|
|
| |
|
| ||
|
 |
by Kevin McLaughlin, Senior Editor
Weatherlight Analysis Anyone who does not have a copy of the Weatherlight spoiler list, march your terminal straight down to www.nground.com and get one. Then start saving your pennies. WoTC's got another winner here. My first peeks at the set showed some cool cards. It wasn't till I had a chance to review the list in depth that I realized how cool this set is going to be. A couple of things stand out about Weatherlight. First, its a very balanced set. Looking at Pendrell Mists, you might think that creature decks are hurting badly. But then looking at the Bubble Matrix and Dense Foliage, you realize that creature heavy decks are still doing pretty well. Second, there's very little chaff. In every set are those cards you look at and kind of ask "Why would I _ever_ play this?". You know, like Lichenthrope. Weatherlight has very little chaff. In fact, many of the best cards in the set are commons and uncommons! Cards like the Chimeric Sphere, a decent replacement for jade statues; Mind Stone, a Felwar Stone with a built in cantrip power; Serrated Biskelion, a 2/2 serrated arrows. There is finally an uncommon Rainbow land in the Gemstone Mine! Black has cool common/uncommons like Abyssal Gatekeeper, which kills other creatures when it dies; Agonizing Memories, right between Painful Memories and Stunted Growth in power; Festering Evil, a kind of permanent low-grade Pestilence; Fledgeling Djinn, Juzam's little brother with flying; Haunting Misery, which gives black more direct damage; Hidden Horror, essentially a 4/4 flying Balduvian Hordes which will be great once Plowshares leaves us again; Odylic Wraith, with swampwalk and saboteur discard; Shattered Crypt, which black weenie should love; Strands of Night, the ultimate reanimation spell, and Tendrils of Despair - more discard! Blue gets a new version of Control Magic in Abduction; Abjure and Disrupt to help them counter more spells; Argivian Restoration to bring back things like Disks, Caps, and Icies; Cloud Djinn as a FatMoti replacement; Relearn to bring back almost anything the 'Restoration can't; and Teferi's Veil, which is too powerful for words to say in the right deck. Green gets some immense creatures! Artic Wolves - ponder these guys with Wildebeasts; Barishi - pretty cool possibilities; Briar Shield, which gives the permanence of Armor of Thorns plus the threat and extra protection of Giant Growth; Fallow Wurm, a 4/4 for 3 mana!; Familiar ground, which makes your big creatures MUCH better; Gaea's Blessing, which might just shut down depletion decks; Llanowar Sentinel - in the early game, it's a 2/3 for 3 mana, in the late game, it's card advantage; Rogue Elephant - a 3/3 for 1 mana!!!; and Uktabi Efreet, a 5/4 for 4 mana... Many of these creatures have drawbacks, but drawbacks were meant to be played around, right? Red gets some heavy anti-creature in Aether Flash, which hits every creature for 2 when it comes into play; Cone of Flame, which hits three targets; Goblin Vandal, another saboteur with a cute ability; Lava Hounds - 4 damage to me, 4 to you, 4 to you, 4 to you...; Lava Storm - read as Pyroclasm - for your opponent; Orcish Settlers - you must not let these live to see their first upkeep; and thunderbolt - sure it only targets flyers and players, but... And White can cast Alms, Angelic Renewal, and Empyrial Armor to rescue creatures; Argivian Find brings enchantments or artifacts back to your hand; Benalish Knight, Duskrider Falcon (another Pro Black!), and Master of Arms are great weenies; Heavy Ballista gives White some creature based creature removal; and Serra's Blessing has some interesting possibilities. Hot cards for the set, in my opinion, will be: Bosium Strip, Bubble Matrix, Mana Web, Doomsday, Morinfen, Pendrell Mists, Tolarian Entrancer, Dense Foliage (!!!), Fungus Elemental, Nature's Resurgence, Tranquil Grove, Fervor, Goblin Bomb (cute, albeit not very effective), Heart of Boarden, Maraxus of Keld, Thundermare, Abeyance, Debt of Loyalty, Inner Sanctum, and maybe Lotus Vale. Weatherlight will also spark some deck changes. Reanimator decks might get enough of a boost to become tourney viable. White Weenie has gotten an extra charge. Discard is back in the running. Valley/Squandered Stasis now has 12 rainbow lands available. Battleford with black charms and Nature's Resurgence should be awesome. With the two Argivian spells, Caps will be out in force. Big Green has Dense Foliage to help it out, and with some countermagic to stop wraths and disenchants, might be a contender. Everyone will be trying the Tolarian Entrancer/Bubble matrix combo, but no one will really get it to be reliable. Teferi's Veil will launch an awesome array of decks. And Fervor may make the Emberwlde Djinn a dangerous card. Overall, the sets promises to be lots of fun, with brand new strategies and the resurgence of old ones. July should be an exciting time to play.
Kevin McLaughlin
|
|