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ROGUE PLAY My 'Dark Ascension' Part I

by Nafiz Erman

Hello dear readers and welcome back to Rogue Play. This week we will together start looking at the new set, Dark Ascension, and will try to evaluate the cards and the set as a whole.

As you may know, Wizards seems to have a "second set" problem lately. Neither Conflux nor Worldwake (not even Mirrodin Besieged) were great or exceptional sets (considering how successful the sets before them were). They make a wonderful first set of the block but then the follow-up set seems to be very weak. And this week and next week dear readers, we will try to find out whether this is the case for Dark Ascension or not.

As usual and as always, I will do a countdown from forty in my set review article, and this week we will go over the first part of that list of mine.

 

NUMBER #40
Zombie Apocalypse & Black Cat

Innistrad was oozing with flavor and I'm really happy to see that Dark Ascension continues that trend. This set also has some very flavorful cards, and the two you see on the left and right are one of my favorites. Zombie Apocalypse is clearly a Timmy card. Sadly it isn't playable in serious constructed Magic, but it's a very fun card and that's all that matters in my opinion. Black Cat is another such flavorful card. Even though I have to admit that I would have preferred Ravenous Rats' game text on it, I still think that Black Cat can see some play in Heartless Summoning decks' sideboards. Black Cat costs when Heartless Summoning is out, and it will then become Cry of Contrition or Raven's Crime, which all saw play back when they were legal in Standard. And the "random" part makes it even better than those two in my opinion.

Add Havengul Lich to the mix and all of a sudden that harmless looking Black Cat will turn into a Hymn to Tourach!

 

NUMBER #39
Jar of Eyeballs

I have a big Vorthos in me and therefore cards like this one catch my attention pretty easily and quickly. Overall this is a great Vorthos card but the only thing I don't understand is that "two eyeball counters" part.

I mean, why two? What happens if the creature that died was a Cyclops? What happens if it was a Madrush Cyclops? Hmm? Or maybe I just sacrificed my Evil Eye of Urborg to something. Why am I now putting two eyeball counters on my Jar of Eyeballs?

Of course the same question I ask for these:

???

Other than this, I must say that this is going to be fantastic in Commander for colors that doesn't have this kind of an ability. There are many token decks in that format for example, so I bet that they will use this one heavily. It is also a great junk rare(!) for Standard of which I'm most definitely going to get a playset. What can I say, I'm a Vorthos after all!

Oh and expect me to break(?!) this one in one of my future From Casual Room to FNM articles.

 

NUMBER #38
Curse of Misfortunes

I was definitely expecting some support for curses in Dark Ascension and apparently I wasn't wrong. 

At this point I don't know whether or not they will be as good as Enduring Ideal once was; that we will see in time. ISD Block Constructed will be the first test for this deck. If it can compete in that format, then maybe it will have a chance in Standard next season after the rotation.

At least they will be very fun in casual Magic and I might even explore this strategy in one of my future From Casual Room to FNM series.

 

NUMBER #37
Ghoultree

Hah, a 10/10 for ! Awesome... I suppose.

So obviously Wizards wants us to play Splinterfright decks. I personally won't do so, and therefore I better be well prepared to combat that deck. At least this one can be chump blocked all day with tokens. I still am a bit worried about the ISD Block format though. I was hoping to see some new deck rising from Dark Ascension for that format, but apparently all it is going to do is to make Burning Vengeance, Fright and token decks A LOT better (but we'll talk about Block later).

Well at least I know where I will play this personally and that's my The Mimeoplasm Commander deck. Otherwise strong card but not my cup of tree tea.

 

NUMBER #36 Increasing Confusion To be honest, I never was a fan of mill decks. I just don't like playing against them because they simply don't interact. It's like both players are playing two different games. And therefore I don't like this card as well. Because it's powerful. Because I fear that it will make milling a viable strategy again. And even if it doesn't do that at the tournament level of Magic, I'm 110% sure that my games in the Casual Room will be a lot boring from now on. Ah well, at least there is a chance that people may use it to self mill themselves as well.  Oh and please, please, pretty please do not try it with Chandra, the Firebrand. At least not against me. Please? Speaking of mill decks...

 

NUMBER #35
Geralf's Mindcrusher

Now this is an interesting card. It really is. I mean, look at this thing and tell me what you see:

I don't know about you, but I see a couple of things when I look at this... "thing". First I see a definite first pick in drafts. Then I see a scary body in Commander with a very useful ability if you're into self-milling. And then I also see a sleeper card for Standard. Not today, not tomorrow and most definitely not until the Titans rotate out but who knows what will happen then?

And finally I also see the first footsteps of a powerful Mill deck coming towards us. I'm not talking about self-milling by the way, but milling the opponent. Those decks have their planeswalker, have a bunch of sweet spells and one curse already. Now they also have a big body that completely fits the deck, has synergy with the rest of the cards AND that can act as an alternate win condition.

Hopefully I'm wrong, but I guess that Mill decks are about to become something real in Standard.

 

NUMBER #34
Beguiler of Wills 

This card clearly is a FANTASTIC card for Commander. I mean, it's even broken (considering you can Lightning Greaves her right after playing her)! Five mana is nothing in Commander and this new lady just steals creatures and doesn't give them back at all! How awesome is that?!  The only trick is that you must control lots of creatures to steal big dudes. I've seen lots of Grixis colored token decks in the past in Commander (decks that like to cast ridiculous things like Army of the Damned), so I know that this card is an auto include to those decks for example. Then there is also Tribal Wars which is a format that is all about creatures. With a little careful planning it's not that hard to control more creatures than the opponent in Tribal Wars. I mean, I can even see this new lady seeing play in Elves tribal decks as removal. Those decks already splash Blue for Coiling Oracle and Unified Will, and now they have another VERY good weapon at their disposal.  In other constructed formats this card can only be used in one deck and that is clearly the Necrotic Ooze deck. Get it to the yard with Dream Twist or Armored Skaab and then start stealing things with your Necrotic Ooze. Sounds fun to me!

 

NUMBER #33
Helvault

So this is the place (it's a "place", right?) where Avacyn was all the time!

I like this card a lot because it clearly screams "Abuse me!". First it's great in decks that want to protect their creatures from Wrath effects. Second it's great with "enters the battlefield" creatures (assuming you have a way to blow up your own Helvault of course (such as Phyrexia's Core)). Third it's a Vindicate for creatures (a bit pricy but still). Fourth it's insane in Commander and ANY deck can play it. Fifth, it has so much flavor, it's even extra delicious (I did mention that I'm a Vorthos, right?).

But is that it? Of course not! It goes straight into my Grand Architect deck (another topic for another From Casual Room to FNM article), it may also go into my Modern Urzatron deck, I will now build a  Obliterate Ramp deck for Modern and put this in it, and I will do tons of other stuff with it in the coming days... I just don't know what they are yet!

Oh and do not play it against me. Do not even bother. I have a Disperse in hand!

 

NUMBER #32
Elbrus, the Binding Blade

This is such an awesome design!

Tokyo, meet Godzilla. Godzilla, meat Tokyo.

I'm telling you; if this was a design article, I'm sure I would have put this card on top of the list. It's such a flavorful card!

But too bad for it, this isn't a design article. And playability-wise this card sadly isn't that great (still good though). First of all, there is no way a deck in Standard would pay for this. Not over Karn Liberated. And not even Grand Architect decks would play this. I mean, why would they? Why would they play this over Myr Battlesphere? Elbrus, the Binding Blade does nothing on its own. It's just an equipment and to be able to get the Demon out, you have to connect with it.

So yes, why get into all that trouble when there are much shorter and safer ways to victory? If you play Control and can pay , you will play Karn Liberated. If you play Grand Architect, you will play Myr Battlesphere. Really, why bother playing this equipment?

Some think that this will see play in other formats where you are allowed to play Stoneforge Mystic. Some even are sure that this is the next big bomb in Legacy for those Stoneblade decks. Sorry to say this but apparently those people never played a single game of competitive Legacy in their entire life. Because apparently they have no idea what Stoneforge Mystic is doing in those decks.

Stoneforge Mystic is a tutor for an equipment and card advantage. The fact that you can cheat that equipment into play is a big plus but no one in Legacy is counting on that ability when they choose their equipments. Because everybody knows that as soon as Stoneforge Mystic enters the battlefield, she will die. But before she does, she will give the pilot a very powerful equipment.  And that's exactly the reason why Elbrus, the Binding Blade will not be played in Stoneblade decks. Those decks are designed to cast their equipments. They cannot afford to play something that they can never ever cast. Elbrus cannot be cast. Seven mana is ridiculous. And if the only way to get it onto the battlefield is to cheat it with Stoneforge Mystic, than that's not a good and reliable plan. So no, Elbrus, the Binding Blade will not see play in competitive Legacy.

Did you know that Elbrus is the name of the highest mountain in Europe? It's located in Russia.

Of course one can use it in Commander. As a matter of fact, the card is clearly designed for Commander. But still there is a problem. It's not fast enough to catch people unprepared. You can pay in Commander, that's not the problem. But no one will allow you to flip it and turn it into a 13/13 unblockable Demon. And that means that they will team up and go after you the moment you play this equipment.

Commander is a game of politics and tactics. You either stay silent and don't draw attention at all, or you play some ridiculous cards that are extra powerful and take down all three players even though they all team up against you. Elbrus, the Binding Blade is therefore not a good Commander card. It draws attention and turns all eyes towards you. You may be fine with that but sadly it has zero impact to the battlefield until you flip it. It's sadly not fast enough. Not even for Commander.

And no, you cannot play it as your general. And it's color identity is Black, so you can only play it if you play Swamps in your deck. Ah well, at least it's a perfect top down design. The blade that has a Demon trapped inside it. Wow, that's cool!

 

NUMBER #31
Gather the Townsfolk

The era of token decks already started with the release of Innistrad, and Dark Ascension is giving even more and more cards to this strategy. And Gather the Townsfolk is just one other of those cards. It isn't Raise the Alarm but that Fateful Hour part on it is at least making it a bit more interesting than Raise the Alarm. 

Even though I personally don't think very highly of this new Raise the Alarm variant, I still know that it will be heavily played (in Standard and in ISD Block) and that's enough reason for me to put it into my list.

 

NUMBER #30
Secrets of the Dead

Obvious card is obvious. Play it in your Burning Vengeance deck and be a happy man. So much card advantage on top of the already existing card advantage. That's all I can say about it. 

  

NUMBER #29
Vorapede

Not much is needed to be said. A big fat body.

Dungrove Wolf Run and Birthing Pod decks got a lot better now. I mean, sac it to Birthing Pod and get it back and get your Wurmcoil Engine. Oh God...

 

NUMBER #28
Immerwolf

We have been informed that the third set of this Block, Avacyn Restored, will not have any double faced cards. Meaning it's now or never for the Werewolves. And this new Immerwolf (weird name by the way) is a decent lord for them (and hey, it's Uncommon). There are now enough cards to build a competitive Werevolves deck and I'm sure it will be tried by many. The question is: How good will that deck be?

*cough*Ratchet Bomb*cough*

 

NUMBER #27
Diregraf Captain & Stromkirk Captain

There is one very interesting fact about Dark Ascension and that's how good its Uncommons are. Normally there are always one or two at maximum good Uncommons in a set. And then the rest is just Limited fodder and they never see Constructed play. But this time things will most definitely be different. One other thing people say Dark Ascension is doing, is that it's slowing down the recent "power creep" in Magic. I wonder; is it really so?  Let's get into our time machine dear readers, take these two cards you see on the left and right, and travel back to the Invasion pre-release. With these two cards in our hands. Stromkirk Captain may not mean much to the crowd as there are zero playable Vampires in Invasion, but what would they think about Diregraf Captain? A such powerful card only as an Uncommon?!

Lord of the Undead would really be ashamed of himself! So yes, "power creep" is still with us.

And regarding these two cards: I don't think Zombies need Blue as they already have two Black lords at their disposal (Cemetery Reaper and Adaptive Automaton) and all the best Zombies are Black. And Vampires had their time during Zendikar and I don't think this new lord will make them any better now.

But hey! The casual crowd will simply love these two and I'm sure the Casual Room will be crawling with tribal decks after the online release of Dark Ascension.

Oh and the flavor text of Stromkirk Captain is hilarious: "We have to take action before they slaughter more of our cattles". Lol!

 

NUMBER #26
Seance

Wow, now this is nice!

There are so many things Johnnies can do with this and I don't know where I should begin! How about Putrefax? How about Warstorm Surge? How about Birthing Pod? The options are almost limitless.

And it also combos very well with Sundial of the Infinite. Too bad it doesn't give haste to the creature but that's okay. I am really looking forward to re-casting those Snapcaster Mages, Massacre Wurms, Solemn Simulacrums or any other enters the battlefield creature with it. And as I said, it will be double crispy if you have Sundial of the Infinite out.

But the best part is to re-casting those big and scary Sphinx of Uthuuns and Rune-Scarred Demons for FREE!

And add a few sac outlets and things get even better. All in all, I'm seeing a very powerful Tier-1,5/Tier-2 deck here. And finally cards like Mulch, Forbidden Alchemy and Faithless Looting can be played without having to worry about if you have Seance out. So you discarded an Acidic Slime to Mulch. Who cares?! Bring it back from the dead for FREE!

 

NUMBER #25
Increasing Ambition

This is another very nice card for Commander. Actually it is more than just nice, it's technically a staple from now on in the Commander format for any deck that has access to Black mana. Surely it costs one more than Diabolic Tutor, but there is a catch! It has flashback and the flashback cost is perfectly acceptable. And when you cast it from your graveyard, you get not one but two cards!

It may be too slow for any other constructed format, but the fact that it's going to be huge in Commander is enough reason for me to put it here at number twenty five. I mean, look at this! You play one card and it gives you three cards back! Wow, just wow.

Oh and the art is just awesome.

 

NUMBER #24
Grim Backwoods & Vault of the Archangel

Two very good lands with two very good abilities in very relevant color combinations. Black/Green decks usually play things that love to die and I'm sure those Viridian Emissarys, Perilous Myrs, Solemn Simulacrums plus all those new Undying creatures will be gladly sacrificing themselves to Grim Backwoods. I should also say that Grim Backwoods is a great Morbid enabler. Vault of the Archangel is another nice land. For a very reasonable price it provides all your tokens creatures a nice Basilisk Collar for one turn. Which of course means that you will be able to kill whatever you like to, with one of your mere 1/1 token. Crazy! All in all, this Rare land cycle which started in Innistrad turned out to be quite interesting, and I cannot wait to see what Wizards did with the remaining ones (Boros, Simic and Izzet lands).

 

NUMBER #23
Tracker's Instincts

As I said somewhere above, Wizards is almost forcing us to play  Splinterfright decks. I mean, look at this:

Innistrad gave this deck lots of good creatures such as Boneyard Wurm, Splinterfright and Kessig Cagebreakers. And this deck was already winning games with those creatures (at least in ISD Block). Of course, now that part of the deck also has Ghoultree. But the "Other Spells" part of this deck was a bit weak. Surely there was Mulch and there was Spider Spawning, but then there wasn't anything else. And Dark Ascension is exactly filling that part of this deck with goodies.

Thought Scour is a card I will talk about next week. This week I'm showing you Tracker's Instincts in my list. The only thing I wonder is this: Is Tracker's Instincts an automatic four-of, or is it rather a late game fuel for the deck and therefore two-of or maybe three-of? That dear readers, will be decided after the initial testing of course.

 

NUMBER #22
Counterlash

And here's yet another fantastic toy for Commander!

When the stars align, you get to counter their Birds of Paradise and play your Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre in return. Wouldn't it be cool? Or you counter their harmless Rampant Growth and play your Time Stretch (yes, you play it on their turn). How awesome is that? And even if the stars don't align (and many times they don't), meaning you don't have a spell matching the one you counter, Counterlash is still a one-on-one counterspell. Just like Counterspell and many others.

I also believe that Counterslash will see play in Standard. Even though that format is "infested" with all sorts of fast decks, there are still a few Control decks around. And there is also a good possibility that those Control decks will get paired against each other in tournaments. Meaning they will need some useful spells in their sideboards against other Control decks.

And Counterlash is exactly that kind of a card. Add one to your sideboard and it will most definitely change the course of the game in a Control vs. Control match up.

Counter their Ponder and play your Army of the Damned!

 

NUMBER #21
Falkenrath Aristocrat

Hey look, Giant Solifuge is back! Instead of trample, this new one has flying. Instead of shroud, this one can be indestructible. But that's the part that makes people think that this is a bad card. People think that a Human sacrifice may not be easy to find in a Vampires tribal deck and say that this isn't playable.. But you know what; I don't care! Because I see three very good uses for this new bloodsucking lady. First of all, I can clearly see this lady as a new sideboard weapon against Control. Giant Solifuge saw tons of play back when it was in Standard, and I can clearly see this one seeing play because of the same reason; catch the Control player tapped and get this one out and deal four damage right away. Do they try to Doom Blade her? Well, sacrifice something to her (Human or not) and make that Doom Blade fizzle. I mean, she can even dodge Day of Judgment, you know. So yes, she's great against Control, that's for sure. But there is also one other deck in which one can use this one. If you remember, in my From Casual Room to FNM, Part VII article I talked about a Black/Red deck that was stealing things from the opponent and it was using them against him. And then that deck was sacrificing those creature it stole to cards like Altar's Reap or Culling Dais.

And I love how Wizards is making that deck stronger. It was a nice casual deck but now it can be at least as good as Tier-1,5. Expect me to revisit that deck again in the very near future. I will upgrade it with Falkenrath Aristocrat and will report you how it plays out.

And finally Falkenrath Aristocrat can be the superstar of her own deck. If you look closely you'll notice that there are lots of Humans in Standard right now that are dying(!) to be the prey of hers.

And Dark Ascension gave even more sacrificial fodder!

And there is also Thraben Doomsayer.

Of course while we're feeding our Falkenrath Aristocrat and making her a real bloodsucking monster, we should be using some other "lesser minions" to take advantage of all those sacrifices. Such as these:

The Skirsdag dudes use those Humans when they're alive and after they die and go to the graveyard, Grim Lavamancer steps in and uses their "corpses" to burn the opposing side of the table!

Add some cards with Morbid to the deck, such as Brimstone Volley, the new cards called Tragic Slip and Wakedancer, and you'll have a deck... on a second thought, no, you don't have a deck but I do. Which I will show you in my upcoming From Casual Room to FNM, Part VIII article. Stay tuned!

Oh and a final hint: Seance! I will say no more. You will read about this deck in great detail VERY soon.

 

WRAP UP

And that was the first part of my set review. There are some very interesting cards in this part and some of them are going to be my best friends in the coming days. I know I will write at least three From Casual Room to FNM articles for some of the cards I mentioned in this article.

Looking at this first part of my list, I can clearly see that the winner of Dark Ascension is Commander. There are so many jewels for that format in this set. If you are a fan of Commander, I'm sure your Dark Ascension shopping list will be very long. If you are not, well, maybe it's time you start playing it!

 

BY THE WAY...

I'm sure you have seen this card:

This card created a lot of discussion on various forums. But not because how good it is; on the other hand because how terrible it is. I even read someone saying that he cancelled his preorder right after seeing this card.

I will say one thing: Magic designers design cards for both today and tomorrow. Some cards, such as the obvious Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Grafdigger's Cage or even Secrets of the Dead are clearly designed for today. But some cards in this set, just like in every set, are designed for future. They have no applications today in any deck, maybe not even in kitchen table Magic, but in time Wizards prints cards which all of a sudden turn them into pure gold.

Examples? Sure, how about Sovereigns of Lost Alara? How about Splinter Twin? They both stayed as junk rares for almost a year until Wizards printed some specific cards and turned them into tournament staples.

And let's look at this new Archangel's Light once again please. Today with the current card pool, no one would even play this one in kitchen table Magic. But what happens if all of a sudden Wizards reprints Urza lands in Magic 2013 and then gives us Test of Endurance in the next big October set?

All you have to do then is to fill the graveyard with cards which is a child's play with Innistrad out. And you can even use Mulch to dig for your missing Urza lands! And if Mulch won't be enough, maybe they will also give us a new creature in the next big October set that costs and has Sylvan Scrying's game text. How about then?

Urza's Pathfinder

Elf Scout

Sacrifice Urza's Pathfinder: Search your library for a land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.

1/1

And also please note the casting cost of Archangel's Light. It's . It's not  or even . So it's clearly designed to be used in a multicolored deck.

What I'm trying to say is this: You don't have to cancel your preorder because of Archangel's Light. You don't need to curse the designers for making such a card. Simply because you have no idea what the future holds. As I said, just remember what happened to Sovereigns of Lost Alara and Splinter Twin in the past and calm down.

I know that Archangel's Light is terrible today. Not even the most casual players will play it. But please read again what I wrote above if necessary. I personally will get me my playset while the card will be dirty cheap. You never know what Wizards is up to.

 

NEXT WEEK ON ROGUE PLAY
My 'Dark Ascension', Part II

Next week I will be concluding my set review. This week I mainly talked about Commander goodies but next week things will be different. Oh and in case you wonder: Sorin, Lord of Innistrad is not my number one. As a matter of fact, my number one is neither a Mythic Rare nor a Rare. Do you wonder what that card is? Well, you will have to come back next week to find that out!

Thanks for reading.

See you online
Nafiz Erman, aka Lord Erman