Breaking the Siege

Posted on January 24, 2011

There was a time when two things occupied all of my brain space: football and Mirrodin Besieged. Now that the Patriots lay deFEETed at the FOOT of their rivals (these jokes are the only outlet for my rage), every neuron in my skull is running a Phyrexia's Next Top Monster marathon.

I know Extended is the format of the hour for PTQ grinders, but since I'm sidelined from competitive Magic until Grand Prix: Providence, I don't know enough about it to speculate. I do know Standard, thanks to MTGO queues and FNMs, so I'm going to talk about potential applications there. I'll also touch on limited, art, flavor text, Star Wars, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I'll also include the rough drafts of some brews I've been tinkering with to get your mind working. Ready?

No?

I'll wait.

Hero of Bladehold

Excitement Level: 4/5 exposed abdomens

A lot has been said about the Hero, much of it pertaining to her awesome hair and Battle Armor Swimsuit. I only have this to add to the discussion: to be fair, all of the warriors in the background appear to be shirtless, so spikey shoulder pads are practically Kevlar to these people.

As for her power level in Standard, I think she'll see play. I know, in this day and age when even Baneslayer herself isn't good enough, what chance does this card have?

The thing is, Baneslayer is at her best in a control deck, where the Lifelink ability is of the utmost importance. Control decks have found better answers at the top of the curve for the time being (read: Titans). In an aggro deck that just wants to end the game quickly, Baneslayer is a little too expensive (except against other aggressive decks, natch). Hero of Bladehold, on the other hand, fits nicely into that old Elpeth four-drop slot, puts you far ahead after one turn of attacking, and can get to Planeswalkers around blockers. She's incredible with Honor of the Pure and other Battle Cry creatures, too.

I don't think she'll see a ton a play, as only one deck wants her (Wx tokens), and that deck doesn't really exist yet. But she's only a few notches below Vengevine and Bloodbraid Elf on the playable four-drop scale, and that means she's worth trying out.

I wanted to make Knights.dec, but the curve was too high. So there's this.

"Hero Hawk"

I really like how this deck looks. You have explosive openings with Student of Warfare, Steppe Lynx, and Honor of the Pure. You have tons of reach with Squadron Hawks and Elspeth tokens picking up whatever Sword you need most. You have 26 land in order to support Steppe Lynx and your four-to-five drops, but Inkmoth Nexus makes sure you won't get too flooded (just add Sword).

Leonin Relic-Warder

Excitement Level: 3/5 fire hazards (I wouldn't be lighting candles in a room with flowing garments and old parchment)

Checklist for two-drop utility creature playability:

Has two power. Check

Isn't blue. Check

Disrupts the opponent in a meaningful way. Hmmm….

Whether Relic-Warder sees maindeck or sideboard play is entirely dependent on whether artifact-based decks command a large share of the metagame. The biggest hurdle for Eraseless Butcher is the fact that you usually don't want to curve out with him (unless you're in the Quest for the Holy Relic mirror or something), and a bear's value drops quickly when you enter the midgame. The best utility bears preempt the problem cards (Meddling Mage, Gaddock Teeg, Tidehollow Sculler). If you really need to answer a troublesome artifact sometime after turn four, you're likely to look for a more permanent solution.

That said, there are applications for the Warder outside of the aforementioned Quest matchup. Against Ascension, he'll probably eat a Lightning Bolt, but not before flickering away the counters already on the enchantment. As Tempered Steel decks pick up steam with the release of more artifact sets, it becomes more likely that you'll have a suitable target on turn two (Steel Overseer maybe?). He's also a perfectly acceptable play the turn after your opponent Shape Anews into Blightsteel Colossus.

Phyrexian Rebirth

Excitement Level: 4/5 reanimated AT-ATs

The artwork by Scott Chou is wonderfully creepy and evocative. This thing just follows in the wake of the war, scooping up all the stray bones and adding them to its body. Creature type "Horror" seems a little off, though. Yeah, it's horrifying, but it also looks like a Skeleton. Maybe a Skeleton AT-AT.

Phyrexian Rebirth is the latest in a long line of Martial Coup-esque cards, and it seems like a pretty good one. The obvious comparison is to Sunblast Angel, so let's see how they stack up:

Sunblast Angel

With some set up, can often be a one-sided Wrath.

Leaves behind a 4/5 Flying body, just begging to be bounced or stuck under a Mimic Vat.

Requires that your opponent walk into it by attacking with the whole team.

Phyrexian Rebirth

Wraths everybody, all the time.

Leaves behind a variable body, usually won't be larger than 3/3 (except in group games, where it's awesome).

Can kill creatures that haven't attacked.

Against decks that want to attack you, it would seem Sunblast Angel is better. It leaves your Wall of Omens on the board for future blocking duties, and will typically be larger than the Horror. Problem is, once your opponent knows that you're playing with the Angel, he or she is much less likely to charge headfirst into a Plague Wind, so you'll only get one or two creatures at most (although with enough Walls, you can force his or her hand a bit).

In the end, the fact that Sunblast can be played on an empty board swings my vote in her favor, but I could see running one of each to keep the bad guy on his toes.

Victory's Herald

Excitement Level: 1/5 soap bubbles

For some reason, this card is really underwhelming for me. Maybe it's the fact that I'm paying an extra white mana for a smaller Baneslayer with fewer abilities. Maybe it's the fact that she's only good on offense, and when I'm playing a six-mana monster, I usually don't have a full team on the board ready to go. Maybe it's the fact that they just printed an enchantment with the same mana cost that gives double strike instead of Flying, and you don't have to wait a turn to use it.

No, it's not any of those things - it's the name. I mean, the card is called "Mirrodin wins the war." It's entirely possible this is a red herring and the Angel is a False Prophet, but I'm left unsatisfied either way.

Blue Sun's Zenith

Excitement Level: 2/5 carpal tunnel wrist braces

The shuffle-in mechanic was never one that I particularly liked. To me, it's almost worse than just having it sit in my graveyard. I hate needless shuffling. Fetch lands are the worst. And this is the definition of needless: the odds that I'll draw the card again are quite slim, and the odds that I want to see it again when I do draw it are even slimmer. The odds that I get a game loss for being lazy and not shuffling enough, on the other hand, are quite good (it's never happened to me before, but it could).

This rant goes for all the Zeniths of course, so let's get to what makes this one blue. Instant speed card draw always has a chance – people were all over Jace's Ingenuity when it was previewed, and it saw a little bit of play here and there. When cast for five, the Zenith draws one less card than the Ingenuity. So why would we ever play it?

Because we can cast it for six! Or seven! Or a billion! It's all about having options. There are two main uses for Blue Sun's Zenith that I can see:

It's the perfect finish to an infinite (or 50+) mana combo. If you've ever been Stroked out, you know what I'm talking about. Something like this is better than a Fireball because it can always double as a way to find your combo. Plus, it's blue, and combo decks usually run countermagic to make sure their cards resolve.

It's a fine end-step play in the control mirror. If you've ever played a blue deck against a blue deck, you know that the match just goes draw-go, draw-go, until someone blinks and plays something in their main phase. Then there is a flurry of countermagic, the person who played the first spell has less mana available and usually loses the battle, and then the other guy is free to play whatever he wants on his turn. A card like Blue Sun's Zenith moves that first barrage of Mana Leaks onto your opponent's turn, meaning he'll be nearly tapped-out when it's your main phase.

This Zenith seems like an okay one- or two-of in a control deck (similar to Mind Spring), and an excellent inclusion in my Infinite Mana Myr deck. Stroke ya!

Consecrated Sphinx

Excitement Level: 3/5 Sphinxes of Magosi

I want to like this card, but I keep remembering the reviews of Sphinx of Magosi. People loved that card. Once you untapped with it, you couldn't lose! It was supposed to be a contender for Control Finisher. And then nobody played it.

The major difference, of course, is that you don't need to untap with Consecrated Sphinx. The second your opponent draws for the turn, you get card advantage. They can play Jace and bounce him, but guess what? You're drawing another two cards the next turn. The only problem is instant speed removal, and there isn't too much of that running around these days (we'll see how Go for the Throat does).

Is this guy better than Frost Titan? The Titan doubles as removal, while the Sphinx could help you find removal. If I were blue, I'd want a couple Sphinxes against any deck lacking Doomblades, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say he sees a little play.

But that flavor text… I get that they want to play up that Phyrexia has motivation and personality beyond "we're evil, deal with it," but there's gotta be a better way than, "Blessed by the hands of Jin-Gitaxias." You could put that on any card, ever, and it would mean exactly the same thing (basically nothing). I don't know who Jin-Gitaxias is, and frankly, he has a dumb name.

It does give me a good idea for the flavor text of Jesus, Planeswalker (in my Bible-themed Magic set, of course). "Blessed by the hands of John the Baptist". Brilliant.

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

Excitement Level: 5/5 Semblance Anvils

Please note that "Excitement Level" does not equate to "Power Level." Tezzeret isn't insanely broken by any stretch of the imagination – but he does get my deckbuilding wheels turning.

It seems pretty easy to splash black in my blue/white Tempered Steel Standard decks, and Tezzeret is nuts in that role. He makes your useless Ornithopters and Memnites 5/5s, digs for gas if your board is empty, and closes out close games.

What excites me even more is that he enables all kinds of silly combo decks in Standard with his +1 ability. Need to find Mindslaver for your Prototype Portal? Mimic Vat for your Haze Frog? Myr Galvinizer for your other Myr Galvinizer? Now, you can filter through five cards a turn until you find it, while at the same time having the option to turn your Everflowing Chalice into a monster.

But the best part of Tezzeret, for me, is that he follows in the tradition of Nissa Revane and Venser, the Sojourner: Planeswalkers that require decks to be built around them, rather than slotting into any deck of the appropriate color. When I wrote my essays for GDS2 (missed the cut to 100 by one question, had a sweet world ready to go, too), they asked what we would change about modern design, and I said Planeswalkers. They can be powerful and exciting, but should be limited in the roles they can play. Jace's abilities are just good. For everyone. If you can produce UU, you play him.

How about something like this?

"Agent Awesome"

Glissa, the Traitor

Excitement Level: 2/5 Heroes of Bladehold (the better Prerelease card)

I'm trying to imagine what a Green/Black deck would look like in Standard without poison. It's tough, because the mana is bad, the creatures aren't very efficient (making aggro out of the question), and it's hard to justify a controlling, rock-like deck without Jace in it.

Then, I'm trying to imagine a Green/Black deck in Standard that wants to recycle Artifacts. Blazing Torch would be cute, but it says that the artifact does the damage, not the creature, so it doesn't combo with Glissa's deathtouch. Yeah, nothing's coming to me.

Even if we got a functional reprint of Executioner's Capsule, Glissa is too fragile, and the combo is too slow to be effective against the most aggressive decks. Her best chance at seeing play is that a Green/Black midrange deck suddenly becomes good, and she gets to play super-Trained Armodon while her other ability is ignored. How about:

"The Rock and his Bankruptcy"

Spells (4)
4 Go for the Throat

Yep, look at that mana base. At least we have Cobra and Birds helping out, so we may hit three black for Gatekeeper of Malakir every once in a while. The Wurmcoil and Masticore are my nods towards Glissa's ability, but the deck is probably better without her or the artifacts (I would up Acidic Slime and Abyssal Persecutor probably). Did I mention Go for the Throat plays well with Persecutor?

Go for the Throat

Excitement Level: 5/5 @Doombladeguy tears

It seems we have a new baseline removal spell. How many times over the decade and a half I've been playing have I had to decide between Removal Spell A with weakness X, and Removal Spell B with weakness Y? Countless. So I want Smother or Doom Blade? Terror or Terminate? Snuff Out or… well, it was always Snuff Out.

Here's a card that kills everything. Okay, against Tempered Steel (not a real deck in Standard yet, mind you) I need to board them out for Black Sun's Zenith, but that's fine. And there's Wurmcoil Engine, but you never wanted to Doom Blade that card anyway. Sure, indestructible, shroud, and regenerate all negate Go for the Throat, but that's not the point – this card is the best Terror ever, as far as I'm concerned.

Lately, I've been playing Elves, splashing black for Memoricide and Doom Blade in the sideboard. Now that I can kill Grave Titan, I may need to move a couple removal spells main deck (okay, probably not). I love this card, and look forward to playing it for years to come.

But the name… ugh!

Signal Pest

Excitement Level: 4/5 turn three wins

If you asked me what I was looking for out of Mirrodin Besieged, I would have said two things: a new Mind Stone variant, and a solid, aggressive 1-drop artifact creature. That's because all of the decks I've been brewing with Scars of Mirrodin were missing one (or both) of those things.

Well, I fished my wish. Sphere of the Suns is an awesome complement to Everflowing Chalice, as you can see in my Grand Architect list above, and Signal Pest has lots of potential. No longer do I have to run Origin Spellbomb in my Tempered Steel deck! Not only does it help ensure Mox Opal is online on turn one, it also makes my Ornithopters relevant (which, as you may know, is very important to me). With a Tempered Steel or Steel Overseer on the board, the pest is a legitimate threat!

While I'm excited about that deck, I'm even more pumped for my update of Kuldotha Red:

"Kuldotha Red"

Inkmoth Nexus is included as sacrifice targets #17-20, but I could see winning a long game with them and a bunch of Teetering Peaks. Other than that, the deck is very straight-forward. The God draw is Pest, Memnite, Opal, Kuldotha Rebirth sacrificing Mox Opal. Goblin Guide the following turn means 11 damage. Bushwhacker instead equates to 16.

Hands with Warren Instigator are just as explosive. First turn Pest, second turn Instigator, third turn Peaks, Bushwhacker: that's 14 damage. Drop a Chieftain into play from Instigator's first strike, add two more damage. If you played a Memnite turn one, your opponent is now dead (attacks for 1 on turn two, 3 on turn three).

Okay, it's Magical Christmas land, but there's a lot of redundancy in the deck. Most of the cards are cheap and boost power. You can expect some free wins with this deck.

The deck needs burn spells, but I don't see where to squeeze them in. Between the Goblin theme and the Meralcraft requirements, space is tight. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Hero of Oxid Ridge

Excitement Level: 4/5 RARGHSMASHGRRR

This guy is incredibly cool. His art is sweet, and I have a newfound respect for Chrome Steed after seeing it being ridden by such a BAMF. His stats are perfectly acceptable – putting him out of Bolt range would be blatantly unfair, and I think he'd be playable as a 3/1. Haste and Battle Cry are perfect for each other, and seeing them together makes me dislike all other Battle Cry cards a little more. His other ability isn't super relevant, but when it comes up, it'll be huge.

Negatives? Well… he's a mythic, which is pretty lame. Now I need to own eight chase mythics to play Red Deck Wins (pick up Koth while you can, folks). His name isn't particularly awe-inspiring, and certainly not mythic-sounding (though I get that he's part of a cycle with Hero of Bladehold). And that's about it.

You could absolutely just stick him in any modern take on Red Deck Wins. You may say, "Eight four-drops? Seems a bit much." But then you remember that you can play Koth AND Hero on the same turn if you have four Mountains. And you remember that many red decks played a full set of Molten-Tail Masticore alongside the Planeswalker. And you remember how important it is to have a Koth turn four in most matchups – Hero is the next best thing, and kills Jaces just the same.

Sorry Molten-Tail Masticore, we got a new Hero in town. There just ain't room enough for the both a'yous.

Blightsteel Colossus

Excitement Level: 3/5 overblown diatribes

As I write this, this guy is the talk of the town. We have pros and designers attacking/defending the existence of the card (respectively) on Twitter, and Magic news sites covering the discussion like a presidential debate.

I'm of a more even temperament than most, so I'm not particularly passionate either way. I don't have a fundamental problem with a creature that wins the game if it connects – seems like something that could/should exist in the world of Magic. I don't think he breaks any format in half. Having access to 5-8 Emrakuls could be scary, but not all that different from 1-4 Emrakuls. To me, Iona is a more frustrating card to play against when it gets cheated into play.

And there are answers. Oust, Journey to Nowhere, Revoke Existence, Arrest, Condemn, Into the Roil, Jace, the list goes on and on (and that's just Standard!). Furthermore, I actually like that a Shape Anew deck is possible. I don't think Polymorph was at all broken, and I don't think this one will be either. Just good, clean fun.

If anything, you could say that this design was unoriginal, but that was the intention: to show that Phyrexia has taken over some of Mirrodin's greatest creatures. It's actually pretty cool, when you think of it that way.

So, while not particularly innovative, here's my spin on the Master's Call/Shape Anew deck:

"Anew it all along!"

Creatures (2)
2 Blightsteel Colossus

If you haven't seen it before, Inkmoth Nexus is an Artifact Creature you can sacrifice for Shape Anew. Pretty sweet huh? The Silences are an experiment – they may be better off as another Spell Pierce and another land.

Creeping Corrosion

Excitement Level: 1/5 Steel Overseer decks in shambles

Ouch. There goes all the wind in my sails. Guess I'm not playing an artifact deck any time soon.

That's what I thought when I first saw this card… but then I really thought about it. Does the existence of Day of Judgment mean I can't play creature decks? Of course not.

All this card does is give Valakut another Pyroclasm to board in against Tempered Steel decks, which is important, but not the end of the world. In the end, I'm actually happy to have this card in my tool box, because by the time the third set of the block comes out, artifact decks could be truly degenerate.

Thrun, the Last Troll

Excitement Level: 3/5 forum dwellers adding this title to their sig

Thrun is getting a lot of hype, but I'm just not feeling it. I guess I should be; I like green, hate playing against control, and think giving this guy a sword would be hilarious.

But I played Troll Ascetic. I remember when they brought him back in Xth Edition, and I was really happy to see him again. Then nobody played him, even though he seemed like such a bargain.

Thrun tacks on "Can't be countered" and +1/+2 for one more mana, so maybe that's good enough. I suppose I'd like him as a one-of in my Fauna Shaman decks, with an extra in a sideboard. All I know is, I'm not biting on the preorders, and I won't trade for him at the prerelease, either. Remember, control decks have access to Black Sun's Zenith now, and they've always played Titans, who scoff at Thrun's puny stats.

Inkmoth Nexus

Excitement Level: 5/5 thank yous to Rosewater for not making this mythic

Scroll up. Look at the decklists. That's right, most of them play Inkmoth Nexus! Sometimes it's a crucial part of a combo, sometimes it's merely an artifact for metalcraft, and sometimes, in a mono-colored deck with equipment, it's a realistic alternate win-condition.

I don't think it'd be a bold prediction to say this will be the most-played card in Standard from Mirrodin Besieged.

I can't really talk the card up any more than Flores did in his preview article, so I'll get to a decklist.

"Adventuring Fear"

Pretty sweet, right? Adventuring Gear plus Fetch Land is essentially +8 damage in an infect deck! This is another deck that can win fast or play for the long game, with Throne of Geth and Contagion Clasp ensuring an eventual victory. The six discard spells are to ensure your first two-drop survives long enough to get that crucial first counter on. Phyrexian Crusader is slow, and probably comes out against non-red or white decks.

***

There's so much more to talk about, but it'll have to wait. Luckily, we have three months until next spoiler season, so there's plenty of time to explore what Mirrodin Besieged has to offer.

Please feel free to share your thoughts about the set in the comments. I'm always open to talking about brews, especially during preview weeks. Sometimes it's a pointless endeavor, as a card comes out that invalidates your whole strategy – but that's the exception, not the rule, and talking about a set early helps you spot key cards when they are revealed later on.

Thanks for reading,

Brad Wojceshonek

@BJWOJ on Twitter

Bradwoj at gmail dot com

TAGS articles, constructed, standard

Breaking the Siege

"Hero Hawk"

"Agent Awesome"

"The Rock and his Bankruptcy"

"Kuldotha Red"

"Anew it all along!"

"Adventuring Fear"

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