Worldwake is only a few weeks away and card spoilers are starting to surface around the internet. Keeping up with the latest Magic the Gathering spoilers can be a chore. That’s why here at Gathering Magic we aim to make it easy. We exhaust our resources to collect all the latest spoilers from forthcoming sets. Then we not only react and analyze them, we post them all on one convenient page! The following are reviews and wrap-ups of brand new spoiled Worldwake cards.
Join the Ranks – At first glance Join the Ranks appears to be a lame token generator in line with Cenns Enlistment. Not so, good friends, definitely not so. Slide this ambiguous four-drop into an Ally deck and Oh the Places You’ll Go! Worse case scenario would be putting two +1/+1 counters on each creature you control. At best Join the Ranks can be used to completely turn a game when a dominant ally like Kazuul Warlord or Hagra Diabolist is present. Beyond that, JtR looks to affirm more allies coming in Worldwake (lots more in fact, the Orb of Insight lists 21 uses of the word ‘ally’). Join the Ranks will likely see its most use in sealed competition, where Allies is already a viable strategy.
Quest for the Nihil Stone – Another rare quest for black, who had a pretty nice one in Bloodchief Ascension already. Not sure how fun an enchantment that encourages discard is, but Quest for the Nihil Stone is certainly effective. A focused discard build featuring a play-set of these, triggering separately, along side Mind Sludge could be pretty devastating. Maybe one quest alone isn’t enough to turn Vampire Discard into a competitive tournament deck, but it is a good start. Not to mention this Quest slides into Blightning Jund pretty easily. Perhaps griefing is not something Worldwake has in short supply. That would be too bad, one discard motivator is more than enough.
Wind Zendikon – Another solid card that fits nicely in the ‘land is fighting back’ mold that Worldwake, by its very title is trying to create. Wind Zendikon has both pros and cons compared to its peer animated lands Similar to Faerie Conclave and Genju of the Falls. First among the pros there is very small mana commitment. Turn one you could have a 2/2 flier for the rest of the game without paying anything more. That ties in with the second bonus, WZ can enchant any land, not simply an island making it fairly versatile. Third, when your flier chump blocks or is spot removed you get the land back. Great for landfall activated abilities and makes sure you won’t be the victim of a two-for-one. There are cons however. The land returns, and not the enchantment meaning once killed the creature is gone forever. Also because the land is always a creature it falls victim to sorceries and any sweeps. Just enough drawback to keep this one at common rarity.
Canopy Cover – It is nothing new for WotC to combine two abilities and grant them both on one enchantment. Usually these turn into good spells simply for the value given. In this case, one part Treetop Bracers and one part Robe of Mirrors to form a two-cost Whispersilk Cloak effect. Obviously not a tournament card (has any creature aura ever been?) but Canopy Cover will draw a lot of attention in casual formats. Of course that is nothing compared to the riots it will cause in sealed play. Giving giant baddies like Craw Wurm shroud and near unblockability (a word I just made up) is guaranteed to cause headaches and win matches.
Dread Statuary – This poor man’s Gargoyle Castle is yet another example of living lands in Worldwake. Dread Statuary is a solid card, because any land that comes into play untapped and offers something for the late-game is decent. But not exactly a world-beater here. The biggest issue regarding the 4/2 Golem is the fragility. Two toughness means that almost anything blocking said Golem is going to kill it. If your opponent taps out and you have the extra mana laying around then 4 damage looks pretty good. Perhaps that is the key to effectively using a card like this is as a threat, an or else. Again not exactly something to jump out of your seat for. Of course I’ll be ignoring all that and putting a copy of Dread Statuary in each of my EDH decks.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
More spoilers are being released almost every minute. Be sure to check the Worldwake Spoiler Page for any and all updates.
UPDATED! 6 More!!
 (MTGcast.com) |
 (Star City Games) |
 (Evan Erwin) |
 (Channel-Fireball) |
 ( Mananation.com) |
 (TheStarkingtonPost) |
Like this article? Try these:
Loading ...
Uh, you’re comparing it to robe of mirror’s when it’s actually troll shroud.
And he forgot the power of Armadillo Cloak during Invasion block.
And Rancor
No I didn’t mention those enchantments. But you guys did, so thanks!
Also, you made no mention of how you can use that land enchant on fetchlands for double thinning.
Wow, that’s rather clever. Nice catch!
What’s funny about this, though, if you (for instance) play a fetchland, then play the enchantment on it, you can no longer activate the fetch ability because now the land has summoning sickness.
Of course on your next turn you’ll be primed and ready for some triple-landfall action, but your land will be vulnerable until then.
Yeah, I would wait until the next turn to even enchant it in the first place, if I were going for that type of shenanigan.
RED got a WRATH!
Quest for the Nihil Stone is sweet for a deck I just made!
Bestial Menace is going in every fun green deck I’ve ever made.
A 2/2 flyer on turn one is a limited dream.
Join the Ranks makes me want to play allies for the first time.
Red wrath is beyond awesome. Of course right next to it is a pro-red creature. Oh the irony!
Yeah, that Firewalker will royally hose (so to speak) RDW.
Anyone else amazed that SCG is pre-selling the red Wrath for a mere $3 a pop?
Okay, you talk about WZ not returning itself to your hand like it’s a drawback somehow… How is “Their removal spell is still a 1-for-1″ a drawback? The enchantment costs U and will cost you the mana you won’t be tapping the animated land for, so basically you’ve just got your choice of either a 2/2 Flying for U or a 2/2 Flying/Haste for 1U. I’d say that’s a good shot in the arm for poor ol’ Blue, eh?
I like it, and if you can get a Doom Blade out of your opponents hand then you did something good. Just saying, as a chump blocker not as good as the Genjus. Also, it stunts your mana an entire turn. That does suck. Disagree?
Depends on what you mean by “stunts your mana”. If you’re referring to the fact that the enchanted land will be used for things other than tapping for mana, then I would refer to my previous statement of it effectively costing 1U instead of U and having Haste. For instance, cast it on turn 2 targeting your turn 1 land and you’ve basically just paid two mana for a 2/2 hasty flier. If you’re referring to losing a land when it dies and not being able to to replay said land until your next turn, that’s a non-issue if you’re in the mid or late game and haven’t played a land yet that turn, or if it died on your opponent’s turn. I think the closest analogy to a creature card would be this:
Weird Drake Thingie
Creature 2/2 U
Flying
At the beginning of your Declare Attackers step, you may pay 1. If you do, [card] gains Haste until end of turn. Otherwise, [card] cannot attack this turn.
When [card] is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, pay 1.
Or something like that. Still good, no?
Thank you for information, I am happy to note that the play vampires black is in right track: D
I admit I’m skeptical of Admonition Angel’s usefulness. I mean, it’s an O-Ring effect that’s a lot easier to undo than O-Ring (and it’s something they’ll be eager to kill anyway). Well, unless she survives to your next turn and you stack a couple of landfall triggers and then Narrow Escape her…
I know it’s not the most powerful play, but I want to play Allies with her and remove my allies. Then they have a choice to let my angel live or kill it and have a whole bunch of bad stuff happen.
Wow. You’re right that it may not be powerful, but man oh man, is it ever delightfully sadistic!
I am thinking of an old fashioned counter-burn deck personally. I think we can just about pull it of with Chain reaction. Possibly a nice support draw and a bounce/ counter.
I just have to say.. Bestial Menace is one of the coolest green cards I’ve ever seen.
What a great deal! 6 Power for 5 Mana spread out over three creatures! Pair this with Garuck, Overrun or even Beastmaster Ascention and you’re GOLD! I think white is taking a look at Conqueror’s Pledge and getting a little jealous.
agreed reinhart, bestial menace is really tight and probably underated out the gate.
Oran-Rief, anyone?
i like token generating cards. Bestial menace is cool, join the ranks is cool. I love the idea behind Dragon fodder! Now if we only had a fork or something for all these cards, that would be awesome.
I put this comment on the spoiler page, but I think it warrants being posted here as well. Is anyone else really disappointed in the artwork for the Joraga Warcaller? Wow, soooo disappointing after the great mockup that was posted on this site.
Yeah a lot of us were for like 5 seconds.
Cant go wrong with half naked female elves. If you’re feeling nostalgic here is the card we originally posted a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Joraga-Warcaller.png
Someone has informed me that the art was from Liniage II, FYI.
Dragonmastet Outcast looks like it might fit in quite well with a Valakut deck sweet! Too bad I’ll never own it grr mythic rares, but one can dream!
Buy a few booster and keep those fingures crossed! Besides, its only a red Scute Mob. You could probably afford that.
Yes, another overpowered one-drop…
seems to be a theme going on here…
It seems a little like black red n white are the only colours getting anything great i mean green blue got okay things but way weaker than the other three colours
Are you shitting me? That white bastard can singlehandedly take down red decks. and that red wrath is the worst red sweeper I’ve ever seen, ever. It also means red won’t see a proper sweeper like obliterate to deal with that little asshole.
Join the Ranks is exactly the type I card I wanted for Allies. Casting that, an instant, to give my Allies protection from 2 colors! (Assuming you have that one white Zendikar ally out.)
Dragonmaster Outcast appears to be a solid bet for a blue-based control deck. As you transition into late game, you can drop this guy in, control to protect it, and start laying some threats. At least, that’s how I’d use it–I hate milling most of the time.
As for Chain Reaction, this too would fit into a Blue Red control deck, but I say we’re giving Red a good late game plan–which is going to give people a headache. I sense a bad time for an Eldrazi Green deck prior to the Monument’s entry, and I know it can really hurt a White Weenie deck as it ramps up.
I like Bestial Menace for it’s Maelstrom Pulse nixing and Oran Rief the Vastwood possibilities.
I’ve also decided that Joraga Warcaller will go well with a quick, Elvish mana ramp deck where it can come in with 3 or 4 +1/+1 counters. If you happen to draw two, that gets a little ridiculous.
Overall, I’m pretty excited for Worldwake.
I don’t know, I definitely don’t have the same enthusiasm for the early spoilers of WWK as I did for ZEN.
First of all I’m not sure I’m a big fan of the Multi-Kicker mechanic. The reason I like regular Kicker so much was because it gives you a meaningful choice as a player. With Multi-Kicker Wizards seems to be either a) printing huge bombs that are late game cards and you obviously are going to pay the kicker as many times as you can (if you’re playing Warcaller you just wait until you have a lot of mana and use it overrun-style), and god help you if you don’t save up a ton of mana before you play Comet Storm, since it’s terrible value otherwise. Or b) the cards just end up the same as “As CARDNAME comes into play, you may pay X, if you do…”. I guess what I’m saying is because the effect is repeatable, there are a lot less interesting effects that can go on Multi-Kicker as opposed to a one-time effect.
The other thing is I just haven’t been *that* inspired by the cards thus far. I mean the return of Smother is great and the new Jace is great, but apart from that I haven’t found any of the cards anywhere as cool as, say, Lotus Cobra.
Obviously there are a ton of cards yet to be spoiled so I may change my mind.
i dont know man the red green land is pretty sick it just gets bigger for 4 mana
Hooray for my double playset of ranger of eos, itll go nicely with this new mythic one drop =)
That is a scary thought, ranger, scute mob, Bloodhall Ooze, Wild Nacatl, Dragonmaster Outcast and more all in standard… pretty sick deck there.
stone idol trap is awseome and definitely going in boros bush whacker deck it ads to the awesomeness of aggro!!!
I’ve to state, i always could not agree with you in 100%, but it’s just my opinion, which might be wrong.
As being a Novice, I am often checking on line for posts that will information me. Many thanks for your personal time
It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by wanting to solve this issue instead of seeking at why their is a problem in the very first place. thank you !!! really helpful send!