Like many people of my generation, I don’t watch TV like my parents. Thanks to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Instant Video we now have full shows at our fingertips any time we want. It’s been a while since I patiently waited for the next episode of a show to come out on TV. I love watching shows like this. It makes them into something more like a movie series, rather than a typical TV show.

The latest in my queue has been Warehouse 13. This science fiction show set in present day has the agents tracking down magical items that have eclectic and sometimes bizarre powers. One of the agents is a guy named Jinx with the ability to tell when someone is lying. A useful talent indeed I must say. He says it can sometimes be a curse to know a person’s intent.

Sometimes I feel that way about Magic cards. Card evaluation is a key skill to playing this game at a high level. The vast majority of the time, proficiency in this area of your game will promote you to better results. Occasionally, you might be sad that you can’t play that sweet card because it costs too much mana, but winning is always exhilarating and it makes up for it. I see this a lot in draft where cards are lying to players. On the surface, they seem super fun but also very good.

Most recently we’ve seen this reasoning in the forefront of Magic news with the foil Tarmogoyf versus Burst Lightning pick, but this happens regularly at draft tables in stores everywhere. Do you take the card that will help your current deck, the one that will help your constructed deck, or the one that’s worth the most money?

Of course, it’s more complicated than that, but the short version is that assessing the strength of your available cards is an essential component of playing this game successfully. The card's strength can change based on the strategy you are trying to build as well. So keep in mind all factors when building your decks.

Play Better

If card evaluation is so important, what’s the best way to improve that skill? I tell every new player the same thing. Start playing as much Limited as you can. Draft frequently and hit all those sealed events at prereleases.

Not only are they intensely fun, but they also help you build the skills you need to improve as a player. These situations force you to evaluate cards on the fly and hopefully you can learn from your misevaluations. After the event, look back on your deck and try to figure out what the weakest cards were and why they didn’t work out like you thought they would.

Often, players dive right into Standard because they can get a good deck list from another player and find moderate success right away. The part they are missing is the decision-making process that goes into choosing the cards for the deck they are playing. Why is there that random card that you’re not sure of its purpose? By playing Limited and building your own decks, you can level all of your Magic skills.

Finance Better

Card evaluation is critical for your financial future in the game as well. I’ve noticed a trend lately that cards on the spoiler that go up for presales have been undervalued. Take the last Standard set, Dragons of Tarkir, for example. If you remember back to before the set was released, the two highest value cards in the set were the two planeswalkers. Take a look at their value now.

I think Sarkhan Unbroken is quite undervalued right now and might be a major player in the next Standard format, so I would be picking up your copies of that card as soon as possible, but Narset Transcendent seemed to me like it would obviously decrease drastically in price.

The Dragonlords, Deathmist Raptor and Collected Company are all now double or more of their presale value. I’ve thought that there was a lot of opportunity lurking out there to make some money before these new sets are released. These cards are proof that I was correct.

Over the years I’ve made some decent money when I had the capital to follow my instincts about what cards were selling for under what I thought their value should be. One of my first speculation targets was Vengevine and it followed a similar trajectory to that of Deathmist Raptor. Recently I made money on Torrent Element of all things, which in the end dropped right back down in price. Luckily it stayed at $6-8 and I was able to make some money.

Using your card evaluation skills, you can identify which cards are good investments. Let’s look at the most recent spike for a moment, Nourishing Shoal.

That card is awful. Yes a deck that was in the Top 8 of a Grand Prix used it successfully, but Goryo's Vengeance is the card that made it all possible. He may have used Nourishing Shoal to propel him to victory but it was on the back of other cards. I highly doubt that card will stay valuable for long so if you found cheap copies of that card, unload them asap.

Heritage Druid on the other hand has been waiting for the right moment to jump in price. Here’s the breakdown for both cards.

If you want a shoal to propel you to victory, start picking up Shining Shoal. I just got a bunch of copies in the mail and it seems insanely good right now in Modern. Tom Ross used the card in his Soul Sisters deck, but it seems great in any deck with white cards.

You can freely tap out against Burn to further your board state with no fear of losing because you can redirect the last burn spell at them for free! It doesn’t get much better than that. You can also pay mana for the card instead of exiling a card from your hand. Older cards like this have great potential in an unrotating format like Modern. Are there any cards like this you have identified as potentially going to spike due to a surge in play? Let me know in the comments.

Evaluate Better

The main reason I wanted to discuss this topic today is because I have been trying to bring these skills to bear on the flip planeswalkers from the upcoming final core set Magic Origins. The centerpieces of this set are creatures and that once certain criteria are met, flip and turn into planeswalkers.

The five characters who are imbued with their spark for us to see are Gideon, Jace, Liliana, Chandra, and Nissa. If the spoilers are correct, we know all five so let’s analyze them.

Jace, Vryn's Podigy

That picture may not be too clear, so here is the text on his card.

Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
1U
Tap: draw a card, then discard a card. If there are five or more cards in your graveyard, exile Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, then return him to the battlefield transformed under his owner’s control.
0/2

Jace, Telepath Unbound
+1: Up to one target creature gets -2/-0 until your next turn.
-3: You may cast target instant or sorcery from your graveyard this turn. If that card would be put into your graveyard this turn, exile it instead.
-9: You get an emblem with “whenever you cast a spell, target opponent puts the top five cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
5 loyalty

The most important detail about these new cards is how they will play out unflipped. We must consider a number of things when determining the playability of this strange new planeswalker cycle. At the top of the list are questions like, "is a two-mana 0/2 that loots a playable card in Standard?" This Merfolk Looter effect has not been playable outside of graveyard-based decks for many moons, so if we are going to play it, we must have a good reason to be including it.

One might suggest that him flipping into a planeswalker is a good reason. I’m not sure I see it though.

I do like the potential for Jace, Telepath Unbound to flashback something powerful. The ability to rebuy cards from your graveyard has always been potent. From Regrowth and Yawgmoth's Will back in the day to Snapcaster Mage and Eternal Witness now in Modern, getting back cards from your graveyard adds strength to your deck in a way that many other strategies cannot.

This card does have potential, but including a looter doesn’t seem very appealing unless you have a big payoff once he flips. Usually if the card isn’t playable in Standard that bars it from mention in Modern, but this may be the exception. In Modern, Snapcaster is even more powerful because the cards he flashes back are overpowered respective to their mana cost. Jace benefits from the same phenomenon.

Jace seems innocent enough but there are circumstances where he can seem broken. This is the thought process you can develop by playing a lot of Limited and building your own decks. When you start that process, you will begin analyzing each card for their strengths and weaknesses in different situations.

Let’s move on and dissect another new planeswalker getting their spark, which in my opinion, is the coolest flavor in the game up until this point.

Nissa, Vastwood Seer

That picture may not be too clear, so here is the text on her card.

Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2G
When Nissa, Vastwood Seer enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a basic forest card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.

Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, if you control seven or more lands, exile Nissa, then return her to the battlefield transformed under her owners’s control.
2/2

Nissa, Sage Animist
+1: Reveal the top card of your library. If it’s a land card, put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, put it into your hand.
-2: Put a legendary 4/4 green elemental creature token named Ashaya, the Awoken World onto the battlefield.
-7: Untap up to six target lands. They become 6/6 Elemental creatures. They’re still lands.
Loyalty 3

So, we had Merfolk Looter Jace and now Borderland Ranger Nissa. The difference here is that flipping Nissa requires seven lands in play. That’s a lot of lands. Depending on the format, that might be viable, but relying on that as one of your primary game plan seems loose.

If you flip her, she is a solid planeswalker. You can plus every turn to accelerate to more than seven mana or draw an extra card. Summoning a 4/4 is great and all, but why is it legendary? The ultimate seems like something to strive for especially if you have more than seven lands in play, but it’s going to take a while with only a +1 each turn.

I’m sure this will be a hit in formats like Commander where you actually want to get more than seven lands in play, but as for Standard, I have my doubts. A starting goal of seven lands in play for Standard is not what you should be striving for. If you are already playing a ramp deck and you wouldn’t mind a Borderland Ranger that is sometimes more than that, then Nissa is the girl for you though.

Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh

In our quest for knowledge about our new planeswalker friends, they have both been comparable to commons and that doesn’t stop here either. Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh is as close to a Cinder Pyromancer as you can get. She might be the best Cinder Pyromancer there ever was, but being a 2/2 instead of a 0/1 isn’t much of an upgrade. When you talk about flipping her though, that’s an achievable goal.

To break it down, once you have her in play, all you need to do is untap with her and play two red cards. That is much easier than seven lands in play, for certain. In order to complete this sequence you also get to Lava Spike your opponent basically for free. Then, you get to follow up with an additional two damage because you can activate these planeswalkers the turn they flip. So, with Chandra, you get to deal five damage in one turn! You get to choose whether that additional two damage is deducted from the players life total or is blasted at one of their creatures as well.

One minor dilemma with this version of Chandra, which seems pretty good so far, is that there will likely be a conflict of how you build your deck with her in it. Building a deck with cheap red creatures would be an easy way to flip her, but since her ability will give you a free Lava Spike, you may want more burn spells. The problem with that is if you have lots of burn spells, your opponent will have removal spells sitting unused in hand to kill her with.

So, any deck that runs Chandra will likely want to be balanced between creatures and burn spells. That can happen, but sometimes is easier said than built. You also want many cheap cards so that you can play two of them on turn four and depending on what cards are legal may determine how much play she sees. I do like this card and it seems playable. With the overall card quality rising, that’s not always enough for a card to earn a spot in the metagame, but when the time comes, Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh has earned a second look.

Kytheon, Hero of Akros

Luckily for us, Gideon, or Kytheon apparently, was spoiled before I was finished writing my article this week so we get to talk about him as well. Despite me being irritated about him having a different random name, even if it makes sense because of the storyline, he seems like the one that may see the most play.

Once we move past the Courser of Kruphix midrange festival that is Standard, we will still have to deal with Deathmist Raptor and crew, but early aggressive creatures may be playable again outside of red. I look forward to that time because I am an early aggressive creatures type of player.

For players like myself, this card is amazing. First of all, we can still compare it to Savannah Lions--no not any of those other 2/1-for-one-mana dorks, the real truth used to be Savannah Lions. I’ve cast many a lion in my day and beat a horde of opponents with them as well. Creatures with power greater than their mana cost will always be decent. When everyone has Sylvan Caryatid to block your guys with, they become less good, but that tree is almost dead and I can’t wait.

A cheap aggressive creature that turns into a bigger threat later in the game reminds me more of Figure of Destiny or Warden of the First Tree though. In fact, Gideon is almost like the planeswalker reincarnation of Figure of Destiny. Gideon is a Figure of Destiny because he was destined to become a planewalker.

His Windbrisk Heights triggered ability isn’t that hard to pull of either. You may want to be playing Raise the Alarm but any cheap aggressive creatures will do. It’s a shame that he’s not a warrior, because he could have been the missing piece to that puzzle, but regardless, he is definitely good enough to play. Being able to flip him on turn three seems great as well, but even on a board stall he would be good. When your early-drop creatures are also good late game, you know you’re onto something.

On the flip side, okay I had to do it at least once, he becomes like a smaller version of Gideon Jura. He can make one creature attack him, make an indestructible blocker, or turn into a 4/4 indestructible creature himself.

Gideon’s thing is not having a real ultimate apparently, but that’s cool in my opinion. Your deck is already geared towards creatures and attacking so why not add a 4/4 that your opponent can’t easily kill to your assault squad? I like Gideon, I hope he finds a home, and I will be working towards finding him one myself.

Liliana, Heretical Healer

Even though Gideon was the last to be spoiled I still saved the best for last. Liliana might have been the first of these new wave planeswalkers to be spoiled, but she gets to be last because she’s the best. That’s right, I think Liliana is the best of the batch. Other than Gideon, she is the best creature in her own right. Her base stats are decent and she gets lifelink. Lots of writers have talked about her because she’s been known the longest so I will keep her summary short.

Your opponent is most likely going to kill your creatures. So, they have a choice. They can kill your other creatures, which are hopefully more threatening, or they can kill her. If they kill her, your other guys live and if they kill her, you get to flip her. When deckbuilding you have a choice of whether or not to build your deck so she can flip, which is the most likely course of action.

If our goal is to flip Lili, then we will need some tools to do that. Normally I would suggest cards like Viscera Seer or Cartel Aristocrat, but those cards are no longer legal.

Instead we have a whole mechanic devoted to helping us flip our friendly neighborhood necromancer. Exploit seems destined to do Liliana’s bidding. Whether that be with strong cards like Sidisi, Undead Vizier or innocent-looking ones like Sidisi's Faithful or Minister of Pain, there are a lot of options to pair with Lili. We even have Merciless Executioner in our available card pool as well.

When I’m analyzing Liliana, Heretical Healer I see her as replacing herself. I know she is turning one of her friends into a zombie on accident, but I mentally compare her to a card like Xathrid Necromancer or maybe Loyal Cathar. Either way, when she flips, you still get a creature and that doesn’t happen with any of the other planeswalkers except sort of Gideon. I like having access to Bloodsoaked Champion in this type of deck as well because it’s a great card to discard for her +2 ability since you can get it back later.

The point is that there’s a lot you can do with new Lili. When you factor in her Zombify ability, things get even more complex as well. These are all good things and lines of play that make your deck not only interesting but usually successful as well. She is the type of card that births an archetype and I’m excited about using her to do some crazy things. Who knows, maybe she will even make my pile of Risen Executioners more valuable.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned for more card analysis of Magic Origins in the coming weeks. If you have more thoughts about this flavorful new cycle of planeswalkers or insight into card evaluation, please post below.

Until next time,
Unleash the Force!

Mike Lanigan
MtgJedi on Twitter
Jedicouncilman23@gmail.com