[Type 4] Zendikar

[Farandar]

It begins with a fun counterspell :

Mindbreak Trap - 2UU
Instant - Trap (Mythic Rare)
If an opponent cast three or more spells this turn, you may pay rather than pay Mindbreak Trap's mana cost.
Exile any number of target spells.
"Life is a maze. This is one of its dead ends."
- Noyan Dar, Tazeem lullmage
Illus. Christopher Moeller
#57/249

This one should be played pretty much everywhere : it's at least a great multi-counterspell that exiles its targets (exiles ! its targetS ! huge !), and in multiplayer, it will often be a free one. Alas, it's mythic, thus expensive (as quoted from Shakespeare's "Tempest" - pun inside).

Electropotence - 2R
Enchantment (Rare)
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may pay . If you do, that creature deals damage equal to its power to target creature or player.
Illus. Christopher Moeller

Vicious shadows is rumored to be broken. What about this ? Seems too good to be played or to stay on battlefield (sic).

Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet - 5BB
Legendary Creature - Vampire Warrior (Mythic Rare)
{B}{B}, : Destroy target creature. If that creature is put into a graveyard this way, put a black Vampire creature token onto the battlefield. Its power is equal to that creature's power and its toughness is equal to that creature's toughness.
5/5
Illus. Todd Lockwood
#99/249

If anyone still plays Visara or even Royal Assassin, this should be a perfect upgrade. Seems too slow anyway, but the reanimator-like ability seems very nice.

The landfall ability developed in this extension is sadly anti-synergic with the core rules of Type 4, but two good cards and a not-soooooooo-bad in a few preview ones are not that terrible so far.

What do you think of these ? Let us know of brand new spoiled cards from Zendikar !

[Farandar]

After Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, another planeswalker that might be playable

Chandra Ablaze - 4RR
Planeswalker - Chandra (Mythic Rare)
[+1]: Discard a card. If a red card is discarded this way, Chandra Ablaze deals 4 damage to target creature or player.
[-2]: Each player discards his or her hand, then draws three cards.
[-7]: Cast any number of target red instant and/or sorcery cards from your graveyard without paying their mana cost.
5
Illus. Steve Argyle
#120/249

It either can be played as a blast on a long-term view (two turns) or a draw engine on a short term view (two turns).
Have you ever noticed that the Violent ultimatum some of us might play in T4 stacks is a red thing

[Wagner]

After Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, another planeswalker that might be playable

Chandra Ablaze - 4RR
Planeswalker - Chandra (Mythic Rare)
[+1]: Discard a card. If a red card is discarded this way, Chandra Ablaze deals 4 damage to target creature or player.
[-2]: Each player discards his or her hand, then draws three cards.
[-7]: Cast any number of target red instant and/or sorcery cards from your graveyard without paying their mana cost.
5
Illus. Steve Argyle
#120/249

It either can be played as a blast on a long-term view (two turns) or a draw engine on a short term view (two turns).
Have you ever noticed that the Violent ultimatum some of us might play in T4 stacks is a red thing

I don't think its playable. A couple of reasons.

1. 4 damage is not enough to kill most creatures in T4.
2. You need to have a red card to do 4 damage, that alone is situational unless you draft red only for this card.
3. There are not that many red instant/sorcery cards to cast.
4. Since you need 3 turns, it is unlikely that anyone will let you get to 7 if you have something relevant in your graveyard.
5. Even the -2 ability, the best, is somewhat situational since you might not want to play it right now or you might help other people more than anything else.

I could see it played solely as a bad draw, but even then, just play Concentrate.

[Lysyc12]

Hideous End   
Instant 
Destroy target nonblack creature. Its controller loses 2 life.
 
Solid creature kill.  Not too flashy, still a solid addition to many stacks.

Sorin Markov   
Planeswalker - Sorin 
+2 Sorin Markov deals 2 damage to target creature or player and you gain 2 life.
-3 Target opponent's life total becomes 10.
-7 You control target player's next turn.
4

Great planeswalker.  His plus ability isn't stellar, but it's hardly a bad one.  Also, his minus and ultimate abilities are both great.  Nicol Bolas is still better, but I think Sorin makes a fine addition to a lot of stacks.

[psly4mne]

Mindbreak Trap is a cool counterspell, but it will very rarely be more than a Dissipate. Play it, but realize that exiling spells (rather than countering) and the alternate cost will rarely matter.

Electropotence already exists - it's called Pandemonium, and nobody plays it.

Kalitas is a good upgrade. We've been happy with Visara, and he's better.

Sorin Markov is not such a good planeswalker. His ultimate takes two turns of basically doing nothing to charge up, and it will almost never survive long enough to activate. His minus ability is hurt badly by being sorcery speed.

I don't see any of the cards spoiled so far as having a real impact on type 4.

[Wagner]

Mindbreak Trap is a cool counterspell, but it will very rarely be more than a Dissipate. Play it, but realize that exiling spells (rather than countering) and the alternate cost will rarely matter.

Electropotence already exists - it's called Pandemonium, and nobody plays it.

Kalitas is a good upgrade. We've been happy with Visara, and he's better.

Sorin Markov is not such a good planeswalker. His ultimate takes two turns of basically doing nothing to charge up, and it will almost never survive long enough to activate. His minus ability is hurt badly by being sorcery speed.

I don't see any of the cards spoiled so far as having a real impact on type 4.

You forgot that Mindbreak Trap counter ANY number of spells. It puts it far above all regular counterspells, just better than Double Negative and worse than Swift Silence. There a a lot of occasions when you don't want any of the spells on the stack to resolve.

Oh, this was just spoiled, I think we have a contender.

Iona, Shield of Emeria
   6www
Legendary Creature - Angel    Mythic Rare
Flying
When Iona, Shield of Emeria enters the battlefield chose a color.
Your opponents can't play spells of the chosen color.
   7/7

Big body, check, evasion, check, stops all your opponent from using counterspells, check. You will obviously name blue 90% of the time since it doesn't affect you, and it will create nice and funny situations across the table has everyone has limited options to deal with it.

[Farandar]

this Will be a collective answer.

About mindbreak trap : it removes Progenitus, and that's good enough to me

About Chandra : you're about right with your comparison : it's a modal Concentrate. But since it's modal and  (somehow) recursive, it's better than concentrate. And if there are indeed a few spells playable in red, it comboes well with painter's servant. Who plays that ? Well nobody, I guess but with chandra 2.0 and the big fatty angel, it might occur more often... It's still a bit light a choice to justify painter's but we already have Fow, Misdi, Commandeer and Grindstone to make a colorfull t4 stack.

The angel is awful, i will want one and already know it will be a pain to grab one (mythic angels are collectors favorites...)

Electropotence is actually bad since it's a clone of pandemonium, my bad.

Hideous end... Well we got plenty of these, i guess i'll check if it can upgrade one of my current  removal, that I hardly believe.

Sorin... Bah, there's already a flying sphinx fatty bringing an opponent's lifepoints to 10, so what's the point ?

[Wobbles]

Electropotence is almost certainly good enough, although it depends on how much burn you want in your stack. Pandemonium was always on the fence due to the symmetry of its effect. No one ever wanted to cast it if it would mean your opponents would get to use it on you first. E'potence doesn't have that drawback. I could easily see it replacing Fires of Yavamaya in my stack, which is a typically underrated card. With enough good removal effects, the ability to get value immediately from creatures can be quite important.

Also, my stack uses the rule that playing a spell by basically any alt. casting cost means you don't have to use your spell for the turn. Even if the alt casting cost requires some mana. It typically does cool things to the Bringers, Fist of Suns, Suspend cards, and evoke guys. The exceptions are morph and flashback. Because of this rule, I'm excited for the Trap instants besides Mindbreak.  So far this only includes Whiplash and Lavaball (which isn't going to work), but Whiplash seems like a great addition. Not nearly as good as Resounding Wave, but neat anyway. I've got high hopes for the other 8ish trap cards.

[VikingMetal4L]

Oh, mythic rares.  They're kind of a pain to get a hold of, but you've got to remember that uber-rarity allows Wizards to print more big splashy spells like Nicol Bolas Planeswalker without alienating serious constructed players.  That's a trade off I'm glad to make anyway, as I'm always trying to ratchet up the average power level of sorcery-speed spells in my stack.  (And often when a new mythic creature is printed that isn't significantly more powerful than the average beater in my stack, it can still be significantly more AWESOME.  Even those beautiful red expansion symbols increase the visceral response.  I'm looking at ARB's Defiler of Souls as an example card in this category.)

Anyway, the value of Mindbreak Trap is obvious--a "bad" Time Stop is still well above baseline for counterspells.  For the second best card spoiled thus far, I'd probably have to...

Agree with Wobbles on Electropotence, that the right way to think of it is as granting your attackers a kind of unblockable super-haste.  The comparison with Pandemonium is obviously unfair, as any symmetrical effect, regardless of power, will more often than not be a complete waste of your spell in Type 4.  Outside of your everyday 7/7 beaters, Electropotence goes very well with Pentavus, Chainer+sacrificers (BOOSH?), Mistmeadow Witch, Wydwen (this may be a nonstandard choice for T4), Kokusho, Protean Hulk, Dark Depths, Multani, any firebreathers you might be running, and of course Sekki Seasons' Guide (whom I'll be reinstating shortly).  I swear, one of these days, there's going to be a critical mass of cards that combo-kill with Pentavus that it will be the next Glarecaster... you'll see.

After that, Iona will probably get the nod from me, though it looks like the kind of thing that dies pretty quickly on account of being annoying and not having Shroud, so really doesn't help its caster very much.  The text has the kind of mythic-rare AWESOME I mentioned above, but the artistic flavor leaves a strange feeling in my stomach: http://www.magic-ville.com/fr/gazette/show_article?ref=442 .  Kalitas is fine too I guess, but I'm kind of indifferent to him and probably won't bother if I don't open one in a draft.

I'm not impressed by Chandra Ablaze--the +1 ability is like Liliana Vess' except you can only target yourself.

In recent sets, my baseline for creature spot removal has become Unmake/STP, so I also reserve the right to be unimpressed with Hideous End and all other Dark Banishing remakes.

Quinn

[Farandar]

Some may say I'm changing my mind as often as my shirt, as we say in french, but I'm glad to see that Electropotence is the not-so-bad card I suspected

Here's a new candidate, that seems powerful but slooooooooooooow

Archmage Ascension - 2U
Enchantment (Rare)
At the beginning of each end step, if you drew two or more cards this turn, you may put a quest counter on Archmage Ascension.
As long as Archmage Ascension has six or more quest counters on it, if you would draw a card, you may instead search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle your library.
Illus. Christopher Moeller

I guess everyone will agree to say it's a kind of joke when you can play an Aladdin's Lamp...

[Wagner]

Some may say I'm changing my mind as often as my shirt, as we say in french, but I'm glad to see that Electropotence is the not-so-bad card I suspected

Here's a new candidate, that seems powerful but slooooooooooooow

Archmage Ascension - 2U
Enchantment (Rare)
At the beginning of each end step, if you drew two or more cards this turn, you may put a quest counter on Archmage Ascension.
As long as Archmage Ascension has six or more quest counters on it, if you would draw a card, you may instead search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle your library.
Illus. Christopher Moeller

I guess everyone will agree to say it's a kind of joke when you can play an Aladdin's Lamp...

Crappy crap, in multiplayer, people will not you let ramp that to 6, and even if you do, you become the #1 target. Also, not that easy to draw multiple cards all the time.

[Farandar]

You developped what I meant by "slooooooooooooooooooow".
Let's see what's next.

For now we have :
Mindbreak Trap : must have
Electropotence : nice blast addition
Iona : Big flying fatty with a nice app that could easily make it in any stack
Kalitas : great upgrade for visara and the "tap to destroy" like.
Hideous end : might be an upgrade if you're running low with removal

Not that bad for only 70 cards spoiled.

[VikingMetal4L]

The infinite Angel-maker, Luminarch Ascension, is pretty hilarious.  It is very literally a huge sign saying "HAY GUYS KILL ME PLZ," and then if they don't, you're in a pretty good position to win on the spot.

I've been testing out a few cards that go "infinite" by themselves, most recently Shivan Dragon, and they seem to be fine in small numbers.  That said, this is much, much stronger than Shivan Dragon, and I for one won't be running it.  Maybe the people who run multiple hasty firebreathers in their stacks will go for it.

I really do like the design.  It simultaneously becomes better and worse with more players.

[Darklich528]

What do you guys think of Elemental Appeal?

Elemental Appeal RRRR
Sorcery     Rare
Kicker 5 (You may pay an additional 5 as you cast this spell)
Put a 7/1 red Elemental creature token with trample and haste onto the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. If Elemental Appeal was kicked, that creature gets +7/+0 until end of turn.

So it's a 14/1 trample that your opponent may be wary to use precious removal on since the threat doesn't stay on the board. (In the very least might dissuade other players from helping the player you're attacking) It doesn't seem particularly worse than Searing Wind which I play in my stack. (Other than it being a Sorcery)

Granted, with my stack we almost never draft and almost exclusively do sudden death (No starting hand) so that makes this card a little better.

[Farandar]

Have anyone noticed that Iona has a ccm of 9 ? Which makes it lovable by Grozoth ? (don't wanna see the children though !)

[Wagner]

What do you guys think of Elemental Appeal?

Elemental Appeal RRRR
Sorcery     Rare
Kicker 5 (You may pay an additional 5 as you cast this spell)
Put a 7/1 red Elemental creature token with trample and haste onto the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. If Elemental Appeal was kicked, that creature gets +7/+0 until end of turn.

So it's a 14/1 trample that your opponent may be wary to use precious removal on since the threat doesn't stay on the board. (In the very least might dissuade other players from helping the player you're attacking) It doesn't seem particularly worse than Searing Wind which I play in my stack. (Other than it being a Sorcery)

Granted, with my stack we almost never draft and almost exclusively do sudden death (No starting hand) so that makes this card a little better.

I think it's very fine, compare this to any haste flyer, do they really stay in play for 3 attacks? The only downside is that everyone will probably want to counter him unless you are very clear at who you want to hit.

[Nefarias]

What do you guys think of Elemental Appeal?

Elemental Appeal RRRR
Sorcery     Rare
Kicker 5 (You may pay an additional 5 as you cast this spell)
Put a 7/1 red Elemental creature token with trample and haste onto the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. If Elemental Appeal was kicked, that creature gets +7/+0 until end of turn.

So it's a 14/1 trample that your opponent may be wary to use precious removal on since the threat doesn't stay on the board. (In the very least might dissuade other players from helping the player you're attacking) It doesn't seem particularly worse than Searing Wind which I play in my stack. (Other than it being a Sorcery)

Granted, with my stack we almost never draft and almost exclusively do sudden death (No starting hand) so that makes this card a little better.

I think it's very fine, compare this to any haste flyer, do they really stay in play for 3 attacks? The only downside is that everyone will probably want to counter him unless you are very clear at who you want to hit.

I like it too, but I think it has a completely opposite effect (at least in the way that I play). Unless I was at >14, didn't have removal/blockers, and couldn't be certain that I wasn't getting attacked, I would HATE to counter this thing. That or if I was CERTAIN that I was getting attacked, and even then I'd have to think about it (I hate countering Searing Wind, for example). The thought wouldn't even cross my mind in any other situation. It's only gonna hurt one player, so wasting a counter when there's a chance that it will do nothing but benefit me seems poor. So in a way, this is actually a semi-uncounterable (in that you won't counter it if you don't know it's coming for you), sorcery speed Searing Wind. Seems fun.

[Darklich528]

What do you guys think of Elemental Appeal?

Elemental Appeal RRRR
Sorcery     Rare
Kicker 5 (You may pay an additional 5 as you cast this spell)
Put a 7/1 red Elemental creature token with trample and haste onto the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. If Elemental Appeal was kicked, that creature gets +7/+0 until end of turn.

So it's a 14/1 trample that your opponent may be wary to use precious removal on since the threat doesn't stay on the board. (In the very least might dissuade other players from helping the player you're attacking) It doesn't seem particularly worse than Searing Wind which I play in my stack. (Other than it being a Sorcery)

Granted, with my stack we almost never draft and almost exclusively do sudden death (No starting hand) so that makes this card a little better.

I think it's very fine, compare this to any haste flyer, do they really stay in play for 3 attacks? The only downside is that everyone will probably want to counter him unless you are very clear at who you want to hit.

I like it too, but I think it has a completely opposite effect (at least in the way that I play). Unless I was at >14, didn't have removal/blockers, and couldn't be certain that I wasn't getting attacked, I would HATE to counter this thing. That or if I was CERTAIN that I was getting attacked, and even then I'd have to think about it (I hate countering Searing Wind, for example). The thought wouldn't even cross my mind in any other situation. It's only gonna hurt one player, so wasting a counter when there's a chance that it will do nothing but benefit me seems poor. So in a way, this is actually a semi-uncounterable (in that you won't counter it if you don't know it's coming for you), sorcery speed Searing Wind. Seems fun.

That is exactly what I was thinking! Searing Wind at least you know the target in terms of countering purposes. With this thing, you have no idea who is getting attacked and if you're skeptical, it really sucks using removal to save somebody else. (Which is even more precious in sudden death)

[Wobbles]

Needlebite Trap   5bb
Instant - Trap    Uncommon
If an opponent gained life this turn, you may pay rather than pay Needlebite Trap's mana cost.
Target player loses 5 life and you gain 5 life.

This seems interesting, especially if you allow the trap cards to be played for "free" if they just fell for the trap. Burn in general is great in my type 4, and free burn especially. And Drain life cards so rarely come at instant speed.

[VikingMetal4L]

Legendary octopus FTW.

[Farandar]

I guess you're talking about Cthulhu :

Lorthos, the Tidemaker - 5UUU
Legendary Creature - Octopus (Mythic Rare)
Whenever Lorthos, the Tidemaker attacks, you may pay . If you do, tap up to eight permanents. Those permanents don't untap during their controllers' next untap steps.
When Lorthos emerges from his deepwater realm, the tide bows to his will and the coastline cowers in his presence.
8/8
Illus. Kekai Kotaki
#53/249

Big body but no evasion, a nice ability depending on attack but not damaging people, and targeting permanents whoever controls them (and not only defending player)... but no haste.
I wonder if Yosei is not simply better (dragon, which has a lot of interactions), flying and making nice things on dying. And as far as I remember, I'm not playing Yosei in my stack...

[Public Service]

The big octopus seems quite fun. I'll find a space for him if I manage to draft one but I won't go out of my way to buy him.

[VikingMetal4L]

What do you mean no evasion??  When I first looked at the card, I felt that, like all the Krakens before him, he should have trample or be unblockable.  But I realized that would almost be redundant, so I'm glad it was left off.

I will concede that without shroud, the card fails to challenge the truism that "creatures still suck."  But it's a very well-designed tentacle monster that will sometimes be relevant.

Also: guaranteed unplayable in constructed, so the online price should stabilize around $1.

[Farandar]

What ? You mean a tapped blocker can't block ? Yeah I do need some sleep...

[Lysyc12]

Couple of new ones from the MTGSalvation forums:

Hellkite Charger  
Creature -- Dragon
Flying, Haste
When it attackes you may pay 5RR if you do untap all creatures you control and get another attack step
5/5

Probably waaaay to broken for most stacks (infinate attacks = bad times) but hey, some people play Aggrivated Assault.

Rite of Replication  
Sorcery
Kicker  
Put a token that is a copy of target creature onto the battlefield. If Rite of Replication was kicked, instead put five of those tokens onto the battlefield.
 
Still not sure if it's real, but friggin awesome if it is!

[VikingMetal4L]

Unstable Replication: WHAT THE FUCK???

Okay, that's freaking awesome, and I am stoked!  For the most part you have to avoid legendary creatures, but can you imagine playing this on Kokusho?

EDIT: Also, new Repeal seems fine.

[Farandar]

My ! This set is bringing more and more fatties. Stacks are gonna shifting a lot of cards, imho.

Here are the ugly thing you might wanna play :

Mindbreak Trap : must have counter, only second to Time stop and tied with Swift silence, which doesn't target.
Electropotence : nice blast addition, better than Pandemonium since its controller is the only one who can activate it
Elemental Appeal : slower than Searing wind but more political since you don't have to target someone. Unfortunately, its sorcery speed can't make targetable by sunforger
Hellkite charger : A 5/5 Haste dragon with built-in infinite attacks with buddies : can be tutored through Scion of the Ur-Dragon and Imperila Hellkite so may be way too broken, but should be tried if you're running high on counters, removals and wrath likes.
Iona : Big flying fatty with a nice app that could easily make it in any stack
Lorthos, the Tidemaker : 8/8 with built-in gigadrowse on attacks. For my own stack, will replace Krosan Clouscraper which was nice since could be played as a free morph spell (with all the trickery morphed creatures can imply).
Unstable replication : can give you, remove a an army of fatties in one spell, or remove a Legendary creature at sorcery spell. Somehow a modal spell, since. Hideous interaction with Kokusho (basically reads : "this spell resolve, all opponents die")
Kalitas : great upgrade for visara and the "tap to destroy" like. Some might wanna keep suncrusher since it can bounce itself and can be tutored by grozoth...
Hideous end : might be an upgrade/alternative if you're running low with removal
Aether tempest : might be an upgrade/alternative if you're running low with removal or high with tokens-generators

[Wagner]

Imperila Hellkite so may be way too broken, but should be tried if you're running high on counters, removals and wrath likes.

Trouble with him is that has haste, I'm already not a fan of cards that kill a player in one shot, and this one kills all players in one shot. He is obviously a must counter, but a card tat is a must counter 99% of the time is most likely boring.

[Wobbles]

Sadistic Sacrament
BBB
Sorcery - rare
Kicker 7
Search target player's library for up to three cards, exile them, then that player shuffles his or her library. If Sadistic Sacrament was kicked, instead search that player's library for up to fifteen cards, exile them, then that player shuffles his of her library.

Big, splashy effect, especially for a sorcery. Really hard to evaluate, but it strikes me as the kind of card that has a lot of variance in its value. Much better in two player for example, but also great in larger group games that tend to go long. It's also interesting for your ability to cast it on yourself. Removing the fifteen worst cards could be a huge boon, but is it worth your opponents countering? I don't know, but I really like the use of kicker to move a decent spell to insane. It certainly plays well with the "get lots of land" theme of Zen, as well as giving some fun cards for T4. Rite of Replication is definitely replacing doppelganger ASAP.

 

[Public Service]

So far, with 170 cards spoiler, I have these on my to-get list:

Conqueror's Pledge
Iona, Shield of Emeria
Lorthos, the Tidemaker
Mindbreak Trap
Rite Of Replication
Sphinx of Lost Truths
Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
Sorin Markov
Summoning Trap
Terra Stomper