Hey all,
Now that the set is almost out and people are beginning to establish values on cards, let’s go over some of my favorites, what will go up or down, and what will hold its current price! Are there any sleeper rares in the set? There are definitely some EDH gems, I think.
Let’s go down through the spoiler to see what could be worthy:
Banishment Decree – a good white answer that generates loss of tempo/card draw, traditionally belonging to blue.
Frantic Salvage – a great addition to an artifact deck that takes a bit of a hit from things like Nev’s Disk or Akroma’s Vengeance (not as good as Roar of Reclamation and Open the Vault, but redundancy is good)
Divine Offering – somehow I missed that this card ever existed, as did probably 90% of Magic players, since I’ve never seen it in EDH, and I’ve seen Disenchant many, many more times. What a great overlook, and thanks for Wizards bringing it back!
Mirran/Phyrexian Crusader – if you’re a fan of knights, these guys are pretty amazing. Arm them with some gear and do some massive damage.
Phyrexian Rebirth – one of my favorite additions in this set. Of course, probably not as strong as a Martial Coup in EDH because your opponents will likely have an answer to your 30/30 creature, or however big it is, but one can dream, can’t he? This card is only $1.49 or $2.00 at a lot of sites, and it’s actually quite good – remember how Martial Coup was only that much until the right deck shot it up to $7-8 a piece? Any viable Wrath effect, especially if it has some sort of alternate value, is going to be good. Yes, it’s not Martial Coup, but it is still good. It should be worth $3-4 at least.
Victory’s Herald is fine in my Angel EDH deck, even though they already have flying – the Lifelink leads for big swings. A lot of fun in a life-gain based EDH deck as well.
White Sun’s Zenith – I really, really, really want to resist comparing this card to Decree of Justice – but I can’t. I honestly see potential for it as a finisher in a control deck for standard. Decree proved to be the ultimate win condition during Onslaught block, and the fact that it couldn’t be countered (yes, Stifle was around … but…) made blue an all but dead color during that format’s competitive season (Wizards weren’t so hot either on the tribal spectrum of things, so that is part of it). While this can in fact be countered (and won’t draw you a card), it isn’t hard to set up a Zenith where x = 6 or more, and you can play it EOT, swing, and leave your mana up to protect from anything ghastly your opponent could have in store. It just seems like such a great u/w win condition to me… Am I the only one who thinks this card is worth more than $2.00? Sure, you have to play around Spell Pierce or Mana Leak, but even if your opponent taps out to counter it at his own EOT, that leaves you free to do whatever you want during your next main phase! This card HAS to go up in value, even if it is just because the card is “Pure EDH Gold”, as one friend put it.
Blue Sun’s Zenith is a fine draw spell at instant speed, and you can transmute for it with Drift of Phantasm, which to me is always a plus.
Consecrated Sphinx will no-doubt be one of the most eye-rolling cards the EDH format has yet seen. Even if an opponent has a sorcery speed answer to this guy, with the right timing you’ve already draw 4-8 cards. If he sticks and is protectable, the blue mage, or whoever chooses to run this guy, will no doubt dominate the game (and make enemies as well). This new Sphinx will clearly be the most coveted of creatures on the battlefield, and Gilded Drake and Control Magic effects will have a new favorite target – not to mention black decks stealing him from the graveyard, or Bribery taking him from an opponent’s library. It seems like an almost auto-include, so Bribery also just got more valuable. I think he will hold his value at $8 for a while because of his EDH value alone, and the strong pull he (she?) will have with casual players.
Corrupted Conscience is a funny EDH card, because you can make quick work of an opponent with his own creature (titans, for example?). As dirty and sorta slow as it seems, this card is probably pretty great in a mono blue deck, where win conditions are usually a bit slow (or combo-related). It can give your deck an out it may not normally have – 10 quick poison counters!
Distant Memories makes me angry when I look at it. Sure you don’t have to reveal the card you exile, but most of the time this is a combination of diabolic tutor and concentrate, except that both cards are not really that great to begin with in a blue deck. Tutor is only good when you KNOW you will get the card, and Fact or Fiction and other instant-speed blue draw is just that much better. UGH. I also hate that I opened this dredge in both of my sealed pools.
Steel Sabotage seems worthy of an EDH deck but I am not totally sold on it because of its slightly narrow utility.
I kind of like Vedalken Infuser for its wild array of “charge” counter interactions. Coalition Relic is run everywhere, but there are other great cards to use, especially in the new set (and probably forthcoming).
Black Sun’s Zenith is probably one of the best cards in the set. At $5.00 it seems low to me. Good wrath effects seem worth upwards of $8-10 in most standard formats, and this is also great in EDH, probably worth swapping in instead of Kagemaro or Bane of the Living. I see great things with this card and Liliana Vess. Playing it, then using her ability to put it on top of your library to do again next turn seems pretty fun to me. I will let you know if I get it to work in EDH.
Go for the Throat is the removal black decks have been looking for for quite a while. Not just in EDH. I always recommend highly cards like Rend Flesh and Eyeblight’s Ending because they deal with almost every creature in the format (except for spirits and elves) – and so much black removal explicitly says “non-black” – but that problem has been solved. This is an auto-include for best-spot removal – possibly best ever printed in EDH for black, at least. It’s up there amongst my favorites: Sickening Shoal and Slaughter Pact.
Massacre Wurm seems great for wiping out annoying elf or token decks. It could also potentially wipe a player out, if he has a lot of 1/1 or 2/2 tokens. Quite powerful, good enough to play in standard as well, I think. The $10 price tag I see on him seems fair, but he will drop in the short term… Get him when he falls to $5 or so. Great card. Great reanimator target as well. I will be running one of him in my Legacy deck, I think, for play against Goblins or Elves.
Sangromancer seems great for gaining life in EDH. And for a Wrath effect, he still triggers – so gaining 30-50 life for 4 mana seems decent to me! Great in vampire tribal EDH.
Red doesn’t have quite the assortment of good EDH cards.. Into the Core seems like a good 2 for 1, but Rack and Ruin is almost as good for less mana – it doesn’t deal with indestructible stuff though, and that is becoming more prevalent in EDH.
I think I will play Metallic Mastery just to see what possible funny interactions I can come up with in EDH – my steal and sac deck that runs Greater Gargadon will love whatever it gets.
I like the Red Sun’s Zenith in big red decks, even though it is just another X Spell. It’s slightly better than Banefire and could replace it. One thing I’ve noticed is like, only the red x spells that say “can’t be countered” are ever worth more than $2.00. This one doesn’t. So… don’t expect it to go anywhere. Still good to own 1-2 of I think.
Creeping Corrosion is a mean meta-game card, but at $1.00 it seems pretty undervalued to me. After rotation, artifacts are going to have to be everywhere in the format, and it just seems like this card HAS to make it into some sideboards here and there… At highest, it could be a $5 card during next year’s standard season. Worth buying 4x for $1.00 or whatever on Ebay if you can find them.
Lead the Stampede is great in Elf decks or something with around 40% creatures, but Green Sun’s Zenith is the real star. Already a $10 card, it will probably hover in that area for a long time since it is just a rare, and playing 8x Primal Titans in your deck seems good. But, it shouldn’t be hard to find for $8, I think. If you can trade for them on the cheap, it will be worth it. It’s a great EDH card.
Praetor’s Council is one of my favorite new cards, especially in dredge-based or Graveyard based green and green/black decks. Having your entire library in your hand and at your disposal seems pretty good, right? There are a lot of ways to abuse this card – it is like the ultimate Restock. Clearly one of the most powerful green “Restock” effect cards ever printed. I need a foil version of this quickly. It may not be great in constructed, but it is going to be gold in EDH.
I want to like Viridian Emissary, but it is just not as good as Sakura-Tribe Elder in EDH. Sometimes you need mana ramp right away, and you can’t wait for an opponent to swing into it.
Tezzeret and Glissa, I’ve expounded on before. Glissa won’t go up much, as she is a pre-release promo and already in abundance, but she is a strong card and I think is worth of constructed, somehow. She seems great in EDH as well – a real build-around-me kind of card, possibly inspiring a new archetype or deck. Tezzeret is great, and it will remain to be seen if he will hold value in standard or not – odds are he will down to Venser-like prices soon enough – $15 or so. I think he will be pretty awesome if a deck that can sustain his powers pops up in Standard – but I don’t see one yet.
There are some cool artifacts in the set for EDH. Blightsteel Colossus seems like an unfriendly card, but opponents everywehre will love Acquiring it out of a deck – or Word of Seizing one to steal and hit for the quick win. He seems like a risky card to play that could often backfire as much as he wins games.
I think Bonehoard is good enough to play in EDH simply because it gets better the more players are involved in the game. Not many equipment give your guys +30+30 or some other absurd power and toughness. It may seem like a n00b card but it is strong and probably worth considering, especially in graveyard-based or control decks.
Mortarpod is amazing. It may be a bit slow for EDH, but I really love this card in limited, and think it really has potential, somehow, for Standard play. Poison/Infect direct damage is now possible, and it is a nightmare.
If Decimator Web let you target multiple opponents with its abilities, I’d be all about it. That said, this card is sort of an annoying that doesn’t quite win games and will just make you enemies if you play it. Probably not worth it in EDH.
I don’t even want to think about Knowledge Pool and all the ridiculous things that could happen with it as a result – all I know is that it is almost inspiring enough for me to finish creating my Kaboom! EDH deck… I just need to find a general (Jhoira makes too many enemies) that is suitable for Kaboom!
Mirrorworks is finally the card that lets you play multiple Mindslavers, provided you have the 12 mana on the battlefield to play it, trigger Mirrorworks, and Sac the one already on the field in response, so that the Legend rule doesn’t hit. Is it enough motivation to play it? I’m not sure. Of course, there are many other interactions involved.
I think Myr Welder also has potential (again, more Mindslavering?) for EDH play, but he is a bit frail. We will see if people want to experiment with him. Mimic Vat still seems so much more useful and powerful.
Psychosis Crawler is underrated, I think. The ability to make an opponent lose life whenever you draw a card is sort of insane when you think of the silly ways to draw with Sensei’s Divining Top. This card may in fact replace my Sludge Strider in the Sen Triplets deck because his trigger is automatic. And, when you get to draw your whole deck with Future Sight + Top, he just gets that much better. If by chance anyone is still alive after drawing 50 cards and making them lose 50 life, he will probably finish off your foes pretty quickly. You can count him in my deck anyway.
I really like Shimmer Myr, as I had mentioned before. He gives your artifacts flash, and that is pretty vital in decks that rely heavily on artifacts to go off (again: Esper/Karn decks), because if you have to play artifacts on your main phase, you can draw a lot of ire and be left defenseless sometimes. Having the ability to seem non-threatening and then flash in answers or other threats at instant speed is a nice boon to your deck. One the Myr is on the table, he is also a warning that if you have mana open, you’ve still got action.
Sphere of the Suns is great in multicolor and 5-color decks, as it is not only acceleration but also fixing. The fact that you can only tap it 3 times is a bit of a bummer, but there are ways around that.
Spine of Ish Sah is another removal tool for Green decks where mana cost really isn’t such an issue. I think it’s a fine addition as it becomes a reusable Dessert Twister (one of my old favorite cards!) if you have any way to let it go to the graveyard. Even if you don’t, odds are it will get blown up at some point anyway… Not the best card, but good in certain builds.
Sword of Feast and Famine is great – I don’t care if the effects it generates are minimal, or maybe not as useful as Fire and Ice or Light and Shadow – it lets you play and swing with a threat and then have mana open for other actions. It effectively doubles your mana pool, something that was previously only available for green decks (or red, if you include things like Mana Flare, which is a dangerous card to play!). I think this is clearly one of the best cards in the set and should go up in value – it’s easily a $15-20 rare, and given the current meta, where black and green creatures are actually relevant, and are also prevalent in Legacy, this card is powerful. The B/W Dead Guy Ale decks that now run Stoneforge Mystic are sure to include this, as it is especially powerful when combined with its multiple discard spells.
Thopter Assembly is a good, fun and fair card – I think a lot of players will enjoy it for EDH. The card is a limited bomb, so we will see if anyone is keen to pick it up and play it in casual formats.
Titan Forge has potential in Proliferate decks where you’re effectively paying 6 mana for a 9/9 creature that you can put into play on your opponent’s end step – that’s actually very strong in Standard, as it blocks Titans and gets around a Wrath effect. I could see this seeing play as a 1-2 of main because it gets out early and right now, there aren’t any removal cards for artifacts in most people’s mainboard or sideboard. Of course, Mimic Vat is still a lot stronger, so you’ll most likely see people playing that before you see Titan Forge.proliferate.dec (Don’t forget to throw in the Lux cannons!)
Inkmoth Nexus is definitely one of the best defensive Manlands ever printed. With Crucible of Worlds you will actually be able to whittle down threats instead of merely chump-blocking every turn. Or at worst, you simply block and reduce something’s power. It’s essentially just as strong as a Blinkmoth Nexus because it’s doing Infect damage – if, for instance, you wanted to win solely off of the man-lands. Sadly, it does not pump itself or become +1+1 through other means, but that’s probably ok. You can reasonably splash this land as a 2-4 of in a mono green deck and just 1-shot someone with an untamed might after they tap out to wrath away your board, for instance. I’m just saying, this card has potential, especially if Infect decks make their way into standard eventually. For EDH, it’s a perfectly fine non-basic to include in your builds. I think its price right now at $12+ is a little bit high actually, and it should drop to 6-8 within 2 weeks, but pick up a playset nonetheless.
Contested Warzone is one of the more interesting lands I’ve seen. If you’re forced to play the land early game (for lack of other land) it can be a bit disappointing to have to fork it over to an opponent. But in any aggressive deck, especially one with lots of small threats, this card is amazing. Tokens love it. White weenie decks should probably play it. It’s the stone cold nuts against control decks where you can just push through more damage – essentially having a free Honor of the Pure on the table. At only $2.00, I think people haven’t given this card a fair shake yet, and need to test it out to see if it is viable. When they fall a bit more, pick them up. At the very least, this land is fun to pass around the table in an EDH game, especially when things start to drag a bit, as it encourages some more combat!
There we go! Not a huge money set, but great for limited play. Keep an eye out for the sleepers…
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