Hit or Myth

So this week is the first week of SoM previews, and so far everything seems a little sketchy. First, before even going to Scars of Mirroden, I think it is odd that Elspeth vs Tezzeret has not been posted on Gatherer. This is the first set that I can think of that hasn't had the cards posted on Gatherer on time. For all sets the cards are posted a week - 10 days in advance of the release, and for Duel Decks/Premium Deck Series/other related products, they tipically update Gatherer with those cards a day or two in advance of the release. That, coupled with the fact that there is no product page for Scars of Mirroden yet, makes me think that there is a transfer of power or some serious mixups going on at Wizards right now that is causing the website to fall through the cracks.

Regardless, one thing they have not dropped the ball on is bring us the previews, so let's get right to them. Today is Tuesday, and they have 2 articles a day on the set, so we have 4 articles to base our opinions off of right now (1 - 2 - 3 - 4).

The first article is on the mexhanics of Scars, which confirms and denies a lot of rumors about the set. First, we knew about metalcraft from the weekend spoiled cards, but one short note on it is that it can definitely make a big change on your draft deck. Drafting a lot of artifacts can be important because it can enable a lot of your deck. So far, the metalcraft cards we have seen (except mox opal) are all fine even without 3 artifacts in play. A 2/2 for 1G, a 4/4 for 2GG. Hopefully more than just green has metalcraft (although it's funny that green, the color of nature, gets boosted by the presence of machines).

Imprint and Darksteel indestructibility are all the same, but another cycle besides the mana Myr cycle has been announced, and that's the spellbomb cycle. We only know about 1, and it's decent, but the fact that you can use an ability AND draw a card provides serious advantage. With the 1 spoiled spell bomb, the Origin Spellbomb, the ability is slightly worse than it's previous bomb in that color, but the fact that it cycles is relevent. Also, the ability on these cards is colorless and the draw card is in the specific color so in a draft or limited event you can use all the spellbombs for their abilities instead of previously where they could only cycle for you. Also, they can help you activate metalcraft (woah. synergy?)

Charge counters are cool, but there was no groundbreaking things announced with the charge counters. Also, they declared the meaning behind the watermarked cards (we already knew what it meant, but they walked those who didn't through it), but also mentioned that this set is 80% Mirran and 20% Phyrexia. I think our next set, Mirroden Besieged, will continue to have watermarked cards, but the set will be more 50/50. The watermarked cards remind me a lot of Ravnica block.

Last, they finished the first article with 2 new abilities in the forms of Infect and Proliferate. Nothing new was mentioned about infect except the thought of giving a pinger infect and simply wrecking your opponent with it. The only new thing with Proliferate is the card released that is an instant for 2U whose text reads, "Proliferate, Draw a Card". Instant speed proliferation is amazing, and I will defenitely be abusing this ability in a future deck and article.

So that is what was announced for the SoM mechanics, but what was not announcecd? There was a rumor that there would be purple mana in this set, but so far WotC has not mentioned it at all since Time Spiral block. I really don't think that they will do purple mana, it sounds a little sketchy to me.

However, we can't dwell on the first article for too long, we have 2 more mythics to get to! (I'm going to skip the Limited Information article and preview, simply because it's a great utility common for draft and sealed, but it ends there). The first Mythic was that announced by Mark Rosewater. His card reads like this:

Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
3BB
Legendary Creature - Dragon Skeleton
Flying, Infect
B: Skithiryx gains haste until end of turn
BB: Regenerate Skithiryx
4/4

Now this card didn't block me away at first. Maybe it's because the weight of Infect hasn't hit me yet, but if it weren't for that one word, this would be a much worse card. Later in the day on Monday, the day this card was previewed, I got a text from Mark reading "Hey, do you want to trade me Sarkhan the Mad? I can give you a Baneslayer Angel". My intial reaction was, "Sweet!" So I said yes, and then asked why he wants Sarkhan. After making sure that our trade was final, he explained to me the awesome interaction between this card and Sarkhan. Basically, you can use Sarkhan's -4 ability to have each dragon in play deal damage equal to their power to target player. Skithiryx deals damage to players in the form of poison counters, so with just Skithiryx in play, Sarkhan's ability effectively reads -4: put 4 poison counters on target player. That can do a lot of damage, especially if you proliferate to get Sarkhan up to 4 loyalty and then use it again! I think with the help of this Dragon Skeleton, black will once again become a relevent color in standard.

But there is one more Mythic to discuss that was announced today. Unfortunately, my desire to keep this article in chronological order causes it to end on a low note because this last card is really boring. Here's the card:

Quicksilver Gargantuan
5UU
Creature - Shapeshifter
You may have Quicksilver Gargantuan enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except it's still 7/7
7/7

This card follows a variety of cards that copy creatures on the battlefield, but the most generic is Clone. This card costs 3 more than Clone, and that 3 mana ensures you have a 7/7 as opposed to potentially anything, but is it really worth it? Clone is great because you could pay 4 mana and copy your opponent's Khalni Hydra or something else with a high mana cost, ensuring you get a lot of value out of those 4 mana. 7 mana is way too high on the curve for most decks, and because you are getting a 7/7 no matter what, you are only copying that card's abilities and type. Unfortunately you can't copy legendary creatures, unless you want to use this card as a 7 mana destroy target Legendary Creature spell. This is better than Clone in one manner though. If there are no other creatures in play, he can be played as a 7/7 for 7. Despite that, I really don't think this card will see any play. It is simply too expensive for such a trivial ability. If you want a 7/7 for 7, you can get that in the uncommon Enormous Baloth instead of a Mythic Rare.

Well that is all for now. One detail I feel is important to think about from Mark Rosewater's article is when he said that there is no way to get rid of poison counters, so maybe Infect could be the most overwhelmingly powerful mechanic in Scars of Mirroden, like Affinity was in normal Mirroden. Until next time, peace out