New Judge Promos: Vindicate and Genesis

vindicate

Sorin adding his flavor to an already spicy card

Every Legacy and Commander player will be clamouring for this update Vindicate. The old one is still nice and so is the original Judge promo, but let’s face it: most new players don’t know about the Weatherlight Saga nor do they care about some random dude stabbing the ground with his sword.

The quote is really really good too, making Sorin appear god-like (as planeswalkers are pretty much supposed to be). In Legacy it’s often used in Orzhov, Esper or Junk decks that ca support it. Destroying lands is really relevant in the format, but lower budget decks usually go with Oblvion Ring instead. It’s a toss-up as the O-Ring also takes care of baddies like Emrakul, especially if your opponent Show and Tells it into play (another card that got the Judge foil makeover).

genesis judge

Every Commander player’s favorite Incarnation

Genesis did not receive the artwork makeover as the original art is pretty appropriate despite being old. He too, was played in older Legacy decklists prior to Survival of the Fittest being banned (again another card that was Judge Promo’ed). Feel free to jam this into any green-based EDH/Commander deck and revive your favorite creature from the graveyard. The effect may seem a tad slow, but remember that Commander games tend to last longer than regular games barring infinite combos.

You can also just cast this guy and have him just die instead of trying to figure out other cute ways of discarding him to get him in your graveyard ( Fauna Shaman). I don’t know if anyone’s done a custom alter of this card featuring the Genesis 16-bit videogame console, but that would be pretty sweet!

Gatecrash Preview: High Priest of Penance

high priest of penanceVindicate‘ on a stick. 

Ah! when the original version was spoiled (in Italian, I believe) some people thought it was a enters the battlefield ability. You can obviously see how ridiculous this is given its mana cost. I mean Vindicate costs 3 mana and you don’t get a creature out of it to boot. The final translated version is even worse than anticipated, requiring it to have taken damage versus just going to the graveyard.

Obviously some people will try to abuse it by pumping its toughness and pinging it with something like Izzet Staticaster. It obviously makes a good blocker, albeit comparable to Loyal Sentry.

Loyal Sentry

Remember this guy? yeah, me either…

It may just end up being a nice little ‘unblockable’ creature. Perhaps some kind of decent aura from this sent can aid it. Probably an Orzhov-themed one.

Its uses in EDH alongside something like Sun Titan may be rather interesting to explore. What amount of play will this card realistically see in the new Standard format? Probably a decent amount at the start when everyone is busy brewing and a lot less when more decks become established.