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The Day is Upon Us
Ok, so maybe not THE day
is upon us. However, for those of you attending
states, you get your first real preparation for the
tournament this week. Players everywhere are
making the transition from old to new Standard
formats.
As promised, I will go
over a few more cards. I'm not going to hit them
up in as much detail as I did last week.
ENTOMB
This card has been slowly
turning up in more and more decks as we get close to
States. It's got several uses. I would
expect decks playing this to also have Buried Alive,
Zombify, and maybe even Life/Death. The
combination of all these cards with various fat
creatures can be dangerous. Yes, this deck is
viable, I've seen several already being played.
There are even some variants that pair these cards up
with Twilight's Call. Together they create a
deck similar to the old Living Death decks.
HOLISTIC WISDOM
I've already seen several
people turn their nose up at this card. People
hate pulling this from booster packs. A word of
advice...hold on to this card. It definitely
doesn't suck. When looking at this card, you
have to realize that it can let you get multiple uses
out of a card. That can be huge.
Especially when setting up a lock. It's
obviously good in limited play. I think if the
right pieces come together, this card can be a huge
force on the tournament scene. I would expect
this card to have more uses in Extended than in
Standard play.
MYSTIC CRUSADER
This heading should
probably cover all of the 'mystic creatures' in white.
They are generally
decently costed creatures before threshold.
However, once they reach threshold, they become nuts.
The Mystic Crusader itself is protection from red AND
black. This is huge. After threshold, it
gets a +1/+1 AND flies. I would expect to see a
lot of this guy. If he isn't played main deck
expect to see him run sideboard. Even part time
this guy is great for decks that are creature based
with enough white to support it.
DIVINE SACRAMENT
This card is pretty
straight forward. People are still debating
whether this is better than Glorious Anthem full time.
Both sides have legitimate arguments. However,
if you are playing enough weenies, this can be huge.
The end result will just
come down to personal preference.
WILD MONGREL
Everyone has been going on
and on about this guy. He has multiple purposes.
He can be just a standard beatdown creature or he can
assist you in reaching threshold. He can help
you with graveyard recursion. This guy might
just be the best bear ever. But that remains to
be seen.
IRIDESCENT ANGEL
Wizards seem to like
angels. Casual players ALWAYS like angels.
Occasionally, tournament
players enjoy playing angels. Well, this might
be one of those angels that everyone can enjoy.
Having protection from all colors definitely isn't a
bad thing....it's... a good thing. It's another
solid creature for control decks to play with.
The casting cost is high (thank goodness) so the card
is fairly balanced. Might be more annoying than
strong. I think it is too early to tell though.
MINELAYER
I had this guy almost
written off, but recently I've seen him and action and
he isn't too bad. It's likely that he won't see
a lot of tournament play.
However, if land kill
decks become all the rage (no, not Urza's) he will
DEFINITELY see some play. He goes a long way to
securing the lock and making sure your opponent can do
anything once the landkill deck gets rolling.
GRAVESTORM
IT'S THE NEW NECRO!!!
OK, maybe it's not. It just seems like everyone
wants to say that, so I might as well be the first (at
least that I know of). I think as far as a card
drawing tool this card might be more efficient than
Phyrexian Arena in some ways. It's also more
versatile for it's environment. It can slow down
your opponents game plan if they are relying on
threshold. It can keep your opponents from using
graveyard recursion. It even can eliminate
flashback from being played by your opponent.
All the while, it gives you an extra card during your
upkeep.
Not sure how viable it is,
but it has some uses. I haven't seen many
situation for this card to go full-time, but it can
definitely go part time.
Well, that's all I've got
for Odyssey today. Now on to something
different. I want to address the issue of fan
mail. I LOVE IT! I don't tell you guys
that enough. Also, everyone that has written to
me has been responded to. At least I see that
from my end. If I missed any of you, write to me
again and I will definitely try to respond to you.
I'm busy but I try to get to every letter from every
reader. The fans deserve to be appreciated.
Keep sending feedback to
our site. Let us know what you think about our
articles. Let us know what you think about the
new site design. Let us know what you are
looking for. We are in a serious transition
stage and we are making adjustments. Let your
voice be heard, so we know what to give you. We
are trying our damnedest to become a mandatory Magic
stop on your browser.
I want to make a plea
to the Magic community here. This is a
serious issue. I have been talking to several
store owners and sales have been down in many places.
I also have to admit my sales have been a little slow
the past couple of weeks. What I want to say to
you is support your local game store. If you are
going to support your local game store, at least
support someone online that is trying to better the
Magic community or run a great store in their area
(like yours truly). Don't just rush to get a
great deal from random online site that doesn't have a
shop or overhead. The main reason I say this is
because I've heard of a few shops closing up in the
past year and several more are considering it.
In some ways it is a weeding out process, but in
others ways it's just a sad case of some stores with
great potential not being able to bring in the sales.
I'm just saying, if you are looking to order things
online or get purchases online, I'd definitely
On that note, I will leave
you alone. Hopefully next week I will have some
tournament results to report on and maybe even some
decklists following this first week of constructed
play in the new Standard environment.
Until next time,
DeQuan Watson
a.k.a. PowrDragn
The Game Closet
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