Veil of Summer #8 – Top 12 MTG Cards of 2019

This card was 5th on my top 12 list.

Veil of Summer was part of the “uncommon hate cycle” from Core Set 2020, a retrained version of Autumn’s Veil from Magic 2012, and it wound up getting banned from Standard. Not bad for an uncommon. This is actually Veil of Summer’s first review on Pojo, so I’ll talk a bit more like a regular review as well as explaining why I put it this high.

Veil of Summer looks very conditional at first glance: you get to protect yourself from blue and black spells, your spells can’t be countered (though it doesn’t protect itself), and it even cantrips if your opponent already cast a blue or black spell! It is, in essence, one mana to say “no” to a lot, but what really helps Veil of Summer be obnoxious is actually that cantrip effect.

A lot of the time, answers are balanced out by being fairly resource-intensive: they require you to commit for them. Veil of Summer is only one mana, and it also replaces itself when you use it! Given that Veil of Summer was most played when we had a certain shirt-averse Fae planeswalker running around, you have a card that both is a good check to his shenanigans and a good card to run alongside his buff, sculpted body. It looks like it should be a sideboard card, but it was getting to the point where Veil of Summer was actually worthy of being maindecked, and it contributed to green being the dominant color of the back half of the year.

Veil of Summer was one of the casualties of Oko’s reign of terror, and it is now banned in Standard and Pioneer both. It’s definitely playable in Modern; it’s a one-mana check that thwarts a lot of obnoxious things (common kill spells, Liliana of the Veil’s -2, counter magic) and draws a replacement card from your library, but it’s definitely more of a sideboard card there. Which is where it was originally intended to reside, I suppose, but cards sometimes have a habit of taking over formats in ways we can hardly imagine.

Constructed: 3.5 (would be higher if it wasn’t banned in two formats!)
Casual: 3.25
Limited: 2.5
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander: 4 (odds are good you’ll be against a blue deck, a black deck, or both!)

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

This card was 10th on my top 12 list.

Where is the spring and the summer, that once was yours and mine? I’ve always been an autumn and winter man, myself, but I’ll admit that if you condense the energy and power of an entire summer into one green spell, you get this. This is a fine effect that we’ve seen occasionally down the years, and that adds an important tool to help against one of green’s weaknesses, but that “draw a card” text always attracts inordinate attention for competitive decks. As you’ve no doubt heard, Veil of Summer ended up being banned in Standard and Pioneer because it was just a little bit too attractive (and it turns out it’s better at protecting Oko than fighting Oko), but I expect it’ll see a lot of play in Modern and Legacy.

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
EDH/Commander: 4/5

Phat
Pack
Magic
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Hello Everyone and welcome back to Pojo’s Card of the Day!

Today we’re looking at the top 12 cards of 2019 and I have to tell you, this one did not make my list, not because it’s not strong but because I got an axe to grind.

Long ago WotC declared that Countermagic shall be neutered because Mana Leak was ‘unfun’ in comparison to cards like Doom Blade as this was decided based on the jeers of the peanut gallery. Their stance has been well known with the advancement of power creep for creatures in recent years and for the most part it’s been a solemn groan for control players every time a new set comes out and Mana Leak is absent from the list.

Heck, we couldn’t even get Miscalculate! Instead we got Quench.

But then Core 2020 came out, and if anything I think 2019 has been the year of ‘Green’ with Pump Up the Jam as its theme song.

This card, Veil of Summer, took the card Autumn’s Veil and dialed it up hard, providing a hard counter to removal and countermagic, as well as giving you hexproof, and if your opponent cast a spell that turn you get to draw a card.

In a world where a variety of decks are multicolor this essentially becomes ‘Counter target Non-Creature spell, draw a card’ for G.

Until this card was banned in Standard and Pioneer, it was a scary move to go ‘Turn 1 Thoughtseize’ against a player who had an untapped forest open.

But you know what? Mana Leak is unfun and OP.

Constructed 5/5 – Card Power is relative and since being banned it should have fallen off the radar, but Modern and Legacy have picked up on the tech and proudly proclaimed ‘I too would like to counter spells for G and draw a card!’

Commander 3/5 – Specific color hate is a little harder to do in multiplayer formats, but if you got a blue player that’s been hounding you, slide this in maybe?

Multiplayer 1/5 – Value goes down hard here, I don’t recommend getting into too many counter wars with the blue player.

Limited 2/5 – Draft it because it basically pays for the pack, and it’s a fine sideboard card.

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