Card by Card Breakdown of Torment
by Lonnie Usery

Pojo has asked me to write before. However, I have a wife, 2
kids, a job, and a business selling cards on the side. That doesn't exactly
leave a lot of free time so even though I love to write, I don't often have
the opportunity.

But a new set is coming out is the time for the traditional card-by-card
analysis article and that's always sounded like fun. I had no idea what I
was getting into because it turned out to be a much bigger job than it
appeared at the beginning.

In a change from reviews by other writers, I didn't rate the cards by the
number of stars or A+ to F-. Even really bad cards can sometimes work if you
build a deck around it. Instead I tried to rate the cards on whether or not
they'd be of general use in a deck using that color.

I also included some ideas for combos or deck styles which a particular card
might fit. Certainly they aren't going to be the only ideas or necessarily
the strongest ideas. Its more of my impression of what I'd like to try
first. Hopefully my ideas will spark your creativity.

I’ve deliberately avoided looking at what other writers have had to say
about the new Torment set. If anything I say contradicts them, keep in mind
that I am right and they are wrong.

In Odyssey block, every card that lets you discard is going to get you
closer to threshold, let you play madness cards, and let you abuse flashback
so for the most part I don't bother to specifically mention it. If you care
enough to read a commentary on the Torment spoiler, I'm going to assume you
have that basic knowledge.

WHITE

Angel of Retribution R, Creature - Angel, 6W, 5/5 Flying, first strike

In what format would this be a good card? At the Torment pre-release, I
didn’t play a game in sealed where either player got up to 7 mana. Invasion
and 7th both have better fliers. Block constructed? I have a hard time
thinking its going to be slower than sealed deck. Trash rare.

Aven Trooper C, Creature - Bird Soldier, 3W, 1/1 Flying 2W, Discard a card
from your hand: Aven Trooper gets +1/+2 until end of turn.

Four mana for a 1/1 flier with a bad special ability when the standard is 4
mana for a 2/2 flier with a special ability. Isn’t it bad enough to have to
discard to use the special ability but it has to cost 3 mana also? Yeah,
this card is going to see a lot of play.

Cleansing Meditation U, Sorcery , 1WW Destroy all enchantments. Threshold -
Instead destroy all enchantments, then return to play all cards in your
graveyard destroyed this way.

A white Tranquility but with double color mana casting cost. Let’s think
about the last time you saw anyone using a regular Tranquility. Can’t
remember back that far? Neither can anyone else. Next.

Equal Treatment U, Instant , 1W If any source would deal 1 or more damage to
a creature or player this turn, it deals 2 damage to that creature or player
instead. Draw a card.

Didn’t Healing Salve cost 1 mana and actually stop damage or let you gain
life? Now you or your creature takes 2 damage, pay 2 mana, and draw a card.
When a card doesn’t measure up to Healing Salve, you know it has a problem.
Maybe I’d use it in a sealed deck when I’ve already included the 19th land
and accidently lost the rest of the card pool. Then again I might be better
off to drop out and go draft.

Floating Shield C, Enchant Creature , 2W As Floating Shield comes into play,
choose a color. Enchanted creature has protection from the chosen color.
This effect doesn't remove Floating Shield. Sacrifice Floating Shield:
Target creature gains protection from the chosen color until end of turn.

Not a bad effect since I’d expect mono-color decks to be tested out in block
constructed. It doesn’t have the surprise value of Shelter unless your
opponent isn’t paying attention. In limited, it can be used to protect your
flier from your opponent’s removal color. I wouldn’t pick it very highly at
all in draft but these are going to be still in the pack late and it is
playable.

Frantic Purification C, Instant , 2W Destroy target enchantment. Madness W

Purely for the sideboard in sealed or block constructed. Maybe maindeck in
draft if you see your first round opponent stocking up on enchantments you
can’t deal with. Stop laughing, I’m sure that’s happened once or twice. If
you are playing this in Type 2, you need more help than I can give you.

Hypochondria U, Enchantment , 1W W, Discard a card from your hand: Prevent
the next 3 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this
turn. W, Sacrifice Hypochondria: Prevent the next 3 damage that would be
dealt to target creature or player this turn.

This was very hard to deal with at the pre-release playing between rounds
using my B/R sealed deck. If your limited deck is defensive or prone to a
ground stall, this might be a solution.

Major Teroh R, Creature - Bird Soldier Legend, 3W, 2/3 Flying 3WW, Sacrifice
Major Teroh: Remove all black creatures from the game.

Wrath of God vs black. In most any other set, it would be useless but with
Torment its fairly viable. 4 mana for a 2/3 flier is costed lower than most
other flier cards. Being a Legend is a pain so I wouldn’t run more than one
maindeck in block constructed but having three more in the SB would be a
major headache to a black deck.

Militant Monk C, Creature - Cleric, 1WW, 2/1 Attacking doesn't cause
Militant Monk to tap. T: Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to
target creature or player this turn.

Worthless in constructed. In limited the not tapping to attack along with
the damage prevention ability means its going to survive combat against
opposing 1 power creatures. Let’s list all of those worth being scared
of…um, yeah. Three mana with double color casting cost is going to keep this
on the sidelines early (at least you could cast Samite Healer early
consistently but people still weren't drooling over it). After a few
creatures are out there, the damage prevention ability is good so its going
to see some play

Morningtide R, Sorcery , 1W Remove all cards in all graveyards from the
game.

Its no Honor the Fallen but it’s a solid constructed sideboard card as long
as your own deck doesn’t depend on the graveyard. Useful against some decks
in limited. I wouldn’t take it over removal, solid creatures, or combat
tricks which means its going to be bottom feeding in the last few cards of a
pack. Maybe you’ll get lucky and one of your opponents will rare draft it
before the pack gets to you.

Mystic Familiar C, Creature - Bird, 1W, 1/2 Flying Threshold - Mystic
Familiar gets +1/+1 and has protection from black.

Compared to some of the creature costs in the set, this is practically a
bargain (well, at least it doesn’t suck as bad as Aven Trooper). Nice
abilities post-threshold especially the 3 toughness.

Pay No Heed C, Instant , W Prevent all damage a source of your choice would
deal this turn.

Pay no heed to this card. Sorry, couldn’t resist. Could be a combat trick to
unexpectedly save your creature but still pretty bad. It comes back to the
Healing Salve comparison and Pay No Heed doesn’t measure up.

Possessed Nomad R, Creature - Nomad Horror, 2WW, 3/3 Attacking doesn't cause
Possessed Nomad to tap. Threshold - Possessed Nomad gets +1/+1, is black,
and has "2B, T: Destroy target white creature."

In Toment limited, all the possessed creatures are worth playing if your
deck can support both colors. Not tapping to attack is actually a big deal
for once since the nomad has the 3 toughness to be able to block. In
constructed, its going to depend on what color of decks dominate in the
post-torment environment and that’s too early to tell right now.

Reborn Hero R, Creature - Soldier, 2W, 2/2 Attacking doesn't cause Reborn
Hero to tap. Threshold - When Reborn Hero is put into a graveyard from play,
you may pay WW. If you do, return Reborn Hero to play under your control.

Look its Enduring Renewal. Or maybe Nether Spirit. Anyway, I put this on the
“Likely to be Voted Most Annoying Torment Card” list. A lot of people are
going to try to break this card and a lot of people are going to succeed. My
combo? Ashnod’s Altar, sac the Reborn Hero over and over to convert all your
white mana into colorless mana. Why? Uh…I don’t have time to get into that
right now. Got to review the next card.

Spirit Flare C, Instant , 3W Tap target untapped creature you control. If
you do, it deals damage equal to its power to target attacking or blocking
creature an opponent controls. Flashback-1W, Pay 3 life.

For 4 mana you used to get a creature which could do something like this.
Remember Heavy Ballista? Since Spirit Flare taps the creature used, you
can’t even be guaranteed of being able to flash it back on the same turn
because you have to use another creature. And you get to pay life for the
flashback cost. Mize!
Now having slammed it, the card does have a powerful effect in a color which
has trouble dealing direct damage to creatures. Play it in limited but
remember to grumble about the good old days when we used to have better
cards.

Stern Judge U, Creature - Cleric, 2W, 2/2 T: Each player loses 1 life for
each swamp he or she controls.

OK, I swear I’m not drunk but I love this card. Just wait til next Extended
season when I play my Stern Judge/Magic Hack/Twiddle deck. In limited this
is an automatic for any white deck. I wouldn’t draft it over Vengeful
Dreams, Possessed Nomad, or Major Teroh but its better than any of the other
Torment white.

Strength of Isolation U, Enchant Creature , 1W Enchanted creature gets +1/+2
and has protection from black. Madness W

Like most creature enchantments, not playable in constructed. In limited the
Protection from black will have its moments coming out the of sideboard. Oh,
who am I kidding? Splash for a fourth color rather than playing this card.

Teroh's Faithful C, Creature - Cleric, 3W, 1/4 When Teroh's Faithful comes
into play, you gain 4 life.

For a defensive white deck in limited, this is a good card. The 4 toughness
goes a long way toward stabilizing the board and the lifegain will get you
back some of what you lost against more aggressive decks. Not particularly a
fan of defensive white decks but this is a good card for it to use.

Teroh's Vanguard U, Creature - Nomad, 3W, 2/3 You may play Teroh's Vanguard
any time you could play an instant. Threshold - When Teroh's Vanguard comes
into play, creatures you control gain protection from black until end of
turn.

A white card with a combat trick. How original! But in a twist away from the
theme of Torment, this one is actually useful. Being played as an instant
can be a powerful effect. The pro-black after threshold is going to be
useful in proportion to how much black is played. I’d guess quite a bit less
in constructed than most people probably think. Still I can’t wait to spring
this as a surprise blocker against a pumped up Psychatog.

Transcendence R, Enchantment , 3WWW You don't lose the game for having 0 or
less life. When you have 20 or more life, you lose the game. Whenever you
lose life, you gain 2 life for each 1 life you lost.

This card is a loser. I don’t want 6 casting cost cards in my hand that only
benefit me if I’m at 10 life or less or optionally can make me lose the
game.

Vengeful Dreams R, Instant , WW As an additional cost to play Vengeful
Dreams, discard X cards from your hand. Remove X target attacking creatures
from the game.

I love it. Cheap mana cost and can affect more than one creature. On the
down side, it costs one more card than the number of creatures it can
remove. But I can live with that. I keep thinking there must be a way to
abuse this against Infestation/Upheaval decks since the removal will be more
card efficient than their Infestation zombies.

BLUE

Alter Reality R, Instant , 1U Change the text of target permanent or spell
by replacing all instances of one color word with another. (This effect
doesn't end at end of turn.) Flashback 1U

Sleight of Mind, one of my favorite cards, is back. It alters the usefulness
of color hosers in the sideboard and can change the protection from color
cards. Nice addition to blue.

Ambassador Laquatus R, Creature - Merfolk Legend, 1UU, 1/3 3: Target player
puts the top three cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.

I was originally thinking of using this with Bearscape in my Opposition
deck. But squirrels are probably still better than the Bearscape and I’m not
sure if decking the opponent is a viable strategy for it (with my luck I’d
face 4 rounds of Battle of Wits decks). In limited, however, it’s a bomb. A
lot easier to deck someone playing only 40 cards. Its also a pretty sure bet
to get you threshold or to help you abuse flashback cards.

Aquamoeba C, Creature - Beast, 1U, 1/3 Discard a card from your hand: Switch
Aquamoeba's power and toughness until end of turn.

Hey, it cheap. Gee, there must be something else nice to say about it. Don’t
expect to see this in constructed decks. For limited, it can block a pesky
2/2 creature indefinitely or you can kill off a 3 toughness creature after
blocking. A very expensive beatstick if you want it to attack as a 3/1 every
turn. I keep looking at the card thinking they accidentally left off the
phrase “all your white and black spells cost one less generic mana”.

Balshan Collaborator U, Creature - Bird Soldier, 3U, 2/2 Flying B: Balshan
Collaborator gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

Now this is a flier! The standard 4 mana for a 2/2 flier and can pump both
power and toughness (though with your off color). Fine for any blue limited
deck and can really be great when playing U/B. After slamming a few dozen
cards, its nice to see a playable one.

Breakthrough U, Sorcery , XU Draw four cards, then choose X cards in your
hand and discard the rest from it.

I’m sure someone is going to break this within the week but I don’t like it.
Let’s say you have 6 cards in hand and draw the Beakthrough. You have 3
mana and play it. You draw 4 cards making 10 cards total in hand then
discard 8 cards down to 2. Oh, I’m feeling the power now.

Cephalid Aristocrat C, Creature - Cephalid, 4U, 3/3 Whenever Cephalid
Aristocrat becomes the target of a spell or ability, put the top two cards
of your library into your graveyard.

5 mana for a 3/3 creature with no useful ability. Moving right along…

Cephalid Illusionist U, Creature - Cephalid Wizard, 1U, 1/1 Whenever
Cephalid Illusionist becomes the target of a spell or ability, put the top
three cards of your library into your graveyard. 2U, T: This turn prevent
all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by target creature you
control.

A great combat trick for limited but not strong enough for constructed
outside of Cephalid theme decks.

Cephalid Sage U, Creature - Cephalid, 3U, 2/3 Threshold - When Cephalid Sage
comes into play, draw three cards, then discard two cards from your hand.

Unfortunately, you often have to at least consider 3 toughness creatures for
4 mana in limited. Fortunately, you rarely have to consider them in
constructed.

Cephalid Snitch C, Creature - Cephalid Wizard, 1U, 1/1 Sacrifice Cephalid
Snitch: Target creature loses protection from black until end of turn.

If you are playing black creatures and your opponent is playing pro-black
creatures and they along with Cephalid Snitch happen to be in play at the
same time, you've got a combat trick that guarantees that you lose a
creature. Whee!!! It doesn't get much better than this.

Cephalid Vandal R, Creature - Cephalid, 1U, 1/1 At the beginning of your
upkeep, put a shred counter on Cephalid Vandal. Then put the top card of
your library into your graveyard for each shred counter on Cephalid Vandal.

Could work in a flashback heavy or threshold dependent constructed deck. I
wouldn't play it in limited since it could deck you long before it could
deal 20 points of damage.

Churning Eddy C, Sorcery , 3U Return target creature and target land to
their owners' hands.

Another of an endless stream of bad bounce spells. Where's boomerang when
you need it? In limited it reminds me of the game WotC is playing with
removal spells: how bad does it have to be before no one will play it? The
answer is no one knows because everyone plays removal no matter how bad it
is. If you are playing blue, you are going to play the bounce that is
available no matter how bad. Ironically after saying that, at the
pre-release I had Churning Eddy bounce my Chainer and kill off my
nightmares. So even though its a sorcery...and costs four mana...and looks
really bad in comparison to other bounce spells...uhnn...go ahead and play
it. Sorry, hard to force the words out.

Circular Logic U, Instant , 2U Counter target spell unless its controller
pays 1 for each card in your graveyard. Madness U

Its a counterspell that's playable in limited or in block constructed. Maybe
its playable in type 2 but I wouldn't count on it replacing Absorb or
Undermine any time soon.

Compulsion U, Enchantment , 1U 1U, Discard a card from your hand: Draw a
card. 1U, Sacrifice Compulsion: Draw a card.

There must be a million ways to break this and I expect it to be broken in
most every format. In block with all the madness, threshold, and flashback
cards, its going to be very nice.

Coral Net C, Enchant Creature , U Coral Net can enchant only a green or
white creature. Enchanted creature has "At the beginning of your upkeep,
sacrifice this creature unless you discard a card from your hand."

If you play it on a bad creature, they'll likely sac it making this a blue
Ghastly Demise. If they are bashing your head in with a creature, they'll
laugh, discard, and continue bashing. Better than some of the blue
creature-control enchantments we've seen and worse than some others. I'd
recommend splashing another color if you are needing serious removal.

Deep Analysis C, Sorcery , 3U Target player draws two cards. Flashback-1U,
Pay 3 life.

The basic card before flashback is Inspiration which never sees any play.
Blue decks usually are control decks of some variety. Control decks lose
life to aggressive decks then hopefully stabilize. Having a flashback cost
that causes you to pay life is less than optimal. It'll probably see some
play in block and the R/G beats players will hope you have four of them in
your deck just for the flashback. The card isn't Fact or Fiction, it isn't
even an instant which means you'd probably have to tap out to play it.
Sweet.

False Memories R, Instant , 1U Put the top seven cards of your library into
your graveyard. At end of turn, remove seven cards in your graveyard from
the game.

Trash rare. If you could manipulate our deck to get the right 7 cards were
on top of your library, you could go wild with flashback. But then if you
could put the 7 cards on top of your library that you wanted, you could
probably win the game without tricky graveyard combos. This is another card
that someone is going to break with a freaky combo to win a tournament and
next week everyone is going to be shelling out $8 each for them. But its
still a trash rare.

Ghostly Wings C, Enchant Creature , 1U Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has
flying. Discard a card from your hand: Return enchanted creature to its
owner's hand.

The obligatory blue flying creature enchantment. Its more interesting than
most of them because of the +1/+1 and the returning ability isn't bad
either. Not constructed worthy but interesting enough to consider as the
23rd card in a sealed deck. Hey, that might not sound like much but its a
lot better than most blue creature enchantments.

Hydromorph Guardian C, Creature - Guardian, 2U, 2/2 U, Sacrifice Hydromorph
Guardian: Counter target spell that targets one or more creatures you
control.

Revised and simplified text: "Kill this creature rather than letting your
opponent knock off one of your good creatures". Is that good? One opponent
at the pre-release played this hoping to protect his other more valuable 2/2
creature. I attacked with a 2/2 forcing him to block with the Guardian, with
his good creature, or to take 2 damage a turn until he found something he
cared to use as a blocker. He blocked with the Guardian killing both the
blocker and the attacker. After combat I used my removal on his good
creature. Not to be picky but to do a good job, shouldn't a Guardian be
tough?

Hydromorph Gull U, Creature - Bird Guardian, 3UU, 3/3 Flying U, Sacrifice
Hydromorph Gull: Counter target spell that targets one or more creatures you
control.

Five mana for a 3/3 flier isn't bad in limited or in block. Not wild about
the special ability but its not like its costing you a lot extra. In type 2
use a Fat Moti.

Liquify C, Instant , 2U Counter target spell with converted mana cost 3 or
less. If it's countered this way, remove it from the game instead of putting
it into its owner's graveyard.

I really like this. Whether its viable in constructed is going to depend on
how expensive decks are in the metagame. If block constructed becomes all
about cheap R/G speed decks like some people think, Liquify will be great.

Llawan, Cephalid Empress R, Creature - Cephalid Legend, 3U, 2/3 When Llawan,
Cephalid Empress comes into play, return all blue creatures your opponents
control to their owners' hands. Your opponents can't play blue creature
spells.

The centerpiece of my Alter Reality deck. If blue decks do gain the upper
hand in block constructed, the battle to be the first to get this in play is
going to determine a lot of matches. The bounce isn't targeted so I could
see this in the sideboard of Oath decks or elsewhere as anti-Morphling tech.
OK that might or might not be silly but this is a STRONG color hoser since
your opponent's creature draws become dead.

Obsessive Search C, Instant , U Draw a card. Madness U

Pay one mana for a cantrip that has no effect on the game other than being a
cantrip. I remember back when I thought Urza's Bauble was a bad card. It
cost nothing, was a cantrip, and let you look at a card at random from your
opponent's hand. I never realized what a powerhouse Urza's Bauble was, much
too overpowered for Odyssey. Sheesh. Will people play Obsessive Search
anyway? Yeah, it does cycle through your deck so its going to see play. I
wouldn't use it over Sleight of Hand, Opt, or Brainstorm.

Plagiarize R, Instant , 3U Until end of turn, if target player would draw a
card, instead that player skips that draw and you draw a card.

I really, really want to play this when my opponent plays Obsessive Search.
OK, enough obsessing about Obsessive. Plagiarize most often is going to be a
cantrip with the effect of removing a card from your opponent's hand. Black
used to have a card that no one ever played called Mind Ravel which did
basically the same thing. Now its blue and you pay an extra mana so it can
be an instant. Mize! Yeah, right. If your opponent has nothing useful in
hand, Plagiarize can deny him a useful card for another turn. Otherwise its
just expensive and vaguely annoying.

Possessed Aven R, Creature - Bird Soldier Horror, 2UU, 3/3 Flying Threshold
- Possessed Aven gets +1/+1, is black, and has "2B, T: Destroy target blue
creature."

If its a Possessed creature, its worth playing. Its a 3/3 flier for 4 mana
instead of the standard 2/2 with an excellent threshold ability if you can
access black mana. The best of the possessed creatures.

Retraced Image R, Sorcery , U Reveal a card in your hand, then put that card
into play if it has the same name as a permanent in play.

Very situational. Potentially a very powerful effect. I don't like
situational cards. If you have the mana to get the first permanent into
play, why not pay the mana to get the second permanent into play rather than
paying a card to do it? Inquiring minds want to know. Maybe its supposed to
be useful in a mirror match or a reanimator deck.

Skywing Aven C, Creature - Bird Soldier, 2U, 2/1 Flying Discard a card from
your hand: Return Skywing Aven to its owner's hand.

A beating in limited since it comes out faster than the 4 mana fliers and
its almost impossible to get rid of. OK so I'm not supposed to end a
sentence with a preposition. Sue me.

Stupefying Touch U, Enchant Creature , 1U When Stupefying Touch comes into
play, draw a card. Enchanted creature's activated abilities can't be played.

Another mostly useless blue creature enchantment. Be sure to maindeck these
if you expect to be matched up against me since my ratings need the boost.
Otherwise, wait til you see possessed creatures, Hallowed Healers, or
Chainflingers if you absolutely can't control them any other way and if they
would completely destroy you.

Turbulent Dreams R, Sorcery , UU As an additional cost to play Turbulent
Dreams, discard X cards from your hand. Return X target nonland permanents
to their owners' hands.

Not my dream card since it doesn't necessarily permanently deal with
anything. Still its potentially a strong temporary effect. And like any
discard effect in this block, you have the potential to abuse that.

BLACK

Boneshard Slasher U, Creature - Horror, 1B, 1/1 Flying Threshold - Boneshard
Slasher gets +2/+2 and has "When Boneshard Slasher becomes the target of a
spell or ability, sacrifice it."

A 1/1 flier with the potential to have to sac it for no gain after
threshold. Truely Torment is the **All-Powerful Black Set**.

Cabal Ritual C, Instant , 1B Add BBB to your mana pool. Threshold - Instead
add BBBBB to your mana pool.

I know people are psyched up about this but why? Paying a card to get one
extra mana before threshold is horrible unless you have some funky combo
going that just can't wait for your third land drop. If you can't think of
one, don't worry, you aren't alone. After threshold it gives you 5 black
mana. How many 5 casting cost black cards or 6 casting cost non-black cards
are you going to have in a deck? Its going to have to be a ton of them to
support 4 Cabal Rituals which means you are totally screwed unless you
manage to get threshold and get a Ritual in hand and your opponent doesn't
have a counter and can't change the number of cards in your graveyard. Cabal
Ritual is my pick as the card most likely to be sitting dead in someone's
hand. The strength of Dark Ritual was that its an early game card. Cabal
Ritual isn't.

Cabal Surgeon C, Creature - Minion, 2BB, 2/1 2BB, T, Remove two cards in
your graveyard from the game: Return target creature card from your
graveyard to your hand.

Expensive for the power/toughness. Would it have killed them to make it a
2/2? Very expensive activation cost and then the creature returns to your
hand instead of to play. You might not even be able to play the creature on
the same turn since the activation cost of the Surgeon is so high. On the
other hand it is recursion of creatures from the graveyard which can be a
strong effect in limited. You have to weigh the value of your other cards
which use the graveyard as a resource to figure out if this is worth
playing.

Cabal Torturer C, Creature - Minion, 1BB, 1/1 B, T: Target creature gets
-1/-1 until end of turn. Threshold - 3BB, T: Target creature gets -2/-2
until end of turn.

Powerful ability in block due to the large number of 1 toughness creatures
and might even see play in type 2 to kill off regenerators. I'm shocked you
don't have to discard to get the effect. Many other cards have worse
abilities with higher activation costs.

Carrion Rats C, Creature - Rat, B, 2/1 Whenever Carrion Rats attacks or
blocks, any player may remove a card in his or her graveyard from the game.
If a player does, Carrion Rats deals no combat damage this turn.

A very annoying drawback but the card is cheap and getting cards into the
graveyard isn't always as easy as it might look. Carrion Rat/Crypt
Keeper/Gravestorm decks are going to be at every PTQ. Whether they are
viable or not is yet to be seen but they'll be there regardless.

Carrion Wurm U, Creature - Zombie Wurm, 3BB, 6/5 Whenever Carrion Wurm
attacks or blocks, any player may remove three cards in his or her graveyard
from the game. If a player does, Carrion Wurm deals no combat damage this
turn.

Finding 3 cards to remove from the graveyard is even harder than just
removing the one. I've found it easier to kill this creature than to find
enough graveyard cards to take advantage of his drawback. A nice beatstick
and costed fairly.

Chainer, Dementia Master R, Creature - Minion Legend, 3BB, 3/3 All
Nightmares get +1/+1. BBB, Pay 3 life: Put target creature card from a
graveyard into play under your control. That creature is black and is a
Nightmare in addition to its creature types. When Chainer, Dementia Master
leaves play, remove all Nightmares from the game.

No matter how good you've heard this one is in limited, its better. The 3
black mana for the special ability is sometimes hard to come by but
recurring your utility creatures is awesome. I don't know how great it will
be in constructed. An aggressive deck might put you low enough on life that
by the time Chainer comes out, the special ability might be useless.
However, I'm fully confident I'll be matched up against the newbie with the
totally broken Chainer/LifeBurst/Teroh's Faithful deck and have to write an
embarrassing tournament report about it.

Chainer's Edict U, Sorcery , 1B Target player sacrifices a creature.
Flashback 5BB

Its great in limited. It's great in constructed. It'd be played even without
the flashback ability.

Crippling Fatigue C, Sorcery , 1BB Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of
turn. Flashback-1B, Pay 3 life.

If it were an instant I'd be gushing with praise. As a sorcery, its solid
removal but no surprise value.

Dawn of the Dead R, Enchantment , 2BBB At the beginning of your upkeep, you
lose 1 life. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may return target creature
card from your graveyard to play. That creature gains haste until end of
turn. Remove it from the game at end of turn.

Let me get this straight: the card kills you, its only useful if you have a
creature in the graveyard, that creature may or may not be able to
successfully attack and can never be a blocker, that creature gets removed
from the game so it can't count toward threshold or ever be useful again in
any way, and WotC had to put three black mana into the casting cost to make
sure Dawn of the Dead wasn't undercosted? OK what was the R&D team seeing
that I'm not?

Faceless Butcher C, Creature - Nightmare Horror, 2BB, 2/3 When Faceless
Butcher comes into play, remove target creature other than Faceless Butcher
from the game. When Faceless Butcher leaves play, return the removed card to
play under its owner's control.

Terrific card in limited and I expect it to see a lot of constructed play
also. I almost fainted when I realized the toughness really was three and
that it wasn't just a misprint in the spoiler. Maybe this really is the
Black Set. Of course you can butcher one of your own creatures before
playing an Upheaval. That way you only have to resolve the Upheaval to get
an advantage rather than having to resove the Zombie Infestation also. I
think I'd almost pay money to see a mirror match of Butcher/Upheaval decks.

Gloomdrifter U, Creature - Minion, 3B, 2/2 Flying Threshold - When
Gloomdrifter comes into play, nonblack creatures get -2/-2 until end of
turn.

Average cost for a flier. Excellent come into play ability...but only after
Threshold. Plus it limits your ability to use creatures in other colors. Its
a good card but a deck is going to need some thought on how best to abuse
it.

Gravegouger C, Creature - Nightmare Horror, 2B, 2/2 When Gravegouger comes
into play, remove up to two target cards in a single graveyard from the
game. When Gravegouger leaves play, return the removed cards to their
owner's graveyard.

This was surprisingly good for me in sealed deck. Its going to be
unsurprisingly bad in constructed.

Grotesque Hybrid U, Creature - Zombie, 4B, 3/3 Whenever Grotesque Hybrid
deals combat damage to a creature, destroy that creature. It can't be
regenerated. Discard a card from your hand: Grotesque Hybrid gains flying
and protection from green and from white until end of turn.

I have no idea whether this is going to be good or poor in constructed. Its
pricey but it also does several different things none of which are bad. In
limited its not a bomb but it does come close. Is there any such thing as
Bomb Lite?

Hypnox R, Creature - Nightmare Horror, 8BBB, 8/8 Flying When Hypnox comes
into play, if you played it from your hand, remove all cards in target
opponent's hand from the game. When Hypnox leaves play, return the removed
cards to their owner's hand.

In constructed its going to be a kill card of choice in reanimator decks. A
flying fat creature with a built-in Mind Twist is too good to ignore. In
sealed its great if you can cast it. However, in wandering around the room
at the pre-release, I don't think I saw but maybe one or two games all day
where a player had out 11 mana. I'd rather have a weenie.

Ichorid R, Creature - Horror, 3B, 3/1 Haste At end of turn, sacrifice
Ichorid. At the beginning of your upkeep, if Ichorid is in your graveyard,
you may remove a black creature card in your graveyard other than Ichorid
from the game. If you do, return Ichorid to play.

Maybe this is a real beatstick in limited and I just didn't see it. The
typical play went like this: reanimate and I take 3, reanimate and I chump,
then mt opponent is saying, "Damn, I'm out of creatures in my graveyard and
I really need threshold." And of course the Ichorid is useless against any
kind of regenerating blocker. Its got a lot more potential in constructed as
a counterspell hoser or in a funky semi-combo deck like Traumatizing
Psychatog.

Insidious Dreams R, Instant , 3B As an additional cost to play Insidious
Dreams, discard X cards from your hand. Search your library for X cards.
Then shuffle your library and put those cards on top of it in any order.

Its a tutor but instead of costing you one card and using up your draw phase
like one of the Mirage tutors, it costs you two cards. Is it worth two cards
guarantee you draw the one card you want? Or three cards to eventually draw
the two you want? It depends on your deck obviously but I have a sneaking
suspicion that the answer for most decks is going to be "no its not worth
it". Tutoring for two cards might be okay but if you are depending on just
drawing the card in your regular draw phase, how do you know what you need
three turns or more into the future? Not to mention that there's absolutely
no immediate benefit from playing this Dream. The only real synergy I see
with any card is with Fact or Fiction. Use Insidious Dreams to put 5
flashback cards, for example, on top of your deck, take the three card split
and cast the rest from the graveyard. Of course you have to successfully
resolve the Dream and then the Fact or Fiction and remember like all the
Dreams, you lose the discarded cards whether the Dream resolves or not.

Laquatus's Champion R, Creature - Nightmare Horror, 4BB, 6/3 When Laquatus's
Champion comes into play, target player loses 6 life. When Laquatus's
Champion leaves play, that player gains 6 life. B: Regenerate Laquatus's
Champion.

I dream of Buried Alive followed up by Living Death. The six power is very
nice but the cheap regeneration is what makes the card shine. Probably this
is the most difficult nightmare to remove from play which makes the
nightmare ability that much stronger. But the Champion is expensive and I
wouldn't recommend tapping out of black mana to cast it.

Last Laugh R, Enchantment , 2BB Whenever a permanent other than Last Laugh
is put into a graveyard from play, Last Laugh deals 1 damage to each
creature and each player. When no creatures are in play, sacrifice Last
Laugh.

Look its a Pestilence that you can't control. If your opponent is playing
sac lands or other permanents he can sacrifice, he might have more control
to use this to his advantage than you do. How strong is that? I can't think
of why I'd be desperate enough to play this. The real advantage of this card
is that if you manage to trade it away for another rare, you still have the
last laugh.

Mesmeric Fiend C, Creature - Nightmare Horror, 1B, 1/1 When Mesmeric Fiend
comes into play, target opponent reveals his or her hand and you choose a
nonland card from it. Remove that card from the game. When Mesmeric Fiend
leaves play, return the removed card to its owner's hand.

This card suffers from too many lines of text. Other than that its an OK
card. It can be a Duress or an Ostracize and its attached to a 1/1 creature.
I could see it being used in block constructed since neither of those other
two cards are available. In a B/U type 2 deck 4 Duress and 4 Mesmeric Fiend
to let you look at your opponent's hand so you know exactly which cards you
need to counter of the ones he has left. OK nothings that easy but a guy can
dream, can't he?

Mind Sludge U, Sorcery , 4B Target player discards a card from his or her
hand for each swamp you control.

How do you know your opponent is going to have enough cards left in hand by
the time you get to 5 mana to make playing this worthwhile? Mind Burst isn't
all that good but at least for its two mana you can play it in the early
game to be pretty sure to nail some card and do it before your opponent
draws into a hand full of counters.

Mortal Combat R, Enchantment , 2BB At the beginning of your upkeep, if
twenty or more creature cards are in your graveyard, you win the game.

I think WotC needs to do a cycle of old video game cards: Mortal Combat,
Centipede, Galaga, Pac-Man. Anyway, its rough getting 20 creature cards into
the graveyard since most decks don't run more creatures than that total.
Somebody in the R&D Future Future league put together a Mortal
Combat/Traumatize/Battle of Wits deck. Normal sized decks can't play enough
creatures to make Mortal Combat work. If you are playing an oversized deck,
its going to have Battle of Wits in it. Traumatize is the fastest way in
type 2 to fill your graveyard. The theme is so obvious they might as well
have made this into one of the Torment pre-constructed decks.

Mortiphobia U, Enchantment , 1BB 1B, Discard a card from your hand: Remove
target card in a graveyard from the game. 1B, Sacrifice Mortiphobia: Remove
target card in a graveyard from the game.

You pay five mana and two cards to remove one of your opponent's cards from
his graveyard. Yes this is the beginning of the UberDeck! Uh-huh. Compare
this to Steamclaw. The same casting cost. Steamclaw costs one more mana to
activate but you don't have to discard to use it. Would you rather pay one
more mana each turn or discard one more card each turn? Yeah, me too. Then
consider that no one plays with Steamclaw which appears to be a better card
than Mortiphobia.

Mutilate R, Sorcery , 2BB All creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn for each
swamp you control.

A very powerful card. You have two options for using Mutilate: the typical
Wrath of God strategy of not overextending so your opponent loses more or
you can play fat creatures and just depend on Mutilate to remove weenies.
That's more flexible than Wrath of God but, since it isn't the guaranteed
kill of a Wrath, its a little weaker also. Since the kill depends on the
number of swamps, I expect the fat creature strategy to pop up a lot in
rogue multi-color decks.

Nantuko Shade R, Creature - Insect Shade, BB, 2/1 B: Nantuko Shade gets
+1/+1 until end of turn.

Its not a Knight of Stromgald but it is one of the better weenies printed
recently and its type 2 legal which is more than you can say of the star
black cards of yesteryear. With all these insects in Odyssey block, I keep
expecting an insect lord to show up.

Organ Grinder C, Creature - Zombie, 2B, 3/1 T, Remove three cards in your
graveyard from the game: Target player loses 3 life.

An absolute beating in limited. At the very least it receives the first
removal spell your opponent can find. No one wants to be on the wrong end of
an active Grinder which has a full graveyard to work with. But I did expect
the picture to be more...obscene. I can't believe this card name made it
into print.

Psychotic Haze C, Instant , 2BB Psychotic Haze deals 1 damage to each
creature and each player. Madness 1B

Notice it has madness for 1B and not flashback for 1B. Playing between
rounds at the pre-release, I killed my opponent by flashing this back out of
the graveyard. We were half way through the next game before I realized what
I'd done. Its a good card in limited but it'd be much better with flashback.
:-)

Putrid Imp C, Creature - Zombie Imp, B, 1/1 Discard a card from your hand:
Putrid Imp gains flying until end of turn. Threshold - Putrid Imp gets +1/+1
and can't block.

Anyone remember Flying Men? Cloud Sprite? Flesh Reaver? (Just seeing if you
were still paying attention). I'm not going to pay a card to get a 1/1
creature to fly for one turn. I've seen people take Magic cards and glue
them together to make funny hats. This card is a prime candidate for that
because you are never going to use it in a deck.

Rancid Earth C, Sorcery , 1BB Destroy target land. Threshold - Instead
destroy that land and Rancid Earth deals 1 damage to each creature and each
player.

A very solid land destruction card. Is land destruction viable in limited?
In Invasion block, people spread out across colors so a little land
destruction could work wonders to color screw a deck. Odyssey so far looks
like the Land of Boring Two Color Decks which makes land destruction much
less effective. A perfect example of a good card in a bad environment.

Restless Dreams C, Sorcery , B As an additional cost to play Restless
Dreams, discard X cards from your hand. Return X target creature cards from
your graveyard to your hand.

A strong effect with a cheap casting cost. Play it in limited. For
constructed, maybe a weenie deck with flashback cards. Your opponent tries
to stabilize by killing off a few attackers. You Restless Dreams them out of
the graveyard discarding madness and flashback cards. Nice potential.

Sengir Vampire R, Creature - Vampire, 3BB, 4/4 Flying Whenever a creature
dealt damage by Sengir Vampire this turn is put into a graveyard, put a
+1/+1 counter on Sengir Vampire.

A sentimental favorite. In my first or second sanctioned tournament I used
Sacred Mesa tokens to chump block a pair of Sengir Vampires. They got up to
24/24 and 25/25 before I drew a Wrath of God to reset the board. I still
remember wishing I had a couple of 25/25 creatures for *my* deck. Its
dominating in limited and will probably make a showing in block. I don't
expect to see it much in type 2. Almost everyone used to agree that Serra
Angel was stronger than a Sengir and Serra can't break into type 2.

Shade's Form C, Enchant Creature , 1BB Enchanted creature has "B: This
creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn." When enchanted creature is put into
a graveyard, return that creature to play under your control.

Its a creature enchantment that cost three mana and has no effect unless you
pump in even more mana, and only black mana, into it. You'll never see it in
constructed. Inexperienced players are going to maindeck it in limited. If
they are lucky, they'll realize the card is a dud due to the lack of black
mana and sideboard it out every match. If they are unlucky, it will be
useful in an early match and they'll spend the rest of the day trying to
play it and get lucky again.

Shambling Swarm R, Creature - Horror, 1BBB, 3/3 When Shambling Swarm is put
into a graveyard from play, distribute three -1/-1 counters among one, two,
or three target creatures. Remove those counters at end of turn.

This doesn't look like much but I ended up taking a lot of damage from these
over the pre-release weekend since blocking it often wasn't a viable option.
It can also stall out a weenie attack better than any one creature has a
right to. Barely average in constructed.

Sickening Dreams U, Sorcery , 1B As an additional cost to play Sickening
Dreams, discard X cards from your hand. Sickening Dreams deals X damage to
each creature and each player.

How many Dream cards does black get? Sheesh! Black gets a
Pestilence/Firestorm card. The damage isn't targeted which is a major plus
which also means it affects your own creatures which is a major drawback. I
expect to see a lot of these in constructed.

Slithery Stalker U, Creature - Nightmare Horror, 1BB, 1/1 Swampwalk. When
Slithery Stalker comes into play, remove target green or white creature an
opponent controls from the game. When Slithery Stalker leaves play, return
the removed card to play under its owner's control.

A strong creature in limited. Swampwalk is very nice when most decks seem to
be playing black and the anti-green or white ability makes it strong against
most of the rest of the decks. It might see some play in constructed against
white or green decks which can't access much removal.

Soul Scourge C, Creature - Nightmare Horror, 4B, 3/2 Flying. When Soul
Scourge comes into play, target player loses 3 life. When Soul Scourge
leaves play, that player gains 3 life.

Play it in limited. You have better things to do with 5 mana in constructed.
If you don't, contact me to sell you some cards so that you have something
better to do with 5 mana in constructed.

Strength of Lunacy U, Enchant Creature , 1B Enchanted creature gets +2/+1
and has protection from white. Madness B

Its Unholy Strength with protection vs white. Its playable in limited which
isn't something I say often about creature enchantments. Its going to see
constructed play also for anyone who thinks a suicide black deck is viable.

Unhinge C, Sorcery , 2B Target player discards a card from his or her hand.
Draw a card.

This used to be called Mind Ravel and no one played it. Now its called
Unhinge and no one will play it.

Waste Away C, Instant , 4B As an additional cost to play Waste Away, discard
a card from your hand. Target creature gets -5/-5 until end of turn.

I've grown to love this card. I don't think its viable in constructed due to
the cost but the sheer removal power is going to make it a force in limited.

Zombie Trailblazer U, Creature - Zombie, BBB, 2/2 Tap an untapped Zombie you
control: Target land becomes a swamp until end of turn. Tap an untapped
Zombie you control: Target creature gains swampwalk until end of turn.

Why isn't there a Zombie lord in Odyssey block since that's where all the
zombies seem to be hanging out? ZTrailblazer is a beating in limited and
will have a place in every constructed zombie theme deck. You might even see
rogue black land destruction decks with zombies to provide color screw.
Personally, I'm putting it into my Blazing Saddles deck: Blaze, Blazing
Salvo, Blazing Specter, Zombie Trailblazer, and Chainer, Dementia Master
(hey, someone has to play Mel Brooks).

RED

Accelerate C, Instant , 1R Target creature gains haste until end of turn.
Draw a card.

Accelerate is no Reckless Charge so I'd be surprised to see it in
constructed. Since its a cantrip its not going to cost you a card but
finding a good target for it is going to iffy. Reckless Charge pumps up the
power of the hasted creature which makes your opponent often reluctant to
block. With Accelerate, the creature is going to have to stand solely on its
own merits. I'd expect Accelerate to be cycled for the cantrip as often as
played for its effect and frankly that's not what I'm looking for in red
cards.

Balthor the Stout R, Creature - Dwarf Legend, 1RR, 2/2 All Barbarians get
+1/+1. R: Target Barbarian gets +1/+0 until end of turn.

The barbarians finally get a "lord". I don't think there's enough depth of
barbarians to make as effective of a theme deck as zombies or goblins not to
mention that Balthor being a legend keeps him from being played in
multiples. But still this is a sentimental favorite. How well he works in
limited is going to depend on how many barbarians you get. I've never
noticed a huge demand for barbarians in draft so if you get Balthor early
you might be able to pick up several.

Barbarian Outcast C, Creature - Barbarian Beast, 1R, 2/2 When you control no
swamps, sacrifice Barbarian Outcast.

If you are playing B/R, its not much of a drawback and red is always short
on bears. No special ability but begger colors can't be choosy.

Crackling Club C, Enchant Creature , R Enchanted creature gets +1/+0.
Sacrifice Crackling Club: Crackling Club deals 1 damage to target creature.

This is a beating in sealed deck. I used it to kill a creature every single
time I drew it over the pre-release weekend. Sure some of that was luck but
some of it is that there's a ton of one toughness creatures out there. I
even got to attack with it still enchanting a creature once or twice.

Crazed Firecat U, Creature - Cat, 5RR, 4/4 When Crazed Firecat comes into
play, flip a coin until you lose a flip. Put a +1/+1 counter on Crazed
Firecat for each flip you win.

Seven casting cost for a 4/4 creature with no evasion. Oh I'm excited now! I
don't think this even qualifies as a warm body in limited since you aren't
getting it into play. Woodland Druid is a beating compared to this. Somebody
is going to try it in a Chance Encounter deck just because its in color and
it flips coins. That person is going to set that deck aside after a while
and try to win a game or two.

Devastating Dreams R, Sorcery , RR As an additional cost to play Devastating
Dreams, discard X cards at random from your hand. Each player sacrifices X
lands. Devastating Dreams deals X damage to each creature.

I really only get excited about random discard when it happens to my
opponent. Let's add this up. For example you play Devasting Dreams and
discard 5 cards costing you a total of 6 cards. You then sacrifice 5 land
costing you a total of 11 cards. Your opponent sacrifices 5 land so the
spell so far has cost you 11 cards and him 5 cards. Unless you come out a
long, long, long way to the good on killing off creatures, you are handing
your opponent significant card advantage and paying mana to do it.
Personally, if my opponent wants card advantage, I want him to have to
accomplish it himself rather than doing it for him. You can't even pick the
land of his you want sacrificed to make sure he's color-screwed. A copy of
it is going to show up in every land destruction deck but I think its a bad
card.

Enslaved Dwarf C, Creature - Dwarf, R, 1/1 R, Sacrifice Enslaved Dwarf:
Target black creature gets +1/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn.

This was very solid in my first B/R pre-release sealed deck. Early beats for
a couple of points of damage then hold it back as a combat trick to make my
opponent reluctant to block my black creatures. Usually black doesn't have
access to first strike so I was hoping to catch someone by surprise with it.
I never did but having it in play still turned combat decisions in my favor.

Fiery Temper C, Instant , 1RR Fiery Temper deals 3 damage to target creature
or player. Madness R

This is Lightning Bolt Mark II if your deck has a consistent way to discard
(cough**Wild Mongrel**cough). Even without the madness, three mana for three
damage isn't too bad in the current environment.

Flaming Gambit U, Instant , XR Flaming Gambit deals X damage to target
player. That player may choose a creature he or she controls and have
Flaming Gambit deal that damage to it instead. Flashback XRR

No, this isn't talking about Gambit from the X-Men. There are better
x-spells in type 2. There aren't in block but still don't expect to kill
your opponent with this. Blazing Salvo is better than Flaming Gambit because
at least you get to pick the creature you'd prefer to kill if the player
chooses not to take damage. Most often FG is going to be "pay a bunch of
mana to kill your opponent's worst creature" or "pay a bunch of mana to
force your opponent to regenerate a creature".

Flash of Defiance C, Sorcery , 1R Players can't block with green and/or
white creatures this turn. Flashback-1R, Pay 3 life.

I brought this in from the sideboard for sealed deck for a couple of games
but then didn't bother any more. A sealed deck might have white or green
creatures but not both in the same deck which means the Flash might hit one
creature or maybe two even when you get to use it in a good situation. I
don't like situational cards. In constructed its going to be a great card
just as soon as G/W creature decks become the deck to beat. I figure that
will be sometime in spring 2012.

Grim Lavamancer R, Creature - Wizard, R, 1/1 R, T, Remove two cards in your
graveyard from the game: Grim Lavamancer deals 2 damage to target creature
or player.

This is the best weenie since Wild Mongrel. Gee, that goes back a long ways,
huh. The new sligh creature, the best thing since Mogg Fanatic, yeah
whatever. Its still a 1/1 creature and you have to have two cards in the
graveyard every time you use the special ability. That alone limits its
usefulness in the early game when a sligh deck is wanting to put the other
player on the ropes. Everyone in red is going to want to play it and I'm
going to make a ton selling them on ebay. But people are going to drop them
into play then spend more time watching them sit there and do nothing than
they would have guessed.

Hell-Bent Raider R, Creature - Barbarian, 1RR, 2/2 First strike, haste
Discard a card at random from your hand: Hell-Bent Raider gains protection
from white until end of turn.

Bar-bar-bar-barbarian (OK so the song is supposed to be Barbara Ann. I'm
trying to avoid infringing on a copywrite, folks.) Red gets a creature with
two useful abilities which isn't particularly overcosted. Pardon me while I
go check the thermometer to make sure Hell froze over...yep, Hell, Norway
was way below freezing and the forecast says the same for tomorrow. I wonder
if this means that red will get another good card?

Kamahl's Sledge C, Sorcery , 5RR Kamahl's Sledge deals 4 damage to target
creature. Threshold - Instead Kamahl's Sledge deals 4 damage to that
creature and 4 damage to that creature's controller.

I got two in my B/R sealed and never wanted them in the deck. Can they make
removal bad enough that no one will play it? Probably not but they can make
it bad enough that *I* won't play with it. What good is having a removal
card you can't cast? I've won a lot of game with these sitting dead in my
oppoent's hand.

Longhorn Firebeast C, Creature - Beast, 2R, 3/2 When Longhorn Firebeast
comes into play, any opponent may have it deal 5 damage to him or her. If a
player does, sacrifice Longhorn Firebeast.

My favorite creature of the new set. I've playtested with people using 4 of
these and its amazing how often taking 10 points of damage to keep Longhorns
out of play looks like a good idea at the start but turns out to have been a
bad idea later. 4 Longhorn Firebeat with 4 Blazing Salvo look like the start
of a deck.

Overmaster R, Sorcery , R The next instant or sorcery spell you play this
turn can't be countered by spells or abilities. Draw a card.

Its not much in limited except a randomly cast cantrip. I expect to see them
in the sideboard of constructed decks. How effective they'll be is up for
debate. With those 4 sideboard slots, you could put in 4 more burn spells
which would be useful in both the blue matchup and in other matchups. I like
flexible spells in the sideboard unless a particular card is a major beating
against a deck I expect to see. Light of Day is a major beating against
black decks. Is Overmaster a major beating against counter decks? Maybe in a
couple of decks like Rice Snacks but in general I'd guess not.

Pardic Arsonist U, Creature - Barbarian, 2RR, 3/3 Threshold - When Pardic
Arsonist comes into play, it deals 3 damage to target creature or player.

Let's compare this to Thermal Blast which costs five mana for three damage,
can't target players, and doesn't have a 3/3 creature attatched. That Pardic
Arsonist is comparable at all to a Flametongue Kavu puts it in good company
but the Arsonist is not going to get stuck in your hand for lack of a target
like the FTK can. Arsonist is going to be seriously considered for any deck
which can support the double red casting cost for a long, long time.

Pardic Collaborator U, Creature - Barbarian, 3R, 2/2 First strike B: Pardic
Collaborator gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

Probably too expensive for constructed and the off color pump cost limits
its usefulness. But it does have first strike along with the pump ability
which is a strong combination not often seen on the same card. A good card
for a B/R limited deck.

Pardic Lancer C, Creature - Barbarian, 4R, 3/2 Discard a card at random from
your hand: Pardic Lancer gets +1/+0 and gains first strike until end of
turn.

Strictly worse than Dwarven Strike Force, which doesn't see play in
constructed, for the same mana cost. The loss of one power between the two
cards is huge. I'd have to be needy for a creature before I'd play this in
limited. You can play the discard ablity several times in the same turn for
a slightly bigger Lancer but how often are you going to do that?

Petradon R, Creature - Nightmare Beast, 6RR, 5/6 When Petradon comes into
play, remove two target lands from the game. When Petradon leaves play,
return the removed cards to play under their owners' control. R: Petradon
gets +1/+0 until end of turn.

By the time you get to 8 mana to cast this, your opponent is probably going
to have 7-9 mana himself. How useful is removing two of his land from the
game going to be? Not to mention by the time you get to 8 mana the game will
probably be over.

Petravark C, Creature - Nightmare Beast, 3R, 2/2 When Petravark comes into
play, remove target land from the game. When Petravark leaves play, return
the removed card to play under its owner's control.

Its like Suffering but with a 2/2 creature attatched. Avalanche Rider
destroyed the land and had haste but you had to echo it the next turn. I
think in comparison that Petravark is costed out to be playable.

Pitchstone Wall U, Creature - Wall, 2R, 2/5 Whenever you discard a card from
your hand, you may sacrifice Pitchstone Wall. If you do, return the
discarded card from your graveyard to your hand.

Walls are so much better when they have power greater than zero but even
considering that it's not playable in constructed. Sacing it when you
discard is really bad in this set in limited but if your deck needs a big
butt to sit back and play defense, this is the card for you.

Possessed Barbarian R, Creature - Barbarian Horror, 2RR, 3/3 First strike
Threshold - Possessed Barbarian gets +1/+1, is black, and has "2B, T:
Destroy target red creature."

Play it if you can in limited. Play it if you use B/R in constructed and
expect to see lots of red creatures.

Pyromania U, Enchantment , 2R 1R, Discard a card at random from your hand:
Pyromania deals 1 damage to target creature or player. 1R, Sacrifice
Pyromania: Pyromania deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

This looks like it'd be better than it is. I've dropped early then never
used it more often than I've killed something with it. The randomness of the
discard is a real killer. Of couse you can always pay five mana and sac the
card to do one damage and not have to worry about the discard ability.

Radiate R, Instant , 3RR Choose target instant or sorcery spell that targets
only a single permanent or player. For each other permanent or player that
spell could target, put a copy of the spell onto the stack. Each copy
targets a different one of those permanents and players.

Somebody is going to cast this with Prophetic Bolt in a big tournament to do
4 damage to each creature and player and to impulse 10 times. That story
will become as much of a legend as an Armadillo Cloaked Rith. By the time
you spend mana to cast the Radiate and whatever spell you want to radiate,
this is a danged mana expensive card. Of course you can use it on your
opponent's spells also but there's no guarantee he will be playing spells
you'd like to Radiate. I've heard people speculating about using it in Rice
Snacks since it doesn't have the mana limitations of other decks but I don't
see Radiate particularly speeding up the kill. This is going to be a
favorite of multi-player decks though.

Skullscorch R, Sorcery , RR Target player discards two cards at random from
his or her hand unless that player has Skullscorch deal 4 damage to him or
her.

It Hymn to Tourach back for a return engagement. I wouldn't count on the
damage from this since players might just hold extra land in hand to discard
or play out their whole hand to make Skullscorch a dead card. Its a very
good discard spell, nothing more and nothing less.

Sonic Seizure C, Instant , R As an additional cost to play Sonic Seizure,
discard a card at random from your hand. Sonic Seizure deals 3 damage to
target creature or player.

Lightning Bolt costs two cards now. Removal is removal so its going to see
play in limited. The random discard drawback will keep it out of
constructed.

Temporary Insanity U, Instant , 3R Untap target creature with power less
than the number of cards in your graveyard and gain control of it until end
of turn. That creature gains haste until end of turn.

Ray of Command is now red? That's insane. Constructed decks can be built to
have a way to sac the creature once it is stolen. In limited its a great way
to break a creature stall. Nice all the way around.

Violent Eruption U, Instant , 1RRR Violent Eruption deals 4 damage divided
as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or players. Madness
1RR

That's a heck of a lot of red in the casting cost but its an opportunity for
a heck of a lot of card advantage too. I'd consider this for the sideboard
of any heavy red deck...that isn't designed to win before turn 4.

GREEN

Acorn Harvest C, Sorcery , 3G Put two 1/1 green Squirrel creature tokens
into play. Flashback-1G, Pay 3 life.

I'm not too impressed with 1/1 creatures with no special abilities that you
aren't likely to get into play before turn 4. The green decks I've played
with this used them as chump blockers. I've actually reminded my opponent
that the Acorn Harvest in their graveyard had flashback but none of them so
far were willing to pay the three life to get the extra squirrels. Maybe
someone will play this in an Opposition deck so the 1/1 squirrels would be
of some use.

Anurid Scavenger U, Creature - Beast, 2G, 3/3 Protection from black At the
beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Anurid Scavenger unless you put a card
from your graveyard on the bottom of your library.

Its Gaea's Blessing and a creature all in one card. I like it since black
decks are going to be around. Keeping it in play is tricky. The deck needs
to not depend on threshold at all, have a limited number of flashback
spells, and probably not more than 2 of the Scavengers. A lot more thinking
involved than needed for your typical green creature.

Arrogant Wurm U, Creature - Wurm, 3GG, 4/4 Trample Madness 2G

Five mana for a 4/4 trampler isn't bad. In constructed, Wild Mongrel are
likely to be in every green deck which makes paying only the madness cost
more likely.

Basking Rootwalla C, Creature - Lizard, G, 1/1 1G: Basking Rootwalla gets
+2/+2 until end of turn. Play this ability only once each turn. Madness 0

Good enough for type 2 constructed or limited and maybe even Extended once
Winter Orb falls out of vogue.

Centaur Chieftain U, Creature - Centaur, 3G, 3/3 Haste Threshold - When
Centaur Chieftain comes into play, creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain
trample until end of turn.

Green doesn't get many haste creatures and frankly I'd rather have trample
most of the time. But you get a mini-Overrun effect after threshold which I
think makes it work for constructed and a real beating in limited.

Centaur Veteran C, Creature - Centaur, 5G, 3/3 Trample G, Discard a card
from your hand: Regenerate Centaur Veteran.

Six mana? The Centaur Chieftain only costs four for its 3/3 creature. And
you have to discard a card for the regeneration effect rather than the
regular payment of one green mana? Ugh, use it if you need the warm body in
limited...but hope you don't need it as a warm body in limited. Honestly,
regeneration is strong enough in limited where you might need to play it if
you are in green but...<gag>.

Dwell on the Past U, Sorcery , G Target player shuffles up to four target
cards from his or her graveyard into his or her library.

In limited it can put back in removal cards or creatures you've lost or your
bombs. I wouldn't pull any really solid cards from a deck to fit it in but
most decks are scrounging a bit on their 22nd and 23rd cards anyway. In
constructed its begging to be used in combo decks.

Far Wanderings C, Sorcery , 2G Search your library for a basic land card and
put that card into play tapped. Then shuffle your library. Threshold -
Instead search your library for three basic land cards and put them into
play tapped. Then shuffle your library.

I thought Deep Reconnaisance was pretty sad (8 mana for 2 land). The
post-threshold on this card, however, makes it more interesting. If it had
flashback also, I'd even play it.

Gurzigost R, Creature - Beast, 3GG, 6/8 At the beginning of your upkeep,
sacrifice Gurzigost unless you put two cards from your graveyard on the
bottom of your library. GG, Discard a card from your hand: You may have
Gurzigost deal its combat damage to defending player this turn as though it
weren't blocked.

This is everything Anurid Scavenger isn't. Its big and cheap, it has
evasion, it has a built-in way to get around its drawback, and its hard to
pronounce. It could be the finisher in a lot of constructed green decks.

Insist R, Sorcery , G The next creature spell you play this turn can't be
countered by spells or abilities. Draw a card.

I like this more than red's Overmaster since Insist can get a permanent
source of damage onto the board. In type 2 I'd play Gaea's Herald instead
but there's nothing wrong with it for block.

Invigorating Falls C, Sorcery , 2GG You gain life equal to the number of
creature cards in all graveyards.

If you are playing lifegain at all, you are generally on the wrong end of a
beating. To make it worse, this isn't even a very good lifegain card. Its
situational, expensive, a sorcery....

Krosan Constrictor C, Creature - Snake, 3G, 2/2 Swampwalk T: Target black
creature gets -2/-0 until end of turn.

Swampwalk is going to be good in limited since more often than not the deck
you face will have swamps. The special ability isn't very versitile but it
can give a big edge in a matchup vs black.

Krosan Restorer C, Creature - Druid, 2G, 1/2 T: Untap target land. Threshold
- T: Untap up to three target lands.

The second coming of Ley Druid. Its good with Squirrel Nest and it can block
1/1 creatures. Whew, I didn't think I could come up with two nice things to
say about it. Untapping a land is a good effect once in a while but mostly
the Restorer is a "fast mana" creature which costs three mana to get into
play. As far as I can see, there's nothing fast about getting to use your
mana creature for the first time on turn four. A fast deck needs to be
winning on turn four not ramping up to having adequate mana.

Nantuko Blightcutter R, Creature - Insect Druid, 2G, 2/2 Protection from
black Threshold - Nantuko Blightcutter gets +1/+1 for each black permanent
your opponents control.

Protection from black creatures are very nice in limited and maybe a
sideboard card in type 2 if black decks become popular.

Nantuko Calmer C, Creature - Insect Druid, 2GG, 2/3 G, T, Sacrifice Nantuko
Calmer: Destroy target enchantment. Threshold - Nantuko Calmer gets +1/+1.

A warm body but nothing special. There's not many enchantments which need
destroying in block but here's your chance.

Nantuko Cultivator R, Creature - Insect Druid, 3G, 2/2 When Nantuko
Cultivator comes into play, you may discard any number of land cards from
your hand. Put that many +1/+1 counters on Nantuko Cultivator and draw that
many cards.

How many land are you likely to have in hand when you hit 4 mana or how long
do you put off casting this hoping to draw more land? Oh, well.

Narcissism U, Enchantment , 2G G, Discard a card from your hand: Target
creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. G, Sacrifice Narcissism: Target
creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.

Every card can become a (not quite) Giant Growth? Great in limited and it
might be great in constructed also. It gets abusive very quickly when you
have a hand full of cards.

Nostalgic Dreams R, Sorcery , GG As an additional cost to play Nostalgic
Dreams, discard X cards from your hand. Return X target cards from your
graveyard to your hand. Remove Nostalgic Dreams from the game.

This is my favorite Dream. Recycle bombs and removal in limited. Combo decks
like Rice Snacks in type 2. Abusive in recycling burn from R/G decks. If
your deck can produce two green mana, this card needs to be considered. If
your opponent's deck can produce two green mana, this card needs to be
feared.

Parallel Evolution R, Sorcery , 3GG For each creature token in play, its
controller puts a creature token into play that's a copy of that creature.
Flashback 4GGG

Double your tokens, double your fun. I don't know that green has enough
token creatures to make this a powerhouse but its going to be fun trying to
find out. Not very useful in limited since you can't be guaranteed of
getting any cards which generate token creatures. Of course if you've
drafted a lot of them and this card comes along in the last pack, feel free
to take it.

Possessed Centaur R, Creature - Centaur Horror, 2GG, 3/3 Trample Threshold -
Possessed Centaur gets +1/+1, is black, and has "2B, T: Destroy target green
creature."

If its Posessed, it goes in your deck.

Seton's Scout U, Creature - Centaur Druid, 1G, 2/1 Seton's Scout may block
as though it had flying. Threshold - Seton's Scout gets +2/+2.

This is a cheap weenie which can sneak in for some early damage. The average
flier is four mana for a 2/2 so this kills it (or at least intimidates it)
cheaply. After threshold, its going to shut down almost every flier in the
block. Not bad for 2 mana.

LAND

Cabal Coffers U, Land 2, T: Add B to your mana pool for each swamp you
control.

You have to have 4 swamps in play before Cabal Coffers becomes better than a
basic swamp. Once you get 5 land in play, however, shouldn't that normally
be enough to cast almost everything in your deck? Why mess with your mana
base in hopes of producing huge amounts of mana in the mid to late game? If
you have a good answer to that, Cabal Coffers might be the card for you. Not
an early game card and really only usable in a mono-black deck using all
basic swamps.

Tainted Field U, Land T: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool. T: Add W
or B to your mana pool. Play this ability only if you control a swamp.

Tainted Isle U, Land T: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool. T: Add U
or B to your mana pool. Play this ability only if you control a swamp.

Tainted Peak U, Land T: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool. T: Add B
or R to your mana pool. Play this ability only if you control a swamp.

Tainted Wood U, Land T: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool. T: Add B
or G to your mana pool. Play this ability only if you control a swamp.

All of the Tainted lands are great for their respective color of B/x decks.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if many people avoided painlands in favor of
these especially in defensive decks. You still need the basic swamp to make
these work so I'm not sure how viable its going to be to play 4 painland
plus 4 Tainted and short yourself on the swamp count.

If you've made it this far, congratulations you are at the end. Thanks for
reading. Remember to bookmark this article and go back to read it in a month
or two. Its always some good laughs to see how badly mistaken a writer is
about a particular card or to marvel at how accurate the predictions were.

Lonnie Usery

ATW on IRC and elsewhere on the net

reindeercards@hotmail.com

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