Philosophy Behind #4: Chandra, the Firebrand

Hello to Chandra, the Firebrand. She has to be one of the coolest and sexiest planeswalkers. Pun intended, that girl is hot! Ok now let's get to the review.

First of all, 3R is good for two reasons. First, she is the first colored planeswalker to only need one colored mana. This makes her incredibly splashable in decks and efficient in two- or three- color decks. Second, she has a converted mana cost of 4. Yes, the power of 4. The same CMC as Garruk, Wildspeaker, Elspeth Tirel, both Ajanis, Koth of the Hammer, Tezzeret, AoB and Jace, TMS. Ok, Nissa Revane and Sarkhan Vol were also 4 CMC and saw little play, but hey they are exceptions. However, Chandra, the Firebrand looks like no second-rate planeswalker.

• Her +1 ability is simply stronger than her Chandra Nalaar counterpart (just imagine that you're getting a better ability for a R less). Now, you can ping those 1 toughness annoyances or if you need to deal 1 more damage to destroy a creature, your opponent now has to think twice.
• Her - 2 ability is functionally Reverberate (or Fork) and everyone loves to copy spells. This ability is the most abusable in my opinion.What in new standard would we want to copy? Maybe, Arc Trail, Galvanic Blast, and Geosurge. I find Kuldotha Rebirth and Goblin Grenade particularly powerful for just a red mana. Zeniths, maybe? Since she's also so splashable, let's look at the different colors. Dispatch is a good white spell that comes to mind. Visions of Beyond and Tezzeret's Gambit make good card draw spells. Imagine 6 cards for a U (conditionally-speaking) or draw 4 cards for 2U, respectively. Or how about copying Caress of Phyrexia or Sorin's Vengeance? On to the next game. I think for green, our best bets are Rampant Growth, Lead the Stampede, and Overrun. And let's quickly look at the options that arent in standard. Things like, Fireblast, Lightning bolt, Cruel Ultimatum, Blightning, Ancestral Recall, Reanimate, Dark Ritual, and Lightning Helix look pretty good.
• Finally her -6 ultimate is pretty devastating if it goes off. Ok, it's generally not as good as Chandra Nalaar's ultimate (Firebrand can be better in multiplayer). I think 6 damage to 6 targets is still pretty powerful and it's devastating enough to take down Titans.

I think Chandra, the Firebrand is definitely and upgrade from her other two incarnations. I will dare say it that I think she will see more play than the new Jace and Garruk. She will work very well in the monored decks in the standard, in particular the control variants (whether it be artifact or burn spell-based). With that, time will tell whether she will live up to these predictions. That concludes my review for today.

-Michael Hood-Julien, Intern at the Miami-Dade Office of the Chief Medical Examiner-