MTG Salvation

Is it bad that I'm more excited about the specter than the slime? I feel like a slime is a slime is a slime, but specters have always been cool, and Liliana's Specter is one of my favorites in a long time.

Slime is good, but it just doesn't seem worth it to get a full-art of a slime.

I know we don't like mill, but this is basically a 4- or 5-turn clock if you can swing in. I'm not a fan of mill as a wincon, but this might be playable; it's an x-for-1 and it's actually a legitimate clock. I wouldn't build a mill deck, but depending on what else we see this might be a really solid sideboard card. Throw it on Kor Duelist and give it a shot, I guess.

Many of the limited choices are very similar to M10, since a lot of the commons/uncommons carried over. Obviously, removal/evasion/blah, blah blah will be important, so I've just done new commons and uncommons that I think are interesting.

Here's my list of new cards that I think might make a splash in draft:

• Squadron Hawks. Get enough of these and they improve linearly. I think this will be a strong pick, as it puts cards in your hand and thins your deck nicely.
• Air Servant. A 4-power flyer for 5 is nothing to scoff at, and that ability is INCREDIBLY relevant in limited. If the enemy only has one flyer, they're not stopping the Air Servant. It's like double-evasion.
• Liliana's Specter. 2/1 with evasion for 3 isn't awful; discard on a stick is great. I'll be picking this up pretty early.
• Chandra's Spitfire. It's the Kiln Fiend of the set with built in evasion. Possibly a build-around card for an archetype like Kiln Fiend is, but we'll have to see.
• Shiv's Embrace. I'm not usually an Aura fan, but this is a closer. Drop it, swing, pump, win. If you're not getting your money's worth with this, I'd be surprised.
• Garruk's Packleader. Build-around for sure. I can't believe this card is uncommon. The power level is easily rare.
• Sylvan Ranger. Civic Wayfinder in an attractive travel-sized package. The smaller power makes it less relevant as a beater, but the faster fetch makes it more relevant as a spell.

So it's a 3-color deck that requires 5 specific cards in your opening hand? Sounds like fishbowl nut-drawing to me.

1. Grave Titan. Bombiest bomb to have ever bombed a limited tournament, and constructed beats as well! Despite the higher price on Primeval, there's no doubt in my mind that this is my favorite Titan.
2. Squadron Hawks. I really like pulling 3 cards into my hand, thanks. Especially with See Beyond, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and scry in the format. Great in limited, too.
3. Leylines. It's a cop-out, I know, but it's cool to see some solid, relevant Leylines in a core set. Green stacks, too.

HM: Nantuko Shade, Diminish (first card I saw with real-world quotes again, too!), Stormtide Leviathan, Demon of Death's Gate. (I'm a bit of a blue/black fan).

I'm actually pretty excited about this. In a format with Jace, scry, Sphinx of Lost Truths, and See Beyond, it's a really strong hand/library fixer. 1W to feed Jace's Mindstorm or a See Beyond is pretty sick, and I believe you can fail to find Hawks if you just want shuffle-on-a-stick to keep digging up gold with Mindstorm.

Of course, they're obviously pretty dirty in limited (and very linear) too, but I'm actually curious to see them get abused with Vengevine or even with a UWx Control deck.

Thanks!

Quote from Kahedron

Bushido like all triggered abilities is cummulative if a creature has 3 instances of Bushido 1 and blocks a creature it will get +3/+3 once all the triggers have resolved

I understand that, but I'm curious how Takeno, Samurai General interacts. Since he grants static +1/+1s, it's a slightly different question.

I'm building a casual Samurai EDH deck, and I'm curious about how Sensei Golden-Tail and Takeno, Samurai General interact. I know that separate instances of Bushido trigger separately, but do the separate instances add to the +x/+x granted by Takeno?

For example, if I have 3 instances of Bushido 1 on a creature, does it get +1/+1 or +3/+3 from Takeno's static ability?

Thanks!

Unlimited Brainstorms, oh my. Can protect himself, hello. Reasonable CMC, check. Cool-but-ultimately-too-expensive ultimate, si.

He's going to see a lot of play... a lot. Without seeing more from WWK, can't tell for sure what archetype he'll drive, but if you're in blue in any kind of serious way, he's an easy card to fit in. Protect him and the card advantage-- and all live drops-- will be enormous.

I think Brainstorm will be a minus; unlimited free Brainstorms as long as you can defend Jace seems a touch powerful; as an ability it's strictly better than "draw a card," and while differing abilities and costs makes apples-to-apples comparisons to planeswalkers impossible, I would assert that Fateseal 1 is dead even with "everyone draws a card."

If I had to guess, and I do, because this is a rumor forum and I'm a rumor whore:
+2
-1
-3
-7

Interesting. Absent confirmation, I reserve excitement.

However, it's a pretty cool idea and it does fit the multikick theme we're expecting. I think the right approach is somewhere between the total disdain and out of control excitement we're seeing; yes, it's worse than Force Spike and Convolute, if you discount the versatility. I think it's a very playable counter-- playable early game and certainly efficient late game. The fact that we're even talking about a counter is pretty cool, too... it's been a while since anyone was getting really excited for a new counter.

I hope this is real, if only for that reason.

Is he that good?

Well, he spits out 2/2s every turn, can force all the 2/2s into an Arena (except for tapping their creature) with a creature of your choice (AFTER they're declared blockers, if you want), and most importantly, he's a sure-fire way to feed the monument. It makes a lot of sense if you can fit it into your curve; having another theoretically infinite method to generate tokens can't hurt.

Despite all the suggestions, though, I wouldn't fit him in unless he fits your curve nicely. And I don't think Dauntless is redundant; it's another card that drastically improves the average case for the deck. In a nut draw, it's redundant, but what if you draw your first monument turn 7?

Tarmagoyf will not and should not see a reprint; at best he's amazing but even his average case is very efficient. Since the most common argument is that he "dies to removal," it's not really a fair point to make. He's a two-drop; he SHOULD die to removal. It doesn't change the fact that he's a staple and a classic play-him-or-play-around-him card. Cards like that shouldn't be reprinted, in my opinion (the big ones for me in the current standard environment are Path to Exile and Baneslayer).

Personally, I think Zend does need a Lhurgoyf. I vote Terravore.

I don't think it's unlikely that Ob is a jailer; personally, I'm of the opinion that we're going to (somehow) see a white Ob Nixilis the Risen. The assumption that Ob was a black-aligned planeswalker before he lost his spark isn't a valid one, especially with the revenge point they make in the flavor text. I think it's ENTIRELY plausible that he was once a white-aligned walker and that the Worldwake restores his spark and sanity.

As for the other jailers, if we assume Ob is not a jailer, then we're into a different situation. First of all, Sorin is the first black-aligned 'walker I can think of that we've seen that isn't straight evil-- like Umezawa, he's self interested but ultimately more of an antihero than a villain. Because of this, I doubt that the other jailers are black-aligned. Bolas also seems unlikely. He's there to abuse the characteristics of the plane and locking away a source of power is pretty out of character.

Other walkers that it could be (and what I think the probability is):

• Urza. Unlikely.
• Serra. Possible.
• Freyalise. Possible.
• Taysir. Probable.
• Windgrace. Possible.