Watch out! Alpha coming through!
A great way to protect your big guy in Drafts and Pre-releases but I can’t see it doing much else in other formats. Maybe some peeps will try it in casual decks with a Trample creature.
Combos really well with Madcap Skills in Limited.
Evacuation for a Standard situation
This is one heck of an exciting card to be sure. You probably would think its applications are rather straightforward, but let me assure you they are not.
You see there is still a point AFTER you have dealt combat damage with your creatures that they are still considered attacking. I mentioned this a while back in my Maverick article. The trick was with Maze of Ith which gave your creatures pseudo-vigilance (usually to a Knight of the Reliquary)
What does this have to do with Aetherize? Well, you see…if you play a lot of ‘enter the battlefield’ trigger creatures much like everyone does in the current Standard metagame, you might want to do this. You can get insane value off of your Thragtusk, since you get a 3/3 then recast to gain 5 life afterwards. Or it can just be a great way to play around cards like Supreme Verdict as well (by returning not all creatures, but the ones that you can recast for value while retaining a good threat and forcing the Supreme Verdict).
Gain even more value with Snapcaster Mage too! Any whacky scenarios you can conjure up are sure to be reasonably good.
Great white combat trick
This card has many applications all of which are strictly relegated to the realm of Limited magic. The one I think is most relevant is to give you a great defence against a card like Aurelia, the Warleader.
Next!
Cancel Haste and maybe a small amount of Life Drain
A great great card in a lot of formats, except maybe in limited where you would probably just prefer another blocker. It makes other cards like Ball Lightning or its Boros brother Spark Trooper rather bad. The extort makes it really interesting as most Extort abilities are attached to creatures. Basically, it gives you time to react to the Standard dominating haste creatures in the RB Aggro deck:
all great creatures but somewhat less so when you can actually slow them down enough to drop an Oblivion Ring or Detention Sphere on them. I honestly believe there is very little missing for an Standard Enchantress-style deck right now. That thing would be something akin to Argothian Enchantress or Enchantress’s Presence.
Ah! my lovelies!
Perhaps the greater application is in the said Enchantress deck in Legacy. You make slow down Goblins and in some Death and Taxes /Maverick decks you get some free swings in versus insane roadblocks like Progenitus. If you have something like a Meekstone, you can ‘Stasis‘ almost all opposing creatures as well.
The possibilities are pretty nice, especially in the enchantress deck where you can use this in multiples as an alternative win condition instead of Words of War and Sigil of Empty Throne. It gets pretty crazy if you play any kind of enchantment that can bounce itself back to your hand such as:
there are others as well…
Basically, you can redraw every time you cast this off of your enchantresses as well as drain for 1 life with your white mana (multiple white if you have a Serra’s Sanctum in play.)
Whatever your deck ideas, I’m sure this card has a great home in them.
A better Goblin Assault? Sign me up to the Boros Legion!
At first glance this card may not seem impressive. Then you begin to analyze it: 1 token, 2 tokens, 3 tokens…woah! It does make a LOT of tokens at a decent pace. This is probably the rare you want to open in your Boros Guild pack if you want to win. If you want value, you probably want one of these:
Relentless Assault has never been this sexy!
If you can’t attack profitably , you can probably just wait it out and cast this lovely common:
‘Massive’ is correct
In Standard it will probably be the new Goblin Trenches, a card which was played in a USA Control deck back in the Invasion days of standard. This one does not cause you to sacrifice lands and makes much much more tokens. Supreme Verdict? I’ll just ‘muster’ up some more tokens and swing at you at my next turn bro! Terminus? sure, not much more effective versus this card.
Get them while they are reasonably cheap. The risk is low and the playability in casual also increases its desirability.
It’s M12 all over again!
What can be said of this reprint that has not already been said? You probably want a few when drafting or at your local pre-release. It combos great with cards that allow you to sacrifice creatures afterwards. This causes it to act as both a temporary Control Magic and a removal spell all-in-one.
The art is the main thing I personally hate about the card. I guess they couldn’t reuse the M12 art as it had to be more Ravnica-flavoured. It’s also a cool inexpensive casual and Commander card as well. The steal and sac concept being quite popular in the Commander format.
Who know, maybe we will see this played as a one-of in a Standard sideboard? Maybe some decks will prefer to just need 3 mana over the five required for Zealous Conscripts?
Ah! Voidslime, Mystic Snake or Draining Whelk or whatever you wanna call it, is back
I know, we’ve seen this before. However, with all the Angel of Serenity action we are seeing this might calm them down. Obviously less effective if they cast it off of a Cavern of Souls. You will still get the 7/7 token but it is probably getting exiled by the Angel of Serenity anyhow.
This will probably be countering the X spells or whatever else big spell defines the format. As of now, I mostly see it being relegated to EDH or casual decks. Had it actually been Mystic Snake it would probably have been better due to blink shenanigans.
Wait…what?
A nice little blast from the past here. Every set needs to have a creature that looks so bad it might actually be good. Right?
He reminds us a little of Abyssal Persecutor and Desecration Demon.
He has the power/toughness down.
Cost is more prohibitive.
What? no evasion? Oh.
No Trample? Ok…
It gives your opponent life? Ewww..
On the plus side:
Can always attack/block.
You can still win the game when he’s in play.
Can’t be Ultimate Priced. Yay!
So is it any good?
I’m going to say no on this one, unfortunately. In a creature-filled format where you have slightly smaller guys with advantageous abilities, I don’t think this dude can make it out there.
And no, I don’t think splashing Red for Skullcrack is worth it in this case.
Lose the Searing Spear versatility and gain the ‘screw your Thragtusk bonus’
Many people are probably wondering if it will be enough. I mostly see this being played in some kind of American control/aggro or izzet strategy. The obvious reason being Snapcaster Mage.
Ah! the Cracker of Skulls!
Probably not the kind of creature you think of when the term ‘Skullcrack’ is brought up. Maybe more like ‘kicks you in the skull when you’re trying to get back up’. That’s exactly what he’ll end up doing too.
Your opponent fails to gain life off his first Thragtusk? Well, flash this guy in and Skullcrack him again when he cast the next one!
Then he will have failed twice in a row! Kinda like a skater with no protective helmet.
Get it? Skullcrack? Uh….nevermind.
Don’t forget that it will allow your attackers to actually damage creatures that would otherwise have protection versus their colors. Up until now, I’m not entirely sure how relevant it will be. It’s a great bonus nonetheless.
Here’s one from Deutchland!
Kreatur? oh! I get it… Creature!
Here’s the full translation:
“Flying
At the beginning of each combat, choose first strike, vigilance or lifelink.
Creatures you control gain the chosen ability until end of turn.”
Pretty nice ability! n’est-ce pas?
You’ll all note that this includes your opponent’s combat phases as well. It makes this extra nice. You can go like vigilance on your combat and first strike your team when you need to block. Sweet!
Cost is ‘reasonable’ and you can bet that a lot of people are going to be trying this out as a sort of slower Baneslayer Angel in some of the Aggressive and even some of the control strategies.
Brother Of Runes 