Rise of the Eldrazi will be making its way onto Magic Online this coming weekend, and now is the time to get a leg-up on the format. Hopefully you’ve had a chance to get plenty of real life drafts in, but if you haven’t, you shouldn’t let that unfortunate fact stop you from crushing dreams and winning infinite packs once Rise hits MODO. Here, Grand Prix Boston Champion Marlon Egolf takes us through some noteworthy cards, letting you know which cards to keep your eyes on for this weekends Rise of the Eldrazi release, and which duds to avoid.
Here in part two, Marlon Egolf highlights some of notable non-creature spells from Rise of the Eldrazi.
GP Boston Champion Marlon Egolf
Part 2 – Non-Creature Spells
Bear Umbra
Yes, it’s a rare, and so it shouldn’t come up too often, but it bears mentioning (ugh) that this card can do some pretty unfair things. Beyond the obvious “play a spell before and after combat” use, where this card really shines is in allowing you to get maximum value out of the aforementioned evokers. Being able to pump twice with Wildheart Invoker or tap your opponent down on both defense and offense with Dawnglare Invoker will end the game in a hurry. Definitely first pick material.
Deprive
My initial impression of this card would be that the drawback would be too steep. I assumed that the first person to cast their Eldrazi wins, so the thought of bouncing a land and slowing yourself down for a turn was unthinkable. It turns out that I was very wrong, and Deprive is the first reliable two mana hard counter we’ve seen since the original Counterspell was reprinted in 7th Edition. What makes Deprive so good is that the drawback is significant enough in the early game to make you think twice about using it, whereas later in the game it’s the perfect answer for those expensive spells that your opponent was really looking forward to casting. This is exactly what a two mana hard counter should be. Overall a very well balanced card.
Domestication
This is the weakest Control Magic printed for limited play since Threads of Disloyalty way back in Kamigawa block. It feels counter-intuitive to use this on the first available target, but often times if you wait you won’t get a chance to snag anything better. There are also so many ways for this card to blow up in your face, as any Umbras or pump will cause your control magic to fall right off. Domestication is still a decent card, and I doubt I would ever cut it, but it’s really not the windmill slam that most Control Magic variants are.
Eland Umbra and Crab Umbra
These two umbras get grouped together for one simple reason; they both suck. Crab Umbra is particularly bad. Am I missing something? I don’t know what’s so special about turning your guy into a very inefficient Horseshoe Crab. Though most umbras are highly playable, these two are the exceptions. Do your best not to play either of them.
Flame Slash
If you’re looking for cheap, damage based removal, this card offers the biggest bang for your buck in the set. Simply put, Flame Slash takes down the creatures that many of the other common removal spells can’t. Staggershock is a more powerful card overall, but Flame Slash can take down bigger guys on the cheap, not to mention dudes who have already leveled up. When your opponent drops his Beastbreaker of Bala Ged turn two on the play, you’ll be happy you have this spell in your arsenal.
Lust for War
I can’t help but see jank when I look at this card. Contaminated Bond and Nettling Curse both sucked, and this is just a combination of the two cards in a different color. However, after seeing this card in action, I have to say that this Lust for War might actually be pretty good. Rise limited has a ton of blocking, from the expendable Spawn tokens to an above average amount of playable walls. An early Lust for War can easily lead to 12-15 damage over the course of a game. Keep an eye out for this card, and don’t be surprised if it’s pissing you off sometime in the near future.
Narcolepsy
Ok, so obviously Narcolepsy is a premium removal spell in blue, and should be drafted highly. However, a lot of people are trying to pretend like this is the best common in the set. This is simply not true. Yes, in is an excellent solution to umbra’s, but if you’re drafting correctly, you should also have at least one Regress to punish your opponents for playing creature enchantments. My issue with the card is this – it doesn’t stop tap effects, and it doesn’t stop the invokers. Putting a Narcolepsy on a Brimstone Mage or an Enclave Cryptologist does essentially nothing, and those are two of the biggest problem uncommons for a blue deck. Also, try putting a Narcolepsy on a Dawnglare or Wildheart Invoker and see if combat gets any easier. There are many creatures in this format that need to be removed from play completely, not just tapped. Taking Narcolepsy over a premium kill spell can be very risky. Despite all my shit talking, I do like Narcolepsy and I think it’s a very useful card. But I definitely wouldn’t take it over a card like Vendetta or Flame Slash.
Ogre’s Cleaver
This costs approximately a billion mana to equip, but it works quite well in a deck with lots of expendable attackers. If you have multiple cards that create Eldrazi spawn, look to pick one of these up.
Regress
In the drafts I’ve seen so far, Regress has been criminally undervalued. Having an instant speed bounce effect is huge in this format, and often times you will be able to Time Walk your opponent by bouncing his guy in response to a level up, or by bouncing a creature after they slap an umbra on it. Regress is a very important card for blue decks in Rise, and you should try to go out of your way to get at least one.
Spawning Breath
This spell is a little unassuming, but it’s actually a pretty nice trick. The one shot mana ramp can certainly come in handy, and if you’re able to take down a one toughness creature; even if it’s a simple Eldrazi Spawn; you’re certainly getting some good value out of the card. That being said, don’t be afraid to point the burn at your opponent’s dome on turn two if you have a four drop you want to turbo out onto the board.
Time of Heroes
Situational spells like this are usually pretty bad, but it’s usually not too hard to have enough levelers to make this card insane. You’ll typically need 5-7 levelers to play Time of Heroes, and the effect is so specific that it’s not unusual to get one going around the table pretty late. The quintessential “bomb in one deck, completely unplayable in another” card of the set.
Although I at first too thought the crab umbra and the eland umbra sucked I somewhat changed my opinion on them in my last games. People showed me why it’s actually a good pick later on in your packs for this solely reason :
It’s a one mana totem armor.
The ability doesn’t matter really. The crab ability just sucks BUT.. It still has totem armor which means you can protect your creature, even eldrazi, with just one mana from falling down against double blocking or whatever (especially ulamog’s crush has that problem alot).
Though it’s indeed a later pick I wouldn’t say it’s the worst around ;)
Just my two cents after getting second on the FNM draft last night and encountering some of these cards on my enemies board being a bigger nuisance than thought.
I don’t really understand why anyone would draft outside of black and red and maybe green, besides opening a Gideon, blue doesn’t seem to have anything spectacular, red and black have incredible removal, and green has some incredibly relevant acceleration with some substantial bombs. Cards that might be limited bombs like Sphinx of Magosi are just totally counteracted by a Vendetta, and colors that aren’t black or red usually are going to have trouble racing against Staggershocks, Flame Slashes, Vendettas, Corpsehatches, Brimstone Mages, Forked Bolt, Drana, Bala Ged Scopion, etc. Removal is insane in this format, and even if you have to force a weak black, I feel like those are the colors you should absolutely attempt to force. Narcolepsy doesn’t really compare to any other of the prime removal, especially given the creature is still on the field.
Narcolepsy is the ONLY non-conditional removal that hits everything without shroud. I mean, yes, you don’t want to cast it on a creature with a tapping ability, but that’s a fairly minor clause. Plus, Narcolepsy neutralizes all but one totem armor, which you need a pretty sweet Induce Despair to 2 for 1 normally. Sure, they could use one of the 3 untapping effects in the format to screw with it, but the only one of those that can reliably be used for combat is Crab Umbra. Finally, if you want to get really freaky (and probably dumb) you can Lust for War something you Narcolepsied. The one time out of twenty that actually works would be HILARIOUS.
The only legitimate reason to say Narcolepsy doesn’t compare with other removal is that it could be Naturalized or Demystified, and even people who like those cards are only going to maindeck one.
Regarding Ogre Cleaver: Expensive, yes. And not a card I would always include in a deck, but its applications are far greater than just slapping on random dorks. Perhaps it goes without saying, but Cleaver on random flyer dork or even Stomper Cub can end a game quickly. Not to mention enabling an unblockable Aura Gnalid.
Regarding Lust for War: I remember thinking “what a noob” the first time someone played this on my creature, and after losing that game, and nearly the match, I have realized my mistake. Not awesome by any means, but definitely fits in with certain archetypes.
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