First Impressions: Zendikar - White. - by potatobrain

[Streetz]

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[Cashew]

Must have had all your love for Black. Felt you really missed the mark on a lot in here in terms of casual, non-casual and limited.

World Queller - Seriously a C? I thought you were a lover of Black? Do you not play Innocent Blood and numerous other you kill one I'll kill one. I mean Smallpox - Pox - Death Cloud all have dominated. This is a control card. Cheap effective.

Windborne Charge - Why would anyone ever play this with Elspeth still kicking around doing the same thing over and over?

Steppe Lynx - He's a 2/3 roughly 40% of the time. The other 60% he's a 0/1. How is that good? With Isamaru, Kird Ape, and Wild Nactacl all still around I never see myself playing him except in a draft maybe.

Pitfall Trap - Sure its not Wind Shards. But do you know how many decks are running just a handful of attackers? You don't just have to pay its trap cost, its trap cost is perfect though for Turn One - Three attacks though against things like Warren Instigator, Tarmogoyf. I might play him in competive now thanks to the new Vampire Hexmage + Dark Depths combo that is making the rounds.

Kor Outfitter - Seriously? What equipment are you playing so early in the game that you can't afford to pay its equip cost? I don't want to hold a 2/2 creature just so I can equip something earlier. Then again I really only use Greaves, Jitte, Warhammer, and Sword of Fire & Ice which are all easy to equip.

Journey to Nowhere - You used and question the usefulness of Oblivion Ring? Sure Nowhere is watered down version, but it is still powerful. The "Nightmare" removal scheme is tried and true. It may turn out to be temporary, but more often than not its devestating.

Armament Master - I've tried playing him when he was first called Auriok Steelshaper. It just doesn't work as well as you think. It upsets me greatly that the Kor just seem like a rehash of the Auroik and Leonin from Mirrordin.

Overall I think you favored White Weenie too highly when White Weenie's real reimagining just passed with the Kithkin. This is just a rehash of Mirrordin block White so far. It shows through your ratings that you have a biasis for equipment cards.

[Wombatish]

Um, Cashew, Pitfall trap really doesn't kill the dark depths token. It flies and is indestructible. Pitfall trap destroys a non-flier.

[Cashew]

Kills the Hexmage =)

[potatobrain]

@ Cashew: GUILTY AS CHARGED! I'm a sucker for good equipment-related spell. I like Kor Outfitter because even if you play Jitte or Warhammer, he saves you 2-3 mana. Like turn 2 Jitte, turn 3 Outfitter, and now your turn 4 is not used for equipping, you can play another creature instead. Same deal with Warhammer...

I'm not convinced about World Queller yet, just because he takes a long time to come into play. FIVE mana? I don't know. Maybe if your opponents are playing creature-lite decks, you can use him for that.

And Armament Master is a rehash of Auriok Steelshaper/Raksha Golden Cub, but I appreciate him because unlike Steelshaper, his bonus is +2/+2 just like Raksha, and his mana cost is low like Steelshaper's. Still, as I mentioned in the article, I felt like White got the **** end of the stick, in that lots of the cards mimic older ones, but are just less good.

Oh, and Pitfall Trap? It's a whack version of Path to Exile for 1 mana, and although it's a common, I still couldn't justify giving it a good grade, specifically because it can't kill the Baneslayer Angel, and I hate that b***h.

Finally, I think Steppe Lynx is quite strong. As a one drop that becomes a 2/3, even if it's only 40% of the time, it's still powerful, specifically because it's White. I'd rather play Elite Vanguard, but who says you can't play both in the same deck? Not Christian Calcano (see Mike Flores' most recent Top Decks article here

[Cashew]

Finally, I think Steppe Lynx is quite strong. As a one drop that becomes a 2/3, even if it's only 40% of the time, it's still powerful, specifically because it's White. I'd rather play Elite Vanguard, but who says you can't play both in the same deck? Not Christian Calcano (see Mike Flores' most recent Top Decks article here

Situational strong. I was hoping you would bring up that deck as I love Boros decks and keyed in on it quickly. as well. Everything in that deck built towards Landfall very nicely.

[potatobrain]

I know right? I love the idea of playing as many 1 and 2 drops as possible, and Ranger of Eos basically turns into massive card advantage when you have fourteen 1-drops. What surprised me most about his deck was the fact that he abuses Landfall without Green, which blows my mind. It had never occurred to me (mostly because I can't afford them) to use 12 painlands in a deck full of Landfall abilities. The closest I get to that is using 4 copies of Terramorphic Expanse...

[seandp]

"Brave The Elements

Grade: B

This is pretty good, solely because it only costs one mana and will most likely be used as a one-sided fog."

WOAH, What is going on here? You gave this a B!? This is definatly an A plus card.

Most likely be used as a one sided fog? How about that, and a one mana countspell for spells targeting your creature, and a way to gain one turn evasion for ever single white creature you have to win the game. Its extrememly versatile and cheap. This is an A plus. period

[Drathro]

I don't really care for Zen White (too much Tribal for my tastes), so I won't be arguing about much, except for one card (which has already been brought up, but tough cookies):

At the very least, World Queller has a huge bulls-eye painted on it in multiplayer, and as such should get a better rating in an MDV article. (Some slogan about what the casual players eat for breakfast, or something like that?) Reducing complexity to simple head-to-head duels, I still believe it's better than you give it credit for.

Other than that, I'll just list the other White cards I liked from Zen:

Iona, Shield of Emeria - Love the art.

Kor Sanctifiers - I'm a sucker for good kicker abilities.

Luminarch Ascension - Not so much that I like it, but I respect it!

Quest for the Holy Relic - I'm glad you recognized the sneaky ability to equip shrouded creatures with this quest.

What the heck, I'll throw in one more random comment: There are definitely better cards at five mana than Shepherd of the Lost for Constructed, but it is an easily splashed house at Uncommon in Limited. 'D' may be a bit harsh. (Ok, so bringing up Limited may be at odds with the "casual player" defense," but I'll offset that less-than-casual point by noting that Shepherd of the Lost is an Angel.)

[Wombatish]

Originally Posted by Cashew

Kills the Hexmage =)

Then they sac the hexmage (that they shouldn't have been swinging with) in response.

[silverace99]

I think he means kill the hexmage before the Dark Depths comes into play, or in response to it coming into play, since the trap is instant speed.

[Wombatish]

It still won't kill the hexmage because it is target attacking creature. Oh, and you can't respond to land entering the battlefield.

[Tekkactus]

I assume you go by the text spoiler, since in both this and the FI: Black articles you refer to some blatantly female creatures as "he".

And before you start knockin' Pillarfield Ox and Makindi Shieldmate, take a look at the set as a whole. You can count the number of playable fatties almost on your fingers; 4 to 5 toughness chokes up a Limited board like you wouldn't believe. It's always easy to tell which FI writers are Limited players and which aren't.

[potatobrain]

Absolutely true what you say about limited. I do play on occasion, and I know what are good pics and what aren't when drafting, but I'm not hardcore like a lot of the really good players are.

My grading philosophy does not usually factor in limited. I grade cards according to whether or not someone would actually want to pull them in a booster, buy a copy or playset for a casual deck, or even buy several playsets for many casual and/or tournament decks. In other words, a more general "does this card have replay value?" grade. The problem with Limited grades is that you can only play Limited for so long before a rotation, whereas a casual rating lets you know if the card is good long term.

I'm not saying I'm right and you're wrong, I'm just pointing out some of the issues with the grading system that have probably come up before, and giving you an idea of why I don't even think of Limited at all. That's why I was very pleased when Cashew suggested a more Limited approach to things is in the works

Oh and yea, I usually start writing the articles before the WotC spoiler comes out, so most of my stuff is written before I get to see the picture spoiler. Then when the picture spoiler comes out, I'm too lazy to go in and update every single card, so I end up with hilariously silly stuff like calling Malakir Bloodwitch a he...

[GG Crono]

Seriously, man, why all the hate for Halo Hunter? ;_;

...but other than that, good article.