MTG: Dragon's Maze First Impressions

For all you Magic: The Gathering Players, the newest set in the Return to Ravnica expansion was fully spoiled today. The Prerelease is this coming weekend, and I'm very excited. Mainly because I love prerelease events and the sealed deck format. But also because Dragon's Maze looks like it will be an awesome set, and a ton of fun in limited. So let's get underway.

Some Notes about this Post

What it is: A first impressions of the cards spoiled on the MTG website. Please acknowledge that no one has played with these cards yet, and often times cards get overvalued or undervalued before release and they perform differently than expected. Also, please note that this review will be geared towards the formats I play in, which will be EDH, Standard, and Limited. Some cards are good in every format, some in one, some in two. I will try to specify whether a card is generally good or if it is only good in one format and which format that is. Please do not assume any cards are being reviewed for Modern, Legacy, Vintage, or other formats.

What it isn't: A full set review. I will be highlighting some cards I find interesting, not all of them. This is also not a professional review. While I consider myself to be above average skill, I am not a professional, and I don't play very frequently now that I am in college. I still stay up to date with Standard through videos and articles and whatnot, and EDH and limited are formats that typically stay the same and are easy to read good cards for.

Okay let's get underway for real.

Guild Champions

Ah, the flagship of the set. The champions are a great idea, giving each guild a rare legendary creature that represents and exemplifies the mechanics and flavor of that guild. Guilds in general are something players get behind, and this takes it to the next level. I will not review each individual champion, all of them except for Emmara are pretty neat, even if they aren't all playable.

Vorel of the Hull Clade

Possibly my favorite champion. This may have something to do with me leaning towards Simic as my favorite guild (tied with Izzet). Having a new Gilder Bairn is really cool, doubling counters being a fairly powerful effect. Unfortunately in Standard there is no +1/+1 counter deck for this guy to find a home with, and I doubt there will be one even after release. Standard decks typically do not follow a theme, instead being an assemblage of spells that are powerful by themselves. Synergy helps, but isn't the primary goal. Nevertheless I'll probably throw this guy in my Mimeoplasm EDH deck, and he's great in limited, providing a big butt and making your evolve creatures much better. I just like +1/+1 counters, okay?

Emmara Tandris and Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker

These cards are unfortunate creatures that could have been a lot better/cooler with better design. Emmara has already received PLENTY of hate for being so bland and boring, when the Guild Champions were supposed to have neat effects that exemplified their guild. Mark Rosewater explained that this was because originally the champions were mythics, and she was designed with a really neat ability, but when the cards were swapped to rare because Ral Zarek was taking up the Blue-Red mythic slot, her ability and Power/Toughness were swapped with a Green-White rare that was far more boring. Emmara isn't even a big bomb in limited, costing 7 mana, she's essentially just a big dude, and if you have a bunch of creature tokens you might be winning anyway. Oh well, sucks to be a Selesnya player. Mirko Vosk, on the other hand, is plenty flavorful, being a throwback to popular classic Mind Funeral stapled to a creature. The thing is, he's a bad creature. A five mana 2/4 with flying is way below the curve, even with his ability. Also note he has to deal combat damage for the trigger. Making him a 4/4 or making the ability trigger just by attacking would have been very reasonable. Compare this card to Nemesis of Reason, from Alara block.

SEVEN toughness. This thing doesn't have evasion or a lot of power, because it does't matter, it's just attacking to mill, you don't even have to deal damage. That big booty means it's sticking around for awhile. And ten cards right off the top instead of 4 lands is arguably better (and probably statistically better in most cases, I haven't done the math, leave me alone). Still, at least Mirko is really good in limited. I just think that it is unfortunate that these two cards had their potential squandered.

Varolz, the Scar Striped

Along with Ruric Thar, the Unbowed and Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch, this guy is the most playable in standard. Exava has to compete with Huntmaster of the Fells and Falkenrath Aristocrat at the 4 CMC spot, but I'm sure she will make it into some decks. However I'm not sure what creatures that cost more than 4 will benefit from it's haste giving ability. Ruric Thar is obviously just the beats, and an excellent punisher card. Good EDH General for all the Timmies out there. Varolz is my favorite of the three because his flavor seems the best, it captures Golgari magnificently, and his ability screams a build around me deck that uses a bunch of little guys. Another contender for coolest general of the set. Lavinia of the Tenth may also see standard play as a sideboard card against red aggro or mid-range decks. Protection is a very powerful keyword, but I don't think she's quite up to par with these other three.

Mythic Rares

The other most exciting part of the set, Mythic Rares! Where we get to throw all our money at cardboard rectangles that are dreadfully overpowered. Sweet.

Blood Baron of Vizkopa

Wow this card is ridiculous. A five mana 4/4 with Lifelink is on par with the typical curve, but protection from TWO colors is ridiculous. Protection is one of the most powerful abilities in Magic, making cards invulnerable to entire decks at times. White and black are also two very relevant colors, blocking out pretty much all relevant spot removal in standard, the notable exception being Mizzium Mortars. Lifelink with a nice body and evasion against two colors makes this guy really hard to race. The second block of text will likely hardly be relevant, but is always there to wrap up the game. Possibly the most powerful card in the set.

Reap Intellect and Master of Cruelties

Two cards that cost too much mana for what they do. Rakdos's Return is simply better than Reap Intellect. Who needs to gut their deck when they don't have a hand any more? Master of cruelties is bad, costs way too much for that body to be relevant. Sorry guys.

Ral Zarek

The flagship Planeswalker for this set, and one I've been anticipating as a red-blue player.This guy seems really good. I'm still a bit doubtful though, because his +1 doesn't seem all to great, maybe good in mid-range versus mid-range where you can finagle with you and your opponents creatures to swing combat in your favor. Lightning bolt is sweet, there are a lot of 3 toughness creatures around, but there are also a lot with 4. A lot people also highlighted how he can untap a land for mana, or tap an opponents land to shut them off from an instant, making him nice against control. Just remember they can tap the mana in response and leave it floating so tap it in the first main phase, and cast your spell in the second main phase after their mana pool empties. This however uncovers one problem with the ability: you can typically only take advantage of one half of it at a time. You can't tap a blocker and untap your won attacker. You can't mana ramp and deny your opponent mana. Somewhat unfortunate. The -7 seems reachable, and really quite good. While leaving things up to luck is questionable, statistics tell us that most of the time it will be two or three extra turns (some dude on Reddit did the math a while ago, I'm not gonna go find it right now), which can be game ending if the board is a stalemate and you've been using the +1. I did some cross comparison with Liliana of the Veil considering they will probably both come down and kill something. Either's -2 is situationally better, but Ral can do it twice in a row and die. However to me Liliana's +1 seems a lot more relevant, and it can cripple decks that don't have an answer to her while losing their hand. Plus she only costs 3, and also has a very good and reachable ultimate. On his own merits Ral is great, but I don't think he's as good as Liliana. Will see play in Standard, but let's see what happens.

Deadbridge Chant and Progenitor Mimic

These cards are both AWESOME in EDH. While Deadbridge's power level there is questionable, it's fun level definitely isn't. Unfortunately it is too slow for Standard, and while you should play it in your limited deck, milling 10 might be risky and it's not the bombiest thing you could be running. Progenitor Mimic might see play in Standard, and in my opinion Clone abilities have always been sort of underrated in standard, along with Mind Control abilities. It kind of costs a lot for a clone, and if you cloned the opponent's big threat when you had an empty board you don't really want to trade with the creature you just cloned when it attacks you until you start producing tokens. However, this seems like an auto-include in rampy/stompy decks with sweet clone targets like Thragtusk or Master Biomancer. (Oh god if you could pull it off on a Master Biomancer that would be so sweet.)

Voice of Resurgence

This is the card that swapped text with Emmara, and it is in fact, awesome. I may be overvaluing it but free, probably big creatures any time the opponent gets instant happy? A real pain in the early game for control decks that want to be thinking twice and keeping counterspells open instead on main phase killing your Voice of Resurgence. Seems like an auto-include in creature heavy decks because even if the opponent isn't casting a lot of instants you get a Crusader of Odric for free even when it dies. Another one of the very powerful cards in the set.

There are a couple other Mythics I didn't mention here because they are kind of boring. In summary: Savageborn Hydra is too slow for Standard (probably even combining it with Vorel), bomb in limited, probably not good enough for EDH. Legion's Initiative is a nice cheap anthem with added functionality. The color restriction is unfortunate, because there aren't many Red-White exclusive decks. The mass flicker could be crazy, but I don't want to think too hard about it, and most creatures with sick ETB abilities aren't White/Red except for Restoration Angel. Still a good card. Council of the Absolute seems pretty sick, either silencing problem cards or making your spells cost cheaper. Someone will probably think of something crazy to do with the second ability, but it's generally really good to make your huge spells cheap or get some free usage on your X spells (maybe it could make Reap Intellect playable?).

Other Interesting Cards

ZOMG THEY REPRINTED MANA DRAIN GUIZE. But seriously, this is pretty neat. I think the mana cost is too restrictive to see play in Standard, but that won't stop some people from trying, and maybe they'll prove me wrong. Of course, awesome for EDH, where mana cost doesn't matter.

Putrefy

Sick reprint. Unconditional instant speed removal is something Standard is missing right now. Between this, Abrubt Decay, and Dreadbore, Jund (BRG) has a lot of premium removal to work with. Most decks with Green and Black will be picking this guy up. I don't think the Artifact destruction is relevant right now. 

Renegade Krasis

When I build Standard Decks, I build on a budget. One of the two decks I've been looking to build is an evolve tempo deck, and this guy definitely seems to help towards that goal. I don't think he'll get too expensive because he's a build-around-me mechanic card, which usually doesn't spawn decks. This is because in the immortal words of some dude on Reddit (who may have been quoting someone else): "There are no good mechanics, only good cards." I'll test with this guy at the very least. Going back on that quote though, evolve is a very good limited mechanic in general, because most evolve creatures have decent P/T for their mana cost and pretty much always evolve at least once the turn after, sending them above the curve.

Nivix Cyclops, Fluxcharger, and Dragonshift

The other budget deck I want to build for Standard is a Red Blue deck with a focus on instants and sorceries. The creatures above will definitely be underplayed and rather cheap, and I believe the same will be true for Dragonshift, but someone may use it for their finisher and make it popular. Nivix Cyclops has an ability that has appeared on several creatures, the most notable and recent being Kiln Fiend, which was used in some Red Deck Wins variants when it was in standard with mixed success. It was generally regarded to be a good card, but RDW had quite a bit of opposition it had trouble overcoming at the time. The cyclops costs one more, but has a bigger but so can block and attack with more safety. The thing is Standard has some really good over the curve creatures right now such as Loxodon Smiter that Nivix Cyclops just can't compete with, but that is why my deck would have plenty of tricks up its sleeve. It won't be the best deck, but it will be a decent budget decks with my own unique style on it, which is largely what makes Magic enjoyable for me. Dragonshift synergizes pretty nicely with the Cyclops, turning it into a 7/4 with flying for a turn (if I understand the rules correctly, which I'm pretty sure I do). Fluxcharger might not make the cut, because 4 mana is high for my intended curve, and I need the deck to have as few creatures as possible. I will play-test with it, but we will see. Other creatures the deck may feature include: Delver of Secrets, Goblin Electromancer, and Guttersnipe. I had a half finished version of this deck before Gatecrash came out and it worked out pretty well, hopefully I can make something work for this summer as well.

Debt to the Deathless and Possibility Storm

Really these cards just seem awesome in EDH. Debt to the Deathless exemplifies one thing the format should be about: huge swingy effects that cost a ton of mana. Unplayable in Standard. Possibility Storm exemplifies another aspect of EDH: random fun. Possibility Storm might actually see play in some FNM Standard decks that have a bunch of high costing spells to abuse it with. "I cast Flint Hoof Boar and get...... Borborygmos!" Definitely not a pro level deck to be found here though.

Turn//Burn and Catch//Release

The return of split cards is pretty neat, with the added ability to cast both halves! Hopefully not too many players are caught turning their heads or cards sideways and give away information about their hand. Protip: memorize what effect goes with the card image. I chose these two because they are candidates for my UR deck I mentioned earlier. Turn and Burn is nice because you can always hit your opponent for 2. And 5 mana for an instant that destroys target creature doesn't seem too bad (two for one as a combat trick seems better if you can make it happen). Catch makes me really excited, having an Act of Treason that snatches Planeswalkers seems hugely powerful. Opponent just played Ral Zarek and bolted one of your creatures? Catch him and return the favor, two-for-one value town. If you manage to Catch a walker with enough Loyalty to go ultimate, you get to jizz in your pants while the opponent watches mournfully as their dreams and aspirations are crushed. This card seems so good it might be main-deckable (typically Act of Treason is held in the side board for when the opponent plays big stuff). Release is less exciting, definitely fun in EDH though. Some control decks may be able to take advantage of the parallelism by only having lands out, but it will probably only hit a Creature and a Land most times (a walker if you're lucky) and if your board is empty it still doesn't seem to good in that situation.

Well that wraps it up folks. There are definitely other good cards I didn't mention here, but they are either obviously good and don't need an explanation or are somewhat bland in their effects. Hope you enjoyed reading this and excuse any grammatical errors, I'm not the best at proofreading/editing (mostly because I don't do it).