Hello Nation! Once again it's time for another set to hit us with fun and festivities. New cards! Whoo-hoo! New cards are here again. Just when you think you are starting to get a little bored with the old, in comes the new. New cards!!

And with new cards comes the classic article type of old – set reviews. Many set reviews are underwhelming - a lot of words with little to impart. They have a thousand and one entries that say some variation of "Good in limited, bad in constructed" and then try to break up the monotony with jokes.

Have you also noticed that some writers will prevaricate their own claims? This "might" be good, or that "could" happen. Yeah well, put your foot down and make a claim! Put your name to it! Right here in CasualNation, I will go overboard with my predictions of suck or super, and you can yell at me in three months when I'm wrong!

In casual land, with every card ever printed available to us, new cards need to do new things well, or else they will fall behind. In this set review, I am only going to mention the hits or sleepers. I will be giving you this review with an eye towards all casual formats – Pauper, Commander, Five Color, even just a chaos multiplayer where everyone has a 60 card deck. We'll look at them all. I'm even going to toss in Type Four this time, just for fun!

I'm going to generally steer clear of the solid, by-the-numbers cards that have an obvious use in one deck, and there are just adequate. An example is Ardent Recruit. It's a 1/1 that becomes a 3/3 with metalcraft. If you play one in a heavy artifact deck, then it obviously has a home there, and I'm not going to make fun of you for running it. But, it's a bit uninspired for your decks, you know? It's not worth mentioning

Anyway, are you ready? Are you ready for the fun! Are you ready for NEW CARDS?

White

Accorder Paladin – The reason I am talking about this card is because of how good Blade of the Sixth Pride was in my aggro decks – especially my Five Color aggro deck. Now you can get a card that is even better, due to the presence of Battle Cry. It's a card I want at least a player's set of, to toss in the appropriate deck. Perhaps I want two full sets, because it's that good.

Banishment Decree – Hello Time Ebbs, and welcome to your new home in White. Due to the instant-ness of this card, I want to put one in my Type Four stack.

Frantic Salvage – Which is more powerful – putting any number of artifacts back on top of your library from your graveyard, or putting any number of creatures back? I hope you agree with me that it's the latter. Why does this cost one more mana than Footbottom Feast, if it's already a worse card? Exactly. Drawing a card is nice, because it basically means you won't lose a card, but it seems like it costs just one mana too much. I don't know, maybe in limited they had to up the cost for pointing purposes or something, but taken as an individual, it's a bit too expensive for regular use. Now it looks to be headed for very specific decks that not only play a lot of artifacts, but expect them to be regularly hitting the yard. They are out there, but it's a more limited segment.

Hero of Bladehold – This is clearly a class card for several type as of deck, since you can attack with a 4 mana creature and hit for up to 7 damage. The potential this card represents is significant. With weenie decks needing a good card to punch through defenses, and with them wanting a card that can help them out post-Wrath, this seems to do both. It will quickly make enough creatures to get through an Overgrown Battlement and Wall of Omens. It can also make an army after someone kills off yours. It's got a nice damage spike potential.

Leonin-Relic Warder – Because creatures can die so quickly, it's not a reliable way to hide one of your foes' cards for long. A better use is to play it in decks that want to hide something from removal, or to blink-ish something for another use. Maybe you want to reload a Trigon or Shriekhorn. Perhaps you want to reuse an ETB trigger on one (such as Contagion Engine). There're some opportunities here for use.

Mirran Crusader – By becoming better than Paladin en-Vec, it also got a bit worse. Black and Red are played in the same deck tons of times, but how often are you going up against a Black/Green deck? See many The Rock decks in your playgroups? Maybe you have a friend with a Vhati il-Dal Commander deck. My point is that the colors this has protection from are not always going to just flat out blank a deck like Paladin en-Vec would. It certainly is better with the double strike dealing four through someone's Black and/or Green defense, and it can hold its own on the ground quite well against all of the colors. It's a valuable addition as a one or two-of in some decks. I wouldn't look for more (unless you need it for a weird Hurricane/Levitation deck or something).

Phyrexian Rebirth – Ever since Kirtar's Wrath combined the peanut butter of Wrath of Gods with the jelly of token making, we've seen the occasional clever Wrath that gives you a winning condition. Instead of a bunch of solider tokens or a pair of birds, it gives you one big creature. It's easy to die to things like Terror and Swords to Plowshares and Unsummon. It also swings for a lot of damage and can really scare people with their defense shorn. This is a great card for your decks.

White Sun's Zenith – How much mana do you have to put into this before it's a good card? At 6 mana, it makes three 2/2 tokens – whoop-dee-doo. At eight, it makes 5 tokens, a bit interesting, but hardly game ending. You've got to put double digit mana into this before I get interested with your kitty bears. There's much better stuff for that casting cost.

Blue

Blue Sun's Zenith – In a mono-Blue deck, this is virtually a new Stroke of Genius. It's good for Commander decks that want another Braingeyser/Mind Spring/Stroke of Genius in their deck. Other than those obvious plays, the rest is less so. Its instant nature is cool because it makes the card harder to counter, and you can draw a ton of cards late game for a finishing wallop of card advantage. It's bad at the low casting costs, though. For example, you have to spend UUU4 to draw the same amount of cards at instant speed that UU4 will do (Opportunity). It doesn't become good for a bit, but in a deck with a lot of mana making and looking for raw card drawing, this is a good tool. (Read: Combo)

Consecrated Sphinx – If I were a casual writer for WoTC, and I got to choose which card to spoil in my article, this would be one of the two cards I would most want on my plate (the other is Darksteel Plate, with an honorable mention to Praetor's Counsel). This is a mega hitter in a world that needs mega hitters. It makes Mind's Eye look like a chump. Any format where you are playing against more than one person (Two-Headed Giant, Commander, Chaos, Emperor, etc) will benefit massively from this card. Even in duels, it's a perfect late game finisher for a Blue deck. I want 15 please. Obviously, it's target #1 at a multiplayer table, with a duel between this Sphinx and Kaervek to see which one gets auto-targeted the quickest. That doesn't mean you shouldn't play it, but you should be aware of its danger, and find a way to protect it (such as the aforementioned Darksteel Plate, or just countermagic). This single-handedly makes Confound an amazing partner.

Corrupted Conscience – Because we don't care about casting cost in Type Four, this is better than things like Control Magic (usually). The infect addition is interesting. It ruins some creatures, and makes others significantly better. An infect Shivan Dragon? Great! An infect Etched Oracle? Not so much.

Treasure Mage – The card can set you up wonderfully for later, but unlike Trinket Mage, you can't get an early advantage. A Trinket Mage could get a very powerful 1 drop and let you play anything from a Sol Ring or Sensei's Divining Top to Skullclamp and Ivory Tower. You could immediately play that card and keep going, but this prepares you for later. It's great in a combo deck with expensive pieces, or to find fuel for discard effects and such. It sets up a Show and Tell, Sneak Attack or Eureka marvelously. It's a good card in the right deck, but I'm not sure how often you'll find the right deck.

Vedalken Infuser – Remember this the next time you build that Darksteel Reactor deck.

Vivisection – While this card is just good in most formats, in Pauper, it's incredible. With such a low amount of raw card drawing available to you, this increases in value. Even a 2 for 3 exchange is welcome. Sac a creature with an ETB trigger you've already used, like Pit Keeper, and then get your bevy of cards. It's very good stuff.

Black

Black Sun's Zenith – This is my favorite Zenith card. It's so flexible, and even two mana makes it a permanent infect, which you would think you'd have to spend four mana for anyway. The higher you go, the more disgusting this gets. It kills off indestructible creatures, those you can't target, prevents persist creatures from coming back, and you can still build around it (Indomitable Ancients). I think this may quickly become one of my favorite board sweeping effects of all time. This is an absolute house for decks, and I can't imagine a Black deck that doesn't want this outside of a dedicated quick aggro deck. I expect to see it getting play as a new Damnation.

Go For the Throat – Better than Terror for what it can target, and worse for its lack of regeneration. It's got an obvious place against the horde, since regeneration is much less common than Black creatures. That reminds me, can we please get a piece of equipment that allows regeneration of the equipped creature, please? What about this:

Trollskin Cloak

2

Equip 1

Equipped creature gains "1: regenerate this"

Massacre Wurm – There is a place for big stupid creatures that infest the ground with awesome when they enter the battlefield. Considering how useful something like Crater Hellion was, I think this guy will easily slide in alongside some nice cards from Black. It doesn't kill as many creatures as Crater Hellion, but it's also without echo and rocks a larger body. That makes this a much more generally useful card by my reckoning, and I expect to see it played immediately in any control deck with Black.

Morbid Plunder – Another good card for Pauper decks, due to its Death's Duet nature.

Phyrexian Crusader – This is almost identical to Paladin en-Vec from White - same casting cost, first strike, and protection from two colors. It just adds infect. It has some issues sliding alongside other traditional Black beaters, because it doesn't have the same skill set. For example, Paladin en-Vec easily fit alongside White Knight. This is looking at being your three drop in a color without Honor of the Pure and alongside Carnophage. It's not the same thing. I do think you'll find more value in Pro White and Red than in Pro White and Green, so I like its colors a lot.

Phyrexian Vatmother – With five power, it would have hearkened back to the many 5 powered creature for 4 mana in Black with disadvantages – from Plague Sliver to Juzam Djinn to Phyrexian Scuta. It takes one more full swing to kill with this – that is a significant slowdown in speed. It may still be a nice finisher for infect decks, but I think it lost a bit of usefulness in the general population with the loss in power.

Sangromancer – You won't be gaining life as often as you would with Soul Warden and similar cards (which is great for multiplayer because it won't slow the game down as much) but my guess is that you'll see roughly the same amount of life gain over time. You'll also get a creature with enough size to contribute to the whole attacking and blocking aspect of Magic. I think it's a fine card for your decks. I intend to acquire a handful for my decks.

Red

I just want to say that I love the Red Rebellion feel this set has. It makes total sense, and I love rooting for Red as the clear and away "Good Guys" for once. It's a nice feel. For example, I love the design on Burn the Impure. That's just smart stuff.

Galvanoth – Depending on your deck, this could rock the clock, or drool the school. I tend to think it's more towards the rock side of the continuum. I would love to try this bad boy in my Oros Commander deck. Oh look, a free Unmake. Oh look, a free Demonic Tutor. This calls out for a deck build around it.

Goblin Wardriver – I don't normally build Standard decks, but a month and a half ago, I built this Red Sligh Standard deck and was doing fairly well with it over at Magic Online. This is needed as it really wanted another good two drop beside Ember Hauler. In other formats, it's not that great, but it doesn't suck. As a two drop in Sligh, it could pump a creature or two for turn three. Perhaps your Ball Lightning will be a 7/1 and that 2/2 Goblin Guide becomes a 3/2. Other than that, it doesn't have a lot of power going against the best two drops in Red's history (which is actually very uneven for Sligh).

Hellkite Igniter – Who wants to play artifacts in their Red deck now? Yeah, I didn't think so. It's not powerful enough to force you to build around it. With five artifacts out (which is a ton), it gets +5/+0 for two mana instead of five. Whoop-de-doo. Be still my beating heart. It can slide into a Red deck that already has a ton of artifacts for another reason, but it won't easily be the Standard Bearer of a deck.

Hero of Oxid Ridge – Aggro Red decks will love this guy. Those are rare at the casual table. (Especially in a game involving more than one player.) Even if it works, it kills just one person and then runs out of juice. It usually doesn't even work. What Commander deck are you throwing this in? It's not an easy tool to find a home for in most of the formats I play.

Into the Core – Exiling an artifact is great. Exiling two is even better. Doing it at instant speed is very hot. Spending one more Red mana than Rack and Ruin to do it is not. It's difficult to find double Red in some decks. If it had just been 3R, then I'd be more in. I'll still try to find a place for it in Abe's Deck of Happiness and Joy, but I'm a little underwhelmed. There are a lot of Red cards that hurt artifacts and either take out two or draw you cards or do something else. It still has some good uses. It will defeat any Colossus that has Steel in its name. It will be good right now in an artifact heavy environment. Everybody will be trying out new artifact toys, and you can take them out. It prevents any reanimation shenanigans with cards like Academy Ruins and others of its ilk. It can ruin two sides of a combo, and not just one. There is value here in decks that split Red or are mostly Red, so try it out.

Metallic Mastery – I think is a really well designed card.

Red Sun's Zenith – It's just a Disintegrate, except without the whole "Can't Regenerate" part. And it gets shuffled back. I can't imagine you'd want this over a ton of alternatives. This was the most disappointing of the Zeniths. It's a bit underpowered compared to an all Blue Stroke of Genius, a Mega 2/2 kitty maker, a search and play, and a mass removal spell. I feel let down by this entry in the cycle. How about an Earthquake that damages all creatures, but not players? That'd be awesome. How about a Blaze that does not target, but instead hit all foes at the same time? (Like half an Exsangunate). That'd also be cool. A depowered Disintegrate is a tool, but not even a really good one.

Slagstorm – A three mana Pyroclasm for three is really strong, and will certainly find a home in some decks. Players who rocked creatures too big for an Infest or Pyroclasm may find themselves losing their creatures to this.

Green

Creeping Corrosion – It's a fine card for what it does. Ask yourself this. Do you play Shatterstorm much? I doubt it. You need a deck that plays Red, has no artifacts, and regularly plays in a field of medium to heavy artifacts. How often will you find that with the Green one? Occasionally at best. This is the sort of card you might want to add to your artifact-free Commander deck, and then pull back out in a year.

Green Sun's Zenith – My second favorite Zenith is this one. It's one of the only two Zeniths that you can play in Type Four, and it's really good there. Search for a greenie, and put it into play. It's a solid card that you can use, abuse, or refuse, as your deck needs. You can get anything from a creature that will get you lands to a big game ending creature, and it will cost you just one Green mana more than normal. Want Silvos, Rogue Elemental straight from your deck into play? Just pay 7. Want Avatar of Zendikar straight from your deck to the battlefield? Just pay 8. 7 mana will also net you a Primeval Titan. Even a two mana play on the second turn for a Noble Hierarch or Birds of Paradise can really help you out. This is a fun card!

Lead the Stampede – Any creature heavy deck wants this. Even a deck with 20 creatures can look at their top five and grab the 1/3 of creatures that their deck may have. I'd love it as a Commune With Nature that can get you card advantage. How often have you hit more than one creature with it? A lot. Now you don't have to choose – you can draw them all. This is obviously insane with any deck manipulation at all, such as the afore-mentioned Footbottom Feast.

Pistus Strike – Is it worth an extra mana to Plummet to give a poison counter? Probably only in a dedicated infect deck. Its instant status probably makes it the second best Wing Snare effect out there, for Commander decks that want it.

Plaguemaw Beast – Proliferate is a decent enough mechanic for decks built around it. There are a lot of ways you can do so. I find this card a bit obvious in its uses. It gives you more proliferate options. Hose me down and call me Sally.

Praetor's Counsel – My third favorite card from the set. Yes, it costs eight mana. Yes, it recurs your whole graveyard. Yes, you won't ever have to discard down to seven again. It's awesome-tastic, and you can bet it has virtually no value in constructed, so you'll be able to get these for a song. The deck ideas with this are incredible. Forget an Oath of Druid shuffling back their cards from a Gaea's Blessing. Just draw them! Galvanoth comes to mind. How about a Blue mill deck that mills themselves (or everyone) and then draws their graveyard back? This card is downright broken with Dream Halls. You fuel a few giant spells, and then fuel this and draw back all of those spells and the cards discarded for them, and keep going. This is an absolute house in some decks. (Including Type Four where this is mega good because you get everything back, but also self limited by the nature of the format's restriction on playing spells).

Thrun, the Last Troll – I feel this guy may be a bit overhyped. He's solid, sure, and in constructed, I'm sure he can do some damage. In my world, there are plenty of ways to kill him, and many creatures outclass him in size. It's hard to see Thrun as much of an attacker when I have out a Commander Eesha, or Indomitable Ancients, Fog Bank or Wall of Denial. It's hard to see Thrun as much of a blocker as I sail over for massive damage or stomp through with the Silvos I just grabbed from Green Sun's Zenith. Sure, he's got a spot in a lot of decks because he's a survivor who can stick around through some mass removal - Day of Judgment I'm looking at you. However, he's not the game changer some are calling him. He's just a solid creature.

Multicolor, Artifacts, and Lands

Glissa, the Traitor – I do like her ability to bring back artifacts from the yard while also encouraging you to kill things. I think she's especially good with artifacts that ARE your creature kill. Good examples include Moonglove Extract, Pyrite Spellbomb, and the broken in a deck with her Executioner's Capsule. She can fuel combos, or just allow you to gain card advantage, slowly, over time. She's relentless, just like her new allies.

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas – The ability to Commune With Nature every turn for an artifact is hot. The middle ability is a bit boring. The final is as well. It clearly works only in a Black and Blue artifact heavy deck. There aren't exactly a large number of decks that qualify. How many Commander or Five Color decks do you have right now that want the new Tez? Exactly. He's about as useful in Casual Land as Nissa Revane or Chandra Ablaze (Rarely, and only in the right deck).

Blightsteel Colossus – I agree with Geordie Tait that the name is a bit…obvious. Other than that, it's an easy creature. I would have preferred that its shuffle ability were changed too "When this enters the battlefield, if you did not play it from your hand, shuffle it into your library." It still would have been Blightsteel Colossus. It just would have been different in a way beyond gaining infect. Anyone surprised by this printing just needs to look to Akroma the first and second to see how they will use and reuse a particularly interesting card that was a hit. You will want many of these.

Bonehoard – I adore living weapon, and I really am disappointed that it appears on so few pieces of equipment. It's on just five cards in the set, and if we never see living weapon again, I'm going to be upset. It's an awesome ability! This is in my Top Five Favorite Cards from the set. It's already an improvement on Lhurgoyf by being colorless (and with one less toughness), and then you can make that shadow or horsemanship or flying creature huge by hopping it over. Once it dies, it remains to make any creature a game ender. This is simply amazing, and clearly one of the best pieces of equipment for the multiplayer table ever printed.

Darksteel Plate – Another piece of equipment that will become one of the best ever is this bad boy. Indestructible is an amazingly powerful ability in any format not named "Exile a Creature Every Upkeep." For just a two mana equip, this easily outclasses Shield of Kaldra and it is quite playable. It has a lot of uses, and you can't just Shatter the source of the indestructible-ness either. They make darksteel pretty durable, after all.

Decimator Web – With 60 cards decks and 20 life at the start of the game, this should mill 60 in ten turns, deal 20 life lost in 10 turns, and poison you to death in 10 turns – making it a perfect ten turn clock. It costs a lot to activate, and it does not affect the board at all. It just sits there and clocks an opponent. Since they drew cards, the milling should kill first unless they took a lot of damage from burn or creatures. You can use it for a lot – a mega Millstone, a way to get in the last few poison counters, or a way to deal the last damage in an aggro deck. In formats that have more cards and/or life (Five Color and Commander come to mind), then this has a reduced ability to kill, relying more on the poison counter to kill. It's yet another reason to hide behind an Ivory Mask or similar card.

Magnetic Mine – Are you disappointed that this is NOT called Dingus Mine? Dingus Staff and Dingus Egg have this effect for creatures and lands, respectively. I think this was a missed opportunity for another Dingus. I don't even know what Dingus is – a person, place, or thing?

Mirrorworks – Getting clones of artifact creatures for two more mana is hot. It's also useful for combo pieces in order to double the number of targets that have to be offed, but I like using this for the creature side of artifacts.

Mortarpod – I like the design of this card a lot. What I don't like is the equip cost of two, rather than one. It feels like it should be a one, doesn't it?

Myr Welder – If all this does is let you pop it as a Memory Jar or Nevinyrral's Disk then it was amazing. This is my final card in my Top Five Favorite Cards from this here set. There are a ton of useful cards to grab and mimic. Plus, it exiles artifacts in opposing graveyards with a tap. No getting that Viridian Longbow back, you! If it equips a creature, will it still be able to attack and block? That's something I guess I'll have to look up. So many deck ideas are jumping in my head. Play with a lot of artifact removal in order to ensure that you have lots of goodies to Weld.

Phyrexian Revoker – As both a beater and a bit of a Pithing Needle, this is very strong. I expect it to make a major impact in aggro Five Color decks. It's also good in many other formats and decks. Unlike others, this does not include the whole "can still tap for mana" phrases. You can lock out a mana producing artifact. You can stop a lot of things while this swings for damage.

Psychosis Crawler – Would you pay five colorless mana for a Maro that slowly kills your foes with card drawing al la Niv-Mizzet? I certainly would!

Shimmer Myr – Because of its ability to let you play artifacts during other people's turn and get around the one card per turn restriction on play cards, I think this is a solid card to consider for Type Four.

Spine of Ish Sah – Would you pay 7 mana, all colorless, for a Desert Twister? I'm not sure I would want to do that very often. It's a nice one of in a deck with cards like Tinker and Transmute Artifact. Otherwise, I'm not sure this is a card I want to rock regularly.

Sword of Feast and Famine – I love the discard aspect of this card. The untapping makes it a bit less obvious in its use. It still has value, obviously. It just seems like something you would need to build around or just get an okay benefit from. I think a better use of "Feast" would have been to put a basic land into play from your deck. That would have represented the double card advantage from Sword of Fire and Ice. It's still worth playing, and it's still a strong entry into the Sword super cycle. We'll just see how the Red and White one shakes out.

Titan Forge – It's a fun card. You can use proliferate effects to speed up your Forge. It's neat and costs you little to play. With something like Vedalken Infuser or a similar card (Coretapper) and proliferate, you can play this on turn 3, and have a 9/9 out by turn 5. You could even have it out on turn 4. (Sac a Coretapper for two counters, attack with Thrummingbird for a proliferate (or play Steady Progress), tap to make Titan).

Contested War Zone – Without question or qualification, I feel that this is the best designed card in the set. It does something no other card has ever done, and gives you a great flavor behind it. This is a flavor home run. In terms of playing it? Not so much. If it tapped for any color, then I'd want a ton to start slapping into my decks, but that'd clearly be too powerful.

Inkmoth Nexus – In yet another example of taking a name from Mirrodin and making a minor change, we have Inkmoth Nexus. It's a good card, just like Blinkmoth Nexus, but I don't like it as much. Infect in a deck without Infect is not so great. Blinkmoth Nexus was good enough to slide in any deck, just like Mishra's Factory or Mutavault. This isn't.

Anyway, join us next time where we look at the remaining cards from Mirrodin Block that are Phyrexian-ified. We'll take a look at Sword of Fire and Lice, Stinkmoth Urn, Tripling Cube, Teeth of Chiss-Goria, Hell Mantle, Direskrieker, Limesifter, Cyst of Suns, and of course, Rotted Lotus and Crude Mox.

Actually, we'll just build decks from Mirrodin Besieged cards instead.

See you next week,

Abe Sargent