New sets bring new cards and that makes us very happy in Magic Land. Every few months, it’s like a Magic God-Fairy that drops cards from beyond into our collective lap. Let the addictive card habit continue!
Despite the core set including a smaller number of new cards, there are always some serious hits for kitchen tables everywhere. This set is no exception. I have pulled out a few winners for us to glance at and consider.
So, with that said, what are the best new cards from Magic 2014 Core Set for your next casual Magic night?
Honorable Mention #1 – Warden of Evos Isle – This latest Wind Drake variant has a lot of interesting things going for it. First of all, it comes out earlier than a lot of other creatures, so it can drop early for acceleration purposes. There are a ton of flying creatures in Casual Land—in a variety of colors—from Dragons to Vampires to Angels. Last, there are some nice cards to play a great adjunct to Warden of Evos Isle. Imagine dropping this right after a Favorable Winds. Take another look at Archon of Redemption. There are quietly some attractive options for this body for those who look.
Honorable Mention #2 – Jace's Mindseeker – Everyone likes to see big flyers that do stuff. This guy grants a decent 4/4 Air Elemental body with an enters-the-battlefield trigger. Not only will it mill five cards from someone’s library, if there is a sorcery or instant revealed, you can cast it for free. The randomness of this means that you are hard-pressed to control it well enough to get something reliable. During the prerelease, this was cast against me twice, and people whiffed both times. Yet, you can see the value here, especially at a slower-paced casual game or in a multiplayer game with multiple targets. Somebody is likely to have a greater collection of spells, and you can just target that person. Yeah, you might flip a Murder or you might flip a Time Warp, but you will reliably hit stuff often enough to make this a serious contender.
Honorable Mention #3 – Colossal Whale – Good job, blue, at having three of the cards that just slipped out of my personal Top 10. In fact, there will be one more in a few seconds. Blue has, by far, my vote for Best Casual Color of the set—even blue stars that did not make the cut, such as Elite Arcanist and Dismiss into Dream, are really sexy, and Zephyr Charge a brilliant card for Pauper. So, with all of that white (er . . . blue) noise, why does the Whale hit here? First of all, it has a light landwalk ability that sometimes is pertinent, and that’s nice on a 5/5 body. But what really makes it stand out from the pack is the ability to exile a creature each time it attacks. Sure, when it dies, all of those creatures swallowed in its gullet will crawl out, but they are permanently gone until the Whale is handled. You can exile a potential blocker before they have a chance to jump in front of ye old whale. Note that you cannot attack one player and exile a creature of a different player. No tricks there. If that were the case, expect this to rise several spots on the list. But you can still blast a weak defense, and that is good enough to warrant an Honorable Mention spot.
Now it’s time for the official Top 10.
#10 – Windreader Sphinx – This is another card for the Warden of Evos Isle to collaborate with. It draws a card each time a flyer attacks. That includes my flyers, your flyers, and other flyers. It just blasts up cards everywhere. Imagine having this in a deck with a bunch of Bird tokens—or in just about any deck at the multiplayer table. You draw a card when those Angels, Archons, Birds, Djinni, Sphinxes, Drakes, Dragons, and some Vampires and Demons attack. You’ll net a card off every single flying dude that turns sideways. This is a huge shot of card advantage.
#9 – Rise of the Dark Realms – Does it cost 9 mana? Does it win the game? Pretty much. In one attack probably. Then it’s worth playing. Plus, you will benefit from all of those cool triggers from Nekrataal, Man-o'-War, and Acidic Slime. There is not a lot of say about this card that is not obvious from the text. You grab everything and toss it into just your side of the battlefield. What I can say is that there are expensive spells that if you cheat and cast early, they can really push the game to your favor, such as giant beaters. This is not one of those spells, so just keep it in your back pocket for Commander or multiplayer, and then play it late with stocked ’yards and just . . . win. It’s like a new Insurrection.
#8 – Scourge of Valkas – The Scourge does a few things really well, and the combination of that pushes this to the 8 spot on my countdown of top M14 cards. Note that you are investing just 5 mana into this 4/4 beast. This is not a hefty sum in Dragon decks, so it does not often compete with later entrants. That’s nice. Also note that when it comes into play, you can shoot a creature or player for at least 1 damage. Sure, that’s not a lot, but it works. Then, you have flying and firebreathing, so that’s a nice attacker or blocker for a cheap amount of mana. Let’s not forget that this thing really likes Dragons. Every Dragon that drops onto the battlefield from the sky will shoot one of your foes or their pawns for damage that increases based on the number of draconic forces under your control. This is perfect for a Dragon-themed deck because it arrives early and then launches flame at folks as the rest of the party gets started.
#7 – Liliana's Reaver – Once again, a core set with cards named after planeswalkers sees the Liliana card as the highest-charting one (Liliana's Specter was the best one from its year). Is this a dud? It looks pretty unappealing, right? Not really. Consider this in a duel setting. You have a 4/3 deathtouch that dropped early. You now can block and trade with any size of creature, swing into any defense and kill something, or attack and strip out a card from a hand and make a 2/2 Zombie dork. Because of the double-card-advantage swing of both a discard and a token, people are going to be enticed to keep their stuff back and untapped. You can easily blast away someone’s creatures early on with removal (that person would have a limited defense) and stab him or her a few times with this. And later in the game, this can trade for that more expensive 6- or 7- or 9-drop. That’s how good it is in a duel—pretty strong, right? Now imagine it against multiple opponents. There is more likely to be a path to get a discard and a token earlier. You are more likely to trade it for something bigger. More than one foe keeps his or her creatures back to keep them safe from your Reaver. Suddenly, this little dork is doing some serious damage to other board positions. But no one wastes a Terminate or a Swords to Plowshares on this. It’s a perfect mix of power and subtlety.
#6 – Grim Return – Our highest-charting black card is a real unique winner from the new cards of M14. Not only is it a permanent reanimation spell that is in instant (most are sorceries), but it just costs 3 mana. The only issue is that this can only return something that died this turn. It’s a lot like Reincarnation, and I have talked about playing that card before. It does fun things such as generate a double-trigger on a dying ETB dude, allow one of your dorks to survive mass removal or keep a creature alive after pinpoint removal or from combat; or, you can use it for something you sacrificed for another go. I particularly like it with self-sacrifices that have a nice effect, so you can gain another. Consider Bloodfire Colossus. There are a lot of uses for this, and it’s a bit cleaner than Reincarnation, so enjoy this new tool!
#5 – Chandra, Pyromaster – I usually don’t have a lot of planeswalkers charting too high in these lists. Not all of them are that strong in multiplayer. But Chandra is. Our Pyromaster Queen is the best mono-red planeswalker card we’ve seen yet. Why would I claim this? Let’s look under the hood. First of all, the 0 ability basically allows you to draw a card for free as long as you play it this turn. It costs no mana nor does it lose any loyalty. That makes her sort of an odd 4-mana red artifact that reads, “Draw an extra card each of your turns.” Red card advantage is crucial. Then, her +1 ability is useful. You hit both a player and a creature for 1 damage, and the creature is Stuned for a turn. Then, if you bring her to ultimate level, you are going to dig deep enough to find a great card to copy three times. She is a very powerful addition to red.
#4 – Ogre Battledriver – Our highest-charting red card is currently being discussed as a replacement for the 4-drop in future Standard decks. Whether it does make that run, it will be a house in multiplayer. I have extolled the virtues of haste for a long time when playing against multiple opponents. You are able to attack first, you are able to attack right after a removal, and you have more knowledge of when you will attack than your foes do. One of my favorite enchantments for red and haste is In the Web of War, a powerhouse that clocks it at 5 mana but gives haste to all your creatures—plus a +2/+0 bonus for that first turn to spite the people you smack around. This costs a mana less than Web of War, and it rocks a 3/3 body, so it can swing and block. Now, its creature status means it can be more easily killed by others, but it still has serious power under the hood. It is another great way to pound the red zone first with your creatures and smash for a little extra damage.
#2 – Strionic Resonator – Sometimes, we get these quirky little Johnny cards that you just know are going to be fun, such as Rings of Brighthearth. This guy can double any triggered ability for a cheap deposit of 2 mana. If all it did was copy an ability from an enters-the-battlefield trigger, it would be amazing. You can imagine the havoc you’d pull with an extra copy of triggers on creatures such as Karmic Guide, Sylvan Primordial, or Avenger of Zendikar. Even a simple Ghitu Slinger or Solemn Simulacrum looks downright nasty with two triggers. But that’s not all this does. Imagine a double upkeep trigger. You could double-trigger Braids, Conjurer Adept or one of the five Bringers (l like Bringer of the Blue Dawn , Red Dawn, and White Dawn in particular for this). Then, we have death triggers. Sure, you can draw a card off Solemn Simulacrum, but what about another Kokusho, Keiga, or Yosei death trigger? Then, look at everything from landfall triggers to quirky things such as Tombstone Stairwell (I get double tokens!), and you can see a lot of power here. The sheer versatility of this card suggests a few hundred deck ideas. (Which hit me all at once and assault my deck radar.)
I hope you have found a few cards that inspire your deck-building juices. What are your favorite cards for Casualalia?
See you next week,
Abe Sargent
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