Oath of the Gatewatch Top Picks: Green

Oath of the Gatewatch prereleases officially begin on Friday on Magic Online, and I know many players are eager to get their hands on the new cards. Both Part One and Part Two of my Standard Pauper review of the set are available now on PureMTGO, so I encourage you to check those out for more detailed analysis of all of the cards.

I've already written about the new colorless mana from the set as well as a first look at the new Lands at Common. Today, I finish up my evaluation of my top two picks at Common from each of the five colors for Oath of the Gatewatch. So far I've looked at White, Blue, Black, and Red. All that's left then is Green.

Best Green Common: Scion Summoner

Nest Invader is reborn as a 3/3 for 2G, albeit split among two creatures. Even better, the Eldrazi Scion potentially both ramps and fixes your mana if you need Colorless, and is probably one of the best ways to generate Colorless mana in Oath of the Gatewatch. Green would gladly play a vanilla 3/3 for 2G, and while this isn't quite that good, the extra versatility helps make up for what it lacks in raw power. I would love to see a Green Ramp deck come back into the spotlight, and this card seems like it would be a natural inclusion.


Green Runner Up: Stalking Drone

This card seems good if you have access to Colorless mana, but is otherwise fairly mediocre. Giving it a virtual Holy Strength for a single Colorless mana is a great deal, potentially allowing this to attack as a 3/4 on Turn 3. Better yet, since this would most natural fit in a Green Stompy archetype, getting access to Colorless mana should be relatively easy. Also worth noting is that often simply the threat of being able to pump this up will often be enough to discourage your opponent from blocking it. At the end of the day, the only thing holding this back is the requirement that you have consistent access to Colorless mana.

Overall I thought Green was much better here than in the previous set. What do you think?

Oath of the Gatewatch Top Picks: Red

Oath of the Gatewatch prereleases officially begin on Friday on Magic Online, and I know many players are eager to get their hands on the new cards. Both Part One and Part Two of my Standard Pauper review of the set are available now on PureMTGO, so I encourage you to check those out for more detailed analysis of all of the cards.

I've already written about the new colorless mana from the set as well as a first look at the new Lands at Common. This week, I'll finish up my evaluation of my top two picks at Common from each of the five colors for Oath of the Gatewatch. So far I've looked at White, Blue, and Black; today, I'll look at Red.

Best Red Common: Goblin Freerunner

With the two mana discount off its Surge cost, you get a 3/2 with Menace on Turn 3, which certainly has the potential to do a lot of damage before your opponent can deal with it. And even if you pay full price, that isn't the absolute worst.  That said, this seems like it deserves a spot in an aggressive Rakdos or RDW style deck, where the combination of cheap creatures, burn, and combat tricks gives you good odds on being able to cast this for the Surge cost more often than not. This isn't enough to build around, but it's decent value for what it is.


Red Runner Up: Cinder Hellion

Creatures with native Trample are pretty unusual at Common, and combine that with a very reasonable 4/4 for 4R that also  deals 2 points of damage when it enters the battlefield and you definitely have a pretty solid beater. However, most of the time Red decks just aren't looking to run a five-drop creature, no matter how good it might be. That fact relegates this card and others like it to a more midrange Gruul style deck, and generally speaking there aren't enough powerful high mana creatures to make that strategy viable very often.


Overall I thought Red was probably the worst color at Common, but those two cards are definitely the best of the bunch. What do you think?

Oath of the Gatewatch Top Picks: Black

Oath of the Gatewatch prereleases officially begin on Friday on Magic Online, and I know many players are eager to get their hands on the new cards. I have just about completed the second part of my Standard Pauper review of the set, which should go up tomorrow at PureMTGO.

I've already written about the new colorless mana from the set as well as a first look at the new Lands at Common. This week, I'll finish up my evaluation of my top two picks at Common from each of the five colors for Oath of the Gatewatch. So far I've looked at White and Blue; today, I'll look at Black.

Best Black Common: Oblivion Strike

Long gone are the days of Doom Blade, where Black could expect to deal with most creatures at Instant speed for a mere two mana. But Oblivion Strike is one of the better unconditional removal spells we've seen at Black in some time, and it's only slightly weakened by the fact that you can only cast it at Sorcery speed. Even better, it exiles rather than simply destroying, permanently dealing with the creature or potentially allowing you to activate any Processor effects. Glad to see it costs almost half as much as Scour from Existence!


Black Runner Up: Vampire Envoy

Kalastria Nightwatch has proved to quite strong, and Vampire Envoy gives us the perfect card to accompany it. As a 1/4 Flying creature for 2B, it will be able to attack in a variety of board states, and might even incentivize you to build around the Cohort ability, which gives you a repeatable way to gain life every turn. In the past, such decks have been pretty good, and in combination with the Nightwatch and other Allies, there just might be another such deck here. On the other hand, outside of such a deck, this card is fine but nothing special.


So those are my picks for Black. What do you think?

Also, in order to cover all five colors prior to this weekend, I will feature a bonus post tomorrow to cover Red before finished up Thursday with Green. See you again tomorrow!

Oath of the Gatewatch Top Picks: Blue

Oath of the Gatewatch officially been released tomorrow, and I know many players are anxious for this set to get released on Magic Online, which unfortunately won't happen until the first of February. Meanwhile, I'm continuing to work through my review of the set, with Part One being published over at PureMTGO yesterday.

I've already written about the new colorless mana from the set as well as a first look at the new Lands at Common. For the next couple weeks, I'm examining my top two picks at Common from each of the five colors for Oath of the Gatewatch. Last time I looked at White; today, I'll look at Blue.

Best Blue Common: Negate

It's unfortunate that this card will almost certainly see more widespread play than any other Blue common. But it just happens to be one of the best answers to a wide variety of spells and tricks. While it's not flashy, the ability to prevent your opponent from carrying out a key part of his or her plan for a mere 1U is actually quite strong. If you're playing Blue in Standard Pauper, at the very minimum you should have a couple of these in your Sideboard. In fact, this probably has enough targets to make it worth even running a couple in your maindeck.

Blue Runner Up: Blinding Drone

I've been pretty down on colorless mana, but this is probably one of the best uses for it. It's almost a reprint of Blinding Mage but with an extra point of Toughness added into the mix. Assuming you have the mana to activate it every turn, this becomes a very potent weapon in your arsenal, and one that you don't typically see in Blue. While this still probably isn't enough on its own to make you want to run basic colorless Lands, cards that produce incidental colorless mana may be enough to make this an option worth considering in some Blue builds.

So those are my pick for the two best Blue Commons in Oath of the Gatewatch.  What about you?

Oath of the Gatewatch Top Picks: White

The paper prerelease of Oath of the Gatewatch was this past weekend, and although I didn't get to participate, I know many players are anxious for this set to get released on Magic Online. Meanwhile, I'm continuing to work through my review of the set, with Part One being published over at PureMTGO yesterday.

I've already written about the new colorless mana from the set as well as a first look at the new Lands at Common. So for the next couple weeks, I thought I would examine my top picks at Common from each of the five colors for Oath of the Gatewatch. So naturally, today I will be starting with White.

Best White Common: Kor Scythemaster

This card is almost a reprint of Porcelain Legionnaire. What makes it great is that most three drops won't be able to block this without help. It's also an Ally, which is looking like it will play a more important role given the high number of new Allies at Common in Oath of the Gatewatch. Of course, having only 1 Toughness is definitely a liability right now, particularly with the popularity of Twin Bolt in the metagame. We haven't seen much of the traditional White Weenie archetype in Standard Pauper as of late, but should such a deck have a resurgence, this is definitely a card that would fit right in to such a deck.

White Runner Up: Kor Sky Climber

This card costs the exact same mana as the previous card, swapping out offense-only First Strike for an extra point of Toughness and an activated ability that gives it Flying. A 3/2 for 2W is almost good enough by itself to see play in an aggressive deck, and the option to give it Flying each turn for a mere 1W makes this a very strong option. It also should do a decent job of defending against enemy flyers. And also like the previous card, it's also an Ally, and should actually pair very well with both new and previous cards. So overall while not amazing, it's worth considering in the right deck.

So those are my pick for the two best White Commons in Oath of the Gatewatch.

New Lands in Oath of the Gatewatch

With spoiler season at an end and the full card gallery revealed for Oath of the Gatewatch, it's time once again for me to work on another Standard Pauper set review. At this point I hope to have the first installment ready to go for Monday, but since I am traveling this weekend I can't guarantee that I will make that deadline.

In any case, I thought I would give you a sneak peak at my upcoming review today by taking a look at the brand new Lands in Oath of the Gatewatch. With the emergence of Colorless as a pseudo-sixth color of mana, and in a block that focused on Lands in general, I was hopeful that we'd see some interesting new Lands at Common. And I wasn't disappointed! Let's take a look:

1. On the turn Crumbling Vestige comes into play, it essentially taps for any color of mana, but only taps for colorless mana in subsequent turns. If it turns out that you want access to colorless mana in a reliable way, this card would seem like a solid choice, since it not only provides access to it but also helps early on to cast one of your other colored spells before you find the appropriate lands. However, unless one of your colors is merely a splash, the fact that you only get colored mana out of this once is a pretty substantial drawback. Still, if you need to play colorless mana sources, you could do far worse than this.

2. Holdout Settlement harkens back to Springleaf Drum, a card that at one point was judged too good to be reprinted at Common. This card might even be superior to that artifact, since it's much less vulnerable to removal, taps for colorless mana, and doesn't take up a card slot in your deck. This essentially allows you to turn any creature into a virtual Birds of Paradise, but in doing so ties up one of your Lands. Still, any deck that generates any sort of tokens or a high number of creatures can make very good use of this as a fixer. I'm not certain, but I think this could be pretty good.

3. Unknown Shores technically isn't new, but it now produces true colorless mana (as opposed to merely generic mana). This essentially allows you to tap 2 Lands to produce a single color of mana, which is not the kind of fixing that you want in your deck. Typically though this card has seen play as a singleton in decks that need access to more than two colors of mana, simply because it's a nice stopgap against being mana-screwed and isn't totally useless when you don't need its secondary ability. Once again, this is probably only reasonable if you want access to colorless mana.

4. I typically don't write anything about Basic Lands, but since Wastes is the first brand new Basic we've had since Snow-Covered Lands from Ice Age, I figured it was worth including. Like all basics, you can play as many of them as you want in your deck, and they can also be fetched by an Evolving Wilds, since that card allows you to search your library and pick any basic Land card. This works like another color of mana, with all of the corresponding ramifications for building a mana base. Bottom line - you better have a really good reason to include these in your deck!

So that's it! What do you think of the new Lands? Will Holdout Settlement be as useful as I indicated, or do you think it's not really as good as I think? Let me know in the comments below.

Colorless in Oath of the Gatewatch

I have had several requests to start discussing the Commons from Oath of the Gatewatch, but I've waited to do so for a couple reasons. First of all, there were relatively few Commons spoiled early. Second, while the inclusion of true Colorless mana and sources is certainly interesting, it was impossible to evaluate whether or not it would even matter until after the whole set was released.

But now, with the full spoiler released early, it's time for me to start working through the card gallery and offering my thoughts on what this set will hold for Standard Pauper.

For today, let's talk about the new Colorless mana. As cool as it is to have a pseudo-sixth color of mana, the rewards for trying to build a mana base around it just aren't there at Common. Here's why:

1. There is not a single card at Common that requires Colorless mana to cast. 
2. Not including cards that produce Colorless mana, there are only seven Commons that even give you some effect for having access to Colorless mana, all of which are in the form of activated abilities. Of these, the best are probably Blinding Drone, Gravity Negator, and Stalking Drone, but even these are hardly amazing.
3. Even if one of these cards end up being a significant roleplayer in a deck, there are plenty of incidental ways of generating Colorless mana without having to unbalance your mana base to do it.

So, while I don't share the widespread concern that this set is a dud for Standard Pauper, I don't believe the new Colorless mechanic will have much, if any, effect moving forward.

Now, the more interesting question is whether or not Wizards will choose to utilize this design space more in the future, or if this is just an aberration for a single set, and a small one at that.

Standard Pauper Double League Video by Bobgar

Hard to believe, but this week is the final week of Swiss rounds in Phase 2 of the Standard Pauper Double League. With only 30 players in the second phase, all of the 4-1s or better will qualify for the Top 8, along with two other players with a 3-2 record. From what I've heard, Izzet variants continue to be the most popular archetype, but other top contenders are Azorius and Rakdos, along with a sprinkling of others.

Today, I want to highlight the excellent videos produced by Bobgar, otherwise known as Kevin Kohler, of his matches in Phase 2 of the League. You can find his channel here, along with a playlist here of all his matches in Phase 2. This week, he recorded his match against afreeAk, both of whom are playing Izzet and were 4-0 going into this week. Check out his video below:

Thanks so much Bobgar for recording your matches, and congrats to afreeAk for being the only player to go 5-0 in the Double League. Over the next few weeks, I'll have lots more to report back as the Double League comes to a close. Thanks for reading.

And as a reminder, if you have suggestions on content for this blog, please let me know in the comments below. Thanks so much!

What I'm Working On

As we enter into a new year, I thought I would take a few minutes to write about the projects I'm currently working on and remind my readers about the opportunity to help guide what I will be writing about for the future.

I'm currently reading a hard science fiction novel called Solar Express by L.E. Modestitt, Jr., which I will be writing a review for as soon as I finish it. I am also working on an article for PureMTGO covering the Finals of Phase One of the Standard Pauper Double League, which I hope to have submitted later this week and published next Monday (you can find the videocast of the matches here, in case you want a sneak peek). My wife and I also received several new boardgames for Christmas, including Dead of Winter and Barony, which I am also planning on reviewing in the near future.

So, as a reminder, I would love to hear about what you would like to see on this blog. Read over this post from last week, and respond in the comments. Also, if you're looking for ways to support this blog, you can do so in one of three ways:

1. Send money directly via Paypal using the "Donate" button in the right-hand column.
2. Support indirectly by starting any purchases on Amazon.com by clicking on the "Shop Now at Amazon" link, also in the right-hand column.
3. When shopping at MTGOTraders.com, let them know that you heard about them from "Writer Adept."

Happy New Year from me and my family. I wish you all the best in the upcoming year!