Rise of the Eldrazi Spoilers — Ancient Annihilators Awaken
Rise of the what?
Rise of the Eldrazi, the latest expansion for Magic: the Gathering, comes out next month, and we’ve got a plentiful passel of positively pulchritudinous spoilers. There are three all new mechanics, plus a walking, annihilating example of the mysterious Eldrazi themselves.
You may have noticed things looking slightly different at Robot Viking lately. I couldn’t hide my enthusiasm for Rise of the Eldrazi. New Magic sets are always fun, but one that revolves around giant other-dimensional monsters?! Yeah, I’m on board for that. So we’ve got some cool Eldrazi related things planned in the next few weeks — check back for Eldrazi wallpapers, art galleries, an exclusive preview card and an exciting contest that could earn you a pair of Worldwake intro packs.
Now, onto the spoilers.
The quest to make relevant and usable creature enchantments continues. The traditional wisdom is that Auras are bad because if your opponent kills the enchanted creature, they just took down two of your cards with one of theirs. The Totem armor mechanic helps negate this by turning the aura itself into a one-use indestructibility shield. Slap this on a creature and now your opponent is going to have to kill it twice. They could take it out in one shot by reducing its toughness to zero or less (difficult with this particular Totem armor) or by exiling it. Mammoth Umbra will be a lot of fun in sealed or draft. I’m really interested in seeing what Umbras the other colors get, and if they’ll show up in rarities other than uncommon.
Someone on the Magic design team thinks creatures that switch power and toughness are just the bee’s knees (I won’t out him, although I think he outed himself in a DailyMTG column a few weeks ago). I’ve never been that impressed by this (insert Firebore joke here). Still, when you take an idea to extremes, it becomes more interesting. Valakut Fireboar makes for a solid blocker, then turns into a fearsome attacker. Unless your opponent has a first strike creature. Or anything that can ping for one damage Cunning Sparkmage would be nice, but remember, Rise of the Eldrazi will be used by itself in sealed and draft formats, so you won’t be cracking open Zendikar or Worldwake packs at the prerelease.
Walls that are playable in constructed decks have been few and far between in magic history. Wall of Blossoms, Tinder Wall, Wall of Denial and Wall of Reverence spring to mind. Mnemonic Wall would absolutely be an awesome and playable constructed card…if it cost three mana less. On the other hand, we’ll soon see evidence that there will be ways in Rise of the Eldrazi to generate large amounts of colorless mana.
Another new mechanic! This is a pretty vanilla example, but imagine a creature removal spell with Rebound. Do you hold it for when you have two targets? How about a Rebound spell that makes creature tokens? I’m expecting blue to get a card draw Rebound spell. It just seems like something blue would have. But we’re not talking about blue, we’re talking about green. Make a creature a little bigger, then make do it again next turn. Cool, but Vines of Vastwood is strictly better for many reasons (I lost to it in a tournament today — it stings a bit when your opponent is at negative life, you try to remove your Abyssal Persecutor with a Tendrils of Corruption and your opponent hits the Persecutor with Vines in response, then attacks for lethal damage next turn).
Another in a long line of black cards with truly disturbing names. Very very pricey for something that kills just one creature (and with the nonblack limitation too!). But look, what else does it do? Make two weird critters that chump block for you. Or that you can sacrifice to make colorless mana. I wonder what there is in Rise of the Eldrazi that we’d want to spend colorless mana on?
Annihilator. Best. Keyword. Ever. So, yeah, holy crap. That’s one huge freaking monster. With lots of fingers and arms and…things. When the first Eldrazi was spoiled, it was tough to get excited. Sure, that’s a huge creature with an amazing ability, but a casting cost of 11? Eleven? That’s ludicrous. Totally unplayable, in pretty much every format. But we can see from Corpsehatch above that this set is going to have some tricks up its sleeve. I have a feeling 11 mana isn’t going to be as difficult to find as one might usually think. What’s really interesting is contemplating how a deluge of easy to come by colorless mana is going to affect constructed formats from Standard on back to Vintage. Also, check out the awesome extended art on the card!
That’s a very tempting (or terrifying) glimpse of the Eldrazi. Stay tuned, there are many more mysteries to be revealed in the coming weeks. And as always, head over to Robot Viking sponsor TrollandToad.com to order up some Rise of the Eldrazi.
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March 15th, 2010 4:25 AM
HOLY CRAP! I’m hoping for Urza Lands. Maybe these buggers were his fault? I just want one to finish off my set.
March 15th, 2010 4:25 AM
And where did the logo go?
March 15th, 2010 5:28 AM
Time to dust off 8-PostUrzatron.dec…
March 15th, 2010 9:42 AM
Why haven’t I played more Magic?
Oh, that’s right. Because my wife kicks my ass every time.
March 15th, 2010 1:17 PM
I taught my girlfriend, who is now teaching one of her friends, and we’re about evenly matched when I don’t bust out a tournament-worthy deck.
March 17th, 2010 2:44 PM
I look at these cards, and, nifty as they are, all I see are more ways for you to beat me.
March 17th, 2010 2:58 PM
We have to play some more Planechase. The randomness does tend to even the odds. And it’s fun as hell.
March 18th, 2010 9:25 AM
I agree one hundred percent. It was a good time, and an interesting way to be reintroduced to the game.
March 18th, 2010 10:01 AM
I played Magic the other night for the first time in like 6 months.
I used the Black/Green/Red deck that I made out of the Alara Reborn fat pack I bought when that set came out. My wife used the all White angels deck from the Angels & Demons duel pack that I bought initially, the White deck with which she’d constantly absolutely destroy the Black demon deck in that set.
Well, I beat her pretty handedly, despite the fact that she was able to go from 9 to 21 health in the space of 2 turns at one point. She had an overabundance of lands, where I stopped getting lands at about turn 5. This was ok, since I was able to use all of the 3/4 and 4/4 creatures in my deck to pick through the weak 1/1 and 2/2 creatures she had at her disposal. Despite the enchantment that allowed her to gain 1 life every time a creature attacked, I was able to push through. I think at the end, I had one creature in my graveyard.
We went through her deck afterwards and found all her 5/5 and tougher creatures at the bottom. She got pretty frustrated since she never, at any point, felt that she had a chance. I never really like that deck anyway, since it is pretty much “live until I can bring out my single Angel of ‘Protection from Black’ and kick your ass.”
Oh well. I have a Black/Blue/Red deck from the same Alara Reborn fat pack with which she’s wrecked my Black/Green/Red deck before. I’ll just have to have her play that deck and kick my ass to get her confidence back.
March 18th, 2010 11:00 AM
Or your could rub the victory in her face, and remind her who’s the MAN in the house! Then, of course, you have to command her to make you a sandwich, and bake a pie for dessert, and it had best be done by the time you finish that damn sandwich.
Also, burn all of her cards while she watches, and cries.
March 18th, 2010 5:37 PM
My girlfriend has a heavily modified RGW Shards starter and an unmodified Lilianan Dueldeck. She loves the RGW face smashing, but the Liliana deck is a bit trickier to play, though she loves the fact that it has flying creatures.