Spoiler season never ends! After a brief respite with a reprint set in 2XM, we're back at it with Dominaria United coming up in September and we just got our first previews through the stream earlier today. Here are a few of the more interesting cards thus far:
Neat card, kind of doing a Figure of Destiny impression but as an aggressive black card. Another good one drop for inclusion (and a human to boot!), but it's probably a pass for me as I really dislike ability counters as a mechanic in paper Magic.
Not quite sure how to evaluate this one, it's kind of all over the place with its abilities. Seems like a callback to Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh but doesn't have quite the raw power that made it such a strong card. Being able to take out a guy with 4 damage, generate some card advantage on a +1, or just ramp ahead of schedule made that a really sweet card that I've continued to play to this day. Jaya though? Not really feeling it on first glance for my environment.
Sweet art and I really enjoy simple and flexible designs like this. We're way past the days of Ivy Elemental being enough, Endless One was a needed upgrade, and this lets us take it up a notch with flying and haste. There seems to be a weird sweet point with this card in different decks. Coming down as your typical 3CMC phoenix on T3 is solid if unexciting, but as a 3/3 on T4 that's actually quite appealing when it comes to pushing through damage. Stiff competition at 5 mana, but the splashability with a single makes this a fine inclusion for ramp heavy decks that just want an outlet to funnel mana into. You could do much worse than pushing out a repeatable Lava Axe to the face to close out the game. I'll see if I can make room for this one and give it a whirl, that promo art is just too sweet to not have somewhere in my collection.
Mostly I'm just hoping for a return to form with this set. The last year or so of sets have either been a miss for me mechanically (both Innistrad sets, Day/Night was abysmal) or aesthetically (SNC + NEO), so I'm ready for some good old fashioned Magic sets with that comfy fantasy aesthetic. Give me more of this and I'll be a happy camper.
Neat card, kind of doing a Figure of Destiny impression but as an aggressive black card. Another good one drop for inclusion (and a human to boot!), but it's probably a pass for me as I really dislike ability counters as a mechanic in paper Magic.
Not quite sure how to evaluate this one, it's kind of all over the place with its abilities. Seems like a callback to Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh but doesn't have quite the raw power that made it such a strong card. Being able to take out a guy with 4 damage, generate some card advantage on a +1, or just ramp ahead of schedule made that a really sweet card that I've continued to play to this day. Jaya though? Not really feeling it on first glance for my environment.
Sweet art and I really enjoy simple and flexible designs like this. We're way past the days of Ivy Elemental being enough, Endless One was a needed upgrade, and this lets us take it up a notch with flying and haste. There seems to be a weird sweet point with this card in different decks. Coming down as your typical 3CMC phoenix on T3 is solid if unexciting, but as a 3/3 on T4 that's actually quite appealing when it comes to pushing through damage. Stiff competition at 5 mana, but the splashability with a single makes this a fine inclusion for ramp heavy decks that just want an outlet to funnel mana into. You could do much worse than pushing out a repeatable Lava Axe to the face to close out the game. I'll see if I can make room for this one and give it a whirl, that promo art is just too sweet to not have somewhere in my collection.
Mostly I'm just hoping for a return to form with this set. The last year or so of sets have either been a miss for me mechanically (both Innistrad sets, Day/Night was abysmal) or aesthetically (SNC + NEO), so I'm ready for some good old fashioned Magic sets with that comfy fantasy aesthetic. Give me more of this and I'll be a happy camper.