GREEN

Bramblecrush

It’s no Beast Within

Bramblecrush is sort of like Acidic Slime‘s and Beast Within‘s love child. They decided it would basically be a Sorcery (worse than Instant or Creature in this case) and would destroy anything but creatures , including planeswalkers (better than Acidic Slime and worse than Beast Within). The end result is rather unexciting because it’s too fair and that’s not something most Magic: the Gathering players like. We like that little extra oomph that is sometimes included with our cardboard crack.

Howl of the Night Pack

The Wolf Pack reunites after ‘the Hangover’

It’s really nice to see this card back as we are constantly sold out of it. It sells really really well. Casual players love it and it’s actually not terribly bad in a Monogreen Commander deck either. The fact that it makes wolf tokens works great with Master of the Wild Hunt.

Monogreen removal!

Hunt the Weak

This should be winning some hideous art contest soon

Just another reprint under another name. Not particularly exciting outside of the real of limited Magic.

 

Lay of the Land

It kinda suck that they could not just use the original artwork

This is strictly worse than Caravan Vigil, a card which saw like zero play.

Draw your own conclusion from there.

 

Manaweft Sliver

‘Sliver Ramp’ or ‘Paradise Sliver’

We have seen Gemhide Sliver in the past , but just like all other slivers in M14 this one only affects your Slivers. Even in non-sliver decks it does provide acceleration into a turn 4 play on turn 3, which is great (much like Farseek allowed a turn 3 Olivia Voldaren or Huntmaster of the Fells in Jund decks).

With no assured ramp spell in Theros, this card may indeed be replacing Farseek as the Standard Rampant Growth variant.

Naturalize

You tell ’em Garruk !

What more can be said about this awesome card? Nothing, really.

Oath of the Wood

So, can we have the Enchantress card now please?

It would be nice to get a self-bouncing enchantment or enchantment card drawing effect to go along with this. On its own it obviously rather underwhelming. Even the elf creature on the card seems to be suffering a little.

Ranger’s Guile

More words of wisdom from Garruk

Rootwalla

Even the quote is dull

If you’re gonna go out of your way to reprint this, why not strike up a deal with Geico and make a functional reprint called Gecko.

You can save more on Magic: the Gathering by buying a Fat Pack!

That’s correct you crazy Gecko you! He’s so adorable too. But nooooo! they had to go with the hideous Rootwalla.

Windstorm

Translation: ‘we don’t like your kind ’round these parts! ‘

I know I’m giving these M14 cards a bit of a hard time by mentioning cards whose power level is a bit higher at times, but I really wanted Squall Line here. A nice green finisher plus it sounds like a wrestling move. Oh my gawd, he nailed him with the Squall Line! It’s over!

I do still think it’s a fin uncommon inclusion for limited purposes and potential Standard sideboard hate.

ARTIFACTS

 

Darksteel Forge

Elesh Norn quote? Wha?

I was a little confused and unsure that this was a legit card in M14 and I still don’t really see the reasoning behind it. The only real reason I can fathom is that Wizards of the Coast decided to make the card more accessible in the secondary market for EDH/Commander purposes. This somewhat hurts a bit if you’re a seller but in the end it’s good for the players. Not to worry though, it will probably be in heavy demand once people stop cracking them M14 boosters.

Darksteel Ingot

Woah? A Koth quote now?

Are they really teasing anther return to Mirrodin? In a world of Keyrunes and Chromatic Lantern, I highly doubt this will see serious play. Of course all the Commander players can rejoice just as they did when Reliquary Tower was reprinted in M13 (for no good reason).

Fireshrieker

Nice to have this back 

This is exactly the kind of card you want in a Core Set : not too recent and representing a not too common mechanic. Being a judge , I know I’l have to endlessly explain to players exactly how double strike works when the attacking creature kills the lone blocker after the first strike part.

No, you do not get to hit your opponent with a shot of regular damage. The creature was blocked so nothing goes through unless of course the attacker had Trample, in which case all the remaining damage goes through.

Millstone

This is going to be really annoying to face in drafts

I like the direction Wizards of the Coast is taking with some of the more underwhelming rare artifacts of the past (Jayemdae Tome, Primal Clay,etc) by lowering their rarity and putting them in Core Sets. It shows newer players why this cad may have been somewhat good in the past by giving them a chance to play with it a little.

You don’t get to complain that your rare is some has been card and gain a new appreciation for how the game has evolved over the years (unless of course you are totally against the power creep).

Rod of Ruin

More bad news for the goblin is that it can almost wipe out a good percentage of their kind

As sad as this sounds: Rod of Ruin can totally dominate the battlefield in a limited environment. It destroys any one toughness creature as well as provides you with a clock. For those unaware of what a clock means, it basically gives your opponent X numer of turns to live unless they can remove the clock. In this case, it’s a rather weak-looking 20 turn clock but you get the point.

Trading Post

You will soon be able to trade in goats like in ancient Greece when Theros comes out

This card brings back some lukewarm memories. I had picked it to be a sleeper card in M13 and that didn’t go all too well. I ended up trading 3-4$ cards to obtain these. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that I was probably on the losing end of those trades in the long run. Even when a monoblack control list featuring Trading Post appeared late in the M13-Scars format, it did not to much to revive Trading Post.

I’m not sure what kind of decks will be running this in the future Standard format, but I think I have enough copies as it stands. Like many cards of this genre, Commander is pretty much the perfect format for it. Pick one up and try it in your EDH/Commander deck and you might be pleasantly surprised if like most people you run a great deal of artifacts in your deck.

LANDS

Well, not much to see here is there

With only 3 nonbasic lands in M14, we kind of reviewed them already. We could go over the basic lands if you would like, seeing as how they see little play in the current Standard format to the point where it seems most players have forgotten about them. Well, maybe not totally: I still see people rushing to the local store’s Land Station during FNM Drafts.

 

That’s it then! Prepare to have fun during the Magic 2014 Pre-release on Friday , July 12 or Thursday at midnight if your store does that sort of thing (all the ones here in Montreal do).