Welcome back to the Epic Experiment! We have yet more Crimson Vow previews coming down the pipe… so let’s have a look at what new treats are coming our way.
Chandra, Dressed to Kill
I love the artwork on the regular and the showcase card! These both look great and will look sharp in any deck. I will admit, I am always intrigued by any 3 mana planeswalker and Chandra has got my attention. She has two +1 abilities and I love the second one. The ability for red to get access to impulse draw is something that many decks will be looking to pick up. For that reason alone, this Chandra will get some serious consideration.
The other +1 has its utility to help red decks ramp out a big spell like a dragon or burn spell. The ultimate is of dubious use, but many of them are, and so I won’t hold this against Chandra. Really, the impulse draw on her +1 will help her garner enough attention that she may be picked up by red decks, but there are now many cards that can fit that description and thus competition will be fierce. We’ll have to keep an eye on Chandra to see where she fits in the grand scheme of things.
Dreadfeast Demon
Ah yes. The requisite Demon that comes in every set.
Ok, let us be plain. A 7 mana 6/6 flier is fine. We have come to expect these sorts of stats from expensive demons and thus these stats don’t shock us. The ability to sacrifice a nontoken creature to this demon to make another copy seems powerful, but may not be sustained. If I could sac tokens to the demon, I would be completely prepared to play this, but compelling me to sacrifice a nontoken creature is a much stiffer cost. Also, after a turn or two, the question starts to become, “Do you have enough creatures to feed all these demons?”
I have a hard time seeing this getting widely adopted because we already have other 6/6 fliers at lower mana costs that will probably edge this demon out in only the most extreme of cases.
Cemetery Prowler
I am intrigued by this card because there are not many cards that do what this can do in Green. The raw stats are playable as a 3/4 for 3 mana and also brings vigilance to the party to make this seem decent on rate. These values are sound and suggest that the card might be on the cusp of seeing play in Commander.
So, what else does this wolf do? When it enters the battlefield or attacks, you can exile a card from a graveyard. Ok. Graveyard hate is good. What else? Oh, I can reduce the casting cost of spells based on the number of different card types exiled with Prowler… hmm… cost reduction you say. That is interesting.
Let’s be real, I am pretty sure this is going to reduce the casting cost of spells by 1 in most situations, but even at that, it is a big. I often run Thunderscape Familiar and it can save plenty of mana. If this saves you 2 or even 3(!) a spell… well now… that’s kind of nutty. So, this has some real appeal. The fact that this is also from a relevant tribe to play alongside Tovolar helps and could see this take up a spot in werewolf decks.
Necroduality
Ok, so this says double up on your zombie creature. Can we say Anointed Procession for Zombies? Ok, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but this card is very good and is even an infinite combo piece with Bladewing the Risen. If you are a zombie deck, you will happily take extra zombie tokens that fall in your lap. Play it in Wilhelt if you lack imagination, but the threshold to make this good seems very low and it will fit in any number of the U/B zombie decks that are floating around.
Hamlet Vanguard
This seems like a very powerful addition for human decks and the Ward 2 gives it some measure of protection. I guess G/W humans decks will be updating their lists because there seems to be very little downside to running this. Could this fit in other +1/+1 strategies? Perhaps. However, I think the synergy with other human cards makes this an appealing inclusion and something worth trying out.
Abrade
This is an excellent little reprint that will help make interacting with creatures, and more importantly artifacts, just a little easier. This won’t make headlines, but is the sort of no nonsense sort of card players need for decks.
Hallowed Haunting
This card has me shaking my head. The first half of the card pertains to whether you control 7 or more enchantments and if you do, your creatures have flying and vigilance. This is very clearly designed to be played in enchantment decks, but these tend to be relatively light on creatures and thus giving them flying and vigilance seems somewhat less important. The secondary ability, that makes spirits, is far more interesting and looks to be a option to help enchantment decks flood the board with creatures. With enchantment decks being a regular theme there is no doubt that this card will be pretty widely adopted. The only reason this may not get played is because it becomes challenging to make the cut needed, but that seems like a good problem to have.
Torens, Fist of the Angels
Well… G/W humans are getting yet more sweet toys. This is very much like an army in a can and will undoubtedly help your human deck to go wide… really, really wide. I’m not convinced the Training ability will amount to much, but I can foresee G/W humans decks exploiting the tokens created by Torens. There is no doubt in my mind, G/W humans have been given a plethora of tools in the last couple of months and the deck is going to be a force to be reckoned with with cards like Sigarda, Champion of Light, Katilda, Kyler, and Leinore all recently added to their bench. While many players are drooling over zombies, vampires, and the werewolves, I secretly think that humans may have some of the best tools from the set and will be looking to take up challenges for top tribe from the set.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
This is a potent reprint and one that Commander players are going to enjoy. While Thalia may not look like much, be careful: she is very difficult to handle properly. Thalia is often a key component in building a stax deck or one that looks to drive the casting cost of their spells too high for them to play them effectively. While people often moan about all sorts of stax effects, I think Thalia is more on the fair side of things. It provides a very powerful effect and can really keep your opponents honest so that they can’t combo out the game too early. Grab your reprint while you can and enjoy!
Well, that is going to wrap our look at Crimson Vow. There are still plenty more cards that are going to keep coming out in the days to come so stay tuned. If you enjoyed my thoughts or have something you would like to see explored in more detail, please check out our decks and much more each week on our podcast on iTunes, Google Podcast, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere else you find better podcasts. Just look for the name The Epic Experiment Podcast! We’d love to have you join us!
