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[tonytahiti]

Izzet charm - legal from now on?

[Tabris]

I´ll go with yes just to avoid confusion.

[Tiggupiru]

In other formats yes, in highlander I highly doubt this card will have any impact. With 1WU it's harder to cast than Oblivion Ring and except tokens there shouldn't be more than one permanent with the same name (at least not on the other side of the table).

Wait, what? O-Ring is pretty much an universal inclusion in any white deck. If your deck can support the UW mana (hello Bant/Esper), it's just as good. This is Blue-White Maelstrom Pulse, which is great card even in our format. Switching the colors doesn't make it worse.

I also like the Blue Zenith that gains life. Limited uses, but I like playing decks that utilize these kind of cards.

Cyclonic Rift is another very interesting card. Note that if you pay the kicker cost, this gets around hexproof and protections.

[Doks]

I think that the new O-Ring will see play, too. It's just too good to not play it. I always hated running stuff like Disenchant / Ancient Grudge / Nature's Claim in my controlish decks(although it is somewhat necessary, especially when Pod was still legal).

However, I am more excited about the Abrupt Decay and the uncounterable CMC '4 Wrath of God'.

Whatever we will see next, RTR will have so much impact on our format like no other set before for a long long time. 118 cards spoiled so far and already 5+ cards that seem viable / playable (depending on the deck of course) - that's just SO good. I'm really exicted for the whole block.

[GoblinPiledriver]

This Edition is really interesting, there are really much cards to consider. But only a few will be a stable in highlander. All others will be seen rarely.

Extremly Good:

Abrupt Decay      -- Best Card in Set. You can shot almost everything for 2 Mana, and it's uncounterable. This Card will even change Legacy and weakens the whole amount of Tarmogoyf-Counterbalance-Decks. This Card will be the most expensive card of the set.
Loxodon Smiter    -- 3 Mana 4/4 uncounterable and safe from discard-spells. This will replace Woolly Thoctar  or Thrun, the Last Troll in most decks.
Dryad Militant    -- 2/1 for one mana. Much better than Tattermunge Maniac. And it even removes a few cards in grave(during game).
Chromatic Lantern -- Most Staxx Decks play already Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth because of much cards like Maze of Ith; Mishra's Workshop; The Tabernacle of Pendrel Vale and this card will mainly support this(Urborg) use. It also fixes every color needed. This card is as strong like Coalition Relic.


Good:


Dreg Mangler      -- Boggart Ram Gang for 2 colored and colorles Mana. And in the afterlife you get 3 +1/1 counters for 5 Mana.
Cyclonic Rift     -- Interesting Card. You could compare it to Into the Roil and Upheaval. It's directly like Into the Roil for a higher Kicker-cost. And it's like Upheaval for nonlands. But the best part in Upheaval is that the lands are gone and this is not part of this card. It's a good card but not as good as you maybe think, 7 Mana is really much.
Hypersonic Dragon -- You never mentioned this card. 5 Mana 4/4 Flying Haste and you could cast all Sorcery's like Chain Lightning again. This creature is really good.


Semi Good:

Desecration Demon -- Like Abyssal Persecutor. No one likes to safrice a creature and it has no negative effect like Abyssal Persecutor. This card is good but Abyssal persecutor is still a little better.
Ash Zealot        -- 2 Mana 2/2 Haste First Strike.  This Card is ideal for RDW
Precint Captain   --  2 Mana 2/2 First Strike. And it gives an early White Weenie extra creatures.
Izzet Charm       -- Three interesting cards are inserted here: 1)Shock 2) Spell Pierce 3) Careful Study



Not so good:

Detention Sphere       -- You overrate this card. The best part of Oblivion Ring is that it only cost 1 white mana. Here you need 2 colored Mana, that's a high decrease of quality. The worst part of Oblivion Ring is that the exiled creature comes back when Harmonic Sliver and Qasali Pridemage hits the Battlefield.And this mayor drawback is here the same. The Maelstrom Pulse effect of this Hybrid-O_Ring is also bad, when you and your opponent have a Tarmogoyf you can't play this card. And this case happens more often than the case of an opponent creature + Clone.
Counterflux            -- Finally a card which defeats TPS. Uncounterable and with Overload it counters all Storm Cards. The problem is you would play more likely Stifle.
Grisly Salvage         -- A nice card for Reanimator. But i would prefer Frantic Search.
Underworld Connections -- A new Phyrexian Arena which binds one land. You wouldn't die on low life, but you would also gain nothing.
Supreme Verdict       -- You drasticly overrate this card. Was it really a problem of getting a Wrath of God countered? I never watched one case like this.
Goblin Electromancer   -- This card would be best in TPS. But such deck would never play such a creature. The good part in a TPS deck is that all creature hate goes into nothing and this card would disturb this strategy. This Goblin would be used in UR.creature deck to safe this one mana for spells.
Worldspine Wurm        -- A card for Natural Order, but there are already Progenitus and the all Time favorite Primeval Titan and this will not replace it.  
Vraska the Unseen      -- Very interesting: 5 Mana for Vindicate.Planeswalker. The + 1 Ability makes it unpleasant to attack it. And the usefulest ability is -3 for (nonland)Vindicate. The Ultimate is interesting and maybe strong, but doesn't come as a surprise so your opponent can prepare for it.


Bad:

Jarad's Orders         -- Also overrated 4 Mana is really too much. 2 Mana for Entomb-a-creature and Eladamri'S Call and all Sorcery. I can't imagine someone choose this card.
Sphinx's Revelation    -- 3 Colored Mana and then X, that's a bad base for a card. I can't imagine someone chooses this card.


Horrible:

Jace, Architect of Thought -- This a parody of the Jace-concept.  Look at the Evolution of Jace: 1) Jace Beleren cost 3 Mana and was decent. 2) Jace, the Mind Sculptor was truly broken for 4 Mana. 3) Jace, Memory Adept cost 5 Mana and was seemly useless. 4) And now we have 4 Mana Jace with a -2 high costed draw ability, a +1 ability which protects a very little from opponent craetures, The ultimate is far away from winning the game. And for that you wait 4 turns  with +1 and then on the fived turn you ultimate. This card is the pure horror.
Rakdos's Return           -- Blightning was good because it cost only 3 Mana. But this card cost far too much.

[Mir]

Psychic Spiral 4U
Instant
Shuffle all cards from your graveyard into your library. Target player puts that many cards from the top of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
Illus. Ryan Pancoast #47/274

Interesting variation to Time Spiral...

[MMD]

I do have a different understanding of some of the cards:

Loxodon Smiter – This guy has good P/T's and can control the early/mid game if ramped into it. I would play him in many GWx aggro setups but in the end he is just another Fatty as there are not many counters out and the discard bonus is nearly irrelevant --> good

Chromatic Lantern – This card is good as is fixes and ramps. But I would play every on-colour Signet/Talisman before I would think about this one (5C control might be different), so extremely good might be a little enthusiastic --> good

Dreg Mangler – I rate this even better than Goblin Ram Gang and would also auto include this in very GB creature based deck due to its late game power, so "good" is very conservative rated IMO --> extremely good

Hypersonic Dragon – 5 Mana for 4/4 flying haste is not good enough nowadays and the ability is very weak as you will not have a lot of sorceries left when you play this guy. So you need to be very skillfull in topdecking them plus there must be any situational value of the instant effect as well. If we would have one more toughness to withstand next turn Wildfire effect but in this case this cards is very mediocre at best IMO --> not so good / bad

Izzet Charm – A card which is very cheap and extremely flexible has to be valued good to extremely good IMO. For me this is an auto include in every UR build --> extremely good

Detention Sphere – It is another Oblivion Ring for UWx builds not more, not less. All described scenarios (controlling the same card, Upheaval, Disenchant effect, colour screw...) can happen but are quite seldom in comparison to the value that you can exile every non-land permanent for just three mana. I'll put this in every deck which already has Oblivion Ring and Islands. --> good

Grisly Salvage – Very flexible and cheap card, even for non-Reanimator strategies as you can fight mana/creture screw and also improve some other cards and mechanics (Tarmogoyf, KotR, Reveillark, Tombstalker, Snapcaster, Grim Lavamancer...- Scavenging, Flashback, Delve, Dredge). Certainly Reanimator is its main home --> good

Supreme Verdict – I agree that Wrath effects are less sexy with so many cheap "spells on legs" out there (many of them having CIP effects) but what can be "not so good" on a card which will quite often trade 2:1 for you? I mean one problematic scenario (the aggro control player sitting on a counterspell while ramping and attacking) is no more. Aggro decks mostly need to offer two creatures to be fast enough before you take over control. Certainly the main problem that you will get an even scarier threat in the next turn is still there, but at least you have now another Oblivion Ring to take care of  --> good

Vraska the Unseen – OK, I rethought the value of this card. I was a little euphoric with my first impression but all in all this is a well balanced plainswalker which is somewhere in the middle of all planeswalkers designed. --> good

Jarad´s Orders – 4 Mana is a lot but I don't think it is a bad card. Most probably it will never see play but I will try it in my 5C Reanimator for fun. I mean how sexy an accelerated Jarad´s Order into Loyal Retainer/Griselbrand, when you have Discard/Counter in your hand -> fun cards cannot be bad 

Jace 4.0 – I rate this as 3rd best Jace. He is cheap (for a Planeswalker) and has two relevant abilities. The first ability is better than you think if you play this card in a creature based deck (e.g. Bant). Attacking Jace with one less power will be very difficult when you have you own army in front of. Also there will be some situations where you can race the opponent with your evasion creatures with the first ability. The second ability is certainly very good on its own. This Jace usually generates 2-6 life as it has to be attacked/burned immediately when you use the 2nd ability first and in most of the cases it will be attacked with two guys (or one guy+bolt) as they never know what will happen when you have W open. Depending on how often you can use it, Jace 4.0 is more like an Court Hussar on steroids. --> good

Rakdos`s Return – A Mind Shatter which is not totally dead as a late topdeck. Every deck which ramps into big creatures can use this card with good value. The only problem is that this strategy and the colour combination is quite rare. But the card is far away from being horrible --> good (niche)


I am quite sure that all cards which I valued as extremely good and good will find their place in Highlander. But there are also other cards which I think are format staples:

Lotleth Troll – Extremely cheap, flexible and hard-to-kill creature. This one will make decisions for your opponent extremely difficult – Wild Mongrel on steroids --> extremely good

Dreadbore – Cheap and flexible removal for aggro decks which tap out for playing creatures early anyway. Just RB is difficult to support --> good

Selesnya Charm – All three abilities are good. It's another very cheap and flexible card. Not the same power level as the Izzet Charm but still a staple IMO --> good

Mizzium Mortars – A staple card for UR Wildfire Decks which have problems with toughness 4 creatures, even with sorcery speed and no possibility to kill Planeswalker. Limited use outside of this deck –> good (niche)

Judge's Familiar – staple card for all W, U, UW skies strategies --> good (niche)

Gatecreeper Vine – Sylvan Ranger is a staple and this one is not far behind --> good (niche)

[Nastaboi]

Dryad Militant    -- 2/1 for one mana. Much better than Tattermunge Maniac. And it even removes a few cards in grave(during game).

Dreg Mangler      -- Boggart Ram Gang for 2 colored and colorles Mana. And in the afterlife you get 3 +1/1 counters for 5 Mana.

This is true, but the only decks that ever play Maniac or Ram-Gang are Goblins and Monored, so this comparison doesn't really tell how they fit in decks.

Hypersonic Dragon -- You never mentioned this card. 5 Mana 4/4 Flying Haste and you could cast all Sorcery's like Chain Lightning again.

I didn't really understand what you meant here.

Desecration Demon -- Like Abyssal Persecutor. No one likes to safrice a creature and it has no negative effect like Abyssal Persecutor. This card is good but Abyssal persecutor is still a little better.

This card is horrible. It can be chumped for ever, and you can't even leave it as a reliable blocker.

Ash Zealot        -- 2 Mana 2/2 Haste First Strike.  This Card is ideal for RDW

Would not play in my R/b build. Monored may be lacking playable two-drops so this might do.

Counterflux            -- Finally a card which defeats TPS.

Sarcasm? I didn't know TPS is a deck.

Jarad's Orders         -- Also overrated 4 Mana is really too much. 2 Mana for Entomb-a-creature and Eladamri'S Call and all Sorcery. I can't imagine someone choose this card.

I wouldn't write this off yet. It could find home in some future combo deck where it finds all combo parts at once.

[Tiggupiru]

Abrupt Decay      -- Best Card in Set. You can shot almost everything for 2 Mana, and it's uncounterable. This Card will even change Legacy and weakens the whole amount of Tarmogoyf-Counterbalance-Decks. This Card will be the most expensive card of the set.

Nope. Glorified Smother is still a Smother. Kills small dudes and O-Rings, but it's nothing spectacular by any means. Potentially format changer in Legacy, but not that big of a deal in HL. This is only a rare, so not the most expensive card either.

Hypersonic Dragon -- You never mentioned this card. 5 Mana 4/4 Flying Haste and you could cast all Sorcery's like Chain Lightning again. This creature is really good.

You do realize flash and flashback are two different things? This card blows.

Desecration Demon -- Like Abyssal Persecutor. No one likes to safrice a creature and it has no negative effect like Abyssal Persecutor. This card is good but Abyssal persecutor is still a little better.

Not even close as good as Persecutor. If they sac a guy, this can't even block and this triggers on every combat, so there are plenty of chances to make this tapped if needed. Abyssal Persecutor was a great defensive card and this is more like an attempt to be an aggressive, but I wouldn't play it in aggressive decks. Giving your opponent choices is a classic way of making cards appear way beeter than they are in real life.

Ash Zealot        -- 2 Mana 2/2 Haste First Strike.  This Card is ideal for RDW

I like this one too. I was wondering if the B/R hybrid that is a 2/1 haste for two is playable, but this surely is. One of the better red two drops ever.

Detention Sphere       -- You overrate this card. The best part of Oblivion Ring is that it only cost 1 white mana. Here you need 2 colored Mana, that's a high decrease of quality. The worst part of Oblivion Ring is that the exiled creature comes back when Harmonic Sliver and Qasali Pridemage hits the Battlefield.And this mayor drawback is here the same. The Maelstrom Pulse effect of this Hybrid-O_Ring is also bad, when you and your opponent have a Tarmogoyf you can't play this card. And this case happens more often than the case of an opponent creature + Clone.

It's not as good as O-Ring, but all of these drawbacks are really minor if you play both of these colors. It's extremely unlikely to both players have the same named card even when there are clones running about, especially when this gets around opposing Phantasmal Image just as beautifully as O-Ring does. And if you both have the same card in play, you can either wait for a better target or kill something else, so not the end of the world. Killing bunch of tokens is just as relevant as the whole "oh no, we both have the same guy out and I need to kill something before I lose" - scenarios. Colors are an issue, but I don't see people  complaining about any of the other multicolored cards even though they all share this drawback.

Grisly Salvage         -- A nice card for Reanimator. But i would prefer Frantic Search.

While it's true that the best looter card ever printed is better than this, it's still potentially fine. I like Strategic Planning in Reanimator and this is almost strict upgrade if you run green. Nothing spectacular as you cannot take the reanimation spell from it which sucks the most. You could theoretically brew something with cards like these and Loam.

Supreme Verdict       -- You drasticly overrate this card. Was it really a problem of getting a Wrath of God countered? I never watched one case like this.

It's good because it's a third wrath for UW. Now there is a reasonable chance of drawing one of them before turn four. Being uncounterable matters against blue midrange and fish from time to time, so it's not like it's nothing either.

Jarad's Orders         -- Also overrated 4 Mana is really too much. 2 Mana for Entomb-a-creature and Eladamri'S Call and all Sorcery. I can't imagine someone choose this card.

Probably just bad, but it's a Reanimation spell (Karmic Guide, Body Double) and Entomb in one card. That synergy should the very least raise some eyebrows.

Jace, Architect of Thought -- This a parody of the Jace-concept.  Look at the Evolution of Jace: 1) Jace Beleren cost 3 Mana and was decent. 2) Jace, the Mind Sculptor was truly broken for 4 Mana. 3) Jace, Memory Adept cost 5 Mana and was seemly useless. 4) And now we have 4 Mana Jace with a -2 high costed draw ability, a +1 ability which protects a very little from opponent craetures, The ultimate is far away from winning the game. And for that you wait 4 turns  with +1 and then on the fived turn you ultimate. This card is the pure horror.

It's not nearly as bad as you make of it. It's still four mana spell that will draw you a card(s) and/or absorb some damage. It's not as powerful as Jace 1.0, but it's better than 3.0.

Treat him simply as value card, just draw bunch of cards out of him and be done with it. Vraska is very similar, just gain some value and forget about the ultimate. This even kills himself with the second activation so you can play Jace, TMS on the next turn if you use Architect of Thought to draw into him. That is very considerate of him.

[Doks]

A lot of cards are debatable, but I really think that you (Goblin Piledriver) underestimate some of them or at least do not give them enough credit. I will mark my answers bold.

Extremly Good:

Abrupt Decay      -- Best Card in Set. You can shot almost everything for 2 Mana, and it's uncounterable. This Card will even change Legacy and weakens the whole amount of Tarmogoyf-Counterbalance-Decks. This Card will be the most expensive card of the set.

I agree that it is pretty good but will have a lot more impact on the constructed formats, read: Legacy. Highlander decks do have their CMC 4+ threats were this is not going to hit. Instant speed and CMC 2 while and a broard varietly of possible targets are what makes it good, but it will not 'break' the format. It will be a staple in that colour combination though.

Loxodon Smiter    -- 3 Mana 4/4 uncounterable and safe from discard-spells. This will replace Woolly Thoctar  or Thrun, the Last Troll in most decks.

It's undercosted and comes into play no matter what - very nice, but still 'only' a 4/4 vanilla creature after that. Aggressive decks probably like it, but it's not like it is an autoinclude to creature based strategies in GW.

Chromatic Lantern -- Most Staxx Decks play already Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth because of much cards like Maze of Ith; Mishra's Workshop; The Tabernacle of Pendrel Vale and this card will mainly support this(Urborg) use. It also fixes every color needed. This card is as strong like Coalition Relic.

The problem is that I don't see a lot of decks running Coalition Relic either. It's pretty strong but it's not like it will see play in decks that haven't run artifact mana before.

Good:

Detention Sphere       -- You overrate this card. The best part of Oblivion Ring is that it only cost 1 white mana. Here you need 2 colored Mana, that's a high decrease of quality. The worst part of Oblivion Ring is that the exiled creature comes back when Harmonic Sliver and Qasali Pridemage hits the Battlefield.And this mayor drawback is here the same. The Maelstrom Pulse effect of this Hybrid-O_Ring is also bad, when you and your opponent have a Tarmogoyf you can't play this card. And this case happens more often than the case of an opponent creature + Clone.

Its 'weakness' in such a worst case scenario is negligible just like its 'advantage' to kill a token army. As long as this thing basically is a 2nd O-Ring, I will play it if my deck supports the colour combination and needs another universal removal.

Supreme Verdict       -- You drasticly overrate this card. Was it really a problem of getting a Wrath of God countered? I never watched one case like this.

It's not about being uncounterable (that's just a nice bonus), it's about being a 3rd / 4th (depending on colours; esper control can run Damnation in addition to Wog + DoJ) CMC 4 mass removal spell for creatures. Redundancy is the keyword for control decks here.

[tonytahiti]

umm, i wildly disagree with some of gobling piledrivers evaluations.

hypersonic dragon: is not playable in highlander. and giving this a "good" and izzet charm a "semi-good" is crazy.

dryad militant: okay-ish, will find a few homes (boros, WW), dont think its good enough for 4c/5c, ability is not relevant on a 2/1 body.

izzet charm: very good card, everydeck with red and blue wants this.

dreadbore: you forgot that card, sorcery speed hurts it (instant speed would be too good obv.) but its still very good.

jace: you will have the urge to delete your "jace is plain horrible"-comment in a few months. if you tested him (you should almost always test walkers before judging) you know he is actually really good (maybe better than beleren). i did test him and i was shocked how good he is.

lyev skyknight: nobody said a word about that card but this card could easily find a home in bant, uwr or others. its very strong actually, detain is no joke, it has evasion and hits hard for a 3 mana creature.

mizzium mortars: this card is very good i believe. it kills relevant creatures in the format with toughness 4 (resto angel, thocta, smiter) and is gamebreaking late game.

[Tiggupiru]

jace: you will have the urge to delete your "jace is plain horrible"-comment in a few months. if you tested him (you should almost always test walkers before judging) you know he is actually really good (maybe better than beleren). i did test him and i was shocked how good he is.

I was also positively surprised to see how good Jace seemed in practice. The first ability is actually pretty relevant and the draw ability is very powerful. Ultimate sucks, but that should never be a factor when grading planeswalkers. This may actually be the better Planeswalker of the set.

lyev skyknight: nobody said a word about that card

I made a horrible pun. That has to count.


Ultimate Price disappointed many, but it's still playable. It's worse than Go for the Throat and Doom Blade, but it's not terrible.

Angel of Serenity is the real deal. Reanimator will want this and if you plan to accelerate into your threats, this is very good. You should note that it returns creatures to their owner's hands, so they cannot just immediately kill your angel and alpha you out the next turn. You also have the option to disentomb something in case she dies, which is very relevant. Best big creature of the set by far.

[MMD]

lyev skyknight: nobody said a word about that card

I made a horrible pun. That has to count.

...as already quoted in my first evaluation  . But I don´t think he is more than another playable option as there are many good cards in the three mana slot already (Bant). Could be a stable in UW aggro but I have no experience here.

Angel of Serenity is the real deal. Reanimator will want this and if you plan to accelerate into your threats, this is very good. You should note that it returns creatures to their owner's hands, so they cannot just immediately kill your angel and alpha you out the next turn. You also have the option to disentomb something in case she dies, which is very relevant. Best big creature of the set by far.

I don´t think that accerating into this is a valid plan when you can have Elesh Norn instead. Reanimating is certainly OK but also not the most exiting target ever. But yes, I also think it could see some play in some Reanimator builds (not mine).

[Tiggupiru]

Angel of Serenity is the real deal. Reanimator will want this and if you plan to accelerate into your threats, this is very good. You should note that it returns creatures to their owner's hands, so they cannot just immediately kill your angel and alpha you out the next turn. You also have the option to disentomb something in case she dies, which is very relevant. Best big creature of the set by far.

I don´t think that accerating into this is a valid plan when you can have Elesh Norn instead. Reanimating is certainly OK but also not the most exiting target ever. But yes, I also think it could see some play in some Reanimator builds (not mine).

And how many Elesh Norns you plan to play in this highlander format? It's not as good, but it's very close and there are situation where Angel of Serenity is just better. I like her a lot right now.

[MMD]

Better ask me how many seven mana creatures I would like to have in my deck if my plan is to play fair an ramp into that - one.