Hello and welcome readers to another addition of Cards n’Flux. My name is Corlando and I am psyched for Magic the Gathering Core Set 2012. This week we saw the entire list of cards spoiled meaning my already pumping, deck-building brain went into overdrive. I cannot wait for this set to come out and let me show you all just a few of the reasons why.
First up this week I want to show all my readers probably one of the best lords ever printed. “Why is he so great?” is what I am sure you are all wondering. It is because he can go in any deck.
You guys see this? Three mana of any color, you get a 2/2 that boosts every creature of the chosen type by +1/+1, and it goes in any deck. How awesome is this? Those people in standard who want a Knight Deck, congrats you just got your second lord. Those people who want a 5th or 6th copy of Goblin Chieftain in their decks, here is a present for you from Wizards. I am just scared for those decks like Merfolk which already have several lords. This just gives them yet another booster to throw at their opponents. I can tell you I already have some pretty cool ideas for this card and I look forward to seeing what other people do with him.
The next card that we have this week is actually an uncommon. The card is Timely Reinforcements, a sorcery for two and white that gives you 6 life if you have less life than an opponent and three 1/1 soldiers if you control fewer creatures than your opponent.
Looking at this card I want to say it is good. It is not a Spectral Procession like what some people have been saying, but it still gives you three bodies and the added possibility of extra life. With cards like Honor of the Pure and True Conviction in play, this card can be amazing. However the problem is how do you put yourself in a position where your reinforcements do not arrive just in time to suppoer a corpse. One idea that has been thrown around is the use of Phyrexian mana to deal yourself damage and you basically wait for your opponent to summon a creature. This would not be a bad strategy, but the only real option for this would be Gitaxian Probe. With this card you can pay two life, look at your opponents hand to see how to proceed, then draw a card. If it does not look like your opponent will be summoning something any time soon, you can play one or two creatures and begin the beats. If he has something he will probably summon next turn, you can wait and prepare for your soldiers by playing some enchantment or summoning an artifact. I would love to see Timely Reinforcements actually see Standard play, but something tells me it just requires a little too much build around for it to reach that level. However, I know I will be having fun with it in many of my casual decks.
With M12 all five colors are getting reprints of some seriously fun older cards. For example Blue is getting this guy back:
Now I have only been able to play with Djinn of Wishes once, but I am certain he is definitely amusing and flavorful. First he is a 4/4 flyer for a total of five mana which is definitely not bad mana to power ratio. However, his main power, the three wishes can easily be broken if you have the ability to alter your deck a bit. You can do this with Preordain, Foresee, or even Dead Reckoning, though that would be a slower option. I would suggest Jace, the Mind Sculptor, but he was banned… which I am so happy about. One of the best things, he is Blue which has a majority of the good Proliferation spells. I am not saying you will receive infinite wishes, but you can get pretty close. Something tells me, this wish maker is going to a pretty fun guy.
The next card I want to look at is a fun card if you can it work. Here is Doubling Chant:
I really do like this card. I mean think about it in an elf deck, “Yes, I’ll tap my Elfish Archdruid, get six mana, and summon six completely new elves from my library.” That is a nice card for Elf decks… assuming a Slagstorm or Pyroclasm or a Day of Judgment does not flatten them afterwards. Yet, however awesome this sorcery might be, the fact is you need creatures on the field to really make it effective. Let us say that you are on your fifth turn and you finally have enough mana to play Doubling Chant next turn. Your opponent then plays one of the cards I mentioned above, killing off most of or all of your forces meaning that fun little card in your hand just became completely useless. The card is really unreliable meaning as much fun as it would be to summon a few more guys from your library for just six total mana, it will probably be rare you actually accomplish this or it is not just negated the next turn. However, I still find the card amusing and I am sure someone will make it work.
Actually, there is a card out there that would make Doubling Chant rather broken and that card is Warstorm Surge.
Think about this card as a more expensive, but better Electropotence. Instead of having to tack on an extra three mana whenever you summon a creature, now a creature just has to enter play under your control to make it a double threat. This will be a fun card in really any deck it can fit in, however being so expensive it really cannot be counted on as a win condition. It will be great in drafts as games tend to go longer than constructed duels yet I still want to find a way to build around this card. And as I said, Doubling Chant makes this broken. Imagine having a few cool creatures and Warstorm Surge on the field. Not only do you get to summon a few creatures, but you could even win the game without even swinging. There is potential in this card, I know there is. I wonder which one of you will unlock its power?
Our final card for this edition is a card I feel has the potential to be very good in EDH and possibly constructed:
This is a nice card. Stealing ten life away from an opponent is quite the bomb to play on most opponents. This will be a great card for those EDH decks that tend to lose a lot of life as they get their combos and strategies going. Granted, Exsanguinate might be a better option in multiplayer, stealing X life from everyone is incredibly powerful, but in one on one Sorin’s Vengeance might be the better call. On the constructed side, I can see people wanting to pull of the two card instant kill with Sorin Markov and Sorin’s Vengeance. Reduce them to ten life with Sorin, then steal ten with Vengeance, and good game dude. That is a nasty win condition for any Blue/Black Control or mono Black control deck. I do not want to say this combo will become a standard level strategy, at least not right now with the speed of Splinter Deceiver and Valakut, but I could see it becoming a threat maybe after October.
Well we are coming to the end folks which means it is time fro closing questions:
1. What would be your guess for how M12 will effect the general standard environment?
2. What is your opinion of Doubling Chant? Good? Bad? Worst rare in the set?
3. Is Timely Reinforcements too hard to build around? How would you make this card work?
Thank you everyone for stopping on by. Sorry for such a late posting, I have been a bit busy with important arrangements and requirements, but hopefully these will not interfere too much more in my work. Anyway, thank you again and keep this in mind as you look over the M12 spoiler list, “Etherium is Limited. Innovation is not.” This is Corlando signing out.