With just days left until the pre-release (and yes, I may be counting the hours), we now have the full spoiler to peek through and try to fathom what this new upcoming format is going to be like. I have some pretty wild rares to review today, ranging from the: “Oh wow, that’s really going to see some play”, to “Wow, that’s a really cool card, I want to make that to work”, to “OMFG THIS DUDE IS SO BIG IT’S GOING TO RUN YOU OVER LMAO!” (yeah, I went there).

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Well, after that little outburst, I guess I have no choice but to start with something from the last category:


Huh? Huh? Did I call it or what? Can any of you honestly say you didn’t read this card the first time and just sit there for a second thinking: “This is ridiculous”? Now, don’t be fooled here, I’m not saying it’s all that good, but let’s take a second to answer that question. So first off, Let’s just write off that last ability which is what really makes it just so ridiculous. Sure, he is a mana generator, but if you have 20 mana, you really should just be winning the game regardless, he just give you an easy out. So he’s really for a 7/11 with Annihilator 1 that lets you store some mana. To be honest, I think that’s going to be enough to get him there. Look at some past examples that somewhat comparable, and they saw some play. If you have the mana to get there, then this guy is a contender for the spot.

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So, getting to the late game and having lots of mana. That sounds a lot like what a control deck wants to do! And what does every good control deck need? A sweeper:


This is just has a sense of finality about it, much like Decree of Annihilation did. Sure, they get to keep the lands, and the colorless stuff survives. But it’s sort of like: “Yeah, I hit this much mana. Yeah, we’re gonna do this”. I have always dreamed that someday there was going to exist an artifact-based control deck that would simply create so much of a mana advantage over their opponent that everything they did was just so much better. I know many decks have done similar things, but none of them are quite what I envisioned. This card has the potential to be Plague Wind combined with Planer Cleansing. I don’t think it’s going to see much competitive play aside from possibly the Eldrazi Standard deck.It's too bad that Eye of Ugin only finds creatures; tutoring Akroma's Vengeance and then paying five mana for it the next turn seems pretty good.

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Okay, this is the last big flashy Eldrazi spell I swear, but this was another one that just gave me a (if you’ll pardon me again) OMFG WHAT? Reaction:


Okay, I just want to start this card's review off by saying that I think Annihilator is one of THE most powerful abilities every printed on a Magic card. You are saying that simply by swinging, you are going to destroy one of your opponent’s permanents. The reason that I think it’s not going to take over the Magic world is that all instances of Annihilator are on expensive stuff and even then, most of them only have Annihilator 1 or Annihilator 2. Now, look at It That Betrays. Instead of just giving you Card Advantage every time it swings, it is going to give you that card advantage DOUBLED. Also keep in mind that you can abuse it outside of just Annihilator, as you can edict stuff away, and then take it for yourself! Combine this with the previously mentioned All Is Dust and that just makes me feel dirty!

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Okay, moving off of game breaking spells, let’s take a second to look at some cards that I personally think are really cool, and want to mess around with:


So I need to confess, while I do play a fair amount of competitive Magic, the majority of my time is probably spent more on the casual end. That’s not to say that the format is any easier, but simply that it changes the style in which you play. We still have our aggro, our control, our combo. Playing formats such as multiplayer in a regular playgroup adds extra dimensions to the game. You have to worry about game dynamics, as well as who is really your ally and who is just waiting for the chance to stab you in the back. So that is the format that makes me excited about this card. Free spells are powerful, especially in multiplayer when you are looking to capitalize on every resource. This card makes your spells pull double duty, as things such as Ancestral Visions draw you 6 cards, Terminate kills two guys, and as my Blue loving teammate points out: “with Time Stretch, you get to take ALL the turns!”. Will this see any play outside of casual? Probably not, unless someone finds a weird combo deck for it, but I’m sticking it into a bunch of casual decks that I own!

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So yes, all of the cards that “I want to make work” are Blue (or colorless) today, probably because I’ve been listening too much to said roommate as he goes on about how fun they are going to be to play. That being said, this next card is actually pretty cool:


So Twincast on a stick huh? This guy is really the same as Cast Through Time, but just goes about it in a slightly different way. He’s weaker than the enchantment, but for a bit more mana tacked onto your spell, you get that copy right now! Combine that with the ability that he can randomly triple your spells and that does seem like a lot of fun. With him you can win every counter war, make every big of removal or burn you have go further, or as seems to be the dream in my apartment: “Take all the turns FOREVER!”

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Last up on the “cool cards” list is an artifact that has a lot of synergy with the new Rebound mechanic, as well as some of my other favorites: Flashback and Buyback:



When I first saw this card, I didn’t look at the mana cost, and I was like: alright, this could actually see some serious play. When your card draw spells kill your opponents guys, that is certainly a good thing. Lightning Bolt triggers to shoot one guy, then the spell shoots the face? I can live with that. The only real probably it has is that it just costs so much mana, so it’s going to be slow to get out for an effect that still takes a while to build. If it weren’t for that, the fact that Rebound lets you play the spell twice would just make it really powerful. It still may see play in Limited, especially Sealed.

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If any of you really competitive players are still sticking around, not only am I impressed, but I have quite the card for you:


As much as it pains me to say this: This card may have made Jund even better. It’s efficiently costed and has Haste, which means that it can act as a beat stick in the deck, driving your opponents life relentlessly to zero. But, even better, this means that when they Day of Judgment this guy away, you simply cast Bloodbraid Elf, cascade into Sprouting Thrinax and beat their face in for 7. Great, because Bloodbraid just really needed that extra boost. *Sigh*

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Well, that’s it for now. But don’t stop here, you guys should head over to the forums and tell us what you think now that the entire set is out! Share with us what you think your pre-release is going to be like, what you’ll be playing, and what you like from the new set! Best of luck to everyone playing this weekend!

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