Power 9 Pro – Magic The Gathering Accessories – Tournament Discussion – Deck Analysis

I know it’s been a while since my last article, so I beg your forgiveness.  The big thing preventing me from writing is that I have little to write about.  I’m working a ton more in the summer which has prevented me from going to FNMs, and the only tournaments that I can go to are usually pretty casual formats (EDH, Pauper, etc.)  However, with my grade 12 year coming up next week, my schedule has cleared and I’ll be (hopefully) playing more Magic than ever.

I’m in love with Standard right now.  Post M10 has offered so many fun and viable decktypes to play that I’m having fun just playtesting decks.  I think I have 6 or 7 standard decks built, and I haven’t played competitive standard since before M10.  However, with the PTQ season drawing to a close, and all the GPs being M10 limited, there’s not a whole lot I can discuss right now about my favourite constructed format.

However, just as I’m about to start playing some more standard, Zendikar previews start up, and the rumour mill becomes ablaze (Chandra pun intended) with speculation and analysis.  So, rather than write an article about my favourite standard decks, I thought I’d take on some of the main points of Zendikar.  However, if you want to save the surprise for prerelease day, don’t read on, as I’ll name an reference specific cards.

This is the mechanic MaRo mentioned when he said that Zendikar rewards players for doing something they already like.  We all need lands to play our spells (except a few combo decks), and so something that rewards us for doing what we’d be doing anyway is great.

Rampaging Baloths is the first card to feature the ability word Landfall, which provides an effect whenever you put a land onto the battlefield.  In the Baloths’ case, you get a 4/4 beast token with trample.  Obviously, there are lots of ways to put lands onto the battlefield, through effects such as Rampant Growth and Crucible of Worlds, but which are the best to abuse this sort of effect?

The card that everyone’s hoping for is Conflux’s Knight of the Reliquary which is great for doubling up your landfall triggers.  By itself, the card seems good, but many people aren’t thinking of what other cards could go with it.

The card I think will be played at the tournament tables is probably my favourite card from Time Spiral: Terramorphic Expanse.  It is one of the best common mana-fixers ever printed, and it bears one of my favourite pieces of flavour text that worked so well in the context of Time Spiral block.

Now, one of the best things to do with Knight of the Reliquary is not to simply tutor up a land and fix your mana.  If you have a landfall ability active, the ideal play is to sacrifice your forest or plains to tutor up an Expanse.  Then, sacrifice the Expanse to get a land.  If you play a land that turn, you’ve triggered Landfall 3 times.  Ideally (and this is not too far-fetched) is that you play a Terramorphic Expanse, sacrifice it to nab a forest or plains, and then use the Knight’s ability.  Sacrifice your newfound land to grab a second copy of Expanse, and then fetch out a basic land of your choice.  Yes, 2 cards could give you a total of 4 landfall triggers per turn, while intensely thinning your deck.  Oh, and did I mention that you also have a 6/6 now?

In short, I really like landfall, and I’m happy that Terramorphic Expanse will (hopefully) get some time in the sun.  I’m almost tempted to try out an extended variant that uses Crucible of Worlds to ensure the maximum amount of triggers and thinning per turn.  Of course, you would play a set of Cloudposts and Vesuvas to grab with your knight, and I’m sure all sorts of shenanigans could be done.

However, Landfall could be a major letdown.  Many cards are given awesome mechanics but are relatively unplayable.  The biggest exception to this trend is Cascade, where even cards like Demonic Dread have places in top decks.  However, I hope that for the sake of the game, Landfall is not as overpowered as cascade.

One thing that I laughed about when I saw the first thread discussing traps in Magic was the distinct absence of Yu-Gi-Oh! comparisons.  There were infinitely more comparisons (and complaints) about the M10 rules changes (which I think we’ve all adopted to pretty well) than there were to this new subtype.  Personally, I think that the Magic community has reacted extremely maturely in realizing that this is simply a new name and flavour for an old concept, which actually increases design space.

Now, a trap (from what we know thus far) is a subtype of instants (and potentially other cards) that means it has an alternate casting cost that triggers upon certain conditions being met.  This brings a whole new dimension to the game, especially at the limited level.  Knowing what traps you could trigger by playing certain cards in a certain way will be extremely important, especially if some traps are free to cast (meaning you’re not necessarily safe if your opponent is tapped out).  Thus, reading your opponent becomes amazingly important, and if you hold 2 different traps in hand, you can keep your opponent guessing by bluffing one trap and playing another.

I also would love to see a card that allows you to gain an effect on the basis of trap being a subtype.  The immediate thought is something that tutors for traps, but that really hurts the surprise factor of a trap card, as you would have to reveal the card you searched for.  Something that made your traps trigger easier or allowed you to cast a trap from the graveyard would be awesome.

Perhaps something like this:

Trap Network – 4UU

Instant – Trap

If your opponent cast two or more spells this turn, you may pay 1UU rather than paying Tarp Network’s casting cost.

If you cast Trap Network from your hand, you may cast target trap card from your graveyard without paying its mana cost.  If you do, exile it and Trap Network.

This keeps the flavour of a surprise effect, and is (I think) a pretty interesting design that works well with the use of trap as a subtype.  Note that this is not in any way a Zendikar spoiler, it’s just a musing on what could be done with the new subtype.

One question I have is how the trap cards will fit into colours other than blue.  It seems like a concept that requires a lot of cunning and forethought, which is not something that a colour like red specializes at.  I definitely think that traps will be a big party of limited, and would make for a downright complex standard environment if given a high enough power level and low enough alternate cost.

Zendikar sees the return of Chandra Nalaar, who is now called Chandra Ablaze.  I don’t want to comment on her until we know all 3 of her abilities, as they will be what makes or breaks her.  I’m hoping that her ultimate ability is powerful, because it would be a shame if both incarnations of Chandra were never played competitively in constructed.

We know next to nothing about Nissa Revane, except for the fact that she will be either green-black or mono-green.

However due to Wizards’ “You Decide” poll, we now have the full spoiler for mono-black planeswalker Sorin Markov.  Here he is, in all his glory:

Now, I think this is a great finisher for my suicide black deck I’m running.  The fact that his first ability has the ability to pump him by 2 counters and deal 2 damage to a target is important, and it’s probably the second best first ability on a planeswalker (the best is probably Garruk Wildspeaker).  Compare this to Ajani Vengeant and you see hw potent reusible removal can be.  His second ability is an unexciting Magister Sphinx impression, and I don’t think it will be used very much (except in EDH, where it’s amazing).  His last ability is interesting though, as it’s a direct clone of Mindslaver.  The control-ish aspect of this is great, because it shows that standard post-Zendikar will (hopefully) not simply be an all aggro fest.

I think Sorin will be played as a 1 or 2 of in control decks, and primarily because of the ability to Consume Spirit for 2 every turn while pumping his loyalty.  It should also be noted that Sorin’s ultimate will effectively cost 5, because you can use his first ability the turn after you Mindslaver your opponent.

I think that Sorin is an example of a successfully designed planeswalker.  He’s not overly powerful (unlike Elspeth, Knight Errant), yet he’s still got that wow factor that planeswalkers (and mythic rares in general) are supposed to give off.

All in all, I think that what we’ve seen of Zendikar indicates a very well-designed set.  Of course more information is necessary to evaluate the whole set, but I like where the spoilers are going.  Who knows, if we’re lucky, Power 9 Pro will get a spoiler card for Worldwake, and how awesome would that be?

If you want to suggest topics for other articles, ask questions or voice comments, you can email me at zak -AT- power9pro.com, or contact me via my twitter feed at www.twitter.com/zturchan.

Cheers,

Zak

Tags: landfall, planeswalkers, traps, zendikar

ShareThis