Dropping Sealed (Ratchet) Bombs
It’s been a while since I wrote an Act of Reason article, but I’ve been waiting on the Scars of Mirrodin spoilers before I write about my opinions on the new cards. Wizards of the Coast has been doing a fantastic job with keeping things under wraps, and today with only 4 days left until the Pre-Release. The pace at which cards have been spoiled has been just enough to keep you interested, but not so many that we are able to scheme and plan way ahead of the curve. Without any more blathering, let’s go!
White: I’m not seeing a ton of removal in this set, so keep an eye on Arrest. While not removal, it sure should take care of that fattie you’re facing. With the Abundance of equipment in this set, if you pull a couple of Auriok Edgewrights, be sure to play enough equipment in your deck to not only equip these bad boys, but allow the requirement of Metalcraft so you can do some major damage. Any Planeswalker you pull will do some damage in a sealed tournament, and Elspeth Tirel is no exception. Look for her to be clearing boards everywhere at pre-releases this weekend. Glint Hawk isn’t only great for sealed, but he might find his way into some constructed decks. I’m not entirely sure how much of an effect Indomitable Archangel is going to have on sealed, but I think it has potential to flat out end games. A 4/4 flier for 4 is nothing to mess with in sealed and will have to be dealt with quickly regardless of whether its Metalcraft condition has been met. As far as Kemba, Kha Regent goes, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about her. Being that I still haven’t seen great removal, and she’s a 2/4 out of “bolt” range, I think this card could potentially be an amazing chump blocker-producer-thingamajig. That’s my technical term for great blocker. The fact that you could potentially spit out 2 or 3 2/2’s a turn is beyond good because on top of that you’re still casting spells. The tough part is, I feel like you’re going to have to invest all your time on equipping this kitty instead of focusing on other threats. Leonin Arbiter while amazing in eternal formats and quite possibly a standard near you, will probably not make much of a dent in sealed. If you’re going tribal with the Myr, then you’d better hope you have a ton of em in your sealed pool, but if you don’t, Myrsmith can potentially fill in the gaps. The final 3 cards in white are all potential game enders. Sunblast Angel has one of the biggest bodies in the set as a flier, and destroys those pesky tapped creatures. Tempered Steel is a great boost to all of the artifact creatures in this set, and could potentially give your deck that extra push you need while you’re building it. And finally there is True Conviction. To me this card is to sealed as Eldrazi Monument is to constructed. Stick this card, and win the game, period.
Blue: Patrick Chapin covered Argent Sphinx here: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/20130_Exclusive_Preview_Argent_Sphinx.html
I agree with everything he says about this card, but I’d like to add that in a Metalcraft deck in sealed, this is going to be beyond a nightmare to deal with. Disperse can be nice to buy you a turn near the end of the game or bounce a nasty infect creature about to hit you with lethal poison counters. Darkslick Drake and any flier is great in sealed, keep an eye on these guys, you will face them, and they will be a nuisance. I’m not sure how I feel about Dissipation Field in sealed. I feel like by the time it’s doing anything for you, it’s probably too late—the same goes for this card in constructed, I feel like it is a wasted slot in most decks. Grand Architect is just great all around. For sealed you might have to try and focus your deck more around blue creatures in order to really make him work, but none the less, he will be effective for powering out some of the more expensive artifacts. Quicksilver Gargantuan looks to be the second biggest body of the set so far, so keep that in mind when you’re looking for a bomb to play—this guy is it! Any card drawing is great in sealed, so if you’re going to run blue, consider Riddlesmith, much like Crystal Ball in M11, it can help you dig for answers quicker than the traditional draw-go. Shape Anew is probably terrible unless you’re running only powerful artifacts in your sealed deck. With that being said, I want to see it work in constructed. Steady Progress might be asking a bit much to just draw a card, but add Proliferate in a deck that has tons of counters, and now we’re talking. Stoic Rebuttal while probably really nice in constructed Metalcraft decks, might not be amazing in a sealed deck—I’d sideboard this when necessary. Thrummingbird is my favorite blue card in this set and I feel like it will give people fits in sealed and constructed. There aren’t a TON of fliers in this set that come out turn 2 and really start getting to work. Trinket Mage will be pretty good in this set if you need to Snag a low costed artifact for a combo, say like Chimeric Mass or any of the Spellbombs, but in general you’re going to be paying 3 for a 2/2. Vedalken Certarch will annoy many people this Saturday and through many sealed and draft tournaments. This is fantastic control against an artifact heavy deck while protecting your heavy artifact deck. Good investment, probably, at worst he’s a 1/1 for 1 and an early drop to help out Grand Architect. Finally in blue we get Volition Reins. Cool, I can take over your Planeswalker! I think this card will be seen more though taking over people’s Platinum Emperions and locking their life totals.
Black: Normally I’d say “meh” at Carnifex Demon, but this guy is the biggest flier in the set so far. 6/6 that can really take out a lot of the board is just bomb-licious in sealed. Exsanguinate in anything other than multiplayer is not going to be very good. Geth, Lord of the Vault on the other hand will likely win you the game if you can stick him and untap with him in sealed. Yes, he’s that good. Grip of Darkness might be our best removal against the */4 bodies in the set and everything smaller. If you can get multiple copies of this and are running black, you should be in great shape. Remember, removal is very important in Limited formats. Hand of the Praetors…now this is a card I can get behind. I think Infect decks could be viable for constructed, but sealed I’m kind of in the air on. I think if you pull a slew of creatures and abilities with Infect and pull this dude, you’re going to be in great shape, if not, don’t force him into your sealed because he’s the rare. Ichor Rats look pretty good, but again, don’t force infect if it’s not viable. At the very least, they take a blocker down by -2/-2 if they get blocked and killed. I think a lot of people are going to forget the Wither ability that is built into Infect and may underestimate it. Memoricide won’t be good in sealed main deck, and in fact, it may not be good in a side board either, in all honesty, it may only be good for removing planeswalkers before they’re cast, that’s it. Moriok Reaver is a vanilla 3/2 for 3, good, moving on! Necrogen Scudder is a 3/3 flier with a slight drawback. I would have rather had him give you poison counters rather than ping you for 3 life, but it is what it is, a third turn 3/3 flier can be pretty damaging. Necrotic Ooze is a tough one to predict because in the right sealed deck, it can be a total powerhouse, otherwise you’re looking at a 4/3 for 4—which still isn’t terrible, but I’d rather not hit that as one of my rares when I bust open packs. (Now that I’ve said this, I’m going to crake a Necrotic Ooze on Saturday). I feel like Painful Quandry will win games in sealed, and might find its way into some control decks that splash black. Painsmith would be nice if it wasn’t artifact spells that triggered its ability, but that wouldn’t really make sense now would it? Plague Stinger is probably my favorite black card right now. Much like Thrummingbird, you’re going to have to deal with it fast or you could potentially be in trouble. My second favorite black card follows it in the spoiler as Skinrender. This card should be given a look due to the fact that it acts as nasty removal/nerfing of your opponent’s creatures. This card can potentially 2-for-1 every time it is cast. Any card that can act like that is a good one in my book. Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon might be hard to play in constructed where you will be inclined splash other colors. I mean let’s face it, this card really costs 3{B}{B}{B}. In sealed, this card won’t necessarily need to be hasted, it just has to live one turn and you have a nasty 4/4 flier that Regenerates to deal with. Oh yeah, did I mention it’s got Infect too? Wow.
Red: Barrage Ogre is a “meh” card to me, even if you can bring back artifacts from the graveyard a lot, this card is still going to be underwhelming. At 3{R}{R} it’s going to be hard to justify sacking artifacts to its ability when you have a 3/3 body on the battlefield instead. Bloodshot Trainee however can potentially lock down your board position if you can manage to equip it and protect it. This will destroy creatures till you play your finisher and then its good game. Like Painsmith, I feel like Embersmith will kind of fall flat compared to Myrsmith and Riddlesmith. Galvanic Blast will be fantastic in a Metalcraft deck. It’s 4 damage people, not 3. That’s a kicked Burst Lightning for {R} if you control 3 or more artifacts! Goblin Gaveleer could potentially be as dangerous as Auriok Edgewright, but I’m seeing the Edgewright winning that battle. Koth! Koth will be great at powering out big critters in sealed and giving people fits. Pretty sure he alone will win games. Kuldotha Phoenix will be great if you can discard it and use its Metalcraft ability, otherwise triple red is going to give you problems in a sealed pool. Molten Psyche just spoiled today will be fun and could potentially put the game away at the end of a match. Will I maindeck it if I run red and pull it…probably. Oxidda Scrapmelter will be a must have if you’re playing red. This card is another 2-for-1 that will help you in your early game tempo. Scoria Elemental is a Lightning Elemental on steroids, but not speed. 6/1 is nothing to sneeze at, but I feel like 1 toughness is just a little too fragile for this Limited format. Shatter in an artifact heavy set, need I say more? Spikeshot elder can ping Scoria Elemental all day with its ability, he is one of the reasons why I feel that 1 toughness won’t cut it, in fact I’d try to avoid a ton of those critters if possible. Tunnel Ignus if said wrong sounds like a sexual act. The only act you’ll see this card doing in sealed is sitting on the bench. This is another rare I don’t want to crack open.
Green: There are a good amount of cards in green that I like for sealed, but I’ll start at the top and work my way down. Asceticism is a card that I’m 50/50 on part of me feels like this could end games with its Regenerate effect for all of your creatures, but the other part says this kinda sucks. With so many cards with Infect, Regenerate tends to lose its luster. Speaking of Infect, let’s start with green’s Blight Mamba. Unless this guy gets -1/-1, he is going to give people fits. Once again, the built in Wither is going to be hard to deal with on a regenerator. Carapace Forger and Ezuri’s Brigade are going to be tough to deal with when Metalcraft conditions are met. I think Metalcraft is going to be really good in sealed, and possibly on the same level if not better than Landfall was in Zendikar. Cystbearer is a good addition to a B/G Infect deck at the 3 slot. Look for this archetype in your store during sealed and during constructed because I think both are highly viable. Engulfing Slagwurm is the epitome of a finisher. Block with it and you destroy what it blocks and gain life. They block it; you destroy the blocker and gain life. They don’t block it, you just took 7 to the face. Damn. Ezuri’s Archers are the card that Thrummingbird and Plague Stinger don’t want to see. It’s a pretty awesome creature with Reach and it can lock down the skies of attackers with 4 toughness or less. Ezuri, Renegade Leader while good on his own, will absolutely own in constructed elf decks. I don’t think we’re going see his Regenerate ability used as much as the Overrun. In sealed I don’t see this guy making a ton of an impact being that there aren’t a ton of elves out there. Genesis Wave makes me go “huh?” I feel like in order for this to be good you need to probably spend somewhere around 10 mana. In which case, shouldn’t you already be winning if you have 10 mana available? This is a win more card, the end. Liege of the Tangle makes me scratch my head. It’s good, and I think for sure it will win you the game the turn you can attack with it in sealed, but in constructed; this card could be a major disaster. I think you have to play smart with this card. Don’t animate all of your lands, remember, they become 8/8’s as well. Animate 1 and you’re swinging for 16 damage next turn. I can see why this guy is mythic. Putrefax is a card my teammates and I have gone back and forth on. After some pondering, this card in my Humble opinion is good. I think it’s great in sealed and quite possibly great in a B/G Infect deck in constructed as a finisher. Let’s not forget, you’re dealing with 5 Infect damage here. Better have that bolt ready. Slice in Twain is asking a bit much to destroy an artifact or enchantment in constructed, even though it draws you a card, but in sealed, it can be a huge turnaround for you. I’d likely maindeck this puppy. Tangle Angler can be another nuisance by Withering down blockers that can’t kill it. I want multiples of this guy in sealed. Finally in green there is Withstand Death. Sorry, I think even in sealed I’m not wasting a slot on this card.
Venser gets his own slot here, it doesn’t look like there will be any other multicolored cards in this set other than him. This guy is great, he also can potentially win you games in sealed, but I don’t see things being slow to the point where you’ll get to use his ultimate. I see this guy dropping, using his -1 and ending the game. If the colors were in the color pie with Infect, this guy would be beyond good for sealed.
Artifacts: There are around 55 artifacts spoiled at the time of writing this article, so I’m only going to touch on 10 or so because by now you might be bored to death by me stating the obvious about cards in this set already, so here we go! Argentum Armor, play it in sealed, it’ll end the game. Chimeric Mass will be great, calling it now. Contagion Clasp and Engine are very interesting. I’d like to see them work, I think they can in sealed and really do damage, but I’m not entirely sure how well they’ll do in constructed play. Obviously the Myrs could be good depending on how many you draw. I do want to touch on Myr Battlesphere. God I love this card! I see it potentially filling a hole in U/W control decks, but in sealed, this card could also potentially end games. The Darksteel stuff can be pretty good—I’m looking at you Darksteel Juggernaut! But…with all the Infect around, these can go bye bye fast. I think Etched Champion can be a beast to deal with in sealed, but can also just as easily be shut down with other artifacts like Ichorclaw Myr. Golem’s Heart will be a useful charm, and I’m considering running it maindeck if I pull one or two. Memnites are going to be incredibly useful, but at uncommon, we may not see as many of these as we really want in a sealed pool. Mindslaver is one that you will want to be on the lookout for at your pre-release. I think this card can potentially finish your opponent off pretty quickly—on the other hand, they could have a card in their hand and you could totally whiff on your activation of your Mindslaver, be careful with this one. I almost feel like this is going to be a card I maindeck and end up playing 4 matches before I realize it’s just not good for sealed. Molten-Tail Masticore will be a factor and it will win you games despite what anybody says, this card is the real deal. We’ll be seeing plenty of this card in the next year or so. Mox Opal I think in sealed is going to be incredibly underwhelming and will waste a card slot where you could be playing a creature or bomb. Hang onto it for constructed, I’m just saying don’t waste a slot in your sealed deck with it. Now we get to some of the more interesting cards like Platinum Emperion. If you’re not facing Infect, you will win the game by playing this card. Precursor Golem can be fun in sealed, at worst you got 3 3/3’s for 5. At best, you pump all 3 with a combat trick. Don’t forget to read the card, sorcery or instants get copied, you can’t enchant all three of em with one spell. I’m not worried about this card having a hard time in sealed unless it gets hit with Grip of Darkness. I think that Prototype Portal can be nasty in this format as well, but I’m wondering if you’re going to have to spend too many resources on getting it to work. Tapping X each turn to copy a mediocre artifact just doesn’t seem that great, and tapping a ton to copy a great artifact just seems like a major waste of resources. I’d avoid this one if possible. Now we get onto Ratchet Bomb. Yes please. I will play this in sealed. I will play this in constructed. This is way too useful to not include. Oh look, we got an artifact Craw Wurm in the form of Razorfield Thresher that costs 1 more. At least the flavor text is good. Rusted Relic will be good in Metalcraft decks, a 5/5 in this format will be tough to beat. Semblance Anvil is also a good pick for me. Yes, I’ll exile a Memnite and get my Artifact and Creature cards get reduced by 2—love it! Steel Hellkite is going to be tough to deal with, look out for this guy as a finisher in a lot of decks. Better know what you need to save your removal for, cause this guy warrants a Shatter! Hard to say no to a flying Engineered Explosives. Oh and now we get to the Sword of Body and Mind. Its good ok, people have talked about this for months since it’s been spoiled, its great in sealed, and can be good in constructed, just wait. I think the Trigon cycle will be useful in sealed as well, anything that sits there and does stuff for only 2 mana can be dangerous, especially the Trigon of Infestation. Chump blockers with Infect? Sure! And finally, the big daddy, the pre-release card: Wurmcoil Engine. What can I say that hasn’t already been said? Look for this to Wreak Havoc at pre-releases and standard soon. This can potentially replace quite a few of the Titans.
So there you have it, almost 3500 words later, you have my preview on what has been spoiled. I hope this hasn’t been just me stating the obvious about cards and has given you some Insight into things to go after in your sealed pool, and things to avoid. I am very excited about the pre-release and release of this set; I’m hoping to take home a 1st place finish this Saturday. I won’t be playing FNM so in place of my FNM Report, I’ll post my sealed pool and how I did.