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Shades of Grey

Okay, after looking at the spoiler on this site for the new Apocalypse set, I figure I'll just point out a few things that jumped out at me… and maybe you'll spot the trend. Then we'll go from there.

Death Grasp:
Hm… seems to be a generically useful card. Same base casting cost as drain life, just make sure the colorless mana is white instead and you don't have to worry about the rest of the mana being colored or not. And since dark ritual isn't around anymore the colorless X is even more important. Standard burn-ish spell with an excellent side effect which makes up for it being a sorcery. Kills critters and players alike.

Gerrard's Verdict:
Ooh… a 'fixed' hymn of sorts. Dual colored does dilute its power a touch, and it isn't random, but the 'if you discard a land' drawback as a deterrent means that it can still hurt them late game, since they have to pitch something non-land (and thus probably useful) or give you some bonus life. A solid play early, mid, or late game, and, of course, Happens to be card advantage too… certainly playable in a wide variety of w/b decks.

Spectral Lynx:
Heya! A cousin to river boa! Who is anti green… hm… *cough*blastoblocker*cough*. And gets past burst tokens too… sweet…
And a solid critter for the mana.

Vindicate:
Wait, hang on… *reads card text again* … *grins*. I like me some desert twisters. I likes 'em even more at half price!! Disenchant plus critter kill, and maybe axe a dustbowl or port or something if need be! So good, so good!!

Ok, let us evaluate now… 4 black and white cards, all generically useful, all with solid abilities and reasonable casting costs… if I don't show up to the first ibc tourney with a b/w deck, I will be quite surprised at myself. And let's explore it a little more… what else could we toss in a nice b/w deck…

Look! Phyrexian arena! Might as well howling mine myself, huh? And I'll be gaining life from the death grasp already, so the life loss is minimal. Mmmh… bonus card advantage… *drools*
How about some more critters…
I heard that Scuta guy was pretty good, might as well give him a try.
And there is that one white and two colorless for a 3/3 flying angel with a drawback… maybe she's playable… I dunno though, it is a pretty annoying drawback.
How about the voice of all? She's pretty good. The double white in conjunction with the double black of the arena isn't all that great though. Let's try and find some more black critters.
Wumpus in type 2 maybe… but he doesn't synch up with the new boa we're using…
A Mercenary or Rebel chain in type 2 would be an excellent accent to these superb spells though.
But back to IBC…
Where's the soldier zombie? Maybe that guy will be spiffy. I hope it's not that putrid warrior though… then again, the gaining life thing could work with the Scutas and arenas…
Marauding knight/crusading knight might be good. More protection critters would accent the new boa and (if you are going heavy white) the voice of all.
Phyrexian Battleflies are cheap and not altogether inefficient…
Ravenous rats are more card advantage…
Trench worm is of reasonable size and has a decent special ability…
Djinns are on the higher end of the curve but could very well be made use of…
Apprentices (the new opposing color ones) also might be ok… maybe…
And of course, there's the new b/w pain land and Dromar's cavern from the previous set to support the opposing color base… and maybe even that land that you have to pitch a card to untap… you are reaping mad card advantage so far, might as well put it to use…

Whatever you think would work, probably could, because of how solid the initial 4 black and white cards are. Just no Reya's please… then again…you could use the black half of the black/green split card to jump her into play… maybe I'm getting a bit wacky now, but ya never know. These are just the first thoughts that popped into my head as far as cohesiveness with the set goes, so anything I say that turns out to be goofy later on, please disavow any knowledge of. Mmmmh… desert twister sale… half off… *drools*

And incidentally, isn't (Tim) Stoltzfus a Kjeldoran outpost fan? I believe I have heard him speak of the glory days of counter post before…
Has he seen the new red/white enchantment that pumps out 2 guys for saccing a land? Hmmm…

I dunno. Regardless, I'll stop rambling now and let you have fun on your own with the new set. There are still plenty of good cards that aren't black/white in the new set, so let's see what turns up. Until next time… mmmmh… cheap desert twisters…

 


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