Category Archives: New Cards

Fortune’s Favor is Our Eldritch Moon Preview!

Fortune's Favor
Fortune’s Favor is a nuanced new card from Eldritch Moon. Where does Top Level Podcast think it will find a home?

Fortune’s Favor has a ton of stuff going on:

  1. This card is way — way — better than Inspiration. Even if you take an [inferior] face-up pile, that is just as many cards as Inspiration… And you will be putting more cards in your graveyard. Remember: Inspiration was close to good enough (if not good enough) for Standard for years.
  2. Bluffing! Mike thinks this is a great articulation of bluffing in Magic; sometimes you’re going to have to give the opponent a truly great pile, but if you play this card right, you can tie the opponent in knots.
  3. We don’t think there is a single, consistent algorithm for splitting Fortune’s Favor piles. Patrick thinks one of his default splits will be three up / one down (with the one being the best card sometimes, the worst card sometimes, and something else sometimes). He wants to dare the opponent to take the face-down one!
  4. This card will make it super easy for some decks to get Delirium. Mike thinks that cards like Descend Upon the Sinful will come online quickly thanks to Fortune’s Favor, enabling two-color control decks in Standard. A turn six or seven Emrakul, the Promised End will also be trivial to set up.
  5. You can always get a pretty good tonnage of cards. Want two cards? If you don’t care what they are, you’ll even get three sometimes.

Where can Fortune’s Favor go? Here are some ideas:

  • A Blue Skies deck… Fortune’s Favor can play best buddies with Docent of Perfection or Niblis of Frost, enabling them to out-pace even great offenses.
  • (Like we said)… A U/x control deck; could be U/W, B/U or something else.
  • A B/U Zombie deck; Eldritch Moon presents too many recursion or value opportunities for us to ignore this awesome line! Use Fortune’s Favor to fuel Haunted Dead or Gisa and Geralf for more and more card advantage.

      • Find out even more at “Fortune’s Favor is Our Eldritch Moon Preview!”

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Gisela, the Broken Blade and Meld Mania

Gisela, the Broken Blade
Gisela, the Broken Blade is just fine on her own… But still a hell of a Meld card

Top Level Podcast is mad about Meld this week!

The headliner is obviously Gisela, the Broken Blade — an excellent creature in her own right — and also a great combination with not just her natural pair (Bruna, the Fading Light)… But also new “Indrik Stomphowler” [and Mike’s favorite card in Eldritch Moon so far], Thalia’s Lancers:

Thalia's Lancers
Because they are both legendary creatures, Thalia’s Lancers can set up either half of the Gisela-Bruna Meld combo.

bruna-the-fading-light
While the obvious synergy is to return a dead Gisela, the Fading Light to play (setting up the Meld) [and let’s be honest, people will be mad about killing your Gisela], because it is a human, you can instead return your Thalia’s Lancers to the battlefield… Which can then go and get another copy of Gisela, the Broken Blade anyway.

The mad thing about these Meld cards? So many are just great cards on their own!

Consider the Township twins…

Hanweir Garrison Hanweir Battlements

Hanweir Garrison is just a great threat… It’s very “Goblin Rabblemaster” if you take our meaning.

Hanweir Battlements is a land a ton of different decks would all want to play! Can you imagine a Gruul Ramp deck that played one copy? Holy hasty Dragonlord Atarka, am I right? How about finding a singleton copy with your Ulvenwald Hydra? I’d imagine you can imagine some creatures you might want to give haste to.

Patrick and Michael go over not just Gisela, the Broken Blade but all the Meld combinations so far, as well as a smattering of newly spoiled, additional, Eldritch Moon cards.

Check it all out in “Gisela, the Broken Blade and Meld Mania”:

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Emrakul, the Promised End and the Beginning of Spoiler Season

Emrakul, the Promised End
Emrakul, the Promised End highlights the beginning of Eldritch Moon spoiler season

Here’s the thing about the new Emrakul… It says “13” in the top-right, but that is a trick! Emrakul is all about being cast for less than 13 mana. So even though you might be able to take advantage of bonuses based on high converted mana costs, you won’t necessarily have to pay the full amount to get Emrakul on the battlefield. Here are some examples:

Sorin, Grim Nemesis can reveal Emrakul to deal a huge thirteen points to the opponent… But when it actually comes time to cast her, Emrakul might cost just seven or so mana (say your graveyard is full of Dead Weight; Transgress the Mind; Anguished Unmaking; Gideon, Ally of Zendikar; Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet; and Evolving Wilds)… That will only make for seven mana!

  • Dead Weight = enchantment
  • Transgress the Mind = sorcery
  • Anguished Unmaking = instant
  • Gideon, Ally of Zendikar = planeswalker
  • Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet = creature
  • Evolving Wilds = land

Patrick and Michael spend a good part of the podcast thinking up cool, goofy, or actually powerful things you can do with Emrakul, the Promised End; for example “Dark Petition up Emrakul, discard her to Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy (or Nahiri the Harbinger), put her back on top of my library with Mortuary Mire, and then reveal her for thirteen with Sorin, Grim Nemesis.

Of course just playing Sorin and Emrakul in the same deck gives you a way to win any game [that you did seven damage] out of nowhere.


Note:
Unfortunately (and this will happen with new cards sometimes) Patrick conflates the abilities of Sanctum of Ugin and Conduit of Ruin. Sanctum of Ugin puts a card into your hand, not on top of your library. Sorry! We’ll get ’em next time. Many of the ideas are still worth chewing on, though.

We also discuss new cards Coax from the Blind Eternities and Ulrich of the Krallenhorde. How does Ulrich compare with Standard staple Goblin Dark-Dwellers? You might be surprised at our take.

In a Top Level Podcast first (kinda like this week’s Cleveland Cavaliers first), Patrick and Michael switch gears later on to talk the NBA. Topics include:

  • “The Jon Finkel criteria”
  • How tall is Kevin Durant? How tall does he claim to be?
  • Who are the best five players in 2016?
  • What year would you pick an all-time five from (if not 2016)?
  • You know, and a ton Ton TON of Magic: The Gathering at 1:47 this week!

The NBA, Werewolves, and the Eldrazi aplenty in “Emrakul, the Promised End and the Beginning of Spoiler Season”:

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Declaration in Stone is Revolutionary

Declaration in Stone
Declaration in Stone

Oh no! Patrick accuses Mike of keeping the true secrets of Declaration in Stone from him [last week]. How was Patrick to know that you could target token creatures???

It turns out Declaration in Stone is nuanced and has a lot of things going on for it. If you target a token — especially if there are lots of tokens of a similar type (say Goblin tokens) — Declaration in Stone is the best. You get to “Maelstrom Pulse” all those tokens and the opponent doesn’t get to draw any cards / investigate no matter how many tokens you smacked down.

Of course it is great against big tokens too!

Some kind of Marit Lage? Whatever 20/20… Declaration in Stone has you covered (and your opponent is still not going to be able to investigate).

But here’s the thing:

It’s not like the normal state of Declaration in Stone against a regular creature [card] is going to be the opponent drawing three or something…

… But that is actually awesome!

If the opponent is drawing lots of cards from a single Declaration in Stone that means that you got “a bunch of zero mana Forks” on your already awesome card that you wanted to play. That means that you are doing it.

And so begins quite a unique episode of Top Level Podcast.

Patrick and Mike go over several cards from the upcoming set Shadows Over Innistrad, from blue bounce spells to weird red Reverberate re-dos, to a variety of red aggro cards. But our hosts also go over some evergreen deck design philosophy. What were the secret best cards of Patrick’s Pro Tour Journey Into Nyx winning deck? What kinds of cards is Mike enthusiastic about? And finally — finally — Patrick cracks the code of a Mike Flores A+

Plus, it turns out that Mike doesn’t know what a werewolf is :/

All this, and an oddly musical opening sequence in “Declaration in Stone is Revolutionary”:

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Nahiri, the Harbinger Bonus Episode!

Nahiri, the Harbinger

“Nahiri, the Harbinger is not obviously super powerful.”
-Mike

“I think Nahiri, the Harbinger is obviously super powerful.”
-Patrick

Well then.

What’s going on with this new Shadows Over Innistrad Planeswalker?

[+2]: You may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.

Nahiri’s [+2] is great because it helps her reach her [-8] so quickly. Note: You don’t even have to discard a card! You can “just” give Nahiri two additional loyalty if you want to.

That said, Nahiri is actively great with cards like Fiery Temper. Nahiri is “actively great” with Madness!

Patrick notes that if you want to play a gigantic (if hard-to-cast) monster for Nahiri’s [-8] ability you might accidentally draw it. Luckily Nahiri’s [+2] ability lets you discard the aforementioned uncastable monster, cashing it in for an action card.

[-2]: Exile target enchantment, tapped artifact, or tapped creature.

Nahiri’s middle ability is actually her bread and butter. The obvious thing here is that Nahiri can act basically as two Utter Ends for the cost of one. Nahiri gives players the ability to deal with enchantments and artifacts without having to dedicate specific slots.

Of course, you can just play Nahiri, use her [-2] the first time, and be left with a powerful Planeswalker!

[-8]: Search your library for an artifact or creature card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library. It gains haste. Return it to your hand at the beginning of the next end step.

Nahiri’s “ultimate” is not the kind of ability that automatically wins the game. However there is a lot of play here. Nahiri can level up very quickly due to her [+2] ability. This can let you cash in your four mana planeswalker for a much more powerful finisher… While saving mana.

Nahiri’s most obvious playmate at this point might be Dragonlord Atarka. She drops Atarka the first time (letting you get that trigger), lets you slam in for 8 (i.e. “infinity” on its side) and then even bounces Atarka back to your hand so you can re-play it for additional 187 action!

Powerful, certainly… But obviously super powerful, or not obviously super powerful?

Check out where Patrick and Michael land on this Planeswalker (and several new Shadows Over Innistrad cards) on “Nahiri, the Harbinger Bonus Episode!”

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Epiphany at the Drownyard

“It isn’t the way you draw seven cards most of the time, but for six mana, Epiphany at the Drownyard draws the same number of cards as Sphinx’s Revelation.”
-Patrick

Epiphany at the Drownyard
Epiphany at the Drownyard is our exclusive Shadows Over Innistrad preview card!

Epiphany at the Drownyard is a powerful and flexible new way to draw cards come Shadows Over Innistrad. It has great flexibility because you can burn it for two (or even just one) mana… Or tap tons of lands into it for a tremendous long game impact.

… But how much mana should you pour into your Epiphany at the Drownyard?

  • x=0 : You’re not going to be doing this very often, but when x=0 Epiphany at the Drownyard costs exactly U. This off-label tactic might be exactly how you use your last mana to flip over your Thing in the Ice on the cheap. This is not “card disadvantage” when Awoken Horror sends a ton of token creatures home, and the tactical advantage might be worth more than a card anyway, depending on board position.
  • x=1 : You’re basically cycling the card for two mana. When x=1 you can put one card into each of the two piles; so you’re basically trading Epiphany at the Drownyard for one of the next two cards in your deck (it replaces itself) but you are also putting two cards into the graveyard, which can be helpful with Jace, delve cards, etc.
  • x=2 : When x=2 you are flipping over three total cards. All other things being held equal you will put one card in one pile and two cards in the other. Most of the time you will be getting the same number of cards as when x=1, but you will have more control. For example, say there is a card you really want… If you put it against two cards the opponent will have to evaluate whether one good card is worth two other cards.
  • x=3 : When x=3 Epiphany at the Drownyard costs the same as Inpsiration, Fact or Fiction, and of course Steam Augury. It is very comparable to Steam Augury at this point… You will end up with two cards for four mana in most cases; the difference here is that you will be putting only two additional cards into the graveyard instead of three.
  • x=4 : This iteration of Epiphany at the Drownyard will be a relatively weak step up from when x=3. You will probably only get two cards (still); and Epiphany at the Drownyard will be exactly a Steam Augury but for one more mana.
  • x=5 : As Patrick said, at six mana you will get the same number of cards as when the mighty Sphinx’s Revelation cost six. That’s kind of a big deal! At any point after this Epiphany at the Drownyard will look increasingly potent.

Remember: You can always do weird things like putting all the cards in one pile. The opponent will have to choose between giving you a ton of cards in hand… Or a ton of cards in graveyard (which might be what you want).

Epiphany at the Drownyard is actually a pretty cool Dragon tutor. Try putting Dragonloard Silumgar in one pile and Haven of the Spirit Dragon in the other. End result: You get your Dragonlord 😉

Lots and lots more from Michael and Patrick on this new card (and other topics) in “Epiphany at the Drownyard”!

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Patrick’s Magic: The Gathering Books

Michael’s Magic: The Gathering Books

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Archangel Avacyn and Thing in the Ice

To begin with, let us all bend the knee to friend of the ‘cast Christine Sprankle as a blood soaked Archangel Avacyn:

Well, at least Patrick is bending the knee 🙂

Okay!

Serious Business!

Here are some sweet Transform cards from Shadows Over Innistrad:

Archangel Avacyn // Avacyn, the Purifier

Archangel Avacyn

In its natural form, Archangel Avacyn is like a Serra Angel with upside.

In addition to its natural state as a 4/4 vigilant flyer for five mana, this hot new card has flash. That means that if you are a Draw-Go style Control player, you will not be required to risk mana on your own turn to play your endgame threat. You can sit back with permission mana open and wait and see.

But wait, there’s more!

Any flash creature has the ability to Simian Grunts the opponent during combat. We have talked for several weeks now how 2/3 and 3/3 creatures are collectively the dominant tempo-oriented force in Standard… Archangel Avacyn dropping by during combat is great for eating those kinds of creatures. Except…

She and all your other creatures become indestructible, too! Now you can talk about fighting 4/4 creatures successfully, too.

How about the Christine Sprankle flip-side?

Avacyn, the Purifier

Remember what we said just a paragraph or so ago about 2/3 and 3/3 creatures? Sorry Reflector Mage! Avacyn, the Purifier is going to be an amazing, possibly format-warping, new card!

At the very least, think about ticking up your Gideon to five loyalty against five open mana. Otherwise, Avacyn might just purify him.

Thing in the Ice // Awoken Horror

Thing in the Ice

Mike’s favorite card (so far) from Shadows Over Innistrad is Thing in the Ice. A 0/4 creature for two mana is eminently serviceable for self-defense… And this one becomes, in Patrick’s parlance “a blue Tarmogoyf”:

Awoken Horror

… As if a Tarmogoyf can reasonably expect to be 7/8 like Awoken Horror.

These sweet flip cards are joined by red and Rakdos beatdown; and the return of the Madness mechanic in “Archangel Avacyn and Thing in the Ice”:

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Oath of Chandra and Five Friends

Oath of Chandra
Oath of Chandra is a potential Role Player from Oath of the Gatewatch

In this episode of Top Level Podcast, Mike (Resident Genius Michael J. Flores) and Patrick (Pro Tour Champion and Pro Tour Hall of Famer Patrick Chapin) shake up the usual format… Mike asks Patrick about some new cards from the new set and Patrick tells him what he thinks!

Hmmm… Well, maybe that’s not so much of a divergence from our usual show; but we think you’ll like it 🙂

Oath of Chandra is one of the centerpiece cards in this podcast.

Arguably the weakest of the Oath of the Gatewatch namesakes, Oath of Chandra still has some interesting applications as a Constructed playable spell; possibly as a Role Player; possibly (as Mike suggests) as a sideboard card a la Volcanic Hammer in Patrick’s Regional Championships Korlash deck from close to a decade ago.

Oath of Chandra is kind of a more restrictive Volcanic Hammer on its face. Like Volcanic Hammer, it can deal three damage to a creature for two mana… But unlike Volcanic Hammer, it can’t (immediately) be pointed straight at the opponent’s dome.

However!

Oath of Chandra has additional text:

At the beginning of each end step, if a planeswalker entered the battlefield under your control this turn, Oath of Chandra deals 2 damage to each opponent.

Because of this, if you get even one Planeswalker trigger, Oath of Chandra moves from a kind of bad (but possibly still applicable) Volcanic Hammer to Searing Blood range. Like Searing Blood this card will now deal five damage over one creature and one player for two mana, making it pretty good on rate. If you get any additional triggers from Oath of Chandra (i.e. from any future Planeswalker triggers) the rate payback on that two mana only gets better and better.

Like the other Oaths we’ve discussed, Oath of Chandra is a Legendary Enchantment, so a second copy hitting the battlefield will put one into the graveyard. But that may or may not be a strict disadvantage given a pretty cool interaction Patrick points out in this podcast.

What is it?

You’ll have to listen to “Oath of Chandra and Five Friends” to find out!

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Is Remorseless Punishment the Next Cruel Ultimatum… And is 64 the New 60?

This week Top Level Podcast run through Remorseless Punishment and a handful other quick hits from Oath of the Gatewatch, and meditate on both Ben Rubin’s highly successful sixty-four card Abzan deck and other “heavy” decks from tournament Magic history.

Remorseless Punishment
Remorseless Punishment

Remorseless Punishment is both a Browbeat and a Cruel Ultimatum… The question is, is it more Browbeat — a card with two different very good sides that failed to add up to a single Tier One sorcery — or more Cruel Ultimatum (the textbook Standard “greater power”)?

“They’re just gong to choose the Hangarback Walker.”
-Patrick Chapin

Linvala, the Preserver
Linvala, the Preserver

Mike was originally lukewarm on Linvala, the Preserver; but came around on her (at least a little) after reading Patrick’s article on Star City Games!

Neither podcaster considers Linvala veritable “great white hope” against beatdown, however.

Unnatural Endurance
Unnatural Endurance

“This card is going to revolutionize… Things.”
-Patrick Chapin

Unnatural Endurance is highly reminiscent of [playable] Theros Block combat instant Boon of Erebos… But without a certain drawback.

Patrick predicts that Unnatural Endurance will be a game-changing addition for beatdown decks, as there is a bigger gap between Unnatural Endurance and Boon of Erebos than Vapor Snag (cross-format Staple) and Unsummon (fringe playable spell).

Mike calls this one “a black Counterspell”


Reality Smasher
Reality Smasher

“It’s like a Stormbreath Dragon… but bigger.”
-Patrick

One of Mike’s favorite cards from Oath of the Gatewatch… and it’s easy to see why. Patrick thinks Reality Smasher will indeed be smashing a reality near you, and soon. It is “more Baneslayer Angel than Gaea’s Revenge” and already better in his mind than that playable blue-hating big boy.

Much of this podcast is spent discussing Ben Rubin’s sixty-four card Abzan deck. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, Ben finished second at Grand Prix Oakland (to the amazing Reid Duke) with this innovative deck:

2 Hangarback Walker

1 Duress
2 Murderous Cut
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
3 Ultimate Price

4 Stubborn Denial

4 Anafenza, the Foremost
2 Dromoka’s Command
4 Siege Rhino

3 Den Protector
4 Warden of the First Tree

3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

1 Canopy Vista
4 Flooded Strand
2 Forest
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Plains
4 Polluted Delta
2 Prairie Stream
2 Shambling Vent
1 Smoldering Marsh
2 Sunken Hollow
1 Swamp
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

sb:
2 Painful Truths
2 Rising Miasma
2 Self-Inflicted Wound
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Exert Influence
2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
2 Ojutai’s Command

The lazy analysis is that Ben added four Stubborn Denials to an otherwise black-green-white deck, taking the mode count of sixty up to sixty-four. That would be inaccurate, at best, of course; why then would he have twenty-nine lands?

The real reason behind Rubin’s decision surprises Mike… and will probably surprise you.

But Patrick would play this Abzan, for sure.

Find out all the secrets in “Is Remorseless Punishment the Next Cruel Ultimatum… And is 64 the New 60?”

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Oath of Nissa Bonus Episode!

Sure, we had the opportunity to introduce the Magic community to Warping Wail yesterday…

… But Top Level Podcast is still Still STILL here for our regularly-scheduled Thursday episode!

Oath of Nissa
What do you think about Oath of Nissa?

Oath of Nissa is at least “two different cards” … It incorporates both a card selection ability and a longer-term mana fixing one.

Most of the value of Oath of Nissa is bound in the first ability:

“When Oath of Nissa enters the battlefield, look at the top three cards of your library. You may reveal a creature, land, or planeswalker card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.”

First and foremost, this is a card that will affect deck design and mulligan decisions. Playing with Oath of Nissa may impact how many lands you play in your deck; certainly it will increase your chances of hitting your second land when you keep a one-land hand featuring Oath of Nissa.

Note: Oath of Nissa actually digs you four cards deep for purposes of drawing a second land. Not only do you get to look at the top three cards of your library (where you are a favorite to see a land), your actual next draw is the fourth card (not the first, which you’ve already seen), dramatically increasing your chances.

When you just put Oath of Nissa in your Abzan deck, you are just going to draw so many more Siege Rhinos and Den Protectors! And because Oath of Nissa is a Legendary Enchantment (meaning if you play a second one, one of them will go to the graveyard) it makes it easier to re-buy with Den Protector!

The second ability on Oath of Nissa isn’t as important as the card-replacing first… But it can still be relevant.

“You may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast planeswalker spells.”

Oath of Nissa can help your green deck hit the WW on Gideon more quickly and consistently, or make Sarkhan, Unbroken more palatable.

Tons of chats on Oath of Nissa, the idea of playing as many as eight Nissa planeswalkers, and a wee bit about Oath of Jace at the end; all in our “Oath of Nissa Bonus Episode!”

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