RTR (almost) Completely Spoiled!

Hello everyone!

Today at 6am a huge wave of spoilers from Return to Ravnica came out, and by huge wave I mean all but 10 or 15 cards! I have been too busy at school to be able to post on the spoilers as they have come, but I will do my best now to pluck as many cards as possible to talk about. Today I will just be going over Rares and Mythics, and then hopefully tomorrow I will talk about Commons and Uncommons.

Patrick Chapin wrote a whole article on this card, but basically while this Angel is Expensive, it is insanely good! Being a triple Fiend Hunter is pretty sweet by itself, but with other cool applications like getting guys back from your own yard or Cloudshifting in response to the Angel trigger targeting 3 your opponent's creature for a triple Plow in addition to the "new" angel's targets for sweet value. Do I think the card is good? YES. However I am slightly reserved on how much play it will immediately see because of how fast and resilient public enemy #1 is (GB Zombies). However once the format adjusts and slows down I think this angel will be a very prevalent threat!

This is a cool value-bear, but it has a lot of competition before it sees play in constructed. Other baddies to fight off: Elite Inquisitor, Knight of Glory, Nearheath Pilgrim, and Thalia Guardian of Thraben. I think This is better than the Pilgrim, but is probably worse than the other 3. The fact that Zombies is obviously so good is what makes Inquisitor and Knight of Glory so relevant and may be enough to make WW a playable deck for the first couple weeks of standard (because WW never lasts long).

So this card got printed, and I immediately did 2 things: Took Wheel of Sun and Moon out of my Enchantress sideboard, and took apart my dredge deck and put it into my binder. Yes, Rest is that good! For 2 mana we get a Relic of Progenitus PLUS Planar Void! It is important to make that distinction - This isn't Tormod's Crypt + Leyline of the Void because this also hits you. However, that's perfectly fine vs a deck like Dredge because they are so far behind at that point that the lack of your graveyard simply doesn't matter.

I like this card a lot. It may amount to absolutely nothing, but being able to bounce on the curve is very good, and the Overload is a complete blowout! The fact that you can overload on your opponent's end step and force them to discard a couple cards is very relevant. I think the card will be played, but I'm not sure if it will be in a tempo deck or a control deck. I'm currently leaning on tempo as bounce doesn't accomplish much in control and the card is fine as a Disperse, but you never know...

Interesting..... At first I thought this may be good in UB/x control because a 4 mana 6/6 is able to come down quickly and stop the board, but then I re-read the card and realized that your opponent is in full control of this card in the early game. Something like Lingering Souls or Gravecrawler completely blanks this card and made it such that you paid 4 for nothing. Late game when this would be good, anything else would also be good that costs more mana so I think this is a passer.

Another swing and miss.... While this card is kinda cool, it's made for aggressive decks which don't play/need 6 drops.... Obviously insane in limited, but this will never get cast in constructed.

I saw GerryT was playing this card in the sideboard of his zombies deck for control matchups, and I think this is absolutely fantastic for that! Also, this would be good in a control deck (MB Control?) because LD these days is limited to Ghost Quarter, which isn't really even seeing play! I think this will see maindeck play in B/x control and sideboard play in any B/x midrange/aggro deck.

This card SCREAMS combo, but right now I think the only place it can see play is modern storm. In standard there's simply not any good win conditions besides chaining burn and in legacy Ad Nauseum is just better. But Epic Expiriment will be very good in Modern because it makes the deck no longer reliant on Past in Flames to build up enough storm to win, now it can play right through Leyline of the Void! Whether this is a maindeck or sideboard card (3 in board straight for 3 past in flames) is to be determined, but it's absolutely earned a spot!

Welcome to Magic where we have this thing called power creep. A 3 mana 4/4 gets printed, which is absolutely above the curve! Oh wait, it's now uncounterable! Now that's absolutely overpowered! Wait, you can't even Inquisition of Kozelik it?? Geez! And the saddest part? This probably isn't playable. Having no abilities on board makes you a huge liability. Unless you're so undercosted that you are named Wild Nacatl, Insectile Abberation, or Tarmogoyf, you probably don't belong. Sad reality is sad

Well this is interesting! Remember that card Splinterfright? Yeah, that's still a card.... Jarad's Orders may be too slow for that, but maybe a deck like Frights wants it? GerryT and Brad Nelsen posted up a frights list that uses Craterhoof Behemoth as its fatty using tons of mana dudes to create a surprise kill. After the fact they said Craterhoof probably isn't the right fatty, but regardless the deck will probably get more consistent post rotation with this tutor along with better mana. No Nihil Spellbomb and Surgical Extraction means there won't be as much gravehate at the start which means there will be time for things to get a little frightening as everyone loses their heads over Zombies.

This guy probably won't make the cut in standard, but regardless is a very cool card! I think I will be going Golgari for the pre-release, and this card is a huge part of it! Scavenge is a sweet very relevant ability anyways, but doubling it? That's insane! A 4/4 for 4 is also a perfectly legitimate threat in limited too!

Hey look! It's the new Blue Sun's Zenith! I think Revelation will be a sweet 1 or 2-of in new UW/x control decks going forward. Both drew cards, but I think the gaining life is much more relevant than the shuffle clause. Tapping out, even at the end of an opponent's turn puts yourself in a vulnerable position, but being able to gain a small handful of life and then untap and casting something like Supreme Verdict basically wins you the game on the spot! I don't think it really needs to be a mythic, but regardless this looks sweet!

Woah! This is cool! Oblivion Ring is cool and all, but it just got Kanye'd by Detention Sphere! This card is so good, I may splash blue in my enchantress deck just for it! In Standard and Modern this will replace Oblivion Ring everywhere! This kind of cheap interaction is exactly what a UWx control deck needs and this will see INSANE amounts of play everywhere!

There was a period of time when all but the Izzet uncounterable cards were spoiled and we were all insanely stoked to see what the Dracogenius had cooked up! Then Rosewater tweeted:

"C

UUR

C.C.B.C.B.S.O.A.

C.T.S.Y.D.C.

O 1UUR"

And 0.25 seconds later PV responded with the full text of the card besides the name. At first I was super excited at the idea of such a cheap overload to counter tons of spells. Then I thought about when I actually need to do that..... Storm? In a counterspell war everything 1-for-1s so countering the stack accomplishes nothing. All formats where Storm is legal so is Mindbreak Trap. The only thing that makes me think I will ever use Counterflux is maindeck in modern to have a bad maindeck answer to storm. But that's pretty loose..... I don't even think this will see play in Standard over Dissipate and Syncopate because of the prevalence of flashback and other graveyard synergies. It's cool, but remember - cool doesn't always mean good.

And my last card for the day today is really interesting! This guy eats graveyards for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and all for sweet value! The first thing to note is that he is a conditional Birds of Paradise, which probably won't lead to turn 2 3 mana dudes unless if they surprise reprint fetchlands on us (not going to happen). If this was just a BoP, that would be pretty disappointing though.... Nah, the Shaman is much better! He can be a pseudo grim lavamancer by making your opponents lose 2 a turn, but only consuming 1 card a turn (and can get guys from any grave!). On defense though, he can also gain you life to hopefully protect yourself, or at the very least give you something proactive to do every turn! I really like this card a lot! While I don't know where it will belong, I think it will absolutely see play!

That's all I have for today! That covers the majority of the rares in the set, but there are some more to be spoiled. Return to Ravnica is looking to be an amazing set and I can't wait for the pre-release and new standard! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack