This Guy Will Leave You With Skaabs

Hello Everybody! Today we have a ton of previewed cards to go over and discuss, so let's not waste any time and just dive right in!

I am actually really excited for this card! Morkrut Banshee is like Flametongue Kavu more than it is Skinreder because of the difference between 3 and 4, and also because they both wear away at the end of turn. Flamtongue Kavu was so popular and so potent in its day that it's still completely recognizable when anyone types FTK, it's been reprinted three times (Jace vs Chandra, Planeschase, and Commander [and yeah, the commander art is bad...]), and he even had his own Vanguard Avatar! This is a different day and age, but still expect to see Morkrut Banshee in a Pod deck near you! Shes completely solid as a 5-drop and I expect her to be first pick material in drafts all around!

The only real reason I am previewing this guy is because he is a Mythic. Sure he's flavorful and hes a great Morbid enabler, but he just doesn't strike a tone with me... This should just be a bulk mythic... However, this next zombie mythic....

...Is COMPLETELY BALLIN'!!! MaRo previewed this card yesterday, and it's simply a really cool card that will probably never show up in constructed, but will absolutely be making splashes in basically every casual deck near you! Although if you want to try it in constructed, may I suggest this?

Turn 1: Soul Warden
Turn 2: Carnival of Souls
Turn 3: Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Army of the Damned (13 mana in the pool), Flashback Army of the Damned (16 mana in the pool), Consume Spirit X=14

As is, I don't expect this card to make any splashes in constructed, but it should trade like hotcakes as it is such a cool and fun card that everyone should want. I can see this card holding a $5 price tag on insanity alone!

This guy was previewed today on the Mothership by the dude who talks about crazy casual who I don't like. I know I'm not his target audience, but this card doesn't stick with me either. Normally I would say it's a really cool and interesting card, but this is the horror set! I want cards that simply terrify me, not someone who was a last-minute reject from the Carnivale dance squad who is now crying deeply in the forbidden forest! I think they should have put him in the file as awesome, but not for this set. Zombies get 3 mythic rares (theres another later in this post) while Werewolves get 0, and instead in the green slot they get a very generic card that eats up a precious mythic slot. And while I'm on this tangent....

...Seriously!?! What the hell? Why does there HAVE to be a dragon in this set? In it's preview article on manday (I accidently typo-ed while writing monday, but I like it and I am officially renaming monday manday from now til forever), Jeremy Jarvis said:

So what happens when the set demands something be included that really doesn't fit here naturally? For instance, a dragon. Remember all the dark gothic tales about werewolves fighting dragons? Me either. Not a natural fit in the lore. What does one do?

 Don't include it in the set. I understand we all love to see badass dragons in our fantasy worlds, but if it doesn't need to be there, don't force it. Balefire Dragon doesn't bring anything creative to the table that required it to be in Innistrad, like possibly the Morbid ability. Just like Essence of the Wild it's a fairly generic ability, but they just thought of it now, so they're using it now. Take a wild guess as to what set is the most recent one to NOT have any sort of dragons or dragon references in it?

Innistrad - Balefire Dragon
Magic 2012 - Furyborn Hellkite
New Phyrexia - Moltensteel Dragon
Mirroden Beseiged - Hellkite Igniter
Scars of Mirroden - Skittles
Magic 2011 - Ancient Hellkite
Rise of the Eldrazi - Kargan Dragonlord, Sarkhan the Mad
Worldwake - Mordant Dragon
Zendikar - Hellkite Charger
Magic 2010 - Borgarden Hellkite
Alara Reborn - Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
Conflux - Malfegor
Shards of Alara - Hellkite Overlord
Eventide - ..........

Yeah, you have to go back to 2008 to find a set released with no dragons in it. It's ok to not have any dragons if you don't actually need them! In fact, there's only 1 dragon in the entire Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block! They didn't need it for the set to work, and the set worked perfectly fine and survived without them. The card itself is fine, but I just can't see the need for a Dragon in Innistrad....

Snapcaster Mage
Creature - Human Wizard
1U
Flash
When Snapcaster Mage enters the battlefield, target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
2/1

This guy was previewed by Aaron Forsythe over the weekend, and even though I don't think it's an incredible card, it rather tickled my fancy (what's that even mean??). I can see this guy being really fun in limited when you give a removal spell flashback or in constructed when you flashback a Mana Leak. Actually that second idea doesn't sound too bad! Game one, be sure to mana leak their spell then later flash it back with Snapcaster. Then in game 2, sideboard out your Snapcasters and watch as you buy yourself free turns as they play around you flashing back a Mana Leak, setting themselves back several turns (and then you can charge your Ludvic's Test Subject with the extra mana...). There's nothing like getting a little extra value out of all your spells (Pyromancer Ascension?)

No, don't read what I have to say yet, scroll up again and get another look. No seriously do it! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! When I say this card my jaw dropped for a minute as decklists started attacking my brain from every angle and synergistic cards started panning by in every direction. It would have made a cool scene in a movie actually... But in all seriousness, this card will greatly reward the first person to get the exact formula down as how to best use him. Guess what I'm suggesting! BUG Pod! How did you guess? Seriously, if Pod decks are all about taking a cruise down to value town, then Skaab Ruinator could be the Mayor. Imagine if you got a fast Ruinator out by Podding a Perilous Myr into Ruinator (destroying an enemy dude in the process). The opponent is terrified, so they Doom Blade it. You simply dont care and work to turn that Birds of Paradise into a Sheolred. By the time you get to Sad Robot, you have enough creatures in the yard to recur the Skaab Ruinator. Bonus points if they forgot about ol' Skabby. If Solomn Simulcrum didn't provide enough awesomeness (rampant growth, trade with a creature, draw a card) it can now help you cast a very undercosted zombie horror.

But with a card this special and powerful, there's so many options in front of us. Why not build a whole new deck around him? How about a UB deck that uses Liliana? Dredge used to be called Ichorid because of how important the card was to the deck, maybe we could make a deck like Peeling Skaabs? Finally Jace's $30 price tag may be relevant finally as his +1 ability would allow you to draw a card and also mill yourself 1 card. Another card that could work well in the deck is Mindshrieker. Imagine this curve:

T1: Ponder
T2: Mindshrieker
T3: Liliana
T4: Skaab Ruinator if your Mindshrieker died, otherwise mill yourself with Mindshrieker
T5: Jace, get silly

I don't want to come out with a decklist now, simply because people take decklists and don't innovate for themselves. Instead I want to make a list of cards that we can use to help make Skaab Ruinator go over the top:

Birthing Pod
Sun Titan
Liliana of the Veil
Jace, Memory Adept
Jace's Archivest
Curse of the Bloody Tome
Civilized Scholar
Mindshrieker
Merfolk Looter
Visions of Beyond
Cemetery Reaper
SmallPox
Vengeful Pharoah
Zombie Infestation
Solomn Simulcrum
Flesh Allergy
Necrotic Ooze
Serum Raker

Looking at all these cards I can see all kinds of cards and interactions that could work very well together. However a recurring problem is that you're going to need A LOT of creatures in your deck to make Skaab Ruinator to work consistently. That is my deckbuilding challenge to you reading this blog: how can we make Skaab Ruinator work miracles? If you have any creative ideas, feel free to leave a comment or message me and I will be sure to bring it up in a future post. Skaab Ruinator is vying for the best spike card in the set, but it's giving us a big stanky challenge to work out...

That's all I have today, until next time keep brewing, and stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack