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LET DARKNESS REIGN!

So I'm not a huge story guy, but it looks like the humans are getting their asses handed to them in this set.  They get a mechanic that doesn't seem all that appealing to play with in Fateful Hour, and that's about it.  Meanwhile, each of the other tribes seems to be getting some more goodies and mechanics to mess with to help push them over the top. 

Once again I am taking a look at the newest set through the eyes of a Commander player.  Like I already noted, I don't think Fateful Hour is going to have any sort of impact on Commander games at all.  I can recall seeing Near-Death Experience once in a game, but that deck didn't have a focus around the card.  You can turn it on automatically with a card like Form of the Dragon, but 5 points of life is very little and typically leaves you pretty vulnerable.  It's just not worth it.  This is obviously not the case with Undying, which I know you guys will be seeing a ton of if you haven't already.

Werewolves are back, and I still haven't changed my opinion of them:  Most are poop.  In a multiplayer game you will generally have no control over when they transform.  Sure, you can run Moonmist and a bunch of tutors, but it's still only one card.  A few of these guys might be worth playing though, but overall they can't change my opinion.

With that said, let's get on to the meat of the article!

LEGENDS

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed - Another large, beefy zombie for those of you that like to run tribal.  The most notable thing about the card, aside from the Intimidate, is that he gives Undying to your entire team.  The easiest way to abuse this is by using Persist creatures like Puppeteer Clique and Lingering Tormentor.  Add a free sacrifice outlet like Altar of Dementia, and you can do a whole lot.  Also, just guys with CIP abilities are good for getting 2 uses out of them.  An infinite damage combo that is pretty click intensive is Triskelion.  Just do one damage to an opponent, and another 2 damage to the Trisk.  He bounces back, then rinse and repeat.  I'm sure someone will try this out, and it's pretty cheap, but whatever.  If they want to perform all the clicks, let them waste 15 minutes.  Finally, you can just use a card like Cauldron of Souls to help out your army from board wipes as well.  The creature pump isn't horrible as well.  I'm pretty sure that you will be seeing a lot of this guy after he becomes available.  Just don't break him, please. As a regular creature in your deck he is pretty good, but I think that he will basically turn into a combo enabler, just like Melira, Sylvok Outcast.  He could definitely fit into a Teneb wedge deck with Melira to grind people out.  Or if you have a deck that likes dealing with counters, you can shove him in there.  He is just an all around solid guy to have.  Plus he can usually get through blockers as well.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - Ok, when I first saw this card I thought that it would go well into a stax type deck.  Fortunately you won't see many of those unless you play a lot of 1v1 games.  I have yet to see someone try to run Hokori, Dust Drinker in a multiplayer game, and I think that he's just generally better.  Grand Arbiter Augustin IV gets played, but on top of taxing opponents he gives the player a discount on his spells.  Thalia by herself isn't horrible but if you plan on using her as your Commander expect to receive some immediate hate. As a regular creature in your deck, she once again fits in stax strategies.  Or you could shove her into a creature centric build.  Otherwise I just couldn't see playing her.

CREATURES AND PLANESWALKER

 Afflicted Deserter - Sweet, after I start off by bashing werewolves, the first non-legendary creature I look at is a werewolf.  Well, this guy isn't horrible in that he can be a repeatable form of artifact destruction.  Of course, he won't be very consistent, but he is free.  Plus his ability is a "may" ability, so if you're the only one with an artifact in play you don't have to blow it up.  Still not as good as Viashino Heretic in my mind though.

 Beguiler of Wills - Well, she's good with token strategies.  But 5 mana seems like a lot.  Sure, you get to keep the stolen creature indefinitely, but how many people play Blue to get tokens?  I guess it's worth considering in Grimgrin decks that like making a ton of zombies.  Plus she is really fragile.  If there was a way to make a ton of wizard tokens at once without using Conspiracy, this would be much better.  The art is pretty sweet though.  For a big version of the art, check it out HERE.

 Dawntreader Elk - All right, so it's not as good as Sakura-Tribe Elder, but it's worth considering.  It does put lands directly into play unlike Civic Wayfinder, who has the same body.  But at least you won't feel as silly attacking with the Elk as you do with the Elder.  Or maybe that's just me.  If you really want additional acceleration past what's already available, this Elk is for you.

 Diregraf Captain - The first of the tribal pumpers, this guy not only pumps but adds on the ability of Vengeful Dead to your zombies!  Great with Tombstone Stairwell and other zombie token makers. Basically a must include card in your multi-colored zombie decks.

 Drogskol Captain - I have yet to see a dedicated spirit tribal deck that wasn't based around something like Celestial Kirin, but I have a feeling we may be seeing more with some of the additional spirit based cards provided in this block.  As a matter of fact, it would probably be pretty be pretty easy to build around a spirit deck around a Commander like Isperia the Inscrutable.  Occasionally you still do see a changeling based deck, which would probably include all these captains also.  This guy is seeing some play in Standard, as hexproof is not an ability to sneeze at, so I'm sure he will be popular.

 Drogskol Reaver - He's big, and he has double strike plus lifelink.  Sounds like he'd be great.  Even better with equipment like a Sword.  7 mana is a lot, admittedly, so he's competing for space with in your deck with Platinum Angel, Angelic Arbiter, Phyrexian Ingester, Chancellor of the Spires, Elesh Norn and Sphinx of Uthuun.  But really puts him over the top is the card drawing ability.  There are plenty of ways to gain incremental amounts of life, with the most basic being Soul Warden, Auriok Champion and Sun Droplet.  Just add a few of these to your deck and you will get some massive card advantage with the Reaver.  Good times. 

 Dungeon Geists - Tapping down a Colossus or Eldrazi isn't bad at all.  However, even though the Geists have flying most of the time you would rather have Frost Giant.

 Falkenrath Aristocrat - Worthwhile in vampire decks.  Don't forget that you can sacrifice any creature to make her indestructible, not just humans.  Haste is an underrated ability, and when you combine with evasion it makes for a decent creature, even with the low toughness.

 Fiend of the Shadows - In many games, you won't be able to cast the exiled card, as smart opponents will exile something outside of your color capabilities.  So she basically acts a slower Hypnotic Specter without the random aspect.  If you get lucky, they may discard a land, which wouldn't be bad.  Definitely more interesting if you throw her in a 5 color deck, but unfortunately she has stiff competition in that environment.  And I'm guessing the regeneration ability won't be used at all.

 Flayer of the Hatebound - I really wanted this guy to combo with Living Death but apparently that doesn't work.  However he works well with Geth, Lord of the Vault, Debtors' Knell, Reya Dawnbringer and other similar cards.  Or you could pack your deck with a lot of creatures with Undying and Persist to get more out of him, and include Cauldron of Souls.  Basic reanimator strategies won't mind having him either.

 Geralf's Mindcrusher - This guy seems like he could work well in decks that like to mill others.  Wrexial would probably like him a decent amount.  Basically if you are playing with Chancellor of the Spires you should also consider the Mindcrusher.

 Ghoultree - Large creature for low cost, but no evasion.  I remember back when I started playing everyone liked using Hamletback Goliath.  He could get huge, but didn't have evasion.  Sadly he has gone by the wayside now, but what cards like the Goliath, Ghoultree and Lord of Extinction are really about is how you can abuse them.  Usually you want to sacrifice them for a good effect, or just equip them to get damage through.  They also work well with global trample effects like Kamahl, Fist of Krosa or Baru, Fist of Krosa.  Or The Mimeoplasm just for the large body.

 Gravecrawler - If you play zombies, there is a ton you can do to abuse this guy.  He can be Skullclamp food or be sacrificed over and over.  Combine with a free sacrifice outlet to get good use out of him, or just use with Phyrexian Altar for infinite death triggers.  And there are lots of different cards that trigger when zombies die.  If nothing else he's a free blocker.  If you play zombies, especially Grimgrin, you should play this card.

 Gravetiller Wurm - The card is fine for what it is, but what I really want to do is rant about Wurms, or more specifically, the lack of a large Green iconic creature type.  Wurms are their big, stompy guys, but they generally suck, have no special abilities besides Trample, and are often common.  Yes, I know, Green has elves, but I'm talking about big guys.  White has angels, Red has dragons, Black has demons and vampires.  Even Blue has had sphinxes pressed into icon status recently.  Come on Wizards, I don't care if you use Dinosaurs or just re-work an existing creature type like Beast or Elemental (which are basically the biggest Green creatures out there currently), just do something consistent.  It looked like they were on the right path with Pelakka Wurm and Novablast Wurm, but they haven't done any other interesting wurms since.  And don't try to tell me that they are working on hydras, because one of the last ones they printed was Phyrexian Hydra, and he is poop.  Make a big and scary Green iconic creature type, please, I'm begging you!

Actually, after typing out this rant I took a look at the available wurms in Standard, and there are actually some decent wurms now, like Massacre Wurm, Wurmcoil Engine and Bellowing Tanglewurm.  But many of the better ones aren't Green!  Ugh.

 Havengul Lich - Yes, he is excellent.  Yes, you should put him into almost every deck you make using Black and Blue.  Yes, thank god he isn't legendary.  My only other suggestion is to run Necrotic Ooze along with him.   There is so much you can do with this guy it's nutty.  Have fun.

 Havengul Runebinder - Ehhh, I'm not a fan.  Zombie decks like recursion.  Sure, the creature pump is pretty nice, but getting rid of resources in your graveyard is just not the way to do it.  If you could get rid of creatures in opponents' graveyard, a la Cemetery Reaper, it would be a completely different story.  How sad would you be if you got rid of most of your graveyard, then drew Living Death?  Pretty sad is the correct answer.

 Hellrider - Aside from the cool art (I would love a wallpaper with him!) this guy is pretty sweet in any strategy that employs tokens.  Remember how devastating Rage Forger could be back when he was all the rage (*snicker*) in Standard?  Now can you just imagine having an active Ant Queen with this guy out?  Pretty much an auto-include in Red/Green token decks, and can even do well in Goblin decks.  I don't know what he's riding, but it sure looks fun!

 Huntmaster of the Fells - This guy costs a ton of money right now due to his popularity in standard.  My advice would be to pass on him.  His stats just aren't good enough to justify inclusion in most Commander decks.  He might be worthwhile in a token strategy since you automatically get a friend, but he suffers from the same problems as other werewolves:  You have little control about when he transforms.  And even when he does transform, the pay off isn't that great in Commander.  2 damage to a creature?  Great, you killed someone's Solemn Simulacrum and they draw a card.  Blah.  But at least you get a benefit each time he transforms, unlike the other werewolves.  He is admittedly the most playable werewolf, and therefore I would suggest waiting until the hype dies down on him before buying him if you want him for Commander.

 Markov Blademaster - I would love to play this lady in an equipment based deck.  Those counters will add up quickly, that's for sure.  Worth considering in Godo decks.  Actually, I really want to build a deck with her and Falkenrath Marauders.  I guess I'm going to have to make that vampire deck sometime.  Hmmm....

 Midnight Guard - All right, most people have heard the combos already, but I'll point them out in case you guys haven't.  Combine this guard with either Presence of Gond or Elemental Mastery to create infinite tokens.  Elemental Mastery is probably better, since the tokens have Haste.  Is it worth including this combo in your Rith deck?  I'll let you decide.

 Mondronen Shaman - Once she's flipped, she's awesome.  Unfortunately she won't stay flipped for long.  

 Moonveil Dragon - Global anthem effects are pretty sweet.  Usually you have to use something like Leonin Sun Standard for this kind of global pump.  But those other cards don't come with a dragon attached.  Again, probably worth considering in token strategies and tribal strategies like goblins, but probably not worthwhile in your dragon deck.

 Predator Ooze - Indestructible is good.  Just keep sending him into the fray to make him large.  It does take a while to get him big though.

 Pyreheart Wolf - Goblin War Drums on a creature.  Good with token strategies.  I'm sounding like a broken record now with that recommendation.

 Ravenous Demon - Ummmm, no.  Yes, you get to choose when to flip this guy.  But if you don't have the right type of food for him once flipped he turns on you.  Most of the favorite foods for these guys are spirits and skeletons, a la Nether Spirit and Reassembling Skeleton.  No non-humans allowed, which is a tough restriction to work with.  Wouldn't make it into the Sol'kanar deck from last week, that's for sure.

 Requiem Angel - Awesome, because it doesn't have the "non-token" clause you've come to expect from this type of effect.  Automatically goes into Radiant, Archangel decks.  Wrath insurance is the best.  Combine with Field of Souls to double up on your tokens.

 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad - He's fine.  I'm not going to cram him into decks that don't have some sort of token theme though.  The lifelink isn't that exciting on such little guys and the emblem isn't all that impressive either.  Obviously his ultimate works out better in this format than others, though.  So if you have a proliferate deck, he is probably more valuable.  I'm just not feeling his overall utility.  I've heard that he's practically the second coming, but I don't buy it.  Worthwhile in Teysa and Ghost Council decks.

 Stromkirk Captain - Nice little vampire pumper.  Better than the other vampire lords?  Nope, but first strike is nice.

 Thraben Doomsayer - Fateful Hour would be the main reason to play this, but it would still be just a fragile anthem effect.

 Vorapede - Large beater with vigilance isn't horrible.  Too bad his creature type isn't more relevant.  May see some initial play, but unless you are running some sort of Undying themed deck, won't be sticking around.

ARTIFACTS, ENCHANTMENTS AND LANDS

 Call to the Kindred - First, it's an Aura, which means that it is more fragile than most permanents.  Next, you have to be playing tribal, with Blue being one of your colors.  If you can get around those two problems you have a decent card, because free creatures are good.  I just think you are going to have a really hard time getting around the problems.

 Elbrus, the Binding Blade - Legendary artifact is Legendary!  In a vacuum, this card isn't that great.  The huge casting cost is pretty brutal.  Think of what you could get for 7 mana!  But the upside, oh, the awesome upside!  All you need is one open opponent and you get Withengar Unbound!  He is pretty sick.  Obviously much better in decks that run Stonehewer Giant, Godo or Stoneforge Mystic.  Is this card great?  No.  But is it fun?  Hell yes!

 Executioner's Hood - Intimidate is actually a pretty good ability.  But there are other pieces of equipment that are better.  But it's an Executioner's Hood!  So that means some automatic cool points right there.

 Feed the Pack - Typically this turns into double the power's worth of creatures out there.  Works great with walls too!  And you can attack with your guys first!  Unfortunately you can only sacrifice your creatures at the end of your turn.  Good for Kresh and Savra decks, and possibly even Doran, this card is not nearly as bad as I first thought it would be. 

 Grafdigger's Cage - A decent piece of graveyard hate in this format, but there is so much out there already.  And wouldn't you rather exile your opponents' graveyards instead?  The Cage doesn't stop things like Glory or Genesis working in graveyards, and it can get destroyed and let people use all that stuff in their 'yards again.  I could be wrong, but I also think that it doesn't stop Living Death either.

 Grim Backwoods - A nice late game sacrifice outlet, it still costs a lot to activate.  But when you need some card draw late game, I'm sure it can come in handy, especially since it doesn't have the "non-token" clause in it.  Seems like an auto-include in Savra decks.

 Helvault - Ok, I have to admit, this one has me stumped.  There are a lot of Bant decks out there that play with a bunch of "enters the battlefield" creatures, and it would seem that you may want this card for those decks.  But most of the time, you would rather have those cards in play to help defend and attack.  And if this was really something that people wanted for their own creatures, wouldn't they be playing with Safe Haven and Cold Storage already?  Cold Storage would seem to be better, as you could exile multiple creatures on the same turn if needed.  And then what if you are using Helvault to remove opponents' creatures?  All that they need to do is blow it up and their critters come back!  Plus it is super expensive to use, why not just use Altar of Shadows if you are going to use it for removal?  I guess the one benefit it has is versatility, but that doesn't seem like enough to me.  Someone out there try to sell me on this card, please.

 Jar of Eyeballs - This card could be good for decks that have a hard time with card selection and reach, such as red token strategies.  It has the possibility of digging deeper than something like Scroll Rack.  Still, I would have a hard time playing this in a deck.

 Seance - Once again, this is a card that uses up a valuable resource by exiling a creature from the graveyard.  Sure, you can perform some tricks with Sundial of the Infinite, but that's sort of a pain.  I'm not a big fan of this card.

 Secrets of the Dead - Not quite as good as River Kelpie and I never see that card played.  However, Secrets will add some redundancy, and with the creation of Undying and a lot more Flashback spells, it would probably be worthwhile to include these 2 cards in decks that use the graveyard a lot.  

 Vault of the Archangel - Now this is a solid card.  Turning your army into a bunch of Wurmcoil Engines can be very deadly.  Great for gaining life when you are falling behind and even better if you have a bunch of first strikers.  Basically a card that is worthy of inclusion in any creature based deck using these colors.

INSTANTS AND SORCERIES

 Archangel's Light - Ummm, no.  Ancestor's Chosen and Ancestral Tribute have similar effects, but no one plays them.  I guess the fact that you shuffle your graveyard back into your library can be a good thing, but why not just use Kozilek instead?  

 Counterlash - All right, let's look at the positives.  First, it's a hard counter spell, so that's nice.  Second, it will occasionally let you play a spell for free.  I'm going to guess that maybe half the time you will be able to play the free spell, unless you have a deck that focuses on keeping large hands.  The negative is the casting cost.  However, people still play with Spelljack and Draining Whelk, and they cost the same.  But the difference is that with both of those counters you are guaranteed to get something in addition to countering the spell.  I think this is a good card, but not the best.  Then again, I'm not a (Counter Spell) guy, so maybe I'm biased.

 Crushing Vines - What I like about this card is the versatility.  Not only does this give mono-Green some creature kill, but it acts at instant speed.  Yes, Bramblecrush is more versatile, but mono-Green has always had problems with fliers, and this will help a bunch.  Don't overlook this card.

 Faithless Looting - While this is technically card disadvantage, it does give mono-Red strategies the chance to sift through some cards.  Better than Goblin Lore because you get to choose which cards you discard.

 Grim Flowering - A better version of Nature's Resurgence, in that it doesn't allow your opponents to draw cards as well.  Elf and other creature-centric strategies and token strategies should like this card.  Also a variation of Collective Unconscious.

 Increasing Ambition - Ok, for it's first use you have to pay more than Diabolic Tutor, which ranks below Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Imperial Seal, Grim Tutor and Beseech the Queen in terms of Black tutors.  Although the second use costs 8 mana, you get to search up 2 cards.  Almost like Tooth and Nail without the ability to put the cards into play.  Seems ok I guess.

 Increasing Confusion - Mill strategies will like this, so if you're running Oona or Szadek this is worth a shot in your deck. 

 Increasing Devotion - Token making is fun!  Better than Conqueror's Pledge, and not as conditional as Nomads' Assembly.  Tokens tokens tokens.

 Increasing Savagery - Basically giving a creature +5/+5 for 4 mana, which isn't bad because it isn't an aura.  The +10/+10 on the flashback isn't bad either.  I could see playing this in Commander damage based decks, like Rafiq and Molimo.

 Increasing Vengeance - I like this one the most, probably due to the cheap casting cost.  This is basically a better version of Fork and Reverberate with the restriction being that it only affects your spells.  If you wanted to play with Chandra, the Firebrand so that you could copy your big spells, like in a Niv-Mizzet deck, you should play with this.

 Mystic Retrieval - Call to Mind with Flashback.  Sounds good to me.

 Shattered Perception - Another Niv-Mizzet card.  Luckily this one has flashback so it isn't completely card disadvantage.

 Tragic Slip - This is pretty good removal, in that it can take out large, indestructible creatures.  Namely guys like Ulamog.  Doesn't require a second color like Terminate, but still not as good as Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile.  

 Zombie Apocalypse - See, cards like this are the main reason why you don't want to exile the creatures in your graveyard.  A cool personal Patriarch's Bidding, goes well into any zombie deck out there, and there are a lot of people playing zombies now.

CONCLUSION

So based on my opinion, here are the cards that I think will be staples from this set:

• Tragic Slip
• Grim Flowering
• Crushing Vines
• Counterlash
• Vault of the Archangel
• Requiem Angel
• Havengul Lich
• Gravecrawler
• Drogskol Reaver
• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

I know it's a little strange to put Gravecrawler on the list because he requires zombies, but all the crazy things you can do with him means that if you ever want to play zombies you need this guy.  I'm also am going to pick up all of the Captains, Beguiler of Wills, Dawntreader Elk, Ghoultree, Hellrider, Markov Blademaster, Moonveil Dragon, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Elbrus, the Binding Blade, Grim Backwoods, Faithless Looting, Increasing Ambition, Increasing Devotion, Increasing Savagery, Increasing Vengeance, Mystic Retrieval and Zombie Apocalypse.  Again, a bunch of these are more specialized, or they have to fight with a bunch of other similar cards to get into your decks.  But they are worth having around just in case you want them.

So there is a bunch of stuff worth looking at in this set.  Hopefully I didn't miss anything good.  I think that I may have been a little bit pessimistic in some of my opinions, but that doesn't mean that these cards aren't good.  If you think I missed something, or overrated a card, let us know in the comments.  Until next time!

Leviathan, aka Tarasco on MTGO
mrmorale32 at yahoo dot com

CONQUEROR & COMMANDER ARCHIVE