 | Date Posted: 5/8/2009
Posted By: Ben Warren
Member Since: 3/18/2008
Number of Replies: 7
Last Post: 5/8/2009 |
| | What I believe Alara Reborn has done to Standard | In my never-ending search to find the unknown information about Magic strategy, I have come across several articles talking about what Alara Reborn has done to Standard. I find saying "what Alara Reborn has done to Standard" is very vague. I don't believe Alara Reborn has any flavor, and therefore doesn't make that big of an impact on synergistic roles in the top decks out there. However, Alara Reborn has done 2 things from what I have seen so far:
1) Cascade is amazing.
2) Control is dying. Or at least is going to be crippled.
To prove my points, let me go about them one by one.
1) Cascade.
Jund has gotten some very very powerful cards from Alara Reborn(more than any other Shard, I believe).
Let me start off with Maelstrom Pulse. A 3-mana pseudo-vindicate is never bad. Ever. This guy kills Planeswalkers, deals with annoying artifacts, makes Oblivion almost unplayable, and tokens players never like seeing this card played. So many answers in just one card. Amazing.
Bloodbraid Elf is the most powerful card in this set. Imagine hitting Esper Charm. Hitting Esper Charm with the Cascade has essentially turned Bloodbraid into a Harmonize, but instead of a third card, you get a 3/2 haster for no mana. Imagine hitting Maelstrom Pulse. Hitting Maelstrom Pulse essentially turns your bloodbraid into a Shriekmaw, Flametongue Kavu, Angel of Despair, etc. Nothing wrong with that. Imagine hitting Jace with Bloodbraid. Not only do you get a free draw, you have a guy out there to protect Jace. Imagine hitting Kitchen Finks. This is comparable to Broodmate Dragon in this format, because you are pretty much getting 8 power out of one spell(3 for Bloodbraid, 3 for Finks, 2 for persist) and gaining 4 life(barring Path). Imagine hitting a Volcanic Fallout or Pyroclasm. Your Bloodbraid isn't in play until those spells resolve, so you essentially wipe the board of nuisances and get a 3/2 ready to do battle. Speaking of Cascade being ridiculous, imagine Bituminous Blast cascading into a Bloodbraid Elf cascading into anything. 3 cards for the price of 1 that are all incredibly powerful. Just amazing. Bituminous into Bloodbraid into Maelstrom Pulse is the ideal response to a Cloudgoat. For casting one card you can essentially wipe their board and have a 3/2 haster ready to deal with their Planeswalkers or smash them in the face. If cascade wasn't ridiculous enough itself, you can also fashion a deck to run Cryptic and Cruel Ultimatum in the same deck with all of those other cards!
2) Control is dying.
Anathemancer. This guy is nuts. All good control decks must be playing Runed Halo or they'll get owned by this guy. If the control player went first, assuming you were able to successfully resolve the Anathemancer, he immediately deals 3 damage to either them or a Planeswalker they control. Pretty awesome. On top of that, he can unearth later in the game to possibly deal 10+ damage just from his ability, and on top of that, he can get in there for 2. Thought Hemorrhage makes a Reveillark strategy ridiculously unplayable. Not only can Thought Hemorrhage make a Reveillark's late game unwinnable, it can deal damage. Cranial on steroids. Freakin' sweet.
Let me know what you guys think. I'm interested to know everyone's opinion on this.
Pwn'd. |
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| I do agree that cascade is amazing but I think control is still possible, Meddling Mage isn't horrible even in Standard.
Terry Hoitz: I'm like a peacock, you gotta let me fly! |
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| Date Posted: 5/8/2009
Posted By: Ben Warren
Member Since: 3/18/2008
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| If control is going to survive, it's going to have to go pure U/W, in my opinion.
Pwn'd. |
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| Well I'm not a big fan of control so if it does die off for a little while I won't be too upset. That Wall of Denial is not bad for control decks also.
Terry Hoitz: I'm like a peacock, you gotta let me fly! |
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| Date Posted: 5/8/2009
Posted By: Ben Warren
Member Since: 3/18/2008
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| My only opposition to Wall of Denial is the fact that he can only deal with one attacker per turn. In a world where having 10 creatures on board at one time is commonplace, I think having something on the board that can't even kill a creature is almost redundant. Although, sucking up 4+ points of damage per turn isn't bad. I still think a combat trick like Plumeveil would serve better what the control player wants to do. Both in the same deck might get a little ridiculous.....
Pwn'd. |
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| Both wouldn't be too bad, I figured the Wall of Denial buys you a few extra turns to draw into your board clearing spell or allows you to stabilize with some other spell/creature but I do hope 5cc will go away I'm kind of tired of that deck but then again I'm not really a control player at heart, beats and burn FTW baby! Lol
Terry Hoitz: I'm like a peacock, you gotta let me fly! |
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 | Date Posted: 5/8/2009
Posted By: Paul King
Member Since: 4/12/2008
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| If Wall of Denial ever gets used Edicts will be there.=)
Pure control is getting weaker. I think the closest thing would be an aggro control deck. I'm actually working on a U/W aggro control (no Reveillark, don't have any don't want to get any with rotation near).
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 | Date Posted: 5/8/2009
Posted By: Travis Peifer
Joined before August '08
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| I think wall of denial will be still extremly effective after lorwyn rotates provided they don't print any wrath type cards in the new block.
Hampton: "Can you read, my son?" Bubbles: "Well, that depends, can you go fuck yourself?" |
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