Saturday, May 14, 2011

Post #7 Casually New Phyrexia

In this post, I wanted to talk more about New Phyrexia and its impact on multiplayer and casual magic. Instead of doing an entire set review, I'm going to dissect the 5 new praetor cards and talk briefly about some cards to look out for. Hopefully I can do justice to these 5 extremely powerful cards.

I'll avoid trying to sound like an advertisement, but I wanted to comment on New Phyrexia as a whole and what it means for the magic multiverse before delving into the cards. When I started playing magic with Lorwyn, I've been introduced to new planes ever since and it's been really informative, but I never really felt connected to people who had been playing for many years. Coming back to Mirrodin and watching the siege of Phyrexia was an amazing experience. I felt the urge to go back and read a lot on the history of the Magic multiverse. Phyrexia played a huge force for years as the classic enemies of planeswalkers and leaving the original plane of Dominaria in ruins. I think that New Phyrexia is a historical set and play a huge role in the multiverse and will be for many years as people remember when Phyrexia was reborn. I can't wait for this set to be released in a couple days, to say the least. 

Hopefully I don't beat a dead horse by discussing the cards in the set, because many other blogs, including Bojukablog, The Magic Show, and Channelfireball have discussed the set in great detail. I'll talk about a few cards with a more casual lens. 


E-Norn is a really interesting creature that fits in a lot of important decks in casual. She gives the token decks something they've been needing for quite some time, a creature win condition. Unlike Eldrazi Monument and Akroma's Memorial, E-norn is a creature with a big body (7 freakin toughness) that can help aid in combat or help block after an alpha strike at an enemy player's face. Furthermore, E-norn throws -2/-2 across the board on opponents creatures, which is very powerful against the tribal decks, the token mirror, or weenie (red, white, or black) decks. The applications of the -2/-2 is almost limitless. Since E-norn makes opponents creatures smaller, your opponents will have to reconsider attacking with titans (because elesh norn can kill any of them in combat). E-norn is also very powerful in the u/w control decks using Godhead of Awe, forcing your opponents heavy creature strategies to crumble very quickly. I like E-norn a lot because she doesn't limit you to mono white (unlike Crovax, Ascendant Hero), so you can use her in a lot of different splash decks. Although, Crovax is a stronger mono-white general, E-norn is very versatile in being offensive (pump your dudes +2/+2) and have a defensive quality (7 toughness) that makes her great in a white deck needing a creature pump or a creature hoser.

Some obvious downsides, E-norn costs 7-mana in a color that doesn't generally ramp. However, with the help of a green splash or the use of signets or other mana-producing artifacts, he can still be played when relevant to the board. Furthermore, in multiplayer, E-norn (like all the praetors) draws a lot of unwanted attention and will have some players screaming bloody murder to kill the creature or alpha strike you. I feel that E-norn can protect you in most situations, but I recommend vigilance, flying, life gain, and other defensive mechanics, to maintain an offensive and keep yourself alive. E-norn is a crazy card and expect to play against her quite a bit. 


JG is a really expensive card to play. 10 mana for a blue creature is very demanding. I'm glad he has flash though, allowing him to be played at very opportune times, although if you're opponent is familiar with it, they probably will be expecting a flashed JG at end of turn. I think JG is very specific, playing it to force your opponent to pitch their hand at the beginning of their end step. JG is a very difficult card to play, more specifically on when to play him. Knowing when the best time to play him is key in keeping him alive and destructive. Playing cards like Asceticism and Kira, Great Glass-Spinner work great with JG and could really turn the game around. Although drawing 7 cards at the end of turn is a bit weaker than during your draw step, you're still drawing 7 cards! Think about the impact of Necropotence and how format warping the card was. I feel JG, in the right deck, will have the same devastating effect in the casual format. I think he's a really good card for the control decks trying to take out opponents' options. In casual, JG is really strong in controlling multiple opponents in the late game. JG is a really good follow up to Decree of Pain or Plague Wind. I think JG will really shine in the u/b decks as a late game win condition or the decks that take advantage of cheating strong spells in play, like Intet, the Dreamer or Elvish Piper

The downsides to JG include his small 5/4 body, that can easily be taken out by a well placed Chandra Nalaar or a red spell within 4 damage. Also, unlike Consecrated Sphinx, the card draw isn't controlled. With JG, the heavy card draw isn't under a 'may' clause, so you're forced to draw copious amounts of cards, which could put you significantly closer to milling yourself. Finally, if your opponent is playing Reliquary Tower, JG's -7 max hand size ability is nullified, removing your ability to control your opponents' card advantage. I don't think many people will be playing JG in casual, but prepare late game removal or have graveyard efficient mechanics (like dredge, reanimation, flashback, unearth, or hellbent).


Ok, Magic has been feeding the reanimator strategy slowly with cards like Geth, Lord of the Vault and Sun Titan, but this card really takes the cake. They gave Sheoldred the pseudo Debtors' Knell ability which makes him completely insane. Sheoldred will be very good in the recursion, control, and jund archetypes. Sheoldred is a very tempo heavy creature, where with consecutive turns, she brings you significantly closer to winning the game. Sheoldred's sac ability is also extremely good. For recursion, it'll keep all of your opponents's creatures into their graveyards to reanimate, and for control, it helps keep opponents' boards creature free. The zombie tribal archetype will also love this card because it helps their zombies punch through on opponents and gives them a late game finisher. As opposed to some blogs, I believe that the swampwalk ability is strong on this card. A lot of people in Commander/EDH play Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in the black decks, giving sheoldred unblockability in many cases. Unlike Debtor's Knell, Sheoldred is a creature, which helps defend you. I've had many instances when I've played D-knell and was soon after killed by many raging opponents. I feel sheoldred is a safer option because (psychologically) she doesn't hit opponents graveyards, so opponents feel like their graveyard isn't under siege. For some reason, casual players get really upset when you take their creatures, who knew. Since she's a creature, she's easier to remove with a creature kill spell; however, she does a good job of discouraging opponents to attack you on the ground. With a 6/6 body, she's pretty resilient and trades with all of the titans. 

At 7 mana, she runs into some of the same problems the others do, the mana cost is really heavy. Also, sheoldred is really weak against the token decks or some of the tribal decks (like goblins) whom throw their creatures at you, rather than value each piece of the army quite heavily (slivers and zombies). Sheoldred's sac ability could also backfire by triggering 'leave the battlefield abilities,' like Reveillark or gives the reanimator mirror and jund decks a free sac outlet. When facing Sheoldred, look out for the reanimator clause, because after a couple turns, your opponent will begin to take control of the game. Creature removal or mass board wipe can take care of sheoldred. Or graveyard hate cards, like Relic of Progenitus, Bojuka Bog, and Tormod's Crypt, which all can severely hinder Sheoldred's upside ability and help take your opponent down. 


So UtH is a difficult creature to discuss. Other than Madrush Cyclops, they're aren't many creature cards that give your team haste, so UtH is really special. Also, being mono-red makes him very playable in any deck that has a red splash in it. I feel that Urabrask is really good in the mid-range aggro red decks, jund, naya and good in the land control decks, such as Numot, the Devastator. Being able to have the Kismet ability in red is really relevant to getting your creatures in the red zone more easily and quickly. The kismet ability also helps keep your opponents' tempo behind your own and allowing the control deck some speed to outrace heavy aggro or tribal decks. UtH also works very well with Sunblast Angel in the control deck. Urabrask shuts down control decks relying on single creatures to block and defend themselves by forcing them to enter the battlefield tapped. Also, giving your team haste is really powerful, especially with Broodmate Dragon in jund or Godsire in Naya. I feel Urabrask is one of the best 'green' (yes, green) cards printed for casual magic. The green/red aggro deck has been desperately in need of a creature that gives the team haste to beat down multiple opponents quick enough to be relevant. UtH also works really well with the titans, like Lightning Greaves, gives your titans extra value by shooting them into the red zone, which could also work very well with Primeval Titan in the r/g ramp decks or r/g Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

The downsides to UtH are quite few. His 5 mana cost is in perfect range of playing a bomb card afterwards to smash into your opponent and his 4/4 body takes him out of red removal range and keeps him alive against 2/2s and 3/3s in the early game. If UtH has a downside, it's the fact that he can't guarantee a win in a multiplayer game by himself. The other praetors have abilities powerful enough to win games against multiple opponents, while UtH speeds up your tempo and allows you to potentially kill one or two opponents, but doesn't really shine until a more bomb like creature to help UtH win the game. 


Finally (yay!), we reach Vorinclex. I'll admit, when I first saw VoH, I thought he was really boring. I saw the ability and was unimpressed. At first, he feels like an 8 drop Mana Reflection, but his 7/6 trampling body is nothing to scoff at. It's a pretty relevant size in casual and again, trades with titans (and enemy praetors, except E-norn). The mana doubling ability is good with r/g ramp decks, mono green eldrazi decks, and r/g land destruction. Vorinclex has a really unique ability similar to Winter Orb, allowing you to freeze up opponents mana base that helps against the control decks. Vorinclex is really good for the r/g land destruction decks looking for the bomb creature to help lock down their opponents. In some strange way, I can see Vorinclex as a sideboard against control decks, for control decks that play/splash green. Shutting down your opponents' mana base or limiting them to the Rule of Law ability can be devastating against combo decks or decks relying on 'mana sinking' (certain token builds, auto-win decks, and the proliferate strategy). Vorinclex will make some huge waves in casual green decks across the board. 

Obviously, the downside to Vorinclex is his 8 mana cost, but he's a green creature, so the 8 mana isn't too terrible. His Winter Orb clause really hurts opponents and (similar to E-norn), he'll draw a lot of attention from other ramp decks, control decks, and decks relying on a strict mana base (5-color casual or decks with 3+ colors). When facing Vorinclex, cards like Seedborn Muse, will really help you take an edge on the Vorinclex player and help take him down, while your other opponents try to recover from lands that remain tapped. 

The upside of these cards is just limitless and I could spend hours talking about how strong these cards are. I hope the post wasn't too long and arduous to read. If anyone has any requests for any cards from NPH for me to talk about in a casual or multiplayer standpoint, feel free to leave a comment. I check the blog daily =]

If you want to know more about the Praetors, follow their story on 'Getting to Know the Praetors'. (link courtesy of Magic, yo). 

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