Monday and Tuesday provided a smattering of articles with spoilers which can be found here. I will start with those first.
Well, I'm going to skip the first card because theres not much to say about it... So let's get to Mark Rosewater's card! Obviously this card really depends on how good proliferate is. If a deck comes out where proliferate is insane, this will be an auto-include. My initial thoughts of what to combine this card with is right here:
With those 2 cards in play, after you get your first counter on the Culling Dias, every spell you cast efferctively becomes a cantrip spell (spell that does something then draws you a card to replace itself). As long as you have 1 mana up at all times, your opponent will never spend a removal spell on this card because their spell will fizzle and you will draw 5 cards. Maybe this is a 2 card combo for UW control? Chump block with Wall of Omens, then sac it to put a charge counter on the Culling Dias, and play as normal. Whenever you cast a counterspell or removal spell you get more charge counters (and if you have a creature in play when you cast Day of Judgement, you only get more charge counters and card drawing). Finally after expending your entire hand, spend 1 mana at the end of your opponent's turn to draw 8 cards and continue abusing your opponent. That's my best idea to completely unfairly abuse Proliferate so far (and yes, it keeps your planeswalkers going and infect and +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters and everything under the 5 suns).
Another application for Culling Dias could be in the GW token deck I talked about before. If you have a consistant way to make tokens (Awakening Zone) then you can pump this up 1 a turn without actually losing cards and then draw a ton of cards whenever necessary.
But back to WotC spoilers: Steve Sadin from Limited Information previewed a card which at first seems pretty loose, but when he mentioned its applications in the Infect deck, my eyes lit up. I knew Giant Growth and Vines of the Vastwood were completely nuts, but I don't think green is very good with infect. It has 3 infect creatures, all of which have some things lacking. Theres a 5/3 haste for 3GG, but it dies at end of turn, so if your suprise attack doesn't do much you lost a card for nothing.Theres a 2/3 vanilla infect creature for 2G, and theres a 1/1 regenerator for 1G, but despite it having the lowest p/t it's probably the best of the 3 because it's tougher to kill. Also, as Mark pointed out to me, enemy colored decks are going to be hard to support post rotation. There are no lands that produce an option of enemy colors (like when I played Crumbling Necropolis in UR Pyromancer Ascension) and the only color fixing in lands is 8x Terramorphic Expanse and Zendikar fetch lands. That being said, Giant Growth and Vines of the Vastwood (especially cuz it costs GG) probably can't be efficiently used. Fear not, Trigon of Rage can slap on 3 extra poison counters for just 2 mana a pop after an intial 2 mana investment. This won't be a 4x in a dedicated infect deck, but I can definitely see it being a 1x or a 2x.
However, for the first time this spoiler season, Serious Fun provides a card that I can seriously get behind. What am I going to use Genesis Wave on? Well I have been thinking recently about the RG Valakut Ramp deck, and how almost every spell is green, and the red is only in there to get Valakut going. While it is really powerful, it requires playing 28 lands and straining the mana base. So, I have been thinking about making it a mono-green deck. Some advantages to this include playing Overgrown Battlement and Leatherback Baloth as low drop creatures that have a high toughness to protect the life total and it works its way up. Overgrown Battlement also produces mana, which doesn't hurt in a ramp deck. The deck would also play 4x Eldrazi Temple and use Kozelik and Ulamog as finishers. Genesis Wave is amazing because it can help make the game a complete blowout in the late game. Lands are permanents with cmc 0 so even if I play this card where x = 5 and I see 5 lands, I can 5x landfall that turn (Avenger of Zendikar smiles at this). And guess what? If I play it where x = 5 and I see an eldrazi that I can't play, it goes to my graveyard and shuffles everything back in, so I can draw it again. This card gets better the later in the game you draw it. Let's say you have 15 lands in play, you draw this, cast it where x = 12, see a quarter of your deck, play everything (thoroughly scaring your opponent) and proceed to smash face. Against Day of Judgement decks, just hold onto one copy until they blow everything up, then bring it all back!
This is another card previewed by Patrick Chapin, and as the Innovator always does, he puts it way better and more thoroughly than I ever could, so here is his article, and I'm moving on.
The first thing I thought when I saw this (besides how sick it is) is how it's a throwback to Shadowmoore - Eventide "remove a -1/-1 counter from this creature:" cards. This guy is awesome, but also makes combat tricky. As a 4/4 he can take down a 7/7 without dying. However, the one thing to note about this guy is that he also gives -1/-1 counters to your creatures. So the moral of the story is always to be careful when meddleing with Demons.
As if I need any more convincing to make the mono-white equipment deck, they print another Kor Dueslist. With an equipment deck you are likely to have 3 equipment floating around, which conveniently happen to be artifacts. Get a bunch of artifacts in play and suit up this guy with some weapons and let the hacking and slashing begin! I can't wait to open this puppy!
This is an amazing card, no doubt, but it will never see constructed play. If you play both Infect and regular creatures in your deck, you are basically letting your opponent start with 30 life as they don't synergize at all. The only creature where the eception is made is Thrummingbird because it effectively has poison when it proliferates. While yes, this would be amazing on Thrummingbird, that's too narrow to be played. However, I can see this getting limited play if you have a ton of infect creatures, this equipment will help make your normal beaters go to the Phyrexian side.
And finally we have a card that I have been texting Mark all night about. If elves weren't good or relevent, you better change your mind and hope you never sold yours. This guy is nuts! First, he offers great protection from Wrath effects, especially when combined with Elvish Archdruid, and the overrun ability is simply unfair. Previously, Eldrazi Monument was how you finished games with just a little power boost and some evasion, but tacking on Overrun on a stick gives you 8x game finishing cards. Unlike normal Overrun, this isn't dead when you draw it with no creatures in play because he can make himself a 5/5 trampler AT WORST. And if for some reason (ultimate Nissa, tap Archdruid) you have nuts amount of mana, you can always double or triple your overrun power. I think you may want to watch out for Elves trampling over a deck in front of you!
But over the weekend, while I was busy, I did manage to fit in a little bit of Magic. There was a High Stakes tournament at Toys over the weekend. I finished in the Top 8 and for my efforts I won... a free Scars of Mirroden booster pack... Okay, I went 1-2 and there were only 8 people there. I was playing UR Pyromancer Ascension with transformative Polymorph sideboard. The deck does well because my opponent will sideboard into an anti-Pyromancer deck, which I respond to by switching to a different deck, causing a bunch of cards in their deck to be completely dead.
Round 1: 4 Color Titan
Theres always "that guy," the one you never want to play Magic with. Well, I was paired up against "that guy" round 1. It's not the level of competition that makes someone more/less likable, but how they play and what they do when not playing that really matters. I lost round 1 due to a promising opening hand with nothing off the top of the deck while he dropped Primeval and Grave Titan. I transformed to Polymorph hoping to catch him off guard. However, after not drawing lands I had to discard a card and I chose Progenetis because it would just go right back to my deck. He realized what I had done and cast Thought Hemmorage naming Polymorph and in turn turned off me entire deck. After conceding he proceeded to tell everyone in the room exactly how I was playing a transformative sideboard and how he beat me "just by playing one card." Thanks dude?
0-2
0-1
Well, I lost in 15 minutes, so I watched mark play a tough game. Mark was running Esper Control and was against UB control. I strolled by in a tense moment during game 2. Both players have a ton of counterspells, so every spell has to count. After many rounds of draw-go, Mark finally cast Malakir Bloodwitch. This is how it all went down (keep in mind everyone was watching):
Mark - Malakir Bloodwitch
Opponent - Cancel
Mark - Deprive
Opponent - Mana Leak
Mark - Mana Leak
Opponent - *pays 3 mana*
Mark - Deprive (now completely tapped out)
Opponent - *smiles* Deprive (now tapped out)
Mark - MINDBREAK TRAP!!!
Well before we get to how the entire room exploded with yells and cheers and as many variations of "OH S**T!!!" you can imagine, maybe we should remember what the heck Mindbreak Trap does. Ok, well anyways, the entire room exploded with yells and cheers and as many variations of "OH S**T!!!" you can imagine. Mark's opponent was in utter shock as to what just happened because Mindbreak Trap was never played in almost any format because it was created to stop Storm decks, which it did, and then it has seen no use (explaining it's drop from $14-15 when it came out to its current $1-2). That was Mark's special tech for Pyromancer Ascension decks and the control mirror, and it was oh so sweet. But the sweetness was short as Mark's opponent untapped, played Jace, the Mind Sculptor and unsummoned the Bloodwitch, and countered it again when Mark tried to play it again. Sadly, Mark lost that round.
Round 2: Esper Control
Well, as it always seems to happen, I was paired against Mark, but this time I did not fair too well. Without much pomp and circumstance, I went 0-2 against him and proceeded on to play in the toilet bowl (the toilet bowl is the loser's version of the Super Bowl. Instead of the 2 best teams/players, it's the 2 worst teams/players)
0-2
0-2
Between this round and round 3, there was a short 20 minute break for food. Mark and I didn't want to get food, so we decided to play another game. Here is where "that guy" re-enters the story. "that guy" is Mark's opponent next round, and he decides to be a douche and watch our game from Mark's POV so he could see every card in Mark's deck and how he played them. Well the level of BS got to be too much for Mark and I before we even drew our opening hands that we proceeded to switch to some other decks I had brought and play casually.
Round 3: UW Mill
I knew this guy was playing mill because I saw a giant graveyard from across the room during round 1. Basically it was a blue mill deck that splahed white for Day of Judgement and some spot removal. To say the least, mill stood up to everything I said about it and I quickly won game 1. After sideboarding, I switched to Polymorph with Emrakul as the only target to ensure that I would get maximum value out of his milling my boom-boom. Game 2 didn't last long either, and in short time I went 2-0.
2-0
1-2
After that round, Benzo and I deck teched it, and I explainedthe need for black to make sure everything stays gone after he finishes it (and Haunting Echoes is simply nuts in a UB mill deck).
Mark wound up losing his round to "that guy" as well, se we both finished 1-2, probably due to texting up to 2 or 3 am, then waking up to go to 8am Mass...
Despite not doing well, I had a little fun and won a SoM booster pack for my efforts. After the tourny I picked up a playset of All Is Dust, and did a ton of trading to get some awesome cards.
I think I have talked enough for now, so I shalst depart. The first thing you should do tomorrow is NOT to go to this blog or even look at Daily MTG articles, but instead at Gatherer. The entire SoM set is getting released tomorrow on Gatherer, and while it will mainly be commons and uncommons spoiled, that doesn't mean they aren't good, and there are still a pair of Mythic Rares not accounted for and many rares still to be hatched. So until next time, stay classy, and don't despair when you don't win at a tourny of any level, just make sure you're having fun. If it's not fun, it's not worth it. Peace out
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