Dark Ascension Spoiler Review - Part 1

The Dark Ascension spoilers have begun, and so, following a suitably timed delay, have my spoiler reviews!

I'm going to hit each card on the official spoiler with a view to how I expect them to perform in limited and constructed (with the focus on Standard), using the following scales:

Limited
Bomb:	This is a card that will single-handedly win games. A clear first pick in draft.
Staple:	A good card that you will always run in your colour, and would consider splashing.
Playable:	A card that will normally be played when in that colour, a possible splash on occasion.
Marginal:	A situational card that will usually be left on the sidelines. May have an important role in fringe archetypes.
Unplayable:	This card should basically never be played.

Constructed
All-star:	A format-defining card that is a key piece in one or more top level decks.
Linchpin:	A unique or highly specialised effect that will demand a new deck, or elevate an existing deck to new heights.
Staple:	This is a card that will play an important role in multiple decks, or as an effective sideboard card.
Playable:	A solid card that will perform well without drawing particular attention to itself.
Marginal:	This is a narrow card that might one day be "tech" against a similarly narrow strategy.
Unplayable:	Can be torn up for use as counters if no dice or glass beads are available. Remember that Magic cards should not be used as creature tokens though!

Gather the Townsfolk
Constructed:	Playable
There has already been a successful GW tokens deck in Innistrad Standard, and the new Sorin seems certain to push people into trying WB strategies. In UW this works well with Snapcaster Mage, although less so with Moorland Haunt. More notably, this is very strong following a turn one Champion of the Parish. The fateful hour upgrade is nice, but barring any phyrexian mana oddness the card should be evaluated at the base effect; any bonus when it is cast is just that.
Limited:	Playable
Interacts well with a number of cards in Innistrad, such as the equipment that gives a bonus to humans. Despite previous comments to the contrary, "sacrifice a Human" is now "a thing" (see Ravenous Demon and Falkenrath Aristocrat so far), so the value of this card will rise if you have any of these requirements.

Increasing Devotion
	Constructed:	Marginal
	This card occupies an odd position that will likely prevent it seeing Standard play at least until rotation. Token decks would like the effect, but any that can cast this spell could be casting Elspeth Tirel instead. The bigger mana decks that could also afford the flashback cost have access to White Sun's Zenith, which is instant speed and provides more value at every point save for X=2.
	Limited:	Staple
	The board state will determine how effective this card is, swinging from game-winning bomb to completely ineffective (when they have a scarecrow and crab holding the ground while attacking with flyers). I'd still pick this card highly, but not feel too bad if I have to abandon it.

Loyal Cathar / Unhallowed Cathar
Constructed:	It seems strange to print this card when one of new mechanics is pretty much the same effect - why not just make the undying creatures transform like this in that case? What we get is a fair, if unexciting, creature for the WW cost, plus a massive bonus on top. If we're playing Loyal Cathar in a deck a two power creature is obviously worth a card to us, so the trigger on dying is the same as drawing a card *and* getting the mana to play it. Providing some protection against Day of Judgment is definitely of value to aggressive strategies, and the creature type switch could potentially help by letting us recast any Gravecrawlers caught in the blast.
Playable
Limited:	On the high end of my playable scale, but the mana requirements are tough to extract maximum value from the card. The vigilance ensures that you will have a good chance to trade the front half for a card, just watch out for the potential Moonmist blowout...
Playable

Ray of Revelation
Constructed:	Staple
This is the very definition of a staple effect, although there aren't too many targets in Standard right now. In Modern it will provide plenty of protection again Splinter Twin and Pyromancer Ascension.
Limited:	Playable
A great sideboard card to have, but I'm not sure you ever want to be starting it. I like Naturalise in this format because most decks will have an artifact or enchantment worth removing, but Ray of Revelation is just slightly too narrow.

Seance
	Constructed:	Marginal
	It has an unusual effect, which stops me from labelling it as straight unplayable, but it seems too restrictive and "fixed" to see play. The tokens don't gain haste, so we would be looking to take advantage of having a temporary blocker (unlikely) or reusing "enters the battlefield" abilities. Another option would be to pair this card with a milling strategy to cheat a big creature token into play, then use Phyrexian Metamorph or another clone effect to copy it - but this seems over the top in a format that already include Unburial Rites.
	Limited:	Marginal
	This card pretty much spawns its own marginal archetype, although the fact that the creature token is exiled and not sacrificed means that even more work is required if you dream of recycling Doomed Travellers and Mausoleum Guards. It might be fun to experiment with, but I expect to be passing on this the majority of the time.

Thraben Doomsayer
Constructed:	Marginal
Deliberately reducing your life total to five or less in a format with Brimstone Volley is not something I would endorse. Producing 1/1 tokens will sometimes be what you want to be doing, but Timely Reinforcements approaches both of these subjects in a superior way for an easier cost. The only spot where Timely Reinforcements performs less well is against a control deck with no creatures in play, but are you seriously going to rely on Thraben Doomsayer surviving to produce creature tokens in this spot?
Limited:	Bomb
Unlike the Doomsayer, I'm going to look on the bright side and award my first "bomb" rating of the review. Producing a stream of tokens will help you to stay ahead on board, and if you do fall behind the pump effect will turn on to help you take back control of the game. Sure he's fragile, but at three mana you won't lose too much if your opponent has the Dead Weight - and there's a reason they call creatures like this "must kills".

Increasing Confusion
	Constructed:	Marginal
	Unlike Forbidden Alchemy or Desperate Ravings, this isn't filling your hand at the same time as your graveyard, and being sorcery speed really limits how much you want to tap out for this effect. Doubling the power on the flashback is interesting, and trying to enable Visions of Beyond is tempting - but if this hasn't happened with Jace, Memory Adept I think it unlikely that Increasing Confusion will be the answer. Trying to mill out an opponent with sorcery speed cards that don't affect the board doesn't seem like a realistic goal either.
	Limited:	Staple
	This is exactly the kind of effect that blue decks in this format want, enabling all number of strategies. It is also an incredibly potent weapon against other mill decks to punish them for letting their library get too slim. The cost is perfect for splashing, so I don't see myself passing too many of these.

Secrets of the Dead
Constructed:	Playable
With flashback cards already effectively drawing a card, Secrets of the Dead can add to that by literally drawing a card on top. With most flashback costs being quite expensive, this isn't a card we need to play on turn three, so saving it for turn five to play with Mana Leak or Doom Blade to back it up seems reasonable. Once it is in play, all your Think Twices and Desperate Ravings become super charged, and the less glamorous Silent Departure types begin to look appealing. Obviously Snapcaster Mage works as well with this card as with anything else, but it is worth noting that this works with all spells cast from the graveyard, not just flashback. Gravecrawler becomes Silvergill Adept, for example. It looks like a UB Zombie deck could have one of the best late games in the format unless some playable graveyard hate turns up.
Limited:	Playable
This is a tricky card to pick, because you will never know how many flashback cards you'll have in your finished deck. This is a problem that a lot of enabler cards will have in this format, and being careful not to get trapped into forcing an archetype that is not open will be a key skill. Just remember that Burning Vengeance will pull you back into a the game after you've spent a turn playing an enchangement instead of developing the board; Secrets of the Dead is much more a card for the long game.

Soul Seizer / Ghastly Haunting
Constructed:	Even unconditional Control Magics aren't seeing play right now, so having to work for the two for one is unlikely to appeal to anyone.
Unplayable
Limited:	Not quite a bomb, as you can be stymied by a Chapel Geist or similar, but still a card that is going to be picked over all but the biggest bombs. It's interesting that the position "uncommon Control Magic effects are too strong in limited" has lasted for all of one set.
Staple

Curse of Thirst
	Constructed:	Unplayable
	Curse of the Pierced Heart, copies 5-8? At five mana this seems far too expensive even for the potentially expanded effect.
	Limited:	Marginal
	It's possible that there are enough good curses printed in this set to make it a deck, but with so few pieces in the second two boosters they would have to be pretty amazing and almost guaranteed to table before it is worth trying.

Gravecrawler
Constructed:	Linchpin
This is one of the most exciting cards spoiled so far. Most of the debate over it has centred on the similarity to Bloodghast, and how lacking haste makes Gravecrawler far worse, but I think that is to overlook the many upsides this card has. First of all, you can now have eight one-drop Zombies with two power, giving us a great base for a tribal deck. Gravecrawler obviously wants to be played alongside other Zombie creatures, and as the game goes on it provides repeated card advantage. The combination with Secrets of the Dead was already mentioned above, and Grimgrin, Corpse-Born is another blue card that was almost good enough before and just needs a little help to push him over the edge. Any other Zombies that can sacrifice creatures for benefit would also like Gravecrawler. If we charge blindly into the realms of jank Rooftop Storm let's us play Gravecrawler from the graveyard for free, leading to an arbitrarily large number of creatures to sacrifice.
Limited:	Playable
Not being able to block is much more of a hindrance in limited, and coming back is what Zombies do anyway with Ghoulraiser and Ghoulcaller's Chant. I wouldn't rate this too much higher than Diregraf Ghoul, for instance, but I would definitely want it if I had any sacrifice effects to abuse.

Ravenous Demon / Archdemon of Greed
Constructed:	Bloodgift Demon doesn't see play at this cost, and I am doubtful that you would want Ravenous Demon instead. The Human sacrifices required to fuel the Archdemon of Greed side don't fit into the game plans of any current black decks. There is the possibility that this could be a sideboard for WB Tokens decks, in the vein of Demon of Death's Gate, but I'm not sure what this would be good against.
Marginal
Limited:	A 4/4 for five mana is a decent size; Morkrut Banshee doesn't usually get cut. Also like the Banshee, this is another creature that looks like it should fly but doesn't, so watch out for that at the pre-release. Transforming it is risky, because nine damage is a lot if things go wrong, but your opponent will have to be very careful not to give you an opening to strike from nowhere.
Staple

Zombie Apocalypse
	Constructed:	Marginal
	This has fairly narrow applications - you can't really rely on it killing any opposing creatures, but you can build for the mass zombify effect. It is one-sided, which does protect against it backfiring in a mirror-match. The main question is whether this would be more effective than just casting Grave Titan.
	Limited:	Playable
	This will sometimes be a ridiculous one-sided Wrath of God/Patriarch's Bidding, more normally I would expect to get back a couple of decent creatures and maybe kill one of theirs (but note that it will also kill your Humans). Annoyingly, the blue Zombies are far better to get back this way, but they interact badly by removing other creatures this could return and putting pressure on your mana base. This will be a mid to late pick, and I would want to have three or four decent Zombies before taking this over other playables.

Thirteen cards seems to be a suitably flavoursome point to finish for today. The second part of the review will catch up on the first red, green, gold and artifact cards.

Steve