It's that time again.  The most recent expansion set seems like it was released ages ago and the internet is a-twitter with blurry visual spoilers and tantalizing half-truths on the latest expansion.  Its spoiler season again in the world of Magic the Gathering and today we're proud to bring you four official spoilers for your viewing pleasure.  As always, we will examine the cards from all angles and judge them for their effectiveness in each format.  So without further ado;  here are the latest Alara Reborn spoilers with a juicy hot side of penetrating commentary.

1. Bituminous Blast - Here we have a brand new card with a brand new mechanic.  Cascade is an effect that works a lot like Ripple from Coldsnap.  Ripple inspired  a lot of swinging and missing. If you did not have a second copy serendipitously placed on top of your library, it was a bad deal.  Cards like Surging Might were rendered almost unplayable, since needing multiple copies precluded it from the safe haven of bad cards: booster drafts.  Cascade obviously has a much better hit ratio.  In fact, with the right set up, you can connect every time.  You can use Bitominous Blast to play cheaper creatures (giving them flash), or use it as a finish move with burn.  Of course the skin tingles at the thought of playing some of Time Spiral's suspended zero cost cards.  Wheel of Fate at instant speed?  Yes please!  Unfortunately BB doesn't give you much without a combo piece.  Especially because red/black is infamous for cheaper creature removal.  An ideal deck for this card would involve lots of low cost discard and burn (Blightning anyone?) and Liliana Vess' effect to ensure we get the cards we want for Cascading.

2. Marisi's Twinclaws - One of the more underrated abilities in MTG is Double Strike.  There have been two major issues that stop it from being a favorite.  The first issue, creatures with double strike are paper mache fragile.  Marasi's Twinclaws certainly fixes that.  A four toughness creature crosses the line from average to down right durable.  The second issue is that they are often priced out of usefulness.  The Twinclaws don't quite get over that hump but it's closer than you might think.  Hearthfire Goblin is a decent deal for three mana, and one more buys you two extra toughness.  Not too shabby, especially in Block Constructed where HG is not an option.  However, the strength of Marisi's Twinclaws is the same as Bitominous Blast, its a great combo piece.  Imagine this card with a single Loxodon Warhammer, or one of the dual color avatar enchantments from Shadowmoor/Eventide.  Now you're talking.

3. Ethercaste Knight - This Esper/Bant refugee is not much of a stand alone piece, but that doesn't make him worthless.  In fact, this is probably a better card than Conflux's Deft Duelist.  For one thing, it has Exalted.  Providing we have the right mana base, swapping this in for Guardians of Akrasa is a no-brainer.  Exalted is a powerful, if not underrated ability that can be at the core of a playable Bant or Azorius deck.  First turn Akrasan Squire, second turn Aven Squire, and third turn Ethercaste Knight we have a 3/3 flyer in the red-zone with enough defense to stop any early rush.  Looking to take advantage of creature type?  Pair EK with Kinsbaile Cavalier or Auriok Steelshaper.  Not quite tournament staple material, but solid two-drops are good in any format (especially two-drops durable enough to survive a Volcanic Fallout).  One personal note before moving on, this card scores high on the nostalgia scale.  The art is classic Dungeons & Dragons, a reminder of youthful days spent exploring imaginary worlds with my level 13 Paladin. Ahhh, memories. . .

4. Pale Recluse - Looks like WotC  again adhered to their secret contract with the Nerubian Underlords of Azeroth.  That blood-pact states there must be one large, preferably green, spider creature with Reach included in every expansion and core set of MTG.  Oh, and these spiders need be at least one mana too expensive.  This is surely how Pale Recluse came to be.  There can be no other explanation. So how is this guy different from his predecessors?  There is a second ability here.  Landcycling can be useful in a variety of scenarios, especially with mechanics like Domain in the Alara block.  However, instead of giving it Basic Landcycling so it would be very playable in draft and block constructed formats, we instead only have two land options.  The lack of the 'basic' qualifier opens up some opportunity for Ravnica dual lands, but this card still won't be seeing much action in Extended play.  If Pale Recluse has a silver lining it's in multiplayer.  Two of the keys to multiplayer strategy are setting up a mana base early, and playing defense.  This fella excels at both.

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