 |
 |
|
 |
||
     |
|
Meet the New Faces of Classic - by Dangerlinto
In only a scant few weeks, a high number of powerful new cards will enter the Classic cardpool via the newest From the Vault (FTV), Exiled and the latest installment of the Master’s Edition Series – Master’s Edition 3. Of course, not every card will have an impact on the meta – indeed the vast majority of cards will never be seen within a tournament setting , but at least a dozen cards will must-includes for everyone, while many more will have at least a minor impact. Let’s start with the FTV: Exiled cards, 5 of which are new to MTGO.
Likely Restriction: Yes
Balance, simply put, is one of the most powerful cost/effect spells ever made. It’s ability to act as a 2 mana Wrath of God/Armageddon/Mind Twist all rolled up into one is legendary. If the card were to remain unrestricted, there would quickly become entire decks built around it’s effects – however, that possibility remains highly remote. Instead, Balance will likely be employed in place where you might want a Wrath of God but could never afford to put one. For example, it would be possible for Ad Nauseam decks to lay down 3-4 artifacts and then Balance out a number of annoying critters (like Ethersworn Canonist, Meddling Mage or Gaddock Teeg). It may even get you to drop a couple of cards and a land while it does so. Cards like Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond (and to a lesser extent, Lotus Petal) become more important to take advantage of or protect yourself from a resolved Balance. Control decks using Tezzeret the Seeker might employ Balance to ensure that Tezz survives through the next attack round, even if it means ditching a couple of cards in hand, putting them in a position to win off the more powerful effects the deck tends to pack. Of course, mainly Balance is used as a half-price Wrath of God. That is why generally it’s rarely (if ever) used in Vintage these days. I don’t expect creatures to disappear from classic overnight, but it might be possible for decks that are a lot less susceptible to Balance to maintain a high profile. Balance, for all it’s glory, is still a sorcery. It’s no good waiting until NEXT turn to wipe the board clean if you are going to be dead this turn.. For example (and by no means is this the only example), Goblins can easily deal a massive amount of damage all in one turn via Goblin Warchief giving a hoard haste. That segues nicely into the next card...
Likely Restriction: No
When I say only a medium impact on the meta, I’m not saying Goblin Lackey doesn’t make goblins better. It very much does. And I'm certainly not saying that Goblins (the Deck) won't be a player in the upcoming meta - they will. Legacy has long been defined by the power and speed of the goblin deck, and with Lackey now available in classic, it essentially completes every relevant goblin that would compose the aggro monster (Goblin Welder wouldn't go into such a deck). However, as I'm fond of saying: "Classic isn't Legacy". Goblin Lackey doesn’t suddenly make goblins stop losing to the types of decks goblins typically lose to, and Goblin Lackey will appear in exactly one deck - Goblins. Goblin Lackey is like a more fragile but more powerful Aether Vial for the goblin deck. Having another way to beat counters and cheat even fatter goblins into play definitely speeds goblins up. And, notably, it also is resistant to Pithing Needle (no activation). However, it also dies to every removal spell in the environment. You can’t get Lackey through a Kird Ape and or Wild Nacatyl, or even a turn 2 Tarmogoyf (if they go first). Then again, it’s possible that decks featuring Kird Ape and Wild Nacatyl are going to fall to Balance and to decks featuring…
Likely Restriction: Yes
Tinker is quite simply the ultimate Plan B. It generally takes as few as two cards slots in your deck – one for Tinker, and one for some ridiculous artifact to cheat into play. And while you need another artifact (any artifact), Mana Crypt, Chrome Mox, Sensei’s Divining Top #2, #3 and #4 or Seat of the Synod will all apply for the job. Typically, Tinker will go for one of these targets: Inkwell Leviathan, Sundering Titan, or in some cases, Darksteel Colossus. The latter is unlikely to see much play since it can be traded for a basic land by Path to Exile or 11 life by Swords to Plowshares, while Inkwell dodges such hate. Sundering Titan is a monster card that will ravage a zoo mana base and can stand up to a Tarmogoyf and in most game situations, block to kill it. Tinker can stand in both control decks as a win condition and in many combo decks (though typically not in Ad Nauseam decks, where the high casting cost artifact would be self-lethal). It’s particularly nasty in Painter/Grindstone decks, where it can be used to find either of the combo parts, and since Painter decks will also run several creatures (Trinket Mage, Painter’s servant) willing to die to a sacrifice effect to keep a huge robot in play, it makes an excellent Plan B for that deck as well.
Likely Restriction: Yes
The glory days of Channel --> Fireball are long gone. The game's first insta-kill remains embedded in the communities’ consciousness, but I have to admit that when they announced Channel was in FTV:E, I had to think for more than a second as to what kind of impact on the meta it would open up. Apart from the obvious “use all your life, hit them with an X spell”, that is. The first one that came to mind was a cute trick with Lich’s Mirror that would essentially abuse the Mirror in a way that let’s you have an enormous amount of mana in your pool and draw 7 cards. The Johnny in me really like’s that idea, especially since Lich’s Mirror isn’t restricted, and with Channel, you could just keep cycling mirrors. Actually, that deck sounds more fun than the more likely use for Channel, which is in Goblin Charbelcher decks. Any combination of Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, or Elvish Spirit Guide (and perhaps a Single Taiga) would let you play out Channel for all the mana you need to play and activate Goblin Charbelcher. It is now the pre-eminent spell for that deck to tutor for, in my mind, short of getting the Belcher itself.
Likely Restriction: Hell Yes.
You know when Aggro Loam or Dragon Stompy get that Wasteland lock going and you get down on your knees and pray to the Magic Gods that your top deck is a fetchlands or a basic land? Imagine none of that mattering at all - you'll still get locked out. A Strip Mine lock is nigh unrecoverable in a world without notable artifact acceleration. Expect to see these decks a lot in the coming months. Coupled with Chalice of the Void or Trinisphere or MED3’s Nether Void (see below), there are bound to be a number of games where you are locked right out of playing any spells. Strip Mine is a card that is so good, it’s easily possible to put into almost any deck to work in your favour – though I don’t see that happening in an increasingly competitive space for lands in deck design. Your best bet to avoid the devastation is to make sure that the lands can’t recur. Leyline of the Void is probably your best bet to keep your tenuous hold on your precious lands. Which is handy, because it does a number on the next card too…
Likely Restriction: No
Of course whenever someone even mentions Bazaar of Baghdad, they immediately think of dredge. How much of an impact will Bazaar have on Dredge? Well, one way to slow down dredge in classic has always been to counter or negate the first couple of attempts they make to fill their graveyard, such as keeping Putrid Imp from entering the battlefield or countering the Breakthrough with X=0. Those cards are pretty much out the window now. Bazaar does all that work for them. In fact, now Dredge decks will have to fear Pithing Needle set to Bazaar instead. The only thing standing in Dredge’s way of total dominance, as far as I can see, is that people will be packing Leyline of the Void already to battle that deck and get the advantage of also having great sideboard cards against Loam/Crucible decks. It’s also worth noting that Dredge isn’t the only way to abuse Bazaar, even if it's by far the best. It works very well in a Worldgorger Dragon combo with Animate Dead. Squee, Goblin Nabob turns Bazaar into a crazy card advantage engine, and adding in Solitary Confinement can make quite an annoying deck to play against.
Likely Restriction: No
The star of the show for MED3, Mana Drain is the poster boy for blue insanity. Not only are they wiping out your spell, they are using it’s mana to play their own – probably to draw more cards to counter more of your spells. What can you expect to see from Drain decks? Well, you can expect to se a whole lot of cards with very low blue requirements in their costs, such as Intuition, Deep Analysis, Thirst for Knowledge, Fact or Fiction, Gifts Ungiven, all of which provide card advantage. You can also expect to see Mana Drain coupled with Tinker, as well as an assortment of artifacts, which can always be played off of “Drain mana”. And of course, you can expect to see the granddaddy of all artifact-based decks, Mr. Artifact himself – Tezzeret the Seeker – because nothing says artifact control like playing Mana Drain on your Tarmogoyf, untapping, laying a land, playing Tezzeret and then finding Ensnaring Bridge. Essentianly, if the deck is playing Blue and a reasonsable number of spells with colourless mana costs, it’s going to be running Mana Drain. Couldn't hurt, right? At least, not with the new rules from m10.
Likely Restriction: No
Currently, I don’t think there is a Vice deck waiting around to be played. The days of Keeper and Necropotence-aggro were over a decade ago, and Black Vise’s usefulness in Tier 1 decks has long passed. Also, Paris mulligans actually hurt a bit - it used to be your opponent always started with 7 cards, no matter what! That’s not to say, though, that’s its not an extremely potent card. Black Vise coupled with cards that force you to keep cards in hand can spell a quick death, and it doesn’t hurt that cards that force you to keep cards in hand are generally blue, which means you also get to run Trinket Mage to find Black Vise. Black Vise has typically been used to hold off control decks which liked to sit on a full mitt of counters, to punish them slowly (or quickly, if you manage to get more than one out) for that tactic. With the expectation that dredge will always be a part of this meta, and possibly dominant for the time being, I can’t see a black Vise deck being all that useful.
Likely Restriction: No
Land Tax is a lot like Life from the Loam. It seems incongruent to go out of your way to draw lands, when the game rules limit you to one land a turn. But cards in hand are still card advantage (at least as the theory goes) so long as you can use them, and getting a full 3 cards for free is amazing card advantage. The trick is to find a way to turn the land cards into real gas for your deck. The most obvious way to do this is with Scroll Rack. With Scroll Rack, you can just put the lands on top of your deck, draw 3 more cards, and voila – card adavantage you can repeat every turn (remembering that Land Tax will shuffle your hand next turn). The reason this combo isn’t nearly as effective as it used to be is that a) it takes two card and a certain condition to achieve, making it a fragile and unreliable source of card advantage b) you have to run a fair number of basic lands – more than you’d normally run just to combat Wasteland. This problem is exasperated by the fact Land Tax is white, and so far, no mon-white dcek has or is likely to make playing a lof of Plains so you can hit a first turn Land Tax very viable.
Likely Restriction: No
The Tabernacle is the kind of card that you can pack in your sideboard to make people pay for attempting to build a creature hoard. For example, Empty the Warrens is impotent in the face of Tabernacle. Merfolk decks can’t have counter mana and a hoard of Merfolk out, and zoo just has to keep paying for every monster they posses. On the face of it, it seems pretty good - sort of like how Kataki, War's Wage could beat Affinity. Though not quite as devastative in comparison, Tabernacle has one advantage - it's free. However, Tabernacle has some increadibly bad drawbacks. The fact that it can’t tap for mana (without assistance) is the first. Secondly, the kinds of decks that it can absolutely ruin also tend to run full compliments of Wasteland. Sacrificing your own mana development to force your opponent to do the same isn’t always the best method, but having it kicked back in your face by losing to Wasteland is not only ironic, it’s painful. Those cards are generally the 10 heaviest hitters from the new sets, but there are other cards that beg to be used from MED3, which could have impact. Grim Tutor - Used in Vintage in Grim Long, a deck that seeks to build up massive storm. Most tutors are restricted in vintage – this is the cheapest (lowest casting cost) one that is not. Probably not going to be used in Classic. Mind Twist - Once restricted, it’s been a long time since this card has been effective in competitive play, but still, a 1 for 3 or 1 for 4 is a pretty good deal. Nether Void - Eseentially puts the game on hold until players have 4/5 mana sources out. Works well with Lion’s Eye Diamond, Mishra’s Factory and any other non-spells. The Abyss - Kill a creature, for free, every turn. Which is great when you have no creatures, but if you have to wait until turn 4, it’s too slow to have any effect on the creature decks of today. Illusionary Mask - Save the Stifles, this artifact can bring Phyrexian Dreadnought into play for 1 mana. Reset - Part of the solidarity deck that used to be run in Legacy with High Tide to storm up a lethal Brain Freeze. Chain Lightning - Could have possibly appeared in the 10 above, since it WILL get played in burn. And Burn will be played, whether by the stubborn will of it’s pilots or possibly because it can still be relevant. Expect to see those cards coming at you in 3-4 weeks and get yourself prepared not only to aquire them, but to play against them as well. Oh yes, I almost forgot. There are these 5 other rares you should probably think about picking up… |
  |
