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ROGUE PLAY My Worldwake Part II

by Nafiz Erman

Hello dear readers and welcome to the second part of my Worldwake review. Last week in this article, I shared my thoughts on White, Blue and Black with you. This week I will be going over the rest of the set and will conclude my Worldwake set review.

We have lots of things to talk about, so please allow me to start without losing time.

 

RED
Dragon's Claw

We can easily say that Red in Zendikar was an okay color. It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst either. People played Burst Lightning, most of those Zendikar Goblins, Pyromancer Ascension and Plated Geopede, but as a whole there were better colors in Zendikar than Red.

And now let's take a look at Red's new toys in Worldwake. The first card I want to highlight is Chain Reaction. Most of the respected writers I read so far think that this is a "meh" card and say that it won't see tournament play. I humbly disagree. Strongly. One thing is true; Chain Reaction isn't an auto-include to all decks that plays Red. You just have to play a deck that will get the most out of it. And the one deck that I have in mind is a Control deck. Chain Reaction needs a lot of creatures to be effective. If your opponent plays only one Woolly Thoctar and a 3/3 Wild Nacatl, Chain Reaction will then be a dead card. But it's up to you to turn it into a one sided Wrath of God. You will play Wall of Denial. Preferably two. This will mean that your opponent now has to play a third creature to get through.

After he does that, you will leave his attacker tapped with your Ajani Vengeant. Now he has to play another creature to get through. Now imagine that you have two Wall of Denials and one Ajani Vengeant on table. Your opponent has one (tapped) Woolly Thoctar, one 3/3 Wild Nacatl and two Baneslayer Angels out.

Now it's the perfect time to cast your Chain Reaction. For a mere , you will deal six damage to all creatures. This will kill all the opposing creatures and you will still keep your two precious Wall of Denials. How about now?

You can be sure that this Control deck will be the first deck I will try after Worldwake. I will also add three or four Wall of Frosts to my sideboard and will side them in against Aggro decks and then watch my opponent trying to get past my walls. It will definitely be fun(!).

So as you see, I think that those respected players/writers are judging this card a little bit too early. Chain Reaction is a perfect card. But only in the right deck. And in that "right deck", it will even be better than Day of Judgment.

The second card I want to talk from Red is another card those respected players/writers declared to be junk. It is this one:

What those important people forget is that cards are not only designed to make one group of players happy. And in this case, this one is a real gem for Johnnies and even Spike/Johnnies including myself.

In the coming days, just like all my other Spike/Johnny brothers out there, I will try hard to make this work in a deck with Immortal Coil. I will most definitely build the deck in Grixis colors and I will play the trader on turn three or four, will try to protect it with Dispel and/or Negate during opponent's turn and then will play Immortal Coil and immediately Donate it. From there, I will instantly win by just playing a simple Bojuka Bog. Or even a Lightning Bolt will be enough to seal the deal.

So as you see, what others call as junk, I call a real gem. It's only a matter of how you look at it.

Oh and you can even do some more silly things with him. Just cast Mark of Mutiny targeting that opposing Baneslayer Angel, attack with her and then use you Bazaar Trader to make her yours indefinitely! How awesome is this?!

I continue my journey on Zendikar's unstable and dangerous cliffs and come across this next card; Kazuul, Tryrant of the Cliffs. So this one is a Red Ghostly Prison and/or Propaganda on (big) legs. White and Blue were kindly and gently asking for a payment if you wanted to attack. But this is Red and it does know nothing of kindness. To collect its money, it just sends a mean Ogre! You better pay the tribute or get smashed by this angry dude and his 3/3 companions!

Do we have a problem?

This angy Ogre is already impressive on his own, but just like the other two cards before him, I believe that he will shine in one specific deck which is a / Mana Ramp / LD deck. Some fast mana cards, a light removal package, Mold Shamblers and Acidic Slimes and maybe Goblin Ruinblasters too for land destruction, and then Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs. Vines of Vastwood will protect the Ogre and the game will turn into a nightmare for the opponent.

Oh and if you don't want to play LD and get blocked by your opponents on MTGO, then you can always try him with Manabarbs. Play borderposts, some mana elfs and birds and you're good to go.

Until now I talked about some very good Red cards which will only be "very good" in some specific decks. As a matter of fact, red (surprisingly) has many such cards in Worldwake. One other such card is Dragonmaster Outcast. First of all he's nuts in Valakut decks. He's nuts with Ranger of Eos. He's nuts with... uhm, there's nothing else he's nuts with. But we can't use all the cards in all the decks, can we now?

From these "good in their own decks" type of cards, I want to move onto "good in any Red deck" type of cards and the first one is Searing Blaze. Even though this one most of the time will be cast as a sorcery, this won't chance the fact that it's incredibly useful. I mean, this is what Wizards tried with Lash Out and partially failed. Now they did it right. The second card I want to mention is Ricochet Trap. This was a very needed card and I'm very happy that Wizards gave it to us. Not all Red decks play Blue and thus play Swerve. Those that don't have access to Swerve, will now play Ricochet Trap. I even think that Jund will at least try it in its sideboard. Countering that Flashfreeze or Spreading Seas for a mere is too good to pass in my opinion. And then there is Comet Storm. It's nice surely and it's an instant too but I cannot think of a deck that needs it right now. Right now I think I'll prefer Banefire for that burn spell and Earthquake for multiple creature destruction.

If I ever want to play this one for some strange reason, then I guess it would be Extended and I would use it with Braid of Fire. Otherwise, it's not my cup of tea... at least not now.

Then there is Cunning Sparkmage. This one's a superstar in Limited where there are tons of X/1's, but even in Standard and in Block it will be a nice sideboard card. So yes, this new pinger will get played. Plated Geopede? Dead. Steppe Lynx? Dead. Surrakar Marauder? Dead. 

The final card I want to talk about from Red is Stone Idol Trap. So apparently someone at R&D watched too much Indiana Jones lately. We had Pitfall Trap, Cobra Trap and now this one!

The best thing about Stone Idol Trap is not that it can ambush Knight of the Reliquary and/or Woolly Thoctar. It's Mono Red's answer to Kor Firewalker and this is the real best thing about it. Definitely a good card even if it isn't a maindeck material (most of the time for most of the decks).

And here's my Red podium.

THE RED PODIUM

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

 

 

GREEN
Wurm's Tooth

From the rocky cliffs of Zendikar, I travel to the thick jungles of this world and the first being that greets me there is an Arbor Elf. In Standard he's nothing more than Llanowar Elves but I believe that we will see him more often in eternal formats where people will untap a Tropical Island or a Temple Garden with him. Of course untapping a, say, Murmuring Bosk enchanted with an Overgrowth would also be very useful.

The second card that needs to be mentioned is Leatherback Baloth. What a beast this is! It's mana cost restricts it from being played in many different decks but generating on turn three (or two) for a  deck nowadays is absolutely not a big problem. Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise, Sunpetal Grove, Stirring Wildwood, Arbor Elf, Wildfield Borderpost... the options are almost limitless in Standard. And the more I look at this card, the more I love Smother. It was a really wise decision to reprint it. I mean, Limited WITH Leatherback Baloth and WITHOUT Smother would have been pretty sick I assume.  The next card I want to mention is Explore. Until now, I read at least over a dozen set reviews. Most of them were written by well known writers. All say the same; "Explore is a great card". All continue saying the same thing; "I don't know where to use it though". So what now, is it a great card or a useless card?

I too think Explore is a fantastic card. And unlike others, I can think of a few decks that might need this one. The first obvious one is Valakut decks. Both in Block and in Standard, Explore might replace Oracle of Mul Daya and find itself a home there. Another deck I currently think of building is a deck which is in Bant's colors and uses a lot of mana accelerators including Lotus Cobra and Explore to cast an early but very deadly Clarion Ultimatum. People already talk about Clarion Ultimatum on various forums and I think we might see it played in the very near future. And that would be Explore's second possible home.

The next card I want to go over is this one:

Animal Power!

There are several things I like about this one and the first one is that for five mana we get six power and six toughness. This alone makes this one interesting. Then there is the fact that the tokens we get with Bestial Menace are Maelstrom Pulse-proof. This is also very important. Then this one with Oran-Rief, the Vastwood is pretty sick. And finally it causes a lot of trouble to those Control decks which are mainly packing a lot of spot removal spells. The opponent may kill the elephant with Terminate but you will still keep your other two tokens.

So no matter how you look at Bestial Menace, you will only see a fine and playable card. I'm not saying it will be in Tier-1 decks but I'm saying that it's a good card and that you should be ready to deal with it at least in the Casual Room.

The next card of Green is another very powerful card; it is Joraga Warcaller. I foresee this one as a two-of in Eldrazi Green decks. It wouldn't be too hard to multikick it at least twice with all the mana that deck can produce; and I'm looking at you Mr. Elvish Archdruid!

But even in ZEN Block, there are some possibilities to turn this one into a joke... a bad joke.

Pretty sick, no?

The next card I want to talk about is Slingbow Trap. This is an excellent sideboard card for any Mono Green decks. Are those Black bloodsuckers gathered around that pesky Vampire Nocturnus bothering you? Just pay and teach them a lesson. Is that clearly overpowered 5/5 White angel causing you some trouble? Okay then pay a totally acceptable and teach her a lesson which she won't forget easily. I told you; Slingbow Trap is an excellent card and I hope you see now why.

One of the new Green cards I want to talk about is Terastodon. Most people don't like the idea of giving the opponent free 3/3 creatures but I ask you dear readers, what do those creatures mean if they can't attack at all? What do I mean?

I mean something like this actually.

THE DARK SIDE OF JUND A Future Standard deck by Nafiz Erman

25 Lands 4x Savage Lands 4x Verdant Catacombs 4x Raging Ravine 6x Forest 4x Mountain 3x Swamp 16 Creatures 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Acidic Slime 3x Mold Shambler 3x Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs 2x Terastodon

19 Other Spells 4x Harrow 4x Lightning Bolt 3x Rampant Growth 3x Maelstrom Pulse 2x Vines of Vastwood 2x Violent Ultimatum 1x Lavalanche 15 Cards Sideboard Yet to be decided.

Just above when talking about Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, I hinted to a Mana Ramp / LD deck and this one was the one I actually had in mind. Just mana ramp, destroy lands and make your opponent unable to pay the tribute to your Ogre. Then bring in your Terastodon, destroy more lands and give your opponent some 3/3's and then kill them all with Violent Ultimatum or Maelstrom Pulse or even with your Lavalanche. Winning from there will be a piece of cake.

I'm coming to the end of Green and the last card I want to mention is NOT Omnath, Locus of Mana but it is  Wolfbriar Elemental. Omnath doesn't make any sense to me so I'm skipping it. But Wolfbriar Elemental is... really good.

Even if you don't multikick it, you'll end up with a nice 4/4 body for four mana which is already decent on its own. But this card truly shines as a late game finisher after you multikick a few times. And please note that the tokens you get are wolfs which makes Master of the Wild Hunt even more scary. And unlike Leatherback Baloth which is another very good new Green creature, the best thing about Wolfbriar Elemental is the fact that you can use it in more than a few different decks. Which, as I said, makes it really good. I'm definitely impressed with this one.

And here's my Green podium.

THE GREEN PODIUM

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

 

 

MULTICOLOR

There are two multicolored cards in the set and one is Novablast Wurm and the other is Wrexial, the Risen Deep. The wurm is a nice design and has a very mythic feel but unfortunately it isn't very playable. Its cost is a problem and that it doesn't have any built-in protection makes things even worse. But the other card, Wrexial, the Risen Deep, is not so bad actually.

Even though I don't think this legendary kraken is a maindeck material, I believe that at least Grixis Control will have this one in its sideboard and will bring it in against more than a few decks. The mirror match is one possibility. Both Islandwalk and Swampwalk mean a lot against other Grixis decks and playing their Cruel Ultimatum for free is a great idea. And obviously any other slow Blue based Control deck will be a perfect victim for Wrexial, the Risen Deep.

But I personally would even bring it in against vampires and I don't think this is a bad idea. Vampires cannot kill this monster so easily and casting their removal against them sounds like a very good idea to me. Of course only testing will tell if I'm right or wrong.

 

COLORLESS
Ersatz Gnomes

Artifacts of Worldwake are generally very good but there is one amongst them that deserves to be mentioned before any other. It's this one:

At first this one looks like a harmless nice little artifact that seems to be designed to untap those Alara tri-lands the turn you play them. But you only realize its true power after someone starts the game with a turn one Mishra's Workshop, taps it and casts first Amulet of Vigor and then casts an UNTAPPED Time Vault. Now, do you still think that it's a harmless nice little artifact?

Of course we don't have Vintage on MTGO and therefore we don't have to fear that dream start. But even so, there are many absurd things you can do with Amulet of Vigor on MTGO... such as putting it into your Scapeshift / Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle deck. You will cast Scapeshift and all the lands you bring in, will come in untapped. Which will mean a second Scapeshift in the same turn!

Amulet of Vigor also turns those Vivid lands of Lorwyn into incredibly powerful five-mana lands in Extended. Orb of Dreams is not a wild dream anymore. The borderposts in Standard will now enter the battlefield untapped. Time Sieve combo will be a force to be taken seriously.

As you see, Amulet of Vigor's presence will be felt across many formats.

And having two amulets on table is plain sick. When you play an Arcane Sanctum for example, it will trigger both amulets and their ability will go to the stack. The first one will untap your land, you will tap it for mana and the second ability on the stack will untap it once again! So instead of getting ZERO mana the turn you play your Arcane Sanctum, you will now get TWO mana. Please someone do tell me; how crazy is this?!

Amulet of Vigor... the new "deus" of Magic.

And when M10 first came out, I was wondering why WotC brought back that Fabricate. Esper clearly wasn't the answer. Only now I see the answer.

Anyway...

There are many other useful artifacts in Worldwake and one of them is Basilisk Collar. This one simply turns ANY creature into a Vampire Nighthawk for exactly the same price. Now each and every deck out there has a way to kill that dreaded Wall of Denial. Very nice.

The next card I want to talk about is Pilgrim's Eye. Finally! Now all the colors have access to Civic Wayfinder without playing Green. Wonderful. Oh and it has flying too! Without doubt Pilgrim's Eye is one of those cards from Worldwake that make me extra happy.

Then there is Lodestone Golem. At least in Standard this one won't mean much for a few months and will be treated as a new Juggernaut and nothing more. But we will all understand how valuable it is only after Rise of the Eldrazi comes. So here's my piece of advice to you: Get it now. Get your playset before it's too late. This dude plus the legendary land called Eye of Ugin will most probably be in every Eldrazi deck. Speaking of Eye of Ugin, Mr. Rosewater recently said that they put it in Worldwake because they like foreshadowing. This is most definitely true of course, but most probably they also tested it in Rise of the Eldrazi-only Limited formats and saw that it's a bit too powerful. And thus, we have a land in Worldwake which doesn't make sense to most of the players. So Eye of Ugin is another card which you should get before its price skyrockets. This one and Lodestone Golem will be heavily played after we get the chance to meet these mysterious Eldrazi. And then there is this artifact creature called Walking Atlas which caused a lot of confusion at first. Walking Atlas is an "Artifact Creature". The printed card says otherwise; it says "Creature". People were very confused but it immediately received an errata.

From the artifacts of Worldwake, I move onto the lands of Worldwake. The new manlands are all great and while I think that Celestial Colonnade and Stirring Wildwood are the most impressing ones, the rest will surely see a lot of play too. 

And the rest of the land are also very nice. Halimar Depths already created a lot of discussion. Quicksand is back and it's back as a Common. Bojuka Bog, even though less useful than Tormod's Crypt, is another way to fight graveyard manipulation. More options never hurt, right? It good without doubt but not the best.

The last card I want to talk about is Tectonic Edge. Finally, after that many years, Wizards managed to print one balanced land for land destruction. Strip Mine, Wasteland and Ghost Quarter were all a little bit too powerful and finally they did it right.

And here's my podium for colorless cards and lands.

THE COLORLESS PODIUM

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

 

 

WRAPPING UP WORLDWAKE

Worldwake is a small set. Normally these small sets don't have so many cards that can effect Standard and other formats too. But this set is different. From the mighty Jace, the Mind Sculptor to the simple yet efficient Explore, there are a lot of cards in Worldwake that will see the light of day in the coming days. Which makes me very happy as a Magic player.

And a few words about Kenneth Nagle who was the lead designer of Worldwake. Up until Worldwake I always thought of Wizards' R&D as "MaRo and his friends". MaRo's influence on Magic is huge and I always wondered what it would be like if he someday decide to quit or retire. That was a frightening thought but not anymore. As someone who invests a lot of money and time into this game, I feel much better now after seeing Mr. Nagle's work. The future of Magic is in safe hands.

And here's my final podium.

MY WORLDWAKE PODIUM

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

Thanks for reading.

See you online
Nafiz Erman, aka Lord Erman