It’s already been 6 days of non-stop spoilers thus far and with Dragon’s Maze slowly approaching – things do not seem to be slowing down. Let’s just right into the spoilers:
Progenitor Mimic
Evolving Clones
Another clone! Oh joy! I think there’s enough of them now to face the Star Wars clones and come out on top. What’s this? It clones itself? What do you know, a veritable army of clones.
These clones seem to pop out of nowhere
Our little shapeshifter buddy here probably doesn’t propagate copies of himself as quickly as the Star Wars clones, but that depends on how long each upkeep comes along in Star Wars time. Our simic friend here is illustrated with an old school light saber and wings, so we know he can take it to the air.
The best way to analyse this card is to simply think of a creature (preferably non-legendary) that would work great in multiples. Initial thoughts tend to go to creatures that offer a pump effect to your team, but that’s just one facet. Even something as basic as repeatedly making Acidic Slime clones is pretty sweet (and it’s within the Simic colors).
Slime time!
Even the flavor behind it is rather nice: an ever expanding army of slime creatures dissolving almost anything they come accros, overtaking the battlefield and leaving everything covered in green goo. Seems like something out of an 80’s movie. The better the ‘enters the battlefield’ ability, the better your clone.
Clones tend to be ultra popular in Commander. It allows you to have a sort of wildcard in your deck that can adapt to whatever you would need at a given time (of course, based on what the battlefield has to offer). Some people frown upon them heavily as it promotes a rather uninspired/ brain dead approach to ‘casual’ deckbuilding. Copy effects in general are not everyone’s cup of tea.
I personally think this particular variation on the theme is pretty nice. It does cost a lot more than your run of the mill Clone. And it loses value depending on how early it is dispatched.
Being a mythic, this card is more highly priced than it normally would be. It’s at around the 7-10$ mark and probably will gravitate toward the 4$ mark in the weeks or month to come.
Possibility Storm
Oh the Possibilities!
This is a nice little ‘conditional Cascade’, however you are not limited to lower costs. Its 5 mana cost means it may see play in some constructed format (perhaps Standard combo deck). All hopes of using it with Epic Experiment were lost, since the card specifies ‘from hand’ (that and being unplayable if flipped via Epic Experiment itself).
Its effect is applicable to either player, a hint that it’s meant more to be used in multi-player mayhem. I would play it in a kind of Random Red deck with things like Chaos Warp and Grip of Chaos. You basically act as the random events guy (kind of like changing the weather in the game). Of course you can try to win as well, but it’s a good way to mix things up in Commander games.
At first sight, due to the abundance of red on the card, I believed it was a mythic. Thankfully, it is not.
Look for it to remain in 1$ territory, if not drop to 50 cents (as cards such as this tend to do)
Renegade Krasis
Evolve lord?
We’ve been seeing these krasis creatures pop up here and there within the Simic guild and they have a kind of Bulbasaur look to them. They evolve, but not in the same way as Pokemon. This little guy is almost guaranteed to see some tournament play, paired with cards like Gyre Sage. Mono green aggro decks might carry over to the new Standard (once Innistrad block phases out in November) with this guy at the helm.
Traditionally cards like this have enough casual appeal to keep a not too low price. He’s at about 2-3$ at the moment, maybe he’ll jump to 5$ (like Predator Ooze did a while back) but he’s going to have to prove himself worthy.
Savageborn Hydra
Primordial Hydra’s second cousin
Hydras seem to be popping up quite a bit these past sets, it’s almost as though Wizards of the Coast has a soft spot for them. The general hydra concept being that they keep sprouting up more heads even when you cut some off. This red variant is muhc more aggressive than its predecessors (gaining Double Strike) and also the Feral Hydra ability from Shards of Alara. It can pro-actively grow more heads, unfortunately not in response.
A nice little 5$ mythic to start due to its Timmy appeal. Look for the price do stay at around that range or take a slight dip depending on if it becomes a mainstay in a Gruul/Naya Standard deck.
The Cluestones
A nice little complement to the guildgates being reprinted, the cluestones fix our mana and allow us to ramp up. The card-drawing sacrifice ability will give them slots in Commander decks, but will it be enough to see any serious Standard play?
Being commons, these will just be like Signets in the future. Foil versions will see a premium due to heavy Commander play.
To be continued…
Brother Of Runes 