Worldwake Spoilers are Quite Enchanting
Worldwake comes out in less than a month. We’ve got a fresh batch of spoilers — four new cards from a world in the midst of a major (and literal) upheaval. We also get to see just how desperately Magic’s designers want people to use enchantments.
Since I’ve been playing a mono-black control deck in Standard tournaments lately, I was excited to see a new black rare among the spoilers. Quest for the Nihil Stone is an interesting card for a deck built around discard. You only need one Mind Rot to give it enough counters. Then you just need keep your opponent’s hand empty. Liliana Vess does a great job of that. Frankly, at the same casting cost I’d rather play a Quest for the Gravelord or Soul Stair Expedition. Perhaps there’s a creatureless control deck that could be built around this.
Join the Ranks would be an ok card based on simple card advantage — you get a pair of creatures for one card, even if the casting cost is a bit high. However, from the looks of things, Allies will be getting a big boost in Worldwake. The fact that these two soldiers are also Allies could be huge. Imagine a Kazandu Blademaster getting boosted into a 4/4 from a single card. If you really want to maximize that card advantage, how about Turntimber Ranger? It’s like an army in a box. Of the four cards pictured here, I think this one is the most likely of these four cards to see play in constructed decks, assuming an Allies strategy at least becomes tempting enough to try.
People don’t like to use creature enchantments in competitive Magic because of the card disadvantage they represent. Your opponent kills your enchanted creature (or worse yet, kills it in response to you casting the enchantment) and they just spent one card to destroy two of yours. Magic’s designers have tried two strategies to overcome this: make the enchantment so good it’s worth the risk, or make it bounce back to your hand if the creature dies. Making the creature extra difficult to kill by giving it one-sided Shroud works pretty well too. While Canopy Cover probably won’t make it into constructed decks (maybe to protect a creature needed for a combo?), it’s a game-breaker in limited formats. In sealed deck or draft, a creature that’s hard to block and is virtually unkillable will flat out win you games. It still dies to Gatekeeper and Nighthawk though.
Magic has had animated lands in the game for a long time, but they are apparently a major theme of Worldwake. Well, it’s in the name, after all. There will be a five-color cycle of these “Zendikon” animate lands, which take a new angle to the whole enchantment problem. Instead of keeping the enchantment, you get to keep the land if it’s destroyed. Since the land bounces back to your hand when it dies, it plays nicely with Landfall abilities, but in the early game it could slow you down. I’m not super excited about these, but there will probably be some interesting ways to use them.
If you want more Worldwake info, head over to the official minisite (I personally love the puzzles). There’s a visual spoiler, a schedule for prerelease tournaments and launch parties and more. And stay tuned to Robot Viking — next week, we’ll have a brand new exclusive spoiler.
Finally, don’t forget to pre-order some Worldwake boosters from TrollandToad.com.
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January 15th, 2010 3:26 AM
I want that black rare. I have a blue black support/disruption deck I bust out when we play two headed giant. That thing would make the deck viable in a duel, instead of just shutting down most of a team’s offense. Join the ranks makes allies look better, anything that gets more allies out fast is great. We had a Zendikar draft in my parts and there were a couple of ally decks that came out of that so now everyone’s trying to use the allies they have, which means everyone’s asking the resident magic guru, me, which colors to run them in, and I haven’t the foggiest. I’ve asked up through my more “hardcore” contacts for the best allies, and none of them agree on anything, nor do they have any ideas for them that I haven’t already. I feel that they will be like the Magemarks in Guildpact. I tried so hard to make them into a good deck but just couldn’t make it click.
January 15th, 2010 12:45 PM
The reason you can’t figure out a good Allies deck is that there aren’t enough good Allies in Zendikar to make that deck viable. The best way right now is to start with Kazandu Blademaster and add the soldier boosters from M10. With Honor of the Pure, you could make a fairly frustrating mono-white Allies deck, but it still isn’t that good.
We’ve got two more sets worth of Allies to add, though. I have a feeling they’ll get a lot better with WWK. Hell, Join the Ranks alone makes them a lot better.
January 15th, 2010 2:23 PM
Yea, I run Muscle sliver in a whit weenie deck because, worst case scenario it’s a bear, but if any of the other three get out there, they get scary. I can definitely see doing the same with Kazandu and some of the more efficient allies. as it stands I think the allies we have may be a bit costly for what you get.