Some Amonkhet cards that I'm a little fond of
by Simon Driel
Anyone who knows me knows that I enjoy the sacrifice of creatures for fun and/or profit (refer previous article where I discuss a Commander deck that does a bit of this) and cards that affect each player, or preferably, each opponent (yep, wrote about a deck that does a LOT of that) so I'm quite pleased that Amonkhet has a couple of new toys for me to play with in my Olivia Voldaren Commander deck:
I'm a fan of most of the "whenever you cycle or discard a card" effects from this block, but Faith of the Devoted seems to be the most EDH-playable to me. Picture it in play when a Wheel of Fate comes off suspend!
The one that makes drakes is pretty good but they can only hit one player at a time.
Faith of the Devoted is strong enough to include cycling lands, which were removed earlier, back into the deck. I look forward to including the new dual type one.
Heart-Piercer Manticore reminds me a little of Flayer of the Hatebound; it loses the ability to one-shot kill with two in the graveyard (Patriarch's Bidding naming the Devil, Rise of the Dark Realms, or a similar effect is 28 damage) in exchange for actually being a good card; it's almost good enough on vanilla stats alone, the ability is a "may" ability, the card is even potentially playable in Standard with an energy engine, Fling and Electrostatic Pummeler - which may see a new lease of life shortly - but I plan to play it with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Lashwrithe to get the maximum damage out of every "crunch & fling" I can set off with the thing!
Mmmmmm....value...
A sorely needed reprint for Modern, being an uncommon in the $12-15 range, I expect a resurgence of hate bears decks around the tables in the coming months. Between this and Harsh Mentor, fetch lands are looking like a bit more of a liability, and the Commander tables might even see a reduction in the amount of tutors played; although that's probably not very likely, and I'm certainly guilty myself; this deck has fifteen search spells and effects plus four fetch lands, and is disgustingly consistent for a Commander deck.
One of our "tempting offers" in our EDH league last week was to receive an emblem with "whenever you search your library, you lose 5 life" and while I may have struggled with that, I've seen plenty of decks that don't worry about searching at all and just play what comes off the top. Embrace the chaos, or be restricted to searching just the top four cards of your library!
Another card designed for limited play and the environment's interaction with the Embalm mechanic, Anointer Priest and Anointed Procession, I see these cards and think about their potential for massive life drain in a Commander deck with older cards like Army of the Damned, Necromancer's Covenant, Endless Ranks of the Dead, Tombstone Stairwell (utterly disgusting) plus Grave Titan, Ghoulcaller Gisa and underused Standard rares Cryptbreaker, Diregraf Colossus, From Under the Floorboards and Relentless Dead. Add the reusability of Unholy Grotto, Nim Deathmantle and Lord of the Undead, infinite combo potential with Gravecrawler and Carnival of Souls, and please just excuse me for a few minutes while I go and brew something up for later...
It's yet another card that has my two favourite phrases on it, "whenever" and "each opponent" so of course this one has grabbed me and swung me around in a dance!
...
Come on, Wizards of the Coast.
"Discard a card" isn't a drawback - it's a bonus.
Surely you realise this by now, right?
*Golgari Grave-Troll is unbanned!
...
...
...
*Golgari Grave-Troll is banned again!
Well, maybe you don't realise this. This would be a good card even if it were it printed as a sorcery; as an instant, it's even better. It may even help enable reanimator strategies in Standard, or give modern dredge decks another kick in the pants - although Faithless Looting and Cathartic Reunion are likely too good to want to change colours.
Other cards have me excited as well, and I have no doubt the Standard format is due for a shake-up, in particular, creatures with four or less toughness will have to pass the Glorybringer test to see any serious play, and there's plenty of new artifact hate that can be cycled away cheap if the time isn't right - we'll be seeing some of that played in the main decks rather than the sideboard as a result of that flexibility.
Very soon it will be time to get your hands on some of these and other exciting cards! If you haven't booked in for one of our pre-release events, there's only a couple of days to go, and limited spaces remaining (we only get 36 packs; new store syndrome) so get in touch now to secure your place!
Other cards have me excited as well, and I have no doubt the Standard format is due for a shake-up, in particular, creatures with four or less toughness will have to pass the Glorybringer test to see any serious play, and there's plenty of new artifact hate that can be cycled away cheap if the time isn't right - we'll be seeing some of that played in the main decks rather than the sideboard as a result of that flexibility.
Very soon it will be time to get your hands on some of these and other exciting cards! If you haven't booked in for one of our pre-release events, there's only a couple of days to go, and limited spaces remaining (we only get 36 packs; new store syndrome) so get in touch now to secure your place!
No comments:
Post a Comment