Dominaria United Review pt 2

 The links: Full set, Commander.

White
Anointed Peacekeeper is the sort of card one hopes to see in the color-but at 3 mana, it's probably going to have a similar impact as Elite Spellbinder did. Unfortunate, because I do think the taxing mechanic is cool. 

I'm struggling to find something interesting in White after that, a card that isn't immediately obvious as a powerhouse. There's plenty of cards that are fine or appropriate for Limited formats. I do think there's at least one Enlist creature that's going to make my Trash Cube, so that's fun! The Trash Cube hasn't gotten a lot of love, lately.

I think the art for Prayer of Binding and Captain's Call are interesting and distinctive. That's cool.

Blue
I like the space that Academy Loremaster is working in. That's a very Blue space, and suits the color well.

I've read some people are down on Defiler of Dreams but I don't see it. It's a flier with an incredible suite of abilities. What's not to love? 

I am quite surprised by the introduction of Impulse! That card hasn't been Standard legal since Visions, which means any format made since Modern hasn't touched the card. Yet I also think that Impulse is a very good card-powerful, but not overmuch. Tolarian Terror looks like it could become a new Gurmag Angler. Maybe even better than Angler, since it has some built in resistance to removal and can be cast before a Murktide Regent without impacting the Regent's cost. 

It has finally dawned on me that with Protect the Negotiators, WotC is really feeling confident enough to let some unusual art styles represent. I like it and as a spice to the regular cards, it helps create nice contrasts in the work between the traditional art (which is still good!) and the unusual stuff. One could make an argument that the Sagas did this already but I would say that they helped pave the way, because the card type was doing something unique. 

Black
The new Braids looks out-freakin-standing. 

But Extinguish the Light is a card that worries me a little. Three mana Planeswalkers have generally been a place where they get overpowered easily. I'm hoping that Extinguish is more of a 'we're still keeping on this, and Liliana has been printed in this set' than a 'we're gonna give you SO MANY 3 mana Planeswalkers!'. 

I'm excited for The Raven Man and it is 100% because of my R/B madness deck. I know it's a payoff card, not an engine but that payoff is pretty dang useful for an aggressive deck. 

Red
I was talking about Defiler of Instinct with a friend and it could have some real legs. Goblins are cheap and there are Kobolds again. It could set up situations where you get some payoff from DoI right away instead of needing to untap, and that's not something to sniff at. 

I wonder how Meira's Outrider can be in this format! The possibility of getting a 4/4 body that does five damage to your opponents when it ETBs is nasty. But even if you only get 2 damage off, this is a fairly good deal for five mana. That it can block fliers is also a nice payoff for that mid-late game.

Is Shivan Devastator really a Mythic? It isn't particularly complicated, is isn't cheap, it doesn't have anything particularly amazing going for it. It doesn't even have much hydra aspect to it-it doesn't grow on future turns, or shrink by removing counters in lieu of taking damage. It's just a big dumb idiot. 

Green
Hexbane Tortoise, there's the shitty Enlist card I've been hoping for! 

It's probably just me, but Territorial Maro resembles Matt Ryan as Constantine.

There isn't much in Green for me to glom onto either, though. As with White, there is plenty of functional stuff, things to make Limited work, but there isn't a card that seems exciting. That's unexpected, since I would think Green would benefit from Domain being a mechanic. 

Multicolored
In a set called Dominaria United, this is where I'd expect to see some flashes of greatness.

Instead, I get a lot of role players. That isn't bad though! Cards that can step in and help boost a deck from mediocrity to 'maybe good!' are important. Magic decks aren't just sixty cards acting independently, you know?

So I can appreciate the design of cards like Queen Allenal of Ruadach or Rivaz of the Claw, while also not seeing where they are pushing on the game in a new way. I dig on Astor, Bearer of Blades as a card that fits well into my Hold The Heathen Hammer High deck and look forward to giving it a try!

The big exception to this is Meira, Scholar of Antiquity. The two most anti-artifact colors netting a card that wants to use artifacts? Feels weird and is likely nasty, especially since the abilities don't require mana to use. 

Now ordinarily I'd probably shrug this card off as a weird 'WotC doing things I don't get to fill a slot' thing, however the next set is The Brothers' War. TBW is predicted to be a heavy artifacts set, because of the storyline it concerns itself with-the conflict between Urza and Mishra, both artificers. 

So a card like this could be the sort of thing that gives Red/Green something to do in The Brothers' War aside from just Hulk Smash. 

Colorless/Artifacts/Lands
Another 4 mana Karn that does dumb things. Woo. 

I'm not sure how I feel about the visual direction artifact creatures have taken. These feel futuristic in a set that should have a classic fantasy feel. But I'm not gravitating to anything here.

The lands do some interesting things this time. Painlands are fine color fixers and common lands with basic types are going to give Limited formats a needed boost, but it's Thran Portal, Crystal Grotto and Plaza of Heroes that grab my attention. Plaza for being the new Commander staple card, Thran Portal as a new City of Brass and Crystal Grotto will be, as the scrylands from Theros were, underrated. 

Commander
I am not a Commander expert, so with that-

Emperor Mihial II is a nice boost for Merfolk, Moria Gravyard Haunt and Activated Sleeper have cool things to do, I like The Reaver Cleaver and even Rosnakht a little,  Iridian Maelstrom is a card long overdue, and the update to historical figures is fun, even if they aren't always good. 

I don't know that these cards are great and I'm not seeing some impressive/necessary reprints. They're meh-meh to me. 

So: Regular set-seems fine. Commander set-seems eh. 

Dominaria United Review pt 1

We've got the set spoiler here, so I suppose it's time to start talking about Dominaria United! Folks interested in the Commander spoiler, I gotchu. 

As always, I'm going to start with the mechanics and let's just get the big one out of the way:

Kicker
Look, Kicker is the tried and tested, be all end all of mechanics. Having an objection to Kicker means you hate Magic as a game, really. Always nice to see a classic-the quality of the cards will depend on the cost of the kicker. Standard stuff by now.

Stun Counters
Look, I don't make the rules. Wizards says "stun counters" are a mechanic and...ok. I don't agree with that assessment but like I said, I don't make the rules.

I do think this is a clever way to implement creature control in Blue. In the same way that Fight is a great way to do creature control in Green, stun counters offer something to the color that it should have in a way that feels reasonable. Plus in Blue's case, it is really formalizes something it was already doing.  

Domain
Domain is a thing that always seems like it would be so cool and never is. This time, however, they've done something different: they've printed dual lands at common in a set that cares about Domain. 

That is a big deal! 

So I would say that for the first time in awhile, there's an opportunity for Domain to come into its own. I know that for a lot of Eternal format players this might not mean much, but I think they should pay attention. For the first time, a majority of the Magic community will have the ability to make Domain useful-and that's where their attention will go. (Majority here meaning; people playing on Arena, where a LOT of games take place. The biggest format is still Commander, as far as I know). 

With that kind of attention some innovations could take place, which is cool to me.

Read Ahead
This feels like an odd thing to do to Sagas-you are still paying full price but now you get to skip chapters? The problem with this is that now all the chapters have to have equal value or players will just skip to the best one. Love Song of Night and Day will need special circumstances for players to choose chapter one, ever, and similarly The Phasing of Zhalfir is just better as a Blue Wrath of God. Generally, if you gotta Wrath, you need to do it now-and if you telegraph your Wrath, then opponents know to hold up. 

So this seems like a miss to me. Neat idea, but I don't know how they could execute it better.

Enlist
When I first read Enlist, I didn't do so carefully, so I thought it was really cool!

Then I read it again and saw the qualifier saying the Enlisted creature cannot have summoning sickness and realized exactly what this did: It sucked. 

There are very few creatures that give you a bonus just because they tap. Most of these triggers involve attacking, which makes perfect sense. Once a creature is available to attack, why am I wasting it to boost another attacking creature unless I've already won? 

Plus, the bonus is only for power so any 2/x creature is going to eat your Guardian of New Benalia. (Also, it is HILARIOUS when they suggest using creatures with Defender as ones to enlist, because the power for most creatures with defender is 0 and of creatures with Defender in Dominaria United, in the limited environments where you'd use Enlist, 0 or 1 is the power for most defenders-creatures you want on defense anyway! Great job!)

Swing and a miss.