A Standard Review of Alara Reborn
Hi everyone! I’m Sean and this is my first blog here for Power 9 Pro. Before I get on with today’s article I just wanted to briefly thank everyone at Power 9 Pro for this amazing opportunity and fellow Albertan and team member Zak for the warm welcome. Now let’s get started!
As I’m sure you all know, Alara Reborn is being released all over the globe this week and in honor of the occasion I thought it would be nice to review the set. If you follow the blog regularly, I’m sure you know that Joe has already done a full set review. Instead of attempting to replicate his work, I’m going to do a more in depth countdown of the top 10 cards in the set for play Standard play for regionals and the upcoming PTQ season.
#10: Thought Hemorrhage
While obviously similar to cranial extraction, I don’t expect to see this card crop up in too many decks at regionals. The reason? The absence of a combo deck for this card to prey on. On the other hand, taking cryptic command out of a 5 color control player’s deck can be very frustrating and it is possible that 5 color could use this card to combat the sanity grindings in the turbo mill deck.
Overall Assessment: Sideboard Utility
If the card was printed a couple of years ago it would be considered terrible but now, with counterspells being so much weaker, this guy will likely see play as a one or two of in faeries, 5 color control or similar. Many of these decks already play remove soul (in the sideboard, if not the main) and the option to return a mulldrifter, sower of tempation, fulminator mage or spellstutter sprite is pretty powerful against the agro decks, making the switch likely.
Overall Assessment: Maindeck Deck Utility
Armadillo cloak has been a favorite for years and this guy removes the two-for-one awkwardness that auras have. The mana cost is steep but once online it is an absolute monster. People have been quick to draw comparisons to loxodon warhammer and I find the sledge to be superior in decks already running green and white, particularly with the positive interaction with Doran, the siege tower.
Overall Assessment: Maindeck Singleton
Viridian zealot was played in a number of formats and this guy has a lot of obvious advantages to him. He can show up, grant exalted then pop before blockers if necessary or arrive on turn 2 and simply attack as a watchwolf. For now he might be relegated to sideboard duty, brought in at the sight of a bitterblossom, but I see this guy as awesome utility.
Overall Assessment: Sideboard Utility
This guy is exactly what I want my aggro drops to do, attack! All of the hackblades are good in limited but only this guy is sick in the right constructed deck. Tatermunge manic, uptap, hackblade, attack for 5? Yes, please! Scroll down to the end of the article if you want to see a decklist of this guy in action.
Overall Assessment: Playset Maindeck
Vindicate was a great card. Putrefy was a great card. Does that mean maelstrom pulse will be a great card? No, not necessarily. Vindicate was ridiculous because you could drop creatures on the first two turns then blow up their second land drop and win before they knew what him them. Other times you also had the utility the kill a creature or enchantment when you needed to. Putrefy at instant speed gave you many options, if it was in standard today you could bet that we could see it kill figure of destiny after mana was poured into it, wall of reverence before life was ever gained or plumveil before it could ever block. Pulse can kill multiple things which is strong (particularly versus ranger of eos decks) and can hit a wide range of targets but I just don’t think it quite warrants the $20 price tag. Anyway, it still earns #5 on the countdown.
Overall Assessment: Playset Maindeck
You might not expect to see this card so high on the list but I really believe it will be a standout at regionals. It fits nicely as a three-of in BW token’s sideboard, blowing out the mirror, boat brew and the fae under the correct circumstances. This card is not just a combat trick; you can use it very offensively as well. Kill your spectral procession tokens and get in for 6 with mine? Activate windbrisk heights, flipping out cloudgoat ranger? Sick.
Overall Assessment: Sideboard Standout
#3 Terminate
Target creature dies. Dead. No comebackies. This reprint is no joke and I expect to see a couple of copies slide into 5-color control. The only problem with is card is that it is red, normally not an issue, but it can’t take down burrenton forge tender, which will prevent its play in jund agro at regionals.
Overall Assessment: Maindeck Deck Utility
Placing this card at #2 is a bit unfair. Everyone expects it to see play like it once did in extended but that is not going to happen, at least not in the current format. Its first problem is where to place it. It doesn’t slide nicely into any deck right now. It’s possible that a version of esperlark will show up playing a rogue’s gallery of ‘unfair’ cards such as tidehollow sculler, sower of temptation, thoughtseize, lapse of certainity, fulminator mage, reveillark and mage and its also possible that the mage hardly sees play at all pre-rotation. Either way, it’s a huge beating to name volcanic fallout for a lot of decks.
Quick aside: Meddling Mage appears to have had a sex change since last we saw him. I doubt this will have much of an effect on his playability but I like the old art more.
Overall Assessment: Maindeck Deck Utility
I’m not going to lie, a 4 mana 3/2, even with haste, is hardly anything to write home about. But of course, cascade is the nuts. It’s just stupid. Ranger of eos is one of my favorite cards in standard at the moment and this guy is like is cousin with extreme anger management issues. My only issue with the card is that the deck that he fits into best is kind of sketchy. Sometimes you have these insane draws where you kill them on turn 4 and others a single mogg fanatic ruins your day.
Overall Assessment: Maindeck Standout
Anyways, the deck:
2 Tarfire
3 Terror
3 Mountain
Sideboard:
1 Terror
The deck’s gameplan is extremely simple, get in early points then finish them off with haste creatures and burn spells. For sideboarding, volcanic fallout comes in against the token decks, terror for the white decks, guttural response for the cryptic command decks, anathemancer for 5 color control and slave of bolas is something I’ve been testing for versus reveillark. Thought hemorrhage could be tested as well but I have the feeling that this deck will want to be more aggressive than that card would allow.
I would consider this deck to be a rough draft, a starting point to improve upon. If you want to play something different for FNM or regionals, without windbrisk heights or cryptic commands, you might consider this deck as an option. If you do give this deck a try please sound off in the comments.
So that ends my first article for Power 9 Pro. I intended to write some honorable mentions to supplement the top 10 but I seems to have run out of time. Please let me know what you thought of the blog entry, either via the comments or by e-mail at sean@power9pro.com, I would be happy to answer any of your questions or comments.
-Sean
Subscribe to the P9P Newsletter for special offers
and a FREE Ben Lundquist Workshop video clip!
