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Shades of Grey
Okay, after looking at the spoiler on this site for
the new Apocalypse set, I figure I'll just point out a
few things that jumped out at me… and maybe you'll
spot the trend. Then we'll go from there.
Death Grasp:
Hm… seems to be a generically useful card. Same base
casting cost as drain life, just make sure the colorless
mana is white instead and you don't have to worry about
the rest of the mana being colored or not. And since
dark ritual isn't around anymore the colorless X is even
more important. Standard burn-ish spell with an
excellent side effect which makes up for it being a
sorcery. Kills critters and players alike.
Gerrard's Verdict:
Ooh… a 'fixed' hymn of sorts. Dual colored does dilute
its power a touch, and it isn't random, but the 'if you
discard a land' drawback as a deterrent means that it
can still hurt them late game, since they have to pitch
something non-land (and thus probably useful) or give
you some bonus life. A solid play early, mid, or late
game, and, of course, Happens to be card advantage too…
certainly playable in a wide variety of w/b decks.
Spectral Lynx:
Heya! A cousin to river boa! Who is anti green… hm…
*cough*blastoblocker*cough*. And gets past burst tokens
too… sweet…
And a solid critter for the mana.
Vindicate:
Wait, hang on… *reads card text again* … *grins*. I
like me some desert twisters. I likes 'em even more at
half price!! Disenchant plus critter kill, and maybe axe
a dustbowl or port or something if need be! So good, so
good!!
Ok, let us evaluate now… 4 black and white cards,
all generically useful, all with solid abilities and
reasonable casting costs… if I don't show up to the
first ibc tourney with a b/w deck, I will be quite
surprised at myself. And let's explore it a little more…
what else could we toss in a nice b/w deck…
Look! Phyrexian arena! Might as well howling mine
myself, huh? And I'll be gaining life from the death
grasp already, so the life loss is minimal. Mmmh…
bonus card advantage… *drools*
How about some more critters…
I heard that Scuta guy was pretty good, might as well
give him a try.
And there is that one white and two colorless for a 3/3
flying angel with a drawback… maybe she's playable…
I dunno though, it is a pretty annoying drawback.
How about the voice of all? She's pretty good. The
double white in conjunction with the double black of the
arena isn't all that great though. Let's try and find
some more black critters.
Wumpus in type 2 maybe… but he doesn't synch up with
the new boa we're using…
A Mercenary or Rebel chain in type 2 would be an
excellent accent to these superb spells though.
But back to IBC…
Where's the soldier zombie? Maybe that guy will be
spiffy. I hope it's not that putrid warrior though…
then again, the gaining life thing could work with the
Scutas and arenas…
Marauding knight/crusading knight might be good. More
protection critters would accent the new boa and (if you
are going heavy white) the voice of all.
Phyrexian Battleflies are cheap and not altogether
inefficient…
Ravenous rats are more card advantage…
Trench worm is of reasonable size and has a decent
special ability…
Djinns are on the higher end of the curve but could very
well be made use of…
Apprentices (the new opposing color ones) also might be
ok… maybe…
And of course, there's the new b/w pain land and
Dromar's cavern from the previous set to support the
opposing color base… and maybe even that land that you
have to pitch a card to untap… you are reaping mad
card advantage so far, might as well put it to use…
Whatever you think would work, probably could,
because of how solid the initial 4 black and white cards
are. Just no Reya's please… then again…you could use
the black half of the black/green split card to jump her
into play… maybe I'm getting a bit wacky now, but ya
never know. These are just the first thoughts that
popped into my head as far as cohesiveness with the set
goes, so anything I say that turns out to be goofy later
on, please disavow any knowledge of. Mmmmh… desert
twister sale… half off… *drools*
And incidentally, isn't (Tim) Stoltzfus a Kjeldoran
outpost fan? I believe I have heard him speak of the
glory days of counter post before…
Has he seen the new red/white enchantment that pumps out
2 guys for saccing a land? Hmmm…
I dunno. Regardless, I'll stop rambling now and let
you have fun on your own with the new set. There are
still plenty of good cards that aren't black/white in
the new set, so let's see what turns up. Until next time…
mmmmh… cheap desert twisters…
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