The Real Last Post

And back, despite poopular demand, it's me! I said I would be gone for the summer, but I had to come home for a day, so I hopped on the computer to do a short review of what I think of Magic 2011 so far, so that's what I will do. My source for what the cards are is MTG Salvation (http://mtgsalvation.com/m11-magic-2011-spoiler.html). I won't explain what the cards do here, but will instead expect that you read them yourself. Also, most of these cards are commons and uncommons, so they will have a larger effect on limited play instead of constructed

White

Ajani's Mantra - This card by itself isn't very exciting at all, however, it does synergise well with the next card

Ajani's Pridemate - This card is sick! As a 2/2 for 2, it should be included as filler for any of your white draft decks anyways, but because it has the capability to grow, it is only better. In constructed, this card synergizes amazingly with Ajani himself. +1, I gain 2 life, put on a free +1/+1 counter, and keep on rolling. Obviously this card works great with the mantra

Armored Ascension (reprint) - I only once saw this card do good things, and I expect it will stay that way. Auras provide card disadvantage, so it's not worth it

Assault Griffin - It's a white Snapping Drake. Fine for limited filler, but that's it.

Baneslayer Angel (reprint) - This is the card many are excited about. After shelling out $200 for a playset, many are relieved it's still relevent for another year. The standalone best creature in standard is coming to a booster near you (now you just need to find that booster)

Cloud Crusader - Not very exciting, but it is certainly playable. In core set limited especially, it could be great on defense for you

Condemn (reprint) - It's similar to Swords to Plowshares. I think this could see some play in constructed, it will be this or Oust because Path to Exile is gone

Elite Vanguard (reprint) - White Weenies only, the only problem is that White Weenies is a pretty weak deck.

Excommunicate (reprint) - I have never seen this card cast, but it's basically an unsummon that prevents your opponent from drawing a card, which is pretty good

Goldenglow Moth (reprint) - Paul really liked this card for the longest time, and yes if it get's some buffs, it is absolutely ridiculous

Holy Strength (reprint) - has never been exciting, and it will continue to not be

Infantry Veteran (reprint) - It's like an offensive only verison of Angelic Page, which makes it kind of a pinger. I don't think it will really see play, because it's simply a very narrow pinger

Mighty Leap - Cool combat trick, like the defensive Giant Growth. I think it could see play for that reason, it also gives evasion, which makes it more viable for attacks as well

Pacifism (reprint) - I really like this card, although it still permits abilities. Otherwise, it's very effective removal on the huge beater

Safe Passage (reprint) - Overpriced Holy Day, although is a lot more effective by still allowing you to remove their stuff

Serra Angel (reprint) - Has been around since Alpha, has always been decent, but especially with Baneslayer, it will never see play

Silvercoat Lion (reprint) - very vanilla - coresety, nothing cool to say

Solemn Offering (reprint) - I think enchantment removal is becoming more pertinant, although everyone is focused more on creatures and planeswalkers for now

Sun Titan - I am insanely excited about this card! I hope to get many and make an awesome deck out of it. This card will appear again as a combo piece (with a green card)

Tireless Missionaries - power/toughness is too low, but still, this can be the last random card to fill your draft deck

Wild Griffin (reprint) - another boring vanilla creature that will never see constructed play, but is decent in limited

Blue

AEther Adept - I actually like this creature. Similar to Surrakar Banisher from Worldwake, except that I think this is better pound for pound. It comes down 2 turns earlier, which can make the difference between living and dying, and it's still a meh body at 2/2. If i'm playing blue, this guy is in

Air Servant - Seems like this guy would go great with Merfolk Seastalkers, but I think the Merfolk's Ability is better than this guy's

Augury Owl - This card is awesome! The easiest card to compare this to is Sage Owl, and this card blows it out of the water! "But wait, you see one less card!" Guess what? Let's say your in the topdeck war and you get this guy. You play is and see land-land-land. You can pitch those all to the bottom of your library and effectively draw 3 cards because of it (saves you 3 draw steps). If you have land-land-bomb, you can pitch the lands, leave the bomb on top, and still have decent draws afterwards

Azure Drake (reprint) - This card is your vanilla limited filler

Cloud Elemental (reprint) - Almost the exact same ase the Drake, except it's a lot more aggressive. I would take this over the drake if they were side-by-side

Dimisnish - Similar to, although not as good as, Snakeform, this is insanely powerful. They attack with a Baneslayer Angel and all you have is your Cloud Elemental untapped. All of a sudden, they lose the best creature in the game and only gain 1 life for their efforts

Foresee (reprint) - I like this card as well, but for the same reason I like the Augury Owl, scry is a very powerful mechanic. for one mana more than divination, you get a card a million times better. Even if you want to keep all 4 cards, you get to pick the order you get them. And, as you pitch a card, you save yourself an entire draw step from being dead

Harbor Serpant - I can see this card doing well with Spreading Seas. You can play a 2 color deck with a set of Spreading Seas and still make this guy a pretty good beater. Previously with a card like this that would never be feasable. YEAH SYNERGY!

Jace's Erasure - I mentioned in a previous blog post that I am not a fan of milling as a deck strategy, but just like Ajani's 2 cards, this gets better with it's uncommon counterpart

Jace's Ingenuity - An instant speed Mind Spring for 3. I think this is a really powerful card that helps the rest of the deck get better

Mind Control (reprint) - This has always been a fine card, and will continue to be. (Works great on Baneslayers)

Negate (reprint) - Very powerful card as some of the most game-breaking spells are not creatures, this card is always in demand

Preordain - This is half of Foresee for a quarter of the cost. I think this card may replace Ponder, but it is very powerful nonetheless. I am still thinking about which is more powerful, and I think Preordain may take the cake

Sleep (reprint) - If this was an instant it would be insane, but as a sorcery, it's just a really weird fog

Tome Scour (reprint) - I am not a fan of mill, and that's all this card does

Unsummon (reprint) - Great utility removal for blue, will see some limited play

Wall of Frost (reprint) - If you have never played against this card, it is insanely annoying! Sometimes you can attack with a large group to get as many attackers through as possible, but this card can block a creature, which prevents damage the next turn from it, and then block another creature next turn to do a ton of 2-for-1 stuff

Water Servant - Pseudo Morphling is pretty interesting. The great thing about this guy is he can play offense and defense really well by being able to be any size from 6/1 to 0/7 as long as you have the mana

Black

Barony Vampire - A vanilla creature that is only made better by its tribe

Blood Tithe - I like this card if you want to make a great multi-player deck. Even in one-on-one though, it still does the job in a pinch

Captivating Vampire - For the 3 months that M10 and M11 are legal in standard together, this and Vampire Nocturnus are going to make Vampires really good. Even post rotation, this guy is still nice by lowering the curve, giving a consistant boost, and even being able to take control of the game in the later portions

Child of the Night (reprint) - Not very exciting, but it follows the vampire flavor It's interesting to note that the 4 black cards so far are all vampiric

Corrupt (reprint) - Tendrils of Corruption for 2 more mana and can target players. I think Tendrils is much better, so I'm a little dissapointed. Regardless, this card could still do fine in a mono-black deck

Diabolic Tutor (reprint) - never really useful, except I use it in my Reanimator deck to help me find my living deaths. Aside from that I have never seen it used

Doom Blade (reprint) - excellent removal, very powerful in all formats. Will see lots of play. If your drafting black, take this card high

Gravedigger (reprint) - I have consistantly found this card to be pretty powerful, especially in limited where you only have 1 copy of that epic creature that just got killed

Liliana's Caress - Megrim, except strictly better. It costs 1 less mana and your opponent can't use damage prevention stuff on it

Liliana's Specter - Not too exciting, but helps work the Caress. A 2/1 flying for 3 is fine by itself, and the added discard a card helps gain some card advantage

Mind Rot (reprint) - a standard discard card that is often very devastating. Provides card advantage by itself, and in many games can be a complete blowout (your opponent had 2 cards in hand, now they have 0 to your 2 or 3. They have to top deck everything, you have lots of options)

Nether Horror - This is a pretty bad card. A 4 drop that can get beat by a one drop and most 2 drops. Pass on this guy, he's Horror(able)

Nightwing Shade - Finally a shade that has flying! This guy is pretty sweet, and in some ways 1B: +2/+2 is better than B: +1/+1. Even though you have to work in packs of 2, it makes the card more playable when you have 2 colors

Reassembling Skeleton - This is how they are replacing Drudge Skeletons and I like it. You can tap out for a big spell, still block, and still retain your creature

Rise From The Grave (reprint) - A great card to use right after a Doom Blade. Nothing is worse than killed by your own zombified creature

Stabbing Pain - very powerful card that I really like. It's a combat trick, it's atter preventation, it's removal, it does it all

Unholy Strength (reprint) - like it's holy counterpart, this card isn't too exciting, and I will not play it

Red

Act of Treason (reprint) - can be a very game changing card, really good for a very aggressive deck

Ancient Hellkite - Really powerful, if you can ever get it into play. At 7 mana with RRR, that's not very likely to happen. If you're playing mono-red, they should be dead by the time this guy can come out

Arc Runner - Only good when they have no defense. Without trample, this guy becomes nearly unplayable

Chandra's Outrage - This is really good. Similar to Searing Blaze, but less conditional and capable of taking out Wall of Omens

Chandra's Spitfire - This card really makes you want to play a burn deck. Similar to, but I feel less powerful than, Kiln Fiend. The flying is a nice bonus though

Ember Hauler - This card can actually be pretty good. You could attack for 2 damage and then do a bonus 2 to finish off your opponent, or any number of things. Think of it as a 2/2 for 2 that can transform into Shock at any moment

Fiery Hellhound (reprint) - The only problem with this guy is that his toughness doesn't get a boost. A bear could step in it's way and stop all your firbreathing shenanegans

Fiery Servant - This is another card that really makesyou want to play red burn. This guy + Chandra's Spitfire + Kiln Fiend as your only creatures, then have your other spells be Lightning Bolt, Searing Blaze, Burst Lightning, and other things of the variety and you have a Standard burn deck that could be pretty decent. Keep in mind he costs 3RR, which is way above the curve for burn

Fireball (reprint) - this never really excited me, and it still doesn't. It can do small stuff effectively, but as the game goes on, the more it becomes obselete

Fling (reprint) - I am really excited for this card!. Like Soul's Fire, this can make you win out of nowhere. Your opponent may take some damage and leave themselves with a 3-5 like coushin. Cast fling and sac your beater. Game over. Creature blocked by a wall, fling it at a creature you need to get rid of, it wasn't dealing damage anyways

Goblin Balloon Brigade (reprint) - Not great at all, not worth spending time talking about

Goblin Piker (reprint) - Filler material only

Goblin Tunneler (reprint) - Printing this guy 2x in 4 months? He was never played in Eldrazi limited, and will see even less play in M11

Lava Axe (reprint) - This isn't actually too bad. It follows the red theme of insane amounts of burn

Lightning Bolt (reprint) - yay! Lightning Bolt is sick! I would 1st pick this card if I had to, and I would be very happy. After Terminate rotates out, this will see a ton of tournament play once again

Prodigal Pyromancer (reprint) - Pingers are awesome! In the Shards of Alara draft I had a pair of pingers that were always relevant. Many limited creatures have 1 toughness, and this guy om nom noms on all of them

Shiv's Embrace (reprint) - Not too exciting, as enchantments are always held back by the thoughts of the card disadvantage they provide. Card disadvantage aside, it's not too exciting for 4 mana

Volcanic Strength - another enchantment that will not get played. This could potentially be sideboard material though, as it hoses red

Vulshok Berserker (reprint) - It's like Bloodbraid without the green mana and the broken cascade mechanic. Still hoses planeswalkers and like most haste creatures, does a good job scaring your opponent

Green

Awakener Druid (reprint) - think of it as a 4/5 for 3, not a 1/1 with a buddy. Killing the 1/1 kills the 4/5. so just get in there with the 4/5 until absolutely necessary. Great fun card

Birds of Paradise (reprint) - this cars has been in every core set except 9th, where it was in Ravnica instead. Great card seeing a lot of play in Mythic right now

Cultivate - I really like this card. It's Kodama's Reach in a non-arcane version. Lots of ramping and fixing without any land sacrificing, all awesome stuff. This is great in limited, ensureing you're never mana skrewed

Fog (reprint) - a nice utility card that comes in handy very frequently when you don't want your stuff to die

Garruk's Companion - I really really like this creature. He puts on the pressure fast and puts your opponent in a tough position often before they get a second land into play. May also see some constructed play in fast green decks (Beastmaster?)

Garruk's Packleader - I really like this as well. Provides green with nice card advantage. I really want to combo this with the Sun Titan to attack with the 6/6 vigilance to get a free creature in play and card in hand (play creature you just drew to draw some more?)

Giant Growth (reprint) - One of only 2 cards to be in every core set. This was part of a cycle of 3-for-1 in Alpha (Healing Salve, Ancestral Recall, Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt, Giant Growth) and this has been the most fair of them all (Healing Salve is just bad... Dark Ritual and Ancestral Recall are comepletely broken, Lightning Bolt is back)

Giant Spider (reprint) - The other card that has survived since day 1. It's interesting that the 2 cards to have survived both start with Giant... They sure do have a giant history. Just an unexciting blocker

Greater Basilisk - Very nice defender and attacker. Deathtouch is one of those abilities that gets other creatures out of the way nice and fast. Could even be a finisher, but will probably just help accelerate you to the end game

Llanowar Elves (reprint) - In M10 draft, my favorite colors were Green and Red because of Llanowar Elves, Elvish Visionary, and Lightning Bolt. Llanowar and Bolt are back, and we don't know about the Visionary. Regardless, this guy is really awesome. t1 - forest, Llanowar. t2 - forest, Cultivate. t3 - 5 mana

Naturalize (reprint) - a utility card that will always be around

Plummet - this is very powerful. Green now has an answer to all it's worst problems. Leaf Arrow was odd, but this is like a green Doom Blade. Bye bye Baneslayer!

Prized Unicorn (reprint) - A great card for punching lots of damage in one big attack. Great in an overwhelming creature deck

Sacred Wolf - I like the troll-shroud, but the 1 toughness makes it too vulnerable. Almost anything can kill it now

Sylvan Ranger - Like Borderland Ranger except 1 mana easier and -1/-1. Because it doesn't put it into play, I think this is worse then Borderland Ranger because neither actually accelerate, and the 2/2 is more relevant later on in the game as opposed to 1/1

Wall of Vines - Decent card. Can certainly hold back the enemy until turn 5 or so. Good card to fill in as a final slot

Yavimaya Wurm (reprint) - It's a Craw Wurm with trample! It's like Craw Wurn except it doesn't get intimidated by the little 1/1 dude who blocks it

Artifact

Sorcerer's Strongbox - Not exciting at all. Flip a coin stuff is just annoying, and 6 mana to draw 3 cards is frustrating as well, especially when you have Jace's Ingenuity at your disposal. Will never see constructed play, very rarely will it make limited play (if it does, you know their deck is bad)


That was exhausting! Only half the set has been spoiled so far, and official spoilers start next week, so be sre to stay tuned. I will be at camp, so I won't be able to. I think I'm going to grab a box of M11 ASAP and host a draft at camp.

One More thing. There's rumors of Ranger of Eos being printed in M11. If he is, that's epic! That would go great in the conceptual WG Card Advantage deck with Sun Titan and Garruk's Packleader.

Quick touch on the news ~~~~~~~~
New Premium Deck Series : Fire & Lightning. You're paying $35 or more for an all foil, gets beat up easily, burn deck. Not worth it at all, im not going for this.

Change in Extended. Extended used to be the past 7 years, now it's the past 4. They also banned a pair of cards which leaves no top-notch decks legal. I think this will just turn out to be standard all over again, but only more powerful. Fairies, Jund, 5 Color Control, and WU Control will probably be some of the big decks there. I am not too excited for it.

Well, now for real I am gone. Peace out!