The Brothers’ War Review, Part 3 of 4: The Monocolor Cards

Magic’s newest expansion has us journeying to what many consider the home of Magic, Dominaria, to see familiar faces and pick up old plot threads. A new set means new cards to examine, and in this article we’ll talk about the monocolor ones, what they mean for the game, and how they’ll play.

Last time we covered the multicolor cards, and this time as usual we won’t be looking at everything, and we’ll be doing this mostly with an eye for Commander play.

As always, this set offers a bunch of new commanders. Many of these are references to some very old cards, from the earliest sets in Magic’s existence, or the first set with Legendary cards, the eponymous Legends.

 

White

 

Calamity’s Wake

BPhillipYork: Effectively a Silence, though not an asymmetric one. Potentially, for decks that win via creature loops such as Animar, Soul of Elements or pod loops or others. Also, a good way to shut down someone mid-combo. Pretty cool story card too.

FromTheShire: Nice cheap, instant speed graveyard hate will absolutely save your life with the number of decks that want to win out of it. As a bonus, sometimes this is going to buy you a crucial turn against spellslinger decks that can’t fully go off at instant speed or their upkeep or whatever.

Loxi: This card will for sure see play in some cEDH pods, but I’m not sure besides that. I think the versatility of cards like Soul-Guide Lantern being usable even when you don’t need to exile any graveyards makes some of these effects niche. The added effect is super strong as well if timed right however, even if you can only make use of one effect or the other.

 

Great Desert Prospector

BPhillipYork: This could make a lot of Powerstones, obviously. I haven’t seen any hugely powerful invented usage for them yet, but just generating a ton of value via mass Powerstones has some appeal.

FromTheShire: With the number of rocks this can pop out, I think this is going to see a bunch of play. Lots of decks are artifact or ability heavy and can benefit massively from the ramp, or just care about the number of artifacts, or can use the sac fodder.

Loxi: Jinnie Fay, Jetmir’s Second has to love this. This probably will slot in well with the new Urzas that go heavy on artifact creatures as well, or any other deck that likes artifact creatures and goes pretty wide on them.

 

In the Trenches

BPhillipYork: Neat anthem with a potential upside when you need it. Pricey, but the anthem alone is pretty worth it.

FromTheShire: 3 is pretty standard to pay for an anthem, and this comes with the upside of being able to exile a problematic permanent later. Very good.

Loxi: So… I know I can’t be the only one who thinks this is a super weird card to be mythic right? Like this has to be one of the least mythic mythics in a while.

 

Kayla’s Command

BPhillipYork: No real draw, scry and grab a plains or maybe make a construct if you need it. Toolboxy but probably not quite toolboxy enough.

FromTheShire: Not really built for Commander, though fetching a land and giving double strike for a turn isn’t the worst. Better in other formats.

Loxi: Double strike is a nice touch when you want it. I almost wish this had slightly different effects and was instant speed. Licia, Sanguine Tribune and Trelasarra, Moon Dancer might like this if they like the counters and the lifegain potentially.

 

Kayla’s Reconstruction

BPhillipYork: This definitely could be an infinite mana dump that lets you put a combo onto the board and win the game.

FromTheShire: This can definitely do some things if you get lucky or can manipulate the top of your deck, but I suspect more often than not this is going to be closer to an Animist’s Awakening where it’s great in your head but every time you cast it it feels like it doesn’t do nearly as much as you needed.

Loxi: 3 white might restrict this in some 3+ color decks, but if your average cost is low for artifacts and creatures this seems like a solid choice.

 

Lay Down Arms

BPhillipYork: For monowhite decks probably solid removal, most “good” commanders tend to be cheap – there’s also a lot of cards that let you fetch only plains, so you can certainly build around this in 4+ color decks if you’re going to to go hard on proxies. The biggest weakness here is really that it’s a sorcery, and that’s probably enough to make it unusable in a format that includes luminaries that ignore toughness.

FromTheShire: We have better options in Commander at instant speed, though this isn’t unplayable. This is some really nice removal for Standard though I think.

Loxi: Sorcery speed hurts this, but if you’re in mono-white I probably wouldn’t fault you for running this. Might end up being a good budget removal spell in addition to the usual package.

 

Loran, Disciple of History

BPhillipYork: Very reminiscent of Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle and possible probably to set up some interesting loops. Would be pretty hilarious with Norin the Wary.

FromTheShire: Seems like a backup Commander/ 99 piece to me. The effect isn’t bad but it is limited, and it only returns it to your hand, not directly to the battlefield.

Loxi: I like this card, but I can’t see it replacing Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle for a lot of people. Loran hits anything regardless of CMC, but won’t trigger on every historic like Teshar and only goes to your hand. They both have similar playstyles though, so I’ll be intrigued to see what people come up with for Loran. Maybe some sort of mono-white discard synergies could be good here?

 

Loran of the Third Path

BPhillipYork: I like this card, there’s a ton of white cards now that give you a payoff when your opponents get lands, creatures, or card draw, and it has an interesting political element where you can help the weakest player out with card draw while benefiting from it. You can also use this with effects that shut down opponent’s card draw, where it get’s fairly nasty.

FromTheShire: Love seeing another Third Path member, and LOVE this card. We already play 3 drops with the destroy effect as staples, and now you tack on draw for yourself AND the ability to play politics? Goes in every white deck that isn’t hardcore tribal.

Loxi: I’m going to ignore this as a commander for now, since she doesn’t feel like she’s designed for that purpose. This, ideally, should be a staple for a large number of mono white decks. If you’re playing mono white, I think you’d be pretty hard pressed to not find a reason for this. Card advantage on a stick with a bit of a political tool built in on top of a Reclamation Sage effect? Count me in.

 

Myrel, Shield of Argive

BPhillipYork: Silence + in the CZ is a neat thing, but also just inclusion in decks that need to combo off or protect something fun. The effect of creating Soldiers is neat also, it’s a sort of Najeela, the Blade-Blossom – esque type but it’s extremely less powerful than Najeela, which goes infinite attack mode.

FromTheShire: Grand Abolisher on steroids and I’m here for it. The effect is super useful on its own, and then in a Soldier deck this is a crazy amount of token creation, especially since it isn’t nontoken Soldiers you control.

Loxi: Obviously this card is an auto-include in the 99 for Soldier tribal if you can afford the spot; a crazy amount of value just for sitting on the board. As a commander, I don’t know how to analyze her. I’ve heard some discussion of her having great combo potential, and I’m sure she’s a fine leader for mono white soldiers. Overall, solid card that I think perfectly fits the design space of being fantastic for the right decks but you would only really want to play it in said builds.

 

Recommission

BPhillipYork: This is an extremely solid recursion piece, flexible in that it can return either artifacts or creatures. You can’t reanimate some huge fatty with it, but there’s many, many powerful cards to grab.

FromTheShire: There isn’t a ton of ways to return artifacts, so it’s always nice to get another one.

Loxi: Speaking of Teshar, a Teshar trigger on a stick with a little counter to boot. Seems like a good piece of recursion, especially for combo decks or low-to-the-ground aggro decks.

 

Repair and Recharge

BPhillipYork: Neato and, while expensive, grabbing planeswalkers is potentially really powerful, the “create a tapped powerstone” is the sort of ellipses of this set, presumptively it’s leading to something.

FromTheShire: I’m fine with paying a little extra for the flexibility, especially reanimating a planeswalker, plus you get a bonus Powerstone.

Loxi: In reanimator style decks that run a lot of noncreature permanents, I can see this being an ok inclusion. A little overcosted though.

 

Rescue Retriever

BPhillipYork: Well that’s extremely good art.

FromTheShire: The goodest bestest boi! A power boost that sticks around since it’s counters that can also blow people out by saving your whole team when he gets flashed in, and then stick around to make your team super hard to deal with, this is a slam dunk in Soldier decks. Absolutely love him.

Loxi: What a good boy! The pupper is a really solid card for when you already have a board state, so if you’re playing Soldiers and can get your board pretty wide earlier, this can be a sweet tech.

 

Siege Veteran

BPhillipYork: I guess Soldier tribal is a thing, so this is a thing for that thing. Which is solid, for that thing. Especially with token doublers, this has the potential to get extremely out of hand.

FromTheShire: Another nice Soldier tribal piece, slowly hands out a buff but more importantly for a creature heavy deck they provide you a way to keep on trucking when your creatures get killed.

Loxi: This is just a really well rounded card for Soldier tribal, especially since it can self-target. Honestly, this isn’t even an awful inclusion in regular +1/+1 counter decks even you happen to have a lot of Soldiers.

 

Soul Partition

BPhillipYork: A strange spell, sort of a temporary reprieve though you can also use it yourself to protect something you need back, or to bring back something with a powerful ETB or something like that. You can also lock it out with a Drannith Magistrate. Actually, I’m pretty sure exiling your own Drannith Magistrate to protect it is a top move for this card.

FromTheShire: Not the worst emergency card since it does hit almost everything at instant speed for only 2. In Commander they can frequently recast it next turn, but sometimes you just need to not die right now so you can win on your turn.

Loxi: I don’t think this is a Commander card, truthfully. The format has too much mana generation for this to be enough of a setback to be worth a removal spell.

 

Tocasia’s Welcome

BPhillipYork: So this is the 3rd such effect like this, and, it’s good. It’s getting more and more abusable to have creatures entering the battlefield all the time and netting you card draw. One nice thing about this one is it isn’t actually a creature itself, so if you’re testing to see if a player has more creatures than you, for something like Keeper of the Accord this will combo nicely.

FromTheShire: Excellent piece of card draw for white, even more so if you have ways to either flicker things or generate tokens on other people’s turns.

Loxi: If your deck likes Mentor of the Meek, it’ll probably like this too. I think Mentor probably has better synergy most of the time, but especially in mono-white or red/white colors, this doesn’t seem like a bad include for go-wide or token decks.

 

Blue

 

Defabricate

BPhillipYork: The ability to counter an activated or triggered ability might save this, you can use it to a stop a Thoracle win in it’s tracks, which might just get you there.

FromTheShire: Countering and exiling the two permanent types blue has the most trouble dealing with once in play is great, plus it also has a backup stifle built in for when you need it.

Loxi: I like Tale’s End a little bit better than this is most cases, but I can see this putting in work in a lot of cEDH pods. Exiling really does make a world of difference at times.

 

Drafna. Founder of Lat-Nam

BPhillipYork: Oh good this is broken with Intruder Alarm. Also pretty good though, there are ways for this to generate infinite mana, which is dangerous, though pretty tough to find in blue. Wizards has gotten much better about making these sort of enablers mono-color legends so they don’t chill in the Command Zone and win the game. Pretty fun artifact-centric card. Really low mana value which is pretty nice.

FromTheShire: Blue artifact builds can already be nasty, and letting you rebuy or protect your artifacts as well as creating a bunch of token copies of them provides quite a boost. 

Loxi: Oh yeah, that’s the stuff. Mono-U artifacts already have a variety of options, but bouncing and copying the spell is a really sweet synergy as well as providing really strong protection indirectly, since you can always bounce your artifacts if someone tries to blow them up. I think this mostly going to be used for control/combo strategies, but I love this card and can’t wait to see it in play.

 

Geology Enthusiast

BPhillipYork: Nice to see something to do with all those powerstones, though this is a pretty pricy draw effect.

FromTheShire: 5 CMV isn’t generally where you want to start ramping at, but if you have been ramping with Powerstones previously this isn’t a bad piece to top your curve with and start drawing cards.

Loxi: A slow, but powerful piece for artifacts or even mono-blue ramp decks. Seems best if you can cheat it out earlier, but overall can net some really good value if you keep it on the board for a long time, and probably isn’t threatening enough to ever get removed outside of board wipes.

 

Hurkyl, Master Wizard

BPhillipYork: This is potentially really abuse-able, to me, it screams take more turns since this will help you get to the next “take an additional turn”. Also just potentially netting you a ton of card advantage.

FromTheShire: It’s about damn time. The card advantage is solid if not too exciting, and seems a little easy to whiff on. My biggest complaint here is that this perpetuates Drafna being perceived as better than Hurkyl, who actually created a whole bunch of the spells he is attributed with. For god’s sake, she was the first recorded magic user on the continent and died in battle after blowing up several of Mishra’s dragon engines, and yet here goes Drafna to see way more play in my opinion while she plays the advantage game. Outrageous.

Loxi: Hurkyl got a card! I love this on concept, but building around it is sorta weird since, ideally, you want to have a variety of card types to maximize the number of cards you can grab, but to have a good number of hits off the top 5 cards you’ll need a good spread. Cool concept, but you’ll have to really get creative to maximize her value. Or… mono-blue enchantments?

 

Hurkyl’s Final Meditation

BPhillipYork: I mean, I guess like, Cyclonic Rift wasn’t ubiquitous enough so this was necessary. To be fair Rift costs 2 at base and can be used to bounce a critical piece at a critical moment, but this is something. For 10 mana though you’d expect the effect to be overwhelming.

FromTheShire: Okay, I don’t NECESSARILY want this to be Rift level powerful because that’s a bit much, but having such a badass moment be reduced to a super fair version is kind of disappointing. 10 is a lot to hold open, plus it bounces all of your own stuff too so it’s all of the downside of completely resetting the game without the upside of you likely winning on your turn if you’re doing it right.

Loxi: I figure this will most likely see play in decks that can potentially abuse ending the turn early, but I wouldn’t bat an eye at people running this normally. If the price stays low, this could be a solid budget choice in mono-blue decks as a replacement for Rift.

 

One with the Multiverse

BPhillipYork: Yeah sure whatever. One with the multiverse. Wait is this like that thing about the Everything Bagel? I liked that. A bit long. Uh let me see for 8 mana you can cast from the top, and cast a spell for free, and that’s fairly bonkers. You should expect to win if you get this off, which, is okay to expect for 8 mana.

FromTheShire: Extremely powerful but also kind of fair if you don’t have something like a Sensei’s Divining Top to filter lands away from the top.

Loxi: While this card seems solid as a way to close out a game hard-casting it, I expect this to be the same deal as stuff like Omniscience where you’re mostly playing alternate costs or getting it in play another way. Cool card though, even though you can already see how it’s going to be used.

 

Skystrike Officer

BPhillipYork: This is a neat payoff for having tons of Soldiers, which are very amenable to getting created en masse, in token form.

FromTheShire: Amazing draw engine that also creates some of the tokens you’ll be using to do the drawing, and even flies so you can get the trigger consistently. Fantastic.

Loxi: I love that they’re adding unique support for Soldiers specifically in blue, and this is a hell of a good value card. If you can give your team vigilance, this card is a monster.

 

Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim

BPhillipYork: That ultimate is truly brutal. I like the loyalty coming from card draw, that’s a neat twist. In Commander, this is potentially a bit weird since card drawing via Wheel of Fortune and stuff like that is no big deal, but even so that’s 8 mana and wouldn’t quite get you to insta-ulting, and that would only be 1 player.

FromTheShire: Fun twist with the loyalty, this can get nuts with something like Jace, the Mind Sculptor in your superfriends deck. You might even actually be able to keep him alive since the ultimate is a fuck you in particular effect and you might be able to talk two of the other players into not attacking him to punish whoever is farthest ahead.

Loxi: I also wanna mention how sweet that -2 is! Even if you only can pop that every turn, you might be able to get his loyalty so high that constantly using that ability every turn and not dying on the turn cycle might make him a crazy value engine with that alone.

 

The Temporal Anchor

BPhillipYork: This is such a neat effect, I wish you could really build around it, but it’s just a giant value piece, and there are already ways to draw cards you scry.

FromTheShire: Really fun, there are some great decks you can build around scrying and this is a fantastic addition for them.

Loxi: I really like this for Eligeth, Crossroads Augur and/or Siani, Eye of the Storm since it provides a backup for getting value off the stupid amount of scrying you do in these decks as well as just letting you get flat card advantage with your Commanders on board. I don’t think its worth jamming in every deck, but I can see it going good in anything where you want to scry out, even Elminster!

 

Urza, Powerstone Prodigy

BPhillipYork: A tale of a lot of Urza’s. Why are we so obsessed with Urza. It’s like WotC has a man-crush on him. Uh, it’s a cool ability. Make a lot of powerstones and you have a lot of mana to do things. I guess you can use this as a Commander, red is generally better at looting though, which would be the real way to get a ton of value out of this. Izzet loot would be fun especially if you were grabbing treasures at the same time. Oh, right this will go into my Galazeth deck.

FromTheShire: I mean it’s one of the biggest, best, and most successful story arcs Magic has ever done, of course we’re going to get a few versions of Urza in the set dedicated to the Brothers War. Here we see him just beginning his journey digging through ruins and looting for Powerstones. Great little lore card that can also do powerful things.

Loxi: You could probably do a Merfolk Looter artifact deck with this, which is kinda cool. I love his goofy face in the art.

 

Urza’s Command

BPhillipYork: Very solid command. Generally, you’re going to want the draw and a Powerstone depending on your deck.

FromTheShire: There are at least some circumstances where you will want all of these modes, which is the sign of a great command. Nothing overwhelming but very solid.

Loxi: Probably my favorite of the new commands, since it will basically always get you good value regardless of the current board state.

 

Black

 

Ashnod, Flesh Mechanist

BPhillipYork: It’s a cool ability, makes sense to get Powerstones, but throwing a 1/1 artificer at people is fairly dangerous. She’s liable to get blocked at some point.

FromTheShire: Really wish this was more built for Commander since Ashnod is such an interesting character and her Altar has been a staple for years. Thankfully we get her by her proper war crimes name in Ashnod the Uncaring for the Commander deck.

Loxi: I think this card is better in 60-card formats or in 1v1, but is cool nonetheless. Ashnod is popular enough that I’m sure people will still build around her, but I think she might not scale well enough to late-game for her to be a great commander.

 

Battlefield Burtcher

BPhillipYork: It’s a cool ability but I’m not really sure it’s enough to really matter, dealing 8 life loss is nice, but it’s very much in the “doing your enemy a small injury” zone.

FromTheShire: I like this in the kind of decks running Necrotic Ooze and filling their own graveyard.

Loxi: I wouldn’t bash someone for running this, but there are plenty of better payoffs for having 5 creatures in your graveyard than draining 2 a turn. If you have some sort of human aristocrats-y deck, I’m sure this is alright though.

 

Disciples of Gix

BPhillipYork: Grabbing 3 artifacts is extremely respectable, sure it costs 6 mana but presumably you’re just going to reanimating this anyway, so it’s a way to tutor out a loop and go nuts.

FromTheShire: It’s black, your graveyard is your second hand, and this is a great tutor.

Loxi: You can use this to nab a combo or any big reanimator artifact creature payoffs, so it’s pretty versatile even though it only gets artifacts. I see this being a pretty solid card for any decks that like the existing tutor-to-graveyard effects.

 

Dreams of Steel and Oil

BPhillipYork: This is really a standard card I think. Since effects like this are so annoying and also only hurt 1 opponent they are just really unpleasant and feel so targeted that players tend to avoid them.

FromTheShire: Really great Standard card, going to be seeing a lot of this one.

Loxi: I have feelings about this art. I can’t put them in words…but I have feelings.

 

Fateful Handoff

BPhillipYork: This is really neat and a hilarious way to give away a “bad” permanent.  Give someone Lich’s Tomb or Lich’s Mastery.

FromTheShire: Outstanding lore card, and I love having a way to give away nasty stuff in black while also drawing cards.

Loxi: Blim, Comedic Genius can’t wait for this one.

 

Gixian Puppeteer

BPhillipYork: Pretty nice payoff for card draw that also lets you return a creature from your yard when it dies, which is kind of amazing to have and not be linked to an exile trigger.

FromTheShire: Loooove that this is each turn, not just on your turn. Then as a bonus you get a repeatable reanimate effect.

Loxi: I anticipate this being popular in general, but especially so since it’s so soon after new Sheldred. I think wheel decks are best for this, since a lot of the time you’ll just happen to have some kind of target in the graveyard from wheeling out.

 

Gix’s Command

BPhillipYork: I like the forced sacrifice and destroy all creatures effects, those are really powerful, grabbing lifelink could be useful and obviously returning creatures can be good, but largely this seems like a solid semi-board clear.

FromTheShire: Solid modality here.

Loxi: I can’t tell you what decks would run this, but I’m sure a lot of mono-black decks will jam this just for the fact that, regardless of which modes you pick, the value is really good. If you can get the two creatures back to hand as one of them too, it puts you up a card in hand in addition to the other effect which is always solid.

 

Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor

BPhillipYork: Praetor tribal go. Rabbit man. You know who I’m talking about. This is a dangerous trigger to have on the board, the discard is really an interesting effect, potentially hugely powerful and potentially grabbing huge things and casting them for free from an opponents deck but the cost is so high that it seems hard to make it work.

FromTheShire: Yesssssss. At long last we get a card for one of the original big bads, and it’s excellent. Comes down early, fuels you with a bunch of card draw while incentivizing your opponents to attack each other, and then lets you start ripping cards off the top of everyone else’s deck which I’m a huge fan of.

Loxi: Edric, but goth. I dig it, I’m curious what creature package this deck will want to run since black mostly just has fliers and the odd shadow creature for evasion. Overall, a really unique commander for mono-black which is a nice breath of fresh air compared to some of the other choices that end up becoming goodstuff piles. Of all the new commanders from sets this year, this will most likely be the one I try to build from scratch.

 

Gnawing Vermin

BPhillipYork: Bog standard rat type card. Neat if you want to mill, the control aspect is neat. Really a standard card.

Loxi: 1 mana to get your self mill going and potentially ping off a creature when it dies isn’t too bad. Its no Stitcher’s Supplier, but I think it’s fine for that style of deck.

 

Gurgling Anointer

BPhillipYork: Seems like a standard card to me really, fine in a deck as a midrange kind of payoff but hard to force quickly.

Loxi: At the least, there’s a pretty solid synergy with Gix, so I can imagine this will find a home there and potentially in Horror tribal.

 

Hostile Negotiations

BPhillipYork: Okay so you get to reveal one of 2 sets of 3 cards and your opponent chooses either the revealed or not revealed cards, so 4 to draw three. That’s solid. The effect is okay, but what I don’t like about this card is how long it’s going to take in practice for this to actually occur, it just seems like it’s likely to really slow down the game.

FromTheShire: Fact or Fiction piles are one of the most fun things to do in Magic, and this time I get to pick the piles? I’m in.

Loxi: Any time a card hits 8 lines of rules text, you know it’s gonna be spicy. Its like a shadier, more goofy version of Fact or Fiction. I think it seems solid if you look at it as a sort of “Draw 3 Mill 3” for 4 at the worst with some political shenanigans to make it potentially sweeter. I love it, and I for sure want a copy.

 

Misery’s Shadow

BPhillipYork: Asymmetric death = exile is pretty solid. And it’s a pumpable 2/2 for 2, but paying for that doesn’t seem that worthwhile.

FromTheShire: With as much reanimation as there is running around, exiling everyone else’s creatures is great, plus you get the classic Shade pump tacked on as well.

Loxi: A new black hatebear is always welcome. It might not do one thing particularly well, but it’s versatile enough that it seems solid in dedicated hatebear decks.

 

Overwhelming Remorse

BPhillipYork: If you know you’re going to be milling a lot and recurring this is a solid card. On the other hand, Dauthi Voidwalker is in like every game I play lately – so it’s hard to fill my yard.

FromTheShire: Worth it for instant speed creature and planeswalker exile in black.

Loxi: The speed of your deck/when you’ll want to be playing removal in your meta really will make or break this one. If you need removal ready early this might come up short sometimes, but once you can set up a bit this will let you extend out and still have mana for removal. I don’t love it, but I think it’s fine in any deck that mills fast.

 

Red

 

Arms Race

BPhillipYork: Nice, this is really really nice. Sneak attack for artifacts with things like Phyrexian Triniform and Blightsteel Colossus is very much my jam.

FromTheShire: Artifacts frequently offset their power being being overcosted, so being able to sneak them out has massive upsides.

Loxi: This ain’t a sceeeene it’s a… well you get the point. If you want rapid fire combos or cheating big artifact creatures in to play, this is a good choice. It’s a bit expensive to get rolling, but you can probably just win once you untap with this and a good hand.

 

Brotherhood’s End

BPhillipYork: This is a very nice flexible board clear. Very solid and playable. Just a good, obvious card that gives red more ability to compete in a multi-player format.

FromTheShire: A lot of the time 3 damage isn’t going to hit a lot of what you want to die, but it does let you wipe most tokens and utility creatures while also giving you the option to hit a whole bunch of mana rocks, so not too bad.

Loxi: Anger of the Gods meets mini-Vandalblast. You don’t even really pay a premium for versatility: pretty much the only downside is Sorcery speed, but for the cost and value I think this is a new staple for a lot of decks.

 

Draconic Destiny

BPhillipYork: I’m sure there’s something you can do with this. It just costs so much.  There’s lots of cards that care about dragons but for 3 mana?

FromTheShire: Really great call back to the Dragon Breath cycle of cards. Not a bad set of abilities and it returns to your hand easily, and I could see this doing some work in Standard to get your last points of aggro through.

Loxi: If you really want some evasion in a red-based enchantment deck, this doesn’t seem too bad. Valduk, Keeper of the Flame could love this if you aren’t all-in on equipment.

 

Feldon, Ronom Excavator

BPhillipYork: Pretty solid all-around card. Exiling off damage is really neato. At 2 toughness is hard to build around but doable, giving him indestructible could get really nuts.

FromTheShire: Great to see Feldon again. Most of the time this is going to get you a couple of cards then die at best, more likely to deal like 6 damage and then get blown up in a board wipe.

Loxi: I really only view this as a 60-card powerhouse, but maybe if you’ve got some sort of deck that does big board wide damage like Toralf, God of Fury you can dig really deep with his trigger.

 

Giant Cindermaw

BPhillipYork: The can’t gain life effect is interesting, I think there are ways to really go nuts with this, certain cards have a “gain some life then lose life” type of payoff, but I don’t think there’s enough of these to make the grade.

FromTheShire: Rampaging Ferocidon has gotten a downgrade after a banning last go around, but it still might see play with its more aggressive body and still hosing the life gain decks that mono red aggro can struggle with.

Loxi: I don’t think I’d ever play this over Sulfuric Vortex unless I was in Dinosaur Tribal.

 

Goblin Blast-Runner

BPhillipYork: Fun.

FromTheShire: Super stoked for this card. A 3/2 with menace for one mana with the fetches and Goblin Grenade and Skirk Prospector that you can be running in Modern is a great rate.

Loxi: Pashalik Mons!

 

Mechanized Warfare

BPhillipYork: There’s a lot of these and they keep getting cheaper and better. There are enough of them now that you could do some truly gross things with Pyrohemia or something like that.

FromTheShire: Another nice addition to the list of punisher effects.

Loxi: It’s cool that this version works with artifacts too. I’m a big group slug player, so I love it. With the popularity of Torbran and pinger-type decks, this’ll be a surefire hit.

 

Mishra, Excavation Prodigy

BPhillipYork: This is fun, red loves looting/rummaging and this fits solidly into a game plan like that, especially if it involves reanimating artifacts in various ways. Going to be rough to run as a Commander though because you generally would want white or black to reanimate with.

FromTheShire: Baby Mishra strikes me as more of a piece for the 99, giving you some nice rummaging and a bit of mana but nothing too crazy.

Loxi: I’m curious if there will be enough support for an artifact-storm style of deck with this? Even though it’s only once per turn, this plus some other rituals might be enough to set up for some explosive turns.

 

Mishra’s Command

BPhillipYork: Solid command. Probably generally using it as a haste source or else to rummage and kill something troublesome.

FromTheShire: The fact that these are single target or overpaying for a wheel means I’m out.

Loxi: I’d imagine this will probably find a home in wheel decks, but aside from that I think it’s just a pretty normal card. It does a lot of things…ok, but I don’t hate it. Maybe X-spell decks will really be able to make good use of it as well.

 

Over the Top

BPhillipYork: This is potentially really crazy and there are ways to make it really effective for you, but you need asymmetric Stax effects or payoff for your opponents doing something or just the knowledge you have a lot more permanents than your opponents.

FromTheShire: I don’t give a damn about this possibly backfiring, this is a super fun chaos card.

Loxi: I’m sure this will kill me one day because it turned a Goblin into an Eldrazi or something. On a side note; this hits all permanents from your deck, so this might not be too bad in some landfall decks.

 

Tyrant of Kher Ridges

BPhillipYork: This is a decent Dragon. Dealing 4 damage on ETB is decent, but 6 mana is, as always, just a lot of mana.

FromTheShire: Solid Dragon, kills something when it comes down and then has firebreathing to pump up the damage.

Loxi: I really like Glorybringer, and this is similar enough that I think its also a solid choice for similar decks that would run that.

 

Visions of Phyrexia

BPhillipYork: This impulse draw effect is really solid, and it’s nice how you get a payoff even if you don’t use it.

FromTheShire: Worth it for the draw alone, plus bonus Powerstones sometimes!

Loxi: I love the art on this one so much. I like this one more than Outpost Siege if you’re in a deck that can use the Powerstone/the mana from it better.

 

Green

 

Awaken the Woods

BPhillipYork: Cool way to make blockers come out of the ground. This is actually potentially a finisher-type card, or a way to make something really crazy happen. Making forest creatures will generate both landfall triggers and creature ETB triggers, en masse. If you say have a Lotus Cobra in play and cast this for x=5, you’ll get 5 mana and 5 forests. If you have a way to put this back on top of your library (let’s say, oh, Noxious Revival) and a way to draw (like Tatyova, Benthic Druid) off landfall then you’ll get it back in your hand. I very much expect to see this in Commander, in green decks, as a strong ramp card (compare it to say Circuitous Route 4 mana = 2 lands) so for values of X greater than 2 this is more value. It does not thin your deck, but mathematically that’s not significant.  And you never run out of creatable dryad tokens, I’ve definitely tried to fetch a forest and not had any. They don’t even enter tapped. They have summoning sickness, but haste will overcome that.

FromTheShire: Really, really useful card in a bunch of different directions. For starters, I can’t WAIT to jam this in my Omnath, Locus of Rage deck.

Loxi: This card can do so much that I’m not even sure where to start. It’s really good if you can make use of lands and/or land creatures, and can be an absolutely STUPID amount of landfall triggers late game as well as being a strong yet fragile late-game ramp spell. I wouldn’t jam it in any green deck, but if you might be able to really abuse the tokens give it a whirl.

 

Bushwhack

BPhillipYork: Solid, flexible fetch a land or fight card. Definitely toolboxy enough to be playable.

FromTheShire: Nice versatility, at least in Standard we’re definitely going to be seeing this one.

Loxi: I’m a Neyith of the Dire Hunt player, and this one…confuses me. Sorcery speed makes this lose a lot of value there, but fixing rough hands mana-wise as well as being a one-drop makes it very appealing. I haven’t quite decided if I want to make room for it, but I think it has enough going for it to be worth a shot.

 

Fade from History

BPhillipYork: I hate to be the bearer of This card is unbearably cute but it’s barely going to make a dent. Its power lies in the fact that it destroys all artifacts and enchantments, it’s rare that a deck will get rid of both, but Selesnaya decks might be willing to commit, or else commit to handing out indestructible.

FromTheShire: Great piece for green decks that are built to hate on artifacts and enchantments while mainly getting those types of effects on creatures.

Loxi: A cheaper, more than likely more budget friendly version of Bane of Progress. Any deck that would run that I think could slot this in place of it: not being a creature probably won’t be as good, but I think it’ll suffice given it’ll probably be a really cheap card money-wise.

 

Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea

BPhillipYork: This seems built to loop, and certainly with some cost reduction you can potentially be casting over and over. Also a solid Elf (matters) Druid (matters) Scout (who cares) but easily could be used to build monogreen decks. Mostly though I see this as an enabler in Elf tribal decks, and a fun one at that.

FromTheShire: Interesting tension here between wanting to have the typical mass of cheap Elves, and enough big creatures to care about the untap ability.

Loxi: Another set, another legendary mono-green Elf. Gwenna seems cool though, and if you’re playing multiple colors she fixes you pretty well. I’m sure as a Commander her builds will most likely be combo, since it seems like there’s better options for Elf tribal in green. Now that I think about it though, generating 2 mana, casting a big creature, and then having even more mana to spend doesn’t sound bad for a creature heavy ramp deck. Maybe she’s alright for a good ol’ stompy brew.

 

Sarinth Steelseeker

BPhillipYork: This is crazy. Not quite on the level of Ledger Shredder but in scenarios where you have something like Smothering Tithe in play it’s going to let you surveil constantly, more or less, while also netting land cards.

FromTheShire: Extremely good source of card advantage in the deck it’s meant for.

Loxi: If you just built Meria, Scholar of Antiquity, this one’s a slam dunk there. Always cool to see more artifact love in green. It might be niche, but it’s real good in that niche.

 

Teething Wurmlet

BPhillipYork: Art so good. Fine, fun one drop, but art good.

FromTheShire: Probably not worth it in Commander but I love this in other formats.

Loxi: A one drop that synergizes with artifacts, lifegain, and counters. Interesting, I’m not sure where it goes, but it probably goes somewhere.

 

Titania’s Command

BPhillipYork: Probably too pricy, standard best options are going to be 2 +1/+1 counters on each creature you control and 2 lands. For 6 mana I don’t see that normally being worth it. The availability of exiling a graveyard or grabbing bears is neat, but at sorcery speed it’s not reactive enough to be a way to stop a combo going off.

FromTheShire: Not BAD but I’m not sure this hits the way you want it to. Kind of suffers from green having such good purpose built cards these days you can just do this much better elsewhere.

Loxi: My personal least favorite of the new commands, but ramp as well as graveyard hate on the same card is solid, and the counters might not be the worst in some decks. It doesn’t do anything super new and original, but it’s not awful.

 

Titania, Voice of Gaea

BPhillipYork: This is a totally fun awesome meld card. It’s a nice finisher for decks that care about land, and the return all-lands effect is potentially really powerful.

FromTheShire: I currently have a deck that I switch between Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer and Multani, Yavimaya’s Avatar as the mood strikes me, and it seems like the duo is about to become a trio. This is a super fun deck, and the fact your second card required to pull off the meld is a land means there’s a way, way smaller chance of some rude jerk blowing it up at the last minute and dashing your hopes and dreams.

Loxi: This seems like the meld commander that’s the easiest to accomplish, since tutoring a land is relatively easy to do compared to some of the other artifacts required for Mishra and Urza. This also wants you to already have some setup to get a bunch of lands back at once, so you might not even want to rush it out. I think she’ll be the least popular because she’s the least flashy, but I think a more unique landfall commander is always a plus for what has become a bit of a dull archetype.

 

Next Time: Colorless

That wraps up our look at the set’s monocolored cards. Join us next time as we review the sets colorless cards, picking out our favorites, and talking about the future build-arounds. In the meantime, if you have any questions or feedback, drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.