Whoah.

First cards !

Makes you the main target. But nice addition to any stack.

A Wrath effect, with a bonus. Not bad at all.

Ok, the activation is a bit fragile. But if it makes it only once, it could be a swing effect !

Vanilla disenchant, decent removal, and drawer. Not that bad. Don't sure it will make the cut, though.

I love the Crackling doom. Anything else you've seen ?

Some interesting stuff in that core set...


Sorcery speed but nice wrath effect. It's a 9 ccm, so you can fetch it with Grozoth.

Weak body with decent combat abilities, but a huge utility power... worth testing imho.

Vanilla removal. How bad can that be ?

I haven't seen anything else worth attention yet. Have you ?

Fated retribution is auto-include.

Mogis is a decent utility, one of those cards that could almost be an autocounter.



Coat of arms for Legendary : meh.
Demonic tutor for Legendary every turn : Not that bad. If you miss that kind of card. It won't be more than a buck, btw.

Not that much of a beater, but decent body, and a nice ability. Good enough ? Not sure. There is a cycle of these : the white one is a 2/2 giving first strike.

Nice upgrade for your vanilla counterspell.

Nice but not huge, a 7/9 deathtouch that will destroy all creatures.

Nice removal, instant speed.

Good new ones

A small body, but a very annoying one :

4/4 hexproof and indestructible. Not that bad. A bit small, yet.


This one is better. A 4/5, with deathtouch and Hexproof. Not bad. The "I Scry when you die" is a nice bonus. If you need deck manipulators...


A Necropotence that can turn into a beater ? Not bad.


A 2/3, this guy is an utility one. Untap all your creatures and lands, AND give creatures cards Flash ? YES PLEASE !

This guy is going to cost a bunch : a indestructible scry 1 for 3 that turns into a 5/5 indestructible...
In T4, it also gives full evasion to all your staff. Really not bad !

Really interesting mechanic : you'd rather play the Archon for its ACC (which makes it free in many stacks) and thus boosting a creature and keep an option when said creature dies. Like it.

So it begins


Disenchanting shock ? YES PLEASE
I hope this won't be THE big thing of this set, but it's nice.

Not a tremendous set AT ALL.

I've seen this last one...


Ok, it's slow, but Ertaï is slow. You can play this guy with a counterspell. Or with a Firemind's foresight. Or Dwarven's catapult. It's weak and fragile, but if you can protect it, my !

Nice in a chaos deck or a whacky stack

Errating cards is not my type of things. So I'd use Mindseeker as is. Which is quite good enough already.

Rise of the Dark Realms is huge, may be to much. Will need testing.

It's a reprint but I hadn't seen this one, and the original edition was kind hard to grab so it might interest people that one of the best upgrades for Withered Wretch is avalaible.


Edit : And BTW, this one seems a nice upgrade for Gruesome encore. Or you can use both

I'm doing an overhaul myself so here's my thoughts...

Body Double is outclassed by The mimeoplasm
Clone is always good but outclassed by Progenitor Mimic
Cryptoplasm is too slow to be worth.
Dimir Doppelganger : nothing to add at A1's comment
Evil Twin : nice but a bit slow
Phyrexian Metamorph : nice but has the cons of its pros since it's vulnerable to disenchant AND creature removal. Replicant has the same problems but can be tutored with Eye of Ugin, at least. And Replicant exiles its target while not copying the ability. I prefer Replicant, but really depends on your taste here.
Quicksilver Gargantuan : a fatty clone. Never been in the case where its 7/7 body was WEAKER than the one copied.
Sakashima, the Impostor : his auto-protection is too slow to be effective
Shapesharer : Hey, love it. Things worth of noting : it's a Changeling so Tribal effects as Scion of the ur-dragon or Faerie's trickery or Cruel revival affect it. It has a 2 CMC, so can be bring back into play with a Sun titan. Nice. Cons : it targets.
Vesuvan Doppleganger : Outclassed by the following
Vesuvan Shapeshifter : can change almost anytime he wants, adds bluff as long as it's first played into Morph, and can be a free spell if you apply the AAC rule for Morph.


Copy Spells [for creatures - are they even worth it.]

Cackling Counterpart : targets only yours, so cannot be a Legend removal. No.
Followed Footsteps : Progenitor Mimic has this on itself, now
Rite of Replication : Plus Kokusho. Or Djinn of Wishes. Or Diluvan Primordial. Or Sepulchral Primordial. Or Terrastodon... There are so many insane play out there with this card you should keep it.
Spitting Image : I love Lands in T4, since they are permanent and almost uncounterable free effects. But they are too few to justify the Retrace.

And we know everything of this extension.

Here's my short list :
Aetherling : A new morphling, quite as good, may be even better since it can evade sacrifice abilities.
Blast of genius : Missing coffee, but quite good nonetheless.
Catch / release : A sacrificing wrath + some stealing capability. Nice. EDIT : Will upgrade my old Confiscate...
Progenitor Mimic : A spawning Clone, can become a real problem very quickly. And like every clone, a legend killer.
Wear / Tear : Dual removal at instant speed. Hull Breach auto-upgrade.
Obzedat's aid : does nothing in early game, but a permanent in your yard is something people bothered to counter or removed, so should be quite worth the effort to bring it back.
Far/away : autoupgrade for diabolic edict if you still had it.

Worth at least to try it :
Ready / Willing : Love this combat trick / protection. Have to try it just to see if it's worth it.
Gaze of granite : I have to ckeck my wrathes list to see if this one can upgrade any. It destroys every kind of permanent BUT land so is something to consider for those having more and more planeswalkers. EDIT : can upgrade Planar Cleansing since you can play around your own stuff with the X cost.
Render silent : not sure to include this one, but I'll look to get him some place.
Turn / Burn : Destroys industructibles. Is it enough ?
Breaking / Entering : You can play entering with a target in mind, Breaking is then a bonus. Or you can offer yourself a chance to get something you don't know yet. Have to notice that effects that remove cards from the graveyard can't prevent Entering from working, thanx to Breaking (unless you have bad luck )

Ok, this one is huge. Only flaw : sorcery speed. But draw 3, discard one and deal a LOT of damages in a single card is pretty awesome. You can easily kill a player with that. Love it.

This one basically reads : "counter target wrath effect". But not only. It can be a game breaker combat trick ("I'm not left handed ! err... without blockers, I mean"). Not huge, but tasty polyvalence. Flaw : wrath-likes that exiles or demands sacrifice are not bothered by this one (and they are more and more nowadays).

Let me stole you this and sacrifice it, allowing me to keep my own stuff. Thanx !

Otherwise, it's a sort of wrath, with the sacrifice bonus.

16 power on board in the form of four 4/4 critters is quite nothing in a powerful stack. They can be an annoyance but most of the time they will swiped before they can do anything meaningful. But anyway, enough of this : Question of taste.

Here's something big and nice :
It doesn't target, juste as a Clone. But it brings little brother every turn. Love it.

An auto-include for a Chaos deck.

If you play with the ACC rule saying : "if the mana doesn't come from your infinite pool, it's a freebie", this one's for you. If not, well, it's juste an expensive counterspell.

I mention this one juste for the flavor. Ok, it's a 2/2. But it's indestructible. It's the kind of superblocker that can stick quite a long time, and turn into big troubles, forcing the opponent to keep a blocker available since it can gnaw its way 2 points after 2 points. Not immune to sacrifice effect, not big, not impressive, but the little something you forgot and bother you to death (and to victory).
The Battalion ability is a bit overkill, since attacking with 3 creatures in T4 is like having 20 horsepower on its way. It's still nothing to scoff at.

And player D ends up with 4 4/4 with no evasion or ability whatsoever, while C gets his bomb. My.

Anyway.


Not that tremendous, but a polyvalent card is alwats good. The good thing is you can target two creatures on the board, not from the same controler. Could turn very political or nasty combat trick.

Return to dust is a removal two at sorcery speed...

Wear // Tear is really a speedy-upgrade of Hull Breach.

Render silent is interesting in a certain stack : mine contains lots of freebies so all "counter everything and stop trying to cast anything" is a good addition. And I try to favor instants over sorceries, so Tidings and its Beck // call upgrade isn't for me.

The nice thing is : we have cards for every kind of stack, which is the best, I think.

Here are some news we could consider.

Instant removal for every creature you can target with a blue spell. It can kill things like dark/blightsteel colossus, can be tutored by a lot of things, and can even be a combat trick with a 2 ping flavor Really polyvalent.

Don't know what to think about this one :
It's a sorcery, but a milling effect for 8 + stealing permanently a hasted creature from an opponent's graveyard is not that bad. Potent effect. Question is : Potent enough ?

Rest of the spoiler so far isn't that tremendous. Varloz the scar striped is a graveyard converter, but I don't know if it's better than Lord of extinction and other Mortivore... It somehow protects itself, allowing itself to grow bigger in the same process but... Scavenge is a sorcery-speed thing, so I don't know, really. Chances are the cost of this card will sky rocket in standard and may be in Legacy...

Any thoughts ?

At instant speed ?
But I didn't precise in the first place, I agree.

Ok, new mechanic : Fuse. This applies to dual cards, Fire/ice style, and gives the caster the ability to play both halves of such cards rather to choose. Nice. But the cards including this option are so tremendous so far.


Seems the most playable. It reads : destroy target artifact AND/OR target enchantment. The main interests are : there were no such card allowing to destroy an artifact AND an enchantment in a single blow to this day. That you are not forced to have both targets are a great bonus. Moreover, Wear/tear is a Sunforger target. For Firemind's Foresight it can a 2CMC or a 1CMC target, allowing you to have two 3CMC spells !
Love it.
The other ones are way less powerful, IMHO.
Beck//Call gives four 1/1 flyers and a Draw4... At sorcery speed...
Toll // Trouble makes a player draw 2 for 2 life, and can also inflict 1 point per card in hand for this player... Not that thrilling.

Weak body. Let's see the utility abilities : a free twincast... Mhm. Not sure that's such a big deal, since you won't be able to use it right now (unless you managed to get Melek on board for free).

Nice unconditionnal counter, with a bonus you won't use if your stack doesn't include a lot of freebies. Can be tutored with Sunforger and Firemind's Foresight, too. Nice, really.

First candidate, a lesser version of Kaervek


Ruric is a reasonable beater, its ever-attacking stance is not such a problem since it has Vigilance. Its symetrical ability is a tough-one : 6 damage at a time is a hard beat.

But I do prefer Kaervek still. If you don't have your copy of the legendary shaman...

Lord of the void has the connect condition which is a veto for my own stack. Each turn or CIP triggering are way more efficient.

Black primordial is nice. While the blue one is something almost unheard of, as far as I remember, the black one seems to be an upgrade or a copy of thing already existing. Should do a biit of stack study to confirm this.
White one isn't that good, the drawback is a big con. People may actually want it to resolve in order to buy a few lifepoints.

The red one is another thing :

Don't know if it's better than Bringer of the red dawn. Guess it depends on which kind of game you prefer. Primordial is way more aggressive, Bringer is more political (and has an ACC).


Another wrath, a bit more expensive than the standard 4 CCM one, but it's modal.


Should be worth a single buck

Stolen Identity should replace a standard Clone if you still have it in your stack, IMHO.

What about this one :

5/5 flying, and offering from one to seven free spells when coming to town and cleaning opponents' graveyards ? Autoinclude, isn't it ?

Angel of Serenity
Not that big but if you can stack its abilities with a recurrent blink, could be very nice.

Cyclonic Rift
Better than Evacuation which was already good.

Grave Betrayal
Very strong indeed.

Necropolis Regeant
Not that big : it does nothing by itself, it's not THAT fat, it has to connect to do something. Seems a bit overkill, a "make you win when you're already winning" card.

Utvara Hellkite
It's a mythic dragon, so the foil card will cost a looooot. And the effect is once again not that big.

Worldspine Wurm
15/15 trample, ok, there is FAT. Gets back in the lib and spawns three 5/5 tramplewhen killed. Big, annoying, recursive, nice.

Counterflux
Maybe the best counter ever. Oh. Wait. Doesn't make you draw and doesn't have buyback. You know what to do, WoTC. Auto-include.

Epic Experiment
Powerfully dangerous, you'll want to live the dream and see how it turns. Too fun not to include.

Essence Backlash
Parallectric Feedback is the card with the highest body count in my stack. And it always happened with creatures. Auto-include for me.

Fall of the Gavel
Undermine, Absorb, Fall of the Gavel. A bit more expensive in a CMC way, but it's an unco. Go and get it

Firemind's Foresight
I think it's bigger and better than Conflux, which already was big. Stacks should have both.

Havoc Festival
I will put this in my chaos deck. But it's good indeed.

Hypersonic Dragon
Anything allowing you to play things at instant speed is good. It's a 4/4 dragon so it's not that bad (but it's fragile, then). Not the biggest card from the set, but a nice addition, imho.

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Better than Lord of extinction, which is not anymore in my stack. The Fling like ability, which you can use as an instant, is very good. Worth trying. Too bad you can't use its Raise dead ability in T4 (not in my rules, at least).

Supreme Verdict
Auto-include. Period.

I would add to your list :
Trostani's judgement
Exile target creature + populate as an instant : autoinclude.

Sundering growth
Disenchant + populate. Not that bad but not that big neither.

Psychic Spiral
Nice, but not that big...

Rogue's passage
Lands are always surprising in T4. It's not the biggest land ever, but I like it.

Damn, I've read the ruletip a hundred times and saw each time "target token creature you control". Damn. Thanx.

Not that big but could be a nice addition : free, recursive and almost uncounterable evasion is always good.

The populate addition is nice but narrow. I don't know if this is worth. BTW, can you play a "then populate" spell if you don't have any creature token under you control. Do you miss a target to make the spell legal or is just a bonus effect ?

Instant tutor for three instants ! The CMC restriction is tough, though. I guess you can get a lot of targets for it : Resounding spells, Orim's chant, unmake, Path to nowhere, Swords, some counterspells/disenchant/charms. Need a bit of stack study but I think it's worth it.

Love this one. Recursion on your yard AND milling effect on a single instant. Nice.

It's worse than that. If you play with the AAC rule, Counterflux is a FREE uncounterable "counter everyone else's spells".

Miss the buyback, though