous
1RW, Instant, Common
Radiance – Untap target creature and each other creature that shares a color with it. Those creatures get +2/+0 until end of turn.
Scatter the Seeds
3GG, Instant, Common
Convoke (Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by {1} or by one mana of that creature’s color.) Put three 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens into play.
Grifter’s Blade
3, Artifact – Equipment, Uncommon
You may play Grifter’s Blade any time you could play an instant. Grifter’s Blade comes into play equipping a creature of your choice you control. Equipped creature gets +1/+1. Equip {1}
Bathe in Light
1W, Instant, Uncommon
Radiance – Choose a color. Target creature and each other creature that shares a color with it gain protection from the chosen color until end of turn.
Flash Conscription
5R, Instant, Uncommon
Untap target creature and gain control of it until end of the turn. That creature gains haste until end of turn. If {W} was spent to play Flash Conscription, the creature gains “Whenever this creature deals combat damage, you gain that much life.” until end of turn.
Flash Conscription doesn’t impress me a great deal. I have seen Blind with Anger get played around so often that I don’t see this one being a threat at all. I mean, it costs twice as much mana! Actually, the whole “six mana is twice as much as four mana” article is one I should get around to writing one of these days, so I won’t go into any detail here. Now on to a different type of trick. You can’t really call these cards “combats tricks” because they usually show up before the combat step and aren’t usually very subtle, resulting in anything from slightly skewed combat math to brute-force skull-smashery action.
Goblin Fire Fiend
3R, Creature – Goblin Berserker, Common
Haste Defending player blocks Goblin Fire Fiend if able. {R}: Goblin Fire Fiend gets +1/+0 until end of turn. 1/1
Incite Hysteria
2R, Sorcery, Common
Radiance – Creatures that share a color with target creature can’t block this turn.
Flame-kin Zealot
1RRW, Creature – Elemental Berserker 2/2, Uncommon
When Flame-kin Zealot comes into play, creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain haste until end of turn.
Overwhelm
5GG, Sorcery, Uncommon
Convoke (Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by {1} or by one mana of that creature’s color.) Creatures you control get +3/+3 until end of turn.
I’d be pretty embarrassed if someone actually managed to cast that against me and still have guys to attack with, and while it’s almost strictly worse than Overrun, I suspect I’m underrating it a little. I guess I could always Counter it.
(Worst. Segue. Ever.)
Ahhh, Counterspells. Can’t live with ’em. Yep, that’s all I had to say there.
Convolute
2U, Instant, Common
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {4}.
Induce Paranoia
2UU, Instant, Common
Counter target spell. If {B} was spent to play Induce Paranoia, that spell’s controller puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard, where X is the spell’s converted mana cost.
Muddle the Mixture
UU, Instant, Common
Counter target instant or sorcery spell. Transmute {1}{U}{U} ({1}{U}{U}, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with converted mana cost equal to this card’s, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.)
Perplex
1UB, Instant, Common
Counter target spell unless its controller discards his or her hand. Transmute {1}{U}{B} ({1}{U}{B}, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as this card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Play only as a sorcery.)
Remand
1U, Instant, Uncommon
Counter target spell. If you do, put it into its owner’s hand instead of into that player’s graveyard. Draw a card.
Counters can be especially effective at stealing the game away from someone who thought they were about to burn you out or overwhelm your attack force or whatever. However, they’re also good at stopping other stuff too, if needed. The following cards are only good at stealing the game out from under someone’s nose and are therefore a little too narrow to be considered good cards. This doesn’t mean someone won’t try to pimp-slap you into Monday morning the hard way with one of these awful, awful cards.
Dryad’s Caress
4GG, Instant, Common
You gain 1 life for each creature in play. If any {W} was spent to play Dryad’s Caress, untap all creatures you control.
Chant of Vitu-Ghazi
6WW, Instant, Uncommon
Convoke (Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by {1} or by one mana of that creature’s color.) Prevent all damage that would be dealt by creatures this turn. You gain 1 life for each damage prevented this way.
Festival of the Guildpact
XW, Instant, Uncommon
Prevent the next X damage that would be dealt to you this turn. Draw a card.
Gah! Atrocious, the lot of them. Anyway, on to the last two cards of trouble makingness. A quirky pair, if I do say so myself, which as you all know, I do.
Quickchange
1U, Instant, Common
Target creature’s color becomes the color or colors of your choice until end of turn. Draw a card.
Reroute
1R, Instant, Uncommon
Change the target of target activated ability with a single target. Draw a card.
I’m not sure what changing the color of a creature will do, and I’m not sure how devastating changing the target of an activated ability will be, but it’s still better to know that they exist than not, wouldn’t you say?
Anyway, that’s enough of this. I’ve gone and stayed up way past my bedtime again writing one of these, and I’m going to be quite the zombie about the work place tomorrow. Bah, who am I kidding? If I cared about that, I would have stopping flailing at this keyboard hours ago! Good luck this weekend my SCG brothers, sisters and miscellaneous, and win a pack or two for me.
(No really, I need all the packs I can get so I can practice draft for Worlds!)
(gon’ Japan obv)