Unreleased and New Card Discussion

[DirkGently]

Gisa, the Hellraiser seems like a fun mono-black commander. The interesting thing to me is I can imagine a bunch of different ways to build her. First is the standard Zombie deck. Next is to focus on a more spellslinger build to get zombies each turn.

I don't think it'll make much sense to focus on spellslinging as a method to commit crimes - dedicating an entire card to get the trigger is way overkill. And imagine if you want to trigger her but nothing on-board is worth killing.

Actually, what are the most efficient enablers for crimes? First thing that came to mind is Squee's Toy (just now realized that it's a pun on "squeeze toy" lmao), all-star of Horobi, Death's Wail, but there are actually-useful cards like Relic of Progenitus (most of the baubly grave hate) that give you a trigger every turn while providing the option to cantrip and have a useful effect while on-board too.

I had in my head that the en-kor critters were infinite enablers, but upon further inspection they only target your own stuff. So is the best we can do tap-ability stuff and 1-mana activations (Phelddagrif, Scavenging Ooze, etc)? I guess EDHrec will let us know pretty soon.

edit: some stuff from horobi that looks strong:

Retribution of the Ancients
Blood Artist (for unrelated reasons funny enough)
Orcish Bowmasters (thank goodness this card finally has a use)
Hylda's Crown of Winter
Mirage Mirror
Unspeakable Symbol (closest I've seen to unlimited crimes so far)
Oasis
Urborg

Man, people are running a lot of cantripping instants/sorceries in hokori...lmao...good luck with that...

[CommanderMaster999]

Geralf, the Fleshwright: every dang time zombies are involved they get typal support cards that are as busted as dragon typal card: this makes one zombie token for every spell after your first. And on top of that for the zombies that entered (which is the tokens by the way) it does Cathars' Crusade

[Lifeless]

Oh look another easy peasy outlet for Rooftop Storm infinite combo. I appreciate this one being on theme and will be adding it to Grimgrin immediately. I do not appreciate the excessive bookkeeping required for adding the counters if your opponents ask you to play it out.

[pokken]

Geralf, the Fleshwright: every dang time zombies are involved they get typal support cards that are as busted as dragon typal card: this makes one zombie token for every spell after your first. And on top of that for the zombies that entered (which is the tokens by the way) it does Cathars' Crusade

but...it's somehow not a zombie. Interestingly it does make Gravecrawler loops infinite with altar, which is nice. It's a pretty cool intuition package of him, sevinne's and Phyrexian Altar though :D Sadly it is worse than a Corpse Knight because it requires a turn to kill.

Overall I think it's a dud for me because it doesn't Patriarch's Bidding :D

[duducrash]

Its also not a bad payoff for spellslinger builds. you could play it with new malcon, Jori En, Ruin Diver , Veyran, Voice of Duality and so on

[kirkusjones]

I can't decide if the game is now Magic: The Hattening or Magic: The Memening.

[benjameenbear]

The answer is 'Yes'.

There's some cool cards in the set, not gonna lie. But the set just falls flat for me mostly because of how blatantly "in your face" it is with the Western stuff.

The only cool thing I actually really like is the new Rakdos, the Muscle. That's a slam dunk inclusion in my Kaalia list if I've ever seen one. Turning a spent A/D/D into a free spell is always a good time and the art's pretty cool too.

[Airi]

I was really depressed by the general aesthetic of all the landscape depicted. It's so... bland. And I grew up in one of the general areas they're basing the set off of, so it's even more depressing to me how few types of plants there are actually are. 99.9% of all the cards are just sand or one of two types of cacti at the expense of everything else.

There's almost no shrubs despite the giant tumbleweeds.

[Ardeyn]

Just like the Detective overload in Karlov Manor this set is overstuffed with Legends, Villains and (terrible) memes. It feels forced.
Still, there's some cool designs such as the new Satoru.
Forsaken Miner is an easy include for aristocrats strategies.
Goes infinite with Phyrexian Altar and Blood Artist or with Blasting Station and Pitiless Plunderer.

Ardeyn

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I actually love the flavor of this set. I'm a big Western fan and after what felt like 10 years on bland-ass Ravnica I'm hankering for some novel settings.

[Uncle_Krupi]

Timmies and Legendary addicts are eating good this season, neither of which are me, so I think my wallet will be pretty safe. Deck based comments:

Neyith Fight Club -- Far and away the best treated here
Aloe Alchemist -- Grants trample, triggers 3+power effects like Packleader, very efficient little guy
Colossal Rattlewurm -- Excellent value, deck doesn't run any Deserts but I could be convinced to
Smuggler's Surprise -- Just a very nice value for big creatures.dec, though I'm hesitant to run non-bodies generally
Vaultborn Tyrant -- Just a very high-value creature for its cost, if anything's making it in it's this guy
Outcaster Trailblazer -- Nice value on a body, certainly going to playtest her

Chun-Li Spellslinger Control -- Couple things to play around with
Geralf, the Fleshwright -- Another Talrand, very nice
Final Showdown -- My god. Protects Chun, neuters blockers, gives her a wrath (plus she's generally able to return to hand first). Auto run.
Three Steps Ahead -- More or less a straight upgrade to You Find the Villains' Lair
Thunder Lasso -- Free equip, power plays nice with lifelink/doublestrike, taps blockers. It's okay
Marauding Sphinx -- Possible finisher, the deck easily commits crimes through bounce/removal, deck also likes surveil, will playtest, not guaranteed
Slickshot Lockpicker -- Another Snapcaster, though the deck doesn't lack for recursion

Tazri Maskwood Rebels
Kellan Joins Up -- "Free" 3 CMC (which is half the deck), mass buff on legendary ETB (which happens a fair bit), will playtest
Annie Flash, the Veteran -- 3 CMC from yard to field is very nice, human tribal, good tap ability, can't rebel her into play unless I'm fine with skipping the recursion aspect though, hard maybe

Mardu Haakon Knights
"Lively Dirge" -- Another entomb effect is auto-include

Twelfth Doctor Radiating Spells
Crimes in general are very easy for this deck to pull off as its lots of targeted cantrips, however few crime options in Jeskai so far
Form a Posse -- Another mass token generator, this time with abilities, not terrible, not Forth Eorlingas! though
Slickshot Lockpicker -- Another Snapcaster

Kamiz Ninjas
Key to the Vault -- Nice equip, will playtest, not amazing
Satoru, the Infiltrator -- Good value and a ninja enabler with Menace, will playtest

WURG Token Copy Populate
Spinewoods Armadillo -- Another Greater Tanuki of sorts, I love cards like this, better body but doesn't ramp, still fixes in 4 colors and a nice body to copy

Jenny & Vastra Eggs, Counters
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower -- Nice +1/+1 counter generator, will playest
Transmutation Font -- Kind of neat card, might generate enough value for 5 + 3 mana, not sure

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Tempting New Commanders
None, though I love the new Jolene, Plundering Pugilist art of her punching someone out of their boots that I may make a budget deck for her. Maybe.

---

Squee's Toy (just now realized that it's a pun on "squeeze toy" lmao)

[Serenade]

Demonic Ruckus is an outstanding T1 play for an aggro general that already has haste.

[CommanderMaster999]

Graywater could be handy for token deck

[NZB2323]

Sheriff of safe passage might actually be good in Éowyn, Shieldmaiden. You can plot him a turn before casting Eowyn, triggering her. And if you play him later in the game he can be really big when you have a bunch of humans in play. He also has Knight synergy with Knight Exemplar, Inspiring Veteran, and Marshal of Zhalfir.

[5colorsrainbow]

I actually love the flavor of this set. I'm a big Western fan and after what felt like 10 years on bland-ass Ravnica I'm hankering for some novel settings.

Yeah westerns aren't my thing but I'm always loving when magic does something non-traditional in fantasy.

I also don't mind the comedy/ meme-ness also after a year of phyrexia.

[Mookie]

Less stuff today after the initial flurry of spoilers, but still some fun stuff. Mechanics-wise, it does indeed look very midrangey / value-focused.

• Rakdos Joins Up reanimates on ETB and burns people when your stuff dies. Seems fun for Vaevictis, which is a thing I'm now tracking. There's probably a combo somewhere with Bladewing the Risen or some other card, but I don't hate the baseline of '5 mana reanimation effect with upside'. It reminds me of Invasion of Tolvada // The Broken Sky and the gradual shift towards 5 mana board wipes with upside.
• Kaervek, the Punisher seems like an alright spellslinger deck, letting you double dip on removal like Toshiro Umezawa with even more flexibility.
• Baron Bertram Graywater looks interesting for Teysa. Token generator + draw engine is a nice combination, but might feel a bit slow due to costing two mana to activate.
• Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot looks fun. Multicolored spells is a somewhat harsh restriction, but double-dipping is strong.
• Luxurious Locomotive is interesting. Somewhat clunky, but it can generate a ton of treasure. I'm trying to figure out why the crew has a 'once per turn' trigger though.
• Redrock Sentinel is mildly interesting. I've considered Sprouting Goblin before, but felt it was a little too clunky. Does the treasure rebate make it worth the increased cost? I'm not sure.
• Treasure Dredger is another treasure producer. I suspect it's a bit clunky, but could be good for some decks that have treasure synergies.
• Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds is interesting. There are obviously plenty of combos with token copies of untap creatures, but even the baseline of copying a 1/1 or 2/2 vanilla token can be strong in some decks.
• Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot looks like a fantastic commander for pinger decks. Works with other sources of burn too, and stuff like Toralf, God of Fury // Toralf's Hammer.
• Railway Brawler scares me. That is all.
• Pillage the Bog intrigues me. It's not card advantage, but it does dig ridiculously deep - I could see it looking at 20+ cards in Tasigur.
• Assimilation Aegis looks fun - a removal spell that can be fetched by Stoneforge Mystic. Combos with Wormfang Manta!
• Stingerback Terror is a four mana 7/7! Glorious.
• Slick Sequence is a cheaper Electrolyze for some decks, and I could see it in Modern.
• Forsaken Miner looks a bit clunkier than Nether Traitor, but it is very cheap to recur if you have easy crime triggers.
• Geralf, the Fleshwright is an interesting spellslinger // zombie commander. Zombie storm? High Tide and Rooftop Storm say hi.
• Kambal, Stern Mayor is another sweet Teysa card. I feel like the deck is converging towards nothing but 2 and 3-mana legendary wb creatures these days. xD Still, an interesting hate piece / token producer that can also represent a bunch of drain alongside my own token production. I've been having fun with Wispdrinker Vampire and Kambal functions similarly.
• One More Round looks clunky - mass sorcery-speed flicker is fine, and doing it multiple times can be strong, but I think Lae'zel's Acrobatics is more flexible.

[CommanderMaster999]

What on earth is One last Job?!

All 3 modes of Spree Reanimate a card type creature, Mount or Vehicle, and Aura

Buloic ranch: so a Mount typal land is interesting and I see the creature the closest in front how much longer til we see a Dinosaur mount

Breeches: he got lessons from Krark, the Thumbless your flipping for which part of Refuse // Cooperate your doing on spell number two

Jasper flint: ok not only that's a hair more interesting than Gonti it can be its own build but clearly more likely as 99 for Don Andres, the Renegade

[heridfel]

I know it is dumb, but I am mildly annoyed that Gold Rush doesn't make Gold tokens.

[Uncle_Krupi]

Despite the huge glut of legendaries in the set, none of them were tempting to build

... until now

[Uncle_Krupi]

How often to you think this fella will trigger twice? Of all the games I've played Knight of the White Orchid, he's nearly always caught me up to at least one opponent, so I don't think the likelihood is high. Still, it's a 3/3 vigilance for 3 so nice value regardless. Just not sure I prefer it over Stoic Farmer.

[MAGUSZANIN]

New Eriette is interesting from a design perspective. Because of the MV restriction, she wants you to play way more 4 and 5 mana auras than most enchantress decks would be comfortable with.

But because the creature does not return when she dies, the opponents often won't be able to get their stuff back without either wrathing and recurring their things or burning their limited "any permanent" spot removal on your aura.

And if you play some sac outlets then you can avoid that at least some of the time. Throw in some enchantress staples, a Winds of Rath, some mass enchantment/aura reanimation, and so on, and you now have a very interesting control+theft+enchantress deck that it's going to be playing some very unique cards.

As for Claim Jumper, Double Knight of the White Orchid trigger is almost never going to happen on turn 3. And if you are waiting for your ramp until turns four or five? Then is it really doing that much for you?

The good part about it is that it does find non-basic plains, and that is a pretty significant leg up. Also, if you draw it later then it will trigger any of your creature spell synergies while also putting two lands into play.

I think it's probably playable in White+X but not Green decks that want their ramp to be creatures instead of artifacts. That's narrow but it's not nothing, and this is probably the best version of this effect we've gotten in years.

[Uncle_Krupi]

I think it's probably playable in White+X but not Green decks that want their ramp to be creatures instead of artifacts. That's narrow but it's not nothing, and this is probably the best version of this effect we've gotten in years.

That's more or less where I come down, so long as you have multicolor Plains it's a beefier Farhaven Elf outside green. Would still rather have Stoic Farmer as he digs you out of that horrific two-land hole if you're getting mana-screwed.

[DirkGently]

Actually it's easy for claim jumper to trigger twice if you fail to find on the first resolution xD

It's not THAT hard to trigger twice under normal conditions either. Someone before you in turn order casts a (land) ramp spell before your turn 4 and you've done it. Of course, like knight of the white orchid and co, it's kinda awkward to tap out to cast a spell before playing your land for the turn, though. You could have just played a land and then played, idk, Ur-Golem's Eye or whatever.

Eriette is definitely more interesting than her first incarnation, but what auras are we putting on enemy permanents, and how much better is that than just running an ordinary Control Magic? I guess just biggish buff auras like Angelic Destiny? It's lucky for her that her getting removed doesn't free the creature, though she can still get owned if she's killed in response to cast.

[Airi]

Eriette is definitely more interesting than her first incarnation, but what auras are we putting on enemy permanents, and how much better is that than just running an ordinary Control Magic? I guess just biggish buff auras like Angelic Destiny? It's lucky for her that her getting removed doesn't free the creature, though she can still get owned if she's killed in response to cast.

You can do some cute things with Fool's Demise and sac outlets.

Edit: Or really any auras that return themselves to play or hand.

[Uncle_Krupi]

Hilarious card. I used to have an old 5-color Shrines deck whose only creature was Zur the Enchanter, whom I could Polymorph tokens into. Now I may have to rebuild it with two creatures and have it be a coin flip who I end up with.

Only problem is she wants evasion added evasion.