Sarkhan the Rad!

^This card is good. Been testing him in a Jund deck on MWS. Pretty standard decklist, except I replaced Garruk with Sarkhan, and went a full 4 copies so I'd get to see him in action regularly. He is almost never a bad thing to draw. He cannot be picked off with burn until you've gotten some card advantage out of him. He will always replace himself at least, and almost always more. He works miracles on Thrinaxes. He can turn any creature into a blocker that will stop Sphinx of Jwar Isle. If you have a Broodmate he is a 16 damage alpha strike. He ain't Jace...but Jace can't be played in Jund. He is a planeswalker whose merit is more difficult to see, as he is explicitly ephemeral, but maaaaaaan does he go out with a bang!(Click to embiggen):

26 damage finish with the dragon squad. Coming back from 2. Such a brutally Timmytastic victory crushed my opponent's morale so thoroughly that he couldn't even muster the energy to sideboard. I gave Sarkhan a high five. He (with only one loyalty counter and a threadbare shred of his sanity left) said, "We did it garbleman. We beat the dragon hunting wilbrogs and saved dragonia forever!"

We sure did Sarkhan, we sure did.

A quick X prediction

X spells are going to get better when cascade rotates. Buy yours today!

Get Dusted

So much for my carefully edited photoshops based on that bunk hybrid colorless conjecture. Oh well, 'twas fun making them.

All is Dust is the latest ROE card spoiled. A colorless 7-mana super wipe. It has people positively fomenting on the MTG Salvation forums. I suppose it is exciting. And as any deck can play it, it may become very expensive as a mythic rare; however, just because a deck can play a card, doesn't mean it will (that's a massive foundation stone in the appeal of this game.) There are lots of white decks that don't run DoJ. Every deck can run Basilisk Collar, and that's a good one drop in a format full of creatures, and we don't see it in every deck.

If you're playing a colorless deck it won't hit your guys, but what will they be? A few spawn tokens and an Everflowing Chalice. Once you have Kozilek out, who cares if All is Dust hits him or not, he is an All is Dust on a huge card-drawing beatstick.

Prediction: When the dust settles, Realms Uncharted will be the more highly sought card.

Secrets of the Eye

The latest rumor is that Rise of the Eldrazi will be an all colorless/hybrid block. Not the U/G, B/W, R/G style that we have mostly been exposed to, but the 2/G, 2/U style showcased on the cycle that included Beseech the Queen, Flame Javelin, Advice from the Fae, Spectral Procession, and Tower Above. Zendikar has chaotic mana. When the Eldrazi bust loose they change the nature of the mana there even further, causing every spell to be castable with any color of mana if you just dump enough into it. If we see a lot of Eldrazi-type spells, this will also make the Eye of Ugin even more valuable.

The Eye of Ugin will be more versatile, as it will discount your big nasty 10cmc Eldrazi AND will also allow you to cast your 2/R 2/R 2/R Eldrazi burn spell for RR.

Eye replaces a land drop, so really, you haven't gotten a discount. You could have just dropped a 3rd mountain and been good to go, but if this scenario is the case, then picking up the Eye early won't be a bad thing. It will also save you mana if you can manage to cast a second hybrid Eldrazi spell before your next untap.