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By: hamtastic, Erik Friborg
Aug 21 2007 10:08pm
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For those unaware of Masters Edition, it's an MTGO only set of cards that will be available this fall.  It goes on sale in September and will have a limited amount of time to be on sale.  For more background on what ME is and what events there will be, you can read the announcement here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/magiconline/article072007a

I went through the cards and listed where I think they'll see play, if anywhere.  And found much to my amazement that there are a lot of cards of casual importance. .  More so than I would have thought, at least before I spent some time pouring through the list completely.  In addition to the run down I'll try my hand at being mildly entertaining. 

Rule #1 If anything is horribly, horribly wrong it must have been a joke.
Rule #2 If it seems wrong then turns out right, it was intentional.
Rule #3 And if it seems right it's likely a coincidence.

Quick jump:
White
Blue
Black
Red
Green
Multicolor
Artifact
Land

Also, I don't know when these cards will be tagged and fixed for easier viewing, but once they are I'll make sure they all work and link properly.  Until then, there is a list with linked cards here: http://forums.gleemax.com/showpost.php?p=13164758&postcount=1

WHITE:


Angry Mob
Casual to Multiplayer.  In a 1 on 1 duel he's going to be very unpredictable.  But as the likelihood of facing swamps goes up in MP so too does this guy's threat level.  Obvious combo alert!!! Angry Mob + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Argivian Archaeologist
Casual to None.  Upstaged in almost every way by Academy Ruins.  The bonus of 'to my hand' instead of 'top of library' is negated by the safety of a land and the reduced ability cost.

Armageddon
Casual to Competitive.  This card may make for some strong enough aggro deck.  White mana is in pretty much every aggro deck in the format (except affinity) so this may have the
ability to delay a combo deck if they can slow Flash down a turn or two.

Animate Wall
Casual to None.  Rolling Stones 5-8?

Benalish Hero
Casual, depending on errata.  If this becomes a soldier then it could see play in casual WW/MW Soldier decks.

Crusade
Competitive to Casual.  This is the right price for a global pumper in Classic.  A strong card that's worth the risk of meeting a WW opponent.

Death Speakers
PDC to Casual.  Protection from Black is nothing to sneeze at... unless you're allergic to prepositional phrases.  Freaks.

Death Ward
None?  One shot regeneration at one mana is one mana too much.

Divine Transformation
Casual to None.  There are much better choices for card disadvantage than this.  And many cost less.

Dust to Dust
PDC to Casual.  Playing this on turn 3 to nuke an artifact land and a creature seems like a strong play.

Elder Land Wurm
Casual to None.  7 mana for a defender?  Yuck.  The only way this guy is going to change the game is by stopping an assault that wouldn't have let your opponent win the game.  Otherwise he'll swarm around him or fly over him.

Exile
Prismatic to casual.  Maybe even a slot in PDC if any type of White/X control should need the help.  Removal + life buffer makes a solid card.

Greater Realm of Preservation
Casual.  *Channeling 'The Count' from Sesame Street*: "One, Two!  Two COP's in one! Ah Ah Ah!"

Hallowed Ground
Casual to None? Dear John-ny.  I think we need to see other people.  -MED

Hand of Justice
Casual to none.  For the low low price of 6 mana + 4 tapped creatures you too can destroy a creature each turn.  yarly.

Holy Light
Casual.  Mono White Weenie sweeping is pretty handy actually.  I can see this seeing play in a (very) budget mono white aggro deck.

Icatian Lieutenant
Casual to none.  There are more efficient soldier pumpers available, but as long as you don't ask we wont tell.  Although if you're building Icatian.dec then have I got a card for YOU!

Icatian Town
Casual to none.  6 mana for a 4 and 4?  Not so much.  I'd rather have the Icatian Crier or Raise the Alarm for white token creation.

Knights of Thorn
Casual.  Acceptably strong for a common creature.  Allowing him and another creature to pummel red creatures in the red zone will be the tipping point.

Mesa Pegasus
Casual to PDC?  White weenie, flying, banding could have its uses.  I wonder how many casual games will be won through only one person's understanding of Banding.

Moat
Casual to Competitive.  A card that needs to be built around, but a very very powerful effect for the mana.

Order of Leitbur
PDC to Competitive.  Pro black, pump, First Strike On Demand.  That's a hot package for a two mana common.

Petra Sphinx
Casual.  Allow me to make the obligatory "Sphinx + Top" announcement.  Although if I have a 3/4 flyer I may want to be doing more than drawing an extra card each turn.  But if you're just holding the fort with the Sphinx then this little synergy will get you ahead on cards nicely.

Preacher
Casual.  Mix with some sacrifice effects and some Swords to Plowshares, maybe wrath of God with some Akroma, Angel of Wrath and you could have a strong deck!

Righteous Avengers
Casual to None.  5 mana.  3/1.  Does not compute...

Seraph
Casual.  Solid ability, and really wants to pick up a Viridian Longbow or probably a Sinstriker's Will...

Thunder Spirit
Casual to Competitive.  The stats are pretty good for the price.  If a WW deck springs up, I could see this guy in there.

Tivadar's Crusade
Sideboard?  This seems strong enough to Nerf Goblins Good.  So if Goblins take over in Classic this card could make the sideboards of many a white deck.

Pearls: Crusade, Exile, Moat, Order of Leitbur
I think White came out pretty well in MED.  Some solid commons and uncommons and a rare or two that can be built around by those who wish to do so.  The only real surprise to me was the inclusion Order of Leitbur at common.

BLUE:


Amnesia
A model citizen on the Island of Misfit Cards.  Mass discard in Casual is frequently conceded to, but 6 mana discard won't see play in Constructed.  I nominate him for Mayor of Misfits, due in no small part to him already missing part of his brain.

Apprentice Wizard
Casual.  And it's a good thing that nothing ever goes wrong when Mono Blue gets mana acceleration!  Netting you +2 mana on turn 4 won't cause much of an advantage in a casual game, that's for sure!  *shifty*

Arcane Denial
Casual.  A 'fun' counterspell that people don't get too upset about.  Well, they don't get upset until you Plagiarize their draws on the next turn...

Diminishing Returns
A "draw seven" that's pretty well balanced.  Want to tap four mana on your turn to refill your hand?  How about give aggro a refill?  This may be balanced right out of being useful.

Force of Will
I recently made a point that Blue (and Black) were being shafted because of this card.  Due to the White, Green and Red cards in the cycle not requiring you to pay life these were obviously skewed against Blue and Black and that WotC should stop their nerfing of Blue.  Much laughter was had by all.

Giant Tortoise
Casual to none.  I had a chance to interview this guy when he was added to the set.  He went on and on about how much better he was than that poser Horned Turtle.  He looked completely crestfallen when I told him that that isn't anything to be proud about... sorry buddy, but it's true.  And sometimes the truth hurts.

High Tide
"Yaus!" Sums up the potential for this card.  While we don't have the broken 'untap x land' spells yet, this card will be hanging out and waiting for its time to wreak havoc in the format.

Homarid Spawning Bed
Casual.  With any type of recursion or reshuffle effect you will wind up with a lot of wee turtles.  I just hope there's some way to pump up blue weenie creatures...

Hydroblast
Almost Everywhere.  Holy crap for a common.  I don't think there's much I need to explain about this card.  It's good against Red decks.  Yeah, I know, my insight is AMAZING!  Bow, trembling before my mighty mighty insight!

Illusionary Forces
Casual.  4/4 for 4.  Combos well with Chisei, Heart of Oceans, for whatever *that's* worth.  I hear that a rubber mouth guard combos well with getting electrocuted too, that doesn't make being electrocuted any more fun.

Illusionary Wall
Casual to none.  OOOH!  A use for Animate Wall  *roll eyes*

Illusions of Grandeur
Casual to Lurking in the wings.  This is really waiting for the 'donate' half of the 'donate/grandeur' combo.

Juxtapose
Casual.  Here, have my chaff and/or self destructing cards and I'll take your stuff.  Thanks, chummmmmmmm......p!

Mystic Remora
Unlocking Casual?  Hello Remora.  (A cookie to whomever picks up on the phonetic funny there.  Nerds unite!).  I can see this netting a few cards in a Mono Blue deck.  Either that or slow the creature rush. I hear that Blue likes to draw cards and/or slow creature attacking down.

Phantom Monster
Casual.  3/3 flyer for 4 isn't too bad.  It's not the best creature at the CMC, but for a mono colored common it's decently strong.

Polar Kraken
Casual to none.  Body Double shenanigans?  Maybe?  Please?

Psychic Purge
Casual.  This is going in to my anti-discard deck right away.

Psychic Venom
Casual.  Funny card in general.  Hilarious with Icy Manipulator.

River Merfolk
Casual.  Blue Weenie?  Sure, why not?  He even has a bit of evasion in there too.  Solid Common.

Sea Sprite
PDC to Casual.  Pro red is always nice.  As is the evasion for Ninja of the Deep Hours shenanigans.

Seasinger
Casual?  *numma numma words... numma stuff... heh... 'tap'*

Serendib Efreet
Solid aggro creature for the format.  I expect him to see play in Prismatic Aggro decks as well as possibly some sort of Blue aggro decks in the casual room.

Sunken City
Casual.  Heeeyyyy look!  Blue Weenie pumpage!  It's *almost* like they're suggesting a deck to be built here!

Telekinesis
Casual?  Tempo card for sure.  But not really sure what all this card will accomplish in casual.  Maybe buying time for the Blue mage to draw into a steal or bounce card?

Time Elemental
Casual to concession.  More bounce guys.  There's about enough for a full deck of permanent bouncers.  Temporal Adept, Heidar, Rimewind Master, this guy, and some snow mana.  You got yourself some concessions!

Vesuvan Doppelganger
Casual.  This card does stuff.  Then it does more stuff while doing something else.  I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the shuffler.  And pie.  Always Pie.  Or maybe it copies creatures.  I could go either way.

Vodalian Knights
Casual.  Nice card with Sea's Claim.  Boy it's hard to say that with a straight face...  Although you could throw in a Kukemssa Serpent, or maybe a Quicksilver Fountain for some actual non sucky synergy.

Word of Undoing
Casual maybe?  Finally!  The slightly better Unsummon I've been waiting all my life for!  Hugs and kisses WoU!

Saphires: Force of Will, Hydroblast, Vesuvan Doppelganger, Sunken City
As expected from old school Blue there are a lot of decently strong cards in the list.  Nothing truly amazing outside of Force of Will, but enough strong cards to make it interesting.

BLACK:


Animate Dead
Casual to Competitive.  This is being errata'd back to not leaving a pro-white creature in play *waves goodbye to Akroma*.  We haven't heard yet if Necromancy will get the old "Bob Barker" treatment.

Baron Sengir
Casual.  Finisher in some casual decks.  Should make for a great card in any Vampire Tribal decks that pop up.

Basal Thrull
Casual.  I'm sure that someone, somewhere will break him.  Summoning sickness hurts a lot though.

Black Knight
Casual to Competitive.  As a black mage through and through I'm happy to see this guy.  He could see play if combo slows down a tad...

Blight
Competitive to non.  Sadly this may be in instead of Sinkhole.  If that's the case then black LD may not have the teeth to see play in Competitive, and it's likely too strong of LD for the casual room.

Cuombajj Witches
Casual.  I can't think of a Classic contender that would run these vixens, but I can see much fun in the casual room revolving around these cards.

Breeding Pit
Casual.  'Free' creatures in black always have a use or a way to be put to use.

Chains of Mephistopheles
Competitive.  *numma numma words... numma stuff... heh... 'wood'.. huhhuhhha*  Mark my words: this card will break stuff.  Either the client, other cards or a format.  And maybe all of the above.

Contagion
Competitive to Casual.  Oh yeah!  Free removal.  Finally!  This card makes my day as an MBC player.  Free removal of a meddling mage is enough for me to main deck this card.

Derelor
Casual.  MBC can't afford to leech itself in Classic.  MBA will fall apart if you have to pay that much extra.  One life per turn for a 5/5 or a 50% increase in mana costs... decisions decisions!  Not really though.

Eater of the Dead
Casual.  In a brief interview with EotD, I discovered that the dead 'taste like chicken, but with a Dr. Pepper aftertaste'.  Good to know.  Also, EotD is looking forward being reunited with his estranged brother: Golgari Grave-Troll and asked me to put out an APB for his missing Viridian Longbow.

Erg Raiders
Casual to completive?  I actually saw someone wishing for this card to be online the other day.  I'm happy to see this guy too.  He's a strong aggro card with that big back end.  Erg Raiders, I choose you!

The Fallen
Casual.  I asked this guy what he was so happy about.  He was ecstatic about being able to hook up with Elves of Deep Shadow again.  I almost couldn't bring myself to tell him that the elves were now dudes.  He's eyes got a strange red glow after I told him that.  He also seemed to go a bit psychotic and wanted to rampage against people he hurt in the past.*

Feast or Famine
Casual to Prismatic.  While neither side is particularily efficient, the flexibility of this card may make up for that.  A card that I almost certainly would want to draw in a Prismatic Match.

Hecatomb
Casual.  Solid fun card.  If only there were some way to get those creatures back en masse... *cough*norestforthewicked*cough* then this card would be truly crazy!

Hyalopterous Lemure
Casual to None.  Funny little lemur.  Good for a laugh.  Not for much else though...

Hymn to Tourach
Competitive.  Strong discard.  Great turn two after a first turn Hypnotic Specter.  This might even be able to bring The Rack decks into play.  Nothing emasculates a player like losing his land drops on turn one though.

Juz·m Djinn
Casual to Competitive.  If MBC can take off, this could be a finisher in the deck.  

Khabal Ghoul
Casual.  Good card after you've wiped the board.  And another card that fits into my materializing No Rest for the Wicked deck which will hopefully look something like this:

Card Name: Qty:
Basal Thrull

4

Blood Pet 4
Cabal Therapy 4
Dark Ritual 4
Grave Pact 4
Khabal Ghoul 4
No Rest for the Wicked 4
Overeager Apprentice 4
Tendrils of Agony 4
Lake of the Dead 4
Swamp 20

Mindstab Thrull
Casual to Concession.  Too slow for competitive, too annoying for casual.  *tear*

Nether Shadow
Competitive.  Along with his younger cousin Nether Traitor there are a healthy amount of self reanimating black weenie creatures.  Enough for an endless army just about.

Order of the Ebon Hand
Competitive to Casual.  Another very strong common for Classic.  I expect this guy to see some play as he dodges Swords to Plowshares.  The only thing that Hand of Cruelty has over this guy is that HoC can block an Exalted Angel too.

Oubliette
Casual.  Kind of like removal.  But I'd rather run Faceless Butcher for pseudo removal as it gets rid of the enchantments too.

Paralyze
Casual to none.  Not really strong enough to justify running it.  Towards the late game the creature will untap anyway.

Phyrexian Boon
Casual.  Not strong enough removal or pump to warrant its inclusion into many decks.

Pox
Casual to competitive?.  There will be a way to break this card in classic.  Its effect is powerful enough at a low enough cost that it will be a great equalizer.

Thrull Champion
Casual.  Thrull Lord!  Thrull Tribal sends you a big sloppy kiss.

Thrull Retainer
Casual to none.  I can't go into what my first thought is upon seeing this art, as this is a family friendly site.  So instead I'll just wonder if this is strong enough to see play even at 1 cc.

Obsidians: Black Knight, Chains of Mephistopheles, Contagion, Hymn to Tourach, Nether Shadow, Pox
Also not too surprising is a strong showing from Black.  I expect a lot of the cards in Black to see play either in tournaments or in the Casual room.  Chains is the big surprise here.  I didn't think they'd put that in due to complexities of the card.  I look forward to reading many new posts about how such and such card broke chains, again.

RED:


Artifact Blast
casual to sideboards.  Annul's red headed cousin.  Although for artifact hate, I generally prefer Shattering Spree.

Balduvian Horde
Casual.  This is a minor drawback in casual, but a big drawback in constructed.  I sure hope he doesn't get bounced!  +5 points for combo-ing with Squee though.

Ball Lightning
Competitive to Casual.  Need I say that he does damage more gooder than Spark Elemental?  I hope not.  'cuz that would sound stupid.

Bestial Fury
Casual.  Card drawing in Red is always given a second look.  Also, negating a blocker isn't a bad thing.  I can imagine some play for this card.

Brothers of Fire
Casual to none.  Suicidal red cards are fun and all, but there's so much better uses for the mana.

Crookshank Kobolds
Casual.  Slowly assembling a killer Kobolds deck while leaving stuff for MED2 and MED3.  Devious!

Dwarven Catapult
Casual.  A decent trick in limited, but largely irrelevant in any constructed format.

Dwarven Soldier
Casual to none.  There are enough 2/1's for 2 in the MTGO card pool.  So until the great and terrible day that Orc's are running over the casual room I envision that this card will collect digital dust in digital binders.

Fissure
Casual to Prismatic.  Mono Red Creature kill.  Also doubles as land kill for pesky lands.  Never a dead card which is what we always want to draw.

Goblin Chirurgeon
Casual to None.  Not worth the single red mana to cast.  :(

Goblin Grenade
Competitive to Casual.  5 damage for R.  That IS worth the one mana to cast.  For those new to the game.  This card is strong.  For those old to the game.  You already know that this card is strong.  This card is Kelso approved.

Goblin Mutant
Casual.  Maybe in a U/R aggro/tempo deck?  Bounce or tap any big creatures and keep powering through with the Mutant?  Casual if anywhere fo sho.

Goblin Wizard
Casual.  I'll even go so far as to say: Strong casual.  Free Goblins and Pro white is a good card all around.  Not good enough for Competitive at 4 mana, but good enough for casual.

Goblins of the Flarg
Casual.  Maybe playable?  Again we see the Goblin based racism and wonder: Can't they all just get along?

Granite Gargoyle
Casual.  The great granddaddy of Basalt Gargoyle.  Although not really strong anymore, it's still a 2/2 flyer for 3 in red with a positive ability.

Jokulhaups
Casual to Concession.  "Not casual, dood!".  Honden-Haups decks should be a blast to play though.

Card Name Qty:

Jokulhaups

4
Kodama's Reach 4
Pyroclasm 4
Sakura-Tribe Elder 4
Words of Wilding 4
Honden of Cleansing Fire 3
Honden of Infinite Rage 4
Honden of Life's Web 3
Honden of Night's Reach 2
Honden of Seeing Winds 3
Terramorphic Expanse 4
Forest 8
Island 3
Mountain 5
Plains 3
Swamp 2


Keldon Warlord
Casual.  Fun in Green/Red token swarm deck.  Obvious combo alert!!!  Warlord + (Fist of Ironwood).

Lightning Bolt
All formats.  PDC to Competitive to Casual to Stairwell to everything else.  THE baseline for burn.  Play it, love it.  "BURN!" This card is Kelso approved.

Mana Flare
Casual.  If we wanted to play this card we'd be playing its long lost twin: Heartbeat of Spring.  Since we aren't, one would guess that we won't be playing this one either.  Good for casual decks though, I think.

Marton Stromgald
Casual.  Attack with a lot, block with a lot.  Try to mix it with banding.  Repeat.

Mountain Yeti
Limited to Casual.  Strong in limited, acceptable in casual.  Nothing for Constructed.  Sorry Yeti.

Orcish Mechanics
Casual.  Mix him into a combo deck of the 'Stations' from Fifth Dawn?  

Pyroblast
Competitive.  Here we go.  Anti-flash-ness.  Also anti counterspell.  I'm happy to see this card in the format.

Spinal Villain
Casual.  A lot of people wanted to see this guy in, mostly for the fun of it.  He's good in red decks to keep Meloku, Teferi, and other blue finishers in check.  Look for him in an anti Blue Deck.dec

Stone Giant
Casual to none.  Pushes weak creatures through for one time damage.  Not an amazing card, all things considered.

Varchild's War-Riders
Casual to competitive.  Good for a few turns until you can wipe out the enemies with an Engineered Plague or Night of Souls' Betrayal.

Winds of Change
Competitive to Casual.  Ditch a hand of lands for a chance at more gas.  Or disrupt a combo players hand for 1 Red.  Why not?

Ydwen Efreet
Casual to none.  Random effects really tickle some people.  I am not amongst that motley crew.  Although I do wonder about the name: Anagram of Wendy or Newdy?  You decide!

Rubies: Ball Lightning, Goblin Grenade, Jokulhaups, Lightning Bolt, Pyroblast, Winds of ChangeLightning Blast and Pyroblast will be the crown jewels of this color.  There are some downright amazing casual cards in this list, and an unfortunately high amount of filler jank.

GREEN:

Autumn Willow
Casual.  Another cog in the machine of the Buffy theme deck.  Repentant Vampire - Angel, Gallantry - Buffy, Woebringer Demon - Anya, Autumn Willow - Willow... still needs some Xander representation.

Berserk
Competitive.  Grow-a-tog decks run it.  Big pump and desperation removal.  A good card altogether.

Carnivorous Plant
Casual to None.  For 4 mana, mono green can get a 5/5 with minor drawbacks that can also attack. 

Chub Toad
Casual.  I wish this would get errata'd to Bushido 2.  Samurai Frog!

Eureka
Casual Multiplayer.  Eureka?  Or You-reek-a?  Probably the former.  A fun card for the whole table.

Fyndhorn Elves
Casual.  A fun alternative to Llanowar elves.  It's just nice to have more cheap mono green acceleration options around as there are so few to choose from right now.

Gargantuan Gorilla
Casual.  This guy is not as "gargantuan" as his name would make you believe.  Trust me.  Although I can understand why he's so mad now.  I'd be mad too if I had a name like Gargantuan, but wasn't paking the heat... you know what I mean.

Ghazban Ogre
Casual to none.  When a creature is as traitorous as this Ogre is, he's bound to anger some people.  Poor Newb McNewberson throws him into a deck and runs headlong into a burn deck.  He subsequently gets beaten to death with his own Ogre (what innuendo?).  Newb McNewberson goes into a spiral of depression leaving him face down on a sidewalk in Reno with no shoes and only one kidney.  I hope you sleep well with *THAT* on your conscience WotC!!!  Oh, and O'Doyle rules!

Hungry Mist
Casual.  Hungry Mist?  More like "Munchies" Mist.  You know what I'm talkin' about.  Wait... what were we talking about?  I don't even know man....

Ice Storm
Casual to Concession.  I like this card and am happy to see it in Classic.  It's a good disruption card in mono green beats.

Ifh-BÌff Efreet
Casual to more?  3/3 flyer for 4 in green is solid.  As is the mini-huricane ability.

Nature's Lore
Casual to Prismatic.  Gets any Forest based dual land and puts it into play.  That's good stuff.

Primal Order
Casual.  Great card for the anti-non-basic crowds.  

Rabid Wombat
Casual.  Card disadvantage for the loss.  I will almost always poo-poo cards that say "enchant creature" or cards that only work well with enchant creature cards.  This is no exception.  Fun for a giggle.  Play at your own risk.

Roots
Casual to none.  4 mana to stop a flyer?  Why not 2 mana for a Utopia Vow? Or 5 mana for a Silklash Spider?  Or 4 mana for a Disk and stop ALL flyers???

Scryb Sprites
Casual. Green weenie.  Evasion flyer.  She's a good casual card for sure.

Shambling Strider
Casual maybe.  Beefy Green Creature.  Strange ability.  Good in limited, but limited in constructed.  Synergizes the paradigms with Berserk though.

Singing Tree
Casual to None.  It's like a Fog on legs, except it only stops two creatures instead of all of them.  I think I'd rather put Fog on an Isochron Scepter

Spectral Bears
Casual to Competitive.  Mix in with some green untapping and some Spectral Forces and you could have some savage beat downery.

Storm Seeker
Casual to none.  I captured the reuniting of Sudden Impact and Storm Seeker on video last night.  It brought a tear to my eye.  Not because it was emotionally touching or anything, but because they both pretty much suck.  And yes, I know that it saw play for a while (the impact) but so too did One with Nothing in that same environment, so I disallow that argument based on Temporary Insanity.

Sylvan Library
Casual to Competitive.  Green card drawing at a price.  Combos very well with replacement effects.  If Green can take off as a color, it's due largely to this card.

Thicket Basilisk
Casual.  Sylvan Basilisk is a far better aggressive creature but can't hold the fort as well as the Thicket.  I think it's time for 5cc + Lure though.  Thicket, Sylvan, Cockatrice and lure/multi-blocker cards = weak casual deck.  

Thorn Thallid
Casual.  Something special for the Thallid lovers out there.  Obvious Combo Alert: TT + Sporesower Thallid and/or Doubling Season.

Tornado
Casual.  Straight up green destruction.  It makes me smile.  This is a Johnny card through and through.  Use counter manipulation to hold back the drawbacks and start nuking whatever you can.

Wanderlust
Casual.  It's nice to see mono green damage not tied to your own creatures.  This card helps to move greens victory closer even after the red zone is stalled.  A nice weapon in the Mono Green Arsenal.

Winter Blast
Casual.  Now here's a Green card with some teeth.  Force damage through and kill weenie flyers.  Flexible and powerful.  A solid uncommon.

Wyluli Wolf
Casual.  A fun card and even more fun when you know your history.  ("Wyluli" is an anagram of the name "Lily Wu," the maiden name of Richard Garfield's wife.)**

Yavimaya Ants
Casual to none.  There are better cards at this cost now a days.  I expect these will see play in fun decks that seek to reminisce.

Emeralds: Berserk, Sylvan Library, Winter Blast
Youch, Green didn't even get the short end of the stick, not even the bark.  It got an ant that had allegedly crawled on the stick at some vague point in the past.  But looking through all the available cards in that time frame, I can see why these cards seem so poor.

MULTICOLORED:


Adun Oakenshield
Casual to Prismatic.  Solid ability but hard to pay for.  Will take a deck built around him for sure.  Luckily he shares a color with Sakura-Tribe Elder.

Centaur Archer
Casual to none.  Acceptable stats but weak ability.  1 damage to a flyer will be largely irrelevant which leaves the stats of a 3/2 for 3 in Gruul's colors.  Compared to a 3/4 for three at the same mana cost that has a much more relevant ability Burning-Tree Shaman and I doubt he'll see much play.

Dakkon Blackblade
Casual.  Now here's a Legend.  There is lots of love for this guy, and rightfully so.  The man is 110% beefcake and 10% fJawesome.  Although I wonder why he doesn't have any green...

Energy Arc
Casual to none.  Two mana to unattack for a turn?  Umm, next?

Fire Covenant
Casual.  Should be strong enough to clear the way for a finishing alpha strike.  I don't care about my life total, so long as yours hits 0 first!

Hymn of Rebirth
Casual.  Cool reanimation for Green and White.  im in ur graveyardz steeling ur creeturz.

Jacques le Vert
Casual to none.  Upstaged and out performed in his role as weenie protector.  More like Jacques Strap.

Lim-Dul's Vault
Competitive to Casual.  This is a known combo enabler and is a darn good one at that.  For a few life you will almost always find the card you want.

Lord of Tresserhorn
Casual.  "Ten Four good buddy!"  Pandemonium wants to have your babies.

Phelddagrif
Casual.  Another 'inside' reference.  Again, for those not 'in the know', Phelddagrif is an anagram for Garfield PHD.  People often use this card as a cornerstone of wacky combo decks.  I hope to see some online.

Agates: Dakkon Blackblade, Hymn of Rebirth, Lim-Dul's Vault
For only have 10 card total the fact that multicolored cards have as many gems as green cards do kind of says something.  Two of these aren't going to see tourney play, but they'll still see plenty of casual time.

ARTIFACT:


Ankh of Mishra
Casual to Competitive.  A good way to hurt Prismatic decks as well as keep a control player under pressure.

Ashnod's Transmogrant
Casual.  Cheap pumping and sometimes relevant artifact creation.

Clockwork Beast
Casual.  The errata on this makes it appear that with a Doubling Season in play this will come into play with 14 counters but won't allow for it to have more than 7 when using the ability.  More information to come as this gets closer to live.

Copper Tablet
Casual to Constructed?  Another colorless source of damage to act as a clock.  Aggro decks may utilize it for the ability to speed the demise of the control player.

Cursed Rack
Casual.  Ouch  Good times against, you guessed it, control decks.  

Dragon Engine
Casual to none.  Choo chooo!!!! All aboard the Dragon Engine!

Forcefield
Casual.  I'm perplexed by this card.  It seems like it may be quite annoying in casual.  Add in a few Sun Droplet’s and you have a stall deck.  What to do from there is a bit more puzzling.

Ivory Tower
Casual.  Control decks fight back!  Gaining life for holding cards seems okay in a control deck.  I guess.

Mirror Universe
Casual to None.  See: Magus of the Mirror

Nevinyrral's Disk
Constructed to Casual.  I hope that this card is reprinted in every Masters Edition set from now until the end of MTGO.  A staple for casual and strong enough for competitive support.

Onulet
Casual.  An acceptable card for budget control decks.  Not as defensive as Bottle Gnomes, but still a playable speed ump.

Phyrexian War Beast
Casual.  Aggressive creature with a very minor drawback.  3/4 for 3 in any deck is acceptable.

Ring of Ma'ruf
Casual to none.  aka "The ten mana Wish".  Maybe a card for a prismatic deck.  Maybe.  Prolly not though.

Serpent Generator
Casual.  This card is the total casual player’s package.  Poison counters and tokens all in one card.

Shield of the Ages
Casual to none.  Preventing one damage is not generally worth 2 mana.

Shield Sphere
Casual to Competitive.  Another contender for the creature package in Flash decks, and might be better than Ornithopter for being able to hold off creature rushes.

Stone Calendar
Casual.  Cheaper spells generally lead to infinite mana.  This is no exception.

Su-Chi
Casual to none.  4/4 for 4 that will mana burn you often.  Throw in a commonplace mana sink like, oh, gee, (Sensei’s Divining Top) and just keep swinging!

Tawnos's Coffin
Casual to none  Selective pseudo removal.  Playable in my non-existent Mono Green Control Deck.

Urza's Bauble
Casual.  Free artifacts, for some decks seems like it has potential.  

Urza's Chalice
Casual to None.  The lucky charms cycle sees almost no play despite being online for quite some time.  I expect the same from this.  When this resolves against you, you win the game.

Walking Wall
Casual to None.  Overcosted defender or overcosted attacker.  I’ll take Option C Santa Clause.  There's always an option C big boy.

Winter Orb
Casual to Competitive.  Nothing like locking down your opponent for mind numbing, genital punching fun and games!  Mix in a little Root Maze to really drive the demoralization home!

Zuran Orb
Although we’re missing the hawtness that is Balance, we have her slightly obese sister to play with… and that’s a little better than nothing.

Zircons***: Nevinyrral's Disk, Winter Orb, Zuran Orb
A good showing of non-power artifacts of the past.  There will be many a deck made possible by those three cards.

LAND:



Diamond Valley
Casual to Prismatic. So what if it doesn’t tap for mana.  I still like it better than Miren, the Moaning Well.  Because lets face it, a moaning well is ‘l’ ‘a’ ‘m’ ‘e’: lame.  “OOOHHHHH I’M A WELL!!! LISTEN TO ME MOAN!!”  pfft!

Island of Wak-Wak
Casual.  I don’t even know or care what this card does, but I’ll play it just for the Wak Wak.  For reelz.  Wak!

Lake of the Dead
Casual to Constructed.  People are riding this card somewhat hard.  Saying that they would rather play Dark Ritual over it and for most cases I’ll agree.  However, anything that is held up to Dark Ritual is a solid contender in my book for a strong card.  I will try to break this card for a while, hopefully with some results.  For no loss in tempo, you get a permanent acceleration card.  In addition, Chalice of the Void set to 1 doesn’t neuter this card.

Mishra's Factory
Casual to Constructed and everything in between.  The original, the powerful, the ridiculous man land that started it all.  I’m ecstatic that he’s uncommon as everyone will want a piece of him.  I know how that goes.

Rainbow Vale
Casual.  Add in any bounce, sacrifice, or RFG effects and negate the draw back.  Or, just let them use it to build friendship and camaraderie in the casual community.

Thawing Glaciers
Casual to Prismatic.  While slow, it does do some mana fixing and deck thinning.  It also combos well with land untapping

Conclusion:

I'll admit that I'm surprised by how many casual cards there really are.  My mind is swimming with deck ideas from a lot of these cards.  There aren't really any new decks that come out of this set for Classic queues, and I think that's a very sad thing as the format really could use a lot more shaking than MED will give it.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to lament the lost opportunity for providing the Dual Lands to the MTGO market.  I don't think it will kill the set or anything as melodramatic as that.  However, I do feel that they had an opportunity to introduce them now and again with MED2, whenever that comes out.  There's no way that the amount of people who want them would be appeased even if they were released twice.  There's no reason they couldn't have been in both...

I'll call MED a mixed blessing.  It gives us FoW, but as Rare.  Although it does give us the pump knights as Common and Mishra's Factory as Uncommon to make up for that.  I'm hoping that the dedication of the Brand Manager comes through and MED2 contains the duals, and is ready in 12-18 months.

* If you can't figure out what Elves of Deep Shadow and The Fallen have in common, I may have to cut my ear off.
** From: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/80
*** Okay, I had to stretch the metaphore here.  When in doubt, google it out!

0 Comments

Not my views!! ~A disclaimer~ by runeliger at Sun, 08/26/2007 - 01:42
runeliger's picture

First of all, great Article, hated the fact the cards weren't up, but whatever.

Second of all, I repeat, MY OPINIONS ARE NOT THAT EXPRESSED OF IN THIS ARTICLE! (just as a heads up).

I'd also like to clear up some things, first of all, thanks for the compliment John (even though it was used against Hamtastic). Secondly, the article I wrote actually took me about 12 hours of editing, and was written shortly after the finalization of the colorshifted list, and while the date reflects some date in Febuary, I had actually changed the date of the article when I went back to do some price revisions and other things (like a certain editor deleting my article... But I digress *Hint, there was a server glitch back then*)...

In terms of the autocarding, I can understand you were under stress of time, but I wonder, is timing really valued over quality..? This is really the question I think John Kwan is trying to make a point, is speed worth more than quality? I think that's something all writers should think to themselves...

So yeah, don't sue me!

-Seb (Who by the way, is rarely on runeliger nowadays as a result of that 1 account per computer restriction)

Chains of mephistopheles by Rayjinn (Unregistered) 84.104.219.4 (not verified) at Sun, 08/26/2007 - 16:43
Rayjinn (Unregistered) 84.104.219.4's picture

I used to play this card in classic when anvil of bogardan just came out. Then i gained cabal therapy and madness.

This card is broken with the anvil and the low cost makes deckbuilding aound it easy. 

Contagion has also been a favorite sideboard of mine against agro. As for the article...
If a comedian tries to make a funny joke on everything said, he'll stop being funny.

Same for the article ... we wanted a list and got some nice flavour. Thumbs up on that one.
How someone experiences magic is different for everyone. Cards that were "spiffy" in the days have been outmerchandised mostly by WOTC already. :)

 I look forward to seeing these cards for trade, and i might play limited MED just for fun. But i didn't buy visions for the vampiric tutor and i wouldn't buy this set for playability either.

by mtgotraders at Mon, 08/27/2007 - 07:49
mtgotraders's picture

Thanks for all your input.  One thing is we do not have a paid editor yet due to the fact that the site makes no money.   I edit any major flaws myself that I see but I will try to hire an editor soon.   Sebastian did add all the pictures/etc himself.  The autolinker is not up yet on these cards but will be soon.  It's a lot of work getting new sets in the autolinker/mtgotraders/and deck database.  I will get on it asap.  But I do appreciate all the feedback and hope you continue to let us know what you think in such detail because it helps me know what to improve.  I will seriously be looking for an editor asap also.

Thanks! by hamtastic at Sat, 08/25/2007 - 20:49
hamtastic's picture

Thank you so much for your feed back, it's very helpful to know what certain people like or dislike in my articles.

I don't believe in making excuses and I won't.  I would like to state a few facts though.  

First, you're absolutely correct about the lack of anchors to jump from one part of the article to the next.  That's pretty poor, and I've added some in already to help those who may happen upon it in the future.

Secondly, the links.  Links are generally handled via automagic code that turns "(Cardname)" into a linked href to the card.  The process to get that automagical ability is unknown to me but I know that somewhere along the way someone from PureMTGO has to do the gruntwork of making them show up. Thus, the lack of links to the cards. I mention this in the opening section of the article.  I feel that once that is resolved 

However, this article was written, edited and proofread by myself in less than 24 hours of the Masters Edition card list being released.  I spent most of that evening and a large chunk of the following morning writing, prepping proofreading it.  For reference of size: Mark Rosewater's columns are about 4,000 words a week.  This one is over 6,000.  That's a lot of writing to smoosh in so quickly.  My desire to get this article and list out to the masses may have been too great, especially due to the delay in getting the cards linked as they should be.

3) runeliger's article is very nice, and it was done quite a bit after the Planar Chaos set was released in Paper (PLC's card list and autocards were up about 6 weeks before the article was written).  It also covered 45 cards compared to 180. 

I'm not knocking runeliger at all as I think his article was very vibrant and attention grabbing, and there's likely quite a bit that I can use from his efforts there.  But it's hard to compare coverage of 45 cards known for about 6 weeks to coverage of 180 cards known for about 12 hours.

So, thank you very much for taking the time to critique my article.  The fact that anyone cares enough to do so is fantastic, and I'll try to incorporate more of your suggestions in any lists I make in the future, if you'd be so kind enough to keep reading them!

-Erik aka hamtastic 

Low Quality by John Kwan (Unregistered) 75.21.12.162 (not verified) at Sat, 08/25/2007 - 15:41
John Kwan (Unregistered) 75.21.12.162's picture

I would like to call the author out on this one, but first would like to say that I love this site, and all it does for the community, so thank you mtgotraders for funding a great site!!!

 

Low Quality continued by Anonymous (Unregistered) 75.21.12.162 (not verified) at Sat, 08/25/2007 - 15:42
Anonymous (Unregistered) 75.21.12.162's picture

However, I believe this article fails in terms of quality and effort put in by Hamtastic, although I do like Hamtastic as a writer, I feel as though he could have done a lot MORE with this article.

The entire article is LACKING IMAGES! So let's see all the excuses that could be handled by this. Also, I don't blame only you Hamtastic, but the PureMTGO editorial staff may be to blame. The only excuse hamtastic has is that autocard isn't working, and that this task may be such a huge task that in fact, it would be wrong to ask of him to card all of these.

So in order to address this potential argument, I scoured every article the site has ever posted for anything that resembles a similar set review.

Low Quality cont. by John Kwan (Unregistered) 75.21.12.162 (not verified) at Sat, 08/25/2007 - 15:42
John Kwan (Unregistered) 75.21.12.162's picture

The three articles that I found, two of which were Mr. Jahn's (who didn't reall do what you did), and one belonged to a writer named "runeliger" or Sebastian Park. (Here's the reference link http://www.puremtgo.com/articledisplay.asp?AID=181). Now I'm not going to judge you or Mr. Park in terms of writing ability, since I believe you almost triple his article count 3 to 1, but the quality of the his article is breath-taking compared to yours. First of all let's address images. Mr. Park has them! The argument then can be made that he just autocarded it, but he refers in this article to the card from which they were timeshifted, most of which were not on Magic Online, and thus cannot be autocarded (the pictures appeared from the gatherer database) I don't know if it was his editor, or Mr. Park himself who did it, but the article itself was in my opinion of a much greater quality than this article even attempts to touch as a result of this. If it was his editor, then I must say, the editorial levels of this site are falling a great deal. However, if it was in fact Mr. Park who took the time and effort to locate each card's location and embed them into the article, then I must say, Mr. Friborg, you did not put nearly enough effort into this article. 

Secondly, he has a table of contents at the beginning! On top of which is color-coded, and even anchored into the the site! My major gripe about your article sir, was that navigating your article was terrible! I had to scroll and scroll and scroll to find anything, whereas in his article I simply had a list of cards and colors I could choose from. I'm personally a black mage, and wanted to see the black cards before I saw anything. Unforunately with your article Mr. Friborg, it was in the middle of the colors, and took me a long time (control F doesn't work quite well on my mac), to find it.

Third, he gives us a basic price estimation, which I found really useful, but then again, I don't blame Mr. Friborg, as the these cards yet to have anything that resembles a price.... HOWEVER, in the article he also refers to real life prices taken from I believe TrollandToad when referring to cards not on MTGO.

 

Lastly, I must say that this article, even with its flaws was decent. I just feel that there was so much more room for things to be done. I'm not sure if this was the fault of the editor or the author however. If in fact it was mtgotraders who had actually edited all of Mr. Park's articles to make it look like that, then I ask why didn't he put the effort into this article? This rather bland article. However, if it was in fact Mr. Friborg, then I find this article to be at most a 1-2 hour task, not deserving of publication.

What do I recommend? Get someone else to write set reviews, or step up the editorial staff. For Mr. Friborg, please for future articles put more effort into them. Learn from previous examples, and adopt those methods.

-John_Kwan

by hamtastic at Fri, 08/24/2007 - 18:04
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I haven't played PDC in quite some time actually.  The last decks I knew of being good were Orzhov, MUC and G/R aggro.  None of which should have any trouble getting around the wall.  Artifact desctruction (main decked at the time) comes out turn 2 which usually will make the way for a bask.rootwalla or an elf to get through anway.

Orzhov will incapacitate or destroy it in any number of ways.

MUC can fly over and still ninjutsu out a Ninja of the Deep Hours and replay the spire golem for free...

Although it's very possible that the deck archtypes are different now I don't really think this card will really impact the meta.  Not as much as Exile, and the Orders will anyway... but as I'm not PDC expert I could be wrong. :) 

Coudl spend all day... by dangerlinto at Fri, 08/24/2007 - 16:46
dangerlinto's picture

...going through your list Hammy, but I'll just say that you give some things to much constructed credit.  For example, spectral bears.  It's fighting with Wild Mongrel, Tarmogoyf, Quirion Dryad and Werebear for the same CC.  Show me a player who picks Spectral Bears over all of those and I'll show you a player who needs to go back to the the casual room...

by hamtastic at Fri, 08/24/2007 - 17:36
hamtastic's picture

IIRC some of my bizarre history correctly, they are part of an Old Winter Orb deck (that uses quirions to untap your own creatures).  While there are stronger cards now, I can see them being used for sure in the casual room and highly unlikely in an actual tourney.  But as 'goyf keeps climbing a 3/3 for 2 with "no drawback" isn't too bad.  Especially in a deck that can't guarantee threshold.

Will that deck make a splash?  Doubtful.  But I'm trying to not rule anything out.  It's a very solid casual card, and possibly, maybe, although unlikely, tourney worthy.

Maybe...

But probably not... 

sheild sphere by Anonymous (Unregistered) 69.216.116.96 (not verified) at Fri, 08/24/2007 - 17:55
Anonymous (Unregistered) 69.216.116.96's picture

ok why do you not mention sheild sphere as a crazy card that could mark the END of agro in pdc. it fits in almost any deck id even run 4x in agro sb for the mirror.

by hamtastic at Fri, 08/24/2007 - 18:00
hamtastic's picture

But I will agree that many of the cards I give the 'competitive' nod to wouldn't see the time of day in todays environment.  However, environments change.  We're getting a slew of new cards and hopefully some restrictions soon.  That should allow for some decks and decktypes previously unseen to make an appearance, if only during the shifting meta.

Will quirion-orb make the cut?  I dunno.  I think it has a chance at doing something.

Will Kabal Ghoul make the cut?  Highly doubtful.  So doubtful in fact that I didn't give him the nod for competitive play.  Same for a lot of cards actually.  But looking at some baseline information some of these seemingly weak cards could see play.  I wouldn't rule it out anyway.  :) 

by hamtastic at Thu, 08/23/2007 - 17:13
hamtastic's picture

You're right, my chart assumes people can figure out what would happen if they sacrificed a swamp to feed the Lake.  Hopefully that's not too much credit being given.

And how does Magus of the Moon hurt Lake that much more than Coffers + Urborg? They seem mighty similar to me.  Urborg and Coffers become Mountains, or Lakes become Mountains.  And?  If MBC can't kill a 2/2 in any configuration it deserves to lose.

Getting a land blown up in either case hurts.  Losing a coffers is really bad, losing a Lake is really bad (especially on turn 2, yikes!).  I don't know of much LD being run in the format though.  Although I've worked on a red deck in the past that did but I've not seen much of it in any tourney.

All this talk about Lakes or Coffers is largely irrelevant though.  Until the meta post MED and the Sept 1 B&R happen it's not easy to say what decks will be able to compete and what is expected to be run in the meta.  I know that I'll be working on an MBC build though, and whichever is better (Coffers or Lakes, or neither) is what I'll run.  But to dismiss one or the other out of hand is foolish is all.  There may be a killer deck out there with Lake, but we'll never know if we just say that "Coffers exist, so whatever".

I beleive that an MBC deck can exist in the meta (but I'm biased as I like MBC a lot).  Although I don't know what lands it will run or what it's exact focus will be, but I will try all of the option.   

Cabal Coffers by iceage4life (Unregistered) 129.2.218.204 (not verified) at Thu, 08/23/2007 - 11:11
iceage4life (Unregistered) 129.2.218.204's picture

You know they made a better Lake of the Dead right?  Urborg just pushes the Coffers further ahead.

by hamtastic at Thu, 08/23/2007 - 11:45
hamtastic's picture

Having played Coffers in Classic, I'm not sure that Lake is all that bad.  Coffers don't do ANYTHING until turn 5.  Turn. 5. in. Classic.  However, once they get rolling you're going to get more out of them than Lake, for sure.

Coffers:

Turn 1 Swamp: B
Turn 2 Swamp: BB
Turn 3 Swamp: BBB
Turn 4 Coffers: BBBB
Turn 5 Swamp: BBBBBB
Turn 6 Swamp: BBBBBBBB

Turn 1 Swamp: B
Turn 2 Lake: BB
Turn 3 Swamp: BB or BBBBB
Turn 4 Swamp: BBB or BBBBBB
Turn 5 Swamp: BBBB or BBBBBBB
Turn 6 Swamp: BBBBB or BBBBBBBB

The only turn with less potential mana in the Lakes scenario is turn 3, but that's only if you need 3 mana exactly.  You can still hit 2 or 4 mana without a problem.   Also, in order to hit all 6 land drops by turn 6 you have to run a lot, lot, lot of swamps.  Classic, as you know, is a very tight meta.  Drawing an excess swamp is death (I know as I've been there done that in my coffers control deck), as is drawing not enough lands (also been there, done that).  Lake is more flexible as it produces mana on its own.  I've been at 2 lands and a coffers in a match more than I'd like to admit.  At least with Lake I can still power out something to save my bacon.

At least that's the theory I'm going with right now.  It may prove to be false, but I'm not going to discount it based on the existance of Coffers.  Coffers are good but kind of slow for Classic.  Hopefully Contagion will make give MBC a bit more power...

mmmmm RS goodies in there. by mtgbaron at Wed, 08/22/2007 - 22:53
mtgbaron's picture

well of course you know this is going to impact RS a bit. :)  stay tuned to see how!!! lighting bolt mmmmmmm

Coffers v lake by iceage4life (Unregistered) 129.2.218.204 (not verified) at Thu, 08/23/2007 - 15:24
iceage4life (Unregistered) 129.2.218.204's picture

Run more Urborgs.  Turn 1 swamp, t2 Urborg, t3 coffers= BBB.  Also your chart doesn't take into account you ever going for extra mana with LotD which reduces your output in future turns.

Also I expect more aggro in the metagame and having a coffers blown up hurts less then a LotD.  Magus of the Moon also hurts Lake more.

 That said not sure if there is a place for ether one in compeditive classic decks.

by dragonmage65 at Wed, 08/22/2007 - 12:43
dragonmage65's picture

[MED] cards aren't in the MTGO Traders database yet, so there's no autocard for them at the moment.

by mtgotraders at Wed, 08/22/2007 - 14:47
mtgotraders's picture

I'll try to add them as soon as beta is up.

Hammy made me do it... by Hollow0n3 at Wed, 08/22/2007 - 15:13
Hollow0n3's picture

Entertaining, oh, and you are the one responsible when I come up with a deck that uses Animate Wall now, fear my attacking Illusionary Wall. >_>

by hamtastic at Wed, 08/22/2007 - 16:13
hamtastic's picture

I'll gladly take responsibility for any and all decks created from this article. :)

Please autocard! by TriangleFish (Unregistered) 24.18.154.124 (not verified) at Wed, 08/22/2007 - 00:18
TriangleFish (Unregistered) 24.18.154.124's picture

Autocard links would be really nice... otherwise, nice overview of all the new toys we'll be getting soon. :)