Planeshift, Part Deux

And now for the continuing story of an expansion that has gone to the dogs...

Sorry, couldn't help the obscure Muppets reference

Green got a couple of interesting creatures in Gaea's Herald and Quiron Dryad. The Herald makes all other creature spells uncounterable while it is in play. I'm not sure how effective this is, but it is a neat ability. The problem is that this ability is best against control decks that are already packing Wrath of God, which puts the green deck at an instant disadvantage in card economy.

The Quiron Dryad gets a +1/+1 counter everytime it's controller plays a red, green, blue, or black spell. Again, how good is this? Being a 1/1 for two mana, it is a little overcosted already, but could become a beastly threat quickly. In a G/W Armageddon style deck, this could easily be a 4/4 or 5/5 at the time the Armageddon is cast, and for the goofy people out there, this little guy gets +3/+3 from an Armadillo Cloak. Maybe worth looking into in a five-color deck.

 

One of the more interesting cards in the set, from my point of view, is Gainsay. This spell counters a blue spell for 1U. Many decks that I build I run blue in simply to fight other counter magic, but the splashable cards are usually not cost effective. You get something like Prohibit or Powersink. Gainsay says absolutlely no at a very reasonable cost for any deck running blue.

The Battlemages make for an interesting group of cards. Each one costs one of its respective color and two colorless for a 2/2 with two kicker abilities. I personally like the green one the best. You get a 2/2 that deals two damage to target creature or player when it comes into play for R, and it can destroy target artifact for 1W, to boot. Particularly in the current Type II, where Rebels frequently runs Chimeric Idols and Longow Archers to get around Tsabo's decree, this creature could be very cost effectoivve. If you pressed me, I would say that the black one is the next best of the Battlemages, with the ability to return two nonblack creatures being quite good.

Finally, I'll present you with two decks to consider in light of the new Planeshift cards. Both are based around utilizing the power of some of these new cards, and should be at least unique to play.

4 Orim's Chant 4 Wrath of God 4 Howling Mine 4 Recall 1 Millstone 4 Power Sink 4 Disenchant 2 Rout 2 Dismantling Blow 1 Archangel 2 Teferi's Moat

4 Adarkar Wastes 4 Coastal Tower 20 Plains

4 Thunderscape Battlemage 4 Nightscape Battlemage 2 Tsabo's Decree 4 Collective Restraint 4 Elfhame Sacntuary 4 Harrow 2 Crosis, The Purger 2 Rethink 1 Meteor Storm 1 Washout 1 Restock 3 Disenchant 2 Eladamiri's Call 2 Enlightened Tutor

9 Forests 4 Plains 4 Mountain 4 Swamp 4 Island

Tim Stoltzfus
wakkodjinn@pojo.com