Innistrad Partial Spoiler Review - Red and Green

Hi again! I'm back with a first impressions review of the remainder of the cards that leap out from the spoiler so far.

First up is a new addition to the white cards (covered in the previous post).

Fiend Hunter

Cost: 1WW

Creature -- Human Cleric

Text: When Fiend Hunter enters the battlefield, you may exile another target creature.

When Fiend Hunter leaves the battlefield, return the exiled card to the battlefield under its owner's control.

1/3

The represents the completion of the recent run of cards transitioning the Faceless Butcher ability from black into white, at least as far as permanents are concerned. Oblivion Ring, Journey to Nowhere and Leonin Relicwarder have all demonstrated how this is now a white way of dealing with permanents. Looking back on Tidehollow Sculler it appears that the "exile and return" mechanic was white's contribution to the design, while targeting the card in an opponent's hand was black's.

For standard consideration we need to remember that Oblivion Ring is also available, can hit a wider range of targets, and is considerably easier to cast. So aside from an anti-creature deck wanting five or more copies of Oblivion Ring, we will need to have a reason to want to run Fiend Hunter instead.

To start off with we will want to be interested specifically in removing a creature, Fiend Hunter does nothing against artifacts or enchantments. This is going to be a meta game dependent call most of the time, although it is possible that in an aggro deck you are just interested in removing a blocker. In this case the body from Fiend Hunter would also be relevant.

Of course, the fact that this is a creature is also something of a drawback. Almost every deck should be running some way to remove Fiend Hunter, meaning that it is not a guaranteed answer. Can this be used as an advantage? Well there is always the corner case of removing one of your own creatures to provide some protection against a Day of Judgment. Potentially this could even be our own Day of Judgment. Although this seems a clunky interaction to specifically build into a deck, having the option could be relevant. One possibility is that there is a good hexproof creature to remove that would require a second sweeper to answer.

Being a creature could also benefit us in which spells can target it. Spellskite will almost always be able to redirect any removal aimed at Fiend Hunter, for example. There is also the fact that Unsummon can target Fiend Hunter in response to the enters the battlefield ability, which sort of transforms it into "WWU1: exile target creature" and leaves Fiend Hunter back in your hand to replay. If a permanent is spoiled that has bouncing a creature as an activated ability, this has the potential to turn into an engine.

There is always the advantage that Fiend Hunter can just attack, and if the Human tribal deck does exist it would obviously like to have access to this card. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

Bloodcrazed Neonate

Cost: 1R

Creature -- Vampire

Text: Bloodcrazed Neonate attacks each turn if able.

Whenever Bloodcrazed Neonate deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on it.

2/1

There has been a fair bit of talk concerning Bloodcrazed Neonate, a lot of which centres around the question "is this the return of Slith Firewalker?"

The important word that is missing from Bloodcrazed Neonate is "haste". This, coupled with the fact that the Firewalker often came down on turn one off a Chrome Mox, means that we are not looking at anything like the next coming of the best Slith. But does this make the Neonate unplayable? We have to remember that Slith Firewalker was a particularly strong card in the environment of the time, and there is plenty of scope between "unplayable" and "format defining" that a card can fall into.

Much will depend on the removal present in the meta game. Doom Blade and Go for the Throat obviously don't care what size the Neonate is, but the loss of Lightning Bolt and Disfigure indicate (at the moment, at least) that removal spells aimed at the Neonate will probably be trading at mana parity.

Blockers will also be a factor, and along with the rotation of Squadron Hawk go a lot of the reasons not to play one toughness creatures. Spellskite can block it all day, but may not be as prolific either with no Splinter Twins to redirect. If the format does slow down then Bloodcrazed Neonate could have a chance, but unless the Vampire subtype is pushing her to the top of the queue she is going to have to wait behind Stormblood Berserker at least.

Devil's Play

Cost: XR

Sorcery

Text: Devil's Play deals X damage to target creature or player.

Flashback XRRR

We're definitely skirting the realms of playability here, and Devil's Play at least ticks the box of hitting creatures early and players late. But Fireball has been legal forever without seeing play, so interest in Devil's Play will hinge entirely on whether the flashback option adds enough value.

Right now the answer looks to be "no", but with the right enabler (think something like "spells cast for their flashback cost can't be countered") this could end up as the finisher of choice in a big red control deck.

Kruin Outlaw

Cost: 1RR

Creature -- Human Rogue Werewolf

Text: First strike

At the beginning of each upkeep, if no spells were cast last turn, transform Kruin Outlaw.

2/2

**

Terror of Kruin Pass

Creature -- Werewolf

Text: Double strike

Each Werewolf you control can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.

At the beginning of each upkeep, if a player cast two or more spells last turn, transform Terror of Kruin Pass.

3/3

Kruin Outlaw has the pleasant feature of being a fine creature to have in her normal state, and a creature that we are really happy to have when transformed. Most playable removal spells will answer either side, but this is true of most creatures in the kind of aggro deck that would want this, and we won't be losing too much mana on the deal.

If the Human/Werewolf transform cards come together into a red-green deck the Outlaw will be an important card. The strikes against this are the double red cost and that the support for the Human tribe from white may well prove more consistent.

In a mono red deck that is heavy on instants this is a fine creature, but it will be competing against pseudo-burn spell Chandra's Phoenix at the three spot. It's possible that one or two copies would be correct for the late game, when it is more likely to transform right away.

Village Ironsmith

Cost: 1R

Creature -- Human Werewolf

Text: First strike

At the beginning of each upkeep, if no spells were cast last turn, transform Village Ironsmith.

1/1

**

Ironfang

Creature -- Werewolf

Text: First strike

At the beginning of each upkeep, if a player cast two or more spells last turn, transform Ironfang.

3/1

It seems clear that the longer the game progresses, the more likely cards are to transform and the less likely a player will cast the necessary spells to turn them back. The upshot of this is that these creatures need to be evaluated from the point of view of being the first form when played early, and the second late.

Village Ironsmith fails on both evaluations. First strike is relatively meaningless on a 1/1, and we would be happier with a vanilla 2/2 on most occasions. Then, a 3/1 with first strike will quickly become outclassed; even if it transforms immediately it will have little impact.

I'll jump ahead briefly to compare this to Gatstaf Shepherd:

Gatstaf Shepherd

Cost: 1G

Creature -- Human Werewolf

Cost: At the beginning of each upkeep, if no spells were cast last turn, transform Gatstaf Shepherd.

2/2

**

Gatstaf Howler

Creature -- Werewolf

Text: Intimidate

At the beginning of each upkeep, if a player cast two or more spells last turn, transform Gatstaf Howler.

3/3

The Shepherd begins as a 2/2, which is still fairly unexciting but will at least trade with most two drops. Once transformed it performs slightly worse than Ironfang on defence, but intimidate makes it far more likely to connect when attacking.

This isn't to say that Gatstaf Shepherd will ever be anything more than a roleplayer, but it does illustrate how we can begin to compare the strength of these new card types even before playing any games with them.

Boneyard Wurm

Cost: 1G

Creature -- Wurm

Text: Boneyard Wurm's power and toughness are each equal to the number of creature cards in your graveyard.

*/*

From a new Slith Firewalker, Boneyard Wurm is the faux Tarmogoyf of this set. Maybe this is an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" riff, except the body snatchers are all slightly worse than the people they're replacing...

The first thing to notice is that Boneyard Wurm shares Tarmogoyf's weakness in the early game, before you've had a chance to put any cards into your graveyard. From there, the comparisons just get worse; only counting creatures means that there is no upper limit to the Wurm's size, but it also means that you need to be far more selective in the cards going to the graveyard for the Wurm to benefit.

Only counting your graveyard is another massive count against the Wurm. One of the main functions of Tarmogoyf was to be a cheap threat that could be deployed alongside counterspells and other disruption in the same turn. Requiring that your deck be full of creature spells, and also that these creatures be going to your graveyard is not something that a traditional control deck supports.

On the other hand, if your deck is full of creatures, you're going to want your two-drop to be good on turn two. When you get to the stage that Boneyard Wurm will be big enough to impact the board, it is unlikely that the two mana cost will make up for the lack of trample or any way to protect itself. When the Wurm is the only card in your hand, spending two of your five or six mana to make a 6/6 is essentially the same as spending all five or six that you have available. At that point wouldn't you rather just have the benefits that come from costing more, like being a Titan?

Garruk Relentless

Cost: 3G

Planeswalker -- Garruk

Text: When Garruk Relentless has two or fewer loyalty counter on him, transform him.

0: Garruk Relentless deals 3 damage to target creature. That creature deals damage equal to its power to him.

0: Put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token onto the battlefield.

Loyalty: 3

**

Garruk, the Veil-Cursed

Planeswalker -- Garruk

Text: +1: Put a 1/1 black Wolf creature token with deathtouch onto the battlefield.

-1: Sacrifice a creature. If you do, search your library for a creature card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.

-3: Creatures you control gain trample and get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creature cards in your graveyard.

The second planeswalker of the set seems to take a lot less building around to be good at doing a job, besides putting some creatures in your deck, but that shouldn't be a chore if we're in green already. In fact, the easy mana requirements mean that we aren't necessarily that heavily in green, but we'll come back to that point in a moment.

The basic plan of action seems to fit in quite well with how a green deck would want to proceed. We'll play some early creatures, maybe a Llanowar Elf turn one and a three on turn two, then play Garruk on turn three. Depending on the board situation, Garruk can produce a Wolf to press a control deck that has no board presence. If there is a suitable target on the other side of the board Garruk can kill it and transform, or he can even beat up our own Elf if there are no better targets.

Once transformed, Garruk can become a Wolf creating machine. Against decks that are relying on ground combat, gaining a 1/1 deathtouch each turn is going to be difficult to break through. But the real strength is in the tutor ability, which can find the right answer from your deck every other turn. Maximising this part of the card offers the most power, and what we really want is a way to make the creature sacrifice work for us.

Having creatures that benefit from going to the graveyard is an obvious step, particularly cheap options like Viridian Emissary or Perilous Myr. Recursive creatures like Bloodghast or Vengevine also play into this, so we'll want to watch out for new creatures like this as they'll rotate out with Zendikar block.

All this talk of sacrificing creatures and tutoring up others brings Birthing Pod to mind, a card which looks like it will continue to be good post rotation. In this kind of deck Garruk can act almost like additional copies of the Pod. In one respect he is not as efficient as you will have to pay mana for the creature you fetch, but at the same time he is more flexible in what he can find making him better with that top-decked Birds of Paradise later in the game.

Another card that bears consideration with Garruk is Solemn Simulacrum, particularly in a deck where green is just a splash colour. On the way down the Sim finds the Forest to cast Garruk next turn. Once Garruk is in play, Solemn Simulacrum is both the right size to use to transform Garruk if required and the perfect creature to sacrifice if you can transform him another way. This seems like a potential inclusion in a blue control deck that is interested in a removal spell, a way to generate creatures and a card that can search out the Grave Titan, Wurmcoil Engine or Consecrated Sphinx they need to gain control of the game.

Garruk strikes me as a very strong planeswalker for the mana cost. The new Chandra hasn't really caught on just yet, but Garruk Relentless could well be the first planeswalker that appears as a splash card in another colour deck.

Mayor of Avabruck

Cost: 1G

Creature -- Human Advisor Werewolf

Text: Other Human creatures you control get +1/+1.

At the beginning of each upkeep, if no spells were cast last turn, transform Mayor of Avabruck.

1/1

**

Howlpack Alpha

Creature -- Werewolf

Text: Other Werewolf and Wolf creatures you control get +1/+1.

At the beginning of your end step, put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token onto the battlefield.

At the beginning of each upkeep, if a player cast two or more spells last turn, transform Howlpack Alpha.

3/3

Using a similar method of evaluation for Mayor of Avabruck as the transform cards above is difficult, because how good the first form is will be directly affected by the state of the battlefield. It is unlikely that the Mayor will be a good play on turn two, as unlike most lords in the game he is not himself a 2/2. When flipped we have a 3/3 lord, which is again slightly unusual, and we'll also get a 3/3 each turn. To complicate things slightly further the Mayor costs only two mana, which is cheaper than normal for this effect.

My gut feeling is that Mayor of Avabruck is slightly below par and Howlpack Alpha is well above. This says to me that the deck that plays this card will be hoping to have the transformed version in play the majority of the time. Planning on not casting any spells on a turn is difficult, but there are a few strategies that suggest themselves.

Interacting at instant speed would let us use our mana on the opponent's turn instead, leaving the onus on them to play a spell on our turn to stop our creatures transforming. Since we know how much mana they'll have on our turn before we plan what to do, this is actually quite easy to take advantage of; wait for them to tap out on their own turn, then pass ours to let the creatures transform in their upkeep and sit back on instant speed spells.

Another option will be to attack their hand or mana sources, making it more likely that they will be unable to play a spell on their own turn.

Finally, we could ignore the transform ability on the card and aim to flip our creatures using some other method, such as the next card...

Moonmist

Cost: 1G

Instant

Text: Transform all Humans. Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn by creatures other than Werewolves and Wolves.

Besides being potentially one of the best common combat tricks ever in draft, this is a card that has a lot of promise in constructed. There isn't a one casting cost transform card on the spoiler yet, but even so, turn two Gatstaf Shepherd, turn three Daybreak Ranger gives us a turn four of Mayor of Avabruck, Moonmist. We're attacking with a 4/4 and a 5/5, and will get a 3/3 at the end of turn, leading to a turn five kill without disruption. That's without considering other options like Kruin Outlaw in the mix.

That's all the time I have for this update. Enjoy the rest of the preview weeks!

Steve

Innistrad Partial Spoiler Review - White, Blue and Black

Hello there!

You've probably noticed that there's a spoiler season in full swing, so let's take a stroll through the card image gallery and see what we can see. These comments are just on the officially spoiled cards as they occur to me looking through them alphabetically. I'll supply the card text so you don't have to go flicking between pages.

Dearly Departed

Cost: 4WW

Creature -- Spirit

Text: Flying

As long as Dearly Departed is in your graveyard, each Human creature you control enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.

5/5

The first card of some interest is Dearly Departed, although the creature itself is not that notable as just a 5/5 flyer. The interesting part of the card is the static graveyard ability, which is a new take on the lord/anthem pump effect theme. But what would we need to have to make this card worth considering?

First, there needs to be enough playable Human creatures that would want the counters. This could be because you are playing an aggro deck and increased damage will accelerate your clock, or maybe the toughness increase will take them out of range of a key removal spell. Alternatively, there may be a number of Humans that interact with the counters (such as the already spoiled Mikaeus, the Lunarch). There are certainly plenty of good Humans in white, with Mirran Crusader, Hero of Bladehold and Blade Splicer already seeing play.

The second part of the puzzle would be having some way to get the Dearly Departed into the graveyard. This could take the form of playing a lot of looting or self-milling effects and hoping to hit them, but I think it will really need some way to directly pull the cards from the library to push this over the top. Perhaps there will be an exorcist that can search your library for a spirit and put it into graveyard?

Elite Inquisitor

Cost: WW

Creature -- Human Soldier

Text: First strike, vigilance

Protection from Vampires, from Werewolves, and from Zombies

2/2

Now here's a card where it is important not to be blinded by the flavour and to consider how it will actually function in play. In the same way that the protection abilities on Baneslayer Angel did not come up that frequently, they will never be preventing removal spells from dealing with Elite Inquisitor (as there has been no indication of a return to the world of Tribal spells). They are only relevant in combat against those specific creature types, so what we're generally looking at here is a 2/2 with first strike and vigilance.

Similar creatures have been playable in the past, but at first glance the Inquisitor does not quite live up to the lifelink of Knight of Meadowgrain, or the plains searching ability of Knight of the White Orchid.

Vigilance may be important if the format is largely about ground combat, and having an attacker and blocker is valuable. It also seems that the Human subtype could be important (see Dearly Departed for example). The combination of the two may make the Inquisitor a good creature to equip, but my gut feeling is that this will be a niche card whose value will be dependent on the number of Vampire, Werewolf or Zombie decks in the meta game.

Mentor of the Meek

Cost: 2W

Creature -- Human Soldier

Text: Whenever another creature with power 2 or less enters the battlefield under your control, you may pay 1. If you do, draw a card.

2/2

Mentor of the Meek has the key phrase "draw a card" which alone makes it worth evaluating. What we're getting for our three mana investment is a 2/2 with no abilities that effect the battlefield, that wants to be played in a deck that is planning on making more creatures of power two or less, and is interested in having additional mana left to take advantage of this ability.

If you can get an extra card for each creature you are fairly well covered against over-extending into Day of Judgment, which is one of the main problems with these kinds of strategy normally. Even better value would be to have a reliable source of creatures, such as a Selesnya Evangel or Imperious Perfect.

Sadly the rotation will take all of the Eldrazi Spawn producers out of standard, which would otherwise complement Mentor of the Meek perfectly. Awakening Zone is a straight "at the beginning of your upkeep, draw a card" with both of these in play. Jade Mage is less interesting, costing 3G to produce a 1/1 Saproling and a card.

Which brings us to drawback number one; as a 2/2 there is no real guarantee that Mentor of the Meek will survive to draw you cards. It is very likely that the Mentor is killed and you are left with a deck that can only make small creatures with no benefit. Against a deck that is incapable of removing a 2/2, how much help do you really need to win?

Secondly, weenie decks will often look to effects like Honor of the Pure, or the previously discussed Dearly Departed, to make the cheaper creatures they play more of a threat. This plays directly against Mentor of the Meek, who will stop helping out once your men stop being meek and start having a little self respect.

It is possible that there is a GW Ramp deck that can power out enough mana and tokens to make this worthwhile, but I think this card will be a limited bomb that doesn't quite have the impact to make it in constructed.

Mikaeus, the Lunarch

Cost: XW

Legendary Creature -- Human Cleric

Text: Mikaeus, the Lunarch enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.

T: Put a +1/+1 counter on Mikaeus.

T, Remove a +1/+1 counter from Mikaeus: Put a +1/+1 counter on each other creature you control.

0/0

As previously spoiled in the roundly disappointing From the Vault: Legends, Mikaeus is a kind of Steel Overseer that swaps efficiency for MOAR POWER! This is the kind of creature that begs to be played with Swiftfoot Boots, just waiting for the opponent to tap out before slamming 5 or 6 mana into him and hexproofing him up.

The second ability is reminscent of Ajani Goldmane, and the immediate thought is to look for a BW tokens style deck that can take maximum value from it. Of course, the key to that deck was that Bitterblossom, Spectral Procession and Cloadgoat Ranger let you do this without expending so many cards that Day of Judgment would be crippling. In fact it would often come powering right back and deploy another three or four creatures the following turn. Right now we have Blade Splicer and Grave Titan, and possibly Kuldotha Rebirth, but not so many other powerful token makers. From the new cards we know of, Moan of the Unhallowed is a possibility, and Dearly Departed, Mentor of the Meek and Mikaeus could well point to a token making subtheme that is yet to be revealed in the set. Perhaps there will be a supply of screaming villagers to be sacrificed to the horrors that we can work with.

Civilized Scholar

Cost: 2U

Creature -- Human Advisor

Text: T: Draw a card, then discard a card. If a creature card is discarded this way, untap Civilized Scholar, then transform it.

0/1

**

Homicidal Brute

Creature -- Human Mutant

Text: At the beginning of your end step, if Homicidal Brute didn't attack this turn, tap Homicidal Brute, then transform it.

5/1

This probably won't see any play, but it's worth at least thinking about the potential for cards like this. What we have is a guy that dies to almost everything (even Twisted Image!), but on the other hand if we can discard a creature to his ability he can be attacking for five damage on turn four. With counters, Unsummon and similar effects to clear the way that's a four turn clock.

As I said; this probably comes to nothing. The key is in being open enough to consider the "bad" ideas to be able to spot which are actually "good" ones that could easily be skipped over.

Ludevic's Test Subject

Cost: 1U

Creature -- Lizard

Text: Defender

1U: Put a hatchling counter on Ludevic's Test Subject. Then if there are five or more hatchling counters on it, remove all of them and transform it.

0/3

**

Ludevic's Abomination

Creature -- Lizard Horror

Trample

13/13

This is level up by another name, although with the added bonus that enough mana can save it from instant speed damage-based removal. The first form is pretty unexciting, so what we're looking at is really a 13/13 with trample for 6UUUUUU that can be paid in installments. This isn't a great deal (compare to Ulamog at a similar price point), so there needs to be a blue deck that wants to devote time to conducting the tests or some way to circumvent the transform cost for us to be interested. At the moment we have seen Moonmist that will auto-transform Humans, so it is quite possible that there is some sort of enabler in the set.

Stitcher's Apprentice

Cost: 1U

Creature -- Homunculus

1U, T: Put a 2/2 blue Homunculus creature token onto the battlefield, then sacrifice a creature.

1/2

Here we have a pretty unusual effect that does nothing much by itself, but should be remembered when looking at cards that care about a creature either entering or leaving play. I don't think we want to be concerned with keeping the Homunculus creature in play; two mana is a lot to be "upgrading" another creature into a 2/2, but it is kind of a sacrifice outlet if required.

It could play well with Mentor of the Meek (2U, T: Draw a card), although this seems more of a limited interaction than something to construct a deck around. The main thing to look out for are the Morbid cards, as this serves as a regular enabler for them.

Bloodgift Demon

Cost: 3BB

Creature -- Demon

Text: Flying

At the beginning of your upkeep, target player draws a card and loses 1 life.

5/4

The price is certainly right with this card, and a four toughness black creature is going to be resilient enough on the battlefield. Being realistic, the ability is always going to target us unless the opponent is on one life, but simply surviving one turn replaces the card investment. Multiple turns of extra cards should put us far in front, and the life loss doesn't carry much risk if we're attacking for five each turn.

Bloodgift Demon joins a solid selection of options for a black deck right now, but there isn't a whole lot to recommend it above the others. The main advantage is that most of the action is at the four and six mana spot on the curve, so this nicely avoids a lot of direct comparisons to Grave Titan or Phyrexian Obliterator.

Diregraf Ghoul

Cost: B

Creature -- Zombie

Text: Diregraf Ghoul enters the battlefield tapped.

2/2

This is a nice evocative card - the zombie is slowly rising from the ground before trying to get us. Entering the battlefield tapped isn't really a drawback in constructed where blocking is a secondary consideration, but it will inevitably come up at some point. This is the replacement for the leaving Vampire Lacerator, and will depend on the support for black and/or Zombie cards as to how much play it sees. If there is a deck for it, this will be a very strong first turn play.

Liliana of the Veil

Cost: 1BB

Planeswalker -- Liliana

Text: +1: Each player discards a card.

-2: Target player sacrifices a creature.

-6: Separate all permanents target player controls into two piles. That player sacrifices all permanents in the pile of his or her choice.

Loyalty: 3

Now here we have a card that is interesting to try and work out. This is the first black planeswalker to cost less than five mana, and only the second ever three mana planeswalker following the venerable Jace Beleren.

Planeswalkers have traditionally been most at home in control decks, where they can be protected while slowly grinding out card advantage. A lot of the time this has been because they are somewhat overpowered, such as the much debated Mind Sculptor or the original Elspeth, and just provided a better threat than any creature could for the control deck's aims.

Liliana does not fall into this pattern so obviously, and in fact takes at least three turns before putting you up even one card using standard metrics. Observe:

Turn one:	Play Liliana (-1 card total)
	Use the -2 ability (+1 card, +0 cards total)
Turn two:	Use the +1 ability (+0 cards, +0 cards total)
Turn three:	Use the -2 ability (+1 card, +1 cards total)

But with this play sequence Liliana is now in the graveyard (note that this does not count as -1 card as we already counted the loss of a card when playing her). To continue generating an advantage the pattern has to be changed to -2, +1, +1, and even then that assumes that the opponent is unable to attack her loyalty in some way.

So from the first look it seems that Liliana is an unexciting card. To really get value from her we need to change the impact of the +1 ability to benefit us more than the opponent. How can we do this?

One way is to be drawing multiple cards a turn, say through a Bloodgift Demon or Consecrated Sphinx. This only helps when we have unwanted lands or other cards to throw away, or we would be happy just to have the extra cards in the first place. Liliana does not interact well with wanting to keep open counters or removal on the opponent's turn then.

What if the cards we're discarding still remain valuable in the graveyard? Then we can remain at parity while denying the opponent a card. Something like Bloodghast or Vengeful Pharoah would certainly qualify - in fact Liliana would be a complete boss in the current standard Vampire decks. Flashback cards may also come into play here, especially if any are printed with cheap flashback costs.

The third way is to have an empty hand at the time the ability is activated, making it fully one-sided. This seems more suited to an aggro approach where we can play out our hand before dropping Liliana. It is also interesting how her abilities line up quite closely with Smallpox, which suggests that a strategy of using cheap black creatures backed up by disruption could be viable. Just as Bloodghast and Abyssal Persecutor leave the scene; isn't it always the way?

So what can we conclude? Liliana is not a powerhouse that slots into any deck that could cast her, but she does have a lot of promise in a strategy that can fully take advantage of her abilities. Keep an eye out for the right pieces being revealed as the spoiler season continues.

Reaper from the Abyss

Cost: 3BBB

Creature -- Demon

Text: Flying

Morbid -- At the beginning of each end step, if a creature died this turn, destroy target non-Demon creature.

6/6

This seems to be one of the flagship cards from the set so far, and it certainly looks the part. The main limitation on the Reaper is how much play Go for the Throat is seeing at the time, as one of the only widely played spells that deals with it. There are a couple of ways to build around the ability that suggest themselves.

The first is to play the Reaper as the top end of a mid-range aggro deck, using early aggression to get the opponent low on life before dropping the Reaper to deal with the final few blockers. Note that it triggers at the beginning of each end step, so having one creature die in combat on the turn you play it gets one kill, and having another with a sacrifice effect (such as Fume Spitter) to use during the opponent's turn will net a second.

Another way to go is as the finisher in a control deck, using it to double up each removal spell. In either case, it will quickly generate a large advantage if the opponent is unable to deal with it.

In each case the key question is whether it does the job better than the existing six drop options of Grave Titan and Wurmcoil Engine. For the answer to be yes, it may come down to the flying ability being the trump, or the Demon creature type providing added value.

Screeching Bat

Cost: 2B

Creature -- Bat

Text: Flying

At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay 2BB. If you do, transform Screeching Bat.

2/2

**

Stalking Vampire

Creature -- Vampire

Text: At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay 2BB. If you do, transform Stalking Vampire.

5/5

The vampire-turning-into-bat-turning-into-vampire trope, smashed out of the park. This is a transform version of Sengir Nosferatu from Time Spiral. The card curves nicely from turn three into turn four transform and attack for five. Why would you ever want to transform it back?

Oh, right... the vampire doesn't have flying.

This might not be a deal breaker, and a 5/5 attacking on turn four is preferable to a 5/1 (see Civilised Scholar). I think sinking two turns of mana into this only to see it's throat gone for would set us too far back (even given the irony of that play).

The main strike against this card could well turn out to be that it is not a Vampire when cast, so Bloodlord of Vaasgoth will not affect it.

That's covered the white, blue and black cards now, the next update will look at the remaining cards of interest so far.

Steve