RTR Spoilers Week 1

Hello everyone!

Classes have started here at UMass Lowell, and I'm simply having a blast here! My floor is very social, and my classes are all very good, which naturally makes blogging a little tougher to do. But fear not! I will do my best to constantly have posts up to keep up with whatever is new in the multiverse.

Since I last posted on Monday, we have taken in another dozen spoilers, so let's get right to them!

To start things off, we have basically made Savannah Lions and Elite Vanguard completely unplayable outside of niche tribal decks, and have replaced them with this Dryad, which I feel is actually completely playable in Modern and Legacy! This Dryad already is perfect for any creature-based aggro deck, especially because usually those decks don't have a use for insants or sorceries in the graveyard anyways! In modern, this is a great card to shut down decks like Storm that use Pyromancer's Ascension and Past in Flames to gain advantages. In legacy, this card shuts down Snapcaster Mage and Past in Flames from a Storm deck, so I can see this card being a solid 1 or 2-of in Maverick!

A rule absolutely worth knowing: If you Lightning Bolt Dryad Militant, the Bolt is exiled. If you Murder it, the Murder goes to the graveyard. This is because the Dryad doesn't actually die until state based actions are checked, at which point the Bolt has already been Exiled. On the other hand, if she is Murdered, then the Murder goes to the graveyard because the Dryad is already dead.

And now, we have an insane 2 drop for Zombies! This card is awesome because it's simply so good at grinding out games and providing that constant threat your opponent can never deal with. With such cheap regeneration and the potential to constantly grow, this guy will be a nightmare to deal with! Obviously the interaction with Gravecrawler is fantastic as well!

This guy isn't actually all that new, however with new cards like the aformentioned Troll, I have seen the Zombies deck get more and more aggressive! Back in the day, there was a deck called "Zoombies" and I think we're at that point again. Having a haste dude is just good for the deck to have more avenues for aggressive starts. Consider curving Gravecrawler into this guy into Dreg Mangler! That puts the opponent on 9 life on turn 3! Geralf's Messenger instead of Mangler? 10 life! I think adding in this Freak will allow more busted openings from the zombies deck and allow more blowouts to happen!

This is a card I didn't previously consider, however a couple people have asked my opinion on. I think this card will only be playable if necessary for curve reasons. Just like how Fume Spitter was just a 2-of for utility reasons, in the same way Slitherhead will be useful, but never insane. Easily cuttable, but definitely playable.

I think this card is definitely better in EDH and casual formats than it is in constructed. Unfortunately, having 4 toughness means it gets hit by Mizzium Mortars, so it's very weak. Isperia, Consecrated Sphinx you are not! And that is my supreme judgement.

Conveniently up next (it's almost like I planned this!) we have a 6 mana flying blue creature that draws you additional cards that has that essential extra toughness! I think Niv-Mizzet is absolutely insane! I think my control deck of choice is going to be 5CC with all sorts of goodies up and down the chain like the next card about to be spoiled, Thragtusk, Niv-Mizzet, and Nicol Bolas all pulled together by the insanity that is Chromatic Lantern! Niv Mizzet is insane because he can pull an Olivia Voldaren and wrath the opponent's board, but he also can swing for 5 and imitate a Scroll Theif, or he can just flat out Think Twice + value for all your mana in the pool! I can honestly see games going "Wrath you, Niv Mizzet, draw go for rest of game." Unlike old Niv Mizzet, this one has it all! Sure there's no intant-win with Curiosity, but this guy just wins anyways, so it doesn't matter!

Now this is good! When no good wrath was printed in M13, I was getting a little worried, however the verdict has come in that this card is supremely awesome! Yes, it's a little more obnoxious on the mana, but the fact that it is uncounterable is pretty sweet! Now a Delver deck can't just sit back on a counterspell and ride a Geist to victory! There's not much to say here, however it is an essential card to be aware of.

Woah. This is cool. I have dubbed this card the Vindicate of Kozelik for obvious reasons, and it certainly does a great job of impressing! This card is good in every format! In legacy and Modern, the games are faster, so the permanents are cheaper, so naturally VoK is good. Even in standard, there are so many cheap cards that this catch-all is amazing! Nice Oblivion Ring! Honestly, O-Ring was one of the cards that was best at stopping Zombies, but now that option is kinda moot.... This is also a card that I REALLY want to use a Snapcaster on! Absolute bomb here!

This is just a bad memoricide, but I wanted to point out how weird it is that we have so many spells that are uncounterable..... Between Slaughter Games, Abrupt Decay, and Supreme Verdict, it really feels like there is no point to counterspells for a while.....

Hi Cursecatcher! This card is awesome in Delver because it's a nice cheap tempo pushing threat. Nothing to get too excited about, but definitely something to remember. I can see this seeing play as a potential 4-of!

And here is our obligatory fatty that seems out of place! However this time I don't think we will be breaking Legacy or Modern (phew!). I just think this card is strange, useless, and frankly just not needed in the set. I get that we're trying to get splashy here, but an 11 mana 15/15? Now we're just getting rediculous....

And to end things today, I have a card I'm not remotely excited about! Lots of people have been talking about this card. In fact, when it was spoiled we had over 100 comments in the first hour in a magic thread I'm in on facebook. A lot of people liked her, but I'm not so convinced. The +1 simply doesn't do anything.... The -3 is the best part, but isn't worth 5 mana, and the -7 is a Captain's Call..... Maybe I'm not dreaming enough, but I just don't see it right now....

That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack