Hello, Nation! Another wave of new cards is hitting stores, and we’ve reached that time again. Get ready for reviews a-go-go. From Draft to art, Standard to Commander, and Vintage to hypothetical formats such as Overextended and Modern, expect a ton of reviews to come out of the woodwork.

Today, I want to review the M12 cards that I think have a chance to do some serious good in the hands of casual players. What cards will be good in multiplayer? Commander? Pauper? Prismatic? I’ll be looking at these cards from a variety of angles. If I don’t think that a card will have much of an impact one way or the other, then I usually just skip it.

Are you interested? Then let’s head to the review!

White

Aegis Angel – I love this angel. I suspect it will be in my top ten angels of all time. Not only do you get a true beater, but you also get the ability to protect any other permanent while it’s out. It’s not so big and great that it automatically sings for removal. If you play Wrath of God, only this will die, and not the protected card. It can protect a combo piece, another creature, a powerful permanent (such as Mind's Eye), or even a defensive card (such as Maze of Ith). It’s a great team player.

Angelic Destiny – Of the enchantments that pop back after they hit the graveyard, only Rancor got a lot of play. This is the first mythic aura, and it has the claim to be the next Rancor. It pumps 4 power for 4 mana, gives you 4 defense too, sends it sailing, and gives it a lance. (The angel part is flavor, but unlikely to be useful most of the time you play it). It can turn a Birds of Paradise into a 4/5 flying first-striking angel that is not card disadvantage when the Birds bite it. These are good things. Time will tell if it has the tournament power of Rancor. I bet that 4 mana just keeps it out of range, but it should be a nice little power in Casual Land.

Gideon's Avenger – At a table with more than one opponent, this gets stupid big quickly. With that as a known, playing it and protecting it is something you’ll need to do to rely on it. It has no way to get through and no way to protect itself, so if you can work around that, you’ll be quite happy with the results. I like it as a good 3-drop for White Weenie in multiplayer, since it’s likely to be a lot better than other options.

Grand Abolisher – I don’t like a half-Teferi that is on the curve as a 2/2 for 2 mana. This strikes me as a dangerously powerful card against anything. Get some. I think they are underpriced right now, and could easily be the next power rare for any format. Ouch.

Personal Sanctuary – I’m not sure why this costs 3 mana, considering its limitations. What does it prevent in White? You have to combine it with Black (Pestilence), Green (Hurricane), or Red (Earthquake, Pyrohemia) to get anything out of it. Considering its limited value, I don’t see 3 mana making a lot of sense. You could have made this cost 1 mana, and it wouldn’t make the cut in Draft or Constructed, so why make it 3?

Spirit Mantle – After Progenitus’s protection from everything and Iridescent Angel’s protection from all colors, the next most powerful protection ability in Magicdom is protection from creatures, and just after that is protection from monocolored. One of the underplayed auras of all time is clearly Unquestioned Authority. It is not card disadvantage and gives a powerful, game-changing ability to a creature. While this grants the same ability, it does not draw cards, return to your hand, or otherwise help alleviate the aura issue. It’s a card I expect to see play, but if you want this, I’d recommend picking up a full set of Unquestioned Authority for a buck instead.

Blue

Amphin Cutthroat – I feel that Salamanders are here as a clear plant for the next block. It seems the only reason to introduce a new creature type on a vanilla creature that looks similar to Merfolk.

Azure Mage – The second-best of the mage cycle, and a useful way to spend extra mana. I’d prefer Treasure Trove, which won’t get killed by creature removal or caught up in a Day of Judgment, but since this can attack and block, it’s probably more a choice than a requirement.

Jace, Memory Adept – One of the things people often failed to realize is that the previous two Jaces were just as good in multiplayer as in duels. Jace Beleren was card disadvantage at a massively strong level. Jace, the Mind Stalker was good in multiplayer, but not great. The bounce ability was weak, the Brainstorm useful but a bit underpowered, and so forth. This one is amazing in multiplayer. The first ability makes it a Honden of Seeing Winds plus a milling effect. I’d target myself in formats with big decks. The second ability is a bit underwhelming, but since it’s free, it’s there if you need it. Perhaps you want to load up your graveyard just before you cast Living Death or something. Its final ability is just brokenly good. Since it can’t lose counters, you don’t have to worry about bouncing it between the first two abilities and preventing the ultimate from going off. I can’t see very many Blue decks that wouldn’t want to run this.

Jace's Archivist – , , Windfall. That’s not bad at all. It reminds me a bit of Magus of the Jar, except without the sacrifice. People will play this in their decks, and they won’t get killed much. It hurts control decks that abhor the randomness. Those who can blow through their hands will love it—so Weenies, burn, Affinity, Zoo, etc.—these sorts of decks are happy. I see this getting a solid amount of play.

Lord of the Unreal – Anyone who has played against Jace in Duels of the Planeswalkers knows how potent a first-turn Phantasmal Bear followed by a second-turn Lord of the Unreal is. Just so you know, it’s quite powerful. Back it up with a few other Illusions and the Phantasmal Dragon, plus Adaptive Automaton, and you’ve got a powerful deck. Add in some historical Illusions, and you have a great little tribal deck that feels a bit different from others. You also have a potential Constructed deck here if there are Illusion goodies in the next few sets. (With Mana Leak, you have the potential for an aggro-control deck, such as Counter-Sliver here—that’s what I’d look at.)

Master Thief – Have you seen how many artifacts are uncommon in this base set? Artifacts are played all over the place in Casual Land, and you should always have a nice target. If you take something too good (such as a Darksteel Colossus), this will die and you’ll lose it, so don’t go for the home run when you play this—go for a base hit.

Mind Unbound – This is a very gross way of drawing tons of cards, and it should get taken out by removal. If it doesn’t, expect to have a cardgasm. Otherwise, expect to see this in your graveyard a lot more than in play.

Phantasmal Bear, Phantasmal Dragon – See Lord of the Unreal above. Perhaps you’ll even find space for Phantasmal Image.

Sphinx of Uthuun – This instantly has one of the best enters-the-battlefield triggers of all time for Blue. Putting it on a Mahamoti Djinn that costs 1 more mana is pretty keenniftycool (not a real word). This is your end-game creature for Blue. It both is big enough to win games in a few turns and gives you some more gas to get there. It has an amazingly powerful ETB ability to abuse with cards like Momentary Blink or Glimmerpoint Stag. This is a class creature. Get ready to see them for the rest of Magic.

Turn to Frog – Diminish proved that we clearly made Ovinize a regular card, and not just a shifted one from Planar Chaos. It’s flavored a tad differently, but it’s the same effect and card. This is even closer to Ovinize, and it’s still a good trick for Blue, but it’s not any different from the others we’ve seen.

Visions of Beyond – Every set seems to have a card or three that are overhyped. Enter Visions of Beyond. By the time you’d draw three cards off it, you are so late in the game that the 1 casting cost doesn’t matter. Overhyped. I’d rather have a Tidings, Compulsive Research, etc.

Black

Rune-Scarred Demon – While Sphinx of Uthuun is a major power for Blue with a great ETB ability, this is the single best ETB-ability-for-mono-Black-that-does-not-have-the-“if-you-cast-it-from-your-hand”-clause ever printed. Flat out, you get a beater, and you get a Demonic Tutor. That’s card advantage, it’s the right answer for the board situation, it’s the right problem to get through a defense, it’s the right piece for a combo, and it’s one of the most easily abused ETB abilities ever. It costs the same as the Sphinx, has 1 more power, flies like the Sphinx, and has an ability that makes the Uthuun dude look like an elementary-school gym teacher. Considering just how powered the Sphinx of Uthuun is, that’s a serious level of power. This is the single best card in the set. Even though Black has few new cards of serious impact, this one is massively crazy. Say hello to your new best demon of all time, ever. Rawr!

Sorin's Vengeance – Considering the fact that this is just 2 mana more than Soul Feast, they really amped up the power. It’s clearly meant to work with Sorin’s second ability. Even so, it only hits an opponent, and cannot scale. While it is a 20-life swing in a duel, it doesn’t do much outside of Duel City. In Commander, this brings your life to 45-ish and theirs to 25-ish after playing for a bit. Whoop de doo.

Vengeful Pharaoh – Buried Alive’s new best friend is a great rattlesnake that may keep a lot of attackers from coming your way, for no price in mana and surviving past a board-wipe. Since Black often wants to Nevinyrral's Disk the table away, it looks for allies, like Bloodghast. This works wonders with Disk strategies as well. I think you will find this to be quite powerful in your decks.

Red

Chandra, the Firebrand – I bet WotC was disappointed with their first cycle of planeswalkers. Some, like Garruk and Ajani, were quite powerful in constructed. Liliana Vess was a casual hit, but had little power in duels. (I still swear by her in Pox, though.) Jace Beleren was played more to take out Jace TMS than anything else. Chandra Nalaar was not hot in duels, and not hot in multiplayer. She doesn’t suck or anything, and I still put her in the occasional deck, but she is not on the level of most planeswalkers. Then they made another Chandra, and she’s great in mono-Red decks, but very poor elsewhere. They clearly wanted to make up for a poor Chandra in terms of cards, but a popular character among fans of the game. Google “cosplay” and “Chandra Nalaar” if you doubt me. Now you get a card with powers to match the popular planeswalker. She has tinging of creatures or players, the very powerful fork, and a decent enough ultimate. I suspect you’ll be bouncing back and forth between the first two a lot and not really worrying about her ultimate. Her ultimate’s still good, but not exactly back-breaking.

Chandra's Phoenix – It may not be Ball Lightning, but it has some long-standing power that I really adore. It has Flying, which is fairly uncommon for non-Dragons to have in Red. (Not in this set, not with Volcanic Dragon as an uncommon.) It recurs, it hits the turn it’s played, and it’s just a good solid card for a burn deck to rock.

Circle of Flame – Defense? In Red decks? Even the defensive Wall of Torches feels more attacky than most walls. While this does damage, it also feels like defense. It’s even a Circle, like a Circle of Protection. This can keep the chaff away from you, and I’ve used Caltrops in decks before, so I know that it has uses.

Furyborn Hellkite – Everybody likes Dragons, but few like weak ones. This is not a great expensive Dragon to recur off Bladewing the Risen or grab with Zirilan of the Claw or Haste-ify with Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund. Most Dragons of size want to get played pre-combat for Haste, big hits, and more. This generally wants to get played after. That’s not good synergy. I don’t see this as being desired much for Dragon decks, and if they don’t want it, who does?

Goblin Fireslinger – There are ways in which this is one of the best 1-power 1-drops for Red of all time. As a guaranteed 1 damage a turn for its entire stay, it can swing after getting pumped by lords, but can also just tap for 1 when the red zone gets clogged later. It can dole out the last few points of damage after your aggressive deck stagnates. Nicely done.

Warstorm Surge – Is a one-sided Pandemonium worth 2 extra mana? I suppose that depends on what you use the Pandemonium for. In decks where it’s a quick combo, such as the old 21 (comboed with Saproling Burst for 21 damage), this sucks. In decks where it is used more generally, this is almost always better. Multiplayer has enough time to drop power 6-mana enchantments.

Green

Arachnus Spinner, Arachnus Web – When I first saw Arachnus Web spoiled, I was wondering why we had this flavorful Pacifism variant in Green all of sudden, especially right after the Vows. I mean, with Vow of Wildness, Utopia Vow, and Arachnus Web, you could play a deck with a very Pacifism-oriented style of removal. At least strong players can break out—quite flavorful. When I saw Arachnus Spinner, and its ability to spit out webs on the board (and they aren’t tokens), man, I think I had a flavorgasm. While cards that refer to other cards by name have existed for a long time, most of them were not that hot, and not that flavorful. Kyscu Drake and Spitting Drake? Dark Supplicant’s ability to sac Clerics to bring out the Scion of Darkness was awesome. The Kaldra pieces were quite flavorful. The Heralds from Shards were interesting, but a bit underwhelming, because there were so many of them. The Unspeakable’s summoning by playing spells was interesting. Nissa Revane and getting her Chosen was quite interesting. All of these had one central mechanic—summoning creatures, and usually a big one. A bit predictable. This is something completely different. You play a big spider, and then start tapping spiders to spit out webs, and locking things down. That is amazing. The combination of useful abilities and amazing flavor makes these two cards among the best flavor WotC has ever made. Seriously, top-ten flavor of all time, perhaps top-five. I honestly hope this is the sort of thing we will see more of. (And this is why Giant Spider remained in the core set, obviously.) (See also: The Empires Cards.)

Doubling Chant – A big non-bo for Commander and other Highlander formats, but it works really well with creature-heavy decks. If you have an ETB-heavy creature set, like Acidic Slime and Woodfall Primus, getting a lot of extras will not only get you a lot of creatures but also a lot of triggers.

Fog – This is the best art for Fog ever. Just wanted to make sure you knew.

Garruk, Primal Hunter – I think this is going to be a lot better at the kitchen table than at the convention one. It spits out 3/3 tokens for positive loyalty. Of those planeswalkers that make permanent creatures for positive loyalty, this one makes the biggest ones. You can reliably make the beaters for as long as Garruk stays around. When you want, switch to drawing cards or ultimate a cornucopia of Wurms.

Garruk's Horde – Creatures that win the game are awesome to have in your deck. Creatures that do it while adding card advantage are divine. See how the card advantage here fully fits within the realm of Green? It’s good stuff!

Hunter's Insight – Speaking of card advantage and card-drawing, see how you can draw a bunch of cards here? I love that, as an instant, you can use Green’s quite large creature contingent to grab a bunch of cards, and you don’t have to worry about those other cards that sacrifice creatures; this one gives you cards while you smash face. It supports the typical theme of Green—beating madly.

Jade Mage – The reason I think this is the best of the Mages is that making Saprolings is a good, useful way to use extra mana you have sitting around being unused. I like this more than the Blue one that draws cards because it’s less of an issue at the table. Making 1/1 dudes is a lot less threatening to your foes than drawing cards. Selesnya Guildmage makes them for 1 more mana each time, and I’ve played it enough to know the value of simply making little guys over time.

Primordial Hydra – While I think this is an interesting take on the Hydra, I don’t feel that it was the amazingly perfect resonant one the spoiler article claimed. By the way, make fun of Protean Hydra in your spoiler article, but it much better represents the cutting off of a head and regrowth than this. This one just feels like a slime that is growing out of proportion. You should have called it The Blob.

Skinshifter – This seems a pretty solid consideration for play. Attack with a 4/4 on turn three? You can nip over for 2 past ground defenses if they plug up the ground. You can block for almost everything with a 0/8 wall. Whichever you need, just pop over and make it. It’s like a Primal Clay that can change in play.

Stingerfling Spider – This is a perfectly fine card for your decks. There are a lot of creatures that have flying getting played at multiplayer tables. The next time you play Commander, just look at them all on the board. Except for Eldrazi and Green, all of the colors prefer flyers to nonflyers in their beaters. Angels, Dragons, some Demons, Djinn, Sphinxes, Phoenixes, some Elementals and Spirits and Vampires . . . you get the idea. It’s also the third Spider in the set for Mr. Arachnus.

The Other Colors

Adaptive Automaton – As a lord for anything that will count as anything, this is arguably the card in this set that could make the cut in the most of your decks. (Perhaps Solemn Simulacrum would beat it.) In fact, no card may make a stronger impact in your deck-building. It goes into a Merfolk deck, and it’s a Merfolk. It goes into that Illusion deck, and it’s an Illusion. It goes into a Goblin deck, and it’s a Goblin. It goes into a Goat deck, and it’s a Goat. It goes into an Abe deck, and it’s an Abe.

Crown of Empires, Throne of Empires, Scepter of Empires – None of these are that good on their own. Tapping a creature for 3 mana? Yuck. Tap to deal 1 to a player? Not exactly that hot in multiplayer. 1 mana, tap, make a 1/1 dork? Not the hottest thing ever, although that one’s not too bad. Maybe that’s why the Throne of Empires is rare. When you have all three, you can steal creatures, dole out 3 damage to a foe, and make a quintet of soldiers. Before having all three, the Crown is the worst, and afterward, it becomes the best. Interesting. The quick line of flavor text shows you that these are not mere cards connected by title. They are something else. Another example of great connection between cards and another way to develop the mechanic of one card mentioning, by title, another.

Druidic Satchel – It’s too hard to control for too little value. If you know what’s on top of your library, and can manipulate it with something like Sensei's Divining Top, all you do is make a 1/1 dude, gain 2 life, or put a land into the play. That last one is good, but the rest of it sucks.

Manalith – This is a very simple version of cards like Darksteel Ingot and Coalition Relic. Just tap to make any color of mana. I think it’s pretty useful for any Commander deck with more than two colors after Darksteel Ingot or more are added.

Swiftfoot Boots – The newest Lightning Greaves requires a mana to equip, and that definitely slows you down. On the other hand, Lightning Greaves is so good that a version that gives Hexproof instead of Shroud for 1 more mana to equip is still quite good. Haste is always strong in multiplayer. It gives you a chance to increase your speed, and get a hit in before defenses are reset and before mass removal drops. Hexproof is even better because you can equip someone quite important to your plans and save them, while also swinging for serious damage.

Buried Ruin – Since nonbasic lands get significant play in lots of formats, this can be used to grab an artifact when needed. While it’s not reusable like Academy Ruins, it does put the artifact right in your hand like a Reconstruction. It can be used to switch for a key artifact that has been lost. Even with a one-shot effect, it still has a lot of value in decks that can use the Reconstruction.

Along with the recently released Commander cards, we have a nice injection of power and cards to our decks with Magic 2012. You can find some great cards for your decks and deck stock. Add them to Type 4 stacks, Cubes, Commander decks, Emperor decks, and whatever else makes you happy.

Next week, we’ll move from these cards to decks.

See you next week,

Abe Sargent