It’s that time of the year again where I gather my angels (underrated/quality cards) and make my bold predictions as to what will be a constructed player in the coming months or even years. There have already been quite a few set reviews posted by various well-respected community members and pro tour members, however I assure you this is solely based off of my own growing card evaluation skills. These choices reflect not only playability and hidden power I see in a card, it also is heavily influenced by how excited I am by the card. One of my predictions in the past was [card]Spellskite[/card], which to most seems like an obvious choice, although at the time I was very much partial to the card as you can tell from the many Eh Team episodes I screamed “skeet skeet.”

These choices often ignore the most obvious of inclusions. For instance – we all know Sorin is amazing and powerful, but he doesn’t belong on this list for a couple of reasons. The first being, I try to avoid obvious playability for the sake of relevance. Second, he’s just a good card, nothing that really excites me at all. Not even his gimp eyed art.
Enough of the history lesson, especially one that relates to nerdy old me. Here are my angels for Dark Ascension in no particular order – and some runner ups near the end.

Perhaps the most powerful card in the set, and yes I remember Sorin is in the set when I say this! Vault of the Archangel is incredibly powerful to say the least. As long as [card]Primeval Titan[/card] is around this card will be that much better. I’ve already began my brewing around [card]Primeval Titan[/card] and Vault of the Archangel – you can find that list over on this page. What’s amazing is I’ve only seen this card in straight BW tokens and it will be in so many more decks than that, I’m very confident about this.

Vault of the Archangel is not only a powerhouse rare, it’s also just a sexy card in general. From the art to the flavor this is a must have from Dark Ascension. I could even see it making its way to the modern format before too long. I know I’ll be trying!
Up next I’m very partial to Increasing Devotion

Some of you may know how much I loved [card]Conqueror’s Pledge[/card] and this card is so much better than [card]Conqueror’s Pledge[/card]. It’s better mostly because of having a flashback option. It’s not only built in card advantage its additional card advantage by using flashback. This makes the card much better than Pledge ever was vs counter spells. This is by far the best “Increasing” rare cycle. It’s no coincidence this is also in my Titan Tokens deck list. It interacts very well with [card]Mulch[/card], [card]Gavony Township[/card], and Vault of the Archangel!

Increasing Devotion isn’t a card that will see as much play as Vault of the Archangel as it is much more specialized in terms of the decks it can be used in. In a simple tokens list 5cc is the very top of the curve if you even make it that far. So its flashback ability won’t often become useful. I see this being abused in ramp strategies or control strategies where games either involve fast mana or a strategy involving late game shenanigans. In fact I could see control decks really opting for something like this similar to what [card]White Sun’s Zenith[/card] has been doing lately.

My last pick is extremely difficult. Originally I’m sure I would have put [card]Strangleroot Geist[/card] here as the card is simply awesome (despite the awful art), but the double green casting cost really limits where it will end up. And currently there isn’t much room for this relentless fellow. My last pick is actually going to be quite bold, but bear with me.

For three mana, and at sorcery speed this card seems very underwhelming to say the least. Sometimes you simply can’t or don’t want to cast this. I see this card falling into some sort of combo deck, most likely one that involves graveyard explosions (maybe some [card]Zombie Apocalypse[/card]?). But we are in a graveyard themed set, and this card is highly splashable which ups its playability. Don’t even get me started on the art either! The art is one of the cooler pieces in the set.

Red is already a color of artifact hate, which helps with [card]Grafdigger’s Cage[/card] in the set. So setting up some combo with this card despite the hate inside the block is doable. Let’s not forget this card even has flashback on its own.

I’m sure you aren’t quite convinced, and that’s fine, but take a look at this scenario. Let’s say your back is against the ropes and your hand consists of two lands and Shattered Perception, that’s not going to do you any good. Much like [card]Desperate Ravings[/card] you are completely “ok” with dumping what you have to possibly find an answer to a grim situation. I think Shattered Perception will find its way into Modern before it does Standard at this point. I haven’t found the right deck yet, but I bet one is out there to explore! This card has a unique effect that you can use twice, you will see this at some point and it will be a very fun deck to play.

It’s always the worst that I restrict myself to three choices. I have so many more cards I love to death from this set. Will it shake up Standard all that much? Maybe, maybe not. But I know I already enjoy trying. Here are some of my picks for the better cards of the set.

[card]Dawntreader Elk[/card]
[card]Lingering Souls[/card]
[card]Tragic Slip[/card]
[card]Undying Evil[/card] (for reals!)
[card]Gravecrawler[/card]
[card]Geralf’s Messenger[/card]
[card]Gather the Townsfolk[/card]
[card]Loyal Cathar[/card]
[card]Thalia, Guardian of Thraben[/card]
[card]Faithless Looting[/card]
[card]Hellrider[/card]
[card]Strangleroot Geist[/card]
[card]Vorapede[/card]
All the new lords
[card]Grafdigger’s Cage[/card]
[card]Sorin, Lord of Innistrad[/card]
[card]Huntmaster of the Fells[/card]
[card]Falkenrath Aristocrat[/card]

And I’m sure I’m missing some! But until next time, I’m out!