Chalice Malice

This card's a good time. It can act as some classic artifact mana acceleration, or it can be involved in charge counter combos.

The fact that this is the card Flores, as the writer of the official competitive Magic column, was given to spoil strikes me as unsettling for control decks. If artifact mana accel is the best Worldwake has to offer for control, we'll be seeing a lot more beatdown in the following months.

Seems like Wizards is dialing the power of control back up slowly. Very slowly.

Abysmal Purse-ecutor

How's the pocketbook Magic fans? Worldwake is looking to be loaded with enticing wallet-maimers like this here demon. Juzam Djinn got a big nudge toward the obsolete pile.

You might be saying, "but I can't win without removal with this thing out!" Aye, you can't, but let's look past that. You've bashed your opponent to -5 life with the persecutor. You have no removal, but, you, with your more efficient creature, ruled the board and are sitting at...let's say more than 10 life. In this creature-heavy Zendikar standard, odds are their overtime counterstrike will involve creatures. If their creatures are smaller, they're gonna get eaten. If they drop something BIGGER...well, what are they gonna do with that? Attack?

Things the Persecutor doesn't like:
-Wall of Denial: Oh, but how it doesn't like Wall of Denial. Gatekeeper of Malakir is probably his best bet (only bet?) in this situation.

-Baneslayer Angel: Protection from Demons! Lifelink! 5/5! Flying! Bugger me! The worst part here is that Baneslayer is the comeback kid against the Persecutor. If your opponent is in the negatives, that means you're waiting on removal, which means...

-Pacifism variants: You've nullified my demon AND kept his static ability on the table? Nooooooo! Nobody is really running pacifism variants right now. Oblivion Ring has taken up that role, but we may start seeing the sideboarding of "can't attack or block" enchantments if A.P. really starts going the distance.

-Counter Control: Control will give this lug a big snuggle every time he flaps over and swipes at them with his smoking hellsword. By the time they're into the negative health zone, they will have a big ol' grip of counterspells to protect him with. Then they'll hunker down and build up to their win condition in comfort. I have seen some canny players pointing out that there are uncounterable ways to get rid of Persey, such as Bone Splinters. Strike me as a good sideboard card for decks sporting the demon.

This thing is going for twenty bills on presale sites and on ebay. I don't expect it to go for any less unless the 2-mana counterspell makes some kind of decent comeback in Worldwake.

In Defense of the Baloth

Once upon a time, I was 12. I opened my first starter deck of Magic: The Gathering. In it, was this!!!:

Craw Wurm stole my heart. It was so powerful. But then I played more, and saw more cards. I saw white and black's flying 4/4's for 5 mana. I saw the 'cycle' of elementals. I saw Shivan Dragon, and then I saw Mahamoti Djinn. Despite being a guy who grants wishes, the Mahamoti made me sad. He was blue, the color that was supposed to have the weakest creatures, but here he was, having the exact same cmc and colored mana requirement as my beloved craw wurm, flying, and packing a summed p/t one higher than the crawmeister with no drawbacks!* It wasn't right!

As I learned more, I passed over green for a leaner U/W deck that ran Serra Angels, Air Elementals, Mahamoti Djinn, counterspells, and all that. To play the best creatures, I had to pass over the color that was supposed to be the place where the mightiest beasts could be found.

Many years later, I've been presented with a card that I wish I could send back in time to my 12 year old self:

To me this card represents the correction of the imbalance of power between creatures and spells, and the culmination of the past years of tuning up green's wedge of the color pie. This is a hard card to cast unless your deck is mono green. Why can't mono green ram a Baloth into the opposition turn 3 (with accel?) Nothing a Terror, Counterspell, or Path to Exile can't stop (sorry red, I know you and green are homies. You'll think of something).

I'll start calling this power creep if Wizards takes it any farther. If next year we see a 5/5 for 3 cmc with little to no drawbacks, or a 4/5 for 3 with abilities, it will be our duty to boycott that set.

*I didn't bring Force of Nature into the discussion because of its GGGG upkeep.

If You Can't Beat'em...

Resort to obscenity.

Coupla Eyecatchers

Two new spoilers that caught my eye: Bestial Menace and Dragonmaster Outcast.

Bestial Menace is 3 bodies and 6 P/T for 5 mana. Also has some great synergy with Oran-Rief. Token-generator that isn't countered by Maelstrom Pulse. Might be a contenda. Definitely looks like fun.

Dragonmaster Outcast...hmm. So fragile...and yet, so easy to protect. This is being compared to Scute Mob, and rightly so, but is it better or worse? I'd say better, because a terror will end the Scutemob and all it has gained, while keeping this dragon lady on the board to your next upkeep means they need a boardsweeper to deal with it. Boros likes it, as a Ranger can fetch it up lategame and give the Dragon token haste the next turn with a Bushwhacker; however, This card looks most valuable in a deck that can take advantage of some defensive cards. If we see a decent counter or two in WWK, this might be a finisher for some type of R/U(/W?) permission deck. R/G can hit this with a Vines of Vastwood, or that new troll shroud enchant for many dragons. A lot of exciting prospects with this little mythic rare.

Some Worldwake commons

There are some new commons up here.

Two of which I thought were pretty cool. Vastwood Zendikon is an interesting retake on Genju of the Cedars. We can definitely expect a cycle of these land animating auras. This seems like a decently strong effect, particularly, of course, in a landfall deck.

Mysteries of the Deep should have the blue mages out there all atwitter. This is some very solid instant-speed card draw, something blue hasn't seen for a while. Combined with fetchlands, or even harrow, this will consistently be an instant-speed three-for-one. If Wizards delivers that rumored multikicker counterspell, or something akin to it at 2cmc, blue will be a contender again.

Fear Me!!!

Wizards Thinks You're a Loser

http://wizards.com/magic/TCG/Default.aspx

Countless devastating spells. Legions of deadly creatures. Infinite ways to say Here I Rule. Sentence fragments=ME POWERFUL!

Riiight wizards, that's why we play. Because we want to feel good about ourselves. Because we're funny looking geeks who can barely heft a football, so we're willing to settle for a purely imaginary and cerebral forum. We don't rule in the hallways of schools. We don't rule in the workplace. We definitely don't rule in a gym. But here, here at this table, in this store, surrounded by Warhammer miniatures, manga, and a display case devoted entirely to dice, Here We Rule.

Why do you play? Do you play to feel good about yourself, or do you just play to feel good?

New Year's Spoilers!

So we got two new spoiled cards for the New Year.

Comet Storm:
This one seems to have the masses (at least the masses at MTG Salvation) in a small froth. "Shouldn't be mythic." "Not as good as Banefire for a finisher." "Not as good as Earthquake for a big sweeper." "Not as good as Fallout for a little sweeper."

I find it intriguing that it is being compared to so many cards. That's an indication that it might have merit. If it can do the jobs of three other cards decently, it might just be good enough for constructed.

This card looks like it will be valuable in W/B/R control if it is joined by a good counterspell in WWK. Being able to keep mana untapped and then launch a big face-melter at your opponent's end step looks good to me.

Aaaaand, some elf got spoiled too.

Joraga Warcaller, G (Rare)
Creature - Elf Warrior
Multikicker 1G
Joraga Warcaller enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each time it was kicked.
Other Elf creatures you control get +1/+1 for each +1/+1 counter on Joraga Warcaller.
1/1

Meh...elves. They always seem kinda neat, but then someone kills one of your elves and the whole house of cards falls apart.