The last time Wizards of the Coast made a set themed around "enemy" color pairings (colors opposite one another on the color wheel), it was a powerful set indeed. For instance, Apocalypse had cards like Vindicate, Pernicious Deed, Spectral Lynx, Desolation Angel and Spiritmonger. While that’s just naming a few, those are some powerful cards!

So now that Eventide is officially spoiled thanks to the recent pre-release and last weekend's release events, I’m wondering as I’m sure you are too, will Eventide be a good set? Will it have as many or as powerful of cards as Apocalypse had? Will it be more Johnny orientated? Or will it even, gasp, be more casual minded than any other set before it?

I hope to answer all of these questions, with a twist. While you’ll have to keep reading to find out that twist, I’ll be forward enough to tell you I’m feeling mono-white and mono-blue in First Impressions: Eventide!!!

…Click the button…

I’m going to try something a little different than what everyone else is doing and instead of a grade for each card, I’m going to present an icon from a very well known collage of pictures. Have you ever seen the How Are You Feeling Today poster, towel or magnet? It’s been printed on almost any surface that is printable on… and once you see the icons, I’m sure you will recognize it.

...

...

Today I will be talking about White and Blue mono-colored cards from Eventide. Remember these are literally my First Impression and nothing more. If a combo comes to me at the moment I review it, I will talk about it. Otherwise, let the icons speak for me.

Archon of Justice - 3WW
Creature - Archon (R)
Flying
When Archon of Justice is put into a graveyard from play, remove target permanent from the game.
4/4

WHOAH!! Another Archon. That makes two total in Magic, not counting the Changelings of course… How am I feeling about this card?

It looks like there is a plethora of potential combos for this card. Recursion, a sacrifice outlet and some mana is all you need to remove permanent after permanent from the game. And it appears there is plenty of ammo for this thoughout within Shadowmoor and Eventide. Can’t wait…!

Ballynock Trapper - 3W
Creature - Kithkin Soldier (C)
T: Tap target creature.
Whenever you play a white spell, you may untap Ballynock Trapper.
2/2

I’ve always been a big fan of creature tappers: Benalish Trapper, Nomad Decoy, Whipcorder, Trip Noose, Rathi Trapper... And they have all been, for the most part, UNDER four mana. Some could just tap while others required an activation cost. Whatever the case, they were mostly efficient and well costed. They are typically excellent and needed additions to any weenie style deck.

While Ballynock Trapper is a 2/2 and has the potential to untap several times in a turn, I’m not sure I like it. Four mana is just cumbersome for a tapper and its own casting cost will keep out of weenie decks until the end of time. And seriously, how many white spells are you going to play in a turn to activate this multiple times?

Still, I guess it has some potential given the Untap mechanic in Eventide. How do I feel about this card?

I suppose if you could find a white spell with an efficient Buyback ability, the four mana investment wouldn’t seem so bad. Of course, you could always just play Wrath of God and not worry about tapping anything done except for maybe Darksteel Colossus. 

Cenn's Enlistment - 3W
Sorcery (C)
Put two 1/1 white Kithkin Soldier creature tokens into play.
Retrace

After reviewing Brandon Bozzi’s You Tube video about Retrace, I am reminded about one thing: Retrace can be played from your graveyard as many times as you have lands to discard and mana to spend. It doesn’t remove itself after being ‘retraced’.

And thus, let’s compare this to Raise the Alarm. Alarm is a 1W Instant that basically does the same thing except it generates white Soldier tokens (without the Kithkin added creature type). However, you can only play it once. It does nothing good in your graveyard after you play it.

However, Cenn’s Enlistment is twice as expensive but you can keep playing it as much as you want over and over again, turn after turn, Assuming you are well established with your mana base and don’t need to play any more lands. In a weenie deck, I can see this card going in perfectly. All of your weenies are cheap to cast and you really don’t need to go beyond four lands. So after turn four you can just keep generating tokens. In combination with a white aligned Liege and any of the Kithkin boosters, this card can be dangerous.

And thus I like Cenn’s Enlistment. Feeling?

How are you feeling about this card? Be sure and let me know your thoughts about it or anything else I’ve said in the forums.

Endless Horizons - 3W
Enchantment (R)
When Endless Horizons comes into play, search your library for any number of Plains cards and remove them from the game. Then shuffle your library.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a card you own removed from the game with Endless Horizons into your hand.

With this card I am both:

It guarantees at least one land drop a turn after turn two, three or four depending on your mana acceleration. However, if someone manages to remove this card from the game you are doomed as you’ve potentially removed all of your lands in your library from the game. So it’s risky.

However, with the proper protection (WU or GW deck here I come) you can make this work. The real question is whether or not this is important enough to dedicate more than one slot in your decklist. Paradox Haze certainly is tempting…

Endure - 3WW
Instant (U)
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you and permanents you control this turn.

Fog, I’m sorry – I mean Holy Day, meets the real world! I do like how this card says “permanents” and not just creatures and players. I don’t like how non-exciting this card is. I guess that kind of reaction should be expected.

It’s not a bad card, it’s just a situational card. And thus, I am:

I should probably be angry that they hiked up the casting cost to five mana, but this card will save you and your creatures from a devastating Hurricane or Earthquake. That is worth five mana.

Flickerwisp - 1WW
Creature - Elemental (U)
Flying
When Flickerwisp comes into play, remove another target permanent from the game. Return that card to play under its owner's control at the end of turn.
3/1
Its wings disturb more than air.

Evasion, high power, blink effect… this looks like a good card on the face surface of it despite the creepy artwork for a white card. I’m not sure if they counted the comes into play effect of this card for or against it, kind of like a gating creature. That is, however, regardless of my first impressions:

With another blink effect, we will continue to see comes into play effects abused and combo’d in Standard and on the kitchen table. Before too long you will be able to make a theme deck just out of blink effects with one made card to keep blinking… and that, my friends, is a scary thought.

Hallowed Burial - 3WW
Sorcery (R)
Put all creatures on the bottom of their owners' libraries.

WHAT!? WHAT!?! WHAT!?!??!

Are you kidding? Wrath of God that gets around Persist and indestructible?! And only for one mana more? This is very good. Very good indeed. And here is why:

With the exception of Damnation, almost every other wrath of god variation has costed a gazillion mana more than the original. Akroma’s Vengeance cost six. That card from Coldsnap that removed cards from the game cost six hundred mana… you get my point.

This card is reasonably costed and provides an answer to a nuisance called persist. Thank you, Wizards. Thank you very much. Perhaps I should make a theme deck of nothing but Wrath of God variations… I wonder what my win condition would be? (Man-lands)

Kithkin Spellduster - 4W
Creature - Kithkin Wizard (C)
Flying
1W, Sacrifice Kithkin Spellduster: Destroy target enchantment.
Persist
2/3

Hmmm. It has Evasion. It has Persist. It is capable of destroying enchantments which is particularly useful in a season where there are lots of powerful enchantments floating around. Enchanted Evening much?

Anyway, I guess I’m:

This has the potential to be a great card, it’s just in a mana slot that I expect more from. If I’m spending five or more mana on a card, I want a really good effect. This is a great blocker, a possible game winner in draft and a great utility card. It’s just too far up there in cost. And it’s not going to work with my attempt to break Endless Horizons…

Kithkin Zealot - 1W
Creature - Kithkin Cleric (C)
When Kithkin Zealot comes into play, you gain 1 life for each black and/or red permanent target opponent controls.
1/3

Is there a feeling icon for watered-down, color-hosing filler?

No – there isn’t. If there was, I would use that icon for this card. It’s not bad. It’s not good. It’s sideboard-tastic and only meant to be played if you know you’re up against a Black or Red deck. Unless, of course, you are using Painter’s Servant. Is that card banned yet?

Light from Within - 2WW
Enchantment (R)
Chroma- Each creature you control gets +1/+1 for each white mana symbol in its mana cost.

I love it. I love it. I love it. It’s Crusade only better. It only affects your creatures like Glorious Anthem but it has the potential to go far above the typical +1/+1 bonus that Crusade would give.

For instance, Whipcorder or Longbow Archer, both WW to cast, would get only +1/+1 one if you have a Crusade or a Glorious Anthem in play. If you have Light from Within in play, suddenly it gets +2/+2 because of the double occurrence of W in its casting cost.

While this doesn’t work with white weenie decks as much as you would like (i.e. Savannah Lions and Watchwolf still only get +1/+1) it works crazy good with the Hybrid mana costs from Shadowmoor and Eventide. There are several cards that have as many as five white mana symbols in them…

They’ll give you a good return on this enchantment investment.

Loyal Gryfalcon - 3W
Creature - Bird (U)
Defender, flying
Whenever you play a white spell, Loyal Gyrfalcon loses defender until end of turn.
3/3

Creating a bunch of cards that have an effect upon you playing another spell of the same color isn’t a bad idea. I just don’t like this particular application of that mechanic. Mind you, it does add some flavor and dimension to strategy, but it’s a little cumbersome at the same time. Will we be moving towards completely mono-colored decks in Shards of Alara? Cards like this really give me the impression that...

What will we do when Shards of Alara forces us into mono-colored deck types?

Patrol Signaler - 1W
Creature - Kithkin Soldier (U)
1W, Q: Put a 1/1 white Kithkin Soldier creature token into play.
1/1

The untap ability of this card makes it a hearty combat trick An easily spotted combat trick, but a good one. If you are all tapped out and your opponent attacks you, just untap your Patrol Signaler and generate a 1/1 token. Use that token and the Signaler if need be to block your opponent’s attacker(s).

(That there’s aren’t more emotion options like a little less Happy).

Beyond that though, this card isn’t that good. Attacking with a 1/1 after the first turn is usually a bad idea. However, you can attack and then generate a token with its ability before damage is resolved. …just something to think about.

Recumbent Bliss - 2W
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature can't attack or block.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may gain 1 life.

This card’s design is perfect in every way. It’s Pacifism meets Healing Salve. It’s simple, elegant and well costed for the effect. Why didn’t I think of something like this when I was working on Celixia?

Spirit of the Hearth - 4WW
Creature - Cat Spirit (R)
Flying
You can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.
Thieves know that a snarl in the night means, "Rob another house".
4/5

I was always a fan of Ivory Mask despite it being a situational card. This card is only two more colorless mana is gives me a 4/5 body with evasion (flying). Combine that will beautiful artwork and you have a card that makes me feel:

Thank you, Wizards. This card is near perfect. It works in my tribal decks as well as a finisher in my weenie decks. :*grin* Will this card replace Ivory Mask in my current deck lists? I will have to get back to you on that one…

Springjack Shepherd - 3W
Creature - Kithkin Wizard (U)
Chroma - When Springjack Shepherd comes into play, put a 0/1 white Goat creature into play for each white mana symbol in the mana costs of permanents you control.
1/2
"Live together, die alone."

This card has a lot of potential if you play a card with one white mana symbol on turn one, two white mana symbols on turn two, three white mana symbols on turn three and this on turn four. That means seven (don’t forget to count the Shepherd too) 0/1 white Goat tokens when the Shepherd comes into play. Eight creatures for a four mana investment is pretty good.

Mind you that’s a hypothetical situation. However, it’s also a potential situation. This card has me pondering different deckbuilds to accommodate this card. Combine that with the fact that it is GOAT tokens and suddenly I feel:

Suture Spirit - 1W
Creature - Spirit (U)
Flying
W/B W/B W/B: Regenerate target creature.
1/1

Back in the beginning of Magic this would be a common 1/1 flier for 1W with no extra abilities. However, this has an extra ability… a cumbersome ability but still an ability that doesn’t require a tap. And thus, this card isn’t bad. I don’t know that it would replace any cards in existing Tribal-Spirit decks…

I don’t know that this card is really worth it. I’d rather use a creature with protection from artifacts or vigilance over a three mana regeneration shield. I’m feeling lonely for the card itself. You can call it a sort of empathy for the cards…

Banishing Knack - U
Instant (C)
Until end of turn, target creature gains "{T}: Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand."

Why do I have a feeling we are going to see a lot more of these kind of cards in Magic in the coming future? The design of the card is elegant and certainly gives the sense of surprise with an ability. And it’s a good ability that plays well with the untap mechanic of the Shadowmoor block. However, it doesn’t even cantrip.

On the flip side, it’s a cheaper and more abuse-able way to Boomerang something as long as your target isn’t a land…

Cache Raiders - 3UU
Creature - Merfolk Rogue (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep, return a permanent you control to its owner's hand.
What the current doesn't take, they do.
4/4

I like this. It’s a Stampeding Wildebeests for Blue without the trample and extra toughness. In exchange you can return any permanent you control to its owner’s hand as opposed to just a green creature. This also makes this card very Johnny-esque with the combo potential.

Dream Fracture - 1UU
Instant (U)
Counter target spell. Its controller draws a card.
Draw a card.

Oh, how I miss Counterspell. The new counterspells are fun and all, but how many variations on the counterspell will we see? This card, while interesting in design, is just Negate meets Howling Mine. Of course there is the ability to counter your own spell and draw two cards for 1UU.

Oh WAIT A MINUTE?! Is this how we get instant speed card drawings?!

(Is this where I go through the five parts of grief?)

Dream Thief - 2U
Creature - Faerie Rogue (C)
Flying
When Dream Thief comes into play, draw a card if you've played another blue spell this turn.
2/1

I’m not sure I like this card much. While I see it is just draftable evasion, it does have the possibility to give you a 2/1 flyer and a card for three mana. While this is mostly good in the mid to late game, it falls short of being good in the early game. I want to like this card, but it just kills me that I wouldn’t likely put it in either my Rogue Tribal deck or my Merfolk Tribal deck.

Glamerdye - 1U
Instant (R)
Change the text of target spell or permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another.
Retrace

Interesting. It’s a one sided version of Mind Bend with retrace, also known as Sleight of Mind with Retrace. In a block that really cares about color this card can do some crazy tricks. Still, I feel alone for this card since it’s partner in crime, Magical Hack with retrace, isn’t present in Eventide.

Glen Elendra Archmage - 3U
Creature - Faerie Wizard (R)
Flying
U, Sacrifice Glen Elendra Archmage: Counter target noncreature spell.
Persist
2/2

I’m feeling a bit shy about this card and I’m not sure why. Let me see if I can talk this out…

The blue mage in me wants to love this card. It’s a creature that can sacrifice itself to counter a spell. And you don’t need to tap it to activate its ability. In addition, I can do it twice thanks to Persist. That’s exciting stuff! I know I always loved the Spiketail Hatchling and Drake so why wouldn’t I love this card.

To start it requires a mana to activate which makes it less efficient than the Spiketail family. And then it specifies a Noncreature spell which makes it less usable than the Spiketail family. I suppose these too drawbacks to the originals I referred too are making me shy over the card.

One thing is for sure, it’s a card that needs to be tested. It could have potential.

Idle Thoughts - 3U
Enchantment (U)
2: Draw a card if you have no cards in hand.
Inspiration strikes the uncluttered mind.

I’m feeling a bit embarrassed about this card and here’s why. When I first saw this card I thought to myself what a dumb card… it’s just filler material… it’s a waste of four mana and a permanent…

This is actually a pretty good card. Any burn deck could use a card like this to replenish the hand with cheap burn spells. Likewise, a weenie deck can afford to have this to restock on cheap creatures. You can activate this as many times in a turn as you want, as long as your hand is empty.

So you activate it, draw a land.. play the land if you haven’t played one already and then activate Idle Thoughts again. If you draw a card, play it! Then activate the Idle Thoughts again…

The cheaper your mana curve, the more efficient this card becomes.

Now we just need a card to reduce the activation costs of enchantments by one.

One last thing: I love the art!

Indigo Faerie - 1U
Creature - Faerie Wizard (U)
Flying
U: Target permanent becomes blue in addition to its other colors until end of turn.
1/1

This works nicely with Circle of Protection: Blue… and creates some interesting interactions in a year of Color Matters.

Being the Johnny player that I am, I will find a way to build a deck using this card. And this makes me happy. I may just pair him up with Fylamarid just for the heck of it.

Inundate - 3UUU
Sorcery (R)
Return all nonblue creatures to their owners' hands.
"For years, the landfolk have emptied their refuse into the waters. It's time to return the favor"

WOW! I can’t believe they printed this card. It’s extremely powerful in a mono-blue deck and extremely useful against decks that don’t use blue.

I lie. I’m not shocked. The unfortunate downside to this card is the Hybrid mechanic which increases the possibility of your opponent not having to return anything to their hand.

Still, I do really like this card. It’s like Blue’s version of Blinding Light.

Merrow Levitator - 3U
Creature - Merfolk Wizard (C)
T: Target creature gains flying until end of turn.
Whenever you play a blue spell, you may untap Merfolk Levitator.
2/3

More color-matters, evasion enablers…

What’s nice about this card is using the Levitator to give one of your opponent’s best creatures flying in response to them playing a Hurricane effect! Sounds like good times to me.

Oona's Grace - 2U
Instant (C)
Target player draws a card.
Retrace

Two cards in particular make this card appetizing and tantalizing: Crucible of Worlds and Sapphire Medallion. Mind you, the Crucible won’t let you keep discarding lands because in order to discard them, they have to be in your hand. You can, however, discard the land card to Retrace Oona’s Grace and then play it as your land drop for the turn.

Holy cow! I just realized its instant card draw again!!! I’m really surprised they didn’t cost this as crazy as they costed Whispers of the Muse.

Razorfin Abolisher - 2U
Creature - Merfolk Wizard (U)
1U, T: Return target creature with a counter on it to its owner's hand.
2/2

This card is extremely block (and past block) appropriate and in some cases better than Waterfront Bouncer from Masques. (Waterfront Bouncer is one of my favorite spellshapers). In block it is definitely better than the Bouncer before it. Especially if you consider it can be used to return your own creature to your hand to either reset the Persist ability or to benefit from the creatures comes into play ability.

I’d be happier if this card cost one last mana to play.

Sanity Grinding - UUU
Sorcery (R)
Chroma - Reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each blue mana symbol in the mana costs of the revealed cards, target opponent puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard. Then put the cards you revealed this way on the bottom of your library in any order.

If you’ve read my previous articles, I AM ECSTATIC ABOUT MILL CARDS. Almost Lovestruck about them. While this card is an extremely ‘build around me’ mill card, I want to be one of the first players to build around it. It’s reasonably costed and supports its own ability by having triple blue mana symbols to cast it.

If I was grading on the letter system, I would give this can an A+++++.

Great name too!

Talonrend - 4U
Creature - Elemental (U)
Flying
U/R: Talonrend gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
Change is a denizen of Shadowmoor as much as ouphes and noggles are.
0/5

Filler. Filler. Filler.

This exhausts me… at least this kind of explains where noggles came from. Or does it???

Wake Thrasher - 2U
Creature - Merfolk Soldier (R)
Whenever a permanent you control becomes untapped, Wake Thrasher gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Anyone who thinks Merrows have more brains than brawn has never been run over by one.
1/1

This card is absolutely amazing. If you’ve ever liked Mesmeric Orb, you will love this card and equally know the potential of it. If you play this on turn three or four, it has the potential to become 6/6 or 7/7 during each of your turns. I cannot wait to build a deck around this card. I will load it up with tappers and cards with the Q symbol. I’ll have cards like Turnabout and then trample-giving cards. What good is a 7/7 without trample?

Can’t wait…!

Wilderness Hypnotist - 2UU
Creature - Merfolk Wizard (C)
T: Target red or green creature gets -2/-0 until end of turn.
1/3

Stop giving Rebecca Guay bad cards (mechanically). That’s all I have to say.

Of course, I almost forgot that Bitterblossom was drawn by Rebecca Guay.  So I'd like to retract my previous statement and take a moment to appreciate the beautiful artwork of Rebecca Guay.

So there you have it: another First Impression article from Streetz. I must say these articles are extremely fun to write. I hope you had as much fun reading this (and commenting on it I hope) as I did writing it.

Overall, I believe this set is a very casual set with a lot of Johnny cards in it. While this is based on my review of just white and blue mono colored cards, I’ve seen some of the other colors and I like them a lot.  I may even write a top 10 'build-around-me' cards in Eventide article as I feel this set has quite a few of them in it. 

If you are a casual player, buy into this set. You won’t regret it. If anything, it will make your favorite enemy-color-paired decklist a little more powerful and a lot more fun.

Look forward to a review of the same cards I reviewed today from a fellow clan mate of mine, AlasterEisaroh. I believe it will be published sometime next week. It’s good to get more than one opinion/impression from time to time.

In the meantime, please enjoy the rest of the First Impression articles scheduled for this week.

~Streetz~

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.
Find other articles by this author here.
Find other articles from this series here.

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Articles Spotlights from 2008:
A Fresh Perspective: Stasis - Part One.
The Apprentice Magician - Part Six.
Design on a Dime: The Lunch Meat Edition!
Fit the Flavor 2008 - FINALE!
The Games People Play - Market & EDH.
More Evil Than Evil.
Pauper Chronicles: Top O' the Morningtide to You!
Sarpadian Empires, Vol VII: Foreword.
Words from the Streetz: Uncommon and Common Magical Treasures.
The Writers Guild: The Inside Scoop.