Green, color of life and great poundings. I'm quite pleased to see:
Ancient Silverback
Blanchwood Armor
Creeping Mold
Early Harvest
Elvish Berserker
Elvish Champion
Elvish Piper
Elvish Warrior
Force of Nature
Giant Growth
Groundskeeper
Hunted Wumpus
Llanowar Behemoth
Llanowar Elves
Maro
Might of Oaks
Natural Affinity
Naturalize
Needle Storm
Rampant Growth
Reclaim
Rootbreaker Wurm
Seedborn Muse
Silklash Spider
Summer Bloom
Trained Armodon
Tree Monkey
Verdant Force
Viridian Shaman
Yavimaya Enchantress
Zodiac Monkey
Green got some nice little reprints. Bubba is back (that's what we always called Force of Nature around here)! So is the extraordinarily mighty and astounding Verdant Force. I never thought I'd see the day that monster is back in Standard. Llanowar Behemoth was always nasty back in MirVLight block, should be pretty good now as well. Groundskeeper has some interesting synergy with the Saviors green cards, as does Summer Bloom, so they may see some play. Seedborn Muse and Silklash Spider are both welcome new reprints.
Why put Craw Wurm in at all if you put Ancient Silverback in? Why not Yavimaya Wurm instead? Makes no sense, since WotC tries very hard to avoid base set cards with the same cost that are directly inferior to another card with the exact same cost in the set (Craw Wurm loses -0/-1 and regeneration for no cost whatsoever).
Alas, poor blue. It got totally shafted in 9th. Utterly, compared to everybody else. I'm glad to see only:
Boomerang
Clone
Counsel of the Soratami
Evacuation
Exhaustion
Fleeting Image
Imaginary Pet
Mahamoti Djinn
Mana Leak
Mind Bend
Phantom Warrior
Remove Soul
Rewind
Sleight of Hand
Temporal Adept
Thieving Magpie
Thought Courier
Trade Routes
Traumatize
Zur’s Weirding
Even on that list, a number of the cards are very specialized, and will most likely never see real Standard play. Poor blue.
Bottle Gnomes
Coat of Arms
Defense Grid
Fellwar Stone
Howling Mine
Icy Manipulator
Jade Statue
Jester’s Cap
Loxodon Warhammer
Millstone
Ornithopter
Slate of Ancestry
Spellbook
Storage Matrix
Teferi’s Puzzle Box
Vulshok Morningstar
Storage Matrix is just begging to slide into the Lodestone Myr deck (with the Howling Mine still legal as well). Puzzle Box has always been a favorite of mine. Jade Statue, as many of us predicted from the artwork preview, is great. Can't wait to see what kind of W/U control decks abuse the oldest of the animating artifacts.
And as for lands:
Adarkar Wastes
Battlefield Forge
Brushland
Caves of Koilos
Karplusan Forest
Llanowar Wastes
Quicksand
Shivan Reef
Sulfurous Springs
Underground River
Urza’s Mine
Urza’s Power Plant
Urza’s Tower
Yavimaya Coast
Every single one is playable this time. Downright good, in fact. All 10 pain lands is awesome, and well worth losing the City of Brass. The Urza's lands have seen plenty of play lately, so everyone knows what they can do. But those of us that fondly remember MirVLight block are probably ecstatic to see Quicksand. If you've never played with or against Quicksand, be prepared. That bad-boy will see play in a ton of decks once the metagame adjusts to 9th. It gets rid of sooo many commonly played critters, without regeneration no less. It also swings a close combat into your favor. Go Quicksand!
Ah red, possibly the most difficult color to balance properly (if just one burn spell in an environment is too cheap, or there is one too many cheap burn spells, good ole red can win too quickly).
Blood Moon
Demolish
Enrage
Furnace of Rath
Goblin Balloon Brigade
Goblin King
Goblin Mountaineer
Guerrilla Tactics
Kird Ape
Magnivore
Mogg Sentry
Pyroclasm
Raging Goblin
Rathi Dragon
Relentless Assault
Seething Song
Shard Phoenix
Shivan Dragon
Shock
Stone Rain
Sudden Impact
Threaten
Thundermare
Viashino Sandstalker
Volcanic Hammer
Wildfire
Not too shabby, actually. Options for burn, Sligh, Ponza and the groundwork for some old-school decks to resurface (yay, Shard Phoenix control is back). And Thundermare is back, fantastic. I always loved that horse.
I am totally surprised they rotated Hippie back in. Don't get me wrong, I like the Spectre and all, but WotC has been seriously shying away from random discard for a while now (a move I agree with). I expected to see Hollow Spectre in this slot.
When all is said and done, though, I like:
Blackmail
Coercion
Consume Spirit
Cruel Edict
Dark Banishing
Diabolic Tutor
Festering Goblin
Foul Imp
Grave Pact
Hell’s Caretaker
Highway Robber --> Everyone does know that Skull Collector exists now, right?
Hypnotic Specter
Lord of the Undead
Megrim
Mind Rot
Mindslicer
Mortivore
Nantuko Husk
Nekrataal
Persecute
Phyrexian Arena
Ravenous Rats
Royal Assassin
Sengir Vampire
Soul Feast
Swarm of Rats
Underworld Dreams
Unholy Strength
Will-o’-the-Wisp
Zombify
So all in all, black seems to do just fine, especially compared to some of the other colors.
Ancient Silverback
Blanchwood Armor
Creeping Mold
Early Harvest
Elvish Berserker
Elvish Champion
Elvish Piper
Elvish Warrior
Force of Nature
Giant Growth
Groundskeeper
Hunted Wumpus
Llanowar Behemoth
Llanowar Elves
Maro
Might of Oaks
Natural Affinity
Naturalize
Needle Storm
Rampant Growth
Reclaim
Rootbreaker Wurm
Seedborn Muse
Silklash Spider
Summer Bloom
Trained Armodon
Tree Monkey
Verdant Force
Viridian Shaman
Yavimaya Enchantress
Zodiac Monkey
Green got some nice little reprints. Bubba is back (that's what we always called Force of Nature around here)! So is the extraordinarily mighty and astounding Verdant Force. I never thought I'd see the day that monster is back in Standard. Llanowar Behemoth was always nasty back in MirVLight block, should be pretty good now as well. Groundskeeper has some interesting synergy with the Saviors green cards, as does Summer Bloom, so they may see some play. Seedborn Muse and Silklash Spider are both welcome new reprints.
Why put Craw Wurm in at all if you put Ancient Silverback in? Why not Yavimaya Wurm instead? Makes no sense, since WotC tries very hard to avoid base set cards with the same cost that are directly inferior to another card with the exact same cost in the set (Craw Wurm loses -0/-1 and regeneration for no cost whatsoever).
Boomerang
Clone
Counsel of the Soratami
Evacuation
Exhaustion
Fleeting Image
Imaginary Pet
Mahamoti Djinn
Mana Leak
Mind Bend
Phantom Warrior
Remove Soul
Rewind
Sleight of Hand
Temporal Adept
Thieving Magpie
Thought Courier
Trade Routes
Traumatize
Zur’s Weirding
Even on that list, a number of the cards are very specialized, and will most likely never see real Standard play. Poor blue.
Bottle Gnomes
Coat of Arms
Defense Grid
Fellwar Stone
Howling Mine
Icy Manipulator
Jade Statue
Jester’s Cap
Loxodon Warhammer
Millstone
Ornithopter
Slate of Ancestry
Spellbook
Storage Matrix
Teferi’s Puzzle Box
Vulshok Morningstar
Storage Matrix is just begging to slide into the Lodestone Myr deck (with the Howling Mine still legal as well). Puzzle Box has always been a favorite of mine. Jade Statue, as many of us predicted from the artwork preview, is great. Can't wait to see what kind of W/U control decks abuse the oldest of the animating artifacts.
And as for lands:
Adarkar Wastes
Battlefield Forge
Brushland
Caves of Koilos
Karplusan Forest
Llanowar Wastes
Quicksand
Shivan Reef
Sulfurous Springs
Underground River
Urza’s Mine
Urza’s Power Plant
Urza’s Tower
Yavimaya Coast
Every single one is playable this time. Downright good, in fact. All 10 pain lands is awesome, and well worth losing the City of Brass. The Urza's lands have seen plenty of play lately, so everyone knows what they can do. But those of us that fondly remember MirVLight block are probably ecstatic to see Quicksand. If you've never played with or against Quicksand, be prepared. That bad-boy will see play in a ton of decks once the metagame adjusts to 9th. It gets rid of sooo many commonly played critters, without regeneration no less. It also swings a close combat into your favor. Go Quicksand!
Blood Moon
Demolish
Enrage
Furnace of Rath
Goblin Balloon Brigade
Goblin King
Goblin Mountaineer
Guerrilla Tactics
Kird Ape
Magnivore
Mogg Sentry
Pyroclasm
Raging Goblin
Rathi Dragon
Relentless Assault
Seething Song
Shard Phoenix
Shivan Dragon
Shock
Stone Rain
Sudden Impact
Threaten
Thundermare
Viashino Sandstalker
Volcanic Hammer
Wildfire
Not too shabby, actually. Options for burn, Sligh, Ponza and the groundwork for some old-school decks to resurface (yay, Shard Phoenix control is back). And Thundermare is back, fantastic. I always loved that horse.
When all is said and done, though, I like:
Blackmail
Coercion
Consume Spirit
Cruel Edict
Dark Banishing
Diabolic Tutor
Festering Goblin
Foul Imp
Grave Pact
Hell’s Caretaker
Highway Robber --> Everyone does know that Skull Collector exists now, right?
Hypnotic Specter
Lord of the Undead
Megrim
Mind Rot
Mindslicer
Mortivore
Nantuko Husk
Nekrataal
Persecute
Phyrexian Arena
Ravenous Rats
Royal Assassin
Sengir Vampire
Soul Feast
Swarm of Rats
Underworld Dreams
Unholy Strength
Will-o’-the-Wisp
Zombify
So all in all, black seems to do just fine, especially compared to some of the other colors.
Q: What's worse that 1,000 babies in a garbage can?
A: One baby in 1,000 garbage cans.