Continuing the theme of the week - Worldwake - I'm going to forgo a lengthy, verbose and unwieldy introduction and pick up where I left off last week. There's 145 cards in Worldwake and we've got speculating to do! We covered some of the most prolific rares last week. This week we'll be looking at some of the lower-hype cards

Archon of Redemption

Wow, a big flier that can gain you a ton of life. It only costs 3WW! Such a deal! If you're playing this, the only price you're worried about is not it's mana cost. Get lost.

Stoneforge Mystic

A Kor/Equipment deck might have legs in Standard, but early experiments find the deck awkwardly reliant on Stoneforge Mystic. That's bad for the deck, but good for the card. 1W to tutor up any equipment in the game and 1W to dump it into play, regardless of its colored mana costs seems pretty good. It's far more appealing in Extended, where it gets the most mana-efficient equipment, Bonesplitter, and the Swords of Fire/Ice and Light/Shadow. Mirrodin has a few creatures that give you margin on equipment, so you might be able to hit a critical mass. If the next block is indeed a return to Mirrodin as many have speculated, we could see more equipment. This card reminds me a lot of Ranger of Eos. It can get better as new sets are printed because of the large array of tutor targets.

Goliath Sphinx

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Jwari Shapeshifter (And Other Allies)

So many people are going to try to build allies in Standard. So many. I'm here to stop you. The main issue is that most of the Allies aren't so hot on their own. As small white creatures are wont to be, the 1- and 2-drops are fairly good - a 1/2 for 1 and a 2/2 First Strike for 2. Unfortunately that's where the gravy train ends for the Allies. Jwari Shapeshifter goes a long way towards smoothing out potential decks, but each creature in the tribe seems pretty unremarkable. It's pretty clear that the tribe was made for Limited, which actually has a great flavor to it. See, Zendikar is so unpredictable that you really can't take the time to assemble a "Dream Team" of expeditioners. You've got to make do with the talents of the adventurers that you're given. Flavor aside, even an allied god-draw can't really compete with real decks like Jund. It's sad to say but they'll probably all be bargain bin rares. Extended gives us Changelings, but it seems like the only one what ever saw play was Chameleon Colossus.

Selective Memory

I have a penchant for acquiring cards with unique effects. While they are often relegated to the dollar box, some of the best cards in the history of the game have an effect that no other card can really replicate. Doomsday does something sort of similar, and Mana Severence does the opposite, but we really don't know what to do with a card like this. I have a distinct feeling that this card is breakable, especially if you're going on a Treasure Hunt.

Thada Adel, Acquisitor

I loved the card at first, but the fact that you have to pay retail for the artifact you steal limits its usage outside of Vintage, where it's too slow to see play. It has potential against decks like Dreadstill in Legacy, where it can exile important win condition. Islandwalk might as well read "unblockable" against a lot of decks in the format. Regardless, it's a glorified Gray Ogre, and will see almost zero play in Standard until we get some real Merfolk to back up the Sovereign.

Kalastria Highborn, again

I had the chance to sleeve up a new Vampires list over the weekend when I was at the Lexington, KY PTQ, and it taught me two things: 1) Urge to Feed is completely bonkers, and 2) Kalastria Highborn is still good, but not as good as I thought. Vampires uses a lot of its mana, usually all of it, every single turn. Highborn's trigger cost can really wreck your mana curve, but it becomes highly relevant in the end-game. The fact that Vampire Hexmage can now sacrifice to Vicious Hunger your opponent is more relevant than you might think. Highborn is still important, but I'd revise my previous outlook to something slightly less rosy.

Red Cards

Red kind of got the short end of the stick in Worldwake as far as rares go, but it's got two fantastic non-rares. Searing Blaze is completely awesome, and an instant inclusion in Red decks. Roiling Terrain is also a fabulous card for decks that want to attack mana bases. The prevalence of fetch lands means that Roiling Terrain can really be used as a burn spell with upside. Were Molten Rain printed in the same Standard format, we'd have a genuinely nasty archetype blooming.

Wolfbriar Elemental

Some people will try to compare this to Ant Queen in Eldrazi Green, and that'd be wrong. Wolfbriar Elemental can be powered up by Elvish Archdruids quickly to generate a very threatening board position. Ant tokens are simply not the same as wolf tokens. It does not interact as well with Eldrazi Monument in long games, but the ability to generate a massive strike force of wolf tokens means that the card will at least get some play in Standard.

A last note on the Man-Lands

These are the best cards in the set, and why they are selling for so little on eBay is beyond me. Dual Land Man Lands? These should probably just replace M10 duals outright. The W/G Man-Dual is pretty unimpressive, but the rest can really put on the beatdown. While it remains to be seen how many will find their way into existing decks, it should be reasonable to expect them to have a large role in Standard post-Worldwake. They're the first thing I'm buying. I cannot see them staying this cheap once players begin testing them.

Overall, Worldwake has a few very interesting cards but seems to be slightly limited-centric. That's great since that'll move packs and keep players happy at the draft tables. The pre-release will be a fantastic time, and if you've never been to one, this is one to get out to! I'll be spending mine at Pastimes in Niles, IL this Saturday. If you're in the area, come by and introduce yourself. If you plan to be trading at the pre-release, be sure to load up the truck on man-lands. You'll be happy you did.