Sets Dragon's Maze fully revealed

[Jason Waddell]

http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/dragonsmaze/cig#

Now that Dragon's Maze has been fully revealed, which cards will be slotting into your cube(s)?

 

[Eric Chan]

These are on my short list to test. Some of them are shoo-ins, like Ral Zarek, while others are a shot in the dark, like Rot Farm Skeleton.

 

[Rob Dennis]

for cuesbey folks, I'd not expect new cards to be recognize until Tuesday at the earliest, since that's when DGM goes on gatherer. If Tuesday comes, and it still doesn't work, I'll have to see if there's a problem with tutor

edit: no blood scrivener Eric, for shame

 

[HannesVersmissen]

There are these two. I'm not so sure about them, but if i pull them/trade them I'll give them a go for sure ! Still afraid they are too strong though ^^'

And these are cards i'm actually interested in and will be adding:

Boros Mastiff makes me excited about bears. I'm always excited about bears though.
Runners bane is something that's specific to my soon to be refined "power three" theme.
Blood scrivener likes discard. i want to build to build a trade-routes//wild mongrel madness deck when i see this card.
Pyrewild Shaman IS re-usable, and re-usability is a huge plus for my format.
I am always excited about bears. Skylasher is a bear, has protection, cant be countered, single-handed holds of the sphinxes AND has flash. It's a powerhouse but it's ought to be !
Dragonshift is my kind of Splashy. Fun should be had with the new versatile U/R overrun.
Gaze of Granite Does some really cool stuff. It's contending with Crime//Punishment though

Some separate notes:
Turn//Burn and Far//Away will happily reside in my cube. Turn//burn and Fire//ice Shall pair up to make awesome counter-burn (hopefully)
Profit//Loss is an overly used effect, but i don't actually have one of these effects in my cube as of yet. It's contending with Orzohov pontiff (which is one-time re-usable) , but will most likely win due to being more versatile !
I'll be giving Flesh//Blood a single chance. I don't like Flesh It's a "versatile" scavenge-variant, and gets beaten almost always by the new legendary troll. at best it's grave-hate, and quite expensive grave hate as well. However it's lodged into versatile and unique Gruul removal, which always makes me happy !
Catch//Release: This card makes me all kinds of excited. Big grindy Boros decks, Flashy and Lightning-fast U/R counterburn//aggro, or something entirely different. I hope i'll get drafted for it's Release side.
Ready//Willing makes me happy.


After adding the Fuse cards, i'll (over)Load up on these old split cards as well. heads shall be turned !

I Apologize for this long list, but i wanted to express my love for these new splits.

 

[Eric Chan]

I'm confused about why Wizards made Skylasher. This is the card most obviously engineered to fight blue since Great Sable Stag. What kind of blue menace needs an unbeatable blocker to stop it, though? Geist of Saint Traft? Vendilion Clique? Delver of Secrets...?!

 

[HannesVersmissen]

Wizards keeps answers available even when the problems haven't arose yet. Their "Future Future League" doesn't get their test-decks near the level that competitive decks get. (secretly i hope maverick will like it despite me not playing legacy. This claim might be as void as can be.)

A great example of cards that where made to prevent issues that never arose:

 

[DavFlamerock]

Since my Duel Decks cube has a dedicated Hybrid section (instead of multicolor; the cube's too small for such restrictive cards), I'm super excited about the new split cards. I'm only going with Armed & Dangerous and Far & Away (Turn & Burn is awesome but I like Fire & Ice more), but I'm excited about those. I'm also slotting in Pyrewild Shaman, since I've been needing a new red 3-drop creature and it plays perfectly with the graveyard subtheme.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Wizards keeps answers available even when the problems haven't arose yet. Their "Future Future League" doesn't get their test-decks near the level that competitive decks get. (secretly i hope maverick will like it despite me not playing legacy. This claim might be as void as can be.)

A great example of cards that where made to prevent issues that never arose:

I don't really think it's a bad thing for Wizards to print safety valves that never get used. It's far better than the alternative.

 

[HannesVersmissen]

I don't really think it's a bad thing for Wizards to print safety valves that never get used. It's far better than the alternative.

Especially when the result is like Psycic surgery. That card branched of into a johnny-card afterwards, with people trying to "get it to work".
Wizards does some really cool things sometimes ^^

 

[Jason Waddell]

I also don't really think Psychic Surgery was intended as a safety valve. The actual safety valves of that era were things like:

 

[HannesVersmissen]

I also don't really think Psychic Surgery was intended as a safety valve. The actual safety valves of that era were things like:

Tunnel ignus is pretty swell.
On the relevance of Psycic surgery as a valve: Weren't the Zendikar fetch lands in the same standard, together with Stoneforge mystic and primeval titan ? (i still could be wrong despite this)
On dragonsmaze:

These two interest me.

Legions initiative Seems quite strong and versatile, but limited by it's one-time use-age.
As for blaze commando: a card i might try to get enough support into my cube for people to run it. These two however have a very strong "the one or the other" feeling about them.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Yes, there were, but nobody played Surgery. There was also Primeval Titan Valakut. Anyways... Dragon's Maze!

 

[FlowerSunRain]

I believe I ordered 30 cards from this set. I don't think I've ever ordered this many cards from a single set, and this is a small set! And I didn't get Skylasher or Voice of Resurgence, although both are really good too, I just don't have a desire for the first or a spot for the second.

Coming from a time when Grizzly Bears was a viable card in Type 1.5, the fact that a Grizzly Bear with 4(!) Keyword abilities doesn't particularly excite me is dumbfounding. Things change I guess.

The ten cards that most excite me in this set are:

10) Sire of Insanity - Not sure how useful this will be, but its a great build around card that is both counter-purpose to this color's usual role, yet completely in the flavor. I doubt it will be very good, but I'm excited to try.
9) Lavinia the Tenth - This card looks positively infuriating and efficient. Pretty much everything white/blue stands for. Love it.
8) Riot Control - I'm not sure if my cube supports any deck that can milk this effect, but it seems absolutely insane and extremely powerful.
7) Ral Zarak - This card is very interesting, obviously strong, but also has a lot of play (but with and against) built in. Love it.
6) Varolz, the Scar-Striped - A really fun card. Making huge guys, encouraging green/black aggro, seems legit.
5) Savageborn Hydra - A complete and total beater that can come down almost anywhere on the curve, can be pumped to survive wildfire or hellion and can end a game fast. I like cards like this because they can fill different roles in different decks with the same card.
4) Far // Away - Unsummon and diabolic edict in the same card? Love it.
3) Ready // Willing - This is complete speculation on this card. It may turn out to be terrible. But it seems like an absolutely amazing. The things this card might end up doing have me excited.
2) Zhur-Taa Ancient - My play group loves Mirari's Wake, so this guy is a shoe in. He's symmetrical, but he's also huge. This card will be a blast.
1) Tithe Drinker - How can such a simple card be the one I'm most excited about? Because its everything I want in a two drop. Syndic of Tithes has been amazing and this card is better. The lower toughness makes it more interesting: its more vulnerable to dividable damage. But the lifelink just gives it an incredible edge against aggro. Its an amazing transitional card in black/white midrange that demands to be bolted. Absolutely love it.

 

[Dom Harvey]

Scion of Vitu-Ghazi: I would like for this to be better than Cloudgoat Ranger, but I'm not sure it is without more support. It's probably better than Geist-Honored Monk though.
Aetherling: I'm not sure what to think of this. Ultimately it's still just another big dumb creature that attacks and blocks, but it's the best of this type of card that we've seen recently. It's not something I'll be looking to make room for.
Blood Scrivener: If it weren't a Zombie there's no way I would consider this. As it is... still probably not. There are so many more black 2-drops I want more than this, let alone any other classes of cards.
Pyrewild Shaman: Incremental value is the last thing that the decks most likely to trigger this card need. Perhaps there are games where just drawing this card means you're hitting them for additional damage whenever you want and they can never block effectively, but idk how common those are going to be.
Advent of the Wurm: Much like Azorius Charm, it's a card that would clearly be Cube-worthy if the mana were consistent enough; and I think the answer to that recurring problem is to make the mana better, not to ignore cards like this entirely.
Beck/Call: I explained my excitement for the card in the Google Groups thread and don't feel like retyping it, but suffice to say this is the card I'm most eager to play with.
Breaking/Entering, Catch/Release: I wouldn't play either half of any of these on their own, but combined there are enough interesting applications to make them worth trying IMO.
Deputy of Acquittals: see Advent of the Wurm
Far/Away: An unremarkable, solid card.
Maw of the Obzedat: Does some nasty things as part of the sac subtheme but there's way too much competition at 5 mana.
Ral Zarek: Powerful enough for normal Cubes yet tricky enough to be an interesting card.
Toil/Trouble: like it, playing it
Trostani's Summoner: Avenger of Zendikar is better than this, and I can't imagine you want too many cards in that vein, but if you're in the market for a not-Hornet Queen Hornet Queen...
Turn/Burn: Either a cool combat trick, a bad burn spell, or an expensive Murder/Agony Warp.
Varolz: A removal-resistant sac outlet that lets you make large animals even larger. I approve!

 

[Calvin Chan]

I'm excited for these:

Maybe these as well

Lots of interesting cards in this set!

 

[Jason Waddell]

I can't imagine Renounce the Guilds being very good in a regular set. Most cubes are running at fewer than 10% multicolor cards, and even fewer of those are permanents.

Nivix Cyclops eh? It's a bit of a neat card, especially considering they wouldn't print a straight 4/4 in 1UR the way they do in 1WG. Even there though, Loxodon Smiter was a borderline but boring inclusion.

Tithe Drinker looks exciting. I was really hoping for a good 1-mana extort card, but I guess that's not in the cards.

 

[CML]

brief comments:

-most excited about spike, voice, krasis
-renounce the guilds is good in my cube (18% gold) and it's roughly the level of gold hate i want (comparable to wasteland)
-this set looks like it bites. but hey! gtc surprised me. gyre sage, cube staple, whoda thunk?
-edit: sire of insanity is hilarious, that's my favorite card by far

 

[Rob Dennis]

I was a little worried, but it looks like cuesbey works with no new development needed (e.g. Catch // Release is correctly a 3 color card, etc). I need to print up some proxies sometime this week, and we'll see how it goes.

 

[CML]

I forgot about Blood Scrivener. Sweet two-drop.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Well, just submitted my first set review to the editor. I couldn't resist the temptation, and had to bury one really awful pun in there.

 

[CML]

flesh and blood is a good one

 

[Eric Chan]

Quick impressions from the prerelease:

I'm now on board with the Calvin Chan special, Deputy of Acquittals. It's deceptively tricky, right down to the part where its clause is a "may" effect, with the worst case being that you just run your 2/2 blocker out there. When it's doing its thing, though, it's like a Hindering Light on legs, countering all manner of removal spells while leaving you with a decent-sized body. Maybe too narrow for most cubes with small gold sections, but it seems fun in UW tempo decks.

I wonder if Gruul War Chant is a possibility. It's like a Pyreheart Wolf, but with "haste", on a very tough to remove permanent. And it has a mini anthem, to boot.