Today we'll be looking at the Alara Reborn spells that are part of the now-defunct "Naya" shard, as well as reviewing the Blue-Black spells that are Naya's polar opposite. This should be interesting, so let's get ready to rumble!

Drathro: Whew! Writing this review up was a challenge - I'm used to reviewing the more-control oriented Black and Blue colors, so aggressive Naya is new ground for me. Fortunately, with this crazy ally/enemy article structure, I got to both broaden my horizons with Naya reviews and also check out the new cards in Blue-Black, Naya's natural enemy and my favorite color combination!

Gloryscale Viashino 1RGW
Creature - Viashino Soldier
Whenever you play a multicolored spell, Gloryscale Viashino gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
3/3

Drathro: C+
Like every other creature with Green and White in the set, Gloryscale Viashino is going to love wearing a Shield of the Oversoul, but unlike the others, it will also get an extra boost the turn the aura is cast. With so many multicolor options available nowadays, I expect folks to try Gloryscale Viashino out for fun, but with a default toughness of three and no inherent evasion, Gloryscale Viashino is just barely above average.

Tekkactus: B
There was a time when a 6/6 (practically) for four mana was heralded as the bringer of the end times. We, however, live in a post-Wooly Thoctar era where this sort of thing is not only commonplace, but apparently also a little underwhelming. Oh, that ability activates more than once a turn? Well, a turn 5 9/9 attacker is more like it!

Mayael's Aria RGW
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control if you control a creature with power 5 or greater. Then you gain 10 life if you control a creature with power 10 or greater. Then you win the game if you control a creature with power 20 or greater.

Tekkactus: C-
The Aria tries to be cooler than it actually is. The idea of stacking "If" effects building up to a fantastic finish is a great one, but this one manages to screw it up and just make some win-more dreck. Johnnies still wet around the ears say Mossbridge Troll, but that’s so boringly obvious it almost makes, "Wizards is building my decks for me" a decent argument.

Drathro: D
Somehow, I doubt that this plus Wall of Blood and Berserk will be a viable combo option either. Sure, play this in your Naya 5-power matters deck if you want, but expect the game to be over well before you have a 20 power creature in play.

Naya Sojourners 2RGW
Creature - Elf Shaman
When you cycle Naya Sojourners or it's put into a graveyard from play, you may put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Cycling {2}{G} ({2}{G}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
5/3

Drathro: D
When you pay five mana in three different colors, you expect to get something good. What, you were expecting something better than a practically-vanilla 5/3? Me too. Cycle this for a boost, but don't hardcast it unless it's all you've got. On the plus side, its cycling ability is a nice throwback to the "+1/+1 counters matter" cards of Lorwyn block: think Bramblewood Paragon.

Tekkactus: D
Cycling has been around for a decade now. At this stage in its life, it should be doing something more interesting than "the same stuff I was doing during Onslaught, except worse." Let’s tack it onto some underwhelming midrange creatures and make them a cycle, just in case the players haven’t thrown themselves down their basement staircase yet.

Retaliator Griffin 1RGW
Creature - Griffin
Flying
Whenever a source an opponent controls deals damage to you, you may put that many +1/+1 counters on Retaliator Griffin.
2/2

Tekkactus: B-
I don’t like cards where I need to be losing in order to make them effective. Potentially big flier, fine fine, it’s a decent Limited pick. I’d just like some control over how big it gets without letting attackers get through, alright? Actually, now that I give it some thought, it could have some political uses in multiplayer... "if you attack me instead of Steve you’ll only make my Griffin angrier..."

Drathro: C+
Griffins are neat. Getting thwacked by your opponent sucks. Mix this with a life-gain deck that can take the hits, and maybe you've got something. Maybe.

Uril, the Miststalker 2RGW
Legendary Creature - Beast
Uril, the Miststalker can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.
Uril gets +2/+2 for each Aura attached to it.
5/5

Drathro: A
If there's any creature that wants to wear Shield of the Oversoul, it's Uril, the Miststalker. Put them together to march your evasive, indestructible, "semi-shrouded" 9/9 into the red zone with impunity. Even without an aura attached, a 5/5 untargetable is decent for five mana. It has constructed potential for Standard while Gaddock Teeg is around, and when Teeg rotates, Chameleon Colossus goes as well, leaving some big shoes that Uril can amply fill. Beyond constructed, it's a certified Limited bomb and a definite casual hit!

Tekkactus: A+
What Drathro said. Although this raises the question that, with Rootwater Matriarch and Evershrike around town, what color dislikes Auras in today’s color wheel? It seems that, in order to get people to play the walking pieces of card disadvantage, Wizards has decided to throw any sort of uniqueness to the wayside. Everyone in the audience tonight gets an Aura! You get an Aura! You get an Aura! YOU GET AN AURA!

Marisi's Twinclaws 2(R/W)G
Creature - Cat Warrior
Double strike
2/4

Tekkactus: B+
I’m sure half-hybrids looked fine in playtests when mana costs were determined by letters. But in the real world, the one where people are paying money, those mana costs are about as aesthetically unappealing as Rhox pornography. Oh, the rest of the card? Yeah, a 2/4 double striker is pretty good.

Drathro: B-
First of all, the mixed hybrid/regular mana costs don't bother me at all. As far as the Twinclaws go, I love double strike - it makes pump spells so much more deadly. The four toughness also keeps it out of range of a lot of direct damage, which is key to playability. You'll have a hard time deciding what kind of deck to put this in - it's a smidge too expensive for fast aggro, and there are better midgame spells at four mana, but you'll have fun trying it out.

Naya Hushblade (R/W)G
Creature - Elf Rogue
As long as you control another multicolored permanent, Naya Hushblade gets +1/+1 and has shroud. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities.)
2/1

Drathro: C+
It's a reasonable cost for a 2/1 and potentially decent if you can get the bonuses active early. However, if your opponent manages to stall the creature attack, all you've got is a 3/2 on which you can't use combat tricks. If Hushblade is somehow good, then I better dig out my Pincher Beetles! This is the worst of the hybrid "blade" cycle, but even the dregs of a decent cycle can still be a quality card.

Tekkactus: A
While my partner may say that this is the worst of the cycle, I have to disagree. Shroud is an incredibly potent ability, especially when it finds a home on a 2 mana 3/2. Any sort of combat trick benefit you lose is more than outweighed by the ability to shrug off removal. And hey, worst case scenario you get a Coral Eel. There are worse cards out there.

Trace of Abundance (R/W)G
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant land Enchanted land has shroud. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities.)
Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, its controller adds one mana of any color to his or her mana pool (in addition to the mana the land produces).

Tekkactus: D
More like Trace of Card Value. With this darling little abortion of "smashing two things we’ve already done together" card design, in this case Consecrate Land and Fertile Ground, Wizards has created a card that essentially does nothing its parents were supposed to. The Ground fixes mana, but hey! You’ve already got two of your colors if this is in play. And what I said about Shroud earlier? It doesn’t apply so much to lands. Enjoy your near useless rider ability.

Drathro: C-
With Trace, at least you won't get two-for-oned, which makes this marginally better than Fertile Ground if you can support the colors. On the other hand, you can't use this in your Freed From the Real/Ley Druid combo!

Cerodon Yearling RW
Creature - Beast
Vigilance, haste
2/2

Drathro: B
A decently fast early game attacker. 2/2 two-mana haste creatures are hard to find, and this one stays back to block, as well. To be really effective, you need to play this in a deck that clears away blockers, which has been a winning recipe for aggro-burn decks for years.

Tekkactus: B+
Remember, back in October, when Wizards printed that one card, Rip Clan Crasher? Yeah, I don’t either.

Fight to the Death RW
Instant
Destroy all blocking creatures and all blocked creatures.

Tekkactus: ?
I have no idea how to grade this. I mean, you could turn it into an (almost) one sided Wrath if you paired it up with Taunting Elf or Entangler, but under normal circumstances, it seems like there’s very little control here. I mean, if your opponent is attacking with everything they have, it probably means you don’t have enough blockers to make this viable, and if they’re blocking with every creature they have, you’re probably about to win anyway... is this bad or not?

Drathro: B
Well, I'll take the plunge and give it a letter grade. Aside from the obvious tricks with Lure-effects and creatures that can block multiple creatures, I think this card is an excellent use for your outclassed Naya Hushblades and Cerodon Yearlings! Fight to the Death is also kind of evil for multiplayer, since you can play it when one opponent is attacking another opponent.

Glory of Warfare 2RW
Enchantment
As long as it's your turn, creatures you control get +2/+0.
As long as it's not your turn, creatures you control get +0/+2.

Drathro: B+
The first thing many folks will say about Glory of Warfare is, "But it doesn't protect against Volcanic Fallout!" If you are one of the folks who say that, then you aren't using this card right, or your noodle, for that matter. You don't play this against Volcanic Fallout, you play this with Volcanic Fallout! Clear the opponent's blockers on their turn with Fallout, protect your attackers with Glory of Warfare, then flip it around on your own turn to boost your attackers into a much-diminished defense!

The obvious use for Glory of Warfare is in a token deck; Spectral Procession becomes a nightmare with one of these on the board. Personally, I'd like to see this combined with some haste as well, like the hasty Red unearth Elementals from Shards of Alara and Conflux. This also brings me back to the hasty Cerodon Yearling from a couple cards back. I'm thinking a deck with Gee of Dubya, Yearling, hasty unearthers, Fallout, and Wrath of God could be pretty nifty.

Also, I've always enjoyed Paolo Parente's stylistic artwork, so that's a bonus!

Tekkactus: B
Oh look, more atom-smasher design; this time it's Castle and Vibrating Sphere. I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t like this card, but I do wish it was a little more dynamic. My reaction upon seeing it was more or less, "Oh, that’s nice".

Intimidation Bolt 1RW
Instant
Intimidation Bolt deals 3 damage to target creature. Other creatures can't attack this turn.

Tekkactus: A
What is it about White that just makes burn better? First Lightning Helix, now this. In Limited, you might as well call this a turn 3 Time Walk; blow up their early attacker (Talon Trooper, maybe?) and stop their other ones from doing anything. Finally, there’s a card in here that I can get behind.

Drathro: B-
I agree that White and Red do seem to combine in surprising ways. This combination is an interesting mix of spot removal and a preemptive fog effect.

Stun Sniper RW
Creature - Human Archer
{1}, {T}: Stun Sniper deals 1 damage to target creature. Tap that creature.
1/1

Drathro: B-
Pingers are always valuable for Limited and casual. Add a classic "trapper" ability to deal with big fat enemies, and you have yourself one fine little Archer. I've seen Vithian Stinger in Constructed sideboards, and even though Stun Sniper costs a mana to activate, it can also deal with creatures that Vithian Stinger could barely touch.

Tekkactus: A-
In Limited, this is going to be a total pain. A two mana creature that can pick off a little guy or tap down a big one is a huge asset for you and a real irritation for your opponent. Given how much everyone loves Vithian Stinger, like Drathro mentioned, expect to be seeing a lot of her.

Architects of Will 2UB
Artifact Creature - Human Wizard
When Architects of Will comes into play, look at the top three cards of target player's library, then put them back in any order.
Cycling {(u/b)} ({(u/b)}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
3/3

Tekkactus: C
I would have liked this card a lot more if they had gone all the way with the idea and had just made it, "When this comes into play, choose one- scry 3 or fateseal 3." As it is, setting the opponent’s bomb back only two draws doesn’t really seem like it's worth much. Being a one mana cycler bumped this one’s grade up considerably.

Drathro: C
So it's either a Hill Giant with Elemental Augury skills, or just another artifact for your graveyard. Maybe add Astral Slide to ruin the opponent's top-decks? Wait, I've got it: Architects of Will plus Thoughtpicker Witch plus Debtors' Knell, it's so obvious!

Brainbite 2UB
Sorcery
Target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a card from it. That player discards that card. Draw a card.

Drathro: C-
This is a tricky one to rate. At four mana, you run the risk of the opponent being out of cards when you play this. Granted, you will get to draw a card regardless of whether a card was discarded or not. In the end, I can't get past the cost of Brainbite - single card discard should be cheaper than four mana, even with a draw tacked on.

Tekkactus: D+
This would have been acceptable at 4B (you know, like Coercion with a cantrip would have been in any other set). By forcing it into a more specific subset of decks, Wizards has essentially given you no reason to want to play it. The lack of versatility here just kills it.

Deny Reality 3UB
Sorcery
Cascade (When you play this spell, remove cards from the top of your library from the game until you remove a nonland card that costs less. You may play it without paying its mana cost. Put the removed cards on the bottom in a random order.)
Return target permanent to its owner's hand.

Tekkactus: D-
Cascade usually adds 1 or 2 to their basic version’s cost. So answer me this, who the HELL would pay 2UB for Boomerang?! Seriously?

Drathro: B-
Instead of estimating value by how much cascade typically adds, let's break this down by cost and effect. When only one Blue mana is involved, bouncing a permanent typically costs three mana (2U). Cascade basically gives you a potential extra card, so we can tack on one mana to pay for the virtual "draw a card," bringing our subtotal to 3U. Subtracting that subtotal from the actual cost of Deny Reality means that it essentially costs us only one Black mana to play the "drawn card" for free, and that's a deal in my book. It's a shame this is a sorcery, since cascade is so much stronger at instant speed, but you take what you can get.

Etherium Abomination 3UB
Artifact Creature - Horror
Unearth {1}{U}{B} ({1}{U}{B}: Return this card from your graveyard to play. It gains haste. Remove it from the game at end of turn or if it would leave play. Unearth only as a sorcery.)
4/3

Drathro: D+
I like the concept and art on this card a lot. The creature depicted looks like a little metal Demon-Gargoyle to me. Unfortunately, Etherium Abomination is outclassed by a lot of creatures in the current Standard, and it only gets worse in older formats. At least unearth keeps it from being completely terrible.

Tekkactus: D
We’ve been seeing otherwise vanilla unearthers all year. I really don’t care anymore. Show me something interesting.

Illusory Demon 1UB
Creature - Demon Illusion
Flying
When you play a spell, sacrifice Illusory Demon.
4/3

Tekkactus: B+
I’ve always loved Skittering Horror. A 4/3 for three is fantastic, regardless of what the drawback is. Add in evasion, and I’ll gladly hold onto this spell for a turn or two longer. The fact that they changed the original "no creatures" to "no spells" hurts a bit, but it’s something I can live with.

Drathro: B
Agreed. A flying 4/3 for three mana is indeed a bargain, but a severe drawback means you've got to build your deck a little smarter to play this effectively. There are ways around this drawback... What, you want me to build all your decks for you?

Jhessian Zombies 4UB
Creature - Zombie
Fear
Islandcycling {2}, swampcycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Search your library for an Island or Swamp card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)
2/4

Drathro: C
The landcycling abilities are obviously useful for the budget-minded and are the only aspect that makes this decent for Constructed formats, while a late-game evasion creature isn't bad for Limited stand-offs. Don't expect to play this as a creature outside of Limited more than once in a blue moon.

Tekkactus: D
SLOTH... LOVE... CHUNK!

Kathari Remnant 2UB
Creature - Bird Skeleton
Flying
{B}: Regenerate Kathari Remnant.
Cascade (When you play this spell, remove cards from the top of your library from the game until you remove a nonland card that costs less. You may play it without paying its mana cost. Put the removed cards on the bottom in a random order.)
0/1

Tekkactus: C
Cascade or not, would it have killed them to give this poor vulture at least 1 power? I guess that he serves his purpose well as an annoying little crapsack of a blocker, but I can’t help but pity the little thing. As always, the grade is bumped up because cascade is never bad.

Drathro: B-
It's time to deconstruct another cascade card! If we calculate 2UB, minus B (Will-o'-the-Wisp), minus one colorless for the virtual "draw a card," that leaves us paying 1U to play the "extra spell." Even though it isn't quite as generous with the cascade cost as Deny Reality, I think Kathari Remnant is still on par with Deny Reality, because it is cheaper and can permanently effect the board.

Lich Lord of Unx 1UB
Creature - Zombie Wizard
{U}{B}, {T}: Put a 1/1 blue and black Zombie Wizard creature token into play.
{U}{U}{B}{B}: Target player loses X life and puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard, where X is the number of Zombies you control.
2/2

Drathro: B
Lich Lord of Unx is actually somewhat flexible, creating tokens of two relevant creature types and promoting two different win conditions. Ideally, I'd like to see this in some sort of control deck as the cheap finisher of choice, protected by Riptide Laboratory. However, I think the art leaves something to be desired - the creature looks kind of... goofy.

Tekkactus: B
Alara block has certainly been giving us a lot of Zombie Tribal goodies, hasn’t it? Maybe it’s to make up for the lack of Zombies in Lorwyn... Anyway, this is a good card. It’s true! Repeatable token generation for two well supported Tribes at once is great, and did you notice you don’t need to tap for the second ability? What I don’t get is having both mill and life loss. I guess it makes it flashier for Timmy, but unless your opponent is playing with a 30 card deck, I don’t see how the mill helps. As for the goofy art, well, it looks like Lich Lord of Unx could really go for an apple. That’s all I’m saying.

Mask of Riddles UB
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature has fear.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.
Equip {2}

Tekkactus: B
Like Brainbite, Mask of Riddles’ mana cost does it no favors. If this had been a typical artifact that costs say... three mana, it’d be an easy A. By limiting it only to decks with access to UB, it becomes little more than a niche card. Will I play it in my UB aggro decks? Oh, hells yeah. It’s just that there are some other decks where I’d like to use it much more, but I can’t.

Drathro: B+
This fusion of Mask of Memory and Sleeper's Robe is a card I can get behind. Like Tekk laments, the mana cost restricts it's use a little compared to Mask of Memory, but Mask of Riddles is still a strong card. Wait, why would you play something besides Blue-Black anyway?

Mind Funeral 1UB
Sorcery
Target opponent reveals cards from the top of his or her library until four land cards are revealed. That player puts all cards revealed this way into his or her graveyard.

Drathro: B-
Cards like this are straight up fun, but they have a high variance in results that some folks won't like. Doing some rough math on your average 24 land/36 spell deck, I figure you have a better than 50% chance of milling at least nine cards from the opponent's library - not too shabby for one card and three mana. Still, it could backfire and mill your opponent out of a land flood!

Tekkactus: A+
I’m a casual player to my core, and I really don’t mind losing if I had fun doing it. For me, this card has two extremes: Either this goes supernova and mills 15 to 20 cards, and the table erupts into cheers, or it fails miserably, like Drathro mentioned, and mills 4 straight up, causing us all to crack up laughing. To me, that sounds like a win-win.

Mistvein Borderpost 1UB
Artifact
You may pay {1} and return a basic land you control to its owner's hand rather than pay Mistvein Borderpost's mana cost.
Mistvein Borderpost comes into play tapped.
{T}: Add {U} or {B} to your mana pool.

Tekkactus: C
A borderpost is a borderpost. You already know all about them by now. *cups his hand over the mic* Hey, we’re not getting published first, are we?

Drathro: B
In a world where multicolor matters and artifacts in play are a bonus, there is definite potential here. At the very least, they are nice options for the budget-minded and Pauper crowds.

Nemesis of Reason 3UB
Creature - Leviathan Horror
Whenever Nemesis of Reason attacks, defending player puts the top ten cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
3/7

Drathro: A-
Another milling card! Streetz (Magic Deck Vortex's head honcho) must be in heaven. Even though I'm not a particular fan of the art, what I personally like about it is that it is a Leviathan Horror, two of the most fun creature types out there. The best thing about creatures like Nemesis of Reason is that they tend to make people panic for no good reason (pun not intended, but it is quite apt). A lot of players will play irrationally if they think you can mill them for a sizable number of cards, so drop this 3/7 beatstick and see how long before the board gets swept. If the opponent can't deal with it, so much the better for you!

Tekkactus: A
I like Leviathans. Wizards has yet to print a Leviathan that I haven’t liked (even Eater of Days and Sky Swallower). So, when they print one that’s actually good? Consider me on the campaign trail.

Soul Manipulation 1UB
Instant
Choose one or both - Counter target creature spell; and/or return target creature card in your graveyard to your hand.

Tekkactus: B-
While Branching Bolt’s ugly cousin here isn’t nearly as good as the original, it’s still fairly decent. People play Remove Soul, and people used to play Raise Dead, right? At one point in time I seem to remember that being true.

Drathro: C+
I think this will work in Standard quite nicely, because there are very few decks around that don't run creatures. (By the way, the fact that Standard is creature-dominated is by design - just read Mark Rosewater's MTG column for proof.)

Soulquake 3UUBB
Sorcery
Return all creatures in play and all creature cards in graveyards to their owners' hands.

Drathro: F
You spend your entire turn's mana to stem the bleeding. Then your opponent gets to play his biggest creatures and the ones with the best comes-into-play abilities. They also get the option to keep mana open and mess with you while you try to play the creatures you just 'quaked to your hand. All this for only seven mana? Wow!

In other words, a seven-mana sorcery that stalls the game for a turn seems pretty bad to me. That's because it is pretty bad.

Tekkactus: A+
Don’t listen to Drathro, this is the best card in the set.

Time Sieve UB
Artifact
{T}, Sacrifice five artifacts: Take an extra turn after this one.

Tekkactus: B+
Honestly, I have no idea whether or not this will see any serious play. What I do know is that it has my Johnny senses all aflutter. Time Sieve, have you met Sharding Sphinx? Or, oh oh, this is Myr Servitor, I think you’ll really like him! Love is in the air, my friends.

Drathro: D+
Yeah, yeah, extra turns, combo potential, blah blah bitty blah, I'm so stuffy, give me a scone. Let's be serious here, by the time you Johnnies can pull off any combo with this clunker, you should have already won the game. Two mana is great. Two mana and five cards is bad. Two mana, two cards, and five recurring artifacts is highly unlikely. Good luck with that.

Vedalken Ghoul UB
Creature - Vedalken Zombie
Whenever Vedalken Ghoul becomes blocked, defending player loses 4 life.
1/1

Drathro: C+
Vedalken Ghoul is a potential four life for only two mana. That's good for a burn spell, right? If you can make your opponent want to block this, you are in business, and if they don't want to block it, then you get to ping their life one point at a time. Too bad it isn't a Rogue, but I bet ninjutsu works just fine with this little "unblockable."

Tekkactus: C
It looks like someone finally realized that Infectious Host sucked. Like Drathro said, this is ninjustu enabler incarnate; in most cases I think it’s better to suck it up and take the 4 life swing right away, rather than let this thing chip away at you until the opportunity to waste removal on it arises.

So, what did we learn today? We learned that neither of us like Naya Sojourners very much at all. It earned the lowest average grade of all the cards reviewed here, with a pair of 'D's (get your minds out of the gutter). We also learned that Uril, the Miststalker earns the best average grade of the day, with an 'A' and an 'A+'! What's even more interesting is that these two cards, the worst and the best, have the exact same casting cost in the upper right hand corner. Quite the contrast in card quality, wouldn't you say?

Our biggest disagreements were about Deny Reality and Time Sieve. (What's that? No, I don't think he was serious about Soulquake.) I consider Deny Reality to be worth the mana spent, but Tekkactus can't see paying such a high price for a simple Boomerang effect, even with cascade tacked on. Time Sieve got Tekk's Johnny-senses tingling with potential, but I can't imagine any combo reliably working with it and would rarely, if ever, sacrifice five cards just to get an extra turn.

Now we want to know what you think. What is the best card in this article? The worst card? Where were we right on the money, and where did we go wrong? Sound off in the forums, and let us know about your First Impressions of Alara Reborn!

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

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Articles Spotlights from 2009:
Magus of the Bazaar – Merchant Magic
Parasitism: The Devolution of Magic Players. - by Kozy
Mechanic Week: Kicking a Bad Habit - by Streetz
MTG Theory: Card Design 101 . - by Cashew
Potatobrain's Guide to Token Decks. - by Potatobrain
The Magic of Friday Night. - by hamsandwich
Memories of an Old Magic Player: Recrossing the River Jordan. - by Chris Newton
Mechanic Week: Offering Up Mechanic Week. - by Dan Wright (Drathro)