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ROGUE PLAY My Magic 2011 Part I

by Nafiz Erman

Hello dear readers and welcome back to Rogue Play. This week is a very exciting week because it's once again one of those best times of the year. A new set has arrived and once again we have tons of great stuff to "digest". As this is a core set, it has some old faces (some just like we knew them and some with a brand new make-up) and some new ones. And this week dear readers, I will start talking about them and try to evaluate them correctly.

If you are following my "My SETNAME" articles, then you know that I love prejudging cards. Sometimes what I foresee really happens but sometimes I underestimate or overvalue cards. For example in my last My Rise of the Eldrazi article I managed to evaluate Sarkhan the Mad correctly and what I said about him really did happen. But apparently declaring Realms Uncharted as the best Green card of the set was a bit too optimistic.

And in this article (and the next one) I will once again talk about the new cards and use once again bold words about them. So do not be surprised if I declare a junk Rare as the best card of the set. But do not disregard my words completely either. When LSV was telling you how bad Sarkhan the Mad is in his set review, I was telling you how good he was going to be in mine. So you have been warned! Listening to me may result investing in a few (only a few) totally junk cards but at the same time it may turn into a good investment too. So yes, you have been warned.

And now ladies and gentlemen, it's finally time for My Magic 2011.

 

WHITE
Angel's Feather

First of all I must say that this core set, just like the one before it, left me empty handed. I so badly want to have Faith's Fetters back in Standard but apparently I have to wait another year for it. Back in time this was a very useful card for Control decks but now its importance has doubled because of the existence of planeswalkers. Every deck has them and right now Oblivion Ring is White's main solution for them. That's a good card but I think Faith's Fetters is a better one. And now that everyone is using planeswalkers, I thought that WotC would bring Faith's Fetters back. Unfortunately and apparently I was wrong.

But don't get me wrong; just because my beloved pet card isn't in M11, I'm not going to disregard what the set gives us in terms of White. As a matter of fact, this set has incredibly powerful White cards and I think that Sun Titan is the most impressive one. This card somehow reminds me of Reveillark but this is certainly an upgraded version. Please do note that it returns anything to the battlefield that costs three or less mana; that also means lands and even Jace Beleren! "Okay I first destroy your Raging Ravine with my Tectonic Edge, then attack with my titan, get myTectonic Edge back and now I also destroy your Savage Lands with it". This is very cruel. Especially cruel considering this is White doing all those nasty things.

But the cruelty doesn't end there. This dude can prevent your opponent from playing a Jace v.2; ever! He plays one and you bring back Jace v.1 and kill him. Awesome! And while you're in Blue, how about abusing Sea Gate Oracle for some serious card advantage? One other cruel way of using Sun Titan is to pair him with Vampire Hexmage. A recurring Vampire Hexmage is basically bye bye to opposing planeswalkers. But if you're in Black, then there is one other option too which is Fleshbag Marauder. Killing without touching is very classy! And doing it every time this titan attacks is priceless. And you can also combine this dude with Red too. As you know Fling is back in M11. How about Flinging a creature and then getting it back with Sun Titan? Attack with Ball Lightning and Fling it, and then get your 6/1 trampler back with this guy and rinse and repeat. Sounds like a win-win situation to me! Of course a midrange Mono White deck has tons of uses for him too. First enchant him with Hyena Umbra and make sure that he's double hard to kill, and then resurrect your Wall of Omens every turn for cards or your Pilgrim's Eye for lands. How about this?

But my personal guess is that his real home will be a White/Green/X mana ramp deck; possibly Mythic Bant. Sun Titan is a lightning rod and it is a card that shouldn't be allowed to stick around for too long. Getting your previously used Dauntless Escort back with him when he enters the battlefield, is the only realistic way of using him in tournament play. But that alone is worth adding him to your deck.

All in all Sun Titan is a great card and I can see it staying at $10,00 - $15,00 range for some (short) time. And that's when you should get it! Because someone will eventually break this one and after that it'll be a $20,00 - $25,00 card. You don't want to miss this one the way you missed Baneslayer Angel last year when she was $14,00, right? So get your Sun Titans as soon as you can.

The other obvious White bomb of M11 is surely Angelic Arbiter. This is another fantastic card that deserves a few words.

I admit that her price is hefty... but so is her game text! So your opponent has to decide between casting spells or attacking. She won't be that useful against other Control decks but if you can get her out soon against Aggro, I think that she has the power to buy you enough time to set up your mana base and play your threats. I'm not saying that she will be on all the tournament tables but I'm saying that she's at least worth a try in  Control decks.

Let's continue talking about new cards and the next one I want to mention is Knight Exemplar. So finally a Knight Lord. I'm sure this lady will be very popular among the casual community and a superstar in the Casual Room. But is there a possibility to play her in tournaments? Actually a quick search reveals that we indeed have some interesting Knights in Standard. Such as Student of Warfare, Rafiq of the Many and Knight of the Reliquary. I think I "smell" a Bant Knights deck in the air!

One other card of White I want to discuss is Squadron Hawk. First of all this is a Common. And secondly it's great card! 

Paired with Ranger of Eos, this Bird will make life for Control players quite unbearable. I'm sure Vengevine would love this creature as well. I will most definately try this one in my Naya deck with Ranger of Eos, Bloodbraid Elf and Vengevine. But even in Mono White with Honor of the Pure and Ajani Goldmane, this one can get to some ridiculous sizes quite fast.

The next new White card I want to discuss may surprise some of you. Well, the card I want to mention is Ajani's Mantra. Since we lost Honden of Cleansing Fire, I was hoping for an enchantment that sits there and makes me gain life. And finally it's here. I know Ajani's Mantra means not much to hardcore Standard fans but there are many other uses I have for him in other formats. How about pairing it with Bitterblossom? I don't know about you but while playing  Tokens last year, I did die to my own Bitterblossom more than once. Now I don't have to fear it (and I do intend of trying that deck again for the new Extended format as well as for BYOS). Speaking of life gain, it seems to me that WotC is pushing the "life matters" theme in M11 for White. Ajani Goldmane is still with us and then we have Ajani's Mantra, Ajani's Pridemate, Goldenglow Moth, Tireless Missionaries and Serra Ascendant. When combined with Felidar Sovereign and Lone Missionary, this strategy might result in some powerful casual decks. And who knows, maybe Scars of Mirrodin will make it even Tier-1? Never say never! And a few words about the White leyline: Starting the game with troll shroud is more than decent and this card will definately see play in a lot of different formats. RDW now only has its creatures!

Oh and do not misread the card; it gives you troll shroud and not shroud. Which makes this card much better than Ivory Mask because you can still target yourself while Leyline of Sanctity is out. Definitely a great card.

And a few words about the reprints: It's good to have Baneslayer Angel for another year (fifteen months to be exact). Then we have Condemn back which was always a card I liked. I was kind of hoping for Path to Exile in M11 but Condemn is okay too. Elite Vanguard is also in M11 and that's good news too. Other reprints that made me happy are Celestial Purge, Honor of the Pure, White Knight and Silence. We haven't used Silence much so far in Standard, and I hope that this fact will change after the release of Scars of Mirrodin.

And now it's time for the White podium. Please note that podiums in this set review will only contain new cards.

THE WHITE PODIUM

BEST CARD OF WHITE	MY FAVORITE OF WHITE	BEST ART OF WHITE	BEST FLAVOR TEXT OF WHITE

Let's move onto our second color.

 

BLUE
Kraken's Eye

There are some very interesting things going on in M11's Blue. First of all we have Scry back which surprised almost everyone. As explained by WotC members, Scry in M11 is mainly a Blue keyword. There are one or two interesting non-Blue ones, but the most important ones are in Blue; such as Preordain.

I'm kind of sad to see Ponder out but Preordain fits into the theme of M11 better than Ponder, so I can understand the decision. Besides, we have a couple of months before we lose Ponder. By the way, which one is better? Ponder or Preordain? Actually they both do almost the same thing but Ponder is slightly better because it lets you look at the top three cards from your library, whereas Preordain lets you look at the top two cards of your library. I'm not saying Preordain is bad; it is for example better than Serum Visions.  I'm just saying Ponder is the winner in this category and I wish he had Ponder in M11. One other spell for card drawing is Jace's Ingenuity. It looks similar to Tidings which is a sorcery but lets you draw four cards. Jace's Ingenuity has the advantage of being an instant but this advantage costs you one less card. So my guess is that we will continue playing Mind Spring until M10 rotates out, and only then our choice for big mana card drawing spell will become Jace's Ingenuity. It's not the best but it's certainly playable.

One other simple yet efficient card is the new upgraded Sage Owl called Augury Owl. So let's say that you have ten lands in front of you and you play Sage Owl and it reveals that the top four cards of your library are all lands. This information is good to have but that's all. But Augury Owl has a solution to this problem. It may be one less card (Augury Owl lets you look at the top three cards instead of four) but at least you have now the chance to send those lands to the bottom of your library. And this simple example explains why no one played Sage Owl in Constructed events. And it also shows you why people will at least try Augury Owl in their competitive  Control decks.

And so we come to the money card of M11; Time Reversal. Before I get to the game text, please allow me to say how awesome the art is. It's really an amazing art for an amazing card. And the game text? Well, I have only one word for it: Sick! Just before the release of Worldwake, I read an article on WotC's site and that article basically was saying that Blue in the future is going to get some awesome cards. Right after that Jace, the Mind Sculptor came. And now we have a well balanced Time Spiral / Timetwister variant. I say well balanced because its mana cost is perfect.  Timetwister was a joke and Time Spiral was even funnier because it was technically a free spell. This one, however, costs which kind of belongs to the finisher category. But still it is a very powerful card. I mean think for a second: When was the last time you drew SEVEN cards for just ? But of course the power of Time Reversal is not only the card drawing part. Just think for a second that your opponent has two Vengevines in his graveyard and one 8/8 Knight of the Reliquary on table. You cast Time Reversal. What happens? All of a sudden there are no Vengevines anywhere and that 8/8 creature becomes a tiny Grizzly Bears! How lovely!

By the way, I read a few comments on some forums about Time Reversal and people were calling this a bad card because it also lets your opponent draw seven cards. Guys, are you just out of your freakin' minds? Wrath of God kills your own creatures too. Earthquake deals its damage to you too. And last time I checked, Armageddon was destroying your own lands too. Are these now bad cards too? 

Oh and if nothing else, Time Reversal plus Underworld Dreams is just nuts! Add Howling Mine and Font of Mythos to the mix and you might end up with a nice rogue deck!

IS THIS A DECK?

So yes, Time Reversal is a huge card. We already had Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and now we have this and Mana Leak. Yes! Mana Leak is back with an awesome art. Oh and if we are speaking about new and awesome arts, I think we should also mention the new Mind Control too. Excellent art, much better than the old one.

There are two more cards in Blue that excite me and one of them is Conundrum Sphinx. It has a mouthful of text on it but what excites me is not that game text; it is the fact that this is a 4/4 flyer for four.  This is a very aggressive creature; especially for Blue. I did a quick search and found out that there are some 4/4 Blue flyers for four in older sets but ALL of them have significant drawbacks. Waterspout Djinn demands that you return an Island back to your hand during your upkeep. Living Tsunami works similarly. Chisei, Heart of Oceans needs counters on permanents to function and Breezekeeper has phasing.

But what's the drawback of Conundrum Sphinx?

Well.. uhm.. I cannot see any drawback here dear readers, how about you? On the contrary, if you combine this Sphinx with cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Sphinx of Jwar Isle, Vampire Nocturnus (at least technically), Oracle of Mul Daya or Mul Daya Channelers, this creature becomes pure card advantage! It is great or what?!

One other card of Blue that caught my attention is Redirect. Most people confuse this one with Twincast but they are in reality two different spells. So what happens if your opponent plays Blightning and you Twincast it? You both discard two cards and lose three life. Because Twincast copies the spell. Redirect, however, doesn't copy anything. It lets you change the target of target spell. In our example, if you Redirect that Blightning, you don't discard two cards and you don't lose three life. So it doesn't hurt you but it punishes the opponent! Excellent, don't you think? It's even better than countering that Blightning.

And the final card I want to mention is Leyline of Anticipation. I'm very surprised to have the idea of Leylines back, I must say. And this one is one of the most interesting ones. With this in play, I can now kill opposing manlands with my Day of Judgment. Martial Coup becomes a nasty combat trick. My Maelstrom Pulse is now an instant. I can now cast my Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker at the end of my opponent's turn and after I untap, I will have all my lands at my disposal for my counterspells to protect him. What else can be done with it? How about casting a Sun Titan at the end of opponent's turn? How about Time Reversal with Leyline of Anticipation? How about summoning all kinds of monsters onto the battlefield at instant speed? How about casting an Oblivion Ring targeting opponent's attacking Vengevine?

And just imagine a  Control vs.  Control match with both players having their Leylines out. That would really be a crazy game to watch!

So yes, Blue in M11 is ridiculously good.

THE BLUE PODIUM

BEST CARD OF BLUE	MY FAVORITE OF BLUE	BEST ART OF BLUE	BEST FLAVOR TEXT OF BLUE

The flavor text of Diminish is very cool! A quote from a real world author? Now that is something we haven't seen in a while. But I'm now curious; what's next I wonder? 

Hey, how about Beyonce lyrics on Magic cards?!

And now it's time for the last color of this article.

 

BLACK
Demon's Horn

The first card I want to talk about from Black is the new Vampire lord called Captivating Vampire. As you know, Vampire Nocturnus is not in M11. But at least for a few months, we will have both him and this new lord in Standard. Will this fact result in a Tier-1 Vampires deck? Will we see them frequently in tournaments? My guess is that the answer is "possibly". To be honest, this new lord isn't as great as Vampire Nocturnus. But maybe if they work together, things might change; oh them and the new Dark Confidant as well (I'll come to that in a moment). The game text of Captivating Vampire is actually meaningless. Nobody in a tournament will allow you to use it. I don't even think that it will be that easy in the Casual Room. The only thing I like about it that it boosts your other Vampires for sure; Vampire Nocturnus on the other hand is conditional. So what I say is this: Grab it early, you never know what happens. Especially after Jund rotates out.

And now comes the big bad boy of M11's Black; Dark Tutelage. So we finally got our beloved Dark Confidant back... kind of. The fact that it isn't a creature and that it is harder to remove is nice... kind of. If used with other colors this fact might not be a problem but in a Mono Black deck it might cause some serious problems. As you know Black isn't the color for enchantment removal. And what happens if this one gets out of control and starts killing us? We had the chance to "shoot" Dark Confidant if he became dangerous, but we just can't do that to Dark Tutelage. So anyway, let's see who will need this. Which deck(s) will play Dark Tutelage? First of all, it has great synergy with Jace, the Mind Sculptor and therefore Grixis might try this one; at least until it rotates. Then Vampires will also try this one as long as Vampire Nocturnus is in Standard. Actually this is why I started Black with the new Vampire lord. Card advantage is important and this new enchantment is all about it. Vampires need to recover from a Day of Judgment and Dark Tutelage will just do that for them. So yes, this card has a home in the vamps.dec. And I must also say that its casting cost makes it more splashable than Phyrexian Arena.

And finally I must say one last thing: I have a very strong feeling that Suicide Black is returning. The reprinting of Nantuko Shade is one solid proof. And then we have all those aggressive Vampires of Zendikar. Then there is Death's Shadow. And now this... I don't know, let's wait for Scars of Mirrodin and see.

The next card I want to discuss is a very interesting and powerful creature; it is Phylactery Lich (very interesting name by the way). So what we have here is something very simple: an indestructible 5/5 body for . Yeah, that simple! But there's only one small problem. This new Zombie demands that you have some artifacts in play on the battlefield.Okay cool, no problem. How about these:

I think at least one or two of those above artifacts are good enough to please this new Zombie. Of course you can also add Scepter of Fugue to that list too. Obviously this creature will get MUCH better after Scars of Mirrodin, but as you see there are enough artifacts out there now that we can use in Phylactery Lich's deck. This is simply another "must buy and must do so quickly" card of M11.

One other impressive new creature of Black is called Demon of Death's Gate. A 9/9 flying trampler is absolutely nothing one can ignore, especially if it's possible to play it for free. Surely it will be better in Extended with Bitterblossom and all, but I think that it can also be played in Standard as well. I mean, we do have Bloodghast, right? And also the new Reassembling Skeleton too (more on this later). Also the new Black Titan (more on this later as well). So yes, I think that it's quite possible to play this dude in Standard.

The only thing that makes me really sad is the fact that this one is a Demon. Why? Oh come on dear readers, we are living in the "Baneslayer Angel owns Demons & Dragons" age, that's why!

So I will get into all that trouble and finally summon my 9/9 flyer with trample, but I won't be able to block that tiny(!) 5/5 flyer with it. This is nonsense! This is unfair! 

Of course one should be very cautious with Demon of Death's Gate. Timing is everything. It's best to cast this one after a Duress or Mind Sludge. Because otherwise it can easily be "sac - sac - sac - six life - this demon, and then get Path'ed". I know I don't want this to happen. How disgraceful!

Okay, let's move from one gigantic creature to another one; but this is a real giant, because it's now time for the mighty Grave Titan.

Okay what we have here is something really serious. Basically by paying we get a total of 10/10 and three creatures. This fact alone makes this Giant... uhm... gigantic! Oh and this Giant has deathtouch too. Actually I personally would have liked him more if he had Fear and it also would have been cooler if the 2/2 Zombies had deathtouch instead of the Giant itself. But that way this card would have been insanely powerful I guess. Anyway...

So what can we do with this big dude? Well, we can Sneak Attack him for example and after the dust settles and our turn ends, we will end up with four 2/2s! Not bad, huh? And what can we do with him in Standard? Well, maybe we can once again build a Tier-1 Rock deck with it. We can mana ramp early with Lotus Cobra and Explore and such cards, and then bring in this dude like on turn four. Wouldn't it be nice?

Or we can use this Giant in a Mono Black Zombies deck. I mean, why not? Both Cemetery Reaper and Death Baron are in Standard at least for a few more months. Then we have Putrid Leech. We have the new Phylactery Lich. We even have Quest for the Gravelord. So yes, why not?

My final judgment for Grave Titan is this: If there ever will be a Tier-1 Mono Black deck in the future, then Grave Titan surely will be in it.

And the final card I want to discuss from Black is called Reassembling Skeleton. First of all I must say that Reassembling Skeleton really is a lousy name. Come on WotC, I know you could do better than this! And secondly I must also say that this is an insane card. There are so many different ways you can use this guy. First Eldrazi Monument. Resurrect the skeleton and sacrifice it to the monument every upkeep and protect your other creatures. Awesome! Second Carnival of Souls. Paper Legacy players should really try this new skeleton with Carnival of Souls. Soul Warden might help to negate the life loss from Carnival of Souls and you'll get an incredible amount of mana in no time (you might need Ashnod's Altar as well for this). Third Amulet of Vigor. Bring in the skeleton, the amulet untaps it and you get yourself an instant blocker. Fourth any creature that gets bigger when you sacrifice other creatures such as Bloodthrone Vampire. Fifth Deathgreeter for some casual entertainment. Use together with Carnage Altar and draw cards AND gain life! Sixth Skullclamp and you know why. Seventh Culling the Weak. Eighth Death Baron. And now my favorite; ninth Sarkhan the Mad. Resurrect the Skeleton and sacrifice it to Sarkhan for a 5/5 Dragon. Lovely!

And regarding the reprints, I can easily say that seeing Leyline of the Void back made me very happy. Nantuko Shade is also another impressive creature and I'm sure it'll see some play. Also the existence of Deathmark, Corrupt and Duress are very important for Black, and I'm happy to have them in Standard for the next fifteen months.

And finally, it's time for the Black podium.

THE BLACK PODIUM

BEST CARD OF BLACK	MY FAVORITE OF BLACK	BEST ART OF BLACK	BEST FLAVOR TEXT OF BLACK

 

CONCLUSION

Each of the three colors I talked about in this article get some incredibly powerful cards. The titan cycle is amazing. But so are the new Leylines! I'm very happy and pleased with what I received from M11 so far. Some interesting creatures, powerful spells and some really nice reprints.

But hey WotC! Don't forget to give me back my Faith's Fetters sometime, will ya?

 

NEXT WEEK ON ROGUE PLAY
My Magic 2011, Part II

Next week dear readers I will start with Red and then cover Green and finish my review with the colorless cards. Those colors also have some very interesting and powerful cards, and next week we will go over them (OMG, Voltaic Key is back!!).

Thanks for reading.

See you online
Nafiz Erman, aka Lord Erman