![]() ![]() Of the 18 card advantage cards, only 7 cost less than 4 CMC. This is still not a bad number, but the problem we have here is that so many of these cards cost a lot. So when looking at straight-up card draw that nets us at least one extra card in hand, we’re down to just 8. Still, card advantage, yes, but not card draw, exactly. Most of those 18 aren’t going to net us extra cards, as several of them allow us to either play cards from the tops of libraries, or make us discard the same number of cards that we’re drawing. That’s a lot! Not all of it’s good, but we’ll get into that more in a little bit. The deck has a whopping 18 cards that I would classify as some type of card advantage. Why? How about Birds of Paradise for one? I think the moral of this whole breakdown is that the designers of the deck forgot about great 2-mana ramp spells like Rampant Growth, Nature’s Lore, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Mind Stone, Fellwar Stone, the Talismans, and the other Signets. But your opponents will just see that coming and vote for Remove on their turn. On the other hand, if Kal has a ton of +1/+1 counters on it and we can wipe everything else out and sneak in for a kill, maybe that’s worth it. But in this deck I’m just not really wanting to pay four mana for a rock that could potentially kill all my creatures at a time when I don’t want it to. But that weird upkeep ability though…It could be interesting in the right deck, preferably a mono-red deck. Floodgates does tap for 2 red mana, which is good. Solemn just isn’t worth the 4 mana in a green deck, IMO. Of these three, Reclamation is the only one I would keep, because it’s an absolutely awesome effect to have with Kalamax on the board. ![]() 4 – Lavabrink Floodgates, Wilderness Reclamation, Solemn Simulacrum.I really hope they don’t make this their new reprint-every-year mana rock. Being able to tap for 4 to draw a card only makes it slightly better. Three mana for a rock that gives you one mana is weak, in general. Then we have Bonder’s Ornament, the new 3-mana rock that gives you any color. In other words, it’s not a good ramp card. Shiny Impetus is good until the creature it’s enchanting dies. Harrow and Natural Connection can be really good if they get copied. I’ve had many games where being able to sacrifice it to draw a card has been pivotal. 3 – Commander’s Sphere, Harrow, Natural Connection, Shiny Impetus, Bonder’s Ornament. ![]() What I am going to complain about is that Arcane Signet is the only ramp spell at 2 CMC. But it’s here, we have it, and we’re not going to complain about using it. Okay, This rock is stupidly powerful and probably shouldn’t have been made. I want to look at the ramp in more detail, to see why it’s so lacking. It honestly feels like they forgot this deck has green and that we could go grab lands for two mana. There are ten ramp cards, which is a nice number of ramp spells to have, but it’s just all overpriced. Unfortunately, the ramp package isn’t any better. Why can’t we have Shock lands in the pre-cons, or more lands like Cinder Glade, which are only conditionally ETB tapped? Also, reprint the Battlebond lands, you cowards! What’s really sad here is that it doesn’t have to be this way, but every year the designers say that it does. In other words, don’t expect a quick game. Kind of adding insult to injury here, because it’s possible the land you bounce might also have to be an ETB-tapped land. Those are not only going to come into play tapped, they’re going to bounce another land you control back to your hand. Couple this with the fact that all three possible Ravnica bounce-lands are in here. That’s almost 1/3 of your lands entering tapped. Sadly, 12 of those lands come into play tapped. This pre-con, full decklist here, comes with 38 lands, a good amount for almost any deck. For right now, let’s take a look at the Arcane Maelstrom pre-constructed deck. There are so many different avenues we could pursue with this big dino. ![]() This commander definitely has my brain goo getting all bubbly. Keep in mind this is any time an Instant is copied, not just when Kal copies it. And as a bonus, whenever you copy an instant spell, Kal gets a +1/+1 counter. So the first Instant spell we cast on each turn, not just our turn, gets copied as long as Kal is tapped. ![]()
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