[DGM] Spoilers 4/8/12

[Pendulum]

Here they be:

[Pendulum]

Rush job, admin feel free to link to someplace other than Savvy when you find where they're from.
Edit- Ha! I had Deputy up before they did! XP

[imopen2]

great cards for limited. i'm not sure if i love the fuse ability but it is definitely interesting. deputy of aquittals is going to be pretty sick in draft/sealed

[Pendulum]

RZ's a lot more straightforward than I thought he would be, but his raw power level seems pretty brutal. I'm not too big a fan of his ultimate in this environment, but just the fact that he lands for the price of 2 neo-bolts and is, you know, carrying 2 bolts with him seems hella good.

Not sure what to think of Fuse off the cards we've got spoiled thus far. Beck//Call is, as has already been pointed out, a modern-worthy card just for one half of it, and seems like it can be a good late-game-changer.
Melek has EDH General written all over him, but I'm hesitant to call him playworthy outside of that environ.

[windstrider]

Ooooh, I like Toil/Trouble. So, you [card]Sphinx's Revelation[/card] to refill your hand? Ok. Draw another two, lose two life, and then take 9 for 11 total life lost, and then I attack. Bye. That's pretty good for 6 mana.

Ral Zarek gets around Blind Obedience.

Melek works with the Fuse cards. Melek + Toil/Trouble = 8 damage. Melek and Cipher is going to be fun. Grixis anyone?

[Mcdonalds]

Ral Zarek seems fun to play, not really sure how to evaluate him, although from what I understand, there are ways to cheat the coin flip in your favor, making his minus 7 effectively "take 5 turns", make of that what you will

Beck//Call sticks out, on the one hand, it's a worse version of glimpse of nature in a format that I'm not sure can really do anything with it (in standard), on the other, in something like a bant control list, it's 4 1/1 fliers and draw 4, whether that is better than zagana, I'm not sure.

There is probably some people brewing up a U/G elves deck in an effort to break it, not sure how successful they will be, but it's probably happening.

[Pendulum]

...Huh. You know we do have a lot of elves in the format and a 2-drop haste-maker. Standard Glimpse seems like an interesting project.

[Dane]

Ral Zarek is NOT what I'd hoped for. His first two abilities aren't shabby at all, but I really don't like coin flip mechanics. Statistically speaking, it can be extremely powerful, but variance means you'll get screwed in the match that bumps you out of the Top8...

I think the split cards are cool, but the Fuse box is hella, hella ugly.

[Mcdonalds]

...Huh. You know we do have a lot of elves in the format and a 2-drop haste-maker. Standard Glimpse seems like an interesting project.

I forget half of what is in the format half the time .

[Khaospawn]

Ral Zarek is about to make friends with Nin, the Pain Artist. Yeah!

And here I was about to write a primer for my Nin deck. May just have to wait until after DGM to do that....*sigh*

[Pendulum]

Also, just as a general and obvious note here, let's remember not to trust spoilers from 4chan.

[Thrillho]

Beck is a worse Glimpse of Nature? Glimpse is when the spell is CAST, Beck is when the creature ETB. Cast means you get the card whether or not the spell is countered, but ETB mean the effect triggers (as call shows) when you put tokens into play... meaning Wirewood Hivemaster allows you to draw 2-cards per elf, populate couples with it, doubling season, parallel lives, etc. I think Beck will have more to do in more formats than Glimpse because of this, if it isn't banned for the same reasons Glimpse was in Modern, but probably won't replace Glimpse in Legacy.

How cool would a Beck signed by Beck be? 8D

Ral Zarek is like Ajani Vengeant without the awesome ultimate, as I'm giving the ability to tap things and higher base loyalty as counterbalances to Bolt over Helix. I'm excited to see how he pans out, since currently even one of the best planeswalkers currently printed isn't seeing too much play in Standard.

[Bhikku]

lol, i wonder if you mailed one to Beck if he'd sign it.

[Thrillho]

expect a lot of artist alters with his futurama appearance

[Bhikku]

oh yeah i remember that episode

[Second Harkius]

These cards all look great. That new Walker is a control player's wet dream (maybe even aggro since he can remove blockers + deal direct damage).

[Dodger]

Has their been any announcement on pre-order pricing yet? I wonder if beck/call will be a $10+ card in short order.

[Bhikku]

toil and trouble has my interest...

[Thrillho]

Has their been any announcement on pre-order pricing yet? I wonder if beck/call will be a $10+ card in short order.

that seems overly ambitious.

[redthirst]

These cards all look great. That new Walker is a control player's wet dream (maybe even aggro since he can remove blockers + deal direct damage).

I don't think we'll see Ral in Control since his abilities are more offensive than defensive, but I could see it being a valuable card in Ru Aggro or UWr Tempo.

In fact, it does pretty much everything UWr Tempo wants a card to do.

[iamabadman]

Ral Zarek is NOT what I'd hoped for. His first two abilities aren't shabby at all, but I really don't like coin flip mechanics. Statistically speaking, it can be extremely powerful, but variance means you'll get screwed in the match that bumps you out of the Top8...

I think the split cards are cool, but the Fuse box is hella, hella ugly.

if the ability isnt useful in a tourny, it wont be used in a tourny unless people get desperate

[Thrillho]

These cards all look great. That new Walker is a control player's wet dream (maybe even aggro since he can remove blockers + deal direct damage).

I don't think we'll see Ral in Control since his abilities are more offensive than defensive, but I could see it being a valuable card in Ru Aggro or UWr Tempo.

In fact, it does pretty much everything UWr Tempo wants a card to do.

right now i imagine it as a sideboard card for UWr against the slower control/midrange/reanimator decks that will put out one or two threats/blockers at a time that UWr can't
realistically get around while being able to fry thragtusks. UWr generally doesn't tap out on its turn, and 4 mana is the top of the non-revelation curve for it. unfortunately it doesn't have a tamiyo effect on drownyards, otherwise it'd be a really balanced card against the myriad over-the-top decks.

ral doesn't seem very well positioned against the aggro decks of the format since they're not blocking and his other ability is bolt their guy and die.

there's also the chance the meta swings away from the more hyper-aggressive and aggressive midrange decks of the current stardard after dragon's maze, but planeswalkers not named jace aren't a dominating force of standard right now.

[Second Harkius]

I just like the design of these cards. The previous two sets in this block felt severely underpowered but the power level here seems just right. I'll need to see more of the set but so far it looks promising.

[redthirst]

Tempo doesn't mind tapping out every now and then and, if the +1 is used for the first activation, you can consider Ral to only cost 3 (assuming you have 4+ mana out).

In that one particular deck, I can clearly see the value in having a card that:
- Negates one of their blockers
- Gives you an additional mana or allows you to swing with an angel/dragon and keep it up to block
- Is removal/reach

It's not great against Aggro (though killing a dude and then negating 2+ damage isn't terrible) but that deck has a pretty good Aggro MU anyway - I think it is probably pretty amazing against Midrange and Control, though.

Really, I don't have enough info to say for sure either way - but I think if it'll see play, it'll be in an Aggro/Tempo shell, not Control.

[Thrillho]

Yeah I agree that its place is against decks where the +1 is going to net you damage and the -2 is going to kill thragtusk and/or your opponent, also potentially netting you mana for Resto/Snapcaster.

Ral is similar to Domri Rade where it's a great card that just cannot get it together (from the looks of things) versus the nature of the format, though its benefits clearly shine against Junk and the like.

Also I constantly read the +1 and forget it's not Ajani/Tamiyo and that their guy untaps on their turn.

[redthirst]

If the +1 kept the permanent tapped down for a turn your computer would be constantly spraying you with my ejaculate...

[Thrillho]

you should probably talk to your urologist about that.

[redthirst]

You should probably talk to your IT guy about it too.

[Thrillho]

i'm also a big fan of the deputy of acquittals. that effect has traditionally seen some at least marginal constructed play, and having it on both instant speed and a 2/2 body probably makes it a part of some combo i'm not presently aware of or at least as a way to abuse ETB effects without sacrificing all of your board advantage.

[Thrillho]

You should probably talk to your IT guy about it too.

no way; having a computer that 3d prints without being attached to a printer, 3d or otherwise, isn't something i'm willing to let my it guy tinker with.

[Pendulum]

i'm also a big fan of the deputy of acquittals. that effect has traditionally seen some at least marginal constructed play, and having it on both instant speed and a 2/2 body probably makes it a part of some combo i'm not presently aware of or at least as a way to abuse ETB effects without sacrificing all of your board advantage.

Yeah he is a hell of a hate bear.

[Thrillho]

WHO KNOWS MAYBE IT WILL BE THE RESTORATION ANGEL OF A POST AVR STANDARD WOULDN'T THAT BE SOMETHING CAPSLOCK.

No but on the real it probably won't do that without Snapcaster and/or Augur and/or Thragtusk to milk value out of.

[Mcdonalds]

Beck is a worse Glimpse of Nature? Glimpse is when the spell is CAST, Beck is when the creature ETB. Cast means you get the card whether or not the spell is countered, but ETB mean the effect triggers (as call shows) when you put tokens into play... meaning Wirewood Hivemaster allows you to draw 2-cards per elf, populate couples with it, doubling season, parallel lives, etc. I think Beck will have more to do in more formats than Glimpse because of this, if it isn't banned for the same reasons Glimpse was in Modern, but probably won't replace Glimpse in Legacy.

Okay so on paper it has a few more applications than glimpse, in practice it's still going to be an effectively worse glimpse of nature by virtue of it costing one more outside of
rare cases (see Faith's Reward vs Second Sunrise), if only slightly

That said, I didn't catch that it's ETB until I reread it, meaning that GSZ and Chord aren't completely awkward draws midcombo, I think Beck may make it worth revisiting some of the older U/G elves lists playing intuition and Vengevine in legacy.

I don't see it being banned in modern, it's harder to cast for value as you can with glimpse, and the deck that would play it (elves, unless there some saucey brew shows up playing it), does not have access to some of the more important cards in the deck (Symbiote, Priest of Titania, etc admittedly more familiar with the legacy version than any of the extended variants).

Joy cloudstone curio shot up