Welcome back to Spoiler Season! It is time for us to come back and take a peek at what has been released in the last few days. Let’s take a look:


This has a really awkward sort of nostalgia for me. It has a feeling of Scorched Rusalka, a card that was incredibly powerful and saw a lot of play. At the same time, it’s not going to fit into those Mono-Red Sligh decks that the Rusalka was really popular in. On the flip side, it has a sizeable body, so it still may see play... but in a set that doesn’t seem like it has all that many guys that it can afford to toss around, I am going to call this one as casual grade and little else.

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While I am on the subject of Red Decks, I want to take a look at their newest staple:


So while Magmaw may not be up to snuff due to his cost, this is right where Red wants its creatures in their curve. Red has always been looking for good two drops, and this guy certainly fits the bill. While his final level is probably not going to be reached (needed) very often, the second one is certainly a possibility. Drop him on turn two, burn them to the face turn three, and then pump up to the 4/4 flier when you need to get over their guy. While I don’t think this card is going to be the MVP of Red, it will certainly have its space in the list.

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What Kargen Dragonlord is to Red, Student of Warfare is to White.


So when I first looked at this card, I had to take a second to do the math for it. I am going to list it here just so everyone is on the same page:

Turn 1: Play Student of Warfare (Opponent: 20)
Turn 2: Pump Student twice, brining him to level 2, swing. (Opponent: 17)
Turn 3: Pump three times, bringing him to 5, swing. (Opponent 14)
Turn 4: Pump twice more, swing again. If you opponent wants to try to do something silly like block or kill it, play something like Brave the Elements or Path to Exile

So there you have it, your opponent could untap on turn 4 at 6, probably a bit scared at that point. Now, one thing that I should stress here is that I do not mean to imply that the Student is unkillable or without an answer; it does mean that your opponent is going to have to deal with your one drop, so while you are only committing one card to your assault, they may have to use their sweeper or trade a larger guy to kill it. Then you drop another couple beaters and just continue until your opponent is out of answers. Also important to note: Ranger of Eos and this guy are best friends!

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Moving away from aggro cards and into some more control oriented cards, let’s take a look at the newest Sphinx on the block:


For some reason, Wizards has decided to give Blue an efficient body to finish the game with. Not only is it efficient, it is also going to give you recurring card draw? I really have no idea what to do with this as it has never happened before. Does this creature mean that Blue can now unload its hand to deal with the early game, and then drop the Sphinx and just reload? I want to see this guy in a deck like U/W Tapout, and just play him turn 4, then untap and just keep drawing cards every turn. I am not quite sure where this is going to go, but I really hope it will have its place.

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Going back to Red, here is the next (I-wanna-be-a) dragon!


Seriously, for a 5/5 flier, and it is not a dragon? That just seems weird to me. But looking past that confusing bit, it is essentially a beefy flier with a Threaten stuck onto it. My opinion of this is pretty simple. It is going to be a limited card, and actually not a bad one in this format as grabbing an Eldrazi and then smashing right back at their face with it seems pretty good. Keep an eye out for it, but don’t expect it to really pop up anywhere else outside of Limited.

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One of the great things to do with a creature you Threaten is to toss it somewhere! (Yeah, I’m getting a little cheesy with these transitions, but cut me some slack here I do a lot of these!)


That’s right, this is Green’s “I-wanna-be-fling” attempt. However, Wizards really missed the mark on this one. Don’t get me wrong, I still think it is a solid card. Saccing a 7/7 or so to this and just restarting your hand seems good by me and you get a nice 7 life safety net with which to abuse those cards. I don’t really like it though. It is not really what Green wants (or at least when I play Green that is) and so I am going to write it off as possibly having some uses, but not a mainstream card.

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Next up is the first, and so far only, Equipment we have seen in the set:


To me this gets a big: eh. I mean, sure. You can make big guys bigger, but that just seems like overkill, right? When I play equipment I want to be able to put it on my evasive guy, or my little guy to beef him up. I don’t want this on my giant Eldrazi because to be honest, they are plenty big enough already, they do not need the help. With the combined cast and equip cost at , I’m just not sold. Sure, play it if you really need the last card in your Limited deck, but aside from that expect these guys to just be sitting in your trade binder gathering dust.

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I have saved this next card for last because I am really excited (in a sort of “uh oh” way) about it:


We are all familiar with the wide assortment of Shades that, with the exception of Nantuko Shade, have never really been up to snuff. This guy, who I don’t suspect will see any competitive play, is certainly going to be a favorite of all of those casual Mono-Black players that seem to be running around. If you think about it, you can drop this guy turn 6, and then swing next turn for up to 18 if you find your seventh swamp. Now that is really a scary clock.

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Well, that’s it for this time, but expect much more Spoilers on the way as we approach the final week before the Pre-Release. Everyone should stop by the forum and give their own two cents about what they are planning on playing on the seventeenth! What role are the Eldrazi going to play in this format? How good really are the Levelers? And my personal favorite: Are walls really going to be a viable archetype? Stop by here and tell us what you think!

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