Kaladesh New Card Discussion

[Jabilac]

All this travel for work has kept me out of the loop on spoilers. Thanks for posting everything guys! Everyday Kaladesh looks like a more exciting set

The cards I'm most excited about are:

Kambal, Consul of Allocation: This can be an amazing sideboard card against burn or control matchups (like Jeskai or Esper). I may test a couple in my Mardu Sideboard.

Contraband Kingpin: This guy is just what Modern Thopter-Sword was looking for. Now, in addition to being able to find your combo faster (that deck is full of artifacts), it can also scry with each iteration of the combo (Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek for those unfamiliar). The big butt and lifelink are just icing on the cake, as the deck traditionaly lacked ways of defending itself pre-combo. I think Modern needs more control / psuedo-combo decks, so I'm totally on board with cards like this that make those decks better.

Scrapheap Scavenger: Dredge gets another new toy... maybe... That deck is already a the critical mass of returnable stuff, and in general Dredge doesn't like to pay for it's spells.  This could be at most a 1 or 2 of, and reanimated by exiling no longer needed dredge creatures.  I'm just happy it dies to Anger of the Gods.

Dovin Baan: Quite the heated debate going on about this plainwalker. Seems like the major downside people brought up was the low loyalty and prevalence of fliers in standard. Personally, I love the -1 ability, to the point where I'd just use it every turn I could, even if it kills him. If he started with more than 3 loyalty, the -1 would probably have to be a -2, so I understand the balance WOTC had to make. As for the downside of leaving himself open to fliers... at least he's in the two colors with the most fliers in Standard. Seems like a nice top end to a Spirits deck to me. Great way to refuel your hand and get a little extra life, and all your flying flash spirits should be able to keep him safe.

Cathartic Reunion: I actually like this a lot. It provides the same amount of card advantage as Tormenting Voice for the same price, but it has the potential for double Madness, which makes this way more powerful. Tormenting Voice was at best a 3 drop, Draw 2 cards +lightning Bolt.  This new on could be 4 drop Draw 3 cards +Double Lightning Bolt. Now I know that won't happen often, but with something like Falkenwrath Gorger, this card just spews out vampires and refills your hand at the same time. I'm interested in seeing if this makes Vamps explosive enough to be competitive.

Masterpieces: I read on ChannelFireball somewhere that they'll be just like the Zendikar Expeditions (usable in limited if you pull one, but not allowed in standard otherwise). They'll also be exclusively foil and should occur in 1 of 144 packs. Fingers crossed, but like a lot of you guys, I never pulled an expedition in Zendikar block, so my hopes aren't high.

Lets hope spoilers finish strong. been great so far!

You make a good point with Contraband Kingpin.  I didn't think about how well he meshes with Thopter Sword combo.  Great insight!

Catharic Reunion is a great card draw engine and should work very well in a BR vamp madness build.  They dump their hand so quickly they need all the refueling they can get.  This could also see play in graveyard decks that like Faithless Looting.  2 cards in the yard and the option to Dredge 3 times.. Could get out of hand.

I mean if there weren't so many cards that could return a creature you control you their owner's hand, or exile target creature and return it to the battlefield under its casters control, it would be good. Especially if that creature were indestructible. Imagine putting it on Ulamog, Murder wouldn't work, because it will always be re-directed to Ulamog, and since it's indestructible, it would never die!

Creatures like Emrakul, The Promised End, I assume that if you enchanted it and an opponent cast an instant, targeting your creature, that instant could not be re-directed to Emrakul, because it has protection from instant spells, correct?

This is correct.  Emrakul can not be the target of Instants and thus can not have an Instant redirected to him.

[Nickadimoose]

Is anyone else disappointed about the sky-whale? Seriously, I want to make a sky-whale deck so bad I can taste it. We just need one good sky-whale ETB trigger...come on! Give us a sky-whale that makes sky-whale tokens so I can live my dream.

[Jabilac]

Is anyone else disappointed about the sky-whale? Seriously, I want to make a sky-whale deck so bad I can taste it. We just need one good sky-whale ETB trigger...come on! Give us a sky-whale that makes sky-whale tokens so I can live my dream.

I just looked at the token set for this block and alas no sky-whale tokens.  We do have around 78 more chances at a good sky-whale ETB trigger though.  Maybe tap a few creatures or disable a vehicle for a turn or something like that.  It would be fun to see a Protection from Vehicles sky-whale 

[Jabilac]

We got a lot of Spoilers today:



There are so many spoilers in this post I am only going to talk about a few of the ones I like or are interesting.

Deadlock Trap is a creature or Planeswalker control artifact.  It allows you to tap a creature or planeswalker and their activated abilities can not be activated.  With the planeswalkers we have seen already this is a great artifact to get ahold of.

Durable Handicraft is an interesting Enchantment at U.  Cheap to cast and 1 colorless mana to activated the +1/+1 counter.

Harsh Scrutiny Hand disruption is always nice.  It is a great way to see how the next few turns will play out and take whatever creature your opponent thought they were gonna cast.

Commencement of Festivities a player specific fog spell.  Remember its out there folks and be ready for it when your up against Green and remember its only stops Combat Damage.

[Jabilac]

Lots of spoilers dropped while I was writing the last post.  We are getting close to the end now.



Subtle Strike is a pretty nifty Instant at C.  2 modes both are useful for 1B.  I like this common.

Pressure Point is also a nice tempo play.  Tap their biggest creature (maybe a Vehicle after they crew it) and cantrip.  Another useful cheap common.

Revoke Privileges a very block specific Pacifism.

They have dropped more.  I think we might see the rest of the set today.  I will wait until later to post more spoilers, maybe it will be the last Spoiler post for this block

[Jabilac]

Ok.  The rest of the set is here:
 


Empyreal Voyager is a great card.  I am surprised it is at U.  I like this one.

Veteran Motorist makes that RW dwarves deck even better.  Another great U.

Confiscation Coup is a very powerful effect for the investment.  You can take control of any 4cmc creature or artifact without investing any more E and if you do decide to invest more E then your getting even more for your resources.

There are also quite a few creatures that deal damage when they are tapped.  Perfect for Crewing Vehicles.

So thats it!  The whole set.  Looks like it will be a very fun Limited enviroment and I am really interested in what people are thinking about for Constructed.  Apparently there was a mistake on Energy Token's not being printed and Wizards has issued an article about it.  Also here is the link to the release notes for Kaladesh.

[Ujihiro]

Gotta say, I'm loving Nature's Way (a better Rabid Bite), Peema Outrider (4MC common that's a 4/4 w/trample? Don't need to convince me further lol), Take Down (1 mere green mana to wreck flyer heavy environments), Subtle Strile (I keel your weenie and make mine stronger, neener-neener), Pressure Point (Tap a creature AND draw a card .... Silly Keenigit, ah taunt j00 a second TAIM! ), and Deadlock Trap.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: This set is ridonkulously good ... G  U  U  D! 

[KouriNick]

By far my favorite spoiled card is Harsh Scrutiny (1 mana to look at opposing players hand and make them discard a creature card. Scry 1). This thing isn't just Standard playable, it will likely see Modern Play. Modern has become such a creature centered format that getting to pick off anything AND get a scry on Turn 1 is massive. Especially in Black, which doesn't usually get deck manipulation like this. I can't wait to have a discard spell that I can draw late game and still cast for some value.

In Jund or Abzan, this is great alongside Dark Confidant, and gives Scavenging Ooze an additional target. Not being able to hit spells does matter, but Inquisition of Kozilek can't hit Ad Nauseam, Scapeshift, or Nahiri anyway, and at least getting a scry means this won't always be a dead draw late game. Love it, and can't wait to get a playset.

[Mnemosyne]

By far my favorite spoiled card is Harsh Scrutiny (1 mana to look at opposing players hand and make them discard a creature card. Scry 1). This thing isn't just Standard playable, it will likely see Modern Play. Modern has become such a creature centered format that getting to pick off anything AND get a scry on Turn 1 is massive. Especially in Black, which doesn't usually get deck manipulation like this. I can't wait to have a discard spell that I can draw late game and still cast for some value.

In Jund or Abzan, this is great alongside Dark Confidant, and gives Scavenging Ooze an additional target. Not being able to hit spells does matter, but Inquisition of Kozilek can't hit Ad Nauseam, Scapeshift, or Nahiri anyway, and at least getting a scry means this won't always be a dead draw late game. Love it, and can't wait to get a playset.

I agree with you on the Harsh Scrutiny, KouriNick. It is a great card, I think it will be played highly in control Black/White decks, even if it isn't a main-boarded card, it will certainly be in the sideboard.
Looking at a players hand is (Duress), However, instead of a non-creature spell you get to remove a potential board threat on the first turn, and if that wasn't enough you can fix your top-deck with scry.

I am kind of disappointed that Black is getting more focus than Red, I have honestly only seen Red prevalent in the combination U/R Izzet Machinegun Decks. Black has some amazing cards. Lost Legacy, Harsh Scrutiny, Diabolic Tutor, Demon of Dark Schemes, Noxious Gearhulk and Kambal, Consul of Allocation. I had hoped that Orzhov Control would be diluted after Origins lost Infinite Obliteration and Languish... I like having some form of balance.

I am also extremely disappointed that we haven't seen ANY great equipment. With cards like Sigarda's Aid and Weapons Trainer, we were waiting for that Boros Equipment synergy. Alas, we will have to wait for Aether Revolt...perhaps.

Red has a great pump spell, I like Built to Smash, it is reminiscent of Titan's Strength and works well with Gruul.