First Wave of SoM Previews!

Hello everyone, I just finished my last post (which came out to a grueling 7 pages of straight text, props if you actaully read it) and I went to SCG to discover a small wave of spoilers from Scars of Mirroden was released over the weekend. 2 new planeswalkers, a returning cycle, and a whole lot of other great news, so let's go!

I will start with the most exciting cards first, the planeswalkers. I will start with the only card I don't have the image for, Elspeth Tirel. Here's how she reads:

Elspeth Tirel
3WW
Planeswalker - Elspeth
+2: You gain 1 life for each creature you control.
-2: Put three 1/1 white soldier tokens onto the battlefield.
-5: Destroy all other permanents except for lands and tokens.
Loyalty: 4

Wow, talk about powerful! First off, if both Elspeths were in Standard together, watch out! they synergize insanely well with lots of token making to creating the emblam leading towards having a one sided pseudo Planar Cleansing. In standard though, she also interacts with Ajani Goldmane. Elspeth makes a platoon of soldiers, and Ajani pumps them and gives them vigilience. Then they both gain you back a ton of life. This card is currently on SCG for $40. I expect this to drop though, because it won't see an insane amount of play (for reasons I will explain with the next card)

This guy is going for $45 currently on SCG. All of his abilities are quite excellent, especially his +2. I did a search on gatherer and 282 results came up for "enters the battlefield" in standard. After removing for landfall, we have 241 targets for this +2 ability. Here are some of my favorite targets for this: Acidic Slime, Aether Adept, allies in general, Avenger of Zendikar, Bogardan Hellkite, Borderland Ranger, Broodmate Dragon, Cadaver Imp, Captain of the Watch, Devout Lightcater.... Im just going to stop there because I'm on page 2 of 12 for these results and I already have 10 awesome hits. Obviously, his -1 shouldn't be taken too lightly and his -8 (return of the emblam!) is simply broken. While he is awesome, I think think his and Elspeth's value will soon come down. Heres something LSV mentioned that is important to note: He is right. Remember when Gideon sold for $60? Now he goes for $25. Sarkhan Vol has dropped 25% since it was released, and no others have seen play except for rogue decks. If you open one of these planeswalkers in a booster, congrats, I hope you have good plans for them. Otherwise, I don't think it's worth buying them right now.

Hey remember this guy? Well now we can read it plainly that yes in fact you get both 3/3 lifelink AND a 3/3 Deathtouch upon death. Looks like Sarkhan the Mad just found another quality target in main phase 2. Note how the art on the prerelease version and the normal version are almost exactly alike (compared to Sun Titan, Vampire Nocturnus)

Here's another exciting mythic we don't have the art for: Mox Opal!
Mox Opal
0
Legendary Artifact
Metalcraft -- Tap: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if you control 3 or more artifacts.

This card is awesome, but it is also not entirely broken, so they did it right. First it's legendary, so you can't drop 4 on turn 1 with a land and then play Elspeth Tirel, use -2, and pass the turn staring your opponent down with 3 1/1s, 5 mana, and a crazy powerful planeswalker while they draw their first card of the game and scoop. Also, I like this metalcraft ability, but there's other metalcraft cards released, so I will discuss all new and returning abilities at the end.

We have already seen this card, it's the buy-a-box promo, but check out this crazy art! Also, it's interesting to note this is a Mirroden card, not a Phyrexia card.

This card is sick! Another display of metalcraft, this card has a lot of potential. It's too early to tell which colors are going to be the best to use with artifacts, but if they go back to all colorless artifacts (there are no colored artifacts in today's preview) then green artifacts work perfectly fine.

Another rare without a picture:
Tempered Steel
1WW
Enchantment
Artifact creatures you control get +2/+2

This is a really cool card that will defenitely see play with the right deck. This card reminds me of Time of Heroes, but the fact that this is rare compared to Time of Heroes' uncommon proves artifact creatures and artifacts in general are going to rock!

This card has the potential to be absolutely insane! Consider this scenario: Your opponent is swarming you with an endless army of tokens, you only have this dragon in play, and manage to get through for some damage. You pay 0 mana and kill all the tokens. If it weren't for a couple key phrases, this card would be the most saught after card in the set, those being "dealt COMBAT DAMAGE" and "Activate this ability only once each turn". If it weren't for the first line, you could use Soul's Fire to get through their intricate walls and defenses. If it weren't for that second line, this card would be put in a ramp deck and post combat they would pay 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and destroy all but a few things you have. As the card reads though, it is balanced, but still very powerful. I wonder if it's fate will wind up like it's destroy-everything-when-I-attack brother from another mother Ancient Hellkite.

I think Sarkhan the Mad is getting some very nice treats this set. Imagine playing this card seeing Emrakul or another boom boom Eldrazi on top of your deck. Just play Sarkhan next turn and say hello to your new 5/5 flying dragon and your apocalyptic annihialator of pure destruction.

Hey, it's that there word proliferate again. I like that =D. Aside from its proliferation (which can get going after attacking on turn 3 compared to turn 4 with the clasp), it's interesting to note the Phyrexian watermark on this card. That's not weird normally right? Well as far as I understand Phyrexia is mono black and artifacts, so seeing a Phyrexian watermark on a blue card makes you want to scratch your head.

More Phyrexia (finally in black) more poison counters, and now our first creature with infect. This and the previous card can be pretty cool together. Turn 3, play this guy, and attack your opponent with the horrific bird to give the bird pseudo poison. Note that when this deals damage to your opponent, they will get 2 poison counters because of his 2 power. Sounds like Giant Growth could become a suprise kill card.

This guy at first reminded me of Ornithopter with his 0 cost, but I think this guy is better. Ornithopter was basically just a wall that got in the way, but as a 1/1 Memnite can actually deal damage. I'm not saying he is good, im just saying he is less bad.

This is Trusty Machete from Zendikar except it replaces pumping toughness +1 with making the equipment indestructable. This can be a very aggressive card, especially when put on the next card.

Kor Duelist was the best and most aggressive of the Kor who used equipment to their advantage, and here is another aggressive card. With the Axe he is a 5/1 trampler. Expect this guy to be making splashes in limited events.

One more card without art:
Ichorclaw Myr
2
Artifact Creature - Myr
Infect
Whenever Ichorclaw Myr becomes blocked, it gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
1/1

This has infect, so I am guessing that it is a Phyrexia card. Not a great one, but it is a solid common that can go in any and every deck. It doesn't get pumped when blocking, only when blocked, so this is definitely an aggressive creature.

Now I mentioned there is a cool returning cycle, what is it? None other than the mana producing Myr!

These guy rock as they produce mana fixing, splashing, and ramp to any color that may need them. Everflowing Chalice is cool, but this is a chalice on a stick for colored mana instead of colorless.

So that is all the previews I have today, I think for the next 3 weeks, all I can post about will be the few cards that are released every day on the mothership and other various sites. Here's a quick recap of the themes in these cards:

Metalcraft - This is a new ability and a great one at that. The 2 cards we have right now are simply broken when you have 3 or more artifacts in play. 8/8 trample for 4? Thank you very much!

Imprint - Rosewater said there would be an ability from Mirroden block returning for this block, and this is what it is. Imprint is cool and combolicious, and as long as it isn't done wrong (Isochron Scepter) it can be fun too. I'm glad they didn't decide to bring back Affinity because that would be horrible.
Proliferate - We have touched upon it before, but this is my favorite keywaord of the set so far

Infect - This is wither and poisonous and then some! As long as this ability isn't overpowered, I am perfectly fine with it

Equipment Boosts - This was first done in Mirroden, and it's cool to see it again in the sequel

Well, that is all for now, I hope you enjoy reading this double feature of Casual MTG Creations posts. This is your author rLack signing off for today, and I will probably be back tomorrow