The newest Magic: the Gathering Duel Decks got released over the weekend, and like always, the price kept climbing so I waited until I spotted them for MSRP and picked up a pair. Once a year, Wizards release a set of Duel Decks focused on a pair of Planeswalkers battling it out and this year, we’re going back to Innistrad as Sorin and Tibalt go head to head.

Suggested Ages: 13+
Suggested Players: 2 players
Contents:

• Two ready-to-play 60-card decks
• Two deck boxes
• Two creature tokens
• A strategy insert
• A Magic “Learn to Play” guide

Retail price: $19.99 available at Amazon.com

Like the other Duel Decks, Sorin vs. Tibalt is two 60-card decks specially made to battle one another. For the spring releases now, it seems like Wizards is sticking to two planeswalkers from the previous block which I love for two big reasons: it makes planeswalkers super accessible to casual and new players and it ties back in with sets you can currently buy. These Duel Decks also include two spirit tokens with Magic card backs (with the Avacyn Restored art),  two deck boxes (which can’t fit sleeved decks), a how-to-play insert and a strategy insert outlining how the decks work. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: black, duel deck, flashback, game, magic: the gathering, red, review, sorin, tibalt, tokens, white, Wizards of the Coast

With the guilds out of the way, it is time to turn to the guildless of Ravnica. These mono-colored cards have no affiliation beyond basic lands.

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

Aerial Maneuver

What is with these reviews starting with a whimper? As a combat trick, I wouldn’t play this outside of limited.

Angelic Edict

While expensive, I love the utility of this card. Exiling a creature or enchantment for 5 mana is expensive and the sorcery speed slows it down a lot too, but at the end of the day, this is unconditional removal. It isn’t a great card, but in slower formats it does okay. Read the rest of this entry »

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

One of my favorite cards in Magic is Boros: Lightning Helix. I love Lightning Bolt and Armadillo Cloak was one of my favorite spells too. So when it comes to Magic, I feel right at home in the aggressive style of Boros.

Weenie decks are difficult in multiplayer formats. The traditional system of applying pressure and keeping it on doesn’t exactly work when you’re facing off against 60 or 80 points of life. And RDW faces the same issue. You might burn out one player and maybe half of another before getting crushed into the ground.

Amazingly, Boros manages to avoid both of these pitfalls.

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

Boros Elite

I love when I say things and then immediately get proven wrong. Boros Elite is an interesting variant of the Savannah Lions archetype in white weenie. But weenies aren’t always the best. As far as batalion goes, it’s a nice mechanic that encourages attacking – which is a great way to break stalemates. Sadly, you can’t do crazy tricks but putting creatures onto the battlefield tapped and attacking …usually.

Daring Skyjek

It doesn’t seem that long ago that I found Blade of the Sixth Pride to be interesting, and for an aggressive deck, this is a fine two-drop. The biggest issue is it doesn’t do enough late game. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, aurelia, boros, gatecrash, magic: the gathering, red, review, white

A new Magic set is about to be released. Normally, I look at all the cards in the set (and I’m still going to do that), but to start things off – I’ve got to say wow. Wizards really knocked it out of the park with Gatecrash and there really is something for every kind of player. Like with Return to Ravnica, I will be going through each of the guilds first (WBUGR), then each unaffiliated set of cards so the final review will probably be 11 parts in total!

First up is the crime syndicate masquerading as a religion: Orhovz! This white-black guild introduces a new mechanic that is beyond multiplayer friendly. Extort allows you to pay a W or B whenever you cast a spell, to drain all your opponents for 1 life and you gain one. And to make it even better, the hybrid in it doesn’t apply to color identity rules in Commander! And it doesn’t hurt that this color combination is the best when it comes to removal either.

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

Basilica Guards

While not the most exciting card, getting additional sources of extortion is a good thing. For multiplayer, the defender aspect is a plus. It holds down the ground early game and is deceptive about just how much damage it is dealing.

Blind Obedience

Kismet is a great card… to draw a lot of attention to yourself. Blind Obedience gives you a cheap way to slow the game while you whittle away at life totals, but after a turn or two stalling the board… this card becomes the clear problem. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, black, gatecrash, magic: the gathering, obzedat, orzhov, review, white

Now that the five guilds are done, I’m looking at all the non-affiliated cards in Return to Ravnica. So if you don’t have a guild watermark, you’re included! I’ll start with white since they usually go first.

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

Angel of Serenty

Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand…

This card worries me. Not because Kaalia will throw her down every turn, but because of how easy this card is to abuse. Oh the exiling trigger is on the stack? Bounce it. Or flicker. Either way, you now don’t have three permanents for good and three more are gone. I don’t rage quit often, but this might make me do it. A lot.

Armory Guard

I’m so glad this guy gains vigilance and doesn’t do something like “loses defender.” I kind of want to see what the Gates end up doing by the end of this block, but for now, don’t bother. Read the rest of this entry »

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

As a guild, I loved Selesnya. I’ve been a green-white player since the days of Ernhamgeddon. The only guild I possibly like more is Boros, but giant armies of creatures brings me back to how I remember playing Magic on the playground in grade school. And now, they have an ability perfect for combo players to abuse.

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

Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice

As a commander, this is pretty good. Sure the mana cost is clunky, the life gain doesn’t make a whole lot of sense but that last ability makes me giddy with excitement. Populating on demand sounds like so much fun, especially in eternal formats where any and all token generators are available. I also see this pairing getting along very well with Doran.

Armada Wurm

Ten power for six mana? That’s absurd even in green. It’s great because it costs twice as much removal to work and it is basically a Titan. The casting cost isn’t nearly as prohibitive as it looks and I fully expect to see this abused for years to come thanks to Sneak Attack, Reanimation and good old fashioned ramping. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, green, magic: the gathering, populate, review, selesnya, token, trostani, white

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

Core sets are always kind of odd when it comes to reviews. Most of the commons and uncommons are awkward at best and intended for drafting or introducing new players to core concepts, while the rares range unplayable to niche. Occasionally you’ll get a card that does something truly unique though and that’s what these reviews are all about.

With over half the set being reprints, the Magic 2013 Casual and Commander Review will only cover brand new cards. And I’m going to comment on every single one of them. I’m really glad they cut down on vanilla creatures. As always, the biggest rule about reviewing sets like these for the kitchen table is that there is never a card that is truly unplayable – just very, very close.

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

Ajani, Caller of the Pride
Planeswalkers are always interesting in casual but more often then not, they are quickly killed off. But this version of Ajani lands quickly and works in a variety of decks. His first ability, while awkwardly worded, can work well in group hug style decks as he can pump any creature (or none at all).

His second ability is less useful thanks to the sorcery timing requirement, but on the offensive the combination of evasion and double strike makes for a terrifying beast in the air. But the fact that it costs -3 makes me wary. Finally there is the ultimate which evokes his original ultimate nicely. Getting an army with power double your own life just four turns after Ajani resolves can quickly end games. Plus the fact that he essentially starts the game at 5 loyalty means he will be a challenge to kill.

Ajani’s Sunstriker
White Weenie usually doesn’t have enough staying power to control the kitchen table past turn three and Ajani’s Sunstriker doesn’t do enough. The biggest issue is the simple fact that this 2/2 for WW only has one ability – it’s just a worst version of Knight of Meadowgrain. If you’re putting together some weird cat-cleric tribal deck, this could work to lower your curve, but otherwise it falls into the strictly worse pile. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ajani, arena, commander, m13, magic 2013, magic: the gathering, odric, review, white

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

The final Planechase 2 deck personally offends me. As someone who has been playing white-green aura decks for the better part of the last 15 years, I have no idea how Wizards thought they could make a white and green aura deck and not include Armadillo Cloak in it! Is it because it doesn’t actually have lifelink? Is that why Wizards? Why don’t you just keep rubbing salt in my wounds!

Savage Auras is a deck that will teach people just how terrible many auras are. With elements of Voltron decks, Savage Auras looks fine on paper but after playing a few games with it, I quickly realized it doesn’t work. Totem Armor helps and Rancor is always awesome, but most of the time you’re still just hoping people won’t immediately exile your cards.

Like the other Planechase 2 decks, Savage Auras includes 8 new planes, 2 phenomena and six brand new cards (five of which are exclusive to this deck). Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Gaming, green, magic: the gathering, phenomenon, plane, planechase, planechase 2, review, savage auras, white