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M13 Set Review: Gold, Art, Land, & Conclusion

Gold:

[card]Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker[/card]: Good enough that you can consider casting this instead of [card]Griselbrand[/card]. You no longer have [card]Cruel Ultimatum[/card] to soften up your opponent before cast him, so you’ll rely on [card]Mutilate[/card] and [card]Gilded Lotus[/card] to set him up. I have to think big Grixis Control is going to be pushed in Ravnica. The thing I doubt is that Liliana is the card you need to use to keep the lands flowing. In fact, if Ravnica comes through [card]Farseek[/card] and [card]Ranger’s Path[/card] will be much more useful than Liliana. I’m glad the Nicol Bolas is back, if only to signal the return of big control decks. One concern: [card]Thragtusk[/card]. Control might simply not be able to handle that much resilience.

Artifacts:

[card]Akroma’s Memorial[/card]: Seven mana for no additional damage. You have got to have better options than this.

[card]Chronomaton[/card]: The mana cost of the ability is a real problem. One drops that can gain brawn are quite valuable, but not if you have to stunt your development.

[card]Clock of Omens[/card]: Only useful if you are going to do something obscene. BTW, I love the art.

[card]Door to Nothingness[/card]: The flavor text rings true.

[card]Elixir of Immortality[/card]: Has proven itself to have fringe usefulness, mostly for its reshuffle effect. The five life doesn’t hurt though.

[card]Gem of Becoming[/card]: Interesting, but likely too costly. It helps you cast Nicol Bolas, but provides no acceleration. Six mana total for a three for one isn’t that great a deal so I’ll probably pass on this.

[card]Gilded Lotus[/card]: If someone casts this, they intend to do very unkind things to you with it. I recommend you destroy the Lotus before they get a chance to untap. [card]Griselbrand[/card] or Nicol Bolas will deal with you if you don’t deal with this.

[card]Jayemdae Tome[/card]: Once a key card in “The Deck”. Now, an afterthought. The game is just faster than it used to be, you don’t have time for this kind of durdling.

[card]Kitesail[/card]: Equipment for Limited. Give your Green dudes flying.

[card]Phyrexian Hulk[/card]: or perhaps flying Hulks.

[card]Primal Clay[/card]: Never a great deal, but sometimes exactly what you need.

The Five Rings: Haste is nice, but for the most part these are useful only in Limited. In that case, the White one works quite well if you create a board stall. Actually, all of them work well in that case, but in general White is best at causing a stall.

[card]Sands of Delirium[/card]: Devastating. Useless in multiples, but who cares when you have the most powerful [card]Millstone[/card] in the universe. This will win games post-rotation, although most likely as a sideboard card in control mirrors. Combos very well with Jace.

[card]Staff of Nin[/card]: I like personal [card]Howling Mine[/card]s, but paying six just isn’t realistic. For six mana you generally want something that provides immediate impact, not incremental advantage over time.

[card]Stuffy Doll[/card]: More great art for the creepiest artifact creature this side of [card]Onulet[/card].

[card]Tormod’s Crypt[/card]: When you absolutely positively need to remove a graveyard, accept no substitutions.

[card]Trading Post[/card]: Four mediocre deals. I’ll pass.

Lands:

[card]Cathedral of War[/card]: I just don’t love Exalted. Coming into play tapped robs you of more tempo than Exalted provides.

[card]Dragonskull Summit[/card] and friends: These will improve immensely if the shocklands return in Ravnica.

[card]Evolving Wilds[/card]: Still our best “Rainbow” land.

[card]Hellion Crucible[/card]: Our first new land. This is somewhat slow and costly. It takes nine mana over the course of three turns. On the plus side, this comes into play untapped, so if you aren’t hurting for colored mana, the downside risk is low. Your manland options are pretty slim, so if red aggro exists, it’ll run this just for some additional gas in the mid/late game.

[card]Reliquary Tower[/card]: For those of you who like big hands. Thank you, you’ve been a great audience, try the veal.

 

Should the top 10 list for M13 include reprints or just new cards? I’ll stick with new guys, but note that [card]Oblivion Ring[/card], [card]Rancor[/card], [card]Quirion Dryad[/card], [card]Ground Seal[/card], [card]Mutilate[/card], Nicol Bolas, and [card]Gilded Lotus[/card] will all be relevant after the rotation:

10T. [card]Roaring Primadox[/card]
10T. [card]Vile Rebirth[/card]
9. [card]Master of the Pearl Trident[/card]
8. [card]Disciple of Bolas[/card]
7. [card]Odric, Master Tactician[/card]
6. [card]Sublime Archangel[/card]
5. [card]Ajani, Caller of the Pride[/card]
4. [card]Flinthoof Boar[/card]
3. [card]Augur of Bolas[/card]
2. [card]Thundermaw Hellkite[/card]
1. [card]Thragtusk[/card]

Please note: [card]Talrand, Sky Summoner[/card] is going to be awesome, but only for a brief time. This list is looking into the future. I am confident [card]Thragtusk[/card] is the best new card, but it gets tricky after that. Please note, every card on this list is a creature or interacts with creature cards while also potentially creating creatures. Of the returning cards only [card]Quirion Dryad[/card] was a creature of note. Creatures are still ascending in power, and [card]Day of Judgment[/card] is gone. Plan accordingly.

Seth Burn
@sethburn on twitter
sethburn@gmail.com

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