New Phyrexia Completely Spoiled!!! (Part 1: White and Blue)

Well, I was trying to come up with a whitty or comical name for this post, but there's no other way to really put it... The Godbook for New Phyrexia, which apparently is a PDF that WotC gives to chums like you and I for initial reactions on the set, has been leaked. Now obviously we have to say that all of these spoilers are unofficial, so nothing is garunteed or etched in stone, but there's a good chance this is 99.9% correct. I can't seem to find the link to where I found the file, but all of the cards have been copied down in text form onto MTG Realm here (there's many pics too for the TL;DR folk). I have talked about a bunch of cards in the past, so I am going to skip around to the interesting ones. I'm only going to do the White and Blue cards today, but I will surely touch on the others in the next couple days:

Blade Splicer
2W

Creature - Human Artificer
When Blade Splicer enters the battlefield, put a 3/3 colorless Golem artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
Golem creatures you control have first strike.
1/1

In the Mechanics article from the Mothership, they mentioned a Golem tribal theme, and this is one of 6 Splicer cards that are 1/1s which produce Golems ETB. This one gives first strike, while the other 5 give Vigilence (Sensor Splicer), +1/+1 (Master Splicer), flying (Wing Splicer), trample (Maul Splicer), and regeneration (Vital Splicer). I think it goes without saying that this is purely for limited and casual. In constructed, theres cards  like Arc Trail and Cunning Sparkmage that will just leave you with a pile of Vanilla 3/3s. In limited these cards are quite potent because removal is like gold, being a first pick almost every time (unless you open like Skittles), and theses Splicers require 2 pieces of removal to completely erase. Not a first pick by any means, it's just a couple dudes, but something to definitely watch out for!

Cathedral Membrane
1{w/p}

Artifact Creature - Wall
Defender
When Cathedral Membrane is put into a graveyard from the battlefield during combat, it deals 6 damage to each creature it blocked this combat.
0/3

I actually really like this card! This reminds me a lot of Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch (holy unnecessarily long name Kamigawa block!), but obviously being removal instead of a bounce spell. I don't see many constructed applications to this, but it would be the greatest way to kill a Titan! One thing that is awesome about phyrexian mana is that you can view this card as a colorless 1-drop! I almost always play U/b control in BSS draft, but if I had this card I would absolutely play it! Removal is removal, and this also does a nice job of holding back a wave of creatures. Imagine if your opponent has a 2/2 and a 3/3 and you have Cathedral Membrane. When they declare attackers, there's a whole lot going on! Obviously attacking with just the 2/2 isn't profitable, but what if they attacked with just the 3/3, or both? Do you block? Take the damage? It's a great way to get into your opponent's mind, and the decision tree is very complex.

Norn's Annex

3{w/p}{w/p}
Artifact (R)
Creatures can't attack you or a planeswalker you control unless their controller pays {w/p} for each of those creatures.

This card has been spoiled for a while now, but I just realized an epic combination for this card: Gideon Jura! Drop this on turn 4, and Gideon on turn 5, and +2. Now if your opponent is playing white, you attack their mana, but if they aren't you have a burn spell that protects your life total and other planeswalkers! The problem with Gideon in combination with Ghostly Prison is that if they have 6 lands, they tap out and attack with 3 creatures, or they play spells and don't attack, or they could tap all their mana during Main Phase 1, have the mana leave the pool as you enter combat, and attack with nobody. However, everyone has 20 life to use as a resource, and if you tap out you lose. I honestly think this card incombination with Gideon could be a part of some pretty sick decks (talk about a game breaker in the Boros mirror!!!)

Argent Mutation

2U
Instant
Target permanent becomes an artifact in addition to its other types until end of turn.
Draw a card.

In a similar vein to Master's Call, this card can give Metalcraft at instant speed, which can leed to all kinds of shenanegry in a game of limited. At the very least, this card is a cycler, so it is something that i playable in any blue deck. Also cool is using this to Shatter anything, like yo ucould with Liquidmetal Coating.

Arm with Aether

2U
Sorcery
Until end of turn, creatures you control gain "Whenever this creatures deals damage to an opponent, you may return target creature that player controls to its owner's hand."

This card is nuts!!! If I ever find myself in a U/x infect deck, this card is the stone cold nuts! You hit for a couple poison counters and bounce their whole board??? Then next turn you can just swing for the kill! Well-times bounce spells are very good in limited (read: Quicksilver Geyser), and this does a fantastic job of that. Just try to pack a Myr Turbine from MBS to go for the stupidly overpowered blowout! In constructed, this card is held back by being blue. The only swarm deck that I know of that is U/x is the Conley Woods UG Vengevine deck with Riddlesmith, Memnite, Ornithoptor, Vengevine, etc. This card could make that deck just a little more goofy and maybe even good!

Corrupted Resolve

1U
Instant
Counter target spell if its controller is poisoned
 
I don't know if I can really call this card a sleeper, but this is my pick for one of the most deceptively powerful cards in the set. In the right deck, this is as close to Counterspell as you can get. Don't forget about that there Virulent Wound, the only infect burn spell printed. These 2 cards could become best friends in the new UB infect list that comes out after NPH is released. Previously, there wasn't anythign bad about getting infected except that you could get Proliferated. Now, all bets are off, and getting infected could be the game-ending mistake!
 
Defensive Stance

U
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -1/+1
 
[Insert joke here about how bad this card sucks, how it has a Mirran symbol on it, and how the Mirrans suck too. Make it whitty enough to sooth the pain of how terrible this is]
 
Gitaxian Probe

{u/p}
Sorcery
Look at target player's hand.
Draw a card

I have heard a ton of people saying since Scars of Mirroden was released, and Standard shifted that Peek was a card they would play simply because knowing what your opponent has is that important! Well ladies and gentlemen (I don't think any chicks read this blog. If you're a chick and you read this blog give me a hollar so I don't piss you off when I start dropping jokes about how women can't drive) I present to you the baby of Peek + Street Wraith. This is a much more potent card for Constructed as opposed to Limited, but if you desperately need a 24th card for your draft/sealed deck, this fits the bill just fine. Imagine this opener:

Gitaxian Probe, see they are playing Boros
Island
Preordain, drop Spell Pierce to the bottom, keep Day of Judgement

Normally, you really wouldn't want to Preordain on turn 1 unless you're a combo deck or need lands, but thanks to this Probe, you know what is important or not from the start. Another place I expect to see this card getting heavy use is through the control mirrors. Knowing that your opponent is just bluffing that Mana Leak is HUGE when you have a Titan in hand. Right now EsperBlade is popular because seeing your opponent's hand turn 1 and making them discard a key card is VERY powerful. However, with Gitaxian Probe, I expect EsperBlade to really fall out of popularity because this fills a similar role (learning their hand), while maintaining the number of cards in hand. Now will all control decks start with 4x Jace, TMS, 4x Preordain, 4x Gitaxian Probe?

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

8UU
Legendary Creature - Praetor
Flash
At the beginning of your end step, draw seven cards.
Each opponent's maximum hand size is reduced by seven.
5/4

No, I'm not lying, this is a 10 mana blue creature with stupidly powerful abilities. If I ever see anyone cast this card, I realy don't know what I would do, although it feels good to flash this guy in at the end of your opponent's turn, make them discard their hand, then crush your opponent with the weight of card advantage. You will also want to commit Sepaku when they Doom Blade this before discarding for the turn. By being such a big fattie, the only way to make him playable is through cheating it into play. Standard gives us just Summoning Trap (although this + Iona + Terastadon + Emrakul kinda makes me want to make a standard Trap deck. The only problem is Jace TMS is the only card that can put the fatties back on top of your deck).  Legacy is where we will see this card, and you know I am stoked! Here are the cards we could use to drop this bad boy into play way too early:

Show and Tell
Reanimate/Exhume
Dread Return
Defense of the Heart
Elvish Piper

I don't think this will be overly good in Dredge because you have to wait until your turn ends before you draw cards, at which point Sphinx of Lost Truths is just better, but I think this is my new favorite Reanimate target! Reanimator is supposed to bring up a fattie that puts the opponent in such a position that they simply can't win from, which vanilla fatties like Inkwell Leviathan don't do all too well. Untapping with Jin-Gitaxian is basically a garunteed victory. You draw so many cards you are forced to discard every turn while your oppoent goes strait to topdeck mode. They don't have lands, and any spells they have will probably get countered considering your drawing 8 cards a turn! A couple turns later, you can Exhume another fattie like Terastadon to close out the game (and destroy something awkward like Ensnaring Bridge that's in your way). If Iona/Painter's Servant wasn't enough to convince you to play Defense of the Heart, how about Jin-Gitaxian + anything?!?! Alongside an Iona, it can give you inevitability for their last turn against Swords to Plowshares, alongside Emrakul they face down 20 power with what is soon to be no board and no hand. Alongside Eager Cadet you still can't lose! This is by far the best card in the set from my vantage point! It's going for 4 right now on ChannelFireball, but I can see this card ascending to the ranks of Emrakul and Progenitus as a $8-10 card!

Tezzeret's Gambit

3{u/p}
Sorcery
Draw two cards, then proliferate

This isn't a very interesting card as a whole, until  we realize how this is actually a colorless Divination! This is going to see play in every deck I draft, and I wouldn't be too suprised to see it show up in some constructed decks. Having the proliferate on top is just gravy! Imagine playing mono-red, you go T4 Koth, attack with a mountain, T5, Tezzeret's Gambit, ultimate Koth GG. I hear using this in an infect deck is good too!

I am going to stop here for today, but I will follow up in 2 more segments (Black/Red, Green/Multicolored/Colorless) in the next couple days. There is nothing overwhelmingly powerful or game-changing in New Phyrexia, but there is a ton of very interesting cards worth looking at. Until next time, stay classy!