Hey everyone – it’s the most spoiler time of the year again, is it not? The Future Sight Prerelease is only a couple of weeks away, and spoiler information from magazines is starting to show up on MTGSalvation. And wow – this set is knock-your-socks-off good! Let’s take a look at what’s been spoiled from official sources so far.
The Pacts:
The Pacts are spells that are free to cast, but cost a certain amount of mana to “upkeep” – and by that I mean if you don’t pay that amount during your upkeep, you lose the game! I’d assume that the Pacts are going to be part of the cycle. So far, the White and Green Pacts have been spoiled:
Intervention Pact (courtesy of Inquest and Mtgsalvation)
Mana Cost = 0
Card Type = Instant
Intervention Pact is White.
The next time a source of your choice would deal damage this turn, prevent that damage. You gain life equal to the amount of damage prevented that way.
At the beginning of your next upkeep, pay WW1. If you don’t, you lose the game.
Summoner’s Pact (Courtesy of Mana Rouge and Mtgsalvation)
Mana Cost = 0
Card Type = Instant
Summoner’s Pact is Green.
Search your library for a green creature card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
At the beginning of your next upkeep, pay GG2. If you don’t, you lose the game.
I’ll say it again – Wow! Summoner’s Pact is one of the best creature tutors ever printed. GG2 isn’t an unfair amount of mana to pay to get the creature you need / want right now – think Loxodon Hierarch against beatdown, Essence Warden / Saffi while going off with Crypt Champion, or the such. Dare I even mention Elvish Spirit Guide? Dare I? No, I dare not! I won’t mention how Summoner’s Pact is insane for upping Storm counts – not I!
While the Red, Blue, and Black Pacts have yet to be spoiled, I’m excited at the prospect of fixed Fireblast and Force of Will. If they were ever going to shoehorn those cards into this block, I could think of no better way than to make a free Counterspell that costs UU3 to upkeep or you lose the game.
Morphin’ Madness:
Got a morph creature? Soon enough, the answer will be, “no – I have a morphchantment!”
Lightstrand Field (Courtesy of Lotus Noir and Mtgsalvation)
Mana Cost = U1
Card Type = Enchantment
Creatures you control get +0/+1.
Morph: W1
I’m not sure that Lightstrand Field is great as a constructed card, but it’s a great limited man. In addition, it shows promise for other morph non-creatures – and the design promise in this card has me really excited as well!
Bennie Smith, Thy Name is (Palli)mud!:
Bennie Smith claims that every card in the graveyard is a precious resource to be nurtured in a dredge deck. I simply tell him to get off of his Deadwood Treefolk, and find himself a good ol’ Exhumer Thrull to settle down with. For instance, Bennie Smith would never play with this monster:
Tombstalker (Courtesy of Inquest and Mtgsalvation)
Mana Cost = BB6
Card Type = Creature – Demon
Flying
Delve (You may remove any number of cards in your graveyard from the game as you play this spell. It costs 1 less to play for each card removed this way.)
5/5
Yeah, I like guys who come down reasonably on turn 3 at BB1 behind a Golgari-Grave Troll as a 5/5 flyer. They are comma quote not bad end quote comma fer sure rilly period
It… Won’t… Go… Away!
Did I mention that the cards in this set are interesting as all get out? Take a gander at this goose:
Arc Razor (Courtesy of Lotus Noir and Mtgsalvation)
Mana Cost: RR3
Card Type: Sorcery
Arc Razor deals 2 damage to target creature or player. Remove Arc Razor from the game with 3 time counters on it.
Suspend 3 – R2
Speaking of not going away, here’s one that will make things go away:
Rift Elemental (Courtesy of Inquest and Mtgsalvation)
Mana Cost: R
Card Type: Creature – Elemental
R1, Remove a time counter from a permanent you control or suspended card you own: Rift elemental gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
1/1
This reminds me of Blademane Baku, except better – who doesn’t want to drop Lotus Bloom or Ancestral Vision a couple of turns early in exchange for doing 2-4 extra damage. What say what?
Say What!
What!
A Picture is Worth A Thousand Rosewaters
(Courtesy of Inquest Magazine and Mtgsalvation)
And this card is worth a thousand Elves. What will the other creatureshapers of the other colors make? I know I can’t wait to find out!
Speaking of pictures:
(Courtesy of Mana Rouge and Mtgsalvation)
That, my friends, is a 5/5 beatstick for four mana – thing is, you can only use basic lands to cast it!
Oh, and did you notice that the Timeshifted Future Sight card frames are so good? SO GOOD! Look, I don’t know about you, but after seeing the new frames in Planar Chaos and in Future Sight, I hope they change the look of regular Magic cards again. The Planar Chaos and Future Sight Timeshifted cards are light years beyond the regular Magic cards in physical layout, aesthetics, and general design.
100% Guaranteed to be Banned / Restricted
Western Tolaria (Courtesy of Lotus Noir and Mtgsalvation)
Card Type: Land
Western Tolaria comes into play tapped.
Tap: add U to your mana pool
Transmute UU1 (UU1, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with a converted mana cost of 0, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Play only as a sorcery.)
Here is the Ben Bleiweiss 100% ironclad guarantee that this card will be banned / restricted (in Prismatic)!
So when Western Tolaria is banned (in Prismatic), just remember you heard it here first.
Seriously though, Holy curse word invective this card is good. At the worst, Western Tolaria is an uncounterable Sylvan Scrying for one more mana. That’s the worst-case scenario – in truth, it’s a lot better than that.
I was thinking that maybe this had a place in Extended – bear with me now, I know it’s a crazy idea – but what if you made a deck that ran Urza’s Mine, Urza’s Tower, and Urza’s Power Plant in the same deck? Imagine those three together! And hey, what if that deck also ran stuff like Engineered Explosives and Chalice of the Void – and sometimes had Tormod’s Crypt off of the sideboard. Do you think that anyone could do well with that deck?
Do you?
So yeah, Future Sight is looking amazing so far. Previews start next week on MagicTheGathering.com and I, for one, cannot wait for them to arrive. This block has been a smash success so far, and Future Sight looks like it somehow, somehow, somehow be the most off-the-wall powerful and interesting set of a block that already threw out the rules and trampled on them and spit on them and threw them back down to the ground and spit on them some more and then called them names until they ran home to mommy but mommy didn’t care so that set picked himself back up by the breeches and this is the secret message and went back to where he’d been spit on and thrown down and spit on and called in for assistance from his overlords at Wizards but they were busy designing sets that everyone loved and that was that for this article see you next week!