GenericKen
05-23-2005, 12:05 AM
Yes, we all know how absurd pithing needle will be, and fork reprints and fixed-ansceteral recall are tempting, but there are very important cards being printed that are being very unappreciated.
*MikoKoro, Center of the Sea - The *real* howling mine reprint, this will see a lot more play than that UU 1/3. Blue is not the color that wants to be giving symetrical turbo. It's difficult to say whether this will work out with an upkeep of 3, though.
Miren, the Moaning Well - Not exactly underappreciated, I feel oblidged to point out ext Life's uses for this.
Tomb of Urami - Before DS rotatoes out, T2 still has access to a vast array of non-land accelerators, and the card-free 5/5 is incredibly powerful in these cases. Unfortunately, it does not help black decks overcome Shackles, so this will fade into obscurity.
O-Naginata - Examining the costs, it becomes apparant that this is 3 power for 3 mana. It's bonesplitter's proper ogre cousin, and will be played as such. The added trample is the deal-breaker that puts this into ogre decks alongside Grafted Wargear.
*Pure Intentions - Foils duress and cabal therapy in ext.
*Glitterfang - For some reason, everyone on these forums focus on how he enables the turn 1 win in Limited, rather than the fact that he's a massive and inexpensive recurring spiritcraft trigger; he's just looking for a deck to fit into.
Manriki-Gusari - An equipment dominance card designed to make Steelshaper's Gift better, it's a little expensive, a little inefficient, a little conditional, and does nothing vs Vedalken Shackles, and will be unimportant in T2.
*Kataki, War's Wage - Too late for Standard, it's still an important replacement for Energy Flux when it rotates out of ext.
*Kiku's Shadow - BB: Destroy target creature with power greater than equal to its toughness. Its sorcery speed hurts, but once DS rotates out, Meloku is one of the few important creatures that this doesn't manage to kill.
*Death Denied - MASSIVE card advantage, at INSTANT SPEED. The only thing that hurts it is a lack of really quality black channel effects.
Freed from the Real - Half combo, half remoal, and as far as blue removal goes, this isn't bad at all.
*Murmurs from Beyond - The replacement for Thirst once it rotates out, it's got a definate anti-synergy w/ Gifts, but it's instant and it's arcane, and I don't think you could ask much more of it.
Deathmask Nezumi - 4 power and fear on turn 3 is handy. If only it were easier.
Pain's Reward - Strangely, the weakness of card drawing in standard makes this card weaker, not stronger, since bids on those four cards will go much higher than they really should. There's enough power in the control and foil cards to make drawing 4 cards often worth the risk of putting yourself on a 1 turn clock.
Captive Flame - Strong in limited, allowing anything to trade with almost anything, and allowing for alpha strikes.
Path of Anger's Flame - Limited's real red finisher, this readily generates 6 to 10 power.
Descendant of Masumaro - Green is really one of the strongest card generators in standard right now, and this is one of the best green wisdom outlets. The lack of evasion hurts it, but it does drop turn 2 or 3. If wisdom does wind up being as unpopular as I suspect it will be, green rouge wisdom has a lot of power in it.
*Elder Pine of Jukai - One of the strongest card generators in standard, often turbo-ing out in an arcane deck (which already has kodama's reach).
Molting Skin - Another limited bomb.
Skull Collector - Not under appreciated per se, I still feel oblidged to point out the combo with cip rats.
Adamaro, First to Desire - Multiplayer bliss, this will almost always be a 5/5 or better for 3.
SecretKeeper - The best 4/4 drawback blue flier for 4 in a long time, it's sadly overshadowed, much like everything else, by Meloku and his flying tokens; honestly, whoever heard of frickin' flying tokens?
*Shifting Borders - So blue gets instant-speed land d, hm? Break-up urzatron, color-hose stalled agressive decks, steal stones, steal blinkmoth, steal genju, and absolutely ruin Boseiju out of the SB? One of the strongest SB blue cards for a while now, alongside spectral shift.
*Seek the Horizon - It does not accelerate, so it won't replace reach, but it's splashable concentrate-3 for 1 card advantage, which is nice in a color that doesn't mind sorcery speed.
*Infernal Kirin - The best Kirin in SoK, if only because the black shoal is the most versitile. Also, 3/3 Flier for 4 is pretty dang efficient for black.
Death of a Thousand Stings(arcane)/Exile into Darkness - What's interesting about these spells aren't their painfully mediocre effects, but their free recurring (they'll even wait around until you find enough cards in black to turn it on). After all, they don't care how they got into your graveyard (Thought Courier, Mask of Memory, Razormane Masticore, Gifts Ungiven, Slumbering Tora).
*Arashi, the Sky Asunder - Not entirely underappreciated, it's excelent for MGA vs WW, perhaps replacing the Sniper, and is an uncounterable wipe vs Meloku. The only really playable channeler.
Ayumi, the Last Visitor - There was a lot of talk about how this card alone will cause people to stop running their automatic 1 legend land, but that won't happen; even if you do run your 1 legend land, you can always just hold onto it if you see him drop, or even if you just see forests. It's nice to have a 3 turn clock for 5, but Titan remains more important that this guy is.
Choice of Damnations - Already very appreciated, but I'm still geekin out about how cool it is.
Meishin, the Mind Cage - If Enduring Ideal is ever going to work in T2, it's going to be using either this or Worship, or maybe both. A handy answer to Troll Ascetic & Jitte for MUC, but probably too unwieldly for maindeck, esp when it neuters your own stones & meloku. Also, it dies to zealot.
Did I miss any?
*MikoKoro, Center of the Sea - The *real* howling mine reprint, this will see a lot more play than that UU 1/3. Blue is not the color that wants to be giving symetrical turbo. It's difficult to say whether this will work out with an upkeep of 3, though.
Miren, the Moaning Well - Not exactly underappreciated, I feel oblidged to point out ext Life's uses for this.
Tomb of Urami - Before DS rotatoes out, T2 still has access to a vast array of non-land accelerators, and the card-free 5/5 is incredibly powerful in these cases. Unfortunately, it does not help black decks overcome Shackles, so this will fade into obscurity.
O-Naginata - Examining the costs, it becomes apparant that this is 3 power for 3 mana. It's bonesplitter's proper ogre cousin, and will be played as such. The added trample is the deal-breaker that puts this into ogre decks alongside Grafted Wargear.
*Pure Intentions - Foils duress and cabal therapy in ext.
*Glitterfang - For some reason, everyone on these forums focus on how he enables the turn 1 win in Limited, rather than the fact that he's a massive and inexpensive recurring spiritcraft trigger; he's just looking for a deck to fit into.
Manriki-Gusari - An equipment dominance card designed to make Steelshaper's Gift better, it's a little expensive, a little inefficient, a little conditional, and does nothing vs Vedalken Shackles, and will be unimportant in T2.
*Kataki, War's Wage - Too late for Standard, it's still an important replacement for Energy Flux when it rotates out of ext.
*Kiku's Shadow - BB: Destroy target creature with power greater than equal to its toughness. Its sorcery speed hurts, but once DS rotates out, Meloku is one of the few important creatures that this doesn't manage to kill.
*Death Denied - MASSIVE card advantage, at INSTANT SPEED. The only thing that hurts it is a lack of really quality black channel effects.
Freed from the Real - Half combo, half remoal, and as far as blue removal goes, this isn't bad at all.
*Murmurs from Beyond - The replacement for Thirst once it rotates out, it's got a definate anti-synergy w/ Gifts, but it's instant and it's arcane, and I don't think you could ask much more of it.
Deathmask Nezumi - 4 power and fear on turn 3 is handy. If only it were easier.
Pain's Reward - Strangely, the weakness of card drawing in standard makes this card weaker, not stronger, since bids on those four cards will go much higher than they really should. There's enough power in the control and foil cards to make drawing 4 cards often worth the risk of putting yourself on a 1 turn clock.
Captive Flame - Strong in limited, allowing anything to trade with almost anything, and allowing for alpha strikes.
Path of Anger's Flame - Limited's real red finisher, this readily generates 6 to 10 power.
Descendant of Masumaro - Green is really one of the strongest card generators in standard right now, and this is one of the best green wisdom outlets. The lack of evasion hurts it, but it does drop turn 2 or 3. If wisdom does wind up being as unpopular as I suspect it will be, green rouge wisdom has a lot of power in it.
*Elder Pine of Jukai - One of the strongest card generators in standard, often turbo-ing out in an arcane deck (which already has kodama's reach).
Molting Skin - Another limited bomb.
Skull Collector - Not under appreciated per se, I still feel oblidged to point out the combo with cip rats.
Adamaro, First to Desire - Multiplayer bliss, this will almost always be a 5/5 or better for 3.
SecretKeeper - The best 4/4 drawback blue flier for 4 in a long time, it's sadly overshadowed, much like everything else, by Meloku and his flying tokens; honestly, whoever heard of frickin' flying tokens?
*Shifting Borders - So blue gets instant-speed land d, hm? Break-up urzatron, color-hose stalled agressive decks, steal stones, steal blinkmoth, steal genju, and absolutely ruin Boseiju out of the SB? One of the strongest SB blue cards for a while now, alongside spectral shift.
*Seek the Horizon - It does not accelerate, so it won't replace reach, but it's splashable concentrate-3 for 1 card advantage, which is nice in a color that doesn't mind sorcery speed.
*Infernal Kirin - The best Kirin in SoK, if only because the black shoal is the most versitile. Also, 3/3 Flier for 4 is pretty dang efficient for black.
Death of a Thousand Stings(arcane)/Exile into Darkness - What's interesting about these spells aren't their painfully mediocre effects, but their free recurring (they'll even wait around until you find enough cards in black to turn it on). After all, they don't care how they got into your graveyard (Thought Courier, Mask of Memory, Razormane Masticore, Gifts Ungiven, Slumbering Tora).
*Arashi, the Sky Asunder - Not entirely underappreciated, it's excelent for MGA vs WW, perhaps replacing the Sniper, and is an uncounterable wipe vs Meloku. The only really playable channeler.
Ayumi, the Last Visitor - There was a lot of talk about how this card alone will cause people to stop running their automatic 1 legend land, but that won't happen; even if you do run your 1 legend land, you can always just hold onto it if you see him drop, or even if you just see forests. It's nice to have a 3 turn clock for 5, but Titan remains more important that this guy is.
Choice of Damnations - Already very appreciated, but I'm still geekin out about how cool it is.
Meishin, the Mind Cage - If Enduring Ideal is ever going to work in T2, it's going to be using either this or Worship, or maybe both. A handy answer to Troll Ascetic & Jitte for MUC, but probably too unwieldly for maindeck, esp when it neuters your own stones & meloku. Also, it dies to zealot.
Did I miss any?