Well, that’s it. I’m officially never taking a weekend off again. I leave you guys for TWO days and I come back to a whopping 13 new cards to review. I’ve been scanning them as they come in all weekend (with mounting dread at the volume I assure you) and I must say, they’ve really gotten me excited. So without further delay let’s get our feet wet!

First up is an old friend of mine come back for a nice reprint:


Quicksand was a lot of fun for me back in 9th Edition. It was my first experience as a new player with “uncounterable” removal spells. Back then it was mostly used to shrink down your opponent’s creature so you could finish it off with your blocker, but in this format that is just packed with speed, it’s going to be much closer to just a straight removal spell. The only thing that it’s going to struggle with this time around is in Limited, because the Zendikar format is so dependent on tempo. Land loss is really going to make players question if they can afford to sack the Quicksand right now.

In Constructed, control decks love this card against all the weenies and troublesome cards like Ball Lightning. It's a tool that WUr and Grixis have been looking for.

First in a slew of new Red cards released is a card that I just can’t hold off. I first looked at this card, and then just did a double take. I read it across the room to my friend, who paused, looked at me, and said: “Wait… whaaat?” Read it, and tell me you don’t look for a catch in there somewhere:


It’s a one drop that fits nicely into your mana curve for an aggressive start. Sure, it’s no Goblin Guide. Yeah it’s not Goblin Bushwacker. Yes, Figure of Destiny looks down at it and sneers. But just wait, on Turn Six (or earlier, as I assume the best home for this guy is some kind of Mana Ramp Deck) you’re going to just look at your opponent and grin as you unleash the scariest Bitterblossom of all time. If you make just ONE dragon, it’s going to be worth it. That means you’ve spend to make a 5/5 flier, and gotten your opponent to use a removal spell on your little tiny guy. The only downside I can really find with this card is that it’s a Mythic Rare. This is definitely as exciting as Scute Mob, if not more so, and if it finds a deck, I expect it to do quite well. Keep an eye out and pick these up where you can, I know I certainly will.

While we’re on the subject of Red, let’s take a look at the card that's giving it hell:


I’m sure anyone who has played Standard in the last year or so can tell you how much Burton Forgetender made Red decks groan when it hit the table. It would just sit there and block, and wait, and wait, and then pop to counter a sweeper that the Red player was trying to play in order to keep the board under check.

Now, before everyone starts yelling at me about how “The Firewalker doesn’t counter sweepers! You’re completely wrong!” Let me clarify. Kor Firewalker is not the exact same headache as Forgetender. It is a brand new headache. It is essentially invincible against such a large portion of removal/burn in the format. It’s not going to take a hit from: Earthquake, Lightning Bolt, Bitunimous Blast, Terminate, Volcanic Fallout, Burst Lightning, etc. Virtually the only thing that is going to take this guy down in the current Standard outside of combat is a Maelstrom Pulse or Day of Judgement.

Alex has a lot more to say about this card than I do, so check out his thoughts for more analysis of this bomb uncommon here.

Well, that rambled on for a bit longer than I intended, my apologies. So next up I’m going to take a look at something nice and simple:


Well, this card finally fulfills a long term hole that has been looking to get filled: Triggering Landfall on your opponents turn easily. Sure, we had Frontier Guide, but that’s a lot of resources you have to commit to the trigger. The problem is, now that an easy solution exists, I’m really not very excited about it at all. I think this is going to have to see a lot more support in order to really be “good” in Limited. It will get in there, I’m just not going to have to be happy about it.

Enough of cards I’m not happy about, let’s take a look at one that makes me giggle:


Bestial Menace, or as lovingly named by my friend, “Petting Zoo”, is what appears to be a spinoff of the Red card Cone of Flame. When I look at this card I still can’t quite figure out how good it is. So without much more reason than my gut feeling, I’m going to just say that it’s going to be solid. I figure you pay for a chump blocker, a guy that will trade with an opponent’s creature, and a third guy that can start getting in there. That’s enough for me.

Okay, if Bestial Menace is simply, let’s take a look at something that is a bit more… complex:


I had a discussion about a month ago with a friend of mine about this card. The concept had been discussed back then, and I believe someone at Wizards hinted about its existence. We discussed how some of the specifics of the card would read, and how the ability would be worded. I will say this: we certainly sold it short. We anticipated it would be over-costed, and that it would be Legendary. Wow, were we wrong.

Instead of getting our contrived casual multiplayer card, we got this slimmed down monster. Clocking in as a solid finisher for White, and nearly immune to any removal except for a Black kill spell straight up (due to its giant backside), this Angel is going to hit the board and instantly cause your opponent to groan until they can find a way to deal with it. Sure, it may only “temporarily” remove cards from the game, but that’s enough when it’s crashing in unopposed for 6 every turn!

While we’re talking about cards that I grossly underrated, I’m going to take a look at the new Red “Wrath of God”:


So I’ll be honest, when I first read this, I thought it said: “Chain Reaction deals X damage to target creature, where X is the number of creatures on the battlefield.” That for me earned a solid: Eh. Then when I came back to look at it for this review, I realized my critical mistake. Suddenly, instead of a very overcosted point removal spell, I’m looking at a board sweeper. This card, in almost every situation, is a Red Wrath of God. Sweeping away armies of blockers or little White guys trying to outrace you, this card does everything except bluntly remove an opponent’s fatty. The only question is will this card beat out Earthquake as the Constructed sweeper of choice? We'll have to see.

Another Red card that really caught my attention was this new Trap:


When you look at this at Standard, you think: Redirect a Lightning Bolt? That doesn’t seem worth it. I guess you can deflect a Doomblade or Maelstrom Pulse. But then you realize that for you can effectively counter any of your opponents counterspells. This is like Red Elemental Blast all over again. It’s an important tool in the Red Deck’s arsenal in-case control tries to keep you down. Also for added hilarity you can deflect a Time Warp onto yourself.

This next card is one that I’m very skeptical about. I’m not sure if it has a place yet, or even if it does, if it’s going to be good enough:


Lodestone Golem is certainly not the first of its kind. Aura of Silence, Sphere of Resistance, and Thorn of Amethyst have all seen some play in various Stax style decks. The problem I have with this creature is exactly that, it’s a creature. Creatures are probably the most fragile type of cards in Magic, and that is exactly what a Stax deck doesn’t want. I probably will be proven wrong now that I say I don’t like this, but as of now I’m not impressed.

The next card is the first Rare Ally card we’re seeing from Worldwake. Rare Allies are important because they are what is really going to determine if you are committing to a full Ally deck, or just sort of adding some synergy to your deck. Let’s take a look:


Lifelink is good in draft. I’m just going to get that out of the way right now. The fact that you can attack, and virtually play defense at the same time gives you a huge advantage in every aggro race. That said, this Ally really impresses me. for a 3/4 that is going to jump your life total when it comes into play and then only get better as the army builds is fine for me any day. The only thing I wish is that the M10 rules hadn’t changed it so that lifelink didn’t stack.

Next on the list is yet another variant of the “Tim” cards that have seen play throughout Magic, dating all the way back to Prodigal Sorcerer in Alpha:


This card I’m actually really looking forward to playing in Limited. I loved Vithian Stinger back in Shards of Alara draft, and the fact that this guy has Haste just makes him even more appealing to me. If you look at the Zendikar format, plenty of stellar creatures only have 1 toughness (I'm looking at you, Welken Tern). Being able to “ping” all of your opponents creatures is certainly going to be useful at holding back any swarm of guys coming at you. Expect this card to be highly picked in draft.

One thing that the Sparkmage won’t be picking off, however, is the new Vampire two drop:


I know I’ve been going on and on the last few days about how Vampire Hexmage is the best thing since sliced bread, and that nothing is ever as good to me. I may have been wrong. This card gives me the one thing I like more than first strike in this format: reach. I want to be playing a game with my Red-Black Blightning deck, cast Volcanic Fallout after I swing with the team, and then fire off two or three triggers of this guy to finish my opponent off. It’s simple, it’s straight forward, and it gets nasty with Bloodghast.

Still with me? This is the last card, I promise. Another part of the dual-land/man-land cycle that we’ve been looking forward to in Worldwake:


I see that this card is a new man-land. I see that it is in probably my favorite color combination at the moment. I get ready to be all excited to pick up a set of these as soon as I can. And after all of that anticipation: nothing. I look at this card and feel like I’m playing Ghitu Encampment all over again. I feel like it’s just going to be another Demonspine Whip. I played both of those cards, but I only ever played them because they beat other people, never because I was excited to do so.

You have to realize, Red-Black is my pet deck of all formats. I just want to get aggressive and stomp all over you. I want this simple, I’m going to play guys, I’m going to tear your hand apart, and I’m going to burn your face off. This land to me is just a sort of half-assed backup plan. If it had first strike to go with that +X/+0, I could maybe get into it, but I’m pretty sure this guy is just going to trade at best, and most likely eat a Burst Lightning after you sink everything into it. Meh.


Whew, that was exhausting. If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this, I commend you. Let’s hope that Wizards slows down these previews as we get closer to the release (voice dripping with sarcasm). At least I was overall pretty happy with these cards. We’ve got some new fun toys for Limited, as well some great Constructed cards to play with. Keep an eye out for me next time with more Worldwake reviews!