A Rodent's Rambings: Spoiled Before the Season (#2)

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OutspokenFerret

24 August 2014

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Welcome back everybody! I got a lot of positive feedback for the first article dealing with finance, and many of you were in favor of the semi-daily spoiler talk so i figured I'd kick it off with the spoilers that Wizards has already laid out for us to Ponder over. So let's start with the mechanics that have been spoiled (The cards for them I don't see going anywhere) and what to watch for when more cards with them start rolling out.

First up we have "Raid", the mechanic for Mardu (RWB). Raid is an interesting mechanic, a kind-of opposite Battalion mechanic that triggers after combat. The mechanic itself is a little counter-intuitive with a lot of aggro plans because it doesn't play nice with Haste, nor does it help if your playing it into a stalled board. That being said you don't ever want to be in a stalled board playing aggro, and you don't want to play creatures without haste pre-combat anyways.

With this mechanic though, there are a few things to watch out for that could potentially make for an extremely powerful card. First of those, is an Instant or Sorcery with Raid. An instant or sorcery with this ability would have to get rid of the enters the battlefield clause, but it would essentially add effects to the spell if you've attacked this turn. I'm not sure if this is a possibility but if it is, look out for relatively low costed spells with Iconic effects, like say, a card that says:

Raid - Wheel of Fortune; then deal x damage to target player where x is the number of cards discarded this turn.

That card would be really strong considering the format it would be brought into, I would pay 5 mana for that but I feel that they wouldn't print that for eternal reasons and simply because that card is a bit too good, but I hope it provided a picture of what a Raid Instant or Sorcery might look like.

Second to look out for is a creature that upon dealing combat damage makes a creature token that has raid,doing anything from 1 damage to target creature/player or something similar. Again these are cards that would be noticeably powerful, but both seem a bit too much, but a similar idea might be something to catch you eye

Finally, I would be in the spec train for a Raid ability on a 3 color card because we could end up seeing anything from a 3 drop that deals damage, draws cards at the cost of life, and exiles an Artifact or Enchantment or similar triple effects to match the colors, to a 5 drop that Rummages, makes them Discard, and Exiles a Nonland Permanent. Now although it may sound like magical christmas land, wizards is notorious for slightly overloading cards so that they match the identity of their colors, so it really isn't all that farfetched.

The next mechanic on the list is "Prowess" for Jeskai (UWR). Now Prowess is the subject of a lot of internet hate because it is only going to ever be +1/+1 because of the way the ability is formatted. I think that there is something sly wizards R & D is up to, because otherwise I don't see why they made this mechanic so set in stone, but made Raid very lucid in its possibilities. I think that we should be on the lookout for a really powerful Prowess effect. Like a 1 drop with it, or a card that gives other creatures it because it does stack. Really those are what you want to look out for with Prowess as we don't know how Wizards is going to use this mechanic, maybe on a doublestriker?

The last mechanic to discuss before we move on to actual cards is Morph... Yes, morph is back, and just as confusing as ever (For now, we will see if wizards changes it up). Morph for those of you that don't know, is one of the fastest actions in Magic. It can be done whenever you have priority, and even in response to something like split second. This also means that it can provide instantaneous devotion when flipped, it can turn up when attacking and slap you in the face, it can flip to show your fatty who's bigger, and it doesn't have to be a creature that has it... The ability is so versatile that all I can tell you to look out for are effects from turning up that have already proven powerful such as Aven Mindcensor or static tricks like Boros Reckoner.

On to the actual cards spoiled. For this I will only be discussing Rares and higher unless something catches my eye somewhere else. There are 3 cards that I'll be going over this time, but to be honest, only one of them really feels like it has potential.

Zurgo Helmsmasher - Man, this card is a trap... It looks so cool, it seems like it hurts, but it can get Lightning Strike'ed if he gets a counter, otherwise he is killed by every burn spell in Standard. I would probably almost always run Stormbreath Dragon over this guy. Only thing I can see is if there is a creature that gives another creature Double Strike similar to Silverblade Paladin.

Thousand Winds - Bulk Rare Alert! Way too expensive for what it does.

The last card I have to talk about is the only one you might want to take a look at for speccing in my opinion. It has been kind of thrown off the table by its high cost but I think it may just be what some decks need to close out games, and it reminds me of another card that went from almost bulk to potent threat. The card:

Dragon Throne of Tarkir - Meet the disembodied Craterhoof Behemoth. Ya it's different, sure it's probably worse, but do you remember how annoying that card was? Anyways, this card is one that is on my potential spec list depending on what it gets listed as. Lets break it down the way we did BTE. First, what cards would go well with it? Polukranos, World Eater, check, Eidolon of Countless Battles, check, Nyxfleece Ram, a card to stabilize early till you can get going and can attack, check, Ajani's Pridemate, check, Hornet Queen, check, and a whole lot more.

A few shells that I think can make this card shine are Monsters, White Midrange, Green Devotion, Naya Midrange, Jund Chord, Junk Lifegain. At least a card to put on your watch list, and a card to pick up if it is at a bulk rare price.

That's it for today. Get excited for spoiler season beginning tonight! (I Think?)