I’ll be honest; I didn’t much care for Gatecrash.

Everything about it felt shallow. The guilds were pretty unbalanced, and often, the packs rolled in such a way that despite making the ostensibly correct pick all through pack one, you could find yourself cut off in both directions despite that seeming impossible. The guild mechanics also felt super-linear (think of it this way: You didn’t draft scavenge or overload in Return to Ravnica, you drafted Golgari or Izzet. That wasn’t really the case for Gatecrash). All in all, it was not my favorite drafting experience.

Return to Ravnica, on the other hand, is probably in my Top 5 formats of all time. Suffice to say I’m pretty excited to move on to Dragon’s Maze, not only because we get out of the GGG environment, but because we see a ton of cool new cards, a three-color environment (which I love), and a bit of Return to Ravnica for flavor.

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to play in two Dragon’s Maze prereleases, going 7–1 across the two tournaments with two very different pools despite having Izzet/Gruul both times. While I’m not going to launch into a full-fledged set review (we’ll leave that for more, let’s say, interested types), I do want to share some initial impressions of some of the new cards.

Aetherling

My first pool was literally the best Sealed pool I’ve opened in any format ever. While the entire contents of the pool are lost to the ravages of desleeving, the decklist will be more than enough to prove my point:

"R/U/G DGR Sealed"

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Aetherling
• 1 Disciple of the Old Ways
• 1 Fluxcharger
• 1 Izzet Staticaster
• 1 Kraul Warrior
• 1 Opal Lake Gatekeepers
• 1 Runewing
• 1 Saruli Gatekeepers
• 1 Skarrg Guildmage
• 1 Slaughterhorn
• 1 Smelt-Ward Gatekeepers
• 1 Viashino Racketeer
• 1 Wrecking Ogre
• 1 Zhur-Taa Druid

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Ral Zarek

• Spells (8)
• 1 Advent of the Wurm
• 1 Cancel
• 1 Pit Fight
• 1 Turn // Burn
• 1 Blast of Genius
• 1 Mizzium Mortars
• 1 Boros Cluestone
• 1 Izzet Cluestone

• Lands (17)
• 2 Forest
• 3 Mountain
• 6 Island
• 1 Izzet Guildgate
• 1 Selesnya Guildgate
• 1 Temple Garden
• 3 Gruul Guildgate

Buy This Deck

Must be nice, etcetera, etcetera—perfect mana, multiple bombs of the highest order, top-flight removal, and a planeswalker. Ever match felt like I was playing Constructed, and I didn’t come close to losing a single game.

But my best card?

My second-best card, by a wide margin, however, was clearly Aetherling. We’ll get to Ral Zarek in a bit, but Aetherling was basically unbeatable.

I heard tales of people losing after casting Aetherling, but they seemed to be the exception by a Morphline mile (which is totally a thing people say). He was actually unbeatable.

One such play exemplified what I was talking about. We were late in Game 2 with both players still at 20 life. I had drawn the removal half of my deck, and the battlefield was almost entirely clear. Ral Zarek had even died to Dreadbore.

But then, I cast Aetherling. On the next turn, with plenty of mana in play and Wrecking Ogre in hand, I actually had a way to deal 20 through his regenerating defender: make Aetherling unblockable, bloodrush Ogre, pump Aetherling twice for 10 points of double-striking damage.

Except I screwed up. It was around 3:00 A.M., and I was playing quicker than I needed to, and so, even though I had reminded myself while I was doing the math that I needed to bloodrush first then pump Aetherling second to play around Annihilating Fire (my opponent had up), I instead did it the opposite way. Rightfully, my opponent had the Auger Spree to punish me.

But here’s the thing. I still had blue mana open. So even though he had the removal I feared and I played terribly right into it, my Aetherling was still alive and well.

The fact that it has pseudo-vigilance is just icing on the cake. Aetherling is virtually unbeatable. And at 7 mana (yes, I know it costs “6”), it should be.

And, yes, I did get to cast Aetherling on 6 and use Ral Zarek to untap a land to protect him. I won that game.

Advent of the Wurm

This card is pretty straight forward, so there’s not a ton to say except that it was absolutely worth the splash with no populate in the deck. 5/5 is on the giant side of huge in this format, and doing it at instant speed is more than a combat trick: It’s soul-crushing.

Beetleform Mage

This guy is Simic’s bread and butter. I can’t imagine ever passing one if I was in G/U, and, while it wouldn’t be ideal, I wouldn’t blink at first-picking this guy.

Blast of Genius

This card is very good, but you probably already knew that. However, there is some awkwardness to it. While it’s nice that it’s a removal spell, when you actually need it to be a removal spell, instead of being Concentrate plus, it becomes somewhat awkward. If you have to gamble without the right casting cost in your hand, you might be very disappointed at best—and dead at worst. Other times, the discard negates the whole point of drawing three if, say, the other two cards are lands.

It’s probably still first-pickable, but don’t get too excited, as it’s probably most comparable to something like Trostani's Judgment.

Cluestones

The thing that struck me most was that there are so freaking many of these things. Seriously, booster packs had up to three of these commons. One guy wondered aloud if something was wrong with his pool because he had twelve Cluestones. When I heard that, I checked mine and saw . . . eleven. Do not value these highly. There are always more.

Gatekeepers

First of all, 2/4s are no joke. Second, there are going to be a ton of opportunities to pick up Guildgates throughout the Draft, so turning these on is nearly trivial. Third, when they are on, they’re probably better than you think.

I played with all of them except the white one this weekend, and they were all very good, with blue probably the weakest, if most reliable, of the four I played with. The surprising all-star? Saruli Gatekeepers.

Gaining 7 life, as it turns out, is a lot. I wouldn’t be excited about this guy in very aggressive decks, but in slower decks, which look to be an actual thing now, he was actually amazing, providing a large blocker and a significant life cushion. He won’t pull you back from the brink of a flying bomb beating, but it will backtrack all the work a Boros-based build has inflicted.

Hidden Strings

I was really underwhelmed by this card when I saw other people play it. It’s okay the turn you play it, but the cipher ability is virtually useless. It doesn’t tap things at the right time (namely pre-combat), and you can’t use it to accelerate out larger things or fix double-color issues because the trigger happens during combat. I can’t see myself ever actually wanting to play this, no matter how much it resembles Hands of Binding.

Turn // Burn

5 mana is a lot. I never once got a 2-for-1 out of this. The card is very good, but don’t pick it with dreams of always killing two birds with this particular stone. Be okay with it being a bad Shock sometimes. Even those are moderately high picks.

Ral Zarek

And now we come to Ral Zarek, the face of the set, the most expensive card in Dragon’s Maze, and the planeswalker du jour.

Meh.

Don’t get me wrong. He was good. I got to bolt some things and tap/untap some things, and my opponent always had to spend resources on it. But overall?

Meh.

At the start of the tournament, before I even opened my pack, someone asked me if I could choose, would I guarantee Jace, Architect of Thought in my pool or Ral Zarek. I said I didn’t really know—that it was a tough call.

Now? Jace. Hands down.

I’m much less excited about this guy in Standard now, though I do plan to try him in R/U/G at some point. I’ve just tempered my expectations.

That said, planeswalker, never pass him, etcetera, etcetera.

Runner's Bane

What it looks like: an inexpensive piece of conditional removal.

What it is: an excuse to be blown out by a pump spell, scavenge, evolve, or whatever else.

Sire of Insanity

I had the most insane of Craw Wurms in my second pool (an “Izzet” number that ended up in Jund) and never lost after casting this guy, even if it cost me several cards in the process. All you have to do is engineer a board position in which you’re a bit ahead, and this guy pretty much shuts the door. Not only does it dominate the board and empty hands, but it does things like shut off counterspells and many combat tricks. I was thoroughly impressed with him, and I would first-pick it in a heartbeat.

Warped Physique

This is my pick for sleeper uncommon of the set for Standard. It’s also a first pick, even if Dimir is still bad. But picking these up just to play in Standard should be more than enough reason to take them. Splash if you can.

Zhur-Taa Druid

Now we come to the actual best card to use with Ral Zarek. This card is very, very good, and I imagine it actually becomes better in Draft, where hitting this on curve can be far more devastating. I would not hesitate to first-pick Zhur-Taa Druid, and if there’s even a chance I’m in Gruul of some kind, I’m not passing this guy for anything short of top-flight removal and bombs.

Things I Think I’m Thinking

• I just want to Farseek into 4-drops for the rest of forever.
• Zhur-Taa Druid may be the most important addition to Return to Ravnica Block Constructed.
• Is Duskmantle Seer good yet?
• So, if I control two Blood Scriveners and two copies of Notion Thief, and you control a Notion Thief, what happens if I cast Sphinx's Revelation as the last card in my hand during my upkeep? Do we both give up and take up poker?
• Jace, Architect of Thought is about $10 right now, and Ral Zarek is $30 to $35. I’m not a finance guy by any means, but before they both rotate, I expect Jace to come out on top of that particular competition.