From the top: I don't play this game anymore, I am not intimately in touch with the current metagame, and therefore I have to evaluate these cards mostly on raw power level. If I don't talk about a card I don't think it's going to see constructed play in normal formats. I will make an effort to respond to anyone's thoughts in the thread.


All Is Dust
7
Tribal Sorcery - Eldrazi
Each player sacrifices all colored permanents he or she controls.

7 is pretty close to the appropriate cost for an on-color global sweeper, so one that any deck can play and that can benefit from Eldrazi mana is worth a look. Plus, making people sacrifice their stuff is about as good as you get: it hits indestructible creatures My feeling is that All is Dust is likely to see play, but how much play it sees is going to depend on whether or not decks exist that want to do what it does—I don’t think it creates deck archetypes by itself.

Eldrazi Conscription
8
Tribal Enchantment - Eldrazi Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +10/+10 and has trample and annihilator 2.

You’re not playing this unless you’re cheating it out, but if you’re cheating an enchant creature out, this is probably the right one.

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
15
Legendary Creature - Eldrazi
15/15
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn can't be countered.
When you cast Emrakul, take an extra turn after this one.
Flying, protection from colored spells, Annihilator 6
When Emrakul is put into a graveyard from anywhere, its owner shuffles his or her graveyard into his or her library.

Emrakul is the only one of Eldrazi who actually does win you the game when you play him. He’s also pretty attractive in general as a target to cheat out, since he’s hard to kill and since one swing from him will generally seal the game. I don’t think anybody’s hardcasting him on purpose, but decks that want to cheat him out will occasionally hardcast him on accident and that’s pretty hot when it happens.

I think that all of the other Eldrazi are terrible. It’s not that they’re uncastable—you can build a deck that casts them if you really want to do so. They’re just not any better than the ginormous fatties we already have access to unless you’re using Eldrazi mana to cast them, and I think that the Eldrazi mana is a pretty marginal advantage. I don’t think I ever want any of the non-Emrakul Eldrazi on the board more than I want Iona or Sphinx of the Steel Wind, and those guys are cheaper than most of the Eldrazi.

Annihilator just doesn’t look that strong to me unless the number is very large. That said, if you’re cheating guys out from hand then Ulamog looks ok and if you’re doing it from the yard then I think Pathrazer of Ulamog or It That Betrays gets the call.

Demystify
W
Instant
Destroy target enchantment.

Sure fine whatever.

Gideon Jura
3WW
Planeswalker - Gideon
6
[+2]: During target opponent's next turn, creatures that player controls attack Gideon Jura if able.
[-2]: Destroy target tapped creature.
[0]: Until end of turn, Gideon Jura becomes a 6/6 Human Soldier creature that's still a planeswalker. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to him this turn.

I’ve written about Gideon already, but I think that he’s a pretty cool dude. Although he’s at his best against decks that are trying to kill you with creatures, where he is capable of locking them out of the game entirely, he also pulls double duty as an acceptably-costed hard-to-kill beater. I think Gideon sees widespread standard play. Gets better when you’re fighting men with men, but also works if you’re just trying to wrath them and lock them out.

Kor Spiritdancer
1W
Creature - Kor Wizard
0/2
Kor Spiritdancer gets +2+2 for each Aura attached to it.
Whenever you cast an Aura spell, you may draw a card.

Might be good enough somewhere sometime. Even a partial Enchantress effect can be a pretty big deal. If they ever print anything Rancor-level again, man, look out.

Linvala, Keeper of Silence
2WW
Legendary Creature - Angel
3/4
Flying
Activated abilities of creatures your opponents control can’t be activated.

Obviously Linvala doesn’t see play if the other guy isn’t using creatures with activated abilities. I think that if they are, she might; the body is acceptable and messing with the other guy’s mana dorks is pretty potent.

Near-Death Experience
2WWW
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have exactly 1 life, you win the game.

Don’t see it right now but this is a fairly easy alternate win condition to fulfill.

Oust
W
Sorcery
Put target creature on top of its owner's library second from the top. Its controller gains 3 life.

Wants to be an instant, but still very strong at sorcery speed-- this has a good chance at extended-level play.

Repel the Darkness
2W
Instant
Tap up to two target creatures.
Draw a card.

I can see this as a sort-of-clumsy way to protect a planeswalker or set up a defense. Nice that it can cycle no matter what. Potentially goes in the turbofog toolkit, although it’ll lose steam in the late going.

Soul's Attendant
W
Creature - Human Cleric
1/1
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, you may gain 1 life.

We know what Soul Warden does, and it’s sometimes useful. I guess the spawn make it marginally more so.

Student of Warfare
W
Creature - Human Knight
1/1
Level up {W}
[Level 2-6] First strike (3/3)
[Level 7+] Double strike (4/4)

Very attractive. White Weenie traditionally has some issues with wasted mana because 2cc white creatures are undercosted and 3cc white creatures are underpowered. This gives you a productive place to put some of that mana. 3/3 first strike is good enough to win a lot of ground fights. You have to be mono-W to play the Student but if you are I think you probably want to do so.

Survival Cache
2W
Sorcery
You gain 2 life. Then if you have more life than an opponent, draw a card.
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)

If this were an instant it would be amazing. As is? Eh. It has a shot, I guess. Be the first one to play it in the mirror!

Transcendent Master
1WW
Creature - Human Cleric Avatar
3/3
Level up {1}
[Level 6-11] Lifelink (6/6)
[Level 12+] Lifelink
Transcendent Master is indestructible. (9/9)

Real longshot but sometimes 3/3s for 3 are good enough and if it stays on the board you’ll be able to threaten to go large before too long.

Wall of Omens
1W
Creature - Wall
0/4
Defender
When Wall of Omens enters the battlefield, draw a card.

Fantastic way to set up wraths or planeswalkers. Aggro is better at bashing through this than it was in Wall of Blossom's heyday.


Deprive
UU
Instant
As an additional cost to cast Deprive, return a land you control to its owner's hand.
Counter target spell.

I think this is instantly the best counterspell in standard.

Eel Umbra
1U
Enchantment - Aura
Flash
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1.
Totem armor

If there’s a matchup where you have blue mana and creature combat or saving your guys from burn is important, Eel Umbra has a shot.

Enclave Cryptologist
U
Creature - Merfolk Wizard
0/1
Level up {1}{U}
[Level 1-2] {T}: Draw a card, then discard a card. (0/1)
[Level 3+] {T}: Draw a card. (0/1)

My general feeling is that Looter is better, but I’m not sure enough to write Cryptologist off completely.

Gravitational Field
3UU
Enchantment
Creatures with flying get +2/+0.
Creatures without flying get -2/-0.

You don’t want to play this unless it locks your opponent out of their game. Watch out for Eldrazi Monument.

Guard Gomazoa
2U
Creature - Jellyfish
1/3
Defender, flying
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to Guard Gomazoa.

Best blocker we’ve seen in a long time. If there are lots of 1-toughness guys who attack, Gomazoa is excellent; otherwise, merely ok.

Narcolepsy
1U
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
At the beginning of each upkeep, if enchanted creature is untapped, tap it.

This is actually pretty good removal. I expect it to see play in standard.

Reality Spasm
XUU
Instant
Choose one - Tap X target permanents; or untap X target permanents.

Stuff like this is occasionally important for combo purposes.

Sea Gate Oracle
2U
Creature - Human Wizard
1/3
When Sea Gate Oracle enters the battlefield, look at the top two cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the other on the bottom of your library.

If 1/3 dudes are useful then so is this guy.

See Beyond
1U
Sorcery
Draw two cards, then shuffle a card from your hand into your library.

Here’s what See Beyond isn’t: it’s not card advantage, it’s not going to win you the game, it’s not going to enable reanimation, it’s not an instant, and it’s not going to be a dead draw ever. It’s deck lube. It’s Brainstorm. It’s Insight. It’ll see play in decks that aren’t massively redundant: think combo or some types of control, not aggro and not 24counterspell.dec.

Sphinx of Magosi
3UUU
Creature - Sphinx
6/6
Flying
{2}{U} : Draw a card and put a +1/+1 counter on Sphinx of Magosi.

I think Jwar-Jwar is just better, but then again, if the other guy has Jwar-Jwar you want this. Ditto Baneslayer.

Training Grounds
U
Enchantment
Activated abilities of creatures you control cost up to {2} less to activate. This effect can't reduce the amount of mana an ability costs to activate to less than one mana.

I think this is likely to be too cute, but the price is right and that’s a lot of mana you’re saving with the right companion cards.

Unified Will
1U
Instant
Counter target spell if you control more creatures than that spell's controller.

Possible this could work out of the board, but I don’t think you can MD it ever.

Bloodthrone Vampire
1B
Creature - Vampire
1/1
Sacrifice a creature: Bloodthrone Vampire gets +2/+2 until end of turn.

Dorks are easy to come by these days and this is one of the cheaper ways to leverage them for impact. Bloodthrone Vamp will be lethal sooner than it looks like he will.

Cadaver Imp
1BB
Creature - Imp
1/1
Flying
When Cadaver Imp enters the battlefield, return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.

Might work in some kind of Crypt of Agadeem strategy, I guess. Otherwise you need a 1/1 flier to be relevant and it really isn’t right now.

Consume the Meek
3BB
Instant
Destroy all creatures with converted mana cost 3 or less. They can't be regenerated.

Instant-speed wraths are pretty sweet, but I worry that the time isn’t right for it right now. Do note that this kills manlands, though.

Consuming Vapors
3B
Sorcery
Target player sacrifices a creature. You gain life equal to that creature's toughness.
Rebound

Pretty good if you can back it up with other removal to keep the numbers down. The lifegain is a big deal. Lots of times you’ll miss on the rebound because they held their guy, but that’s completely fine; when the card does that and they skip their turn it’s doing a fine job.

Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
3BB
Legendary Creature - Vampire Shaman
4/4
Flying
{X}{B}{B}: Target creature gets -0/-X until end of turn and Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief gets +X/+0 until end of turn.

Pretty well costed, but outclassed in the 5 slot right now. Another time, Drana!

Hellcarver Demon
3BBB
Creature - Demon
6/6
Flying
Whenever Hellcarver Demon deals combat damage to a player, sacrifice all other permanents you control and discard your hand. Exile the top six cards of your library. You may cast any number of nonland cards exiled this way without paying their mana costs.

Doesn’t make you go all-in unless it’s actually doing its trick, so that’s a plus. I think it’s a longshot, but it’s not worse than a lot of other 6cc monsters.

Inquisition of Kozilek
B
Sorcery
Target player reveals his or her hand. You choose a nonland card from it with converted mana cost 3 or less. That player discards that card.

Solid targeted discard that will whiff even more often than its brethren. Don’t get cute and play this in standard.

Last Kiss
2B
Instant
Last Kiss deals 2 damage to target creature and you gain 2 life.

Sometimes (rarely) this effect is worth playing. Look for lots of 2-toughness men to know if now’s the time.

Mortician Beetle
B
Creature - Insect
1/1
Whenever a player sacrifices a creature, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Mortician Beetle.

Shouldn’t this have been a vampire? I think it has a shot, although not a great one-- the sac outlets just don't exist. That said, it triggers off of Gatekeeper and spawns and maybe that'll be enough.

Nirkana Revenant
4BB
Creature - Vampire Shade
4/4
Whenever you tap a Swamp for mana, add {B} to your mana pool (in addition to the mana the land produces).
{B}: Nirkana Revenant gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

You’re paying for the personal mana flare. Anything else it does is gravy. I doubt Revenant is good enough, but there are other reasons to play a bunch of swamps anyway and it’s going to be big enough to fight anything
it wants to fight if you do get it down.

Pawn of Ulamog
1BB
Creature - Vampire Shaman
2/2
Whenever Pawn of Ulamog or another nontoken creature you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may put a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token onto the battlefield. It has "Sacrifice this creature: Add {1} to your mana pool."

This translates into a really large number of sacrificial lambs. I think it might make it if you have a way to sacrifice lambs productively.

Pestilence Demon
5BBB
Creature - Demon
7/6
Flying
{B}: Pestilence Demon deals 1 damage to each creature and each player.

If you untap with it you’re not losing, but 8cc guys are supposed to do that.

Suffer the Past
XB
Instant
Exile X target cards from target player’s graveyard. For each card exiled this way, that player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

Suffer the Past is a little bit of a longshot but it does three potentially useful things. It doesn’t do any of those things particularly well, but it does do them.

Thought Gorger
2BB
Creature - Horror
2/2
Trample
When Thought Gorger enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on it for each card in your hand. If you do, discard your hand.
When Thought Gorger leaves the battlefield, draw a card for each +1/+1 counter on it.

I like this guy! He’s regularly going to come down in the 5/5-7/7 range, and since he tramples you can’t really ignore him. He also enables yard strategies. You need to be the aggressor for Gorger to be relevant, but generally playing a large trampler for 4 mana makes you the aggressor anyway so that’s ok.

Vendetta
B
Instant
Destroy target nonblack creature. It can't be regenerated. You lose life equal to that creature's toughness.

I think this is not a great time for Vendetta—too many black creatures, and the ones that aren’t black are often huge. That said, killing something for 1 mana is valuable and you’re not punching yourself in the face with your manabase at the moment, so I’d imagine that Vendetta squeezes in somewhere.

Devastating Summons
R
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Devastating Summons, sacrifice X lands.
Put two X/X red Elemental creature tokens onto the battlefield.

Attractive in burn mirrors, where you go all-in and see if they can kill your 2 5/5s in time. Kind of slow and clunky otherwise—the fact that you’re not casting much after you Summons means that your two non-evasive guys have to be a fast clock, and non-evasive guys are by definition easy to stop.

Explosive Revelation
3RR
Sorcery
Choose target creature or player. Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a nonland card. Explosive Revelation deals damage equal to that card's converted mana cost to that creature or player. Put that nonland card into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

A big clunky red-based control deck might want this as a value play, but I think you have to play too much cheap stuff to stay alive until this goes live to make it reliable as removal.

Flame Slash
R
Sorcery
Flame Slash deals 4 damage to target creature.

It’s cheap and it kills stuff. That gets you in the door.

Forked Bolt
R
Sorcery
Forked Bolt deals 2 damage divided as you choose among one or two target creatures and/or players.

Good if elves need to be lit on fire; in a world with few one-toughness creatures this rides pine.

Kargan Dragonlord
RR
Creature - Human Warrior
2/2
Level up {R}
[Level 4-7] Flying (4/4)
[Level 8+] Flying, trample
{R}: Kargan Dragonlord gets +1/+0 until end of turn. (8/8)

The threat here is more important than the execution, although there will be times this guy does grow up big and strong.

Kiln Fiend
1R
Creature - Elemental Beast
1/2
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, Kiln Fiend gets +3/+0 until end of turn.

That’s a lot of payout for clearing the way for the Fiend; I think it might make the cut. All you need to do is burn their blockers to get value from this guy.

Lust for War
2R
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature becomes tapped, Lust for War deals 3 damage to that creature's controller.
Enchanted creature attacks each turn if able.

I can see this sneaking in as a way to take out a blocker while continuing to bring damage, although the guy you play it on still stymies your offense for a turn. I think you can regularly expect to get 6-9 damage out of Lust for War, though, and that’s a pretty good return.

Rapacious One
5R
Creature - Eldrazi Drone
5/4
Trample
Whenever Rapacious One deals combat damage to a player, put that many 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature tokens onto the battlefield. They have "Sacrifice this creature: Add {1} to your mana pool."

I doubt the One is good enough but it does make a whole bunch of guys. You have to respect that.

Spawning Breath
1R
Instant
Spawning Breath deals 1 damage to target creature or player. Put a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token with "Sacrifice this creature: Add {1} to your mana pool" into play.

This is about as great a way to bolt your elf as there has ever been anywhere.

Splinter Twin
2RR
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has "{T}: Put a token which is a copy of this creature onto the battlefield. That token has haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step."

If Splinter Twin does anything it’s because it’s part of a combo kill, but that isn’t exactly hard to imagine.

Staggershock
2R
Instant
Staggershock deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
Rebound

Very good if there are 2-toughness guys to blow up, kind of meh if there aren’t. Instant status helps tremendously.

Surreal Memoir
3R
Sorcery
Return an instant card at random from your graveyard to your hand.
Rebound

Your best case scenario for this is that it gets you back two bolts (or one bolt twice, whatever.) That’s a pretty good scenario! I think this has a shot if stupid burn exists and plays ~16 instants.

Tuktuk the Explorer
2R
Legendary Creature - Goblin
1/1
Haste
When Tuktuk the Explorer is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a legendary 5/5 colorless Goblin Golem artifact creature token named Tuktuk the Returned onto the battlefield.

Goblins are traditionally easy to sacrifice, and sometimes you just need a colorless dork. Nothing wrong with that.

Ancient Stirrings
G
Sorcery
Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a colorless card from among them and put it into your hand. Then put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

This is one of the very few Eldrazi enablers in the set that I like. Most of the time this just gets you a land; that’s fine, there are many powerful lands in standard right now. Other times, it’ll find you colorless action—at the moment, there aren’t a ton of strong colorless artifacts, but there have been in past and will be again. I think this will see play alongside All is Dust. It may be good enough for all formats, including eternal ones.

Awakening Zone
2G
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token onto the battlefield. It has "Sacrifice this creature: Add {1} to your mana pool."

Love this. It spews out chumps and also threatens to enable huge things, and it does so at a planeswalker-friendly spot on the curve. You obviously need to have more action than just Awakening Zone, but you’re getting pseudo-removal and acceleration and even dorks to hold equipment or otherwise be dorks at a bargain price.

Growth Spasm
2G
Sorcery
Search your library for a basic land card and put it into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.
Put a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token onto the battlefield. It has "Sacrifice this creature: Add {1} to your mana pool."

Also solid! You’re paying a premium for the Rampant, but you can recoup one mana immediately if you really need to do so or use it next turn on whatever you were ramping into the first place.

Haze Frog
3GG
Creature - Frog
2/1
Flash
When Haze Frog enters the battlefield, prevent all combat damage that other creatures would deal this turn.

As a one-off, unexciting, but CiP creatures mean CiP creature recursion and fog is a strong effect to recur.

Jaddi Lifestrider
4G
Creature Elemental
2/8
When Jaddi Lifestrider enters the battlefield, you may tap any number of untapped creatures you control. You gain 2 life for each creature tapped this way.

I can see this having a niche spot in matchups where you have guys and need to shore up your life total and the ground simultaneously.

Joraga Treespeaker
G
Creature - Elf Druid
1/1
Level up {1}{G}
[Level 1-4] {T}: Add {G}{G} to your mana pool. (1/2)
[Level 5+] Elves you control have "{T}: Add {G}{G} to your mana pool." (1/4)

One of the better levelers, although it doesn’t pay out until the turn after you level it up. I still think it makes the grade but this will play with your mana curve very differently than Llanowar Elves would.

Mul Daya Channelers
1GG
Creature - Elf Druid Shaman
2/2
Play with the top card of your library revealed.
As long as the top card of your library is a creature card, Mul Daya Channelers gets +3/+3.
As long as the top card of your library is a land card, Mul Daya Channelers has "{T}: Add two mana of any one color to your mana pool."

Either of those outcomes is acceptable and green often gets to skip two-drops in favor of three-drops anyway.

Nest Invader
1G
Creature - Eldrazi Drone
2/2
When Nest Invader enters the battlefield, put a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token onto the battlefield. It has "Sacrifice this creature: Add {1} to your mana pool."

The body isn’t anything that’s getting your rocks off, but you’re also getting single-shot acceleration and that can be a very big deal. I think this works best in an aggressive deck that wants to get to 4 while still punching people in the face—think Eldrazi Green from a while ago.

Ondu Giant
3G
Creature - Giant
2/4
When Ondu Giant enters the battlefield, search your library for a basic land card and put that card onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.

2/4 actually seems like a useful place to be right now statswise. 4 mana is probably too much to pay for the effect, since it pushes the Giant out of cascadia, but you could do worse to stabilize and ramp at the same time and in fact you probably have.

Overgrown Battlement
1G
Creature - Wall
0/4
Defender
{T}: Add {G} to your mana pool for each creature with defender you control.

Stellar even if you only have four of these as walls. This is really not going to be a friendly environment for small ground-based attackers.

Pelakka Wurm
4GGG
Creature - Wurm
7/7
Trample
When Pelakka Wurm enters the battlefield, you gain 7 life.
When Pelakka Wurm is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, draw a card.

Sometimes a large creature winds up being what somebody wants just because when it CiPs it gains you a boatload of life. I’m not saying somebody *will* want Wurm, but if they do, then that’s why, and they're probably cheating it out.

Prey's Vengeance
G
Instant
Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)

I like that you can protect your guy from burn on their turn and then still get to do extra damage with your Growth on yours. Might make it somewhere.

Realms Uncharted
2G
Instant
Search your library for four land cards with different names and reveal them. An opponent chooses two of those cards. Put the chosen cards into the graveyard and the rest into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

For Realms to be good, either there need to be 3 broken lands in your deck or you need to be able to access lands in your yard. I think that it so happens that neither of those conditions is true in standard right now but they’re true on a semi-regular basis. Valakut probably wants this anyway, just because it needs total cards badly and it isn’t that hard to find four differently-named cards that are all going to result in a mountain.

Tajuru Preserver
1G
Creature - Elf Shaman
2/1
Spells and abilities your opponents control can't cause you to sacrifice permanents.

My feeling is that this doesn’t have enough to stop and never will, but it’s a good solution in search of a problem.

Vengevine
2GG
Creature - Elemental
4/3
Haste
Whenever you cast a spell, if it's the second creature spell you cast this turn, you may return Vengevine from the graveyard to the battlefield.

4/3 haste for 4 mana is fine already. You can win games sending 4 to the face. To double up, you either need to be forced to discard Vengevine early, you need to sandbag creatures, or you need creatures in your deck that get you two triggers by themselves. The obvious ones are Bloodbraid and Ranger of Eos, but there will be others at some point.

Dreamstone Hedron
6
Artifact
{T}: Add {3} to your mana pool.
{3}, {T}, Sacrifice Dreamstone Hedron: Draw three cards.

Man that’s a lot of mana, and man that’s a lot of cards. Not sure where Hedron goes but I’m willing to believe that it goes somewhere that’s trying to ramp to very very high mana levels and that is therefore playing so much ramp that it appreciates the ability to cash some of it in for action on a situational basis.

Keening Stone
6
Artifact
{5}, {T}: Target player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard, where X is the number of cards in that player's graveyard.

This is actually a pretty good WC in slow matchups if you need a non-creature WC.

Prophetic Prism
2
Artifact
When Prophetic Prism enters the battlefield, draw a card.
{1}, {T}: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

Timesifter maybe I guess.

Runed Servitor
2
Artifact Creature - Construct
2/2
When Runed Servitor is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, each player draws a card.

I think Servitor may actually make a lot of sense as a speed bump in Open the Vaults-type decks. Sure, they get a card, but you get to look at another card that might be Open or a land that lets you cast Open, and it even comes back!

Eldrazi Temple
Land
{T}: Add {1} to your mana pool.
{T}: Add {2} to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast colorless Eldrazi spells or activate abilities of colorless Eldrazi.

There are few good ways to find this right now, and fewer good spells to cast with it. That said, the price is very low, so even if all you’re doing is playing 4 All is Dusts in your monogreen control deck then you’re fine tossing a grip of these in there.

Evolving Wilds
Land
{T}, Sacrifice Evolving Wilds: Search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.

This is actually an effect that you sometimes want to play 8 copies of, so it’s nice to have access to the second four.

Comments? Questions? Concerns? Trolls?

I hate it when I post these things and nobody says anything.

I didn't have anything to add, but I can say that I enjoyed reading your post. Everything you said seems pretty reasonable.

I'd consider that more telling of the set itself than anything else.

Well, I got nothing to say except that you can save one mana with [card]Pestermite[/card] by using Splinter Twin over Kiki-Jiki if you aren't Reveillarking or Tooth and Nailing the combo in.

Seems unlikely, but hey.

ITT: NJ reveals that his set reviews are just elaborate trolls. :pmooffput:

I guess there is not too much to say about 'this card does what it does, maybe it will go somewhere' repeated a lot.

It may be relevant that you're saving a RED mana. Lets you work off of one R/U filter and basic islands.

Are you telling me that you are not excited for themes of "dudes that cost a million that nobody will ever use" and "0/1 creatures"

Fair enough!

I thought that this was an exciting set early on in the spoiler process, but I just didn't see too many impact cards when I went through.

The big question is if the Eldrazi stuff is good enough; if it is, it's in a base-green deck with Ancient Stirrings so that you can find your stuff in a timely fashion.

Other than that, there just isn't much that I think is going to have an impact. The level-up guys are for the most part bad. There are a couple of walls that are good enough for standard play, but that's it.

The cards in this set that get me excited as a deckbuilder are Vengevine, Thought Gorger, Gideon Jura, and Awakening Zone.

edit: Also, I probably should have said this about Tuktuk: he's a reasonable card to play with Warren Instigator, and I continue to believe that at some point Warren Instigator will be worth playing.

I appreciate that you do these set reviews: if anything, reviewing cards without context offers me insight I can't find anywhere else. Pretty much all other reviews focus all their efforts on comparisons to past cards and possibilities for existing decktypes, which while helpful isn't the only thing that can be offered, as you illustrate.

Yeah, no real comments. A lot of interesting insights I never would have thought of. The stuff I disagree on is subtle, like I rate Mul Daya Channelers lower than you, but not by much. I think Surreal Memoir might see play outside of SRB; I have no idea where, but it doesn't seem outlandish to think that a deck might want to play an instant a bunch of times, and if it's the only instant in the deck apart from the Memoirs, the random drawback is eliminated.

I also think Nest Invader is worthless; it's not good enough at either of its roles (beater and mana accelerant.)

I don't play Constructed, and really suck at it, though. Which is why I didn't comment originally!

Cards that I think might have potential that you didn't mention:

[card]Guard Duty[/card]
1-mana pseudo removal for a guy you plan to wrath away or fly over later seems like it could have a place somewhere.

[card]Totem-Guide Hartebeest[/card]
Is this getting a pacifism or somesuch good enough? It seems like that's a lot to get from 1 card vs. aggressive decks.

[card]Domestication[/card]
No mention of this really surprised me. Yes, it misses some things, but it hits a lot and control magic is a very powerful effect. Also the fact that you can get anything for 1 turn is certainly relevant.

[card]Momentous Fall[/card]
You don't think this goes with Vengevine?

[card]Snake Umbra[/card]
If control decks w/ counterspells come back, this seems like quite a thing to put on a small evasive guy.

Turn two Instigator, turn-three double Tuk-Tuk, legend ruling themselves and getting you a pair of 5/5s!

:trey:

Someone somewhere is going to try this, and their opponent is going to laugh and laugh

Now let me tell you something... This card is bonkers! This will easily be a $50 mythic. You thought [card]Goblin Lackey[/card] was good, well get a load of this! /Erwin

And then someone else somewhere is going to try it's going to somehow work. That that other person will quit magic.


Mountain, raging goblin, blazing shoal pitching myojin, blazing shoal pitching myojin.

In response, I quit magic.

Looking forward to build some kind of ramp deck with Wall of Omen, and Pelakka Wurm. You could use Eldrazi to win, sure, or maybe Trace of Abundance's manlands.

My problem with Memoirs in a deck with (for instance) a bunch of blue instants is that it's an expensive sorcery, and getting back reactive instants with it is worse than getting back proactive instants since it removes your ability to get back the same instant twice. Still might work if you just want to draw a bunch of cards or whatever and you can live with doing so in part at sorcery speed.

I think you're getting a reasonable amount of value out of Nest Invader-- a 2/2 body is nothing special but it's big enough to be relevant, and even if it dies to removal you're still getting some value out of it. The fact that it makes two bodies also matters for things like Overrun. If you don't have global pump effects then the second body is much less attractive.

Guard Duty could work, I guess, but there are so many creatures where you take away their ability to attack and they're still a problem. There are many fine removal options in white. Use the other ones!

I like tutoring for narrow card types considerably more than the next man, but I think Hartebeest is just too expensive for what it does. 5 mana gets you a Baneslayer.

I originally was very high on Domestication and probably should have written up an entry. I think it is at an unfortunate spot: too expensive to fit in the Threads niche, but too limited to compete with real Control Magics. It is absolutely a good effect, and if it kept things with 4 power then I think it'd make it, but I think that 3 or less power is just not good enough. What do you want to steal with it, and what deck do you put it in over Persuasion?

My general experience with 4cc reactive instants is that they wind up sucking. Yeah, you could axe your fatty for cards, but wouldn't you rather hit them with your fatty instead? It isn't an engine like Greater Good was, either, it's a one-off, so you can't build your deck around it in quite the same way. I'd love to be wrong on that one, though.

I think Snake Umbra is just flatly disappointing. Totem Armor is limited in what it will protect your guy against and the Ophidian ability is not as good as it once was. If any of the other Umbras make it, I would think that it would be Bear.

But isn't it prone to be good again in this slower format? Slap it on an intimidating/unblockable guy and sneak through all those Walls.

SGC instead of that second Tuktuk and you're looking great, though!

Are we talking about limited or constructed here?

Oh, yeah. I agree in general, but I thought the double Tuk-Tuk play was too entertaining to ignore.

Talking about limited mainly, but could also apply to Standard. Every deck gets nice blockers, and the new removal spells capable of killing them are in black.

A couple of questions, some of which may already be addressed by the time I'm done wit this.

Are none of the totem armors playable? They seem vaguely [card]griffin guide[/card]ish. I know they're not equal - do any of them have a chance?

In the alternate universe in which 1/3s are good, is lighthouse chronologist really totally unplayable? He looked like he had potential.

And is new Sarkhan really unplayable in every format? Even though he draws cards? I know he's underwhelming, but how bad is he? Not even niche sideboard good enough? Is he the worst planeswalker ever?

I want to put a Bear Umbra on an Omnath so bad.

In older formats in black you can get Bob, [CARD]Phyrexian Arena[/CARD], [CARD]Night's Whisper[/CARD], etc. etc. In Standard in Black, if you want to draw cards you can get [CARD]Sign In Blood[/CARD] which will give you the cards faster and with enough mana left over to possibly use them in the same turn. His Diabolic Edict/upgrade ability isn't that great because the dragon is probably worse than whatever you kill of your opponent's, and because you're probably doing better to deploy a new threat at 5 mana than you are upgrading an existing one. He needs outside help to do more than Lava Axe with his "ultimate," and if you've got enough Dragons to dome your opponent for lethal, you're probably winning that game anyway, and if you've got a bunch of Dragons in your deck, he's probably going to die really fast when he's trying to draw you into them.

He seems decent in a Dragon-themed casual/EDH deck maybe, but I don't see it in competitive constructed.

I think the totem armor stuff is pretty awful, honestly.

Some of that is the removal picture-- lots of people RFG your stuff now, or make you sac it, and there's excellent bounce available in the format.

Some of it is that they didn't push the totem armor cards-- Boar and Bear are the only ones (other than Eel which is actually a counterspell in disguise) that give you an attractive boost given their CC.

Some of it is that creatures are more powerful than they've ever been, so creature enchantments have to run to keep up.

I wanted to write about Chronologist, too, but I just don't think it makes it. If being a 1/3 is a useful thing then that helps a lot, but even on the turn you flip him they have a full turn of theirs to nail him before you get your time walk. Too much mana and too fragile a guy.

Sarkhan is probably playable somewhere, I just hate everything he does. The drawing-cards ability is pretty poor-- depending on your deck's average CC, you're probably getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 cards off of him, but that presupposes that your opponent doesn't kill him and that the game goes that long.

For comparison, an enchantment that cost 4U, drew you a card when it came into play, and drew you a card on each of your next two upkeeps would be awful, and that's harder to kill than Sarkhan. I guess Sarkhan is in a different color, but it's not like black is totally devoid of card draw anyway.

Maybe I'm underrating the second ability, but usually stuff like that winds up being too cute and not good enough.

edit: I did not mention the 3rd ability because I think it's terrible. Yes, it is sometimes going to enable you to dome someone. Yes, at some point some smug asshole is going to play a t5 Sarkhan, sac his Thrinax, and then kill you next turn with the 3rd ability after playing Broodmate. Yes, that will be frustrating. No, that does not make Sarkhan a good card.

edit: boar not elephant

Not that I think the card goes in Jund really, but the 3R rebound instant regrowth sounds like something I'd want to play with Bituminous Blast (yes I know you don't get rebound if you cascade it).

Just got done reading it. I've been glancing back at it periodically throughout the day while waiting for builds. :lol:

Thanks NJ

For every 100 useless limited reviews, there's one NicJones and that's all you need. Thanks, man.

(JIC you're wondering why I'm so sandy in the vag about limited is that's all I am allowed to play. Our magic community is split so widely along economic lines, that virtually nobody in our play group can afford to play Constructed unless it's pauper cube or EDH. So I play a lot of drafts with them, and get to bite it if I want to play sixty cards.)

I think the fact that tuktuk makes a dude that is both large and colorless is going to turn out to be really important in a world with Kor Firewalkers.

And a goblin, to boot. SGC and goblin chieftain, rejoice!

Nice review, as always. This time you analyzed every card I thought was noteworthy, so I don't have much else to say.

I don't have anything constructive to add, but :pmowub:

I've seen some discussion of [card]Training Grounds[/card] with [card]Izzet Guildmage[/card], which can be used to go off turn 3 with [card]Manamorphose[/card] to draw your deck for a lethal [card]Banefire[/card]

A++ I would play that deck.

That is awesome

Yay three card combo requiring a 2/2 to stay alive.
:(