For those of you that are impatient, I'll go ahead and start off with a list. For those of you wanting descriptions, simply scroll down.
White
Apostle's Blessing
Due Respect
Suture Priest
Blue
Blighted Agent
Mindculling
Spire Monitor
Black
Blind Zealot
Pith Driller
Toxic Nim
Red
Act of Aggression
Ogre Menial
Tormentor Exarch
Green
Brutalizer Exarch
Leeching Bite
Triumph of the Hordes
Artifacts
Blinding Souleater
Hovermyr
Mindcrank
Necropouncer
Shrine of Burning Rage
Shrine of Piercing Vision
Trespassing Souleater
Alright, now I bet a lot of you reading this article are staring at your monitors thinking that I'm crazy. All that I ask is that you hear me out before you go making that call. If you still feel some of these cards are terrible choices, call me out on it, I'd love to hear your explanations.
Onto the cards!
Due Respect: 1 word, Timewalk. Play this as your opponent is untapping/upkeeping trigger. Now he can't increase his available mana. He can't drop in any blockers if you're going to be swinging for the win. This card pretty much reads "Opponent skips his 2 main phases this turn."
Suture Priest: There are way too many people passing over this card. If you are running white, you need this card in your deck. This format is won and lost on creatures on the battlefield. Having this guy out whittles away at your opponents precious life total. Worst case is that he absorbs some creature removal from your opponent, leaving you free to win the game with larger threats.
Mindculling: People tend to shy away from this one because of the high cost. The card advantage that this guy swings for you is too important to pass up. You play 1 card, not only do you get to replace it, but draw an additional one, and your opponent is forced to discard 2 cards. This is a 4 for 1, ratios like that don't come up often, capitalize on it.
Spire Monitor: This guy is on the list for that top keyword, Flash. Don't think of this guy as just a 3/3 flier for 5, which would actually be decent by itself. Read him as "Destroy target attacking creature with 3 or less toughness and put a 3/3 creature with Flying into play." He starts to look a lot better in that light, doesn't he.
Pith Driller: Another great creature. This guy pops in and removes a ton of pesky critters. Suture Priest? Porcelain Legionnaire? Blighted Agent? Fallen Ferromancer? All of them are incredibly annoying, and this guy bins any one of them, and then stands around to take more punishment. I love it.
Toxic Nim: This guy is phenomenal against anyone that isn't running infect. He is the perfect blocking machine, chumping everything in the format, and sticking around for just a single black. If you're in black, pick this guy up even if you're not infect.
Act of Aggression: Instant speed creature stealing. Read this as: "Gain control of target opponents attacking creature, and then block one of his other annoying attacking creatures." That is just one of the great combat tricks you can do with this card. There are very few reasons to not run this card if you're in red. And even if you aren't in red, this card can swing a lot of battle scenarios in your favor for the low low price of 4 life.
Ogre Menial: I cannot sing enough praises for this guy. Everyone underestimates him until they're facing him down while you sit with 6 untapped Mountains. Ya, he is scary.
Tormentor Exarch: This is one of my favorite Exarchs. He acts as removal + a body in most cases, and in others will give you that little bit of pump you need to get in for the win. The only downside is his lack of Flash. This requires more planning and a bit more strategy, but he is still a great card.
Leeching Bite: This is green efficiency at its best. Pump for your own guy, removal for their guy. I am quite surprised this wasn't printed at Sorcery speed, it's that good in the format.
Triumph of the Hordes: I see so many people pass this card over, saying only "I'm not playing infect" as if that is a valid excuse. Look at the card and read it again. Allow me to interpret the Magic jargon for you: "If you control 5 creatures, you win the game." It's not actually that simple, but it is pretty close. If you are in green, snatch this up if you want to win games that you thought you had no chance of prior to topdecking this.
Blinding Souleater: Let me give you a couple examples. Your opponent has a Thundering Tanadon out. You have this guy. His Tanadon is now only dealing 2 damage a turn to you if you aren't running white, and he's useless if you're in white. If you're in white, run as many of these as you can get your hands on. If you aren't in white, hate-draft at least 1 and stick it in your deck, you'll be happy when you pick him up.
Hovermyr: I'm not sure why so many people pass this little guy up. 2 mana for a flier with a non-zero attack power is already a sweet deal. Do it in colorless? Even better. Give it vigilence? Don't ask questions, just put him in your deck.
Necrpouncer: This guy has a pretty scary initial cost. 6 mana for a 3/1 is never a good idea. But look at that equip cost. Once this little equipment is on the field, every creature you draw from that point forwards is more amazing.
Shrine of Burning Rage: The best shrine in sealed or draft in my opinion. This thing out on turn 2 puts a very legitimate clock on the board. It can also act as cheap removal. Just be careful with artifact removal, try and play around it by leaving mana available to pop it.
Shrine of Piercing Vision: This is an excellent card if you are running blue. In very quick order it becomes an entire deck tutor, letting you find exactly the card you need. That is a powerful thing in sealed and draft formats.
Trespassing Souleater: Another unblockable guy in the same set, crazy. This guy is a good deal even if you aren't running blue, he reads: "Lose 2 life, deal 2 damage to your opponent, use this once per turn." If you get an equipment on him (Like maybe that Necropouncer listed above?) he becomes an enormous hate magnet from your opponent. This guy is great efficiency all over.
Well there's my short list. I hope you enjoyed the read, and if you would like to argue a point with me, please feel free to comment, I love hearing other people's opinions on cards.
I'll be heading over to a Launch Party for the New Phyrexia set tomorrow, so I'll likely be putting up another tournament report. See you again tomorrow.
Sorry for being critical here, but I did not agree with a lot of what you said, from either the point of view of these cards being sleepers (card whose power is unaknowledged) or the point of view of them being powerful in the first place. I'll do a card-by-card commentary below:
ReplyDeleteWhite
Apostle's Blessing - Indeed, this is surprisingly good
Due Respect - not a timewalk, usually just a cycler - perhaps costing you a turn as often as the opponent
Suture Priest - pretty marginal. Does nothing in the late game and even early on the life-swing is rarely worth the meagre board presence this card has. Has it's place in some decks, like ones paying a lot of life for using phyrexian mana.
Blue
Blighted Agent - meh. Blue ain't great in infect and if you are not playing infect, then having infect creatures in your deck are wasted slots. Your opponent will just let this through for nearly ten turns and you will have wasted a card.
Mindculling - I have not witnessed anyone shying away from this. It seems to me that people understand just how many games this card will win.
Spire Monitor - As above. Who shies away from this card? Who do you play with?
Black
Blind Zealot - Yes, of course black players will play this. Why would they not? It's still decent despite all the artifact creatures.
Pith Driller - Again, who doesn't play this? It seems to me that everyone who has it in their sealed pool will play this, regardless of whether they play swamps or not.
Toxic Nim - Whereas I think you overrate this guy. I've never seen him live until the next turn in the about six games where I've seen him cast. There are so many -1/-1 effects around.
Red
ReplyDeleteAct of Aggression - Again, who doesn't play this?
Ogre Menial - No comment: I haven't seen him in play yet a single time. Perhaps that means that this guy is indeed undervalued. Or perhaps it means that this guy is so bad that there is a good reason no one plays him. Hard to say without seeing him in action.
Tormentor Exarch - Again, who doesn't play this guy? Not playing this is red is almost like not playing Skinrender in black.
Green
Brutalizer Exarch - Yes, he's good and probably a little undervalued at the mo.
Leeching Bite - Good filler, though more often in practise a traditional 1-for-1 pump than a 2-for-1 blowout.
Triumph of the Hordes - Yes, overrun-variants have always been total game-winning bombs in limited. This is a little weaker than most, but still powerful.
Artifacts
Blinding Souleater - My experience is that everyone loves tappers - as they should.
Hovermyr - Yes, this guy has indeeed been a sleeper. I still don't like playing 2 mana for 1 power, but I've been surprised how much this guy does. Still, I would only play it if I am really lacking good 2-drops - i.e. this guy is ok'ish filler.
Mindcrank - Does nothing most of the time. For example, take your scenario: how did you plan to live for all those turns against Batterskull in the first place? Ok, so, it is actually a card that you can sideboard in against a deck with Batterskull, but I guess that siding in something that deals with Batterskull more direcly is a better choice. And so for with most scenarios where you might want to side this in. Most of the time this will be wasted card.
Necropouncer - Yes, you are right. But most games have been more-or-less decided by the time this guy has any effect. And even in the late game, would you not rather draw fat worth 6 mana? "Every creature you draw from that point on..." to me sounds a lot like a wasted card. Why not draw those creatures in the first place, rather than this?
Shrine of Burning Rage - Yes, surprisingly good. I've seen several games end with this to the dome for mid-teens of damage.
Shrine of Piercing Vision - I feel like I should try this card out. It doesn't look very good in the abstract. It's a slow cycler. On turn 2 you would rather play a guy, but late you won't be able to dig deep. Sounds like lose-lose to me, but I am still keen on trying it out, in case it actually does work a fair proportion of time - though it probably doesn't.
Trespassing Souleater - Yes, unblockable 2 damage is good. Who said it wasn't? But I would not play this outside of blue, because a lot of the time you don't want to pay 2 life to deal 2 - that is too situational: you have to already be winning, which would make this just a win-more card. Cards that get you to that point where you can say you are winning are the good cards; not the cards that are awesome when you've already won. Ok, so perhaps this would have a place in suicide aggro with a lot of burn, but that is rarely a deck that you really want to be playing - getting the required consistency is difficult in limited and that is the main reason why most limited decks look rather like mid-range rock-decks: a combination of many things, rather than single-minded draw-go or combo or weenie-aggro: the cards usually just aren't there for them.
Thanks for the comments Lauri.
ReplyDeleteI should have specified that these cards are ones that I've seen table in drafts. I'm sure a bunch of good players out there recognize the power in these cards, but I am seeing them make rounds when they definitely should not.
Thanks again for criticizing my card choices, I love hearing other people's viewpoints on cards, and hopefully I've convinced you to pick up a card or two that you normally wouldn't (Piercing Visions really is that good in my experience).
I am also surprised that games you're playing are being turned over so quickly. In my most recent post I point out that I managed to hard cast Liege of the Tangle in at least 1 game of every one of my matches. Interesting.
first of all let me strike you at some cards.
ReplyDeleteapostle's blessing is everything you say it is but u want to to play white if your playing it and visa-versa as the phyrexain mana cost is never worth it.
due respect: have not drafted it yet and probably never will there is no benefit from this card so i would never play it sry.
mind curring : its too late to care i played this and they were handless so it felt real bad, at instant speed much better.
spire monitor: no desire to play this guy, i like blue but he just seems very overcosted for a 3/3 flyer
blind zealot is easily blocked.
your list is getting real bad, toxic nim is horrible. every good draft deck will have atleast 3-4 infectors running around.
i have played allot of green and the extract guy is down right horrible. useless in my book. 6 for a hill giant i rather plsy lead the stampede
necropouncer is crap becasue of the other equip that gives hates strider harness.
i also like the white shrine better as the instant army is powerful. i like red second