Blue is a weird color. In constructed Magic, Blue is easily the most powerful color. In duels, it makes sense. The color is about control but here’s the catch: the best blue mage can’t control a whole table. So when looking at Blue, it’s about looking at it as a support color often for multiplayer and not as a core color. Or maybe it is just because all these cards look terrible in comparison to the rest of this set’s offerings.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Ætherize

Mass bouncing is fun and ripe for abusing, and as a political card I love the options this presents. But at the end of the day, this will just result in a single player turning against you and maybe one player will be in your debt. But it does a lot more than a simple Fog…

Agoraphobia

This feels like a blue Cage of Hands and I like that. The combination with evolve is neat. I wouldn’t call this a must-use, but the multiple use applications make this a very interesting cog. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, blue, gatecrash, magic: the gathering, review

At the end of Dissension, the Simic Combine was all but destroyed. Since then though, a new leader has risen and reevaluated the guild’s focus into something… more. Or maybe they are just trying to combine the weirdest assortment of creature types possible. It’s hard to tell when the guild is almost as crazy as Izzet. Almost.

In multiplayer formats, blue and green is one of those color combinations that sounds like it can do anything. Green gives access to big creatures and fast mana, while blue adds in control, card advantage and evasion. And when you combine the two colors, weird things happen – like Crab Fish, Lizard Drakes and something called a Krasis. Anyone know what a Krasis is? Because I don’t think a mutated fish is a muddling of water a wine.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Clinging Anemones

I’m a sucker for awful creature types, and find jellyfish to be hilarious. I don’t find 4 mana walls to be that hilarious. The big difference between power and toughness means he’ll evolve easily, but that doesn’t stop the fact that this is a 1/4 defender for 4.

Cloudfin Raptor

I have no idea if this card is good. The aggro-player in me says no, but the combo player loves the idea of having a card that makes so many tokens. This is a perfect little engine piece in kitchen table 60, but in Commander, it doesn’t do enough. But bird mutants are kind of awesome. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, blue, gatecrash, green, magic: the gathering, review, simic, zegana

Dimir isn’t real, right? Or is it? Either way, it introduces something new.

The House of Dimir in Gatecrash introduces two main concepts to Magic: Grinding and Cipher. Grinding is the new milling X lands ability that seems to be specially made for casual mill decks and gives multiplayer millers some impressive spells.

But more exciting is the ability Cipher. Turning sorceries into Auras in a way, Cipher allows you to cast the same spell again and again off combat triggers. And yes, it casts the spell which allows for some great abuse.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Hands of Binding

Cipher Detain? Oh I hope that becomes a thing when Dragon’s Maze happens! Hands of Binding is a neat little trick, but the value really comes from Cipher. Encouraging attacking is nice, but getting essentially auras that can’t be two-for-one’d is much better. As far as an ability, this isn’t great but could be awesome for limited.

Last Thoughts

How much would you pay to turn a creature into an Ophidian? For older players, I see the allure of this card being much greater. But the casting cost is just painful. 3U for a Curiosity that can’t be Disenchanted? That feels expensive. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, black, blue, dimir, gatecrash, lazav, magic: the gathering, review

The second stop on this tour of the Return to Ravnica color wheel reminds me a lot of some older sets. Mainly that it opens with an amazing whimper. For blue mages who want excellent control spells, you’re going to be disappointed. For Johnnies looking for weird cards, you’re in luck!

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Aquus Steed

Here is how I envision this card working:

Mage 1: “Look at my horse!”
Mage 2: “What in the nine hell is that?”
Mage 1: “Ha! Now you are confused and get -2/-0!”

End scene.

Cancel

The art of Mr. Explodey Hand is wasted on this reprint. Also if you like counterspells, I don’t like you as a person. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: blue, casual, commander, game, jace, magic: the gathering, return to ravnica, review

The Izzet League is the guild everyone seems to love. The band of mad scientists working for an insane dragon certainly has some appeal, but the lack of focus makes me think Izzet has no idea what they are doing. Every now and then, they’ll do something awesome though. Probably accidentally.

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Epic Experiment

This card is hilariously stupid and equally awesome. Generate enough mana and this can end games in a mess of spells waiting to resolve. In Commander, I see this being the destroyer of worlds like Genesis Wave. I can’t wait to see one go off.

Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius

Curse you Wizards, you had to make a second Niv-Mizzet that doesn’t automatically cause infinite damage when combined with the first. An inverse of his old-self, Niv-Mizzet is still a good card and a great legendary but he’s so much harder to abuse now. That said, turning UR into a card whenever you want is amazing. For combo commander players, he will easily find a home but his original version is better. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, blue, casual, commander, izzet, magic: the gathering, niv-mizzet, overload, red, return to ravnica, review

I don’t know why I’m listening to people on Twitter, but the readers spoke and said I should review Return to Ravnica by guild, not color. That’s a great idea except a good chunk of the monocolored cards in this set aren’t tied to a guild. But that won’t stop me from trying. Like always, I review every. Single. Card. in this set – including the awful limited pieces of fodder.

Return to Ravnica is a great set. I barely played Magic when the original Ravnica block came out (but returned with a violent vengeance thanks to Time Spiral), so this is giving me a chance to experience Magic with a unique twist because Ravnica is essentially Magic with 10 colors, not 5. To start off these reviews is Azorius! Also, I’m not going alphabetically this time because that often results in me slamming my head into my desk repeatedly thanks to most sets starting off horribly.

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Isperia, Supreme Judge

Legendaries are always fun in Commander because each one is a new chance to make a deck! Maybe it’s because I’ve been on a Craw Wurm kick, but I love that he’s a 6/4 for 6! But what I love even more is him being a twisted reverse Edric. Drawing cards whenever you or one of your planeswalkers gets attack is amazing. It deters a lot of attacks, but thanks to new cards like Courtly Provocateur, Azorius has plenty of ways to force unfavorable attacks.

The big downsides though to Isperia are the cost and the fact that this card doesn’t do anything when it resolves. The double-blue, double-white makes this a hard cast (though great reanimating bait). Just make sure you have a pair of boots waiting upon resolution.

Sphinx’s Revelation

As a mythic, this doesn’t completely wow me. The fact that it is instant though makes me excited since so much card draw lately has been sorcery speed. I love that this card just combined Alabaster Potion and Stroke of Genius into one delicious package. This card is good, especially late game, but it doesn’t do anything mythical. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, azorius, blue, isperia, magic: the gathering, return to ravnica, review, white

Blue is an interesting color in multiplayer. In Commander, it seems to be the color that can do anything but in casual 60 it often can’t do enough. Traditional methods of control don’t really work and going too far into a permission deck will quickly result in the entire table turning against you. So the other option is to wait until the perfect moment to strike and M13 offers some new tactics.

Like always, I am only reviewing the cards new to M13 and will try my best to say something about each and every one. I can’t promise what I say will actually be insightful.

Magic 2013 Casual & Commander Review
White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Other

Archaeomancer

The blue Anarchist/better Scrivener that can return instants or sorceries, Archaeomancer is a dangerous card in singleton formats. While the 1/2 body for 2UU isn’t terribly exciting, there are now plenty of ways to abuse this card to create a recursion engine that would make Tamiyo blush. For commanders, now you have another Izzet Chronarch.

Arctic Aven

The blue member of the new allied creatures, Arctic Aven allows you to get a 3/2 flier with lifelink – for only three mana! While not the most exciting card (outside of limited), it really is a solid uncommon. Though when I glance at the art, I think it is a winged turtle. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, blue, commander, jace, m13, magic 2013, magic: the gathering, review, talrand

Planechase 2 (2012) Reviews
Chaos Reigns | Night of the Ninja | Primordial Hunger | Savage Auras

I think my favorite part about Planechase 2 is that Wizards used it as a fantastic opportunity to revisit older mechanics and breathe new life into them in ways that just wouldn’t work for a regular release. Ninjutsu is a great mechanic but is very limited by the fact that it can only appears on ninja cards (much like how bushido is only on samurai – even though Chub Toad has it!). Given how poorly received Kamigawa was as a whole, it isn’t a plane I see us going back to any time son.

Night of the Ninja is a blue-black deck that makes the most of unblockable creatures and turning them into ninjas over and over again, while constantly triggering entering and leaving the battlefield abilities. Much like Chaos Reigns, Night of the Ninja contains six new cards (though one of them is in each deck). The actual packaging and set are more of the same as Chaos Reigns, though the deck boxes are a nice touch. Except for the part where a sleeved deck won’t fit in them. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: black, blue, Gaming, magic: the gathering, night of the ninja, phenomenon, plane, planechase, planechase 2, review, vela the night-clad

Planechase 2 (2012) Reviews
Chaos Reigns | Night of the Ninja | Primordial Hunger | Savage Auras

With Planechase 2 finally released, it’s exciting to look at the new cards offered in deck deck – along with the new Planes and Phenomena! What I find most interesting about Planechase is I don’t know a single playgroup that actually plays it the way it was designed with individual 10 card planar decks. Every group I’ve played in has ended up using some variation of the Eternities Map. I guess you would call that the universal planar singularity.

The “Chaos Reigns” deck puts the power of cascade in your hands—cast a spell, then cast another spell for free! Wield all five colors of mana and watch your opponents scramble to deal with every flavor of aggression.

Chaos Reigns is the first deck in this series of reviews for one simple reason: it’s first alphabetically! A five color monstrosity, this deck makes the most of cascading spells. In the 60-card deck, there are only six brand new cards: one mythic, two rares, two uncommons and a common.

A quite note about the packaging, I really like how Wizards has amped up their packaging offers of late. The oddly shaped hexagonal box is great looking and the large window really shows off the plane well, but the inclusion of showing the legendary creature on a bend just makes me grimace. I know the card isn’t actually bent, but it just looks wrong! Inside the packaging is the planar deck, the actual deck, a planar die, a deck box, a strategy insert and learn to play guide. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, blue, chaos reigns, Gaming, green, magic: the gathering, planechase, planechase 2, red, review