[Avr] Spoiler

[Ball.Lightning]

I would not be too much critic about Reforege the Soul. It is still draw 7 card and it does not exile itself. So it is open to Snapcaster or Yawmoths will shenigans. Its reduced cost should not be underestimated, it is still just two mana. Playing it for full manacost is not that unreasonable too. There are some combos, that will not pay mana at all - like Dream halls.

Still I find this card sort of fitting into burn deck and even in fast agro deck playing red.

[Tiggupiru]

I would not be too much critic about Reforege the Soul. It is still draw 7 card and it does not exile itself. So it is open to Snapcaster or Yawmoths will shenigans. Its reduced cost should not be underestimated, it is still just two mana. Playing it for full manacost is not that unreasonable too. There are some combos, that will not pay mana at all - like Dream halls.

Ok. Currently we have these draw 7's in the format:

Timetwister
Wheel of Fortune
Diminishing Returns
Memory Jar
Time Reversal
Time Spiral

+ couple of others that don't really count:
Wheel of Fate
Temporal Cascade

I really don't think one bad one to the mix is going to change anything. Reversal and maybe Diminishing excluded all of these are way better than Reforge the Soul and that is assuming Reforge is as good as you claim it to be. Memory Jar is the most abusable and easiest to repeat, Spiral can actually generate mana and Wheel and Twister allow you to play them on main phase, which is significantly better than during your upkeep.

Still I find this card sort of fitting into burn deck and even in fast agro deck playing red.

This is not nearly as good as Wheel and even it hasn't seen any play in red aggro or burn since it got unbanned. Turns out it's actually a bad idea to give 4-5 cards to an opponent and then pass the turn. No matter what decks you, or they are playing they can still make your life that much harder.

[Ball.Lightning]

What can I see from our metagame this statement is 100% true for all deck around.

>>Are you playing mountains and not playing any islands? Wheel is sort of autoinclude.<<

And again some combo deck have different requirements for draw 7 spells. Some prefere pure blue aproach (high tide + hearthbeat, where is double red uncastable), but other combos like dream halls and TPS(deck where red rituals takes place) can abuse it even when payed full mana for it.

I am not dream halls player or newly introduced TPS storm decks player, but some people will try and I would not wonder if they find use for this card.

[Nastaboi]

Problem with TPS is not lack of playable draw 7's but shortage of good rituals. Even original Wheel being available as four-of would not make the deck any more playable.

[DarkLight]

Anyway the card is good enough for RDW

[Dreamer]

Brains, brains, I don't lie,
I'll eat their brains 'til their zombified
Sure they might think it's deranged
But they won't give it a thought
- after I've eaten their brain!

[Nastaboi]

pic: Wheel pic: Reforge
Anyway the card is good enough for RDW

Which one? Both cards are plain awful in RDW.

[LasH]

Anyway the card is good enough for RDW

I think even wheel of fate is better than this one. Simply bc u can time it and you are with 8 cards full mana on a turn you can predict. You dont wanna draw this wheel on your start not as first, second or third draw. You never ever wanna cast it for 5 in RDW.

Horrible card for RDW. Moderate/Bad for Combodecks because its to specific. Once u r on 0 handcards in a combo deck you prolly lost anyway. You dont wanna cast it as long as you have one combo enabler in your hand.

Never gonna see play in these archetypes. I dont think it will see play at all.

[Tiggupiru]

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=130088&stc=1&d=1334549290

It starts as a 1/1 so that's bad. It has a sufficiently powerful first ability so that's good. Problems do arise wih the second ability. In a non-token deck he doesn't get bigger very fast and in a token deck you should be better off with anthem of some sort. All things considered, awkward. Equipping a Sword of Value & Pressure to this seems like a pretty nice synergy though. Swords do tend to be quite good without extra synergies, so it's not like this should always go in decks with Stoneforge. Sword or not, instant speed removal can really wreck your board if the opponent has some guys out and sadly Champion of Lambholt is good only when they do. All in all, don't quite believe he can break into the scene. I don't mind or be too surprised if I am proven wrong. Seems like a pretty fun dude.

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=130083&d=1334548940

Well if he immediately pumps a guy you get to attack with, then he is already giving some decent value and you get a massive body to boot. On the other hand, five mana for just a stupid dork that is only good in combat step is only rarely good enough. Pretty sure he doesn't deliver beats good enough, but if you have a green aggro and want to try it just for the heck of it, I am not stopping you. Has the same weakness as all the other soulbound guys already previewed: Removal can easily lead to 2-1 trades in favor of your opponent and that is quite a hefty downside.

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=130084&d=1334548940

Nephalia Smuggler makes me warm and fuzzy inside. Ranger of Eoasable blinker has value plastered all over him. Four mana is quite the sum to pay, but at least the casting cost is cheap as hell. Still don't know if blinking is viable strategy, but this set gives that archetype a massive boost, so if not today, maybe later.

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=130087&d=1334549284

Cool name and a potential playable? Inquisition of Kozilek proved to be excellent hand disruption and I much rather have it in my opening hand than Duress against an unknown opponent. This however is completely different story. This is not a "turn one, disrupt your opponent", but rather a "turn three, take out a game ender permanently while leaving up countermagic or do other annoying things to your opponent". If this works out exactly like that, then it's pretty awesome. This needs good amount of testing and a midrangeish metagame (check), but several signs point out that this could very well end up being at least playable in an archetype or two. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up becoming a staple in controllish black decks.

[MarcMagic]

@Tiggupiru: I don't think Appetite for Brains will see any play because the difference between this card and Duress/Thlughseize/Inq. of Kozilek is that it will happen quite some times where you don't even trade 1 for 1. I mean Duress for example may be bad against some sort of decks but it trades at least 1 for 1 _most_ of the times. This card won't do so imo. The other upside on the named cards is to prevent decks from getting explosive starts but getting their CC4+ card is not good enough most of the time. I'd rather play Blackmail before Appetite for Brains and Blackmail doesn't even make the cut.

So far I am not very excited about Avacyn Restored (thus I'm quite disappointed because at least for me Innistrad and Dark Ascension are awesome sets for Highlander and Cube at least) but there is still more than 2/3 of the set to be revealed.

One card I do like is this:


+2/+0 haste and vigilance for 3 mana seems to be absolutely fine even in the early turns. It makes late 1-drops a threat and just "needs" the land spot. I don't know whether it will see much play outside of Boros or maybe Naya but I will give this card some love at least : )

[Tiggupiru]

@Tiggupiru: I don't think Appetite for Brains will see any play because the difference between this card and Duress/Thlughseize/Inq. of Kozilek is that it will happen quite some times where you don't even trade 1 for 1. I mean Duress for example may be bad against some sort of decks but it trades at least 1 for 1 _most_ of the times. This card won't do so imo. The other upside on the named cards is to prevent decks from getting explosive starts but getting their CC4+ card is not good enough most of the time. I'd rather play Blackmail before Appetite for Brains and Blackmail doesn't even make the cut.

It's not comparable to 'seize/Duress/Inquisition. For starters, you never want to cast in turn one as if you wait until turn three (or four if you are on the play), you have a higher chance of getting something and you should always just do that. This of course means it's not going to be as good in your opener as the other proven discard spells. I am not saying this will replace any of those, but this might see play as a one mana Dissipate for their largest threat. I am thinking about slower black decks, like UB control and the like. Of course, I could be wrong and this ends up being a total garbage, but this is unlike any other card printed before and thus a little bit harder to evaluate than rest of the set.

Name:    ~Slayers' Stronghold
Type:     Land
Rules Text:     {T}: Add to your mana pool.
{R}{W},{T} : Target creature gains +2/+0, haste and vigilance until the end of turn.

I really hope that ends up being the name of this card. How sweet is that? But yeah. Mana producing land that for three mana gives a guy haste AND +2/+0 is serious business no matter what the name. Vigilance is probably mostly irrelevant, but as a bonus, it's not bad either. It does require maybe strict boros to be played as there rarely are room for any shenanigans like these in three colored decks. This a bit shame as the mana dorks and other quickly inferior cards that this helps to get better are not red-white. Still a nice addition and these lands seem like they'll do pretty good and give some dedicated archetypes a boost.

So far I am not very excited about Avacyn Restored (thus I'm quite disappointed because at least for me Innistrad and Dark Ascension are awesome sets for Highlander and Cube at least) but there is still more than 2/3 of the set to be revealed.

This is clearly a Commander set. All those big expensive Angels floating around the target audience is pretty much colletors and EDH players. Hopefully we do get some more sweet competitive cards to balance it out. Limited seems like it's going to be really sweet and actually, I've been enjoying the so far spoiled cards quite a bit. Dark Ascension didn't have too many playables, but managed to have decent number of sleepers, so I don't think this is going to be a bad set.

[Tiggupiru]

Name:    ~Cavern of Souls
Type:     Land
Rules Text:     As ~ enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
{T}: Add {1} to your mana pool.
{T}: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast creature spells of the chosen creature type. If this mana is spent on a spell, that spell can't be countered by spells or abilities.

Probably too random to be of any use in HL. I guess if you play Gx elves with land tutors already in the deck, then maybe. If the format slows down at some point or blue control makes a triumphant return... yeah not going to happen. Or if you absolutely need mana fixing and have a huge number of different colored tribal creatures and barely any non-creature spells... then you have what I like to call a horrible deck. Or... no that won't do it either. Can't think of any scenario to make this good.

Other formats (mostly eternal) could be affected by this and this could spice a number of things as uncounterable things sometimes do, but as for the HL, I think the randomness is too much to begin with. Colorless lands are a huge baggage to your mana base, so unless it's a 2/2 creature for one mana, it needs to be pretty special to make the cut. This isn't.

Name:    Somberwald Sage
Cost:     2G
Type:     Creature - Human Druid
Pow/Tgh:     0/1
Rules Text:     {T}: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast creature spells.

I was just about to declare this bad, but then I noticed it only makes mana for creatures. Yeah. Sick acceleration, sure. But would you keep a hand with three lands, Llanowar Elves, this and a seven drop? If this bites the dust, you don't have anything that resembles curve. I have the same problem with Lotus Cobra, but he at least can bash for reasonable amount and is in play full turn earlier, so he is fine card, whereas this... not so much.

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=130145&d=1334635366

Decent even at three mana, but absolutely horrible if ever actually drawn. UW control might have enough ways to return this to the deck so that it can be pretty awesome token maker, but that is pretty much the only deck I can see this going in. Not sure if this good enough in there, but really doesn't hurt to try, I guess.

In a deck with three colors, this can very well be miraculously uncastable in the first 4-5 turns due to double white, so probably not worth it there. White often is the splash color anyway, so this is most likely a bit too limited to actually see much, or any play.

[Tiggupiru]

Name:    Misthollow Griffin
Cost:     2UU
Type:     Creature - Griffin
Pow/Tgh:     3/3
Rules Text:     Flying
You may cast Misthollow Griffin from exile.

Infinite mana with Food Chain. Really big bummer that it requires some creature to dump the mana afterwards so you can't just play this in a basic combo shell and win with it. Makes it that much harder to make a good deck. Especially when this is such a great value when pitched to FoW. Might be breakable in other combos as well, so if you are fan of this type of stuff, snatch a copy when you get the chance.

Name:    ~Devastating Tide
Cost:     3UU
Type:     Sorcery
Rules Text:     Return all nonland permanents to their owners' hands.
Miracle {1}{U}

I really dislike these situationally good Miracle cards. When you draw them, there is little to no guarantee that it's worth casting. This at least has the good fortune to cast only five, which isn't way too much for an effect like this, but in constructed, this type of effect hasn't been good for a while now. I would be surprised to see anyone playing this in a tournament.

Name:    Descent into Madness
Cost:     3BB
Type:     Enchantment
Rules Text:     At the beginning of your upkeep, put a despair counter on Descent into Madness, then each player exiles X permanents he or she controls and/or cards from his or her hand, where X is the number of despair counters on Descent into Madness.

Symmetrical effect like this really doesn't seem very good. First of all, you need to have more permanents on board for this to work and it's really slow, so it cannot save you from pretty much any losing position by itself. The wording also makes sure no Smokestack shenanigans where you can easily manipulate how much you will sacrifice all the while making opponent's life miserable.

Don't think this is any good.

Name:    Exquisite Blood
Cost:     4{B}
Type:     Enchantment
Rules Text:     Whenever an opponent loses life, you gain that much life.

Yeah, well. Sanguine Bond and this is a win if you manage to deal some damage or gain life. Two five mana enchantments that are pretty weak sauce alone aren't ideal basis of any combo deck, but it's still worth to note. Maybe some weird MBC brew can make this useful enough that it's worth trying to Sanguine bond them out. At least they are cards of the same color.

Name:    Rite of Ruin
Cost:     5{R}{R}
Type:     Sorcery
Rules Text:     Choose an order for artifacts, creatures, and lands. Each player sacrifices one permanent of the first type, sacrifices two of the second type, then sacrifices three of the third type.

Well, it's worse than any Burning of Xinye I've ever seen, but that doesn't make this unplayable. If you find yourself needing to Wildfire more than anyone else in the room, this seems like a viable candidate. Exiling artifacts is however a bit of drawback. Most decks that like to sweep the lands with these kind of effects tend to rely on artifact mana, so that sucks. Great news is that it actually deals with creatures of any size, so killing a Titan, Three lands and maybe even a signet from your opponent is significant blow.

Name:    Craterhoof Behemoth
Cost:     5{G}{G}{G}
Type:     Creature - Beast
Pow/Tgh:     5/5
Rules Text:     Haste
When Craterhoof Behemoth enters the battlefield, creatures you control gain trample and get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creatures you control.

I am pretty sure there is deck or two for this. Not very good decks, mind you, but still. Gaea's Cradle is pretty sweet pair to this card.

Name:    ~Conjuring Cabinet
Cost:     5
Type:     Artifact
Rules Text:     At the beginning of your end step, you may exile a creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under your control.

Well, I know it reads "five mana and you need to have good creatures for this do anything", but all I can hear is "Play me, I am sweet, free value every turn". Might be bit overcosted to the Blink-deck (if that ever becomes a deck), but damn it I am going to try nevertheless.

Name:    ~Griselbrand's Scroll
Cost:     1
Type:     Artifact
Rules Text:     {1}, Sacrifice ~: Target player discards a card. If you control a Demon, that player loses 3 life.

Soft lock with Auriok Salvagers, as is the Necrotic Spellbomb. Could there be something here? Probably not, but I am happy whenever a fringe combo gets a new toy to play with.

[Kristian]

Name:    ~Conjuring Cabinet
Cost:     5
Type:     Artifact
Rules Text:     At the beginning of your end step, you may exile a creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under your control.

Well, I know it reads "five mana and you need to have good creatures for this do anything", but all I can hear is "Play me, I am sweet, free value every turn". Might be bit overcosted to the Blink-deck (if that ever becomes a deck), but damn it I am going to try nevertheless.

And try we will!

[coldcrow]

W

Angel of Jubilation: nice ability, horrible manacost

Avacyn: another big gal

Divine Reflection: white conditional removal and possible CA - good card in aggro metas

Entreat the Angels: Powerful Miracle - nice finisher for U/W

Silverblade Paladin: S.-mystics new best friend

Terminus: Good when cast as miracle

U

Arcane Melee: Another Enabler for TPS, still no ritual

Devastation Tide: Playable in various U/G Ramp-decks

Stolen Goods: Playable if you have some way to control the top of your opponent's library (probably no)

Tamiyo: wouldn't write this off

Temporal Mastery: Good when miracled.

Vanishment: Overlooked card, but not in HL, I would not want to play vs this + temporal spring though.

B

Blood Artist: Another kill for infinity

Demonic Rising: Playable

Essence Harvest: Another drain effect for black, soon MBC will contain only these and its engines

Exquisite Blood: See above

Griselbrand: the true lord of the fallen!

Homicidal Seclusion: maybe playable in hexproof, exalted doublestrike.dec

R

Archwing Dragon: nice

Battle Hymn: goblins?

Bonfire of the Damned: U/R and Stax might consider this

Dangerous Wager: wow. this is a good card for certain decks.

Hound of Griselbrand: maaaybe playable

Mad prophet: see above

reforge the soul: Woa. needs a dedicated deck but is surely powerful especially when cast eot.

Rite of ruin: Stax likes this but it ha strong competition

Thunderous Wrath: RDW

Vexing Devil: RDW

G

Abundant Growth: What? Little gem provides colourfixing at a very low cost if you run basic forests

Craterhoof Behemoth: Elves etc.

Descendant's Path: Emrakul + Mutavault or any Tribal.

Rain of Thorns: Possibly playable but oppressive Manacost

Revenge of the Hunted: Haha. I like this one, because it can lead to annoying blowouts

Triumph of ferocity: phyrxian arena for some decks = good card

Ulvenwald Tracker: playable

Wild Defiance: This stops red removal cold, so it might be worth a second look

Wolfir Silverheart: possibly playable

A

Conjurer's Closet: see above

vessel of endless rest: another manastone at 3

Scroll of griselbrand: instant discard