Just Fate

Not the greatest removal spell out there. It's a really restrictive Rebuke (since you can only cast it on your turn before blockers) and that's not a good thing. At least it's not Sandstone Deadfall. I think that's the best thing I can say about it.

Pros: Removal spell, not Sandstone Deadfall

Cons: Restrictive Rebuke

Rating: 1.5/5

Psychic Spear

It's like Thoughtseize, only not. In block, this was pretty devastating in Limited, but outside it's pretty useless. I like my discard cards, but even I wouldn't consider putting this into anything. It's way too specific and it doesn't target anything of relevance in Modern, Legacy, or Vintage. A decent idea, let down by the things it targets.

Pros: Chosen discard

Cons: Extremely narrow scope

Rating: 1/5

Coastal Drake

Yeah... no. This card is pretty bad. It's a 2/1 flyer for 3, which is not great to start. Add on to that an almost useless ability outside of block and you've got a pretty bad creature. It's a weaker Skywinder Drake and that's not too great.

Pros: 2/1 flyer

Cons: Costs 3, near useless ability

Rating: 1/5

Viscerid Drone

*sigh*

Nope. A big bucket o' nope. You are two-for-one-ing every time you use this card. If it was just sacking a creature it would be much better since there are decks out there that like sack outlets, but this forces you to sack both a creature and a land. Normally, I might be a bit more lenient towards this since mono-blue creature kill is extremely rare, but since you need to toss a Swamp, it means you're running black and therefore more options for kill spells and abilities. Not worth it in any fashion, at least not on its own. Maybe with a Crucible of Worlds, but even then, there are better things to use your Crucible with.

Pros: Blue creature kill

Cons: Requires land and creature sack

Rating: 1/5 

Soulsurge Elemental

Great card unless your opponent has pretty much any removal. Gut Shot deals with this. Night deals with this. Freakin' Hornet Sting deals with this. This also doesn't have haste, so having this guy sit around for a round leaves it fairly vulnerable. Giving it haste would skyrocket its value. Also, it doesn't have any evasion, so despite the fact that it will survive combat, it will still be stopped by a gribbly. I'm not at all impressed with the execution of this card.

Pros: Big first striker

Cons: No haste or evasion, 1 toughness

Rating:1.5/5

Stalking Assassin

Holy Urzatron, does this card suck! It's four and tap to tap something else down and then four and tap to kill a tapped thing. If it didn't require tapping it would be very expensive, but at least you could synergize the two abilities on the same turn. Even in Limited this is pretty expensive for what it does (and that''s coming from a guy who just won a prerelease with Nightfire Giant). This is on the low end of "good" in Limited and unusable anywhere else.

Pros: Can tap dudes, can kill tapped dudes

Cons: Abilities don't synergize well, abilities are expensive

Rating: 1/5

Spoiler Tyme: The Best and the Worst

So, in apology for being away for so long (internet issues in small towns are fun), here are my top 5 and bottom 5 picks for M15.

Bottom #5: Flesh to Dust 

I have no doubt that this will be seen in Limited, but it's going to be one of those cards that you don't want too many of because of how much it costs. Outside of Limited, the only decks it'll be run in are those made by new players who don't quite understand tempo or value.

Pros: Kills a dude, prevents regen

Cons: Costs 5, no additional effect

Rating: 1.5/5

Bottom #4: Mass Calcify

I didn't like it when it first came out and I still don't like it now. One of the biggest problems in Standard right now is Elspeth, Sun's Champion and this doesn't deal with it. Control decks won't run it either since it blows up their nice guys. Also, it costs 7. The only place I see this in is a one-of in the sideboard of an Azorius control deck in case they're being raced by some weird non-white deck.

Pros: Semi-boardwipe

Cons: Doesn't kill white, costs 7

Rating: 1.5/5

Bottom #3: Research Assistant

Merfolk Looter is a good card. Merfolk Looter with a toughness boost would be a better card. Merfolk Looter with a toughness boost that costs 4 to activate is a terrible card. 

Pros: Merfolk Looter with a toughness boost

Cons: Merfolk Looter with a 4 mana activation cost

Rating: 1/5

Bottom #2: Soul of Ravnica

It's 7 mana to maybe draw 5 cards on a somewhat blue-intensive card. So, to get maximum value out of this card, you have to play a card of a different colour each turn, tap out for this, drop another land on turn 7, then tap out again to fill up your hand. And while you're in Magic Christmas Land, you will draw a Nalathni Dragon, a Shichifukujin Dragon, and three Moxes.

Pros: Card draw

Cons: Expensive card draw, really requires multicoloured cards

Rating: 1/5

Bottom #1: Carnivorous Moss-Beast

It costs seven to put a +1/+1 counter on this. SEVEN. I don't think I need to say anything outside of that.

Pros: Plant Elemental Beast

Cons: IT COSTS SEVEN TO GIVE IT A +1/+1 COUNTER

Rating: 0/5

Best #5: Nissa, Worldwaker

Ain't gonna lie, I hate Nissa Revane. I know she's good in elf decks, but I think her scope was too narrow and I don't like her. WotC seems to have gotten the message and made this version as universal as possible. She may only come in with 3 counters (which is why she's not higher on the list), but in a mono-Green deck, she costs 1. Her other plus one creates a issue that demands an answer since 4/4 tramplers can be a problem. Her ult may not directly win you the game that turn, but unanswered it will.

Pros: Potential 1-cost walker, creates tramply problems

Cons: Best in mono-green, ult lets lands get wiped easily

Rating: 4/5

Best #4: Sunblade Elf

Is this the harbinger of Naya zoo coming back into Standard? Maybe, maybe not, but it's still an awesome little creature. It's kind of like Wild Nacatl but less likely to be banned. The other nice thing about it is that it has a relevant ability in case of the game running late. A mass +1/+1 buff may not seem like much, but it's often going to leave you in a much better position in case of matched blockers.

Pros: Basically a 2/2 for 1, relevant late-game effect

Cons: Requires white, just a 2/2 for 1

Rating: 4/5

Best #3: Polymorphist's Jest

This + Circle of Flame will be hilarious. This is going to be a great trick, especially if your opponent thinks they're swinging into a large, but weak field with their creatures. I also like the fact that it changes their colour, which will nullify anthems effect like Hall of Triumph.

Pros: Turns a field into frogs for a turn

Cons: Doesn't stop any additional pumps (such as +1/+1 counters)

Rating: 4/5

Best #2: Radiant Fountain

Some of you may cry "foul" for me putting this seemingly "meh" card so high on the list, but I have my reasons. 2 life may not seem like much, but it's 10% of your initial health, so it's actually more than you think. It also comes into play untapped, which again, my not seem like much, but it keeps you on tempo and allows you to play out your curve nicely.For a land that comes in untapped and gives you an effect, is there anything else you can feasibly ask for?

Pros: Comes in untapped, gains 2 life

Cons: Doesn't produce coloured mana

Rating: 4.5/5

Best #1: Aetherspouts

This is going to be a problem and I believe it will be a bigger issue than Cyclonic Rift for a lot of decks. Why? Well, Rift costs 7 to get the full effect, this costs 5. And while Rift hits everything, it also allows your opponent to replay everything. This doesn't. If I'm swinging in for lethal with 6 creatures, I don't want to be told that I'm going to either have to spend 6 turns getting all those creatures back or never seeing some of those creatures for probably the rest of the game. At least with Rift, I may be able to throw down a couple creatures in my second main phase to try and recover from this. The only weakness of this card is that it requires the creatures to be attacking, which is something that not all creatures do, but for your mana investment, this thing is amazing. Oh, and one more thing, notice the lack of targeting, meaning is eats through hexproof and shroud quite easily.

Pros: Tucks or tops all attacking creatures

Cons: Only hits attacking creatures

Rating: 5/5

Runners-Up (Bad): Kird Chieftain, Blastfire Bolt, Vineweft

Runners-Up (Good): Ajani Steadfast, Garruk, Apex Predator; Military Intelligence 

Toxic Stench

I don't really like this card. Yeah, in the late game it is a better Dark Banishing, but in the early game it's a worse Lose Hope. I like Threshold as a mechanic, but this card is just too weak before it triggers. I'm just really underwhelmed by this card.

Pros: Late game removal

Cons: Really weak early game

Replacements: Executioner's Capsule, Terror, Doom Blade

Rating: 1.5/5

Quickie Time!

Since I haven't been keeping the site up-to-date lately sorry about that, legal stuff going on IRL), I figure I'd put up a few quickie reviews today. 

 Guided Strike

Not a bad combat trick, especially with the cantrip. Pretty good for its cost.

Pros: Decent combat trick, cantrip

Cons: Only gives +1/+0

Rating: 3.5/5

Withstand

A bad combat trick, even with the cantrip. Pretty weak for its cost.

Pros: Cantrip, Dawnfluke

Cons: Costs 3

Rating: 0/5

Flight

Does what it says on the package. No bonuses, just flying.

Pros: Gives flying

Cons: Gives no other bonuses

Rating: 2/5

Guard Gomazoa

Pretty boss blocker. Dies too easily to removal, but is still a great chump.

Pros: Amazing blocker

Cons: Fairly removable

Rating: 3/5

Ogre Savant

A wee bit too expensive for a conditional Unsummon on a 3/2 in my opinion. Okay in Limited, but that's about it.

Pros: Unsummon of a dude

Cons: Unsummon is conditional, 3/2 for 5

Rating: 1.5/5

Black Lotus

Pretty good. Bad top deck if you have no cards in hand.

Pros: 3 mana for 0

Cons: Kind of pricey, bad top deck

Rating: 5/5

Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore

We need more Eye creatures. Not that great since it's basically just unblockable, but locks your creatures out from attacking and it's only 3 damage. Fun to Donate.

Pros: Basically unblockable

Cons: Locks your own creatures, 3/6 for 5

Rating: 2/5

Scuttling Death

Something called "scuttling" shouldn't cost 5! Nor should it be a 4/2. Something called "death" shouldn't be incapable of killing a Bear Cub. Soulshift is a cool mechanic, but it's sad that very few creatures that have it are worth playing. Night on a stick is alright, but not on a creature that costs 5. Outside of that, it's a 4/2 for 5, which is also substandard. Soulshift 4 is great, but it's not enough to save this guy from the standard title of "bad even for a Kamigawa card".

Pros: Soulshift 4, Night on a stick

Cons: 4/2 for 5, requires sacrifice

Rating: 1/5

Urza's Eyewear

I didn't think Urza had problems seeing, but I guess when you start working as a clockmaker's apprentice (look it up), your eyes start to go a little bit.

Glasses of Urza

It's no Peek, but for 1 mana, it can glean you a lot of useful information, especially after a tutor. With the exception of Seer's Vision or Telepathy-type effects (which give everyone at the table the information), this is the only unconditional, repeatable way to look at an opponent's hand. Not bad for 1 mana.

Pros: Repeatable hand spying

Cons: Only targets one player, needs to be repeatedly activated

Rating: 4/5

Sunglasses of Urza

Kind of a worse Celestial Dawn if you ask me (and if you don't, why are you here?). It's 3 mana for a limited amount of colour fixing. It's useful in a Boros deck, but most other decks running red/white have better options.

Pros: Micro Celestial Dawn

Cons: Only changes white to red

Replacement: Chromatic Lantern

Rating: 1/5

Urza's Contact Lenses

It's free Telepathy and that's pretty awesome. Also, combos with Lodestone Myr.

Pros: Free Telepathy

Cons: Illegal in every format

Rating: 3/5

Bone Flute

This card itself is not that remarkable, but I saw the flavour text, and thought I had to look at it today. For those who don't know (I'm going to assume that's mostly everyone), Lord Ursnell was a lord in Terisiare (a northern continent on Dominara). Because of all the screwing-over-of-the-local-population caused by Urza and Mishra's little spat over a Thran powerstone, Terisiare was pretty much reduced to ash and a lot of little battle scarred the land. The Battle of Pitdown was one of those battles and Lord Ursnell died, and not much outside of his skeleton was left. When it was returned to Lady Ursnell, I guess she decided to try her hand at instrument making (much more of the story was focused on Jodah).

As for this card, it's not bad. Kind of like a Cumber Stone with a toggle switch that costs mana. Not great, but not horrendous.

Pros: Cumber Stone with a toggle switch

Cons: Costs mana, just -1/-0, mass -1/-0

Rating: 1.5/5

Note: I remember when you needed side material to understand flavour text. Those were the days. *shakes walking stick at young children on the lawn*

Tarmogoyf

This is an okay card. I mean, it's no Cognivore, but it'll do in a pinch. It's a fast drop and it can get fairly powerful, but it has some problems. 

First off, there are ways to get rid of it. Good cards have no way to actually get rid of them because, if they did, they wouldn't be good. That's why cards like Norin the Wary and Progenitus are the best cards in Magic. This card has a bunch of different way to deal with it: Doom Blade, Terror, Unsummon, Vindicate, Bazaar of Wonders, and Threads of Disloyalty to name a few. If you've got a permanent that can end up in your graveyard somehow, it's a dead card because you're just going to waste mana casting it just for it to be destroyed.

Second, it has no evasion. Cards like Aven Envoy and Zodiac Rooster are better because they have some sort of evasion at least. Cards with no evasion can easily be blocked and therefore have no point in swinging, even if the opponent is going to lose a creature or two. They could have some sort of buff spell in their hand and it's not a good idea to risk losing your creature to some Typhoid Rats with Daring Leap cast on it.

Thirdly, it's not a relevant creature type. There's absolutely no support for "Lhurgoyfs" outside of the generic cards like Coat of Arms and Door of Destinies. If you don't have the tribal support for something, it's just going to stand out there on its own with no help from anything else. It won't synergize with your deck at all and you might as well be running other random cards that don't interact with anything else in your deck like Putrid Lecch or Xantid Swarm.

Finally, while this card can grow, it has a power cap. At best, this can be an 8/9 whereas something like Boneyard Wurm can be much bigger depending on how many creatures you have in your graveyard and Kodama of the Center Tree, which is dependent on the number of Spirits you.control. Also, to ensure that you're getting the most out of this card, you'll have to overload your deck with a bunch of different types of cards and make sure they end up in your graveyard.

 All in all, an alright card if you've got the spot.

Pros: Fast drop, can grow over time

Cons: No evasion, dies to removal, not a relevant creature type, power cap

Rating: 1.5/5

See how stupid some of these "that's not a good card because x" arguments can be? Seriously, this card is great. 5/5.

Honor Guard

I remember using this guy all the time in drafts back in the day. It's an alright 1-drop because of it's defensive firebreathing. Need to stop that Phyrexian Obliterator without sacrificing many permanents? Just pump this guy up and you're fine! There are a ton of times where I'd love to have a 1-drop that can stop pretty much any trampler and this really fits the bill. However, there are some problems with the card. First and foremost, it's only defensive firebreathing, meaning that no matter what you pump into this, it's still going to do only 1 damage. It's basically a wall with an upkeep cost of X, where X is equal to the power of the thing you want to stop. Really, this is a good draft filler card and not much else.

Pros: Cheap defensive firebreather

Cons: Only a cheap defensive firebreather

Rating: 1.5/5

More Quickies!

Yeah, so in order to compensate you guys for putting up with my lack of regular reviews, I decided to do a fairly large number of quickies today. Hope this makes up for it!

Crusade

Yup, it's a cheap anthem. Can't really say much else about it except for the fact that it effects all white creatures, not just your own, so it can kind of be a double-edged sword.

Pros: White anthem

Cons: Universal anthem

Rating: 2.5/5

Dwarven Pony

Yay! A way to give Mutavault mountainwalk! Seriously though, there exists a slim number of cards that this works for, so it's really not that good.

Pros: Gives a Dwarf mountainwalk

Cons: Only gives 1 Dwarf mountainwalk until end of turn

Rating: 1/5

Horned Troll

Yup, this is a card. It's decent in drafts, but otherwise "meh".

Pros: Regenerates

Cons: No evasion

Rating: 2.5/5

Divine Transformation

Another "meh" card. +3/+3 on an Aura for 4 isn't terrible for white. Again, good in drafts, lacking elsewhere.

Pros: +3/+3 for 4

Cons: The artwork lies to you

Rating: 2.5/5

Flashfires

Screw you white decks. That's pretty much all I can say about this.

Pros: Hoses white decks

Cons: Only hoses white decks

Rating: 3/5

Balm of Restoration

3 mana for a worse Healing Salve? Uh, no thanks. And, believe it or not, this is a rare. Goes to show how little WotC knew about the game's meta when they first started out (to be fair though, most games start out like that).

Pros: Prevents 2 damage or gains 2 life, colourless

Cons: Thrice the cost of a Healing Salve

Rating: 0/5

Aura Graft

I love the original text of this card! Other than that, it's pretty decent, especially since you not only move the Aura, but you also gain control of it. And, it's Instant speed, which is always nice.

Pros: Steal and move an Aura

Cons: Only moves Auras

Rating: 3/5

Scavenging Ghoul

Interesting mechanic and it's not a terrible card. This is a mechanic that I'd like to see on more creatures in the near future.

Pros: Gets multiple regeneration chances

Cons: Needs a creature to die per regeneration, 2/2 for 4

Rating: 2.5/5

Order of the Sacred Torch

Pretty damn good card. A 2/2 for 3 with a really good ability, especially in white and despite the life requirement. Not bad.

Pros: Counter magic in white

Cons: Only counters black spells, requires life investment

Rating: 4/5

Show of Valor

Save a baby; get s defense buff. This has saved a few of my creatures in draft and sealed games, but otherwise it's not that great. Would have much preferred +4/+2 for 3.

Pros: Sizeable toughness boost at Instant-speed, okay power boost at Instant-speed

Cons: Marginally useful outside of draft/sealed

Rating: 2/5

Fear

Yup, it gives Fear. Not extremely bad on a 2-drop, but not great either. Would have rather seen it on a 1-drop (such as in Gruesome Deformity).

Pros: Gives Fear

Cons: 2-drop, double black

Rating: 1.5/5

Lead Astray

Gets rid of blockers and prevents attacking I guess. Again, another card that's good in drafts, but terrible in constructed.

Pros: Taps two creatures for 2, Instant-speed

Cons: Only taps two creatures, useless outside draft/sealed

Rating: 2.5/5

Steeple Roc

This card really should have cost 4 instead of 5. Plover Knights is a better example of a common creature that should cost 5 and even then it's not that great. It just comes in too late to really be threat in most situations and it dies to light tap. All in all, not a great card.

Pros: 3 power flying first striker

Cons: Only 1 toughness, costs 5

Rating: 1/5

Replacement: Plover Knights

Avatars of Prophecy

In honour of my blog's 10,000th view (and my recent rewatching of the Avatar series), I've decided to look at some of the original avatar creatures: The Prophecy Avatars.

Avatar of Fury

This is definitely the middle-of-the-road avatar. Obviously meant for late game, its mana-reduction isn't really that useful (save against ramp decks or when you're mana-screwed). It's a dragon basically that sometimes costs 2.

Pros: Sometimes costs 2

Cons: Pretty much just a dragon

Rating: 3/5

Avatar of Hope

Definitely not the worst avatar but this has the worst mana-reduction cost out of all of them. By the time you're at 3 life, you've probably lost the game. I'd much rather have the card that this is clearly meant to be: Fog.

Pros: Decent blocker

Cons: Terrible mana-reduction, not that powerful

Rating: 1.5/5

Avatar of Might

This is actually my favourite avatar (being part Timmy and all) but it's not the best avatar. It's pretty much just a big stompy creature that works great against token decks. It's also the best avatar combat-wise since it will deal damage through almost every other avatar without combat tricks (stupid Hope).

Pros: Most powerful avatar

Cons: Only stompy, mana-reduction only really works against token decks

Rating: 4/5

Avatar of Will

This is the worst avatar but it has the easiest mana-reduction cost out of all of them. Getting rid of an opponent's hand is fairly easy, especially when you're playing a control deck. However, that fact is let down by this card's general weakness in combat. I'm glad that the blue avatar is the worst one (blue used to have the worst creatures), but it doesn't save this from being the worst avatar.

Pros: Easiest mana-reduction 

Cons: Weak

Rating: 0.5/5

Avatar of Woe

This is the avatar that everyone knows and loves and for good reason. It's the best avatar out of the lot. The ability is great and its mana-reduction ability is probably going to happen in a black deck fairly early on. It's just the best overall, save for maybe its combat stats.

Pros: Best ability of all avatars

Cons: Not great combat stats

Rating: 4.5/5

Flowstone Surge

This card is... okay I guess. Nothing windmill-slam-worthy. but okay. There are no other +! power enchantments for 2 or less that don't have some sort of condition or requirement payment (see the better Gerrard's Battle Cry), so I guess it can get points there, however that doesn't make it good per se. In decks that run a lot of low toughness creatures (namely red decks), this is a bane rather than a boon. Still, it can be useful in the right deck. It's just that that deck type is very rare.

Pros: Universal buff for 2

Cons: Universal debuff for 2

Rating: 1.5/5