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Well, it’s that time again. A new set is on the horizon, and magic players in boats everywhere eagerly wait to reach it.
Okay, that’s horrible. Let me put it this way: Eighth edition is coming out (or the “core set” for all you hardcore, buzzword freaks out there). Why is this exciting? Well we’re going to see a few good cards come back, more horrible ones around to stay, and most of all, it happens right when one of the most powerful decks to come into existence in a while rotates out of Standard. What does all this mean? Many, many possibilities.
Let’s start off and get the easy colors out of the way. First…
Red.
Red gets Rukh Egg, which is not nearly as fun now that we have advanced rules and phrases like “To the graveyard from play” but it’s a 4/4 flyer for red anyway, which is nothing to shank into the worthless box. Red also reclaims Guerrilla Tactics, one card I personally always liked. Burn is always good, and burn that punishes people for making you discard it is great. The Hammer is also back (the good one, from Bogardan. Volcanic is also back.) Nothing else in red impresses me much, but I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan of that particular color, so I’m probably overlooking something (or a few somethings). Now, on to a more interesting topic….
Green
Ah green. The color of “smash your opponent’s face in with huge creatures, or generate a lot of mana with those pussy-ass, pointy-eared, hippy-wanabe elves”. Choke is back, for all you “I’m pro winning against blue decks” losers. Also Plow Under, which I know was played in trinity green in extended, and might just be a possibility in standard decks. There are a couple other inclusions, notably Naturalize, which replaces Disenchant in the “core set” now. One of the big changes, and personally, I’m not all that concerned. Moving on.
Artifacts & Land
Exciting news! The Urza’s lands are now reprinted. Hurrah.
Anyway. The artifacts are your standard, functional, simple, but mostly useless ones to be found in the basic sets. One inclusion I think could be interesting is Skull of Orm, but I’m probably way off base here. Also the invasion come-into-play tapped dual lands are being reprinted instead of the pain lands a lot of people were hoping for. Frankly, while this brings to light some interesting tempo considerations for multi-colored decks, it may just be bringing a needed balance. City of Brass is still around, however, leaving a few options open.
Black
I must admit, black is the color I’m glad to see the most cards in, but I’m not saving it till last, because I think the remaining two colors have a couple more important things to talk about. Maybe, just possibly I’m over-hyping this next card, but I just have to say it is the single best card in the set. It will have entire decks built around it, and will ruin the metagame, because this card is all-powerful. Okay, I’m just kidding, but I am very excited to see Underworld Dreams. I think it’s a cool card, and I’m definitely going to try it in a deck or five. Also I was glad to see Phyrexian Arena is back. I like the card Ambitions Cost, which has arrived from portal, to grace the core set with its presence. Also Black gets Vampiric Tutor…..’s little brother Diabolic Tutor. Not a terrible card by any means. Lord of the Undead (Yay zombies!), Mind Sludge, Nekrataal, Royal Assassin, and Zombify all come back as well. All in all, a good showing.
Blue
There is no Counterspell. I’ll just get that out of the way right now. Blue does not get the card Counterspell in Eighth Edition. I’m not going to address the power-balancing issue of removing that card from standard in this or any future article. Frankly, the logic behind wizard’s decision is something on a very large scope, which is not beyond me, but my interest is highly limited. The card is gone, and I will just play without it whenever I play in standard. Blue does however get Merchant Scroll, as well as Mana Leak. Both fun cards in there own right. Concentrate and Curiosity are also back. Once again, this is a color I dabble with infrequently, so I can’t say I have much to say…I say. Anyway…
White
White. Ah yes. White. It’s the only color in Eighth Edition that when I look at it, I see Tod’s white weenie. I mean the deck White Weenie. Which how has Savannah Lions again. Interestingly enough this also empowers the Extended version of the deck a bit. Chastise is a good creature stopper (by no means a Swords, but ah well). Demystify is in, giving white some one-mana enchantment destruction. Whipcorder’s non-rebellious ancestor Master Decoy is back. Also Story Circle comes back, a good, playable card, which white needs all of it can get. Karma is back, for all you swamp hating fools. (Funny, they re-printed two enchantments that hose the two colors in the deck Psychatog right when the deck rotates.)
All in all, this pretty much represents my current view on the set. Not a lot of interesting things, but enough I’ll have to pick up a few new cards. I’m certainly looking forward to playing the set for the first time at Gencon this year, and also to whatever new decks arrive with the standard rotation. And now….
Props:
Props to me for having my set of Urza’s Lands already. Boo-Yah!
To the rest of my Crew goin’ to Gencon this year, yo! Word to my Boizzzzzzzzzzzz!
To the worker at Trademart who said “Yeah, Todd? I can’t find your white weenie” in front of the moderately attractive new female employee.
Slops:
To the worker at Trademart for being gay.
To the other worker at Trademart for not finding any of the cards I needed.
To Talbert, because I’ve been hearing way too much gay stuff about him lately.
Good luck to everyone at the next tournament.
-Chaos |
