Hello folks! I hope you are having a great day today!

Today I want to dive deeply into a recent release you might have skipped past. The Global Series. This is a series that Wizards of the Coast is putting out for a region, and the two decks feature many new cards that are Standard legal in that region. The first place they are going is China, and they have two new decks there. Today I want to show you all of the new cards, and discuss them, as well as give you my top ten suggestions for using these cards at the kitchen table. I have already purchased this series myself, so I have all of the cards. One of these cards, in particular, is good. I'm a little surprised this set isn't getting more press. But that's okay. Many of these cards feel like they were intentionally kept lower in power in order to keep Standard in China from being overly different than Standard in other places around the world.

Want to take a look?

Great!

Let's begin with the two features of this set, the two new planeswalkers.

Note that these names are given in the Chinese style, with the family name first, and then the given name to follow. Much like how we alphabetize our names.

Neither of these two planeswalkers are going to be the "Next Big Thing" in Standard, not unlike the 'walkers from other deck series. And that's okay, because they are still useful for us. Yanling's ability to draw cards and keep something of yours from getting blocked is pretty useful. She even has a strong Time Walk + Sleep effect as her ultimate. Sure, you'd like her to be 5 mana, but she's still good. She still runnable in Commander and such.

Yanggu is playing into pumping your stuff, and making a 3/3 legendary Hound named Mowu.

Seriously, don't you want to play with Mowu? Note that you can ultimate Yanggu pretty quickly. There's strong value with a pseudo-Berserk'ing planeswalker. Since it's based off lands, and we know Green's tendency to land-ramp, that's a powerful game-winning Mowu-pump.

The first thing I want to do is show you some cards that feel pretty tame. These are the cards that you are going to forget. Then we'll build up to the good stuff.

Many of the cards here are either reprints . . . 

Or are just a new version of a card that already exists, which I am calling a side-print:

And in some cases, these are a little worse or a mana lighter than you'd expect:

In fact, a lot of these cards are either good for Limited, or just okay.

What I want to do is to show you the ones first that are either side-prints of a card that already exists, or that are strictly worse than a card that already exists. But I want you to see the world, because the world-building here is pretty good.

The flavor on this stuff is incredible. I hate that the idea of a Vivid Flying Fish is just a 1/1 that gets flying when it attacks, but the art and concept is amazing. Purple-Crystal Crab? Awesome! Your various spells and dorks have a lot of strong flavor reminiscent of many Chinese epics, like Journey to the West or Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Many of these creatures are in Chinese mythology, like the Zheng. It was a red leopard with a horn and five tails.

Now I want to pause a moment and talk about the flavor of a creature type on a card that isn't new, and it should go above, but it's cool enough to engage here:

This is Reckless Pangolin. The card isn't anything. A 2/2 that gets +1/+1 when it swings for three mana isn't making anyone sit up and take notice. But that's okay. Because it's a Pangolin!

Did you know that Pangolins are now a supported creature type? I didn't! Here let's take a look at some others:

And that's it! Those are the two creatures that were errata'd and given the Pangolin creature type recently. You can find them in Gatherer.

Ummmm . . .  hey . . .  Wizards? I love the Pangolins! But did you miss one in the Great Pangolin Update of 2018???

This is Ridgescale Tusker! Isn't it a little Pangolin-esque? I think so!

Anyways, back to our other non-Pangolin unpacking of the Global Series.

Many of the cards remaining in this set are similar to other cards from sets that increase in power when the themed planeswalker in on the battlefield with them. The others can be used to tutor out the 'walker from your deck.

And again, these are not dissimilar to other effects printed before in these decks. Nothing new to see here. By the way, I adore the flavor of Moon-Eating Dog! That's one Hungry Hound! I would love to see Sun-Eating Cat! And again, this stuff is just dripping with flavor.

Now let's look at the cards that I find to have additional, interesting value. Starting with the lowest of them in power, up to the tippy top:

Everyone loves a Phoenix! This one emphasizes the fire-infused aspect of the Phoenix. And that's fine. What I miss is any sort of self-recursion when it dies. I would swap the mass-firebreathing pump for a good, iconic self-recursive one all day long.

For a five-mana investment, you get a 3/3 flyer that can shoot an opposing dork for a damage each time it swings. It feels like a great card to target for a draft, and a Cube, a Spirit deck, a Bird deck, and lots more could find space for it. I would not be surprised to see it as a uncommon for a future Conspiracy/Battlebond/Masters set as a very strong target.

This is the best creature in this series by far. It's on curve. It's a Dragon. It flies. It has a pertinent life-gain ability for when you swing with your stuff. It's basically a flying Patron of the Kitsune that has a slightly worse life-gain trigger but gets flying. Which is a good swap from where I am sitting.

I have long extolled the virtues of the Patron of the Kitsune, and I won't belabor them here. I have created an entire set of Magic card theory around it called the Fox Offering Syndrome.

Ancestor Dragon is a great addition to the game. And like some of the above stuff, I wouldn't be surprised to see it as an addition to a Commander deck in Commander 2018 or Commander 2019, or in some of the draft-able places I mentioned above for Fire-Omen Crane.

So, now that we have drilled down into every new card in this series, what are ten homes or synergies or cards that spark my mind? Great question!

The good thing about Nine-Tail White Fox is that it's a 2/2 beater that smashes and nets cards for you, rather than the normal 1/3. It kills faster while still netting you a card. It's identical to Stealer of Secrets, but that's it. I enjoy that it's Spirit creature type is one that is heavily supported as opposed to the lesser support of its Fox-ness, or your Humans or Rogues for that matter. So, there are good reasons to want to run it over the Stealer. It can fit into a shell as a strong adjunct along Spirit enablers like Supreme Phantom from Core Set 2019 or Drogskol Captain.

I don't know if you noticed, but many of these new additions are Beasts. And Beasts are one of the more heavily supported tribes out there. In fact, Beasts are the only tribe that I have a real life deck built around in Commander. Beasts are great! From Snarling Undorak who can pump your stuff to Advocate of the Beast, Wirewood Savage to Contested Cliffs letting your Beasts get their best Beast Battle Mode on, there are a lot of options out there for Beast Smashery. And that makes cards like Leopard-Spotted Jiao and Ferocious Zheng as nice, on curve Beast threats to use for eating people.

The good thing about Jiang Yanggu is that, unlike Mu Yanling, he comes down on turn five. Then you can pump something immediately. That early pump can really help power up a card like Cold-Eyed Selkie that have a damage-based trigger, rather than a mere combat damage one. The more damage you deal, the more card you draw. If you can slip it through, that's now three cards you just drew. And while there aren't too many other dorks that'll do that as easily as the Selkie, it also works well with cards like Hunter's Insight or Hunter's Prowess.

There are a handful of creatures out there that can often kill in one hit. Or maybe two. I call them One-Hit Kos (OHKO for short). Mu Yanling can arrive the turn after you cast one, and then win in one hit. A good example of such a OHKO threat is Lord of Extinction who can easily be a 15/15 or 21/21 at a 4 or 5 person multiplayer -- more than enough to kill in a single hit. Another example is Guiltfeeder, who just needs to be unblocked. Even a defense like Maze of Ith won't stop a Guiltfeeder.

One of the better homes for Ancestral is a deck that goes wide with tokens. The more tokens (or cheap dorks) you control, the faster your life gain will mount, and the faster you can notch a considerable life-swing. The Ancestor Dragon wants to go wide with multiple creatures, not smash through with a big dork. Although even if you swing with just the Ancestor Dragon and a pair of buddies, you are netting three life per combat while actively hurting your foes with hits from your critters.

But there are some non-tokens that work as well . . . 

One mechanic out there that works perfectly and rewards a going-wide strategy is Battalion. The good thing about this mechanic is that there are a number of strong creatures that will reward you for using this. While Legion Loyalist is a 1-drop that can power up a team, you have options that kill stuff, such as Firemane Avenger, or other useful things, all while triggering your Dragon. And the good news is that if you are swinging with Medic to net some useful triggers, your stuff won't die in combat as it'll keep you safe.

In a similar way to battalion, Battle Cry can also be a pretty great nifty way to amp up the team while swinging all out, and they can add some extra incentives to your Ancestor Dragon decks!

This combo is meant for Commander. Getting a big beefy Commander and then swinging at a few faces unblockably with enough force to kill them with Commander damage is sweet. Ruhan's cheap 7-powered threat would normally kill in a few turns, but the random element adds a bit of a surprise to the effect. It can take a long time to kill. So, you need repeatable unblockability to ensure that your Commander wins the long game. You can't win if your foes can block and stop your Giant Warrior from punching their face.

There are a handful of cards out there that can let you toss a ton of lands out there. Given how easily you can get to Jiang's ultimate, getting a cheap option that ramps a ton of lands is quality. You could easily go:

• Turn One - Tap to play 1-drop dork.
• Turn Two - Swing with dork. Play land. Tap to play two dorks
• Turn Three - Drop land. Swing with three dorks. Cast Harvest Season. Have 6 lands.
• Turn Four - Drop Jiang, and land, pump a dork by +2/+2, swing for damage
• Turn Five - Have Jiang invest a creature with +7/+7 or +8/+8 and trample pump-give and win the game.

That ain't nothing! For some later game power, consider Boundless Realms for a serious Yanggu-Punch.

There are a ton of creatures you can add to a deck that wants to make their dorks unblockable. A deck built around Yanling is going to want to have some bodies such as Stealer of Secrets or Nine-Tail White Fox to make unblockable and then smash. There are legions of those sorts of cards out there you can dip into. What really is great thought is Sun Quan. Any deck that Mu Yanling works well in, Sun Quan will break. They are clearly tag-team partners and will work marvelously together. And they are both inspired by Chinese mythology as Sun Quan is from Three Kingdoms. They even have a flavor match as well! You have to run these together!

In Commander, Oloro is one of the best life-gain shells, although a 2nd place would be given to straight shells around something like Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim or Karlov of the Ghost Council. But Oloro still has the be the top class, and having a powerful life-gain trigger out with your Commander is strong. Oloro turns the Ancestor Dragon's life gain into cards drawn and life loss by your foes. Karlov can get bigger and do so quickly, while also having the option to pull off some counters to exile annoying and irritating dorks. The synergy abounds with a flyer that swings over and grants you life gaining fun-times.

And there you are! I hope your day is going well, and that you enjoying this little unpacking of the Global Series as well as some synergies and uses for these folks! Are you looking at picking up the deck series? Anything you looking at unfurling at your kitchen table?