MTG Salvation

so here we go, might be a really great set for us again.

Martyr's Soul

seems pretty solid 5/4 for 3 tapped creatures, thats a lot. Should be pretty easy in swarmdecks and even in regular white wheenie

Imposter of the Sixth Pride

nothing for the powercube, but its good to see changelings back. It could give us some nice fringe tribalsupport


Headless Specter

hypnotic specter at common, thats pretty insane. definitely a nice build around card and already working in my t2 (selfdiscard/madness theme)

Goblin War Party

more swarm, i take it.

also couple of nice reprints so far

Savage Swipe actually seems fairly decent. It's just a strictly better Prey Upon, that can be a decent tempo swing in the early game when you only have small creatures. 2 power is after all the most prevalent amount of power. Later in the game you can simply use bigger creatures to fight.

Martyr's Soul almost feels like a reverse Venerated Loxodon

Seems like it has to be good in Pauper

does anybody run prey upon though?
can we at this point just start ignoring those green fight removals ;D at least sorcery speed ones lol

idk. card seems fine if you open with a 2 power 1 drop, but green is lacking those. and then we almost already powercreeped/ramped to power 3

Quote from Humphrey »

does anybody run prey upon though?
can we at this point just start ignoring those green fight removals ;D at least sorcery speed ones.

I think it would be good enough if it gave +3/+3

War Party seems like good Red Token support to me. It's a little on the slow side, but I'll take it. I am also curious about Bear Upon. I need to crunch the numbers a little bit, and Preys are always worse than they look, but pump plus fight for G seems strong for us if we fire as often as I think I do. It's not a lock though.

Also, I like our sweet collection of reprints that come up a little bit shy for us, but that are generally good cards. If what we have seen so far is indicative of power level as a whole, I'm pretty excited about this set, even if we get few "locks." And I'm sure we'll get a couple of those too.

not too shabby in slower cubes

Mother Bear seems interesting. The 2/2 for is not overly exciting, but the flashback of 2 2/2s for 5 is very fairly costed. Compared to Ghoulcaller's Accomplice this is a huge upgrade.

Yeah good actual Bears!! I ran Bearscape and Grizzly Fate in edh back when. So this is being crammed in

Dunno bout the bears. Great flavor (Medieval, yeah. Wish she was 3/3 though). Too slow for my T1 I guess. I also never found 2/2s very useful in the mid to lategame.

I like Orcish Hellraiser

I think Orcish Hellraiser is good, but it might actually be outclassed. There are just soo many 3/2s for 2 in red these days, which obviously all have downsides, but I think preventing you from playing a 3-drop in turn 3 is probably the biggest downside.

hmm, can never have enough 3/2 for 2 i guess. I dont actually mind 3 drops in sligh. More of a problem you cant cast a bolt + another 2 drop. On the other hand, I really like creatures that give you guaranteed damage in that deck.

I am a sucker for Flashback.

Scour All Possibilities - 1U
Sorcery
Scry 2, Draw 1
Flashback 4U

Paying +1 for a Preordain isn't the worst, but then waiting for a free 5 mana for another is too much. I may try it.

It just isn't good enough on too many fronts, isn't it. It draws too few for Sorcery, and while digging deep, 5cc for card selection has never been enough. *Looking at you Petals of Insight

Well compare it to Foresee/Tamiyo's Epiphany, which basically do the same for 4 instead of 7 mana. If it would be instant, it would have been staple it would have been a staple for us and probably modern as well.

I know. But man do I love Flashback. Haven't run Think Twice in a while, and Deep Analysis is STRICTLY better.. Le' sigh

Goblin Champion

another potential toy for aggro

1/2 haste doesnt seem too exciting, but exalted turned out pretty strong in my cube. since i already run almost all white ones, it would add to boros or rdw running Viashino Slaughtermaster

Nvm. Mistake on my part.

Ephemerate - W
Instant
Blink your creature
*Rebound*

Good backup, a little more limited, to Momentary Blink

I really like

Magmatic Sinkhole at CC3-4 this becomes a very reasonable finisher for burn /nvm creatures...
Defile without too much effort this becomes Disfigure and will replace dead weight
Ephemerate finally a blink effect with build-in card advantage. probably too good to pass

Faerie Seer - U
Faerie Wizard
Flying
EtB Scry 2
1/1

Goatnap is just a more amazing Threaten. For many reasons.

the faerie is interesting.
on one hand i defintely rather have that effect on cantrips, on the other hand, it makes Spellstutter Sprite much better.

theyre doing a very interesting cc1 cycle there

NINJAS!!!!

Ninja of the New Moon - 3bb
Ninjutsu- 3b
6/3

Moonblade Shinobi 3u
Ninjutsu- 2u
Combat damage = 1/1 blue flying Illusion token
3/2

Phantom Ninja 1uu
Spirit Ninja
Unblockable
2/2

All together it probably is a shoulder shrug. I kinda like a 6/3 bounce trick + Lava Axe. And a 3/2 that makes 1/1 Fliers is interesting. Obviously needs help like auras or equipment.
For me, personally, I like the Gating mechanic so these are getting heavy consideration. But the ninjutsu costs being 4 and 3 respectively will slow down the rollout

@Orcish Hellraiser:
It compliments Keldon Marauders and many of the lower cost 1 + 2cc bodies of a B/R or G/R stompy style

So now that the full spoiler ist out I have to say it's kind of underwhelming for a "masters" set. I think there is not a single staple. Cards that catched my eye as cubeables were:
Faerie Seer: Basically a better version of the Owls (Augury Owl, Sage Owl, Spire Owl). If you say Scry 2 nearly equals drawing a card it's quite solid.
First-Sphere Gargantua: So this is kind of like a Tithebearer Giant (which I really liked from WAR) with the big upside of also drawing a 2nd card when it dies + it also attacks for 5 one more time. If you discard it with Undertaker or Tortured Existence you get something similar to a Ball Lightning, that also draws a card.
Gluttonous Slug: So the first 2 evolves are basically free and simply require you to play any 2 creatures. A 2/5 Menace, that only did cost you 2 mana is definitely impressive and a 3/6 is just a monster, but it's just a very bad topdeck.
Magmatic Sinkhole: The first red Delve card. Being the only card in this color, that really does something with the grave is definitely a huge upside. If it could go to the face it would be an easy staple. Like it is, it has to compete with Flame Slash. Instant speed is definitely an upside, but not being able to cast this early outweighs this. So it's worse, but basically deals with any creature, which is something red could want in my eyes.
Orcish Hellraiser: Another red 3/2 for 2. This downside can be pretty significant, so I'm not sure it makes the cut, the upside is pretty nice though.
Mother Bear: This is decent on turn 2 and decent when it dies. Overall decent.
Quakefoot Cyclops: Booth modes are actually fine and I really like the flexiblity. YOu can chose between an uncounterable Stun and a 4/4 Intrusive Packbeast.
Defile: This is potentially stronger than Disfigure and just another solid cheap removal spell for black.
Rain of Revelation: An instantspeed Compulsive Research is really strong, IMO.
Rhox Veteran: Again another strong white 4 drop. I really like this, but white 4 drops are probably one of the most competed spots.
Treetop Ambusher: In offense this is just a 3/2, that also gives you the option to pump another creature or dash it. Quite flexible.
Trumpeting Herd: 6 power and 6 toughness for 4 mana seems really strong to me. I think this is probably the closest to a staple in this set.
Warteye Witch: Well this is definitely interesting for my cube with a swarm and sacrifice theme.

How about Viashino Sandsprinter? The CMC might be rough, but I like that you can cycle it away, if attacking with it doesn't make any sense.

Cave of Temptation is interesting too. 5 mana for 2 +1/+1 counters isn't great, but it still tappes for 1 and eventually in late game it might give an edge to win.