Archetype of Courage – this seemingly innocuous little soldier may be a linchpin in White Weenie moving forward, maybe sideboard in a Boros “White Weenie” or the more recent Orzhov Human. While it won’t affect your opponents Double Strike creatures granting your entire army First Strike while removing it from the enemies is going to create some very awkward blocking decisions, and also make it very difficult to profitably attack into you.
Archetype of Endurance – while this is a fearsome ability creature decks would love to counteract the overwhelming amount of removal, especially from decks like Mono-Black Devotion, I wonder if he is going to be in play fast enough. That huge cost does come with an equally huge sized body but may just not be good enough if the dorks you’d use to speed him out don’t stick around to work for him. I feel like he has more of a casual appeal against that guy who’s deck is all hexproof with creatures you couldn’t kill otherwise.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos – long live the King !!! Yet again another legendary cat creature appears that is able to bring along members of his clouder with him. There is some risk built in to his ability in that he does need to put his neck out by either attacking or blocking, but as Elspeth says “…soldiers most fervently follow generals who lead by example.”. Obviously pairing him with static pumps like Phantom General or Glorious Anthem ( editor’s note: Spear of Heliod ) makes him and his kin much more resilient and deadly.
Fate Unraveler – I love static abilities that are non-symmetrical especially when they are going to trigger every turn. Sure one point of damage per turn may seem like a slow bleed but when you factor in how it shuts down a very relevant half of Sphinx’s Revelation it look even more attractive. The 3/4 body is also significant being resistant to damage based removal, providing a useful wall or even crashing the red zone to end the game quickly.
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 rather narrow. Red decks will want to take advantage of the Scry 2 as it is the type of effect they are usually very hungry for.
Fated Infatuation – another in the cycle of triple cost ‘fated’ cycle. This one has a potentially much more powerful effect but is limited to what creature you have on your side to copy. The obvious play is to abuse this with Populate to get additional copies of your hellish beasts. Trostani is one that comes to mind which had already been paired with Cackling Counterpart when Return block was legal but wasn’t very popular. We will see if it is more playable this time around with an even more restrictive mana cost. As a plus it does have the extra little bonus of a Scry 2 when played on your turn.
Felhide Spiritbinder – I can totally get behind this latest Inspired creature. With a resilient body that will no doubt find his way into an aggressive deck you’re rewarded with additional fighters for a very reasonable price. I’m interested to see this in a deck like G/R Monsters which has some real worthy targets to clone out. My mind immediately wandered to Fanatic of Xenagos which will let you double up with a 4/4 Trample regardless of your opponents choice sine the Tribute will trigger when it enters play.
Raised by Wolves – this card seems to be a bit more on the cute side by oozing out tons of flavor. Showing the ‘Power of the Pack’ mentality of the wolf in a great way it still needs additional pieces to really get full value from it. Pairing it with other wolfers like Master of the Wild Hunt or Huntmaster of the Fells you might find the true thrill of the hunt. Really too expensive for constructed play even if it does add six power to the field
Reap What Is Sown – more of a nuisance then a blowout as far as combat tricks go, unless you have some just underpowered first strikers ready to block. If it was a divide three +1/+1 counters among up to three creatures then I’d like it much better. Still, it’s a surprise and might become a very desirable trick for limited.
Herald of Torment – just like a demon to give but also take a little in return. Losing one point of life per turn isn’t so bad when you get to grant a three power boost and flying to one of your creature to bleed your opponent out faster. While many of the Bestow costs are slightly excessive for their effect, this one seems to be pretty spot on.
