Hello again!
Following on from part one, this is my review of the cards spoiled for Dark Ascension so far. I'm only using the officially spoiled cards from the Image Gallery.
We're about halfway through the first batch of spoilers. I've rated each card for limited play (specifically draft) and constructed (based mainly on Standard). Each card is rated on 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: | I mean, sure, you could put it in a deck, but then people might laugh at you and make you feel bad about yourself. |
| Faithless Looting |
| Constructed: | Playable |  |
| There are two main times when looting effects (now officially in red!) come into play in constructed decks; when your main focus is in finding one specific card, and when you want to place specific cards into your graveyard. Sure, this will also improve the quality of your hand, but Desperate Ravings is almost always going to be the better option and will never be a bad draw with an empty hand. Faithless Looting is the kind of card that doesn't just go into any deck, but will be irreplacable in the decks it does fit into. There is no combo in Standard to benefit from this effect yet, but it could do some good work in the U/R Delver decks to fuel Snapcaster Mage and maybe enable Runechanter's Pike. In Modern this seems like a perfect fit for U/R Storm with Past in Flames, where it becomes a "draw 2" and even benefits from the Past in Flames later on. |
| Limited: | Playable |
| As long as you have a bomb in your deck this will draw you closer to it. This is also another cheap spell to help control Werewolves, and looks particularly useful for red decks. The quality of red cards in this format tends to be either very high or very low, with few of the middling quality cards that other colours can lean on. Faithless Looting will provide a way to even out the quality of your draws and work around this. |
| Mondronen Shaman / Tovolar's Magehunter |
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| Constructed: | This follows the now-classic Werewolf formula for constructed: the front side is too weak to play, while the back side is worth the initial mana cost but not the trouble to cause it to flip or the risk of it changing back. |
| Unplayable |
| Limited: | Mondronen Shaman is not quite as big as you would like, particularly that two toughness, but flip it and you are very happy. The damage ability is very nice, your opponent will be taking four damage if they want to play the two spells to transform Tovolar's Magehunter. With only a single red in the mana cost, this is a fairly safe card to pick and you'll be happy to splash it along with any Geistflames and Brimstone Volleys if red doesn't pan out. |
| Staple |
| Moonveil Dragon |
 | Constructed: | Unplayable |
| One day red will get a playable mythic Dragon, but we're still waiting. At six mana this doesn't impact the battlefield or protect itself, and isn't even that exciting if it does live to attack. |
| Limited: | Bomb |
| You're heavy in red if this is in your deck, which would not be a great situation in triple Innistrad and remains to be seen in Dark Ascension. If you can play it, it will threaten to end the game immediately as all your terrible one and two toughness creatures gain (at least) +3 power. Even on a clear board a 5/5 firebreather is going to end things quickly. It's not always going to be a windmill-slam first pick, but I can see myself taking this the majority of times. |
| Nearheath Stalker |
| Constructed: | Unplayable |  |
| Theoretically this could be okay, since it will almost always trade with anything blocking it to provide you with a two-for-one. Unfortunately it lacks the haste required to really have an impact, and will be too slow and expensive for the decks that might want this. Aggressive red decks tend to top out at four mana (and then with only a couple of cards at that cost). Bigger red decks will want to push on to six for Inferno Titan. |
| Limited: | Staple |
| This is a fine card to pick up, and will threaten a lot of damage very quickly. Only Fortress Crab is going to be stopping Nearheath Stalker from getting the two-for-one in combat, and Rotting Fensnake has shown that these kind of stats can work in Innistrad when paired with Spectral Flight, Sharpened Pitchfork, etc. |
| Ghoultree |
 | Constructed: | Playable |
| It's odd that a 10/10 for (maybe) one green mana isn't particularly exciting, but it doesn't evade or protect itself at all. This could make an impact though, as the mill yourself draft archetype has started popping up in Standard recently. Having a massive creature on the cheap (because you are trying to fill your graveyard with creatures anyway) that will still benefit your plan if it dies could be enough. The question is what it would replace in that deck; I, for one, would rather be attacking with Kessig Cagebreakers. |
| Limited: | Staple |
| There are plenty of answers to this, although as the first (non-black) green zombie at least Victim of Night isn't one of them. This is ridiculously big and splashable, so there isn't much reason to pass it ever. |
| Hunger of the Howlpack |
| Constructed: | Playable |  |
| This is a permanent effect, and there are enough hexproof creatures to think that this could be useful, particularly as you can build sacrifice effects into your deck to enable it. |
| Limited: | Staple |
| Combat tricks that stick around are always playable. This will be in direct competition with Ranger's Guile for a spot in your deck, and should probably be picked as highly. We've seen with morbid in Innistrad that it is difficult to reliably turn on the effects, especially before combat, so draft this accordingly. |
| Scorned Villager / Moonscarred Werewolf |
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| Constructed: | There is a massive difference between a turn one and turn two accelerator, especially when there are so many alternatives in the format. The only reason we would be playing Scorned Villager then, is if we care about the Werewolf type and in that respect it is outclassed by both Mayor of Avabruck and Gatstaf Shepherd. In a deck that plays 12 two-drops, is hitting four mana on turn three the normal plan? |
| Marginal |
| Limited: | Avacyn's Pilgrim is already a high pick, and Scorned Villager will follow suit. The vigilance on Moonscarred Werewolf is perfect for enabling combat tricks like Spidery Grasp, but you will have to think carefully before attacking if you're relying on that mana for your second main phase. |
| Staple |
| Strangleroot Geist |
 | Constructed: | Marginal |
| I'm not overly excited by Strangleroot Geist, although I guess that could change depending on what other undying creatures and support spells there are. The main problem is the mana cost, since any deck that can make GG on turn two does not seem great in this period of UW aggro. |
| Limited: | Playable |
| The Geist will quickly become outclassed, but the haste means that it should be able to get one or two hits in before they can deal with it. If you continue to hit your creature drops they will have to choose between blocking Strangleroot Geist or whatever you followed it up with, and so on up the curve. It looks like the value of a 2/3 creature will remain high in this format. |
| Drogskol Reaver |
| Constructed: | Playable |  |
| When a new card comes out, we will try to compare it to existing cards to work out how good it is. Obviously this becomes more difficult as the complexity of the card increases, and Drogskol Reaver is certainly using up a lot of the complexity of the cards we've seen so far. Straight away we can say that this is creature for a control deck, since the aggressive U/W decks are planning to win long before they hit seven mana. In U/W control the choice of (creature) finisher has previously come down to Sun Titan, Consecrated Sphinx, Wurmcoil Engine and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, and decks usually have two or more from that list dictated by the expected meta game. Drogskol Reaver definitely enters into consideration, sitting at the nexus of Wurmcoil Engine and Consecrated Sphinx and at the price point of Elesh Norn. My thoughts right now are that Elesh Norn has more impact againt Vapor Snag decks, and Karn Liberated is better as the alternative seven drop. If Vapor Snag wanes in popularity then Reaver might move up the order. Note that dying to Dismember is only a factor in choosing your finishers if anyone is actually playing it... |
| Limited: | Bomb |
| This is as straight a pick as you can have, a legitimate bomb across arguably the two strongest colours in the format. |
| Falkenrath Aristocrat |
 | Constructed: | Unplayable |
| Compare this to Olivia Voldaren, which allows you to kill or steal opposing creatures instead of having to eat your own, and doesn't die to Gut Shot on an empty board. |
| Limited: | Bomb |
| Evasion and haste, plus a way to protect itself, make this a very strong card. If you can pick up some random on-colour Humans, or possibly if red or black is your splash colour, the Aristocrat becomes even more scary. |
| Sorin, Lord of Innistrad |
| Constructed: | All-star |  |
| It looks clear that a black-white tokens deck is going to be playable with the release of this set (see my spoiler review of Mikaeus, the Lunarch), and Sorin will play the Bitterblossom/Ajani Goldmane role. Of course being black and white, and a planeswalker, also naturally leads to consideration in a control deck, and Sorin looks like he would also excel in this role. Increasing his loyalty to produce tokens to block and gain life is exactly what a control deck is looking for, and the ultimate is built to be good against aggro and control decks alike. It looks like Tumble Magnet and Contagion Clasp are becoming good again, and they are the perfect way to protect Sorin and ramp him up to the ultimate. |
| Limited: | Bomb |
| There isn't much to say about the limited rating for Sorin: the only reason to ever pass a Planeswalker in limited is if you open two in one pack. |
| Altar of the Lost |
 | Constructed: | Unplayable |
| If you need mana acceleration, Pristine Talisman helps you play all your big spells and gives you time to get to them. If you need mana fixing, sort out your lands before adding dross like this to your deck. |
| Limited: | Unplayable |
| For this to be good you will need a lot of flashback cards with expensive, off-colour costs. You will also need a gamestate that allows you spend three mana for an artifact that doesn't affect the board and can't even be used that turn. Would it be useful to splash that Devil's Play? Certainly. Would it be entirely dead in your deck other than that one card? Likely. Will you have Devil's Play at any point you have the option to pick this card? Never. |
| Chalice of Life / Chalice of Death |
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| Constructed: | In "normal" decks this is Pristine Talisman without the mana acceleration (that's not good, by the way). When you're set up to gain a lot of life quickly, Chalice of Death is a very fast clock that some decks will be unable to answer. I think we have to look further than Standard for the current applications of this card, such as Martyr of Sands in Modern, which is otherwise leaning on Serra Ascendant to get the job done. |
| Marginal |
| Limited: | As with constructed, this isn't a card that "normal" decks want. Where this could shine is with Gnaw to the Bone, which can quickly raise your life total above thirty with a few enablers. Chalice of Life gives you an actual reason to want to do this now, although you shouldn't pick it unless you are already in green and blue and looking towards that archetype. |
| Marginal |
| Jar of Eyeballs |
| Constructed: | Unplayable |  |
| I'm not sure which deck would want to spend three mana to do nothing, then have some creatures die, then spend ANOTHER three mana to draw a card. Just play the good cards instead of this rubbish. |
| Limited: | Unplayable |
| I started writing that I wouldn't say "never" with Jar of Eyeballs, but it is just so much work for the effect, and requires you to spend an early turn not playing a creature in order to use it effectively, that I can't imagine it ever being worth it. |
Well, we're through the first batch of cards. The next review will start to catch up on the new spoiled cards to emerge. See you then!
Steve
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