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Unfortunately, there are only three new Artifacts being printed in Magic 2010 (M10). That means that there are a few familiar reprints, as well as several treasures that didn't make the cut. My personal favorite returning Artifact is the newly-Mythic Darksteel Colossus. This indestructible trampler ends games, and I like that. (Is my Spike showing?) I'm also a big fan of Whispersilk Cloak, but I'll be playing the old art version, which I much prefer. There were actually quite a few artifacts in Tenth Edition that I would like to have seen again, but the two at the top of my list are Mind Stone and Razormane Masticore. I like how Mind Stone is mana acceleration for any deck and how it converts back into a card, when mana acceleration is no longer needed. I just like Razormane Masticore because it's fun! Reprints are great and all, but they're still old hat. Here is what you really want to see:
Grade: B
Grade: B+ As a matter of fact, there is so much overlap in how I would use Gorgon Flail and Magebane Armor, why not make a deck using both?
I added my favorite Equipment, Lightning Greaves, to give the deck a little kick. If you can finagle one of the new M10 Equipments onto a Crypt Rats or Reckless Embermage, you should easily have control of the board. Inferno Elemental plays really well on both offense and defense with Gorgon Flail in "hand," and having a 6/8 attacker that deals an extra three to each blocker isn't that bad either. I wanted to use the Onslaught Black/Red fetchland, so M10's Dragonskull Summit didn't make the cut, but Sign in Blood is a fine tool for drawing more threats or finishing off an opponent.
Grade: B-
That's all the new Artifacts we have this time around. Moving on to the lands, we have one new colorless land and a cycle of new duals. I've got a rant saved up for the dual lands, so let's start with the odd man out:
Grade: A Now that I'm looking at this Draw-Go deck, I can't help but notice a few other Standard analogs from the decklist: Cryptic Command performs admirably as a Dismiss update, and Rainbow Efreet has a Standard counterpart in Wydwen, the Biting Gale. The Standard counters are slower, but what say we give a quick shot at updating this deck for 2010?
The other major change is that the available counter spells are a lot slower than the originals, so I swapped out a few spell control cards for a few board control cards, namely three Austere Commands. The three White mana that Planar Cleansing requires turned out to be too greedy for the mana base, unless I wanted to get rid of Wydwen, which I didn't, because she's too much fun! While Scourglass is not the best substitute for Nevinyrral's Disk, at least it lets you have a board sweeper on the board, ready to reset the game at an upkeep's notice. Against faster opponents, you probably want Hallowed Burial instead. Bringing it all back to the reason why I made this deck, Gargoyle Tower performs admirably in this deck. Play around with this deck, and I think you will find Gargoyle Tower earns the "A" I've awarded it. Finally, we get to the new Magic 2010 "dual lands." Since this a completely symmetrical cycle, reviewing them card-by-card seems a little silly. Instead I'll look at them as a collective and get a little outside assistance along the way:
Grade: A-
So, yes, the M10 duals are good. Play them! But the hype behind them was just another Coldsnap-style smoke and mirrors media bungle by WotC. Next core set, let's hope for some truly awesome duals, or at least some truth in advertising. Ranting really takes it out of a guy. While I catch my breath, maybe we'd better find out what Streetz thinks. I suspect, he's got a kinder, gentler attitude towards the new duals:
Streetz: With exception to two of the new dual lands, all of the new arts are absolutely amazing. They not only capture the flavor of the color combinations, but they are depicted with detail, excitement and appropriate scale. My favorite is Glacial Fortress; the perspective, colors, and composition really make you believe this is a glacial fortress. Maybe I just have a thing for frozen landscapes, but this card screams flavor through and through. On a side note, I’m glad this is NOT a Snow Land. Not that I hated the Snow concept from Coldsnap, but I think the Snow supertype should be limited to specific sets and not just any card showing something encased in ice and cold snowy snowflakes. So which two arts do I not like? Rootbound Crag is my second least favorite of the five. It’s not that the art is poorly drawn, because it’s a nice picture. It’s the focus of the picture that’s the problem for me. The flavor of the name isn’t nearly as convincing as Glacial Fortress and the art looks more like a Tree than a Tree in a Crag. This screams more Forest to me, or really big tree, than Forest-Mountain. I think actually showing a crag covered in roots, minus the towering tree, would have been more flavorful. Drowned Catacomb is my least favorite art of the bunch. The name is convincing enough even though a little unoriginal. The art just seems sloppy and lacking the detail, composition, and glimmer of the other arts. Maybe this is just another situation where the original art is fantastic, but after being shrunk down to fit on the card, it loses its luster. I understand that you want a Black aligned land to look dark, but this art just is too dark on the card to see what’s really going on. It wasn’t until I pulled a foil one that I noticed the little guy on a boat with the light in the middle of the art. I guess that’s a saving grace on this card. It’s still my least favorite though. With regard to the actual mechanic of these new dual lands, I like it. It’s simple, elegant and punishing really only on turn one. You don’t get the pay two life to play it untapped, you don’t have the option to tap it for colorless or pay one life for a colored mana, you don’t have to leave it tapped for an extra turn and it doesn’t just come into play tapped without any options. I would venture to say that this is one of the most simple, elegant cycles of dual lands they have ever printed. The other candidates include the original dual lands from Alpha/Beta and the ‘comes into play tapped’ dual lands from Invasion. While the fetch lands from Onslaught are reasonably simplistic and elegant, I don’t really consider them a dual land since they don’t tap for mana. Drathro: Well, Streetz really focused on the dual land arts, which I agree are quite nice. I even like the art from Drowned Catacomb. I do wonder how an inanimate catacomb can be "drowned." I know technically drowned can just mean submerged, but for me, the connotation of drowned implies a once-living being under the water. Anyway, that's not a big deal to me. Also, I agree with Streetz, the nicest M10 dual land art is definitely on Glacial Fortress! That wraps up this look at Magic 2010's Artifacts and Lands. How would you make a deck for Mirror of Fate? Is Magebane Armor really just a smidge better than Gorgon Flail? Is anybody else irritated with the not-quite-awesome duals, or is it just me? Sound off in the forums, and let me know what you think!
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Spotlights from 2009: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Welcome
to the Artifacts and Lands installment of First Impressions: Magic 2010! While
this part of the tour may be small, it is by no means any less interesting.
Along the way, you will see some returning favorites, some new toys, a few
decklists, and even a guest speaker! Let's get started, shall we?
2010:
A Ping Odyssey.
Draw-garGoyle.
The
biggest flaw in this Draw-Go update is the lack of instant-speed draw, but
our options from Standard are pretty limited. Esper Charm could work as
instant draw, but adding more Black mana requirements really puts the hurt
on this deck. Oona's Grace is instant speed, but this deck doesn't usually
want to throw away it's lands. In the end, Jace Beleren made the cut for
that spot.
