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Difficult though it may be to accept that Mark Gottlieb would ever stoop to preview a Constructed-playable card on MagictheGathering.com, this is precisely what occurred a few weeks ago. Granted, his article on Endless Whispers toiled under the assumption that the high-casting cost Black enchantment would only be played by the kind of people who use Force of Nature to deal direct damage, yet he did mention one creature worth considering, the oft-maligned Leveler. You think I’m kidding, don’t you? Well check inside for some Type Two combo insanity.

Fifth Dawn is all the rage, and the banning of Skullclamp now makes this deck an even more serious contender. The eminent death of Elf and Nail (remember that is this deck’s hardest matchup) will allow this mono-Red control deck to wreak havoc on the newly formed metagame. If the Fifth Dawn became legal today, this is what I would be playing with from the new set.

I want to talk a bit about what makes a card broken, and what makes a format healthy. As the StarCityGames.com writer with more articles about combos that don’t work than anyone else, I am also going to talk about combo decks and their impact on the format.

I’m positively giddy about the possibilities that will Fifth Dawn bring to Constructed Magic. I mean, I’m giddier than Osyp in the vicinity of Playboy bunnies, and that’s pretty damned giddy, let me tell you. On this day though, I must temper my enthusiasm for the many sick decks cooking in my brain to talk about the effect that the new set will have on the two top decks in the format – you know, the stuff people actually care about. What’s that? You’re sick of hearing about Ravager and Goblins, you say? Me too, kids. But when the editor steps out of the dugout and puts the ball in my hand, I can’t refuse the man – no matter how badly he’s trying to suck me into a seemy underworld of flamboyant costumes and super villainy.

This story begins way back when Darksteel first came out, when a little Artificer that goes by the name Vedalken Engineer caught my eye. He said to me, in the same crooning voice that he used to speak to so many others, one thing:”Turn 2 Gilded Lotus.” Yes, this little man, with an assist from Chrome Mox, could put a Gilded Lotus on the table just about as fast as a Tinker and leave you with more mana on the next turn than you would know what to do with. I had to have it.

Rather than rehash information about a deck most are already familiar with, I would like to examine Fifth Dawn’s impact on Tooth And Nail and what benefits other decks in the field could receive that might affect it. Regionals didn’t reveal much about Tooth And Nail that most of us didn’t already know. Elf And Nail has only now made an impact on the tournament scene, although it did make successful appearances at Regionals across the U.S. A series of strong showings and solid matchups seem to be causing an upswing in popularity of the deck, and many feel that Elf And Nail could be the answer to a field infested with Affinity decks. So it has proven to be a good deck, but that’s all about to change. Or is it?