I love to brew. The big fall set release is my favorite time of year because all bets are off. The oppressive Theros block is gone, replaced by a quirky, powered-up group of creepy tentacle aliens and their dire enemies, “the rest of the world”.

I’m really exited by the set so far, but there are a few cards that stand out, screaming “build around me” as loudly as a piece of cardboard can.

Greenwarden of Murasa

Finally, a card that goes really, really well with See the Unwritten.  Triggers happen in such a way that his enter-the-battlefield ability brings back See the Unwritten if you’d like, and he ensures that you’ll be able to snap off the Ferocious trigger next time (if he survives).  If he doesn’t, well, bring back something else!

An Eternal Witness effect on a 5-power creature is pretty amazing, to say nothing of his death trigger, which is optional, because the folks at R & D realize that choices are fun.   Ostensibly, Greenwarden of Murasa is at least a 2-for-1, and a 3-for-1 if you’re willing to exile him to become Eldrazi food (a drawback that might not be as benign as it first appears).

As for what to build around, really what doesn’t work here?  You surely want to be able to cast this guy (or See the Unwritten, the same mana cost), so you’ll probably want to run Rattleclaw Mystic.   The mighty morphing mana dork lets you cheat the curve a little bit, depending on how you play your game, but beyond that, I think that the best use of this card will be in tandem with other awesome green cards.

And there are many, for example...

Undergrowth Champion

This card may be one of my favorites in the set.  On last week’s QS Cast, I discovered how much I love the interaction between these, fetch lands, and Stubborn Denial.  There aren’t a ton of ways to kill Undergrowth Champion outside of slowly grinding him down with damage, but cards like Foul-Tongue Invocation come to mind.  Stubborn Denial does a great job of stopping these cards, especially if you wait until turn 4 to play the Champ and follow him with a fetch land (just don’t sacrifice it until you need to respond to a removal spell, otherwise tricky timing can spell your doom).

The obvious pairing is Scythe Leopard, as you’ll want to maximize your landfall value.  I’m not sure you want to play with the more expensive ones like Oran-Rief Hydra and Guardian of Tazeem, but if we don’t get many more good landfall cards, they might be our only choice.   Nissa's Renewal, also discussed here, looks like a really strong choice to push through an landfall-fueled alpha strike.  Retreat to Kazandu is tempting, as it just screams “grindy value card”, but I am pretty sure it won’t be good enough to move the needle.

Kiora, Master of the Depths

Kiora seems to be considered the weakest of the bunch, and that’s probably not incorrect, but lets look at how her abilities will reasonably play out.

First, her +1 can be considered as some combination of defense and mana acceleration.  I’m specifically considering her +1 as a way to generate 2 extra mana each turn with Rattleclaw Mystic (or 4 with Shaman of Forgotten Ways, as I am not so impressed with the idea of giving an attacker pseudo-vigilence.

Her -2 is fine, but I think I’d rather be building around the +1.  It’s a great source of card advantage, but I don’t like that you can’t get more than 1 activation before she dies or you need to +1 again.  It’s a powerful effect (drawing 2 extra cards a turn tends to be), but it’s not consistently going to be worth 2.  If there’s a way to abuse the cards in the graveyard, like Treasure Cruise or Tasigur, the Golden Fang, then I’m more eager to play ball.

Her -8 will never happen in constructed, and I am glad to pretend it doesn’t exist.

I see her fitting into a deck that really values the mana ramp, and can also make use of the extra card draw to ensure that it can keep up the pressure in the late game.  I will be very curious to see how she goes at the Pro Tour for sure.

Ob Nixilis Reignited

I was not a fan of this card at first but I have come around.  LSV said it best when, to paraphrase, “every turn he is on the board, you are slowly winning the game”.  Ignore the loss of one life.  That doesn’t matter here.  What matters is that a 5 loyalty Planeswalker is already mighty hard to kill, especially when he can turn around and blow away any creature at will.

Unlike Kiora, I think his ultimate is absolutely attainable (what a difference a turn makes) and potentially more powerful.  A bunch of sea monsters will probably end the game, but 4 unstoppable damage per turn cycle (at a minimum) will almost assuredly end it.

The natural assumption here is that he belongs in a control deck, but I will challenge that and say he might be an awesome curve-topper in an aggressive deck.  Control decks have a lot of choices for card draw, and don’t tend to dump their hand as quickly.  Aggro decks, on the other hand, love to vomit their hand onto the board and badly need effective reloads.  They are also in a good position to defend the big mean guy until you can mark them for death.

Aggro decks can also use the -3 to swing tempo back into their favor, removing their best blocker and keeping the way clear so you can bring the beatdown.  All things considered, I think I’d prefer to see this in the aggressive shell, and I would not be surprised to see him played that way at the Pro Tour.

Planar Outburst

We’ve seen loads of 5-mana board sweepers lately, but none that can empty a board yet leave you with an attacker.  Thanks to the Awaken mechanic, now we have one.  Planar Outburst is a control deck’s dream; it kills all the things, but it also gives you a late-game finisher if you need one.  5 mana is often a turn too late for a sweeper, but in this case the option to switch on a 4/4 beater is worth it (and only 3 extra mana!)

It might seem odd to want to build around a board sweeper, but I don’t think we’ve seen one like this before.  The closest analogue is Martial Coup, but that is still pretty far off.  What kind of control deck emerges is hard to predict, but I’m sure we’ll see plenty of people try their hand at one for Pro Tour: Battle for Zendikar.

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

He’s so linear that I don’t need to say much here; you can either play him as an Ally or not, but either way he’s going to be a real problem for the opponent.   His ability to pump out Knights forever is very powerful, as is the threat of crashing in for 5.  I don’t think that there’s much to build around; if there are a critical mass of Allies that reward ETB triggers, then Gideon is an obvious choice.  If not, he’s still a solid Planeswalker.

The card he pairs best with is, curiously, Tragic Arrogance.  They fit perfectly on-curve and the synergy is almost sure to leave you with a favorable board position.  You can either make another token or send in a 5/5 attacker that’s basically unkillable.  Seems good!

Finally, his third mode works really well with Eldrazi Scion tokens and any other way of making a large number of creatures.  I don’t see that there are a critical mass of these effects in Standard so far, but we’ll keep an eye out for sure.

Nissa's Renewal

This card looks like a junk rare, but as Brian deMars pointed out this week, it has a lot more potential than might appear at first glance.  7 life is indeed enough to keep you alive for an extra turn, and three extra lands is huge.

The question is, what landfall triggers do we want to stack around this?  The card is solid as it stands, but the real reason this card will win is because it slaps 3 counters on the already-aggravating Undergrowth Champion (one of my favorite cards in the set so far).  I suppose that if you happen to have some Scythe Leopards in play, that’s great too, but I’m not as keen to build around him.

I can foresee an Eldrazi Control deck wanting this card, as it’s in pseudo-competition with See the Unwritten as a “big green spell”.  Decks that run one probably won’t run the other, and Eldrazi decks focused around the “must be cast” guys seem like a better home for this kind of effect than a deck that wants to cheat giant monsters into play.

A control shell would also place a higher premium on the life-gain.  Most control decks need a midrange card that can put them out of range of super-aggressive decks, and 7 life should be enough to do the job.

 

Oblivion Sower

So it was printed in a Duel Deck.  So was Polukranos, World Eater.  That doesn’t mean it’s destined to be a junk Mythic!  I love this card at a $3.50 pre-order, and a lot of the QS staff agree.  We’re quickly finding out that exiling cards is going to be relatively easy, and that the rewards for doing so are probably pretty good.

At this point, the combo everyone is crowing about revolves around Crumble to Dust, and rightfully so.  Oblivion Sower doesn’t care how the cards got to exile.  Nuking a dual land and putting your opponent behind by a turn, while simultaneously putting yourself ahead by a turn (or four) seems devastating, especially if your curve continues well past 6 (which it ought to!)

The question is not “is this a good card”, because the answer to that is, objectively, yes.  The question is, what’s the best way to make maximum usage from this guy?  I’m not 100% sold on Crumble to Dust, but I think I’m convinced it’s got a spot in the deck.

Other cards that make this scarier: Fathom Feeder (a staff favorite), Titan's Presence (premium removal), Ulamog's Nullifier (so you get value out of non-land cards too), Transgress the Mind, Horribly Awry (which can chain nicely into some of your later cards while keeping the board clear, Blight Herder ( which can really help hit that 6th or 10th mana) and, of course, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger.

That’s a lot of context considering our set isn’t even half spoiled yet.

Oblivion Sower is a giant body with an ability that can totally change the nature of a game.  If you can get to 6 mana, he can be sure you have mana for the really scary stuff you want to cast (which in almost all cases will be Ulamog, right?)   There’s nothing not to like about this, unless you’re a fan of See the Unwritten like I am.  Even still, I want to build a deck with four of these monsters, as hitting double-digit land counts seems like it’ll feel really good.

Smothering Abomination

I’ve been big on this card since first reveal.  It’s an aggressively costed and evasive attacker, and the drawback is very mild compared to the tremendous advantage you can get with it’s trigger.  In fact, I’m glad it has this drawback;  too often do you have creatures to sacrifice but no outlet to do so.

 

A 4 power flier for 4 mana that turns into a card-drawing engine seems like a great deal.  The question is, what do we surround this card with?  It’s definitely a build-around me sort of thing, and if we’d like we can play games with Grim Haruspex (not a bad deal either, as a 3-power attacker for 3).  However, the fact that Eldrazi Scion tokens exist make Haruspex kind of a crappy choice here.   From Beyond is an obvious choice too, though occupying the same spot on the mana curve is a bit awkward.

Hangarback Walker seems like a natural fit here, but there aren’t a lot of other great cards that get better when they die.  Gideon, Ally of Zendikar feeds the beast pretty well, but Tragic Arrogance seems like it can really do some work here, possibly blowing a game wide open.

 

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