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We decided to do things differently this time around. Instead of just giving you one opinion on a card, you'll get two mouths telling you why or why not a card strikes us as an absolutle shining star or pure jank. You also will see for the first time ever, FI's linked not by color, but by theme. The theme was easy to establish with each two people covering a Shard. As such, this left me with absolutely nothing to do for an introduction! Between Bant, Jund, Esper, Grixis, and Naya every card in the set was covered. No lands, no mechanics, no artifacts. Everything belongs in a distinct shard.
Today, I have the pleasure of giving you my top twenty cards from the set. Sorry, if I come off a little Spikish at time, it's where my head has been for the last year:
1 - Elspeth comes out and starts spouting out chumpers or throwing out flying Giant Growths on turns three or four. The absolute strongest card in limited ever printed due to the ultimate and combo evasion-giant growth counter gains. The power of the original five planeswalkers is nothing compared to the absolute havoc this "good girl" dishes out at an opponent. Elspeth should appeal to almost every player type, although it may be a little too easy for a Johnny to utilize and feel good about doing.
2 - No other card in the set screams "build a new deck out of me" louder than the Stoic Angel. You already have three powerful colors for control (Green, White, Blue), now you add advantage over aggro when she's in play. Lightning Angel wasn't half the powerhouse Stoic is and twice successful decks were built around Lightning. I highly expect to see tournament level decks appear left and right utilizing her aggro-control nature.
3- This new Ajani is heads over heels better than the old Ajani. The first place I look when I see him as a turn-stretch for Boros Decks Wins. Often Boros stalls out before it beats an opponent and never can pick back up steam. Ajani's first power can keep mana count down or keep a powerful creature from untapping. His second ability is a Lightning Helix, which I'm sure everyone remembers in terms of devastating power. The ultimate? Yeah, it's Armageddon which has always highly favored speedy decks that can get an army into play before slower decks get anything. This more wrathful Ajani is a force to be reckoned, even if his growth power is a little more subtle than the other walkers.
4 - This is probably the most overhyped, overplayed, and overrated card of the set. Since its preview, people have been clamoring about how overpowered it is and how everyone will play it. Others liken it to the new Helix. I'm here to tell you, it's not Jesus on a stick and it won't save your soul. However, it will make a pretty large impact on Standard especially in casual. Its play out of Standard is a little iffy as it's too much mana for power discarders; remember people prefer turn one (Duress/Thoughtseize). And it's a tad much for a burn (Volcanic Hammer/Lava Spike/Lightning Bolt). You also have to remember it's a Sorcery and it only targets players, meaning no creature control. Regardless it's still good and top five in the set. It's just not going to be a fountain of eternal wins.
5 - I'm already hearing reports from drafts and pre-release events about how Tezzeret popped on the board and jammed out an army of artifacts so deep up their unnamed orifice that they couldn't move again. Tezzie is a little interesting to me, as he costs the most mana and is the most limited of the four new walkers. I've seen decks utilizing his power and they all seem to do the same thing: old tricks, with a new dog. I've seen Tezzie-Trinket Control decks, Tezzie-Finity, and even some pretty outrageous combo decks. Regardless, I have to put him up pretty high, because of all the anecdotes. No other card has really garnered the fanboy base that he already has.
6 - The king of the unearthers. This guy will wipe the face off any game that he manages to come out in, quite literally. As a hardcast he literally ends most games single-handley. This is a control/combo players dream card for everything they need/want in a finisher.
7 - Rafiq matches the colors of Stoic Angel and is an all-star as well. In limited, exalted has turned out to be quite powerful, I haven't seen it's translation into constructed yet, but I imagine it won't be as good. Having a copy or two of him a deck won't hurt though as +1/+1 and double strike for free to say your vigilant Stoic Angel might hurt just a tad. Bet you can't guess what kind of deck I'll be playing soon.
8 - When the weakest of the four new walkers is a Dragon summoner, you either know me and my feelings on Dragons, or you realize that his first two abilities aren't quite as good as the other walkers. When you are playing with Vol the goal is to get to that magical number six to unleash five 4/4 Dragons...aka a literal hovering death cloud of fire and wings. That being said, he's still top ten potential in this set, and never to be trifled with.
9 - This card is a standard all-star. His impact will be in the augmentation of an already existing deck thanks to his white weenie summoning goodness. Ranger is the perfect with Reveillark for a double sided "Ha! Ha!"-style taunting. A pretty good fit in Boros or Red Deck Wins to pick up fun little guys like Mogg Fanatic, Magus of the Scroll, or Grim Lavamancer, or say....Figure of Destiny.
10 - People have been calling Esper "Mirrordin Block #2" this is one of the reasons. How often in Affinity do you have three artifacts to spare to play a free creature? Salvage Titan offers up a different and interesting twist to Affinity decks. Some people might question losing three artifacts for one big 6/4, however most true Affinity players know modular means sacrifical anyway, and let’s face it, Myr Retrievers have to die to do their work. This is another means to those ends if Ravager is missing.
11 - Three mana for a 5/4. Say how much mana again..three? Okay, what's the downside? Can it not attack, or not block, or does it have to jump through hoops to do anything all? You're telling me the only catch is it's just three colors? So this thing is simply cheap and big enough to take down the largest Tammy-Goyfs? Give me four and while you're at it how about you resurrect pure Zoo in Standard and Extended.
12 - Not quite Thoctar size, but a 3/4 for three mana is still good, especially if it has lifelink! It also matches up with a certain Angel I've already declared my love for.
13 - Kird Kitty! This little sucker helps out Woolly Thoctar in a Zoo revival. In some ways, it's better than and worse than Kird Ape. I don't like to compare and contrast though, and I'd just play them both in full numbers. Again, this will only help in a Zoo or Red/Green beatdown revival. It also matches up many exisiting decks like Gaea's Might, the Dark Confidant Rock, and Doran the Explorer.
14 - Cool a new 2/2 first strike knight. This one instead of the customary protection brings a Plains into play making it some kind of crazy Knight-Weathered Wayfarer combination. I couldn't help, but to like it a lot. Time will tell if it plays out as well as I think it will.
15 - Holy Moly, Flying Ball Lightning! This is some good old fashioned good Red direct creature damage. The evasion replaces trample nicely and is the perfect size to take out most fliers if they for some reason actually have a blocker. Oh yeah, you can unearth it for a second round.
16 - What in the crap! Affinity-Disk? The only reason this isn't higher is because its colors don't match up to existing Affinity and the double White make it fairly hard to cast in most existing Affinity decks. When that evolve to pick this thing up, expect to see Affinity decks continue their leaps and bounds rush assault on you, only to wipe any resistance you put up from the board.
17 - This little guy is the hotness. He's a 2/2 vigilant for two mana which is nothing short of good. Add in that he can also add Green mana? Yeah, acceleration and aggro, and he can do it both in a single turn. What's not to like?
18 - If this card did not have Unearth I would not pick him. As is, the only reason I have picked him is because of his Unearth. When I play Sedraxis it will be purely from Unearth and most likely always in a dredge deck. His hardcast form is worse in my book than a Hypnotic Specter and harder to cast. In a dredge deck, where your yard is constantly filling he offers the exact kind of thing you want utility discard and direct damage. Sure that is contingent on no fliers, but it's enough of a threat in your yard for them to at least keep their fliers not attacking. Unless it's some dirty Stoic Angel and it has vigilence.
19 - It's not quite Bogardan Hellkite, but that targeted stream of fire is sure to make this Dragon an amazing pick in limited and worthy of notice for constructed formats. A little slow for my tastes, but still pretty good.
20 - Giant Growth + Morale rolled into one. I've heard numerous tales about how this simple card has completely flip-flopped how a battle was to turn out in Limited formats. If you look at Giant Growth and how it changes one match-up you can see what happens when it's applied across the board. ~Cashew~
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