Scars of Mirrodin: a "Commander" Mid-Term Report

Commander Pre-Cons? Check!
Spoiler Season starting up for Mirrodin Besieged? Check!

I guess it's time for the Scars of Mirrodin Mid-Term report!

This is going to be brief in some areas because, let's face it, if I don't limit myself I'll never stop talking...... I'm not going to talk about every single card either so it's possible that I may skip over something that you think is a real star or a sleeper. Let me know in the comments.

The Mechanics

Infect

It's interesting that the posterboy mechanic for Scars of Mirrodin is both a hit and a miss in Commander. It's a miss because there's really not enough cards (yet) for a real Infect deck to be a force in Commander. As there's only one Legend, (I'll talk about Skittles later) and a mono-coloured one at that, you're really restricted to Mono-B & artifact infect or to playing a Commander without infect in order to fully benefit from a Green and Black mechanic (which is a pretty backwards way of approaching a deck-build centered around a specific mechanic).

In addition, Proliferate, included in this set to go hand in hand with Infect, is partly in artifact and partly in a third colour. While Proliferate has multiple applications outside Infect, if you want to have your Infect and Proliferate it, you're in GUB/artifact and have a general (Vorosh, the Hunter) who has nothing in common with your strategy bar his +1/+1 counters ability and holding an Exoskeletal Armor or be the target of a Tainted Strike.

That was the "miss". The "hit" is Exoskeletal Armor, Tainted Strike and Skithiryx. The first is a short clock or an alpha strike; the second is an insta-win and a huge political tool; and the third is just a huge scary clock-beast. These can go into any deck that cares to carry them with no other interest in or reference to either Infect or Proliferate. Players attacking anywhere with a 4/x double-strike creature or a 9/x creature can allow you to piggy-back a kill off Tainted Strike. Suddenly, there's a player less and your chances of winning the table are much, much higher.

Sure, we have another two extensions to get through so the volume of infect in Black and Green has the potential to increase just enough to make the mechanic as a whole in either or both colours Commander viable. We'll just have to wait and see.


Proliferate

Proliferate will either be huge or useless depending on what your deck contains. As it does nothing in a vacuum, the strength of the mechanic will fluctuate wildly. In this respect, it's real benefit to commander is seeing cards that have other abilities or effects tacked on such as Contagion Engine & Clasp.


Metalcraft

Honestly, are there any good metalcraft cards?

Imprint

Variations on an existing theme, there are 5 imprint cards in the set. Only Prototype Portal and Mimic Vat have any potential in Commander and even then Prototype Portal is going to require a lot of building around and protection.

Mimic Vat, on the other hand, is probably the best Commander card in the set. It has competition, sure, but you're probably never going to be wrong putting it into any deck. Despite the artifact hate that should permiate all Commander metagames, running this monster maker is still worth the effort. There's one constant in all Commander games and it's that creatures will die. They don't need to be your own creatures, just creatures that go from the battlefield into any graveyard. From this point onwards your Mimic Vat is going to be pumping out a lot of helpful or downright nasty creatures for the low cost of 3 colourless. Try Sunblast Angel if you don't like being attacked for example, or a Titan, any Titan........

An advatage/disadvantage is that you can change the creature (though you're not required to so), if you like your imprinted Nekretaal, then keep it until you kill a Primeval Titan with it and then you take the Titan. The "disadvantage" to having a card imprinted is that it remains exiled if the Mimic Vat ever gets destroyed. If that card is something of your opponents that you don't necessarily want to see again, all the better. If it's your own creature, you've just been 2-for-1'ed.

Planeswalkers

I'll give Elspeth Tirel an honorary mention as she's a Disk but the other two are, so far, pretty unspectacular in this format.

Generals

I touched on the generals in a previous blog. I think the rankings hold up still:
1.) Skithiryx - Excellent
2.) Geth - Good, "build around" general and otherwise a solid guy.
3.) Azuri - Excellent at what he does, there's even a few combos, but you have to want what he does. Tribal Elf is not everyone's cup of tea.
4.) Kemba - Fun but not near the power level of the others. Tries to compensate with suggestive clothing.

The Colours

White

White didn't give us a huge amount with the possible exception of Sunblast Angel, a conditional, flying Wrath of God and True Conviction.

Yes, you read that right: True Conviction. 5 Mana is nothing in this format and giving your team double strike is truely excellent. If you also gain life out of that, that's pretty neat but, whether attacking or blocking, Double Strike is what will deter your opponents from attacking into you and fear attack from you. Now, I'll admit it's not for everyone. Who it is for are aggressive W/x decks that have to win in the red zone. The afforementioned Kemba, wearing only a Konda's Banner played this in a game I was quickly knocked out of. She went roughly: Sol Ring, Mox Diamond, Kemba, Konda's Banner, equip the Banner, True Conviction, Armageddon, win. Yes, that's an equipped Kemba on turn 3, into double strike and Lifelink for your free 4/4 kittens into almost no mana around the table.  Even without situations like this, the True Conviction gives you a huge amount of reach in a single attack phase either to alpha strike with your army or just your general. At the same time, you're reducing the ability to kill you to general damage strategies.

The other white card of note is Sunblast Angel. A 4/4 Wrath of God that flies. Sure, it only kills tapped creatures but don't tell me that you don't have ways to tap creatures or that creatures don't attack. Putting one on a Mimic Vat essentially means that no-one is attacking you without first dealing with the Vat. The Angel is good under pressure, it's good to clear away unsuspecting armies, it's just good. And it sticks about to attack for 4.

Green

Green should get some great beasts however it's quota was seriously effected by Infect taking up creature slots. Even the Fatties that are there are uninspiring. We have a nice effect in Bellowing Tanglewurm but it's hardly groundbreaking. Engulfing Slagwurm is cute too but really, it needed to have trample to be even considered. About the only fat that could be mentioned is Liege of the tangle and that comes with a warning sticker. This 8/8 for 6GG does have trample but the benefit is that you make your land base more fragile. You have to decide if the land(s) you animate into 8/8s will still be there for your next attack phase. The redeeming point is that you choose which lands, it's not automatically every land so you can go all in if you've just played a Final Fortune or just put a couple up there if you're being cagey. Beware the Nev's Disk which will kill your lands!

The other green highlight is, of course, Genesis Wave. There's actually not a huge amount to be said about this apart from: Generate a lot of mana, Wave for X, Profit. I mean, it's not rocket science.......


Red

Help me out here, Red is screwing the pooch for Commander in this set.

Black

Nothing to see here......

Only kidding! Black got some sweet, sweet toys. We've already mentioned Skithiryx, Geth and Tainted Strike. Black also got Exsanguinate, Necrotic Ooze, Painful Quandry and Carnifax Demon as well as some other little toys.

Do you remember when you played Syphon Soul in a 4-man game and thought "Heh, 6 extra life. Sweet!" Now the 2 damage life lost has become X and you still gain life equal to what was lost, essentially X*Y (where Y is the number of other players).  Play it for 5 in a 4-man game and you gain 9 life; 6 gains you 12 life; 7 gains you 15 life and so on. I'm sure no-one would stoop to using Urborg and Cabal Coffers to fuel a decent 15 point Exsanguinate. I think it's obvious as well that infinite mana engines probably should run this. If you're going to do stuff like that, at least end our misery quickly.

Painful Quandry is the black 5cc enchantment in the Scars of Mirrodin almost-cycle (red missed out, go figure). As mentioned when talking about True Conviction, 5 mana is really not a big deal in this format, especially not in Black. Simply put, if an opponent plays a spell, they lose five life or discard a card. If players are patiently playing 1 or 2 spells a turn this is a slow clock or a minor annoyance but once they start multiplying their activity you are passively attacking one of two resources: Cards in hand or life total. Granted, they get to choose whichever one least effects them at any given point in a game but you're likely doing your best to deprive them of cards in hand and thus the ability to choose. As with True Conviction, this is not a card that fits all decks but it's an under the radar annoyance that someone will eventually waste a card killing to stop the pain.

Carnifax Demon: See Sunblast Angel. It flies, it kills things. There are stronger solutions available if you're looking for some pin-point destruction however the Demon is excellent at clearing away token hordes and, if you're running some proliferate, you can set it up so that you're withering the rest of the table into oblivion.

The last card in this section deserves an article unto itself. It already has a piece of Legacy glory, adding a combo to the quiver of arrows pointed towards the banning of Survival of the Fittest in that format. It's already present in Excended with yet another Conley Woods special, this time cooking up another Quillspike combo, and he's quite the broken card with, well, everything really. I give you Necrotic Ooze.

I think that this card is going to become a focal point for a lot of decks that like to manipulate what exactly is in the graveyard and, I'm sad to say, may even be the card that pushes Survival of the Fittest over the edge in Commander. When I said it did everything, take a situation where you have an active Necrotic Ooze in play and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker in any graveyard. Just Kiki-Jiki allows you to make infinite Ooze tokens. This in turn allows you to kill everyone with a Hissing Iguanar when those tokens die at EOT or earlier if you have a means to sacrifice them. Leaving the Hissing Iguanar aside and focusing on the sacrifice aspect, Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar will give you infinite colourless or any coloured mana respectively (which will allow you to do some of the following), Attrition will kill all targettable non-black creatures, an infinitely large Phyrexian Ghoul or Carrion Feeder, the ability to draw out your deck with Carnage Altar, make infinite Spawning Pit tokens (which won't die at EOT) or all of this at the same time!! And that's not even the start of what the Ooze can do, that's just an extremely tiny part of what it can do just with a single Kiki-Jiki in any graveyard. The forummer "Stardust" over on the official Commander boards posted a list of 57 different interactions the resulted in instantly winning, infinite life or infinite mana just using Kiki Jiki as a base point. Start with a different base point and just go wild.

I'm going to leave this one here but I think you can start including it in your deck for any incidental activations you can garner off it like copying Karn's or Memnarch's abilities from your opponent's graveyard........

Blue

Blue was heavily invested in Metalcraft and minorly in proliferate. When you added the usual set staples, there's actually very little space left. Even less when you consider the increased Artifact presence in the set. Pearls are thus hard to find though there is one in Grand Architect. It's a specific activation but it will fit well in 2 places: mono-blue aggro for the lord ability and U/x Artifacts for the Mishra's Workshop ability. There's an incidental extended combo with Pili-Pala that allows you to create infinite mana once you can turn the Pili-Pala blue and it's no longer got summoning sickness. In Commander it's just likely to allow you to play your Darksteel Forges off the Architect and a Etherium Sculptor for essentially 4 mana. Imagine a Mana Crypt/Vault or Sol Ring on the first 2-3 turns and a turn 3 Forge is not all that unlikely a play with the Architect's help. This is a pretty easy inclusion if you have blue creatures and like to cast big artifacts early.

Land

Scars gave us a cycle of friendly bi-coloured lands to add to the 20 friendly bi-coloureds with more or less drawbacks that we already have. In that they are likely to CIPT more often than not, they are not the best, but they could occasionally come into play untapped and so are marginally better than the Invasion bi-coloureds that we still see played.


Artifacts

It's technically an artifact set and a much larger percentage of the card count was assigned to artifacts to the detriment of each of the colours. This is probably a greater part of why each colour bar black only got 1-2 really good Commander cards. Let's see if the artifact section makes up for it.

We've already looked at Mimic Vat when talking about Imprint and Grafted Exoskeleton when talking about Infect. What the artifact section needs to give us is something that's a little more durable. Think Wurmcoil Engine with both lifelink and deathtouch and the ability to leave warm bodies behind when someone clears the board or Chimeric Mass, which you can find with both Tolaria West and Trinket Mage and can be either a small or huge beast that's oblivious to opponent's traditional Wrath effects.

The other star in the set seems to be another sleeper: Nim Deathmantle. This 2cc Artifact equips for 4, gives Intimidate, +2/+2 and makes the equipped creature Black. That's.....ok. What is special is that it also features a triggered ability that allows you to pay 4 mana when a creature is put into your graveyard from play to bring it directly back into play with the Deathmantle equipped to it. What's important to note is that the dying creature didn't need to have been equipped in the first place to benefit from this hasty resurrection. Add some "leaves/enters play" triggers, a little mana and, why not, a sacrifice outlet and you have yourself a dirty little combo.

What seems to be interesting here is that the three top cards in the set have a direct relationship with the graveyard:

1.) Mimic Vat triggers on any creature going to any graveyard
2.) Nim Deathmantle triggers on any creature going to your graveyard
3.) Necrotic Ooze has the activated abilities of creatures that are in any graveyard.

What is quite fun to note is that Necrotic Ooze will actually have a window between the first two triggering and those triggers resolving to activate abilities of any creature just put into a graveyard.

Another interesting interaction is that your opponent's Mimic Vat and your own Nim Deathmantle both trigger off a creature going into your graveyard and AP/NAP will apply resulting in your creature getting stolen before the Deathmantle can bring it back to you. Anyone who has engaged in "Mimic Vat Vs Mimic Vat" wars can attest that a thorough knowledge of the priority rules will serve you well while using these artifacts.

My Mid-Term Top 10

1-.) Mimic Vat
1-.) Necrotic Ooze


3.) Nim Deathmantle
4.) Skythiryx
5.) Genesis Wave
6.) Exsanguinate


7-.) Sunblast Angel
7-.) Grand Architect
7-.) Geth

10.) Tainted Strike

Have a great Holiday Break! See you in the New Year!

Contagion: Proliferate for the win?

Once the Tezzeret and Elspeth duel decks came out and we got to see Kemba's Skyguard (yay?) and Contagion Clasp, we had a little idea what Scars was holding in stores for us. We'd see decent limited fliers in white, which is hardly a surprise, and a little artifact that helps kill weenies. Oh, and "pro - lif - er - ate" whatever the heck that does!?!  What does it do?

So, if you have, like, a Blastoderm with a Fading counter on it, you get to put another one on and have him live a bit longer, right? That's cool, I guess. Let me put it differently that just "cool, I guess": Proliferate has the potential to be stupidly good. Table dominating good.

You choose any number of permanents and/or players with counters on them, then give each another counter of a kind already there.

The Engine and Clasp are removal for annoying Weenies right off the bat with the CIP -1/-1 abilities. R/D also worded it so that it would work with the Phyrexian "add a -1/-1 counter" cards and the Infect keyword which also encompases the return of poison. However, rather than naming just these specific things, the Proliferate keyword allows you to choose any number of permanents/players in play and add another type of counter that is already on that permanent/player. So if you have a Steel Overseer in play, you tap the Overseer, add +1/+1 counters to all your artifact creatures and add an additional one with Proliferate. If your opponent has +1/+1 counters on his creatures, you're not obliged to add an additional counter to their creatures, just your own. If one of your opponent's creatures has a -1/-1 counter (from the Clasp for example) you can add to that and ignore the others that may have +1/+1 or charge counters. Pretty neat, huh?

That's not all! Let's say you decided to sleeve up a WW deck sporting Adjani Goldmane. Adjani gives your creatures a +1/+1 counter but removes a loyalty counter when you do so. Luckily the Clasp will also replace the loyalty counter on Adjani. Your play for the turn is essentially Pay 4: boost your team by +2/+2 and Adjani is still on the same loyalty as before. That's ok, right?



If it works on Adjani, it works on every Planeswalker. Let me say that back again just because it's a little bit mad: Your Planeswalkers "-" abilities all cost 1 less to use, "0" abilities actually gain you a loyalty counter and their "+" abilities are supercharged. Chandra Nalaar can go ultimate the turn after she hits play. Elspeth I can go ultimate in 3 turns and survive in 3 turns instead of 5 or 6. Nicol Bolas can go ultimate in 1 turn! And this is with only a single permanent proliferate effect in play, the likes of Contagion Clasp or Throne of Geth. Contagion Engine proliferates and then proliferates again. Inexorable Tide proliferates whenever you play a spell. Thrummingbird does it each time it deals combat damage to a player and Throne of Geth does it for no mana cost but requires you to sacrifice an artifact. The instant, cantripping Steady Progress gives you the 6th instance of Proliferate (or 7th if you count the second instance on Contagion Engine)
Now, even if it was just -1/-1, +1/+1, poison and Planeswalker loyalty counters, these effects would still see play, but it's not just that. It's more, a lot more.

Anything with Fading, Vanishing or Cumulative Upkeep, Charge Counters, Modular, Sunburst, Slith, Quests, Ascensions, Allies, Armageddon Clock, Scream, Flood, Arrow, Gold, Ki, Blood, Fuse, Soot, Clockwork, Level-up and hundreds of other cards that all say "Put a counter" on this, that, him or her. Your fading and vanishing creatures and artifacts will fade and vanish more slowly. With a critical mass of the abilities or some combo with Inexorable Tide in play means that you can even increase past the number of counters that had originally been intended for that permanent. And don't get me started on charge counters


Did you know that there's 56 cards which have or interact with charge counters. Some highlights include Æther Vial, Chalice of the Void, Chimeric Mass, Coalition Relic, Coretapper (who will allow you to move a charge counter onto an empty Everflowing Chalice from another permanent and proliferate to add a second counter and replace the original from where you took it), Darksteel Reactor, Door of Destinies, Engineered Explosives, Everflowing Chalice, Lightning Reaver, Lux Cannon, Pentad Prism, Ratchet Bomb, Riptide Replicator, Sigil of Distinction, Sun Droplet, Tendo Ice Bridge and a little known and under-used equipment called Umezawa's Jitte.

Even better with proliferate, if that was even possible.

And that's just the "Charge counter" section. There's 533 Gatherer results to rules text with "With a counter" as in "Enters the battlefield with a ~suchandsuch~ counter in it" and an additional 138 results with "add a counter" as in "Tap: add a counter" or "If ~this~ was kicked, it comes onto the battlefield with X additional +1/+1 counters on it". Ok, some of these results include counterspells but not that many. Whenever you could put a counter on something or lots of things and having two or more would be better instead, Proliferate will shine.

4 New Generals all covered in Scars

Scars of Mirrodin is here and we have 4 new generals to play with! Let's just dive straight in!

An Elf Overrun Lord - Ezuri, Renegade Leader

Elves are known for being weedy little green guys with woop-loads of synergy especially in the mana-making department. Where before they had to go outside the tribe to get some beatdown going with Coat of Arms, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa or Overrun, Scars is handing Elves a turn 2 drop with lots and lots of potential. He's a decent 2/2 for 3 and has both the important characteristics you need in an aggressive Elf build: He's an Elf (ok, that's one's obvious) and he's a warrior. When he starts benefitting from both Elf and Warrior he's going to be annoying just by himself. He's adding to your Elf count for all the important "elf count" reasons but his text-box is what will push him right up there for inclusion with Rhys the Redeemed as a choice Elf General. Elves can benefit from the inclusion of White that Rhys provides but they don't necessarily require it to be viable. Rhys can churn out an army if left alone long enough but he shouldn't be, and regularly isn't, allowed to do so. What Rhys doesn't have is a way to protect key elements and here is where Ezuri calls attention to himself for the first time. Someone want to Terror your Priest of Titania and you have an untapped Forest? It's not happening. [This is some unobservant shit right here! Regenerate from a Terror? For shame! Read "Doom Blade" in that last sentence and you get the idea!] Keep that active Priestess open and Ezuri is going to regenerate your entire team if someone foolishly chooses a boardwipe without a "no regeneration clause". The only slight disadvantage is that he can't help himself, only other Elves.

His second ability is where Ezuri really shines. One of the disadvantages of Elves is that while they can swarm pretty well, there's not been an Elf Legend that can really push their damage potential over the top. The afforementioned Coat of Arms, Kamahl, Fist of Krosa or Overrun are generally included in the hope that they will become available at the right time and each has it's own drawback: Coat will also pump opponent's creatures; Kamahl is not an Elf, probably isn't your general and costs 10 to cast and activate his second ability; and Overrun is a Sorcery (still not an instant, Marc!) in a colour that doesn't really have a cheap way to tutor for it when necessary. Ezuri as your general gives you this ability built in and freely available from the General Zone to bust out a bunch of dorks and turn them into a force that will put a dent in any life total.

Do not underestimate the ability to protect your army and have repeated Overruns on a stick. He's cheap and he ticks all the right boxes. Straight to the top of the Elf Legend queue, Mr. Ezuri!


A Zombie Dragon - Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Skithiryx gains immediate bonus flavour points for being an undead dragon skeleton (though you have to ask yourself how an undead dragon with no wing membrane stays aloft). He's a 4/4 flier for 3BB which are acceptable stats. He's smaller than other dragons but that's not as relevant as it would normally be as he regenerates for BB. He's only the second Dragon in the game with this ability after Hellkite Overlord and he's a lot cheaper to cast. That's not what pushes him over the top however. He has haste if you happen to have a spare B lying about the turn you  cast him. That isn't what pushes him over the top either (and, honestly, optional haste is a bit of a waste of an ability; either build it in or don't, it's useless after the first turn anyway)

What pushes Skithiryx over the top is the new key-word "infect". Infect is a mix of Wither and Poison: You deal wither damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and Poison damage to players. The advantage of dealing poison counters to players is that it only takes 10 to kill a player making Skithiryx what in normal damage terms would essentially be the equivalent to an 8/4 when unblocked. Two and a half hits just with this bag of bones and you've won the game and that's without pumping him in some manner. If he tackles a bigger beast than he is, well that beast isn't going to be bigger much longer with all the -1/-1 counters he's handing out. He regenerates to be able to stick around to do it again next turn too so all in all this is a nice creature to have on your side. All that taken together is what pushes him over the top in EDH.

In EDH we have 40 life, 21 general damage and 10 poison counters as means of winning the game (There's decking and a couple of "I win" cards but essentially the first three is what we're focusing on.) Poison was pretty much the forgotten child up until now but with Scars of Mirrodin and the two subsequent extensions, that's about to change. Skithiryx is the first huge step in that change. Where a normal general is looking to get in for 21 general damage, Skithiryx is looking to get in for 21 general damage or 10 poison counters, whichever happens first. Anyone who's any good at math can tell you that 10 is most likely going to happen before 21. Should you use Skithiryx as your general, you're announcing that you intend to win in half the time another 4/4 general would usually require. Add in Unholy Strength, Howl from Beyond, Hatred or any other boost effect and you can cut the time it takes you to win down even further. Look at all the support cards that Scars is offering the Infect mechanic, especially the other new Scars keywords "Proliferate", and it's entirely possible that you're not using Skithiryx as a two hit general, rather that you're intending to win once he connects even once as some smaller minnions have gotten in there already to start the infection and he's just the coup de grace.

A new, very aggressive black aggro-poison strategy is now available in EDH and it's got Skithiryx front and center. Dust off your leeches and fight the infection! [And check the comments below for how to die to general damage (not poison counters) from Skithiryx !]

A Phyrexian-aided Lich - Geth, Lord of the Vault

Let's be honest, Skithiryx is not a flavour legend, he's a mechanic-driven beast with extra "legendary". Scars of Mirrodin has given us a second mono-black general who is very much a sop to the Vorthos types out there who clamour for storyline enrished goodness at every opportunity. Geth is a Lich. At the end of the original Mirrodin Block storyline Geth was decapitated but, being a lich, he just went on undying. Apparently in the intervening time he managed to convey himself back to the Mephidross and went about putting a body together with the help of some of Magics' more dastardly villans: the Phyrexians. Those nice Phyrexians gave Geth the lovely half artifact/half carapace thing you can see in the card-art here.

Strangely enough, even though the Phyrexians are the source of the infection, they didn't give it to Geth so he doesn't get to poison or wither like Skithiryx. He's a formidable leader apparently so he gets to Intimidate and he's got a decent 5/5 body to go with his 4BB cc.  His ability is interesting and self sustaining and very relevant for both standard and EDH except for one little thing: the Eldrazi are everywhere and mono-black doesn't destroy artifacts well in order to get the Geth ball rolling. There work getting that first artifact (and thus the mill effect) into play and you could just as easily hit one of our colourless legendary friends and undo all the hard work.

Now he's not bad, don't get me wrong. I'm sure he has a place in Standard or somewhere. For EDH however, all I see are hoops here whereas with his set-mate, Skithiryx, there's just tick marks in almost the right boxes. If he was BG, BU or BR you'd have all the tools you'd need to get him on line aggressively but in Mono-B, his support suite is sorely lacking.

Edit: Nah, you don't really want to read all that stuff up there! ;o) As was pointed out in the comments, Geth's reanimate ability is not just for artifacts, a card type that, along with Enchantments, Mono-B usually has a little more trouble than most handling once they have resolved. It also targets creatures which is a card type that Mono-B generally has very little trouble dealing with, thankyouverymuch! So what does that change? His ability can target two very common card types in EDH and is self sustaining. He can start the ball rolling in-colour and, as such, is potentially very effective as a mono-coloured general. If an opponent doesn't have the means to automatically re-shuffle his/her graveyard into their library, you've got the upperhand in the resources game because you're depriving him/her of potential cards in hand and thus solutions to deal with your Geth.

There is a small downside to giving your opponent an increased number of cards in his/her graveyard, that's a resource he/she can mine too, however I think that here the advantages outweigh the disadvantages given that it's now your resource pool too and you have a means to play repeated, targetted Beacon of Unrests at instant speed while your opponent has to use a new card each time to benefit in the same way. You're using your opponent's resources to win the resource war and, in doing so, fuel the pool.

I mentioned the Eldrazi Legends above and I'd like to come back to them. Unlike Darksteel Collossus, who has a replacement ability and never goes to the graveyard, Geth can yoink an Eldrazi Legend out of your graveyard in response to the ability going on the stack. In fact, should this ever happen, if you listen carefully, you will actually hear a tiny >YOINK!< noise as Geth's ability resolves. The grumbling noise you will hear just afterwards is your opponent grinding his teeth.

So, am I sold on Geth now? I'm not sure. Yes, it's a lot better than I had originally thought and he can head up a very focused type of Mono-B EDH deck. I still think 5B is a hefty price to pay for your general, though it's true that we see Invasion and Planar Chaos Dragons quite frequently so a cmc of 6 is not strictly "too much". I think I'll have to see Geth in action to fully appreciate his power.

Edit: Ok, I'm halfway through our first Draft and I got passed a foil Geth as a second pick/first pack. The player to my right preferred the 7/7 green dude who blows up blockers. I take it all back.

Geth is insane.


A Kitty with a Rack - Kemba, Kha Regent

Finally we have a mono-W general, Kemba. In the original Mirrodin we had another mono-W Cat legend, Raksha the Golden Cub, but a 3/4 for 5WW was always going to be a hard sell unless his ability was really stunning. Giving your creatures Double Strike if he's equipped is neat but it's not setting the world alight, especially at that CMC. Kemba is from line of younger sleeker Cat Legends. She gives up a point of power to Raksha for a 4 mana cost reduction. Nice trade up! At 1WW she's playable and she's still got junk in the trunk at 2/4.

What about the ability trade-off? I'm sure everyone would just love a straight discounted Raksha but you can't have everything. Instead of granting your cats Double Strike, Kemba gives you free 2/2 cats for each equipment attached to her. One equip: one 2/2. 5 Equips: five 2/2s. Realistically you're not going to get a huge number of equipments onto her any any one time, but there are quite a few juicy ones that would make it worthwhile. Konda's Banner springs to mind. Kemba herself doesn't gain anything but she'll be whelping 4/4s, not 2/2s, if she's holding the Banner.

One of the most impresive things about Kemba is that, not only is she an equipment based general, she solves your ususal problems of balancing the volume of equipment in your deck with the number of creatures you actually have to equip. Now you don't really need to worry about going overboard on the equipment side of things, either you put it all on Kemba herself or on one of the many cats she's pumping out each turn. Did I mention that they are free, these 2/2s? That's probably important.

Given that the ever increasing instances of equipment support are turning up in mono-white of late, Kemba is going to have all the back-up she needs to find and equip the bling that builds her army. Cats are not the most explosive tribe ever but Kemba is a step in the right direction for a solid Cat deck. Hum, Is this the right place to question whether R&D are aware that they are treading a very fine line with Kemba? Give lady bling: lady gives you babies. There's a message here somewhere. Who designed the card exactly?

As her flavour text proclaims: "I am not Raksha. I never will be." Damn right, you're playable!

That's all for now folks. Here's a quick recap:

Top of the class: Skithiryx. New archetype, new playable Mono-B general. Beastly beast. A+

Close Second: Ezuri. Right up there for the go-to elf general. Will being Mono-G hurt his chances as he goes toe-to-toe with G/W Rhys?

Moving up through the pack: Geth. I'm bowing to crowd pressure here. He's not as explosive as Skithiryx or Ezuri given the built in damage work-around of the Dragon or the tribal support of the Elves.
Thunder Cat: Kemba. Nice cost, nice ability, right colour for all the support you will need, nice rack, questionable sexual politics in the design process. Not a "Must Play" legend, but a good, fun legend.