WotC's Facebook page for Magic: The Gathering featured a 'mystery' within the Helvault and if they received 10k shares of their link, they were going to release the spoiler for Avacyn. Unfortunately (and quite comically), their link was a broken link and their FB promotion crumbled throughout the day. Good effort; another day, guys.
This card is impressive. I don't know what else to say. An 8 mana 8/8 flier with Vigilance and Indestructibility (not to mention grants all of your other permanents Indestructibility) is absolutely bananas. She's a huge flyer, has the ability to block and frankly, just doesn't die. This card reminds me of Empyrial Archangel and the idea of impenetrability by casting a huge flying fortress. The difference, Avacyn can swing. And she can swing hard. In casual, this card is an excellent finisher. Curving out with a G/W ramp deck with Primeval Titan can be extremely brutal. The triple WWW in the casting cost is a little difficult to hit in Casual, but is easily attainable if you stick to mono-White or W/x. Also, Avacyn is a pretty sick reanimation target and can be extremely problematic for other players at the table to deal with her if they're able get her on the battlefield early with a flashback Unburial Rites. She's very reminiscent of Akroma, Angel of Wrath, but extremely different; trading protection for Indestructible, and losing Trample for size. Although Avacyn can be chump blocked, if you choose not to block for one combat step, that's 8 whopping damage you'll be eating; and it won't feel good. She's also incredibly difficult to remove, aside from Unsummon-like effects and Oblivion Ring. Although Innistrad is full of cheap/efficient blue temporary removal spells, Avacyn is still very scary to see on the battlefield. Again, those are just 'temporary' answers.
Flavor-wise, I really like Avacyn. Being locked away in the Helvault is mechanically very accurate, since you're unable to 'destroy' her, she needs to be exiled away and hidden until the vault is destroyed. If you didn't get a chance to check out the really sweet promotional video for Avacyn Restored, click HERE.
The real meat and potatoes of this card is in Commander and Casual. Avacyn is a true Timmy card; huge, flashy, and powerful. Since Avacyn was spoiled tonight, she's already at a pre-order sale of $16. I'm hoping Avacyn's price doesn't increase, because I really want to snag a foil copy for collecting purposes. I predict Avacyn to drop to a more reasonable price around $6-8 and a foil copy demanding a $30-35 price tag upon release and dropping to $25 once the set has been out for a while.
How is Avacyn as a general? Well, I think she's a little lacking in power. Although I expect to see quite a few mono-White Innistrad/Human-themed Commander decks come out, I feel like she doesn't deliver as much as the other mono-White generals; Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Crovax, Ascendant Hero, and finally Akroma, Angel of Wrath. Akroma's Haste and the other two creatures that Glorious Anthem your team apply a ton of pressure in the mid-late game that make the decks very iconic. In contrast, Avacyn is very defensive (without Haste) and susceptible to cruel deaths by popular choices of Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares that turn your 8 mana investment into a lost turn. Although mono-White is renown for its equipment heavy packages with Stoneforge Mystic and Stonehewer Giant to grab Hexproof/Shroud equipment to protect Avacyn, she just requires a little more work that the other generals don't require.
However, the Indestructibly clause is nothing to look past. She protects all of your permanents against most removal and she sits on the board, menacingly staring down your opponents. As your general, Avacyn just needs 3 hits to take out an opponent, which is significantly faster than any of the other more popular mono-White generals. Even faster with buff equipment. Remember Double Strike with True Conviction? She has great applicability for a really flavorful general and will probably be a blast to play with.
She also works really well with Wrath of God effects. Oblivion Stone, Planar Cleansing, and Nevinyrral's Disk all would love to join the Avacyn party. What about Armageddon and Obliterate? Now, we're starting to get degenerate. A deck revolving around Avacyn would have the luxury of running many, many board sweepers of all varieties without the risk of losing your stuff. Although your opponents could respond with a bounce/specialized removal spell for Avacyn and you could destroy your own things, that's generally a small price to pay for upside when Avacyn actually remains on the field. Multi-sided Wrath effects that don't touch you, I'm speechless.
EDIT: Although I don't think it needs mentioning, Avacyn is an auto-include in Kaalia of the Vast EDH. If you can manage a consistent hasty Kaalia on turn 3-5, Avacyn will be a common card you'll be tutoring up to cheat into play during combat to apply tons of pressure on your opponent. Avacyn also protects Kaalia from dying in combat (with Kaalia's frail 2 toughness build, could use all the help she can get) and does a better job than Aegis Angel in assuring you're not sending Kaalia in the red zone kamikaze-style. Avacyn also fits into mono-White Akroma, R/W Voltron, U/W/G Bant, and W/B/x Rock decks.
Overall, Avacyn gets my stamp of approval and I'm really looking forward to getting a copy and casting her myself. I really like her in a W/x/x deck and will probably see her put into a lot of EDH decks for a while. If you're big on the Commander/Casual scene, don't be surprised to see this gem show up time after time on the battlefield. Until the next Avacyn Restored Commander!
Can't get enough Commander/EDH content? Check out the Commander Series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!
-David J.
Follow us on Facebook!
No comments:
Post a Comment