All week long during each week of September, the WotC R&D team brings us new spoilers from the long anticipated Battle for Zendikar. Today was no exception and delivered us new additions to the actual spoiler with all the promos available from the release of the new set.
Scythe Leopard is clearly a nerf from the past referencing to Plated Geopede and Steppe Lynx as the Landfall ability used to be +2/+2 until end of turn. This card will be played in limited and draft as a fill in but I don’t think it will be standard at all even with fetches.
Then, as Hero’s Downfall was there to help us manage creatures and plainswalkers, Ruinous Path say “No, we will manage them and even more!!!” given the possibility of making a 4/4 creature out of a land and it has haste. I think control gained quite a great removal just by the fact of having a 4/4 threat late game. Even if the spell is in sorcery, it will still be a format defining card in standard.
With the comeback to Zendikar, they clearly had to create new Eldrazi in this set. They made no mistake by creating Blight Herder here. This creature as alot of upside being a 4/5 colorless creature that as the possibility of putting 3 1/1’s for a total of 7 power. Although, the condition of having 2 exiled cards of your opponent to put into their graveyard creates a necessity to using the other Eldrazi in the set which have the ability to exile the top card of their library. I think this card will be limited bomb if you get the cheap eldrazi as well in your pool/draft.
Since Wizards let it all out with the big guys, they had to create cards that can manage them. After Ruinous Path, they made us a Journey to Nowhere with Flash. This is definitely a 2 to 4-of depending if it’s a control/midrange deck in Standard. I think Esper control decks will make a comeback in the top tier with those 2 removals. A card I look forward playing with!
Since Anger of the Gods is rotating, the R/x deck was going to suffer from that. Well, not anymore! Radiant Flames will fix the problem because, even as Anger of the gods was exiling the creatures, it was an irrelevant ability as not alot of creatures had graveyard abilities. Also, the fact it only costs one red is really good. I see it as a 2 or 3-of as early mass removal to support Crux of Fate or Languish here.
Battle for Zendikar Game Day
As the previous gamedays, this nice dark horde playmat will be given to the 1st place of the gameday event.
Overall, way to go wizards! R&D really rocked it and it is probably the best set since Return to Ravnica. I wish all of you will enjoy a lot of drafts and capture these great promos ’cause you know…gotta catch’em all! 😉
By Samuel Carrier
@infiwill on Twitter
(link to Fate Reforged full spoiler list)
Sandsteppe Mastodon is not the most exciting promo card. Especially being such a high casting cost Green creature. It`s an elephant that stops fliers though, that`s quite a feat.
Mardu Shadowspear is a much cooler promo reminding me of a very cool vampire Pulse Tracker. It was an auto include in almost all the Vampire decks. Cheap casting cost and guranteed 1 point of damage after each attack. The new Dash ability is very interesting as well, there could be some Enter the Battlefield shenanigans possibly with this new ability. Yep this is one of the Fate Reforged promos I’m looking forward too.
Supplant Form one more of the cooler Fate Reforged promos. This instant comes with two nifty abilities, bounce a creature and clone it for 6 mana though. It maybe too expensive for other formats other than EDH/Commander. It still a cool promo that may see some play.
The exclusive playmat for the Game Day champion with a fantastic picture of Ugin. It’s a beautiful playmat with an awesome Dragon & Planeswalker, best of both worlds for some.
I’m not too excited with Shamanic Revelation as a buy-a-box promo, another Green card that may see more fringe play then constructed. It’s draw for Green though so I should not be too quick to judge, let time tell. It’s better than Life’s Legacy. I guess for now it works for EDH/Commander decks where Green is definitely a popular color.
Fate Reforged prerelease will introduce special promo ‘Time Shifted Cards’. During the event you get to pick your Tarkir Clan and will also receive a special ‘Ugin’s Fate’ booster pack which contains a Token, a Land card and certain amount of ‘Time Shifted Cards’ from a pool of 40 holo foil stamped cards with alternate art which demonstrates how the plane of Tarkir has changed. The PAX Australia panel showcased three of these cards.
All the Khans of Tarkir promo have been announced. The buy-a-box promo Rattleclaw Mystic looks very nice and so does the Game day top 8 promo Utter end. I wouldn’t mind picking up one of each of these promos for my collections. Game Day promos will be available at the event, each participant gets a Heir of the Wilds. Game day top 8 also receive a Utter End while the Champion also gets the Playmat. Rattleclaw mystic you should get with a box depending how the local gaming store (LGS) distributes them, like some only give one per case (6 boxes). The final promo is the Dragon Throne of Tarkir which you can get at Launch on the 26 sept at any participating LGS.
Good luck at your events! May you never have to mulligan and all your packs give you mythic rares.
M15 promo for each color. Prerelease packs are returning again for this event. Each Prerelease Pack will include the following:
Prerelease Promos and Hero Cards:
Forged in Glory
Forged in Intellect
Forged in Tyrrany
Forged in War
Forged in Pursuit
Launch Weekend Promo
Journey into Nyx Game Day – May 24-25, 2014
Top 8
1st-place winner of Journey into Nyx Game Day
Buy a Box Promo
Listed here are all the promos for the different events leading to Game Day. More info on Battle the Horde and the Hero’s path see this article.
Pre-Release Promos
Eater of Hope – the demon always demands a sacrifice, but this time the sacrifice is beneficial and nonobligatory. While he isn’t horrible as a 6/4 Flying body for seven mana his abilities are pretty good as long as you have fodder to satisfy his hunger for sacrifice. He’s got some built in protection with the first ability allowing him to sac another creature to regenerate. That second ability is what really makes him shine allowing you to feed the hunger of the demon to destroy pesky creatures. If you have a good token generator or naturally recurring creatures then this bad boy might be what you’re looking for.
Forgestoker Dragon – a pretty standard dragon showing fairly typical stats but with a pretty intriguing ability. While fairly mana intensive if your opponent has a formidable air force that you are trying to bypass it isn’t always necessary to clear all blockers, just the ones that would be a nuisance. While not necessarily a dragon of choice for constructed this should definitely see play in casual formats and could be a great addition to a Kaalia Commander deck.
Arbiter of the Ideal – Some of the Inspired creatures with their more fragile bodies leave you scrambling to find ways to tap them that don’t involve attacking but with this 4/5 Flying body that should rarely be an issue. Paired with manipulation of the top of your deck this should often gain you tons of value with the downside of turning the new permanent into an enchantment more of a nuisance then a hindrance.
Silent Sentinel – While extremely high end as a seven drop and requiring an attack to trigger its ability the sheer power of that ability is what could see this card see some action. Commander players who are already abusing enchantments will likely find this ability very welcoming especially in Uril, the Miststalker decks.
Release Promo
Tromokratis – Call the Kraken !!! Here it is, a legendary kraken. This humongous sea monster has some pretty interesting abilities. The first I find is largely ineffectual which grants him Hexproof unless he is attacking or blocking, but if you have spot removal for him there’s a good chance it’s an instant so once he attacks blammo. It’s the second ability that I much prefer where if you are either able to tap one of your opponents creatures or make the kraken fly you can basically make him unblockable. Or combo with a Bow of Nylea and you can probably take down entire armies with this monstrosity of the sea.
Buy-A-Box promo
Fated Conflagration – The ability to target a Planeswalker may be the saving grace of this removal spell. Five points of damage is really no small shakes but at four converted mana cost with triple red in there the amount of decks which will be able to cast this is very narrow.
Game Day promos
Pump, pump, pump it up! That’s what this Merfolk wants to do and he does it all day and everyday by unntaping lands, mana rocks, dorks and other abilities; the list goes on and on. He’s definitely going to find play in EDH for some added shenanigans. We already know that, but what about standard? The next set has Kiora, the Crashing Wave with her ability to Explore and also to “Release the Krakens”. Simic might be finally ramping up to some Prime Speaker Zegana, Prophet of Kruphix, Master Biomancer and something else, right!?!? Ramping up in a deck with flash, counters and draw sound like a party, maybe even Plasm Capture could find a spot. To be continued…
Pain Seer – What should be referred to as Confidant Lite this card definitely need an alternate tapping condition in order to ensure a steady stream of card advantage. This is without a doubt going to also be paired up with untapping abilities in order to gring out maximum value.
Gerald Knight was inspired from insomnia.
