Alara Reborn has nearly arrived. The Shards are colliding, and we’re starting to get a sense of what that means for our current decks. Simply put, its time for us to take a look at the our favorite cards from the final Alara expansion. In rank order here are five cards I am most excited about playing from the Alara Reborn expansion, and my reasons why:
elspeth's worst nightmare
1. Maelstrom Pulse – This sorcery is such an amazing card it needs to be broken down in steps. First things first, Maelstrom Pulse will completely disrupt any token deck. When your opponent lands Sarkhan Vol’s ultimate ability and floods the board with dragons the response is that easy. Three mana, and only two different colors. In fact, this is great removal against any creatures, because there are no qualifiers. MP destroys anything, and if there happen to be two or more well that is just butter frosting. Taking care of enchantments and artifacts with similar ease makes my head hurt. It’s that good. That is not including perhaps the greatest prey of Maelstrom Pulse: planeswalkers. Oblivion Ring finally has competition in that arena. Green/black have never been about control, but this card is good enough to build a deck around. If it could be played at instant speed I would put this card in my all-time Top Five.
its good to be the king
2. Spellbreaker Behemoth – There are few moments in MTG as devastating as tapping all your mana to play a game-changing creature only to have your opponent tap two mana and simply say “no”. Spellbreaker Behemoth certainly solves that problem. Making sure your big spells don’t die before they hit the board has been a priority for red/green as of late. Guttural Response and Vexing Shusher are staple side-board cards. However, those cards only bring one positive to the table. In fact, Guttural Response actually loses you a card for simply protecting a spell in this scenario. This is the second problem Spellbreaker Behemoth solves. Look at that casting cost again, I mean look at it! You get a 5/5 with an amazing (if not specialized ability) for only four mana! This fattie is downright incredible. With the litany of “power 5 or greater” cards in Alara protecting/buffing this beast won’t be hard once he hits the table. The king of Alara Reborn creatures.
seems familiar. . .
3. Behemoth Sledge – Yes, I am aware that this card is a Loxodon Warhammer in sheep’s clothing. Even the casting cost and the equip cost remain unchanged, if you convert the mana. I don’t care. If WotC decided to release the actual Loxodon Warhammer in Alara Reborn you would still see it on this list. Both are simply great cards. LW is widely regarded as the best non-Jitte equipment on this planet or any other. Sure there is a stark lack of versatility attached to having a dual color casting cost. And one less power may cost some unfortunate duelists a close game over the course of their day. But this card is still Top Five material for at least two reasons. First, adding two toughness probably outweighs the one point of power. The original LW did nothing to protect it’s wearer. Now your creature can swing for big damage, you’ll gain life and have the same guy around to do it again next turn. Second, that shiny gold logo on the card has morphed into not-so-shiny silver. Meaning more chances to pick this puppy up in booster packs. I would call that a bonus. (Ed note: Loxodon Warhammer appeared as a uncommon in it’s original set Mirroden, but was upgraded to rare status for it’s release in 9th Edition.)
yes, please!
4. Nulltread Gargantuan – This past year has seen Woolly Thoctar run rampant over just about everything. Unmatched in size and speed this Naya dweller became a staple of almost every aggro creature deck. Well, now it has a match. Nulltread Gargantuan can be used in the same slot. First turn Noble Hierarch, second turn Nulltread and third turn replay the Hierarch to attack with a 6/7. You don’t lose much in card advantage, and if planned properly mana should be no problem. Actually, you can make this drawback work in your favor by returning an Elvish Visionary, or Coiling Oracle to the top of your library to play again and again. Back to Woolly Thocatar, the once king of three drop creatures. It seems Nulltread was made as a response. Normally five toughness would be perfectly acceptable at that cost, but given the extra toughness it can take a Thoctar’s mightiest blow and shrug it off while dealing more than enough damage to do in our Woolly nemesis. My only question is now that a precedent has been set for three drops in Alara, what will WotC do to top them in Zendikar? Will we see a 7/7 for three? An 8/8? Maybe a Masques level of watering down creature power. Wait, who cares!? Alara Reborn has a 5/6 for three mana!
masters of your mind indeed
5. Sen Triplets - The only mythic rare to grace my top five, and it’s an interesting one. The power here is obvious. Your main phase spells can’t be countered. Creatures you control are safe from surprises during combat. You can see your opponent’s hand and devise their strategy. That is without the final line of rules text, the line that really turns this card into something special. You can play cards from that player’s hand this turn. Where do I start with this? First of all, your hand just got that much bigger, and with three of the five colors you should be able to play something from your opponent’s hand. Second, anything you play will be like forced discarding and create massive card advantage almost immediately. As a stand alone, Sen Triplets gives me something I love, a must-deal-with creature. But we want to maximize this precious resource and to do that we’ll need two Conflux rares: Exotic Orchard and Master Transmuter. The Exotic Orchard sets us up nicely to use any cards of import we find in our opponent’s hand. Cards that we wouldn’t be able to cast using standard Esper colors. More importantly Master Transmuter, as she so often does, turns this card into a deadly threat. Now we can land the Triplets during our opponent’s end of turn step and control their turn without giving them time to react. Even if they have spot removal we can then use our Transmuter to protect the Triplets. It won’t be long before our opponent realizes they are stuck and scoops. Any card that mimics a cheaper and repeatable Mindslaver belongs in my Top Five. Welcome Sen Triplets, enjoy your stay.
Check back this Monday for Reinhart’s Top 5.
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Behemoth Sledge is not a Loxodon Warhammer, but more an Armadillo Cloak as Equipment.
Sen Triplets allows you to play cards of your opponents hand. If he’s got a land you can simply play one and (if it doesn’t comes into play tapped) use it to play other spells of his hand. Of course Exotic Orchard will help you a lot, but maybe you can take some benefit of using his lands and casting his spells (even more card advantage).
Thanks for the great write-up Leaf !
As it happens, I will be getting 2 of 5 of these cards. I am intrigued with playtesting (and final inclusion of) Spellbreaker and Nulltread within my Naya ramp. My opinions of that ‘power of 5′ theme cr@p really had changed when Noble H came out. I now see easy mana-acceleration in my games (with Noble Hierarch / Druid of the Anima, etc.) and Turn 2 Nulltread and Turn 3 Spellbreaker are easily accomplished.
Pes, you are certainly correct that Behemoth Sledge gives the exact same benefits/mana cost as Armadillo Cloak, however I was basing the Warhammer comparison off identicle cost, card type, use, and very similar abilities.
Also I didn’t think of playing your opponents lands, that would be something. I feel like players will abuse the Triplets in ways I can’t even imagine now.
CopySix, let me know how your Naya deck fairs with Nulltread, etc.
Sword of Fire and Ice is the next best equipment after Jitte. In some formats Sword of light and shadow can compete with it but those are few and fa between.
Mr Suitecase, I respectfully disagree. I realize the popularity of the swords, however I simply don’t like declaring prejudiced cards the best because they rely too much on luck.
What about Bloodbraid Elf?!
yea bloodbraid elf is arguably the best card in the set
i was planing on doing a green blue deck eventually i guess i found my solution to my second stomper Nulltread Gargantuan