Dominaria is 25 years of Magic the Gathering history returning, or in some cases haunting, to the long time players of the game. I've been playing since September 1994 when I was 14 years old and just entering into high school and the 9th grade. After a few years I lost touch with Magic the Gathering and fell behind in my lore as the crew of the Weatherlight had their most epic of adventures.
I've not been so excited to see a set since the last Innistrad sets.
So on the day of the pre-release I will go over some of the cards I am most looking forward to play and add to my current decks.
To start off I want to talk about this card first. The amount of flavour found in the sub text is awesome. "A new gathering for a new age." After 25 years the great ship the Weatherlight is back just in time to introduce another generation of players.
See you after the break.
Note that all images are owned by Wizards of the Coast and are used without permission.
Who is eating my dreams?
My first deck and the driving force to my participation in the Modern format is my Mill Deck, aka the Dream Eater. Milling (player puts cards from of their library into their graveyard) is my favorite alternative win condition in Magic the Gathering. One of the staples of this deck is my Hedron Crab. It's ability is fantastic and easy to trigger. There have been plenty of games where his early or first turn summoning was the margin of victory over my opponent.
Now there is another and may be worth playing with my Mill Deck to see if this new card will fit. The Homarid Explorer has a ETB (Enter The Battlefield effect) where it mills a target player four cards. The strength of this card is the four less cards and the beefy (for my deck) 3/3. The down side is the only milling once and the 4 CMC (Converted Mana Cost) is a bit high. I'll try it out, maybe it may fit in the sideboard only because it's asking for 3U (3 any mana and 1 blue mana)
Gobos !?!
Wolf is my mirror opposite in Magic the Gathering and it shows more so when he plays with his various Goblin tribal decks. His Goblin commander deck is one of great power and hundreds of small dangers. Well he has two new additions to be added to his Goblin decks.
Both of these new goblin options look like they could find a place in Wolf's decks. With the reprint of Goblin Warchief and the recent release of Goblins vs Merfolk last November and it feels like the little guys from the red are getting lots of love.
Goblin Chainwhirler is the one that I fear. If a player is able to drop something like Drown in Sorrow or Bile Blight, and then play this it could wipe the board or a token heavy deck at the cheep. Very dangerous potential here.
What is old is new...
I grew up playing with cards like Blue Elemental Blast/Red Elemental Blast. The common spells that followed were Lighting Bolt and Counterspell. Instead of re-printing those cards they made these two Wizard spells. So long as you have a Wizard in play these two cards work just like Lighting Bolt and Counterspell by removing the any mana portion of their cost.
I think these cards have a good chance of working well in draft or sealed and even outside of limited with decks that will take advantage of Wizard tribal. Already any Wizard focused Commander deck will be able to basically have two Lighting Bolts and Counterspell because of the discount that these spells grant.
Last on this theme is Tetsuko Umezawa. The original Japanese styled legendary character is back. Related to Toshiro it seems that Tetsuko is causing a uproar. His ability "Creatures you control with power or toughness 1 or less can't be blocked" is fantastic and my ideas for a rogue themed Commander or Brawl deck come quickly to mind.
Guess who's back?
Another old is returned as new comes in the form of Teferi who gets two new planeswalker cards and even his own starter deck. Our main option for a Blue-White planeswalker has traditionally been Venser, the Sojourner. We saw Teferi first in the flesh in Timespiral. Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, is my go to Commander for my mono Blue Commander deck. A few years ago when we got the Commander 2014 sets with mono Commander decks, Teferi returned. I figured we would see him again when I saw Teferi's Protection from the Commander 2017 set along news that Dominaria was coming back. One of my favorite of the older characters and my top Blue planeswalker (sorry, not sorry Jace) was back and he was rocking it. I trusted Wizards do well by Teferi and his future would continue that trend. I am not disappointed.
First off we have a younger version of Teferi with Teferi, Timebender. Like many of the starter box planeswalkers, he is a bit more pricey for his abilities and starting loyalty. At 4WU (4 any mana, 1 white mana, and 1 blue mana) we get a 5 loyalty planeswalker. His is able to untap artifacts or creatures which is ok, but it does give him +2 when something like this would be a +1 ability. For -3 you can gain 2 life and draw 2 cards, very good card advantage. His last ability which is only two turns away is a whole extra turn! Not a bad card, not a great card but in the right deck this guy can rock.
What I really liked was Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and how old he looked. In many of the new prints of Ops and Syncopate, as well as new cards like Temporal Machinations you see Teferi as old master. doing his thing. He is no longer that man who gave up everything to save his people. He looks tired and worn but now more in control of his temporal focused magic. I like the art in Opt where you see the current Teferi in front of a memorial to a younger version of himself.
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria is a brilliant card. He costs 3WU (3 any mana, 1 white mana, and 1 blue mana) and comes with 4 loyalty. His +1 ability lets you untap two lands in essence making him 2 mana cheaper, oh you also get to draw a card. His -3 ability is bonkers - bouncing a permanent back three cards down is a tempo killer. You loose the card, need three turns to play it, and softens the blow of your opponent's draw effects. His ultimate -8 allows you exile a permanent an opponent controls every time you draw a card. If this goes off expect your opponent to scoop. If you can protect him, not hard with white, he can ruin games.
This Teferi loves end with two more cards, Oath of Teferi - I guess he joins the Gatewatch and Niambi, Faithful Healer. I'm glad the Gatewatch is growing past the original four (five if you include Liliana). Ajani was a nice addition and with the most recent shakeup I'm glad we're adding more diversity in planeswalker history and abilities into the Gatewatch. Now his Oath has two neat pieces of text; a simple bounce and the fantastic ability to use planeswalker abilities twice a turn. Very good if you're planeswalker heavy. Mix that with the -10 emblem from Teferi, Temporal Archmage and you can use planeswalkers twice a turn any time you can cast an instant. Hard to pull off but very broken if done.
Niambi looks to be Teferi's child or someone he has raised. Each of the starter planeswalker decks has one of these. Niambi is a 3 CMC 2/2 fetch and that's not bad but the fluff is what gets my attention. It seems this Teferi has gotten used to living without his planeswalker spark. He's living a full life and getting old. It seems the events in this set will pull him back to the fore of the story and return him to becoming a planewalker once again. Looking at the subtext in the other cards above you can see this will be a theme through the set.
Angels, Knights, and Soldiers - Oh my!
Angels has been one of the most popular tribal since the Sera Angel was released with the first set. Soldiers would be the second most popular tribe in white and has earned a place in Magic's history that is just as firm as the Angels. In both cases Dominaria is handing out some great cards with some brilliant art.
Lyra is a 5/5 and has three major keywords; Flying, first strike, and lifelink. On top of that she gives +1/+1 and lifelink to each other Angel. Add in some of that strong flavour text that is really making this set something and you have a great card. Danitha is a 2/2 for 2W (2 any mana and 1 white mana) with three keywords; First strike, vigilance, and lifelink. On top of that she makes card one mana cheaper to cast. Lot of value in both cards and I think we'll see both in Commander and the new Brawl format.
Baird is another card that forces your opponent to use mana in order to attack you or your planeswalkers. His 2WW cost for a 2/4 with the keyword vigilance is pretty good, add his ability and you have a great option to keep your stuff safe. Shalai finishes off this set with a flying 3/4 at a cost of 3W. She makes you, your planeswalkers, and the rest of your creature all hexproof. If she's in a Green-White deck for 4GG she gives each creature a +1/+1 counter.
A Wizard did "it".
We have two new Wizards to take advantage of the blue and red instance spells I mentioned above. Right away with have Raff. 2WU (2 any mana, 1 white mana, and 1 blue mana) for a 3/3 with two strong keywords; Flash and Flying. This would be very strong in the limited formats but what makes him special outside of the limited formats is his ability to give flash to any cards with the type Artifact, legendary, and saga.
Naban is another great wizard creature subtype that looks like it would fit well in limited and have a presence outside of the limited format. For 1U (1 any mana and 1 blue mana), we get a 2/1 that doubles the trigger of a Wizard triggering a ETB effect. I don't personally have many decks that work with ETB effects but with Naban I may start looking into a fun kitchen table deck that would have a ETB focus.
We also have Naru is a 3/3 Flash for 2UU (2 any man, and 2 blue mana). She gives all Wizards +1/+1 which would be fine at that cost. The part that really kicks in is the 4 CMC copy target spell. This means you cast a sorcery or instant and for an extra cost of 2UU, you can trigger a second spell with a new target. Add in Naban and you do that all over again. If I had Neban in play and I cast something like Glimpse the Unthinkable for BU (1 black man and 1 blue mana) for that extra cost I can do it three times and no one would want to be milled 30 cards for 6 CMC. Crazy Wizard combos.
Under New Management.
I want to make a Commander around these Characters. Tatyova would fit in any Brawl or Commander deck. She is a bit pricey at 3GU (3 any mana, 1 green mana, and 1 blue mana) and only sporting no keywords on a 3/3. Instead she has a brilliant landfall styled (but strangely not key worded) effect
Rona is another great Commander choice with her love of Artifacts and other Legendary cards. She is cheep and she is great at protecting her deck and hand. With some deck manipulation you can exile everything you want keeping it out of reach of your opponent. When the time is needed no matter your hand size, you can cast that artifact or legendary.
Radha is another monster that could fit well in an aggressive Commander or Brawl deck with her ability to generate Green and Red mana by simply attacking, something that both colours are quite good at.
End of the line...
This set looks really good. I hope everyone playing at the pre-release and release events draw well and get to play some solid games.
- Cheers
No comments:
Post a Comment