That new card smell.
In the next week a lot of M12 booster packs will be cracked for drafts, titans, and new EDH staples. When M10 came out I thought "why have they not done this sooner!?" and fell in love with the base set for the first time since 4th Edition. It felt natural to me and I've felt that base sets should be special since, after all, they were the base set.
To me the base set should pull the nerd into the world of what Magic: The Gathering is: fantastical creatures, mysterious beasts, powerfully secret wizards, gritty scar covered warriors, and of course a few scantly clad ladies. The artwork should let the kid in all of us fall into an epic world! M10, M11, and now M12 are by far my favorite sets. Rise of the Eldrazi certainly holds a special place as do much older sets, but these new base sets really have me yearning for my older days of enchanting Drudge Skeletons with Feast of the unicorn.
I recently told some friends of mine I really don't like drafting the base sets, which for the most part, is true. But do I love the flavor. I love the creativity of the cards. The hard work put into their design. I can imagine the great time the boys in R&D had in making the sets. I prefer to just opening the packs in a greedy way. I need to see the cards in my hand to remind me of the days when I first bought Ice Age and 4th Edition boosters. Some love the smell of new cars, I think I get a high from sniffing crisply opened packs and the softly glowing sheen of new cards. I can't think any Magic player doesn't and would call them a liar to their face if they said they didn't.
A Standard and Legacy shake-up.
With the new base set releases has come an expectation that they are bound to shake up the environment for Standard. What's not as expected is how well they will impact older formats. It took a while for Preordain and Fauna Shaman to fully get a little bit of respect from the Legacy brewers. I still think people undervalue these two cards in the format. Not going using hardcore data to prove any thoughts on the matter will mean what I believe to be true means I have my doubts anyone will consider anything useful. That and I'm pretty much a nobody.
Most people are willing to accept the usefulness of a card in Standard or even Extended, before they accept the card in Legacy, unless it's just a bonkers card. This is a problem that many in the Legacy community has yet to admit fully either out of sheer arrogance or fear of being laughed at. It took a while for Jace, The Mindsculptor to be integrated into Vintage decks. Once that happened, people started trying him out in Legacy. It's kind of sad, in my opinion, that Vintage players are more willing to think outside of the box than their Legacy counterparts. Looking at Praetor's Grasp taking slots in Vintage makes it only a matter of time till people start using it for sideboards in Legacy. I personally can't wait for people to start playing Spreading Seas in Enchantress decks. I have weird love for this pile of shit.
One card that hasn't taken footing is Lotus Cobra. I'm pretty sure he's shown up a few times, but not become a staple like Dark Confidant. The card screams potential and is ripe for abuse especially with Mental Misstep causing many players to cry when they didn't get their way with Mom & Dad. I will guarantee this card will see serious play soon.
BTW...why is no one playing Krosan Grip as much anymore? W-T-F!?
My picks for Legacy playable cards are a little odd, but I love using cards that mirror other cards. Here's a list of criminally underplayed cards as well as picks from the new set.
Grim Discovery - Getting back Wasteland and a Stoneforge Mystic is pretty awesome. Remember the Fallen is in the same league, but less powerful in a format where Goblin Welder sees very little play. Which baffles me even if Mental Misstep is legal. Goblin Welder deserves much more love. I played Grim D. in GP Col. and it was amazing, second only to my Engineered Plagues.
The Five Deadly Titans - Sweet ass kung-fu movie references aside, these bad asses should see more play. I don't care what anyone says about the six mana cost of these cards, this is Legacy, who the fuck cares about mana cost. Make it work. Talking out my ass isn't uncommon for me, but Frost Titan on the second turn will steal games and give your opponents the "wtf did just happen look". I'm certainly not advocating that all of the Titans will make it, but there isn't any harm in trying to make it happen. Who wouldn't love to Sun Titan a Dreadnought into play?
Master Thief - A new card out from M12, I do wonder if it can find it's way into sideboards. Doubtful with cards like Krosan Grip and Trigon Predator, but I loves me creativity!
Visions of Beyond - This card is scary, but we have Misstep to help in checking it into the glass. I don't know where it would fit entirely, but just like everyone else, dredge pops into mind. Although, it could fit into the Standstill decks that are popular right now.
Vengeful Pharoah - "What an amazing card for Dredge" was my first thought. I didn't see the word "target" initially. It still kills Emrakul, which is seeing more play than Progenitals right now.
Chandra, the Firebabe - Holy Toledo...I love this card. It's just as good as the old Elspeth. There I said it. I almost want to say it's just as good as Jace, TMS, but who am I kidding? I see no reason to not try fitting this into AIR decks, Dragon Stompy, or (where it belongs) in Aggro Loam.
Doubling Chant - Wow. Is this card absolute bonkers in Elves! Not just Legacy Elves, but every friggin elf deck. Okay. Maybe I'm being overzealous. Maybe.
Sundial of the Infinite - Enough has been said about this card already. Is it playable? If it cost one to cast, then my answer would be yes. At two, possibly. It's going to be just as fringe as everything else I talk about, but has more potential for abuse just because it's colorless.
Dispatch - Affinity says thank you.
Puresteel Paladin - I really love this guy. In a format where Stoneforge Mystic, Jitte, Sword of Fire and Ice and Aether Vial are legal, he should and will see more play.
Urabrask, The Hidden - The card is pretty solid in Standard and I believe what Dragon Stompy didn't know was missing from it's list.
Birthing Pod - A new favorite for Standard, the card gets more use in Legacy with the it's cavalcade of ridiculous creatures. The downside of being an artifact is also it's upside as it's playable in any color. Couple that with the vast amount of fast mana the format has, Enlightened Tutor, etc, it's a matter of time till it scares the shit of someone. Who plays Pithing Needle anyway?
Beast Within - God, this card is sexy!
Spellskite - Will be a staple in about every fucking deck. If you haven't picked up a playset (like me) for Standard, hurry. Painter-Grindstone probably benefits the most from the "Skeet-Skeet", while Merfolk may not even want this. It's still possible Merfolk can side into a playset of Skeet-Skeets, but for what match-up I am not entirely sure. Reanimator would love this card too! SOooooooooooooo goooooooooooood!
Vault Skirge - Cranial Plating anyone?
Assuredly, some of picks of mine are completely and utterly worthless. But what's the harm and trying them out? What's the point in playing if we don't give new cards a whirl? Shrug of discerned looks, the laughs, and watch as they lose to Burning Wish being forked by Chandra or how Spellskite just fucked up their world. I for one would love to pound people in the face with Frost Titan on turn 2.
The Jace Effect.
Card prices are slowly climbing in demand since Jace and SFM have been banned. I expect the market to be more healthy than it's been in the past several months for singles. The release for M12 and the timely bannings is just what the market needed. What stores and even dealers booths at events needed, was this market fluctuation to happen. It appears, as many are starting to realize, that there was a Jace effect that not only suppressed the metagame, but suppressed the secondary market as well. I really can't remember a time this has really happened aside from Skullclamp effectively shutting out the entire metagame when it was legal. I wonder if it was blind luck that I didn't really play until the end of it's days. Even Mercadian Masques block had a lot of singles sold while in print.
Many people these days hunt for sleepers such as Skullclamp and Stoneforge as WotC gets better and better at set designs. Time will truly tell in the next few weeks how much of an impact Jace had on the format. Now that the 4th of July is over, the new set is out, and Starcity Games starts up again with a fresh breath of air, attendance will go back up at FNM, online and regional PTQ's. People will find the cards they've had stuck in their binders, decks and deck lists sitting on their shelves have potential now.
There is a contingent of thought that Stoneforge Mystic oppressed the format more than Jace did. I believed this as well. But think for a moment how dominating Stoneforge was WITH jace. Without Jace, Stoneforge wouldn't have that ability to immediately get back into the game as well with Jace in it's back pocket. Artifact and creature removal is abundant. Dismember is one of the best removal spells ever. So yea, I actually do believe the problem was Jace and that either one would have been fine for the format so long as the other wasn't available to play.
I do find it funny reading Ben Bleiweiss' article on SCG's. At some point from beginning to end I feel as though some ethics violation just happened. At the moment I'm not sure how to feel other than confusion in regards to the general acceptance with the public on how "things will go" for <cardname>. He's Magic's own Ben Bernanke. Maybe Martha Stewart could bake me some cookies to make me feel better.
+1
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