Sweet sassy molassy! Did we ever get gifts over the weekend.

An issue with our WordPress account left me unable to update all weekend, as much as the spoilers made my fingers itch. Let's get into it now.

These get entire articles, but I'd be remiss if I didn't include them at least. These are a thing.

Ugin's Nexus

Please don't try and play this with Shrapnel Blast in Standard.

This card is weird because all of the EDH-playing financiers I know say things like "This card is insane in my (insert their general) deck! I can't wait until these are $0.50!" $3 Chasm Skulker tells me that cards targeted by EDH-playing financiers don't go down as quickly as people might think. They may never go down to cheap enough to pick up the way Skulker hasn't. I like this in EDH a lot, but it's junk outside of those formats. Either way, you absolutely do not preorder this.

End Hostilities

Suck it, Chromanticore.

So we don't get a 4 mana Wrath, but getting a 5 mana one that can deal with bestow guys and equipment is solid. I don't think this is likely to get played in EDH all that much but I could be wrong. Nailing their equipment if they're playing Voltron could be appealing, although for 5 mana I'd rather Hallowedly Bury their general. We don't have that many good wraths in Standard so this likely gets the nod over Fated Retribution. As far as potential price, I have no idea. My math is being thrown off by anticipating this selling all of the boxes.

Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Lots of people hate this guy and lots of people love him. The card he is most commonly compared to is Stormbreath Dragon. I don't know if having an ultimate that gives you a Grafted Skullcap is worth building to, but being able to Char something is super relevant in red. It's rare that you want to preorder a planeswalker, and I'm not wowed by Sarkhan to the extent that I would advise you to break that rule.

Sorin, Solemn Visitor

People are really divided on this guy, too. His ultimate is grindier, but the biggest difference between this Sorin and the planeswalker called Sorin that he's nearly identical to is the fact that his -2 protects him while the +1 on other Sarkhan did that. I would have to see the rest of the set, but this seems weaker than the other Sorin and even that one wouldn't have been a good idea to preorder.

Narset, Enlightened Master

This card is bonkers. If you play creatureless with Proteus Staff you will be set upon and murdered by every other player at the table, or at least they'll try. The amount of value you're going to get from having this as your general is ridiculous. This is the best Legendary wedge creature in the set and it's not close. Zurgo can smash helms but this vomits value better than Maelstrom Wanderer. You want this in foil if it's cracked at your prerelease. This is preordering for $6 and that may be just about right, but longterm I really like this, especially in foil. I think if you can get foils for under $25 you do it without question.

Sidisi, Blood Tyrant

Eww. The more I read this, the less I like it. This is not going to unseat Damia as the BUG general of choice, and having to attack to trigger its ability is pretty weak on a 3/3. You don't want to build this Voltron, either. If you mill 3 creatures you only get 1 zombie and that's not the best value unless what you're trying to do is fill your yard to reanimate. I don't see potential here like I do with the other generals, and EDH players are pretty disappointed with Sidisi. I think if this does get broken, it will be after it goes down from its presale price.

Temur Ascendency

I have no idea about this card yet. If Temur gives us good midrange dudes or produces a lot of tokens, this could really get there. A Fires of Yavimaya with upside is welcome in certain builds. Meanwhile I have 3 RUG EDH decks and none of them want this. However, people playing the same generals are excited. That tells me this has EDH potential, but it's highly subjective so it's far from a staple. That's going to hurt its upside.

Howl of the Horde

Triggering Raid on this will be a bit clunky, and this won't help you remove blockers, which is mostly what you want to do with spells in red decks where you attack. I don't like this much in Standard as powerful as it is just because it's so clunky. In EDH, there are effects better than this in red.

Dragon-Style Twins

While Mardu is trying to get you to cast your spells post-combat to trigger raid, Jeskai wants you to cast them pre-combat to trigger Prowess. Burning a blocker out of the way to get in there with a 4/4 double striker appeals to me. This is the best case I've seen for prowess so far.

Duneblast

You better hope the scale of the Dragon protects you well if you're going to wait until 7 mana to cast a wrath. Obviously this is how you're going to kill people in EDH, though. A certain Guru of Spores could likely benefit from having the battlefield all to himself. I'm not sure it's not too narrow to have upside even with EDH scenarios like that presenting themselves. I think this will be bulk for a while.

Crackling Doom

I don't know what the Mardu charm is yet, but I already know I like it more than I like this card. Still, it's less conditional than a typical edict effect and doming them for two on top of it is non-trivial. We'll have to see if Mardu is worth playing. I don't know if this wants to be maindeck, but at $1 for preorder, SCG is betting this is less good than some people seem to think.

Herald of Anafenza

Eh. It's really slow. I'm not wowed by this guy in EDH, but he could be good in limited. If you can do something with the tokens, he could even get there in Standard. Ticking him up is slow and mana-intensive, but getting additional value out of it make it less of a blowout if they doom blade him and you have more to show for it than a 3/3 you paid 7 mana for. Also, outlast is a sorcery, further limiting its upside. All in all, this looks like a bulk rare to me.