Welcome back everyone to Spoiler Season! I hope everyone has enjoyed the week thus far, because we’re back now with a new collection of cards from Rise of the Eldrazi. A new Umbra, the third Legendary Eldrazi, and a new look at an old Planeswalker! Let’s take a look!

First I want to start with a card that in my opinion is rather lackluster. Compared to Kozilek and Emrakul, Ulamog just seems lacking in comparison:


So the obvious comparison here is to Darksteel Colossus. Same mana cost, nearly the same body, and they are both rocking the indestructibility. I will say up front that I don’t have any problems with Ulamog, he is certainly viable as “large fatty” in decks that need that. But compared to the last two Legends we’ve seen from the Rise of the Eldrazi, Ulamog is lackluster. While vindicating a permanent is certainly not something that I see as a bad ability, compare that to Tidings or Time Walk for free and we find that while Ulamog is good, the others are just better. That’s pretty much the story of this card, not bad, probably good, but simply falling short in comparison to the other Eldrazi.

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Moving away from big Legendary Eldrazi, I want to take a second to look at the only non-rare of the batch:


While I was talking about Knight of Cliffhaven and I admit that I wasn't impressed with him. After looking at this latest crop of bears, I finally think I have found one that really has me excited. The Beastbreaker is really more what I’m looking for in a leveling creature. Starting as just your average 2/2 for two mana, he’s not really anything to look at. But on the next turn you can tap out again and suddenly you have a 4/4 sticking around to beat face with every turn. I don’t know if the Level 4 is ever really going to get there unless you’re in a stalemate, but who knows, if you don’t have much else to do, it doesn’t seem a bad choice!

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While I’m on Green level up guys, let’s take a second to stop and look at a Rare one:


Okay, now this is a bit of an odd one. I had to really look at a couple times and try to get a feel for. At first I thought: He makes 3/3s, like Garruk, but does that mean this guy may see some constructed play? A further look reveals that he is always very fragile, never making it above a 1/1. To be sure, he makes a lot of guys once he makes it to Level 2, and then is just overwhelming if he makes it to level 6. I would say this is more of a limited bomb than constructed material, but I would say in Limited it does a great job at winning the game. 6 mana to make an army is fine by me any day!

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Last thing before I get back to our new Planeswalker, let’s look at the newest rare addition to the Umbra cycle:


Okay, this is getting closer to what I want in an Umbra. It gives you the Totem Armor, a reasonable sized pump, isn’t all that overcosted, and it gives your creature another cool ability. While I would say that the ability is not one that at the moment something that will see that much play outside of maybe limited and casual games, I still think it’s nice. The fact that you can play the Umbra on the your guy turn four, swing, untap all your lands, and then cast another four-mana spell that turn is really powerful; making the Umbra essentially a free +2/+2 pump the first turn you play it, and back-breaking later on in the game. Bear Umbra is a card that if I see it in draft I think I’ll be quite happy to pick it up and play it. Keep an eye out for it.

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Okay, the time has come, let’s take at that new version of an old planeswalker:


The first thought that I had when I read this card was: “huh”. This is the first Planeswalker that Wizards has released that doesn’t have a plus ability, something that I'm sure everyone was guessing to happen at some point. Let’s take a closer look at what he does.

First off, he draws cards. In a deck not tuned to abusing him, I’m going to guess that he will draw at least two cards for 5 mana. That’s reasonable, but certainly not anything special. However, in a Sligh style deck, he has the Bob effect, where you’re just hoping to hit free lands, or your cheap burn. Sarkhan seems like he has a home in that deck, although the closest thing to it in Standard right now is Red Deck Wins. The same is true for his second ability, which, while it is removal, the better choice is to probably kill off your useless early drop to upgrade to that 5/5 Dragon instead. Imagine that with Hellspark Elemental! Again, this is better in a deck that just needs to upgrade to get in there. The final ability I’m going to call irrelevant in most situations. Assuming people aren’t playing Dragon tribal anytime soon outside of casual, the only time you’re ever going to use his final ability is when it’s going to kill or nearly kill your opponent. This may be possible if you drop a Sarkhan, pop some of your guys, then drop a second one and fire the ultimate to finish your opponent off. Essentially, my opinion of him is that he’s good in a certain deck type, but that type doesn’t exist yet. My only guess that he will see any competitive play right now is as a 1 or 2 of in Jund, and to be honest I just don’t think the deck needs him.

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So that’s it for now! I know there are more spoilers out, but fear not! Jason Waeber and I are working hard to keep on top of the masses and we will just keep pumping these things out until we drop! None of the cards I covered today were overly impressing, but I think they may have some interesting situational uses if they can find their place. I’m excited to see how some of these develop as people start to mess around with them in other formats. Until next time!

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