First Impressions: Zendikar - Black. - by Potatobrain

[Streetz]

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http://www.magicdeckvortex.com/mdvarticle0531.htm

Please read it, enjoy it and discuss it here.

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[GRUNT]

'Intimidate' was made partly because they felt that 'Fear' sounded funny in that the creature with that ability isn't the one with fear, rather it instills fear in OTHER creatures. Personally, I'm rather happy about the change . Aside from a few colour-changing shenanigans and whatnot (or on gold critters), it basically functions the same as Fear did, and I think that the ability was very flavourful on red cards, and I'm glad that they changed it so that it can be splashed just a little there.

Vampire Hexmage is a chick - look at that artbox-filling cleavage! And yeah she's amazing. 2 mana for a 2/1 first striker in a relevant tribe which needs efficient small critters is by itself, very good. Then it has that bonus as well :O.

The article was a great read, and I agree with pretty much everything you said except:

Blood Seeker - this is a good card, but not 'A-level', I feel.

Bloodghast - THIS is 'A', IMO .

Halo Hunter - I think you're being a wee bit harsh on this guy :[. 5 mana for a 6/3 Fear is not too shabby in my book, and he's especially deadly in limited.

[Wombatish]

I don't think blood seeker is nearly as good as you seem to think he is. I also think you're greatly underestimating quest for the gravelord. Think about it as board recovery. With one or two of those out your opponent's wrath/day of judgment just created 5-10 power worth of creatures for you that you'll get to swing with on your turn. Not too shabby.

[Cashew]

@Blood Seeker - Agree. He's a reverse Soul Warden. I'd wager your average Soul Warden gains about 4 life. This guy is worth it in Vampires.

@Bloodghast - A little better than you let on. Great card for Black aggro.

@Guul Draz Specter - Not quite as good as you think.

@Guul Draz Vampire - Definitely better than what you let on. He may not do a whole lot early on, but should be your finisher for Vampires and with Nocturnus in play makes a great swarmer.

@Halo Hunter - You rated far worse cards much higher. I'm highly upset that it can't kill Baneslayer Angel though.

@Quest for the Gravelord - Much better than you're realizing.

@Sadistic Sacrament - Really an A? Not sure I'd play it over Cranial Extraction or Thought Hemorrhage

[StealthBadger]

If you want to avoid making the same embarassing mistake that I did at the release event, you will note that Halo Hunter has no "may" clause in his destroy target angel ability BEFORE playing him next to your Shepherd of the Lost. Just saying...

[GRUNT]

Originally Posted by Cashew

@Blood Seeker - Agree. He's a reverse Soul Warden. I'd wager your average Soul Warden gains about 4 life. This guy is worth it in Vampires.

I know that making your opponents lose life is generally more valuable than you gaining life, but don't you think that the fact that Blood Seeker's ability only triggers when it's an opponent's creature which enters the battlefield means that it lacks that little extra flexibility to make it an A-class card? :[

[Cashew]

I'm plan on playing Vampires like a lot of people.

1 Drops
4 Lacerators
3 Gull Draz Vampries

2 Drops
3 Bloodghasts
2 Hexmages

3 Drops
4 Gatekeepers
3 Nighthawks

4 Drops
3 Nocturnus

Those are my current numbers. I'm not mainboarding Bloodseekers, but I do have three on my sideboard. If Spectral Procession and Bitterblossom were still in Standard you can bet your sweet behind I'd be mainboarding the BSers though.

[potatobrain]

Wow, glad to see so many of you are here to fight me in the forums! I should put that at the end of every article

Alright, my two cents:

-Quest for the Gravelord: now that you guys mention it as a counter to Wrath of God, I like it a little better. Also, I've had the chance to play it in a couple of games, and it's not bad at all. I wouldn't give it an A, but maybe bump it up a little bit.

-Blood Seeker: you guys have offered me some compelling arguments as to why he's not as amaz... oh wait, NO YOU DIDN'T! He's still brilliant, and my hero. To the naysayers, I don't think you realize how retarded good he is. I've played him against an opposing tribal deck, and watched him make an opponent lose five life in the space of 3 turns because the guy didn't draw a removal spell fast enough. FIVE LIFE! That's insane for a two drop.
I then played him against a guy that had some sacrifice/reanimation shenanigans, and he was forced to waste a removal spell every game on Blood Seeker. I my mind that's more than enough of a justification to play him. He's only weak against creatureless decks like MonoBControl.
He also decimated an opponent's Kithkin deck all by himself because Cloudgoat Ranger gets owned by this guy. If I could, I'd give him an S+, but most people wouldn't understand the odd Japanese ranking system

-Bloodghast: I knew I was going to get **** for this guy! I just don't like him as much as Nether Traitor and Ichorid, so I couldn't justify giving him an A. I'll admit he is quite powerful though, thanks to stuff like Grafter Wargear, but Nether Traitor is UNBLOCKABLE, and Ichorid has 3 power instead of 2 as well as constant haste. I remain at the B+.

-Guul Draz Specter: what can I say, I'm irrational! I love specters, and my discard decks usually keep the opponents at 0 cards in hand for quite a while, especially the Mindslicer deck I have. I'll admit that maybe Guul Draz isn't the best specter, and definitely not tournament worthy, but he's my favourite casual specter, right next to Planeshift's Doomsday Specter.

Oh, and Halo Hunter can kiss my big fat monkey. F-

Alright, hit me.

[seandp]

This is by far the most accurate analysis of any group of magic cards I have ever read.

Bravo!!!

[holy5]

I normaly don't do this, but I'm only halfway the article and I just have to thank Potatobrain for writing this, it is one of the best written articles of '09
we want more

[grim]

Originally Posted by potatobrain

-Blood Seeker: you guys have offered me some compelling arguments as to why he's not as amaz... oh wait, NO YOU DIDN'T! He's still brilliant, and my hero. To the naysayers, I don't think you realize how retarded good he is. I've played him against an opposing tribal deck, and watched him make an opponent lose five life in the space of 3 turns because the guy didn't draw a removal spell fast enough. FIVE LIFE! That's insane for a two drop.
I then played him against a guy that had some sacrifice/reanimation shenanigans, and he was forced to waste a removal spell every game on Blood Seeker. I my mind that's more than enough of a justification to play him. He's only weak against creatureless decks like MonoBControl.
He also decimated an opponent's Kithkin deck all by himself because Cloudgoat Ranger gets owned by this guy. If I could, I'd give him an S+, but most people wouldn't understand the odd Japanese ranking system

word!

I wouldn't want to see this guy against my (under construction) white soldier wheenie deck

[Drathro]

Not too much to say about the Black cards, but I'll throw in my anyway:

Feast of Blood can be so unreliable, because of the fragility of the early game Vampires. Still, Vamp decks practically have to run it for the mirror, or their spot removal is worthless.

You're on target for Constructed with Heartstabber Mosquito, but I know from the prereleases that in Sealed, it's actually really good. No disagreement, just a different POV.

I'll just lightly echo what's gone before about Quest for the Gravelord. Great at end step after a DoJ. Also, an activated QftG makes a nice deterrent to ground attackers - you don't even need to cash it in right away, just hold onto it to keep the hounds at bay. I hear it also might attack for 5 damage?

I haven't tried it in Constructed yet, but Soul Stair Expedition was really good for me (and my opponents, when they played it) in Limited. Maybe I'll see what I can do with it...

Two-mana two-power evaders with a drawback like Surrakar Marauder are smack dab in the middle of "average" on the power curve for Black. For most of the casual crowd (obviously not potatobrain in this case), having him be a "Surrakar" actually pushes his rating up a bit.

I agree with the author that Black got a lot of good stuff in Zen, especially up at the "A" end of the spectrum.

[GG Crono]

Good article, but I'm sorry, you're just plain wrong about Halo Hunter. Dude, who doesn't want six attacking power with evasion for 5?

[ChampionKitsune]

Love the First Impressions, keep up the good work on those

The new vampires are great--I love that one of my favorite folklore/fantasy creatures has FINALLY been given some good recognition in Zendikar.

But I really have to disagree with you on the Intimidate thing...like WotC says, "having Fear" makes your creature sound terrified of everything else, and Intimidate is cool and flavorful for all colors. Plus it never seemed fair to me to make black creatures so special by making them able to block non-black Fear creatures, like Dust Elemental.

[Serra Redeemer]

I was kinda eh on the article myself. Mostly because I agreed with the whole thing. I want something to disagree with. Oh well, Excellent writing.