Whenever we ask our community for their “Top 5″ in any given set, we’re bombarded with at least fifteen unique cards in varying orders.  With Worldwake, our unofficial twitter polls have seen almost double that number.  For a smaller, middle set, this is a great accomplishment.   When player’s are arguing over which cards are raddest and baddest instead of which will “break” standard this year, you know you’re doing something right.  Everyone has their own formula for choosing their favorite cards.  My formula  is a mixture of overall power level of the card, it’s playability in various formats, with a dash of consideration for itits flavor, feel and uniqueness.  Here are what I consider to be the Top 5 cards in Worldwake.  Feel free to respond with not only your list, but your own “Top”  formulas as well.

1.Jace, the Mind Sculptor -Jace and I are tight.  A lot of players (particularly, MTG bloggers, it would seem) think of themselves as “Blue Wizards”.  They like to think that they’re just a little cleverer than their companions and want to leave their “good/evil” options open indefinitely.  It’s almost as if they harbor some deep insecurities that will never be reconciled.   Blue Wizard or not, though, you’ve just got to take pause when you see this card for the first time.  Two planeswalker firsts on one card.  A free ability, and a never before seen fourth ability.  If it were only these firsts, I don’t believe it would’ve be enough to top my list but luckily, each of the four abilities is undeniably viable.  Check out my interview with Jace if you want to dive into this cardboard masterpiece further.  Measurelessly able to fit into any format at any time, Jace is one of the more timeless Planeswalker cards to hit the scene since, well, Jace Beleren and co. in Lorwyn.  The card shop at the Seattle Worldwake Prerelease event was selling the card for an outrageous $50.  I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t feel my hand drifting towards my wallet.

2.Bestial Menace – Who doesn’t love animals!?  Bestial Menace is the latest in a line of recent token generating sorcerys.  Spectral Procession, Cloudgoat Ranger, Howl of the Night Pack, and Conquerors Pledge have set the bar for token summoning.  The great thing about most of these cards is that, on the whole, you’ll almost always want your power spread out over several smaller creatures.  This gives your “split” six power several advantages over a typical six power beater.  While you can’t block another giant creature you’re able to chump block six times. Probably the most beneficial reason to spread the power around would be the enchantments today that will pump up each of your individualized creatures.  Marshals Anthem, Honor of the Pure, Overrun etc. are some quick examples.  An easy Llanowar Elves, mana-ramp into a turn four Bestial Menace followed by a turn five Overrun or Garruk Wildspeaker would mean a devastating 19 trample damage coming your opponent’s way at just the right time!  It’s also a limited bomb (as I found out this weekend) that is sure to cause that bittersweet eyeroll from your opponents.  (Blue Wizards live for these moments…)

3.Treasure Hunt – I’m usually not this much of an absolutist but; if you don’t see the potential, power and pure blue poetry in this card as soon as you read it, you’re just not cut out for competitive Magic the Gathering.  This card is great completely on its own.  You get to draw one non-land card for two mana, guaranteed with a chance to draw two or more cards in the same spell casting.  Now, couple this with cards I know you already play such as Sphinx of Jwar Isle, Anything with “clash”, Jace, the Mind Sculptor or even Vampire Nocturnus and you’re really in business.  Now, you’re looking at a guaranteed, deck thinning, two cards and the possibility of three or even more!  One of the best draw cards of its cost in quite some time.  Welcome back blue! (almost…)

4.Abyssal Persecutor – Such a sexy card.  Leaf already touched on this one in his list and I think the coolness of this card doesn’t require much of an explanation.  There are so many possibilities here; whether you choose to beat your opponent into negative life and then find a way to sac the Persecutor.  Or you simply give the creature to your opponent via Bazaar Trader or some other Donate effect.. you’re sure to have fun with this guy.  This card seems to answer the question we hadn’t bothered to ask “What if Platinum Angel were Black?”  Luckily the answer is fun, interesting and one of the reasons I’m ordering a booster box of Worldwake.

5.Basilisk Collar – Gorgon Flail was a great limited bomb that even saw some constructed play.  This card is better in almost every way.  The Collar has a lower initial cost, and I’d gladly trade +1/+1 for lifelink any day of the week (including Sunday).  If you were considering Gorgon Flail in a deck, Basilisk Collar is your new choice.  Cards that “break the rules” are one of Wizards favorite tricks.  This card may not seem like your typical rule breaker but I’d argue that it certainly is.  Giving TIMs and creatures with First Strike the ability of Deathtouch “breaks the rules”.  Giving creatures with Double Strike, Protection or Landwalk the ability of Lifelink “breaks the rules”.  This card gives your creatures both.  With such a low casting cost and its ability to make every creature you drop a huge threat, Basilisk Collar is the limited micro-bomb and could even see constructed play if the right creatures emerge.  This is the way Equipment should work.  Creature enchantments have been nonviable for quite some time and this new era of playable, reusable, equipment is where it’s at today.  Artifact removal might just be a necessary sideboarding option post-Worldwake.

“Wait, wait, wait Kazzul.. you can’t just barge in here and steal the limelight from these five great cards!”

“RAWWWRR!!!!!”

“This is my top five list and we had no such deal my malodorous friend… oh.. wait.. no.. I was only kidding that night!  I had been drinking, it was a Friday night.. you had just saved me from a nasty bar fight.. I mean.. you can’t hold me to this!  You just can’t!”

Rawr?!”

*Reinhart lets out a long, defeated sigh* – Folks, I present to you – Kazuul, Tyrant of Cliffs.  Number six on our top five…

See man, that doesn’t even make sense!  Even for you!

*Kazuul harrumphs and starts to chuckle*

6?! Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs – There are few better deterrents to attacking than the fact that your opponent can put creatures in to play for each of your attacking creatures. Of course, you can always pay the toll for your Baneslayer Angel and you won’t get hit quite as hard on your opponent’s next turn.  But good luck staging any kind of meaningful token rush with this guy around.   A reverse Nacatl War-Pride, if you will.  It’s always great when a card of a particular color so neatly fills in the gaps of that color’s weaknesses.  Red’s weakness is almost certainly defense.  Kazuul might just be all the defense you’ll ever need, depending on your opponent’s build.  And I can’t review this guy without at least mentioning his EDH General potential.  For these reasons and more, he’s muscled his way onto this list, and into my heart. Just pay the tribute.. it’s a long way down.

Honorable Mentions:

Dead Reckoning
Anowon, the Ruin Sage
Amulet of Vigor
Chain Reaction

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Worldwake Pre-Release Wrap-Up!
(Pictures courtesy of Robby over on the MtgColorPie plane)

The entire Gathering Magic staff (2 dudes) were in attendance this year at the premier Worldwake Pre-release in Seattle.  Leaf finished with his usual, tragically mediocre, 2-2 whilst I pulled off an awe inspiring, yet predictable, 4-0 beat-down.  I played a nasty little G/B deck in the sealed ZZZ/WWW format.  I tend to nod off when reading other people’s pre-release wrap-ups about the time they start talking about game 12 and what they had for lunch that day so I’ll spare you that inconsideration

The colors and strategies used in this format are similar to that of those in Zendikar.  Allies (when possible), lots of landfall, 2/1 evasive creatures, a little bit of questing and some crazy bombs.  Worldwake seems to have made those bombs just a little bit bigger.  I only lost one game out of the 9 that I played but several of them were close due to the crazy nature of these new WWK bombs.  My only loss came from a well timed Wolfbriar Elemental kicked four times for a mere eight mana.  My nearest thing to a second loss came from Kazuul, who threatened to topple my four to one creature advantage over that opponent.  I had a few bombs of my own in Deaths Shadow, Bestial Menace and Strength of the Tajuru.

Zendikons were more prevalent than man-lands due to their rarity.  I don’t think I played a deck that didn’t use a zendikon or two.  The Worldwake packs also gave everyone a few more options when it came to creature destruction with Urge to Feed, Dead Reckoning, Smother and even Brink of Disaster.  My strategy was to combine the great landfall, healing and mana-ramping abilities Zendikar introduced with its green cards with the creature killing, vampire rolling black cards in Worldwake.  I also pulled a Seers Sundial which ended up being much more helpful than I originally anticipated.   My black, swampwalking Quag Vampires also sideboarded me into victory whenever an opponent played swamps. Kitesail is also another popular choice in this format.  Green still looked like it was the most popular color followed closely by red and blue.  I didn’t see white rocking as hard as I would have thought with these new WWK allies but perhaps that was a function of the newness of the set.

As I said, ZZZ/WWW wasn’t much different than ZZZ/ZZZ.  Just look out for the bigger limited bombs, more viable allies, and man-lands when you mix Worldwake into your limited events.

In other news we had a great time rocking @mtgcolorpie’s world in our short-lived EDH match.  He mumbled something about “his flight starting in 30 seconds” and then scampered off into the crowd just as I was about to destroy his realm.  If that isn’t cowardice, I’m not sure what is.  Go ahead and tweet him a one liner about him being a coward and/or too afraid to face his old EDH apprentice mano-a-mano.

If you haven’t already checked out the Worldwake Spoiler page lately, all of the real art is finally updated there as well as in the gatherer.  I am happy to report that 100% of the cards we reported as being “probable” this season were confirmed to be real cards.  It just goes to show that we know what we’re doing when it comes to spoilers.  Keep an eye on all of our other spoiler lists for all the latest.

Take your misdirected anger at me for not including your favorite Worldwake card out on our poll!

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It is hard to choose the five best cards from Worldwake.  In fact it is hard to choose the best five cards in any set these days. Baneslayer Angel is the best creature out there, and it really isn’t that close.  Jund is the best build out there, and that also isn’t all that close.  With this disparity in mind picking ‘the best’ cards from a new expansion already has two unavoidable pitfalls.  No creature will be superior to BSA, just as no deck will beat Jund (at least until September).  So the next five cards are being judged in a sort of MTG vacuum, where other sets and other decks can’t interfere.  With all qualifying out of the way, here are the best five cards in Worldwake:

1. Chain Reaction – It is almost impossible to describe the yearning for a non-white sweep Gathering Magic has had this past year.  Almost impossible, but evidence of our infatuation with the idea is littered through out the blog (and forums for that matter).  Of course Chain Reaction is not a true sweep, there is a drawback and thus it can’t be used for spot removal.  However for most instances this red Day of Judgment will do just fine.  Usually there are three or four creatures out before a sweep any way, so in practice CR should be almost perfect.  Not to mention red control has become an interesting option as of late with Chandra Nalaar and Earthquake seeing more play recently.  Add the best card in Worldwake to that list.

2.Abyssal Persecutor – This could have been black’s answer to Baneslayer Angel, except of course for BSA’s pesky protection from demons ability.  So the Persecutor won’t be the best creature in standard, oh well.  He still has one of the best stat lines of any creature ever printed, a 6/6 flyer with trample at four mana.  AP also packs one of the more powerful and interesting drawbacks in MTG history.  The reverse Platinum Angel effect is almost a social experiment.  Should I spend a Path to Exile on that guy?  What are the odds he’ll disappear after my life total has gone negative? Can I risk leaving it alone?  Ugh, what should I do!? Chances are most opponents won’t let AP stick around to find out if that drawback really does hold anything back.

3. Wolfbriar Elemental - Truthfully this was the toughest decision on the list to make.  Not because Wolfbriar Elemental doesn’t make the Timmy in all of us stand at attention, more that it was up against some serious Timmy competition.  Terastodon instantly became an EDH favorite as soon as it was spoiled.  A 9/9 beastie that decimates artifacts, lands, and planeswalkers alike is pretty amazing, no matter the mana cost.  And late game, why not use it on yourself to create some 3/3 elephants out of those extra lands.  However the rather prohibitive mana cost kept Terastodon on the edge of the Top 5.  Then there is Novablast Wurm, a big creature with an even bigger, and repeatable ability.  Wolfbriar Elemental beats out NW because the Wolfbriar is more dynamic and much harder to get rid of.  For the same seven mana you can turn the tide of battle with a 4/4 and three more 2/2 wolves.  For Terstodon mana WE nets you five of those pesky wolf tokens, on top of the Elemental itself.

4. Selective Memory – The search for most Johnny card in Worldwake is over, and Jace Beleren is the feature model.  Surprise, surprise.  This blue sorcery basically allows you to set your library up any way you like.  After the selection, why not use a tutor like Ad Nauseam or Treasure Hunt to draw your entire library, set up a game ending combo.  Perhaps Mirror of Fate can now be useful in some way…. or not.  The point is, any time you can dig through and clear out your library in such an effective manner things are bound to get interesting.  While I am certainly not a true Johnny, I can’t help but thinking there is a combo here with Seismic Assault.  And there are probably much more efficient, faster and deadlier combos out there waiting to be discovered by some curious duelist.  (Ed note: One caveat, this pick is reminiscent of Lotus Cobra from Zendikar.  Meaning it may seem like the perfect puzzle piece, but there just isn’t a combo for it.  If that is the case, then replace this pick with Jace, the Mindsculpter and forget I said anything.)

5. Dispel - It takes a lot for a common utility spell to crack a Top 5 list at Gathering Magic.  However the criteria is pretty simple: really cheap to cast (free is also nice), dynamic in its uses, and easy to fit into an existing build.  Past spells like Path to Exile, Lightning Bolt, and Duress have fit this bill perfectly.  Dispel has now been added to that group.  Protect your creatures, other permanents, or even yourself.  That is really all you can ask for from a counterspell.  True, it is much more difficult to disrupt an opponents plan with something so defensive, but the low cost makes Dispel worth it and then some.

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There you have it, the very cream of the crop.  Five cards you should be happy to pull at a Pre-Release, Launch, or just about any time you get that lucky.  The full list of Worldwake cards is available here, so if you are feeling argumentative why not make your own list and compare.  We dare you.

54 Comments so far: