Standard Turn Vintage:What does Champions of Kamigawa bring?

[Cjkory]

Mirrodin Block brought to Vintage some great cards. Some great examples are: Crucible of Worlds, Skullclamp, Chrome Mox, Glimmervoid, Sundering Titan, Trinisphere, Thirst for Knowledge, Platinum Angel, Chalice of the Void as well as many others. But what does the new upcoming set Champions of Kamigawa have in store for us???

Recently I've been looking over many spoilers on the internet for cards to watch for in Vintage. MTGNews.com has compiled a great new spoiler and there has been a few cards I see being tested soon in Vintage.

Reciprocate - W
Instant
Remove from the game target creature that dealt damage to you this turn.

This card seems to possibly be a remake of the classic Swords to Plowshares. Of course the card had to be changed for the Standard environment, but i can see it being fooled around with in Vintage. Its just as cheap, doesnt give the opponent more life, and it still removes the threat from the game. Unfortunately the fact that the creature must deal damage to you can be a huge disadvantage.

Kiki-Jiki Mirror Breaker - 2RRR
Legendary Creature - Goblin Shaman
Haste
T: Put a creature token into play that's a copy of target nonlegendary creature you control. That creature token has haste. Sacrifice it at end of turn.

This is another one of Wizards attempts at creature reproduction. Though its cost is a bit high, especially 3 colored mana, Vintage players know that in this format there are many alternate ways to play cards. This card has combo written all over it. Creatures with comes into play abilities come to mind.

_____ - R
Instant
_____ deals 3 damage to _____

Not much is known about this card at the moment, but what is known makes it a card to look into. Three damage for one mana is great and for it to be an instant I can see this card being played. What is troubling though is the closest thing to lightning bolt (3 damage to creature or player for one red mana) was Incinerate that costs 1 colorless more. This leads me to believe that the spell doesnt give the player a choice of targets.

Boseiju, Who Shelters All
Legendary Land
Boseiju, Who Shelters All comes into play tapped.
Pay 2 life, T: Add 1 to your mana pool. If that mana is spent on an instant or sorcery spell, that spell can't be countered by spells or abilities.

In a world of counters Vintage players have tried to avoid having their spells countered. The most recent card for this was Last Word which turned out to be too expensive to play and usless in counter wars using the stack. The next idea was creature abilities that counter as in voidmage prodigy that is played in U/R Fish. It worked fine but u needed to successfully play the creature and have more mana to use its ability so in the end it was expensive itself. This is a land that protects ur spells. The downsides are that it is a non basic land (strip mine, wastelands), it comes into play tapped, and u must pay 2 life each time, but in the end it turns out pretty good. Its a land therefore it can't be countered and its reusable. I feel 2 life is worth it to have ur spell resolve. Its main problem is alot of good cards today dont use colorless mana, especially cantrips. Ancestral Recall and Brainstorms are good examples.

These are just a few cards cards from the new set and the spoiler itself has very few cards, but i hope these will help everyone discover cards before they become hard to get.

[brendan]

Reciprocate is just awful. Requiring the creature to attack is what is wrong with almost every white removal spell they print. Not being able to remove Goblin Welder, Gorilla Shaman etc is an absolutely huge disadvantage.

The Mirror Breaker is inferior in almost every way to sneak attack, and that doesn't even get played.

The 3 point red spell isn't even worth bringing up really since it's never going to be as good as bolt/chain/incinerate.

Boseiju is very very interesting. It's probably unplayable because it has too many drawbacks. If it didn't come into play tapped then it would almost certainly be playable. If it produced coloured mana but did come into play tapped then it might (probably not) be playable. With both of those drawbacks I must sadly say nice try, but not good enough. I do like the card though.

[Diakonov]

Boseiju, Who Shelters All
Legendary Land
Boseiju, Who Shelters All comes into play tapped.
Pay 2 life, T: Add 1 to your mana pool. If that mana is spent on an instant or sorcery spell, that spell can't be countered by spells or abilities.

In a world of counters Vintage players have tried to avoid having their spells countered. The most recent card for this was Last Word which turned out to be too expensive to play and usless in counter wars using the stack. The next idea was creature abilities that counter as in voidmage prodigy that is played in U/R Fish. It worked fine but u needed to successfully play the creature and have more mana to use its ability so in the end it was expensive itself. This is a land that protects ur spells. The downsides are that it is a non basic land (strip mine, wastelands), it comes into play tapped, and u must pay 2 life each time, but in the end it turns out pretty good. Its a land therefore it can't be countered and its reusable. I feel 2 life is worth it to have ur spell resolve. Its main problem is alot of good cards today dont use colorless mana, especially cantrips. Ancestral Recall and Brainstorms are good examples.

I think that is exactly the problem with this card.  Clearly it is a powerful, reusable ability, but it's loaded up with so many drawbacks and conditions that it's just not worth it.  You end up with a huge tempo loss, a colorless land, and you probably will lose about 1 life per turn on average over the next ten turns.

Interesting card, though.

[Cjkory]

I agree how Reciprocate doesnt take out alot of staples of today. Wha thas been on my mind is all the lavamancers I see, but I completely agree. You can put it this way: Weak threats u wouldnt even mind having the opponent gain a couple life...and big huge creatures all ur doing is taking out a creature that has already did its damage to you. Your life differences r still the same. Either they gain or you lose, but it cant save you like swords you own creature.

My view on Kiki-Jiki is unlike sneak attack its easier to resuse. Sneak attack requires you to get the creature back to your hand.

And one red for 3 damage to a player would still be great. Plus with the unrestricting of Fork earlier today id like to see strict burn decks for fun again lol.

But Boseiju...come on i agree with you how there are downsides to it, but to have the sense or security knowing that your spell will hit. Also another way to use it is if you play it first turn...you know your opponent will strip it as soon as they can. Just the threat of it makes them use up their wasteland or strip mine.

[Cjkory]

I think that is exactly the problem with this card.  Clearly it is a powerful, reusable ability, but it's loaded up with so many drawbacks and conditions that it's just not worth it.  You end up with a huge tempo loss, a colorless land, and you probably will lose about 1 life per turn on average over the next ten turns.

Just curious, but where did you get 1 life lose per turn from???

[Diakonov]

I think that is exactly the problem with this card.  Clearly it is a powerful, reusable ability, but it's loaded up with so many drawbacks and conditions that it's just not worth it.  You end up with a huge tempo loss, a colorless land, and you probably will lose about 1 life per turn on average over the next ten turns.

Just curious, but where did you get 1 life lose per turn from???

I'm just roughly estimating, assuming you play about one spell with colorless mana in its cost every other turn.  The point is, for it to be effective, you will be losing a lot of life.

So far, I think the following card has the most potential:

Glimpse of Nature - G
Sorcery
Whenever you play a creature spell this turn, draw a card.
Unknown

I could imagine some type of Ravager-esque deck going nutty off this (i.e. Ornithopter and such).

[Cjkory]

I see where your coming from. I believe your on to something. Considering all the 0 cost creatures and affinity it could become a draw 7 for one green.

[wizmentor]

Finally, a use for retract - Storm me up!!
lol

[urza_insane]

The most interesting card (IMO) thus far is easily:

Glimpse of Nature - G
Sorcery
Whenever you play a creature spell this turn, draw a card.


Any spell that has the pntential of drawing more than 2 cards for one mana is obviously incredibly powerful, all this card needs is a good deck to go in. The first deck that comes to my mind with this card is a Kobold varient. The Kobold Clamp deck failed mainly because it couldn't win without getting a Clamp to stick the deck died, but with Glimpse of Nature you could still easily rack up 10 cards for storm. Who knows?

[brturn]

urza_insane,

I'm not convinced of the Kobold angle on breaking Glimpse of Nature.  They do nothing by themselves, and without a Taskmaster (or other pumper), they can't even swing!  That's 12/60 of your deck 'wasted'.

I think Ravager/Afinity is much more likely, most of the cards already do something useful (at least swing).  Throw in Skullclamp and there's something to be proud of.

I could also see this used in the new Army of Squirrels as one of the card engines.

--Bryan

[Moxlotus]

urza_insane,

I'm not convinced of the Kobold angle on breaking Glimpse of Nature.  They do nothing by themselves, and without a Taskmaster (or other pumper), they can't even swing!  That's 12/60 of your deck 'wasted'.

I think Ravager/Afinity is much more likely, most of the cards already do something useful (at least swing).  Throw in Skullclamp and there's something to be proud of.

I could also see this used in the new Army of Squirrels as one of the card engines.

--Bryan

Except with AoS you aren't playing Squirrels and won't draw a bunch of cards because of it.

[urza_insane]

The Kobold angle is based off the Kobold Clamp deck, which you obviously don't know of. Your plan isn't to swing with the Kobolds, its to build up a storm count of ten using fast mana and skullclamp to draw off the Kobolds (where Glimpse of Nature can also be used). You then draw into a lethal Tendrils of Agony. The biggest problem was the reliance on Skullclamp and being shut down by Null Rod. Glimpse of Nature helps get around it. I'm in no way saying this will become a dominant deck, however i see it as being the best choice for glimpse of nature. Affinity based decks tend to dump all their creatures the first turn, so unless you can play glimpse of nature first turn, it won't do much. Playing Glimpse first turn with affinity may seem amazing, however if you draw it after the first turn the most you might get out of it is 2 cards. Plus green is off-color for the deck.

[Jacob Orlove]

This would go in regular community/rumors, but since you can't post there, I'll move it to basic community instead.

[Cjkory]

Thanks I forgot to ask somebody to switch it

[TimeBeing]

i think this could help mono black a lot

Cranial Extraction -
Sorcery - Arcane
Name a nonland card. Search target player's graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with that name and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
105/306
Rare


With dark rituls and moxs and such this can come out screaming fast with duress backup and more or less end games for many T1 Decks. Name Dragon Vs dragon, vs tog, Angel vs 4CC. Welder vs Wokshop could give balck some breathing room. Could change the meta and force people to play 2 different wins conditions.

I could see it played in other deck too since nameing force of will, or Mana drain can cripple lots of decks.

I see a nice void deck based on this.

[urza_insane]

That card might see some play. Dark Ritual help, but there aren't any decks that can support Dark Ritual (aside from combo). Is it time for sui to make a comeback   ?

[SpencerForHire]

Glimpse of Nature - G
Sorcery
Whenever you play a creature spell this turn, draw a card.
 
I was just looking at this and I was thinking one thing: Alternate Food to Ringleader in FCG.

[DrLambda]

Well, except for the fact that Ringleader costs 4 mana and gives you 5, and this costs 1 and gives you 0.