10. Hero of Bladehold
While I'm not the most fond of weenie strategies, this girl is certainly a beating in WW and similar decks. By herself if she goes unanswered she'll deal a full 18 to your life in just two turns of attacking! If you already have a few guys on the field then she's just gravy, and will probably end the game when he gets to attack. Combine him with other battle cry cards like Accorder Paladin and Contested Warzone and we might have a strong deck coming our way. In addition to all of this, the extra little nice thing about him is his four toughness, being able to dodge Lightning Bolt. Four CMC slot is a very competitive slot for all decks and is even questionable in a deck like WW given how low you want the curve, but I think she is worthy of the slot.
9. Black Sun's Zenith
I like this card a lot, and while it's not the strongest sweeper in the world, it's in the color black which makes it that much better (and off sets the better spot removal white got for so long *COUGH PATH TO EXILE COUGH*.) While it may not always wipe the entire board, it can at least make some things weak enough that they're mostly irrelevant. A 6/6 Frost Titan is a beating, but a 3/3? I'm okay with that. This card makes a very great slip into U/B control in standard and will probably replace Consume the Meek or regulate it to small numbers in the sideboard. This card also helps ensure that aggro decks will be kept in check (as well as a few other cards I have on this list) which is a bit sad because it seems as though they never really took off in the first place, with Vampires being the only aggro deck capable of fighting at the top tables.
8. Hero of Oxid Ridge
I thought for a while about this card but I came to the conclusion that I had to put him on this list. At 4/2 Haste for 4 he's already a little interesting but Battle cry is what makes this guy. He will make a great top end card for Goblins and other various creature heavy red decks. If you can have creatures on turn one, two, and three and drop this guy on turn four it will pretty much be guaranteed death unless for some reason you're playing a bunch of vanilla 1/1's. His last ability is just gravy, making your army hit past Wall of Omens, Sea Gate Oracle, Squadron Hawk, etc. I expect him to end up being the Mirran hero of choice in Boros, though I wouldn't be surprised if Hero of Bladehold found its way into the sideboard for matches where it needs more bodies to get through.
7. Thrun, the Last Troll
I expect this guy to have some pretty solid impact on Standard, and maybe even find his way into Extended (sorry, Faeries.) While he won't be auto jammed into every deck with Forests in it like a lot of people seem to think, he'll be very strong in decks that work with him. Regenerate is definitely what makes this card in my opinion, as we may finally see Regenerate be used now that "It can't be regenerated" isn't tacked onto every single removal spell. In current standard decks I find him making his way into RUG to put some pain on U/B. I really don't see him in decks like Valakut, as Valakut does not want a random 4/4, they just want more ways for Primevil to stick and do his job. Still, I see this guy smacking a lot of Jace's in the near future.
6. Blightsteel Colossus
I'm pretty sure this guy is not going to be hard casted very much, but I'm sure he'll be Shape Anew'd or Tinkered onto the field a lot. I too really am not a fan of this card, as well as pretty much every other big stupid creature Wizards has made recently. I think big huge things make the game a little out of whack as its easy in every format to cheat these guys into play, whether you're going to Summoning Trap, Polymorph/Shape Anew, Tinker, Natural Order, etc., they will get on the field way before they're intended to. This guy is easily the next worst to Emrakul, as this guy will just straight up kill you in one swing, where as Emrakul usually just guaranteed you weren't going to win. Regardless, this card is good and will see lots of play in all formats (though perhaps less so standard, at least for the moment.)
5. Inkmoth Nexus
Infect has been looking for a way to have a chance in the spot light and it definitely just got it. Infect is not an incredibly strong idea for the top tables of Standard tournaments in part because man lands are such a huge part of the Format. Now that infect has a man land, we may start seeing some Infect in the near future. This card has a lot more than just being a tool for Infect, though. Should proliferate ever become a strong strategy you can now just stick these in your deck without even sticking infect creatures in and threaten a win condition by just hitting them once with this. U/B control might just have a potential poison option in the near future now that you don't have to feel as bad for not running Tar Pit to his true potential (though he will still certainly see play at least for the sake that he taps for both colors and kills planeswalkers.) The last and perhaps most awesome feature of this card is that it is an artifact creature, which enables so many things from Tinker/Shape Anew (see the card above) to Metalcraft. I say expect to see this card for a while.
4. Slagstorm
This is probably my favorite card in the set for so many reasons. Being a red mage at heart, this card makes me feel pretty giddy; it blows up a bunch of creatures or it can bolt the dome for game/kill a planeswalker, all in one awesome card! In Extended/Legacy, any deck that currently uses Firespout that can afford to cast RR will probably switch to this card, as I really don't see the option of hitting only flyers or non flyers better than the option here on Slagstorm (and thats assuming you're playing red and green.) In standard this will definitely see some widespread play simply for the fact that it's a creature sweeper that can hit Jace when you need to. In heavy red decks Turn 3 Slagstorm into Turn 4 Koth will result in a lot of wins, as everyone who has played Koth knows that he dominates when there are no creatures on the other side of the board. While I'm certainly happy they printed this card, I really must wonder why they printed it. It's as though they thought aggro would actually be good by now (how much testing did they do with those Titans?)
3. Go for the Throat
What an awesome card. Maybe I'm just picky, but I've never been a fan of Doom Blade, as I only like conditional removal if the condition is pretty reasonable (I think an entire color, no matter what the meta is like, is a lot to ask.) While I guess you could say this still affects a 'color', it just so happens to just be way better than Doom Blade and pretty much every other mono black removal spell ever printed. In standard people are going to start slamming more Wurmcoil Engines to help avoid this, but in older formats this card is going to be at its prime. The only problem with this card is how you're going to say it when playing, as "I'm going to throat it" doesn't sound right.
2. Contested Warzone
I think this card is a big sleeper and is definitely one of the better cards in the set, which is why I ranked it so high on this list. War cry has already proven itself a powerful effect and sticking it on a land is very strong. Most of the time this will just be played like Tectonic Edge; more like a spell than a land, but it just so happens to also be a land. Vs. control it won't be much of a liability to just slap this down early on and lay down the beating, but in vs. aggro you will just save it until you need it for the final push. This card definitely has potential in other formats as any deck with lots of creatures that can afford the space will want this card. In addition, this card also seems like a great tutor for Knight of the Reliquary. If tapping lots of creatures has any chance of being a top strategy in Standard, this card will likely be a part of it.
1. Green Sun's Zenith
Green Sun's Zenith definitely seems like the strongest card in the set. Tutor cards never fail to be strong and one that puts creatures right onto the battlefield is going to be quite powerful. In standard this will be used in a variety of decks, but will likely be very strong in Valakut as it will allow it one of "bullet creatures" as well as acting like Primevil Titans 5-8, as if summoning trap didn't do that enough. In a deck with all green creatures this card will essentially be every single creature in your deck with an additional G added onto its mana cost. In fact I think just about the only competitive green decks that won't at least consider this are the decks in extended that have Bloodbraid Elf (cascade into this for 0 doesn't seem that good unless your packing memnites...?) Natural Order in Legacy shows us the power of tutoring green creatures onto the battlefield, and this card will probably be good in that deck too, but thankfully this card will not be as broken. That doesn't stop this from being the best card in the set.
While he's not in my Top 10 List, I think Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas deserves a shout out as a potentially powerful card. I think is main problem that he will be very restricted to what decks he can go in, which seems to be the path most Planeswalkers are taking now. Koth was restricting, but in my opinion he is not only far more powerful, but he is also a lot easier to field, as there are already a ton of decks with lots of mountains in them. In fact the only reason he isn't seeing as much play in standard as he should is the sad state of other red cards, or at the very least the overpowering state of decks such as Valakut. Tezzeret on the other hand will be a lot harder to field in all formats; Standard doesn't have enough good artifacts to make up for fielding Tezzeret as it currently stands, and he doesn't seem powerful enough for Legacy or Vintage (though quite honestly I know nothing about Vintage, but I do know Tezzeret 1.0 sees a good deal of play there...) Extended seems like a possibility thanks to the Esper Shard, so I have hope for him there. He has very powerful abilities but his limitations will certainly be the death of him.
That's all for my Top 10, feel free to drop a comment and stay in touch for upcoming articles on my new deck brews!
Brandon
No comments:
Post a Comment