Spoils of the City

Hello everyone!

The first week of the spoiler season for any new set reliably is very flashy with new mechanics and marquee mythics released to significantly raise awareness and hype for the set. Then the second and third weeks are significantly quieter with good cards released every now and then, but for the most part the mind blowing cards are all done with. This is a good time to start figuring out the limited format. As with RTR, there are going to be 5 obvious archetypes to be in, but there are always some better than others, so we want to figure out which cards and guilds are our winners. Keep in mind that there are still plenty of playable cards being released for constructed, so we can't turn a blind eye there. However for the most part we're looking at nuts and bolts instead of new archetypes.

Starting things off we have the Boros Guildmage who seems absolutely bonkers! The first ability is incredibly good and can make you win games out of absolutely nowhere, but it's the second ability that has me really excited! Imagine if you're completely flooded out with nothing in hand, being able to activate the second ability and build up an army repeatedly each turn is huge, and just being able to get 2 activations a turn is enough to quickly overwhelm your opponents. I like how his two abilities play so well together too. In an empty board with nothing to do on turn 3 you can have guildmage pump himself and swing for 3. Going late going back and forth on the abilities will put your opponents under a significant amount of pressure. I think this card may be good enough to first pick!

Up next we have have a pretty sweet rare that will definitely be an early pickup for black, but definitely not good or fast enough for constructed playability. This card naturally pulls a lot of parallels to Smallpox, but hitting 1 less permanent and costing 4 additional mana simply means it's not good enough for constructed. In limited however, casting this and getting a couple Cipher triggers off puts you incredibly far ahead. Undercity Plague compounds upon itself so each time it's recast is slightly better than the time before.

Urban Evolution is a really sweet card that I think may have applications beyond just limited! Obviously this is very good in limited since it's all value, but in decks like Bant Control and Omnidoor Thragfire where both sides of the card are very relevant. You want to draw more cards early, but don't want to blow a Sphinx's Revelation on it, you want to play more lands, but there's no more Farseeks on hand. Urban Evolution lets you do both. In Omnidoor Thragfire that extra land can conveniently be the land for your Fog as well so you can just keep on ramping. I think this card is subtly awesome, and will see a ton of play, especially if the format slows down a little!

This is a card I initally dismissed as being just terrible, but then I saw the comparisons to Mystic Snake and Draining Whelk and I was more open to it's playability. Obviously it was a different meta then, but this is basically a Draining Whelk for 1 less mana which is pretty sweet. However, this is not a creature. The fact that those guys were creatures were part of what made them so good since they turned your Momentary Blinks into counterspells with flashback. We have Restoration Angel now, so if this were a Mystic Snake instead we would have that interaction. As it is however that is not the case. I think in general Dissipate will be better and more reliable, but Mystic Genesis does seem like a sexy 1-of.

For Avacyn Restored, Channel Fireball got to preview Bonfire of the Damned, and for Gatecrash they once again have another grand slam with Dimir Charm. The first ability is Envelop, a card that has seen play from time to time in Legacy as a cheap way to stop powerful cards like Show and Tell. There are lots of great targets like Past in Flames, Maelstrom Pulse, Time Spiral, Natural Order, Terminus, Entreat the Angels, Bonfire of the Damned, and hand disruption like Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach.
The second ability is a slightly neutered Smother. However, after looking on Gatherer for a few pages I realized there actually aren't that many 3 mana creatures we particularly care about! Here's what I found for good 3-drops: Knight of the Reliquary, Goblin Chieftan, Merrow Reejery, Master of Etherium, Vendilion Clique, and Vampire Nighthawk. (Kitchen Finks and Geralf's Messenger are good ones too, but inefficient). That's about a card in every deck which is certainly relevant, however there are significantly more dangerous 2 mana creatures to worry about like Dark Confidant, Tarmogoyf, Arcbound Ravager, Man Lands, Mana Dorks, and the essential first 2 turns of an aggressive deck's curve.
The third ability is significantly less powerful and will easily be used the least, however it certainly has its uses - If you really need one card to topdeck to survive, If you can win as long as your opponent draws a blank, or If you opponent sets something on top of their deck you want to clear out. Aside from those 3 narrow desperate instances, I think the third ability will be largely ignored. 2 out of 3 is still very good though! This card will be huge in control decks as a flexible option to deal with the opponent's threats.

Mind Grind is another sweet card that will completely blow opponents out in limited games, and may even be a consideration for constructed (though not really - then you're playing mill). Usually 40 card decks play 17 land, or 1 land in every 2.35 cards. This means it will be a lot like Increasing Confusion - a card that I almost always first picked in Dark Ascension draft. Mind Grind is slightly better and will be a windmill slam first pick, setting itself up nicely for a control deck made to go long, then blow the opponent's library apart before they get the chance to kill you. Obviously this is weaker than cards like Nephalia Drawnyard at milling out the opponent, but this will certainly be a popular card in the casual realm and should trade decently.

Simple, clean, straightforward, and awesome in not its guild. Syndic of Tithes feels more powerful in a Boros deck than Orzhov to me. In a boros deck a 2 mana 2/2 is very welcome and the Extort gets more useful as the game goes late to provide extra burn on top of the late game spells. While yes, a deck looking to abuse extort can use this guy too, the Boros deck makes use of all parts of the mammoth, and therefor we can use Extort primarily to finish out an aggressive game, different from its control use to stay alive.

Last but not least we have some spice! This card is insanely exciting up and down the chain! I expect this to see tons of play in standard in addition to EDH because there are so many sick things you can do here. Want to start with the most exciting? Wolfir Silverheart! When Prime Speaker enters the battlefield, 3 triggers will go off - the 2 from Zegana and the Soulbond trigger (assuming Wolfir isn't bonded yet). Put draw cards on the stack first, followed by +1/+1 counters then Soulbond last, so the soulbond trigger resolves first. This will ultimately make Zegana a 13/13 and you will draw 13 cards! Geez! That's the most ridiculous example out there, but just playing this card for value in a Thragtusk deck is just insane. 6 mana 6/6 draw 6 cards? Ok! Now add Restoration Angel to the picture.... And welcome to Value Town, USA! This card looks to have incredible potential and I'm really excited to see what insane decks decide to use her.

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

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack