Like New York, only cleaner. Kidding. Also less Traffic.
So the entire New Phyrexia set got spoiled today. So I too will start my reviews of the set based on how the new cards matter to those of us who play variant formats (including Cube, Type-4 and DC-10/DC-Fun). Lets begin, shall we?
(And yes, I plan on going through each color in each article starting today. Expect each of these articles to be quite cumbersome due to the high number of images.
Apostle’s Blessing
Amen.
I was about to write this card off until I saw “Artifact”. Yeah–it makes a creature almost unblockable, survive removal
and blahblahblah…but its been done. Not in colorless…really. I do think that I prefer it with cantrip in Type-4/DC-10…but this card might find its way into cubes who still use Akroma’s Blessing.
The protection given to artifacts is interesting for anyone who wants some stall-elements in their cube. Protecting your mana is a bit of a plus…and there’s the occasional stax archtype I see popping up in cubes (it helps against and with certain cards in that format too).
I probably won’t be putting it into DC-Fun due to the lack of cantrip/cycle. And the fact it says “you control” means no tricky shenanigans with auras/equipment.
That being said, I love the Phyrexian symbol but, as a player of EDH, absolutely detest the use of a colored mana symbol in the reminder text. I’m sure it’ll help balance things in the long run–but not being able to splash this in my Omnath EDH is kinda disheartening when one considers I can still cast it.
Auriok Survivors
Auriok Surivors
An excellent limited card as far as 6-drop soldiers go. Well…except for Darien, Captain and Lu Bu. But for a 6-drop with Equipment support … ok so this card isn’t going to be wrecking EDH or Type-4 anytime soon. But its solid in a peasant cube that focuses on equipment in white. And this guy looks pretty solid as a late-game finisher in booster drafts and perhaps even sealed. Its kind of a funny effect when one considers that equipment were really made as a kind of Aura replacement–i.e. auras that don’t have the ultimate flaw of going away forever when the creature was killed. But there’s just not enough viable equipment in most DC-10 or Type-4 to warrant this guy. It does combo with Blazing Torch (good for Halloween cubes), Rakdos Riteknife (for Guild-themed cubes, but the tri-color is hard), or, as I’m sure you’ll all figure out in draft, Piston Sledge. It has a solid body but just doesn’t have what variant formats want in their six-drops.
Blade Splicer
To think that Moose & Squirrel was a fairly decent limited card…Ms. Scissorhands here is part of quite the interesting cycle. I’ve wanted “Tribal Golem” since I first saw my favorite omni-tribal support cards from back when those were still printed (Lorwyn
Snuggle in, sweetie. Its cold out there.
not withstanding). And I gotta tell you–I wasn’t expecting white. This card has some interesting potential uses in an “underused tribe” cube. While there’s only a handful of Golem-tribal support cards (two of which are in this set), Brass Herald (linked above) might be good enough in such a cube to warrant three-to-four copies. Too bad Proteus Machine isn’t a golem. Given that, I’d prefer seeing Blade Splicer as something with some more tribal support than “artificer” (or as a Golem herself)…but that’s not too important. She works well with the non-broken Arcbound, Dance-with-Greaves, As a few lucky sealed-pools may or may not reveal, she really helps with ol’ Rite-of-Headache Mc. Golem-Spawner. Tuktuk and Titan Forge are both memorable and fun enough for a handful of variant formats. If you really like Golems, Walking Archive is also good for Type-4/DC-Fun.
That being said, she’s a good card in and of herself. Nothing wrong with a 3/3 First Strike and a 1/1 for 3-mana. Probably not cube worthy considering other choices for that slot.
Cathedral Membrane
I had to reread this card a few times. The first thing that usually comes to mind is Blaze of Glory. And what a glorious blaze this is. This card reminds me of the
Note that you can sacrifice it during combat and its effect still goes off.
thoughts that musta gone through earlier designer’s heads about how strong walls must have been. Of course, in the end, it turned out they needed more support…and while this card certainly isn’t what will make tribal-wall.decthe beesknees, its a solid limited choice that I’d strongly consider putting into my Peasant cube. If anything else its (basically) colorless “removal”. It put removal in quotes since it’ll mostly act like a pacifism until your opponent swings with enough hill giants to warrant you finally deciding to kill their second best creature.
And while more people will probably prefer Wall of Omens or, in the case of DC-Fun and Type-4, Wall of Nets, this guy definitely has his place in some limited format somewhere. I do really wish that it said “blocked or blocked by” so we could get some use out of that silly Wall archtype Rise of the Eldrazi was trying to make last year. Its definately a-go if you have a cube heavy on creatures with Banding that, somehow, got too strong…*cough*
“Works against banding” isn’t exactly the most flattering review. But this guy is still probably the best one-drop wall around.
Chancellor of the Annex
More like "Chancellor of the Anorexic"
Finally something different. I love this chancellor. Its ability will always be relevant, even if just slowing down an opponent a turn. It almost feels like a timewalk–in theory at least. The backdraw is fairly obvious, tough (you have to have her in your opening hand). But its not like white is entirely without ways to cheat bombs into play. And, although it screams “kill me now, please“, she is parallel in her ability to cause headaches and pain in multiplayer seconded only to a flip-Legend. Oh sure–it just causes a Wrath to be a 5 drop instead of 4. And in the formats most likely to see her, EDH and DC-10/Fun, mana shouldn’t be too big of a problem. And while it seems easy to play around her ability, there will always be someone in DC-10 who will forget to “pay the 1″. Combined with other similar effects, it can be very difficult to always remember each and every trigger (of course, this is only useful in games with limited mana pools–so Type-4 obviously doesn’t care for this card in the slightest).
Dispatch
Not disbatch...
Cards that work great in variant formats usually, unsurprisingly, don’t always blend too well with cards that are great for limited or block constructed. While this card works wonders in a metalcraft deck. And there’s even hushed whispers of it in Legacy Affinity. Its definately going to be worth more than 50 cents–just being a one-drop white spell with echoes of particular all stars guarantees it some value (at least in foil). Of course its not as splash-able as its older counter-parts…but it has a place in artifact-themed/heavy cubes and Elder Dragon Highlander (since you’ll be using plenty of artifact acceleration and support and the first threat will probably wait until turn 4 or 5 anyway). Incidentally, I keep wanting to misspell it as “disbatch”.
