MTG Salvation

Five rares and three mythics spoiled so far and all the rares are better/more playable than every single one of the mythics (not that Ral Zarek is bad).

Master of Cruelties is just freaking terrible. I hope there's some hope for at least ONE good Rakdos rare. I'm so disappointed by what they did with that guild in this block...

The green and blue style felt very "White Christmas"-y. I wouldn't stick to it because of the migraine-inducing white background but still solid effort considering the circumstances.

I used to play blue more than any other color, and yes, seeing this is frustrating for someone who started on the more old school scenario of 'Tog and other blue control. But frankly, I don't care if counters get weaker as long as there's an answer for the problem spells. Right now, the only real problem I'm seeing is the ridiculous amount of board sweep that's in the current standard and looks to continue forward into RTR standard. Really, if you want to weaken counters, strengthen discard and bounce. The option that Wizards seems to be choosing for this sadly is making creatures so strong that they either a) replace themselves for free or b) are extremely hard to deal with. And it doesn't help four of the five keywords so far are creature-centric. And the other reinforces boardwiping. I look forward to playing BR control this fall is all I'm gonna have to say about this.

When I first read that I thought the +1 had the Lure ability too. Now, on rereading, I'm not sure how good it is. The +1 is meh. Clearly the -3 is good but potential kills her. And the ultimate... Well, I feel there's too much board wipe for that to work. The other two cards are essentially vanilla for the purposes of previews. Nothing interesting here to see (tho the Justicar is OK).

The +1 ability is so meh right now I can't justify it. The -2 ability though will probably be the nuts. Making your opponent make choices has always been a winning proposition and this will probably be no different. It's just a matter of getting Jace up enough to use that ability. Note: I don't remark on ultimates... they see so little use in my meta that I generally don't have enough experience to remark about them.

A 6/5 for six with haste and first strike isn't bad. It's only bad two or three turns later in when it can't block. So it's a win NOW card. Which is exactly what Rakdos does best... Except that isn't the best strategy these days, what with the crazy amount of sweepers that will be around. Rakdos didn't totally get the shaft (the rares look good... but that Mythic I'm so unsure about) but their strategy isn't good for the current metagame that seems to be around, which is too bad.

First impressions: Mixed feelings on this one, guys. I <3 suicidal decks that just go all out. Weirdly, this allows for some strategy calls too. I'm sure there's going to be times you're not gonna want to Unleash it to allow it to block, with this skeleton being a prime example of that. I don't know if I'm as enthusiastic about choosing Rakdos as I otherwise would be with this mechanic though since it's so solidly on creatures. Which is too bad too since I love playing these colors when available. Maybe I'll get more excited though when rares and uncommons become available.

Second impressions: Man this mechanic stinks with anything that puts +1/+1 counters on anything. WHY WOULD YOU WORD IT THAT WAY? Especially with Ajani, Caller of the Pride in standard.

My favorite will always be Weird Germ Carrier.

Since so many see this as reasonably real, I'm gonna go and comment as if it is... And boy is this ability pretty good. It's a rare though so it's a little underwhelming for it's rarity but only a little. The use of the card in the grave actually makes it prime filler for RG decks too since there's no black involved in it. I likey.

CRAZY good movie! While I didn't feel like this was the best acted movie it was just so well put together from a detail and scripting standpoint that it felt like it was a complete work of awesomeness. While some of the spoilers were rather transparent before I even saw the movie the bigger picture wasn't something I could easily see coming until halfway through the movie. Great film! And bravo to Christopher Nolan and all the actors/actresses who put performances in this.

If the prerelease card is usable in decks, to me it points that it's a colorless card, probably an artifact. In fact, I'd bet on an equipment. But maybe it isn't and I'm overthinking it.

The best designed cards for me are ones that feed into themselves well. And that leaves a tossup between Trading Post, Thundermaw Hellkite, and Predatory Rampage for me. Note, this doesn't mean most playable card... just best designed single card. Honorable mention does go to the Gorgon though.

You're good right up till part three. Sheoldred's ability requires a target when it's put on the stack and since the Mulldrifter isn't in the grave when the ability goes there, it's not a legal target. You'd have to target something else.

Quote from chaosof99 »

Okay, please tell me how many cards you expect out of any given set to be constructed viable. Or have you compared this to the number of cards in other recent sets, Core or Expert Expansion, that you thought would or actually did see constructed play.

Usually I expect about a quarter of the full reveal of a core set to be playable SOMEWHERE in the three main formats. Right now I'm expecting less than that because, as I said before, of the cards I listed, I'm almost certainly wrong about the playability of a third or so of those. A few will of the revealed cards will be surprises and maybe turn out to be all-stars but I wouldn't say enough to make up the gap. If I'm right about that this set sorta disappoints...

Ah the arguments of why this set is so bad! And let me tell you, it's REALLY bad. In fact, limburger cheese smells better than this. But there are some playables thinking in terms of just Legacy, Modern, and Standard (Note: Mostly standard). I'm putting them into two groups: Certified and Maybe. It should be self-explanatory as to what I mean by each.

Certified:
Ajani, Caller of the Pride, Oblivion Ring, Sublime Angel, Arctic Aven, Augur of Bolas, Master of the Pearl Trident, Sleep, Talrand's Invocation, Unsummon, Duress, Knight of Infamy, Mutilate, Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis, Ravenous Rats, Sign in Blood, Vampire Nighthawk, Krenko's Command, Magmaquake, Searing Spear, Smelt, Thundermaw Hellkite, Farseek, Flinthoof Boar, Rancor, Thragtusk, Ring of Kalonia, Tormod's Crypt, M10 land cycle, Hellion Crucible

Maybe:
Attended Knight, Knight of Glory, Downpour, Essence Scatter, Jace's Phantasm, Negate, Vampire Nocturnus, Fervor, Flames of the Firebrand, Worldfire, Acidic Slime, Arbor Elf, Mwonvuli Beast Tracker, Revive, Yeva, Nature's Herald, the rest of the Ring cycle, Cathedral of War

Note: These are all PLAYABLE but might not have the support for the individual cards (I'm lookin' at you, Hellion Crucible and Nefarox). If you want reasons on why some cards in the maybes I can absolutely give them. But overall, when you have about 33 cards that are definite plays and another 20 maybe cards (totally only a quarter of the known set between both categories) it's looking not so good. And odds are that I'm wrong on about a third of the Certified list. So probably even less. This set BLOWS.