Woah, We're 2/3 of the way There!

Woah, We're 2/3 of the way There! Livin' on a Prayer!

Ok, it doesn't have the same effect as halfway there, but right now we are 2/3 of the way through SoM spoiler season! Time time next week, we will know every single card in the set and can start having dreams about what our ideal booster to open would be (Koth as the rare, with a foil Koth as well)

Over the past 2 days, there have been 4 articles on the mothership. Here they all are. But as always, we have others to talk from around the multiverse, I mean interwebz.

This is a combination of 2 cards, Spellbook and Ivory Tower. Combined that would be amazing in a blue draw-go deck! If Mind Spring was in M11 (so it would be in standard post-rotation) then we may see a blue draw-go deck with Leyline of Anticipation where you cast everything during your opponent's turn and leave them wondering. However, as it is, Mind Spring will rotate out of standard and this won't see play. Even if Mind Spring was in M11 though, I think what I just said would be a little sketchy. Spellbook costs 0. Ivory Tower costs 1. 0 + 1 = 1. We will also add 1 because this has a better life-gaining ability than Ivory Tower, and we will add another 1 because this is more efficient as it is all contained in one card. 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 right? Well, at 5 this is a little too overcosted, which sadly is its downfall. If this cost 3, you could sign me right up!

This card is almost broken.
Remember when I just said that Venser's Journal would be good if it cost 3 instead of 5? If I imprint an artifact on this card then the Journal does cost 3 and not 5! However, that's not the first thing that came into my mind. The first thing I thought of was, "Hey, my mana-producing Myr cast 0! They're like Moxes on a stick!" The More I see Scars of Mirroden unfold, the more I want to make a UW Myr deck. W is awesome for Tempered Steel (makes Myr not little weaklings) and Myrsmith (doubling all your artifact spells). U is also awesome for things like Trinket Mage (fetch up some Brittle Effigys) and Shared Discovery (wait what? Yeah, Shared Discovery + Myr Galvanizer makes a 0 mana draw 3 spell if you have mana-producing Myr!). After drawing all those cards, play them for free thanks to this Anvil and get lots of bonus Myr thanks to the Myrsmith. Next turn, you can bash with all your 3/3 or larger Myr (thanks to Tempered Steel, Myr Galvanizer and Steel Overseer) for a cool tribal obliteration.

This card is really cool, because it helps red decks (in particular RDW) actually have a sideboard against certain decks. Where does this Elemental shine? Against ramp decks like my Valakut Ramp deck. Propping this guy on turn 2 could end the game right there if they didn't side in cheap removal. Consider this:

turn 1, land
turn 2, land, Khalni Heart Expedition (opponent plays Tunnel Ignus during their turn)
turn 3, land, Harrow, take 6 damage (trigger Khalni Heart Expedition during their turn, take 2 more damage)
turn 4, Primeval Titan, take 3 damage

So by playing Primeval Titan turn 4, the ramp player is already down to 8 life, which if you're playing against RDW means you are probably already dead because they have already hit you 2/3 times with Goblin Guide and tossed a few Lightning Bolts into the pot. I think this guy will see play in the sideboard of red decks as a way to hose ramp decks that became ever popular with Zendikar and landfall shenanigans (mono-green ramp, UG TurboLand, RUG, RG Valakut Ramp, RG Destructive Force, etc).

That being said, I did find a cool mono-green ramp list online that cuts red and Valakut and replaces it with more consistancy in the form of Leatherback Baloth and more bomb finishers in the form of all the Legendary Eldrazi. I think I'm going to make it, and see whether it's better or worse than my current RG build.

This card absolutely shocked me when I first read it. Green infect?! It just doesn't make sense.... The only thing I can think of flavor-wise is that this card represents the Phyrexian infection spreading to the kin of Mirrodin. This card is really cool flavorwise, but beyond that, I don't think much will come of it. I wouldn't be suprised if this is the only non-black, non-artifact infect card as a prelude to Mirroden Besieged, and I don't think it's worth spreading to a new color just to get another infect card when there should be ample cards in Black and Artifacts (and blue if needed for more proliferation) to get the job done.

Speaking of infect, lets jump forwards to BDM's preview card today, Hand of the Praetors. This guy is awesome! He will be a staple in any/all infect decks! Let's take a moment to look at what we have for an infect deck so far:

4x Ichor Rats
4x Plague Stinger
4x Skithiryx
4x Ichorclaw Myr
4x Hand of the Praetors
4x Contagion Clasp
4x Thrummingbird
4x Steady Progress
4x Doom Blade
24x Land

While there is still more to come, so far it seems this is not a deck that you want to get in the way of! On closing thought on having Green in your infect deck: Giant Growth is insane with infect! You thought that little 1/1 infect was going to hit you effectively for 2 damage, but then he gets huge and you effectively take 6 extra damage for G!

Moving on, we have a couple more cards that aren't necessarily very exciting, but have a lot of potential. First is the Necrotic Ooze, which can be cool, but I probably will never play it. I think the coolest thing you can do with him is get Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet into your graveyard and star dominating the game 3 turns faster than normal. Note he doesn't get insane if Baneslayer Angel makes it to your graveyears, because those are static abilities, not activated abilities.

Flores showed us a card that can be very devastating to a deck I mentioned could appear thanks to all these new cards: GW tokens. Ratchet Bomb is really cool and almost always playable against every deck (and should be in the sideboard for every deck because it is so efficient) but you can draw it late while staring down an invasion of tokens, pay 2 mana, and then immediatly sac it to obliterate your opponent's army that they spent precious time puttign together and using Elspeth to clear the war for. In addition, this can be insane against plaeswalker decks. Imagine your opponent has 3 planeswalkers that cost 5 in play (Elspeth, Gideon, Venser) and you have had this bomb in play for a couple turns slowly ratcheting it up for a bigger boom. It hits 5 counters and BOOM!!! All the planeswalkers have left the battlefield. Planeswalkers are considered to be the ultimate in card advantage, but cards like Ratchet Bomb help balance the format and make those of us who don't want to shell out for planeswalkers have effective ways to remove them.

And finally, as we get with every block, we have our new wave of Dual Lands. As Explained in the article, these lands are going to make aggressive multi-colored decks better (namely BR) because they come into play untapped under more aggressive-friendly conditions. I believe these will see play because every dual land sees play. I think they are definitely better than the refuge cycle because the gaining 1 life is much worse turn 1 than no loss of tempo.

Well, that is about it for today! I hope you are all excited about SoM, I know I certainly am. I can't wait to get a whole new exciting pool of cards to work with. From the release of the 3rd set of a block - nowish is always the worst time for deckbuilders because there is almost no new tech to work with. Yeah M11 gave us.... Fauna Shaman and Titans to work with, but that is nothing compared to a whole set of goodies. I am not going to the FNM tonight at Toys because I have a band practice to attend, but I think theres going to be a late night magic party at someone's house, so maybe a game report or 2 will pop up tomorrow. Who knows? Regardless, stay classy