The latest set, Dark Ascension, was just released this past Friday and it has been really exciting to see people open the new product. I'm really excited to see what new standard strategies will come out and what decks are gonna get sweet new toys that push them into tier 1. However, the real gold I'm looking for during spoiler season and the release of the new set are the hidden casual and Commander gems scattered throughout. Here, I'm gonna cover a couple of my favorites.
Faithless Looting. It's difficult to talk about this card considering so many others have brought up how great it is. An interesting aside, I went to my local card shop and bought 14 copies of this card for $0.10/each. I think it's a solid deal considering I think it's an absolutely incredible common. Obviously this card is very similar to
Careful Study, Faithless Looting is red and has flashback. The ability to flash it back gives you some card advantage if you're looking for a turn 3 play or to loot (draw x, discard x) ability in the late game to help dig up answers. Also finding card advantage in red is pretty rare, so this card gets the nod of approval. I really like this card because it works very well with
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind and an amazing followup to
Mystical Tutor,
Personal Tutor, and
Wordly Tutor. Grixis reanimator decks like
Sedris, the Traitor King,
Garza Zol, Plague Queen or
Thraximundar will love this card. For Standard, it does a few cool things. It gives control decks that have splashed red for
Gut Shot and
Olivia Voldaren another draw spell. I'm not sure if Faithless Looting is strictly better than
Desperate Ravings, but I really do like the idea of having it in the deck. Also, Faithless Looting helps give the Mono Red decks a bit of consistency they've been desperately needing for the past few months. It also works really well with
Chandra's Phoenix and
Grim Lavamancer. For Modern, I can see this card being very good at thinning the deck for R/U storm combo
Empty the Warrens or
Grapeshot alongside
Manamorphose and
Past in Flames. I'm really excited to see where this card goes and I'm gonna keep a close eye on it.
The other card I've been looking at with a curious eye is
Tower Geist. I really like cards that dig for more cards and provide a nice body attached like
Coiling Oracle,
Mulldrifter, and
Sea Gate Oracle. Although he's a 4 mana 2/2, which is strictly worse than the aforementioned cards, the Tower Geist has Flying and loots one of the cards instead of returns it to the bottom of your library like Sea Gate Oracle. This could be really strong with a deck that has a lot of Flashback effects or
Snapcaster Mage and has some reanimation. I feel like this card also has a lot of potential with W/U/x fish/blink decks (with
Momentary Blink,
Parallax Wave, etc) that want to throw a bunch of low mana cost permanents in the graveyard and bring them back with
Sun Titan or if you're playing black, bring back your creatures with a plethora of
Rise from the Grave effects. Tower Geist also works really nicely with the Unearth mechanic. Finally, Tower Geist has Flying, which allows him to hold a protection sword and use it effectively. I like cards that do a lot of work for their mana cost and Tower Geist goes into the list of very efficient creatures that I expect to see play in the more casual formats.
This next card is one I have on my radar but I'm not entirely sure how good it'll be. I'm referring to
Increasing Ambition. It's a 5 mana tutor that has a Flashback cost for 8 to tutor up 2 cards. With my experience with
Diabolic Tutor, it's always a bargain to pay 4 mana to find an answer to the current board state and to have it in hand immediately (it feels like cheating with
Demonic Tutor, but that's another story). I don't think 5 mana is much more to pay but does make it slightly more difficult if you're trying to find a
Wrath of God ability and that pushes you back a turn in order to cast it. I think this particular tutor shines most with its flashback cost. Although 8 mana is a good chunk of a turn, I don't think it's unplayable. Coupled with
Leyline of Anticipation or
Vedalken Orrery, this card becomes a complete powerhouse. Being able to tutor up 2 cards at the end of turn is extremely powerful because you have the information of what your opponents cast on their mainphases and have the opportunity to respond to each of their threats. I love cards that have extra value attached to them if you end up discarding them to some effect like
Greater Good or they end up getting milled away. Just makes your opponent angry when they try to mill you out with
Sazdek, Lord of Secrets. =p I expect to see this card see a lot of play in EDH/Commander but doubt we'll see it played anywhere else.
And finally, let's take a look at the man of the hour,
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.
Undoubtedly, this B/W planeswalker is very good and doesn't fail to impress. Most reminiscent of
Elspeth, Knight Errant, Sorin produces blockers, can be very aggressive, and has a pretty sick ultimate ability. In Standard, there may be a B/W deck out there coupled with
Lingering Souls and
Intangible Virtue and I see a lot of people giving it a shot, making the price of
Isolated Chapel jump a bit. Thanks guys =] Sorin's lifelink Vampire token is actually a nice upgrade. The lifelink does give Sorin a little bit of reach against opponent's aggro decks and slightly increases the amount of turns you have to stabilize. For Casual, I think Sorin could be a lot of fun for the already dedicated token decks of the B/W Lorwyn era and decks similar to them coming out of Innistrad with
Geist-Honored Monk and
Midnight Haunting. I don't know if Sorin will show up in control decks, unless your casual environment is plagued by Premium Foil Fire and Lightning decks. The only deterrent to Sorin is his pricetag, which ranges from $50-60. I think the pricetag is a bit high and hopefully drops soon so those who are have been itching to get a few copies to begin brewing have the opportunity. As for Commander, I don't think he'll see that much play other than in random Esper decks or in
Ghave, Ghuru of Spores decks. Playing Sorin with a
Doubling Season on the board, then using the ultimate to destroy and gain control of some of your opponents' coveted creatures and planeswalkers sounds pretty exciting.
Thanks for joining me on my brief set reviews. What card are you most excited to play with from Dark Ascension? Let me know in the comments section! Until next time, Magic players!
Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the
MTG Casual Network Archive!
-David J.
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