Commander 2016 and Conspiracy: Take the Crown Type 4 Reviews

Hello again, and welcome to another Type 4 Review, this time looking at Commander 2016 (with special guest Conspiracy 2)! Here, we’ll be looking at the new cards from these sets, to see which of them are fit for the infinite mana, 1 spell a turn format.  So let’s jump in!

Breya, Etherium Sculptor: While the commander I’m most excited for, Breya is only meh in type 4.  However, she still has relevant abilities, and does bring 6 power to the table.  Not the worst thing you could be playing.

Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder: Oh boy, this guy looks sweet.  Hit someone that’s undefended and boom, free spell.  If you have alternative costs it just cascades (heh) out of control real fast.  Definitely fit for the format, even if his body is a tad small.

Saskia, the Unyielding: Someone have a pretty good defense?  Lots of damage prevention?  Well, Saskia still sucks vs them.  Her ability is fairly unique, but her body is anemic.  Probably good in some stacks, but higher powered ones will steer clear. 

Kynaios and Tiro: This is a worse howling mine, but you get a 2/8, which blocks fairly well.  If that’s what you want, add these guys, but I’m not sold.

Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice: Keyword soup? Check.  Evasion?  Check.  Interesting ability?  Check.  Atraxa isn’t the biggest threat on the table, but she trades with almost everything in combat and can do great stuff with counters of all varieties.  Not broken by any stretch, but interesting enough.

Vial Smasher the Fierce: Woah.  This is actually a lot of damage.  Small body, but the possibility of doming someone for 5-8 every turn is not something that can be ignored.  Random element makes this more fair, but this goblin looks ready to go.

Ravos, Soultender: Giving +1/+1 comes up more than you’d imagine, and getting back dead stuff is pretty nice.  Fine card.

Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist: A political card that, unlike Edric, can’t really go off.  Card draw is also good enough that this will probably actually encourage people to go for someone besides you, as on his own Ludevic isn’t a threat.  Playable if you like politics, but not exciting.

Entrapment Maneuver: Some sacrifice removal is always nice.  This also brings some dudes to the table, making it better than most.  Not exciting, but fine card.

Curtains’ Call: Kill two things for one card.  See above, not exciting, but still good.

Divergent Transformation: Either removal for something so scary you’d take literally anything else, or a way to cheat in fatties using token production.  Either way, I’m a fan, card looks silly and has god-tier goofy art.

Benefactor’s Draught: Cantrips, and might draw you more cards.  Your opponents will find it real hard to block (even each other), but may have no choice if they’d die from the combat.  Looks good.

Manifold Insights: This card looks pretty good.  Sure, the logical view would be that you’ll be getting the worst X cards, but people aren’t logical all the time, and sometimes, it’s in others best interest to give you that instant speed wrath for the guy with 200 power on board. 

Runehorn Hellkite: Now this is a nice card.  A 5/5 flyer is never unwelcome, and once he dies you get to refresh your hand.  Sure others get to as well, but who cares about them.  Looks great.

Seeds of Renewal: This is Recollect.  If you play recollect (like me), you’ll play this.

Faerie Artisans: Huh.  Not sure what to make of these guys.  The dream is they play something with a great, non-tap activated ability, but those things are in short supply.  I’ll need to test this, but it looks intriguing.

Magus of the Will: How I play, you get 1 spell from each zone you’re able to cast spells from each turn.  Under that, Magus of the Will is better than yawg will in many cases.  If you are a purist to the 1 spell per turn laws, he’s still really good.

Stonehoof Chieftain: This guy gets in there and does work.  Drafting aggro with him looks like a ton of fun.  The definition of a type 4 creature.

Selfless Squire: Great in the infinite stack, you stop their kill on you and gain your own.  Also fine in normal stacks, she can get real big in a flash (heh).  Playable.

Primeval Protector: Yet another fatty to end all fatties.  This guy is huge, and makes everything else bigger.  Looks fun.

Sublime Exhalation: Yet another wrath.  Everyone likes wraths.  Well, not the guy playing Primeval Protector, but that guy deserves it.

Coastal Breach: An escape valve if your opponents are doing better than you.  Not exciting, or good for that matter, but still playable in some stacks.

Cruel Entertainment: This doesn’t exile.  Just putting that out there.  Also putting out there that this is probably incredibly fun and you should add one ASAP.  So many possibilities…

Ancient Excavation: Instant speed windfall-lite.  This looks real good. 

Sylvan Reclamation: Exile 2 horrifying threats?  Don’t mind if I do.  Not much to say here besides this is great removal that doesn’t even need 2 targets.

Boompile: While I expect more consistency from my wraths, its artifact nature means it can be recurred fairly easily.  Not a great card, but one worth considering. 

Conspiracy 2 time!

Capital Punishment: The fact that everyone has to sacrifice and discard makes this a real fun card for you.  People also have to make choices that might get them screwed over by later choices.  Great stuff.

Custodi Lich: Cards that make you the monarch basically have “draw a card” stapled on, making this card pretty cool.  Monarchy in general is a fun mechanic, and should make combat way more contested.

Expropriate: Oh boy.  This is a fun one.  You always get at least 1 extra turn (unless someone stole something of yours and you want it back) and people will have to choose between giving you more turns or their best thing.  Great card.

Leovold, Emissary of Trest: Shut down other players draw shenanigans, and give yourself some extra.  This guy looks ready to do business. 

Protector of the Crown: This guy makes you the monarch, and makes taking the monarchy that much harder.  Your opponents will have to coordinate 2 separate attacks to steal it from you.  Or they can waste removal on your card neutral 2/5. 

Queen Marchesa: Haste and deathtouch is a relevant combo, and making tokens with the same is great.  She should keep you the monarch for a good while.

Sanctum Prelate: Bizarre card I want to add just to see what numbers get named.  I’d assume 5, 4, and 3 all to be equally valid, with 6 or 2 making it into the fray sometime.

Selvala’s Stampede: A ton of free creatures is how I like my sorceries (and note that any permanent can come in from your hand).  Looks good.

Skyline Despot: A relevant body that draws you a card and can make more good bodies.  Sign me up.

Stunt Double: Clone is just not good enough, but with flash it certainly is.  Fine card for larger stacks.

Subterranean Tremors: Kill all non-fliers, get an 8/8, and kill the artifacts as well.  I’ll take it.

And that wraps up this double set review!  Hopefully you enjoyed.  Tune in next for Aether Revolt, where Tezzeret looks to be doing something diabolical…

Kaladesh Type 4 Review

Hello everybody and welcome to another Type 4 Set Review, this time featuring Kaladesh.  This one comes with a very interesting new mechanic that I’ll be testing to figure out the best use for.  So without further ado, let’s jump in!

Acrobatic Maneuver: This ability is pretty innocuous, and can be useless in some situations, but the fact that it’s card neutral and will often gain you value makes it something to consider.  Not an autoinclude by any stretch, but something worth looking at.

Cataclysmic Gearhulk: A decent body attached to a mini-cataclysm, this Gearhulk is probably one of the weaker ones for Type 4, but still can deliver some solid multiplayer removal.

Consulate Surveillance: Energy.  That’s the major mechanic of this set, and frankly, I’m flummoxed as to what to do with it.  Most of the energy cards make energy on their own, but not very much and those that use it we want to use a lot.  Take this card.  On its own, it prevents 2 sources of damage, which is playable in infinite stack, but few other places.  But with infinite energy, its stock rises appreciably, preventing damage left right and center.  I’m pretty sure I’ll be sticking to the finite energy train, but I feel that testing will be necessary. 

Fumigate: Another Wrath, and this one gains you some life.  Fine card.

Master Trinkteer: With infinite mana, this guy makes you infinite 1/1s.  Therefore, he belongs to a class of cards that go into the “infinite stack”.  Play that at your own risk.

Pressure Point: I said when this was originally printed that this was playable, and my opinion has not changed.  Quite a fine card for saving a good bit of life or tapping down a blocker.

Skywhaler’s Shot: Kills a largish creature, and gives you a scry 1.  Fine card.

Aethersquall Ancient: This guy makes energy in bulk, which is good because his ability is expensive and his body isn’t that impressive.  Probably playable with finite energy, and obviously rises with infinite energy (though you can’t bounce everything forever with the timing restriction)

Failed Inspection: Cancel with a bonus is all we need.  Filtering is always a welcome bonus.  Playable in most stacks.

Glimmer of Genius: Ignoring the energy, this is still better than inspiration, which I have played in the past.  Really better.  I’ll be jamming this card and will be happy when the energy comes up.

Insidious Will: This can do many things, and all of them are good.  Playable in basically every stack.

Metallurgic Summonings: Whew.  This is a card.  You first get a bunch of artifact dudes, then draw all the spells that got you to those dudes.  Looks like fun.

Paradoxical Outcome: This card looks pretty odd.  I guess it’s good anti-wrath, and drawing more cards never hurts.  I’ll be testing this.

Torrential Gearhulk: Now here’s a good man.  This Gearhulk plays a good mystic snake impression while offering way more options.  Sure, you need to have cast an instant before him, but that shouldn’t be an issue in most games.  Great card.

Demon of Dark Schemes: This guy is a good energy maker, and his ability that uses it is great.  He’s on the smaller side, and his etb is one time only, but I can see him doing really gross stuff.

Gonti, Lord of Luxury: A 2/3 deathtouch with a random spell.  Seems ok.

Noxious Gearhulk: A reasonable body with a sick etb trigger, and he’s relatively hard to block.  Not much to hate here.

Tidy Conclusion: Murder with occasional upside.  Seems fine.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance: If you pick one up for standard/other competitive formats, she’s not useless in Type 4.  Drawing a potential free spell is always good, 4 damage is something, and her ult can end a game fast.  That said, I’ll be trading her for the rest of the cards on this list.

Combustible Gearhulk: My pick for one of if not the best cards of the set.  A 6/6 with ancestral recall is busted in half, and if they choose to take the damage you might end up killing them.  Very often, drawing 3 will be the only thing they can let you do out of fear of death.

Fateful Showdown: Cards like this have been mediocre in the past, but the instant speed nature makes this slightly more interesting.  I’ll be trying it out.

Appetite for the Unnatural: It’s a naturalize with lifegain attached.  Reasonable card, though nothing exciting.

Dubious Challenge: This card is bizarre.  That said, it probably has a home in Type 4 if nowhere else, due to how powerful the creatures tend to be.  I’ll be staying away, but don’t let that discourage you.

Verdurous Gearhulk: It’s an 8/8 trample, which is dull but still powerful.  Plus, the 4 counters have effective haste if you put them on something else.

Wildest Dreams: Draw your graveyard? Don’t mind if I do.  Pretty powerful effect, so make sure your stack can handle it.

Rashmi, Eternities Crafter: This either casts you extra spells, breaking the core rule of the format, or it draws you cards.  Both are good.  I’m a fan.

Unlicensed Disintegration: Another Murder with potential upside.  And a cool name.

Aetherworks Marvel: This is the premier energy card of the set, and it’s pretty rad.  Free spells at instant speed is always good, and it generates energy fairly well on its own.  Playable either way you treat energy.

Metalwork Colossus: Just a big guy with some recursion attached.  Always fun cards, and they’re pretty dangerous too, though without any evasion this guy will rely on being the biggest around.

And that wraps up my review of Kaladesh.  Fairly disappointed by the lack of standout bombs, but there’s a few standout creatures that I’ll be happy to play, and a good smattering of powerful recursion in Metallurgic Summonings and Widest Dreams.  Hope you enjoyed, and see you next set (or earlier, given the new commander set, and Conspiracy 2 still needing reviews).

Eldritch Moon Set Review

Hello again, and welcome to the Eldritch Moon Type 4 Set Review!  Here, we will be looking at the cards from the latest core expansion set that fit into the infinite mana, 1 spell a turn stack.  Let’s jump right in!

Blessed Alliance: Cheap removal with some other abilities stapled on.  Nothing exciting, but a decent role-player in lower powered stacks

Collective Effort: The Escalate is pretty expensive here, as creatures are normally pretty good and tapping them is not the best, but getting a 2 for 1 with some possible power boost attached isn’t the worst of deals, and this screams for tokens to be involved somewhere.

Long Road Home: Essentially a counterspell for removal, this is a worse version of Otherworldly Journey (because splice onto arcane comes up one in a hundred games).  Still playable, though obviously weak.

Providence: Starting at 26 gives you an extra hit from an 8/8 before you die, and the fact that this was in your hand means you’ll get quite a bit longer before you kick it.  Interesting design, and I hope they revisit the leyline spell concept eventually.

Sanctifier of Souls: This guy is pretty cool, allowing you to trade in your yard for a potential alpha strike and a lot of creatures.  Best in creature heavy stacks, and obviously worse elsewhere.

Thalia’s Lancers: Once again, I have to mention I run 0 search cards in my stack because they take a while and can be really broken, but this one seems pretty fun.  Decent body too.  Try it out if you’re not opposed to the concept.

Coax from the Blind Eternities: I see 0 ways in which this can be both good and fun.  Either you don’t care that someone just grabbed 15 mana Emrakul, or you don’t want to give them that possibility.  I’ll be avoiding this.

Fortune’s Favor: Obviously worse than Fact or Fiction, but still fun, and I plan to mess with people endlessly with the 3 face up 1 face down split.

Identity Thief: Exiling stuff for a turn is nice, especially since this is a trigger on attack and thus hard to stop.  It gets even better when you get to abuse whatever you exiled.  Obviously slow, but seems fun.

Lunar Force: This is probably not even close to playable, but the concept of it is so interesting I feel the need to try it.  I can see people being unwilling to cast anything if their hand is full of good stuff, and if you can cast it with flash you’ll be able to protect your spell on your turn.  Obviously needs best-case scenario, but a pretty unique card.

Mind’s Dilation: The big enchantment bomb of the block, this will almost always get countered, much like Hedonist’s Trove and Lurking Predators before it, but when it resolves you’re on a highway to gravy town.  Playable in almost every stack.

Niblis of Frost: Very small body in our format for an attacking creature, but tapping stuff down seems interesting.  Probably not playable, but worth a look at.

Scour the Laboratory: A more expensive Jace’s Ingenuity, which was already playable, and cost doesn’t mean much.  Just be aware Parallectric Feedback will deal more to you if you cast this.

Summary Dismissal: While this is a pretty awesome counterspell, I can actually see picking about half a dozen others over it (there are a lot of real good counters).  That said, this is basically an autoinclude in your stack, unless you’re on a no counters theme or something weird.

Unsubstantiate: Relatively mediocre, but sometimes you just want to delay a spell rather than get rid of it outright (like a wrath of some sort).  This can also get rid of a dude for a short time.  Worth considering.

Dark Salvation: For the infinite stack, where X spells and firebreathing are commonplace, here’s a kill spell attacked to a wincon. 

Graf Harvest: Much like the spirit guy above, this makes the zombies you create harder to block and makes 2/2s instead of 1/1s to make up for the lack of another body.  If you only want to try one of these, stick to the white one, but this looks cool still.

Murder: Instant speed creature removal.  We play it, we’re meh with it, it still does its job.  Reprint if you didn’t have it already.

Rise from the Grave: I’m a fan of reanimator cards, and this is a super flavorful one.  Reprint, but with worse art imo (because rotting dragon is much more awesome).

Tree of Perdition: This looks pretty fun, though most likely not good.  Though it is pretty fun with cards that reduce toughness so you can get people real low (though not instakill, since they apparently changed that rule)

Bedlam Reveler: Getting a new (albeit small) hand can be pretty powerful late in the game.  Worth considering.

Collective Defiance: Ruin someone’s hand (or rebuild yours) and deal a little damage.  Seems fine.

Mirrorwing Dragon: Anything with Radiate tacked on has to be great.  This one only affect creatures that the casting player controls, which makes opponents less likely to kill it, while encouraging them to cast buffs on it so their team gets bigger.  Beware of token swarms and pump spells, or play them yourself.

Nahiri’s Wrath: No, this does not kill people.  Move along.

Grapple with the Past: Unexciting, but it’s instant speed regrowth for creatures, along with giving you better selection and possibly some other option with the mill 3.  Not terrible.

Ishkanah: This kills everyone in a pretty cool way (spiders!) but still kills everyone, so infinite stack only.

Springsage Ritual: Another Naturalize that gains life, perfectly playable.  You don’t want to overload your stack with these, but they’re a necessary component to make sure that stuff like Mind’s Dilation don’t run over everyone.

Ulvenwald Observer: Stuff dies in Type 4, a lot.  These things tend to be large.  This is a pretty good way to rebuild after a wrath for the aggro decks of the format, since those decks want to empty their hands fast.

Gisa and Geralf: How good these guys are depends on the number of zombies you have, which is likely to be low.  I’d only advise trying this if you do a draft of the entire stack at once so you can pick tons of zombies, and even then it’s only good in lower power stacks.

Ride Down: They think they’ve survived combat with a chump block (or even a real block) and you blow them out.  Real fun card, and can mess with combats you’re not even involved in.  Reprint.

Decimator of the Provinces: A fatty with the best abilities: trample, haste, and a way to cheat it out without costing a spell.  Great with tokens (obviously) and can really screw with your opponents due to the cast trigger.  Looks fun.

Distended Mindbender: This guy looks incredibly annoying to play against, you can really only counter him (since his trigger is cast so targeted removal will be gone from your hand too soon) but you still get wrecked.  Plus he can be free.  Looks good.

Elder Deep-Fiend: I love flash on big monsters (though this guy is smaller than most) and this does work to save your life and let you get in some damage.  Solid card.

Emrakul, the Promised End: Obviously a strong card, (but not gamebreaking like her previous incarnation) Emrakul lets you wreck someone real hard.  The real question is whether you destroy the board of the person whose turn you stole, or use them to weaken a third enemy, allowing their extra turn to finish off that opponent (and probably try to kill your 13/13 flying trample pro instants guy).  Definitely going to be fun.

Eternal Scourge: The last card to be played from exile was Misthollow Griffin.  This one is smaller but dodges spot removal for days.  Not sure how this is good, but it’s such an uncommon ability it probably has uses.

Mockery of Nature: Getting a naturalize with my 6/5 is a pretty nice deal.  Very playable.

Soul Separator: Now this is a card, getting 2 bodies with one having the abilities and the other having the combat power of the card.  This looks best used with utility dudes, as combat abilities look really bad on a 1/1 flier.  On my to-get list for sure.

Geier Reach Sanitarium: A Mikokoro that forces everyone to filter instead of straight drawing.  Still looks good, free card draw is free card draw,

And that wraps up the Eldritch Moon Type 4 set review!  Not much that really sticks out to me, but the good cards are good and will see play for a while to come.  If you think I missed something, let me know, and I’ll be back this coming week with Kaladesh, and maybe some Conspiracy 2!