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By: JXClaytor, Joshua Claytor
Jan 29 2008 3:47pm
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I want to thank everyone who has read the Morningtide set reviews that we featured over the few days.  This was a huge project that the staff took, and I think we all did a very good job.  There was a lot of discussion, and I hope that you, the reader enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.  Of course, when you undertake such a huge project you tend to leave some stuff out.  You know formats and all.  This article is going to rectify some of those missing formats, like Future Extended, which is a Pauper Deck format.  We're also going to take a look at some other formats, like Extended, Block, Sealed, and Multiplayer.  Let's get right off to Future Extended!

I took some time to talk to 53N51 who is the host of UPDC.  UPDC is a Sunday tournament that takes place on MTGO and features the Future Extended.  Future Extended for all of those not in know, is pretty much everything with a new card face.  Of course, since it is PDC, it is still commons only.  53N51 had this to say about the potential impact of Morningtide on his beloved format.  For more information on this fun format, I suggest checking out www.pdcmagic.com.  This site is a great resource for anyone who wants to learn the ins and outs of all of the Player Run Event supported Pauper Magic! 


Burrenton Bombardier - This card will be a house sideboard card in any deck that runs white mana short of Spore Cry. The non-counterable permanant pump will be extremely valuable in matchups that tend to sit more on the controllish side, as you can stick a threat before any potential counters come online (there are fantastic Blue and Black one-drops) and then pump them later at your leisure without fear of running into permission. This will allow you to establish a dominant lethal threat far faster than Errant Ephemeron or Chilling Shade would ever be able to, and much more reliably I think. Fantastic utility card that will see heavy play.

Coordinated Barrage - Pretty much Skred in Spore Cry. This is needed because Sunlance leaves you with a rather large gap in your defense against the rebel engine popular in Orzhov Blink.

Disperse - Yet another tool to improve the already formidable MUTC (Mostly-Blue Teachings Control). This should give it greater game on the draw, something that the deck has needed IMHO

Distant Melody
- There is a combo brewing here. I haven't had a chance to actually come up with a build yet but Polyjak and I will be working on a Spore Cry variant that's more combo-oriented than its GW brother. This threatens to be very dangerous to MUTC.

Lys-Alanna Bowmaster - Just as Cogs & Stripes and Orzhov Blink seemed to dominate the metagame, we get this powerhouse. Mono-green elves and Spore Cry alike will be very glad to add this card to their sideboards (or even their maindeck the way the metagame is looking currently).

Negate - It's a hard counter thats not double-costed. Crazy powerful card in the current metagame that will undoubtedly see use in a variety of decks, not just MUTC

Roar of the Crowd - This is Goblin War Strike for FutExt and Standard. It obviously fits in GoblinStorm but it might also find a place in the aforementioned Saproling Combo deck that will inevitably rear its head

Deglamer - Khiareq is another well respected PDC'er had this to say.  Here is a Naturalize that keeps an artifact from being recurred by a Leonin Squire and can also circumvent those irritating Welding Jars. I can see this card fitting into sideboards in FutEx and maybe classic. I would run it over Naturalize in Futex especially. Also good to know that Health Inspectors in Lorwyn are so much better than those here.

Festercreep - Icarodx - Is this a bomb? Probably not. While a black sweeper attached to a body do exists in the form of Crypt Rats, PDC Future Extended or Standard never heard of such a thing. Surely this one is a lot weaker than the original and it will never be a classic staple, but black standard mages will find useful to have a reusable (via graveyard recursion) Nausea effect in their sleeves albeit a expensive one. I see as possible to abuse Festercreep's´ affinity for counter in Future Extended, where there are few nausea effects also, with the help of graft.

Morsel Theft - Icarodx - PDC players, and Magic players in general, are greedy people. It´s impossible to look at this guy and not imagine it as Lightning Helix cantrip to the 
face. Obviously it is not. It´s not even essence drain since not hitting creatures is a big one. But this card will undoubtedly play a major role in its tribe. This card has an aggressive prowl cost-benefit/risk relation that screams: "Build around me!" And the rogue tribe have enough juice in standard to make it possible, including 3 excellent one-drop evasion critters (one goblin, one faerie and one changeling).

Connecting one in the second turn gives a huge advantage in life swing and digging and additional ones can finish opposition very fast. The damage it causes can make the road shorter and the life gain is good for a reckless tribe that don´t want to care about defenses. Replacing itself closes the deal. The deck almost builds itself and that´s enough for me to label it as flagship in this expansion. It's a risky bet, sure, but one I´m willing to make.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Morningtide is the second set of the two set Lorwyn block.  I asked our resident block expert Salgy, what cards he felt were going to impact Block Constructed.  Morningtide adds another one hundred and fifty cards, but which ones are going to be played in eight mans and premiere events? 

1.  Kithkin Borderguard

Imagine this series of plays

Turn one Plains - Goldmeadow Stalwart
Turn two Plains - Knight of Meadowgrain
Turn three Plains -  You can play the Borderguard as a 3/3 man, and if it dies to Nameless Inversion you have four men. 
Turn four Plains - Make a one drop man, and then follow up with another Borderguard.  That gives you a 6/6 creature on turn four!   That is pretty beefy, and even if he dies you get to play with five creatures that the guard will leave when he leaves play. 

2.  Preeminent Captain

Wow this is a nice 2/2 first strike body!  He can also bring in another soldier to come in and join the fun!  I can see this in A LOT of kithkin decks.

3. Declaration of Naught

Like blue black needed anymore counters to help them out.  It is bad enough dealing with four Broken Ambitions, and four Cryptic Commands. Add this in the mix and the metagame going to be in for a huge headache.

4.  Grimmoire Thief

This is a new version of the Rootwater Thief.  That guy saw some play as a way to deal with control decks, and this creature should be no different. 

5Auntie's Snitch

I see this as another Squee!  Creatures that keep coming back are sure to be good, it's just a shame that this one can not block! 


6.  Earwig Squad

You're telling me that they made a Jester's Cap but you dont have to sac it?  Not bad.  You can attack with it for five?  Sign me up!  I can see this card getting A LOT of playing of time. 

7Chameleon Colossus

This has protection from black, so bye bye removal all you have to worry about is a counter spell or Oblivion Ring but if your a smart player you usally wait for them to tap out for that evoked Mulldrifter.  This 4/4 changling is tough since it will get a +1/+1 with anything from Mad Auntie to Wizened Cenn. Lets not forget the pump ability which can end games post haste!

8.  Mumuring Bosk

wow THREE colors in 1 land that is insane! you can see a lot of this card in all formats

9Mutavault

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morningtide is going to shake up more than block, it's going to have a far reaching impact on Standard as well.  I got in a few words with our Standard recapper, jamuraa who had this to say about the newest set and Standard. 

1. Leaf-Crowned Elder - Free creatures, anyone?

2. Kinsbale Borderguard - W
hile this needs other cards in play to
work, it is so very anti-wrath and damnation that I think it will see
play

3. Reveillark - Someone will break it, and you know it.

4. Grimoire Thief - I want so very much for Merfolk to be viable, and
further so for milling to be viable.  This is a good step along the
way.

5. Offalsnout - I chose this one because it is good to have around in
the metagame.  When graveyard shenanigans happen like Mannequin, it's
good to have something to balance it in the meta.

6. Weirding Shaman - I want to play this in my casual goblins deck,
just because I know there will be some time where I will split goblins
like crazy.


7. Countryside Crusher - It's just good.  You know it's good, I know
it's good.  This guy will get a deck built around him.  It might not
be good, but you can bet that people are testing Crusher Bust right
now.

8. Tauren Mauler - The mauler is a pretty great card, and was somewhat
overshadowed by the crusher.  He fits in a lot of decks.

9. Cream of the Crop - Topdeck for the win.

10. Gilt-leaf Archdruid - I am a Johnny at heart.   I will be a happy
guy when someone steals all the lands from the other side, and uses
them to pump Chameleon Colossus to 5 hojillion power.

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, the last featured format is going to be Extended.  The current Pro Tour Qualifiers and Premiere Events have been dominated by Dredge and Counterbalance control decks.  Are there any tools in Morningtide that can shake things up with a new deck or maybe some cards that can put exsisting decks over the top?  Here are the ten cards that I think are going to impact Extended the most! 

10. Countryside Crusher - Terravore sees some play every so often in Devestating Dreams based Loam decks.  I can see this guy becoming another win condition based off the massive land destruction that Dreams can provide you. 

9. Earwig Squad -  Goblin decks need some disruption to fight off the combo decks in the format.  Since this can hit the same turn that Blood Moon can, there would be a fight for disruption cards.  However this can be back breaking against Ideal combo and Dredge when you remove key parts of their combo. 

8. Grimoire Thief - I see this as a tool for Merfolk decks that have started to pop up in the format.  I'm not sure the fish sticks are going to be a force, but this guy can help them out. 

7. Idyllic Tutor - Ideal would like this card.  It allows you to tutor up a back up plan, which would enable you to stall for enough time to fully combo off. 

6. Mind Spring - Heartbeat combo does not see enough play in my mind, and this could be a one of in a Gifts pile.

5. Cream of the Crop - I've said a lot of glowing things about this card, I think it could possibly fit into a version of Dirty Kitty. 

4. Negate - It's just another counterspell, nothing really great, but gives you another card that players must play around and think about when they are trying to resolve spells. 

3. Scapeshift - Tooth and Nail decks are playing the tron, or Cloudpost.  On turn four you can play this get your Tron set completed, or get a ton of Cloudposts.  This spell allows you to open slots that would otherwise have been devoted to Sylvan Scrying and Reap and Sow.  I like the option of getting the tron set and Boseiju, so you can play the name sake sorcery underneath some protection.  Of course, you'll need some signets to actually get the colored mana, but that goes without saying!

2. Mumuring Bosk - Doran decks are going to play the crap out of this.  It opens a lot of color fixing options. 

1. Mutavault - Every deck that has room to play this new Factory is going to play it.  It may be the most influential card on deck design to come into any format since Tarmogoyf.  I'm very high on this card.  

 

 

 

This rounds up yet another Morningtide preview.  I can not say it is the last that we will feature (and I know it will not be, since SpikeBoyM will be doing a review for the PDC players.) anymore of them, but these have been a blast.  I hope everyone has enjoyed, and we'll see you next time for Shadowmoor! 

8 Comments

by 53N531 at Thu, 01/31/2008 - 02:33
53N531's picture

Sure. I meant the specifics of the deck becoming more combo-ish rather than the specific card's effect. Most Spore Cry players play the deck like an aggro deck even when they play versus control, and I think this is the incorrect strategy considering the number of instant-speed threats the deck has access to relative to the number of answers the control deck can present.

Changing the deck to include an alternate win strategy and gameplan should force players of the deck to consider the non-aggro approach more thoughtfully rather than just dropping all their spells out there at sorcery speed to get countered like fish in a barrel. 

Re: by Gloinoin at Wed, 01/30/2008 - 13:47
Gloinoin's picture

Good article, shame some of the analysis seems a wee bit off... Distant Melody - ....... This threatens to be very dangerous to MUTC.

 Urm Why? its a 4 mana sorcery against a deck that gasp plays counters, if the games hit the extent where your revolving a 4 mana sorcery against such a deck then you were probably in a damn good situation anyway.

P.S the grammar in places needs cleaning up. Khiareq is another well respected PDC'er had this to say sentences like that just appear sloppy.

by 53N531 at Wed, 01/30/2008 - 14:33
53N531's picture

Sorry Gloin, that is exactly what I was referring to. The content, aside from its opinionated and therefore fundimentally flawed nature of course, is good, but the editing and formatting was unintentionally neglected due to a lack of understanding about what I was providing. Again, sorry for the roughness, hope it wasn't too much of an inconvenience for everyone.

by Gloinoin at Wed, 01/30/2008 - 14:54
Gloinoin's picture

sorry about the double post came up as an error, care to expand upon any of your reasonings, in particular i'm intrigued by why you think Distant Melodies will be so devestating against MUTC?

by JXClaytor at Wed, 01/30/2008 - 10:33
JXClaytor's picture

I thought you did a really good job explaining why you thought these cards were going to played FutExt  

by 53N531 at Wed, 01/30/2008 - 02:31
53N531's picture

Oh wow, I had no clue that you were going to display my opinions so prominantly. I had figured you would have just used the information to suppliment your own views. I sincerely apologize to all of your readers for the lack of detail and refinement in my portion of the article.

by 53N531 at Wed, 01/30/2008 - 02:49
53N531's picture

No, seriously, I am REALLY sorry for the way this looks. You have my reassurance that I will not make such a mistake again.

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seoexpert's picture

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