Dark Ascension Spoilers: First Look

[SL33TBL1ND]

Archdemon of Greed and Thraben Doomsayer is going to be amazing. Can't wait for that. And I love Gravecrawler, the new Mikaeus and the Havengul Lich. I can't see Zombie Apocalypse being all that useful though. Yes, it's a nice splashy effect, but the second part is more or less completely useless outside of Standard. I guess we'll see how things go.

Moonveil Dragon, on the other hand, is ridiculous. Since it's giving the buff to everyone, not the ability, making an RG deck with him and Primal Rage is going to be insane.

 

[Frylock72]

I'm actually interested in a Green/Blue graveyard deck. A self-mill deck to get creatures into the grave, so you can play ridiculously high P/T Boneyard Wurms and Splinterfrights. Of course, being able to drop early Ghoultrees is also nice. Here's a decklist to show what I'm talking about.

[Creatures] 25
4x Birds of Paradise
3x Phantasmal Bear
4x Boneyard Wurm
2x Viridian Emissary
4x Merfolk Looter
3x Phantasmal Image
3x Splinterfright
2x Ghoultree

[Planeswalker] 2
2x Garruk Relentless

[Spells] 11
3x Dream Twist
3x Thought Scour
3x Ponder
2x Mulch

[Lands] 22
8x Island
10x Forest
4x Hinterland Harbor

Even though this is Blue, I'm not worried about control. The point is to mill as quickly as possible so you can start summoning huge creatures. It's very much aggro, meant to be played with reckless abandon for your own library.

 

[jp201]

They are really pushing black/white token decks especially with sorin, lord of innistrad and the new sorcery midnight haunting with cheap flashback. Except for the fact that the mana base seems to suck compared to ally colors, it seems like it will be good.

I really like the 6 drops there putting in this set but until the titans rotate out in next block(which MaRo has almost confirmed by saying m12 titans were a mistake) then yeah you have to make the comparison and say there not as good as titans. Big creatures that you invest a lot of mana into need to make some kind of impact when they hit the board like ETB triggers or huge card advantage quick like consecrated sphinx who dodges dismember (I know it is not popular to say it dies to dismember herp derp but it still is relevant and dismissing that fact is nothing more then false hope in a cards power level).


Moonveil dragon is my favorite card with potential with scars and m12 rotation in standard as it can end the game if you untap with him.

 

[jp201]

My fear for Dark Ascension is that there will be too many rares and mythics and not enough commons to allow a descent amount of variance between each booster. That's what happened to Mirrodin Besieged and New Phyrexia. I can't tell you how many Blightwidows I got just pulling boosters.
I also feel some of the rarities are a bit switched up, Zombie Apocalypse being the main one.

It does have only 158 cards in the set with no basic lands which is true for mid block sets like worldwake and besieged.

Its good that Avacyn restored will be similar to rise of the eldrazi in that it is a stand alone set which will have as many cards as innistrad and scars had.

 

[mrverbal]

Also, as a side note: You cannot have an infinite loop with a sharuum. What you have is an arbitarily large loop; you have to choose how many times you wish to do it. Now, given your opponent is dying anyway it's unlikely to matter, but it's worth noting. (Because Sharuum is a 'may' it isn't a mandatory loop)

That's fair enough, thanks! I do maintain, however, that "arbitrarily-large-amount-of-damage loop" lacks the luster of "infinite damage loop." All the same, your point is well taken.

As to new spoilers, I noticed they've put out Uncommon lords for Werewolves and Vampires, but nothing for Zombies, Humans, or Spirits. That makes me sad. I really want an Uncommon, 3 mana, non-legendary Mikaeus, the Unhallowed [http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=127310&d=1326690067] that gives my zombie hordes Undying.

undying for Zombies would be sick. And, hey, you've still got 2/3rds of a set to hope with

And on the infinite thing: Yea, it sounds better. I just think when answering a rules question you should note that actually infinite loops and practically infinite loops work somewhat differently

 

[sanzo]

Also Question regarding protection effects.

Does Protection offer Protection from global effects. Like, I've always considered pestalence a global effect, but your article today suggests that protection from black would stop that. Does that mean that if I have a protection from black that it would stop Damnation? or Protection from white stop a wrath of god?

The reason the White Knight would ignore the pestilence is because it is damage coming from a black source; global or not, things that are pro a color have damage that color would do reduced to zero (It's why, say, a pyroclasm wouldn't kill a Kor firewalker)

As a sweep spell (Wrath, damnation) isn't doing damage, there's really no way to protect against those besides being indestructable

Just for future reference, the four rules of protection are:

Cannot be targeted by
Cannot be enchanted by
Cannot be damaged by
Cannot be blocked by

At least I'm pretty sure; anyone can feel free to correct me

 

[Lockling]

I'm most excited about Havengul Lich, hell make my Heartless Summoning deck into a combo deck.
I just have to find a way to splice red for Priest of Urabrasks...

 

[reiyo_oki]

Honestly the card that worries me most won't affect Type 2 (Standard) nearly as heavily as it will affect Legacy/Vintage players: Grafdiggers Cage

With this thing being released, a very good portion of popular Legacy/Vintage decks will be easily shut down, simply because they rely so heavily on playing creatures from places other than their hands. Oath of Druids, Reanimate, Tooth and Nail, Goblin Welder, Ichorid, and any number of other amazing cards will be utterly worthless once this thing hits the field, which is potentially possible turn 1 (And let's face it, if you know you're playing against one of these guys, you'll mulligan until you have a Cage in your hand.)

"But wait! There are so many ways to destroy artifacts in Legacy/Vintage!" Yes, there are. That doesn't mean you'll necessarily have them early enough to save your life. Chances are if you get shut down with one of these on turn 1-2 you're going to die simply due to how fast the format plays out. You could conceivably counter the cage with a few of the above mentioned decks (Reanimate/Oath tend to use blue for free countering) but not all of them.

 

[Souplex]

No equipment love? This makes Soup sad...

Does Protection offer Protection from global effects. Like, I've always considered pestalence a global effect, but your article today suggests that protection from black would stop that. Does that mean that if I have a protection from black that it would stop Damnation? or Protection from white stop a wrath of god?

Protection means it cannot be blocked, damaged, or targeted by. Wrath of God does none of those.

 

[Frylock72]

Honestly the card that worries me most won't affect Type 2 (Standard) nearly as heavily as it will affect Legacy/Vintage players: Grafdiggers Cage

With this thing being released, a very good portion of popular Legacy/Vintage decks will be easily shut down, simply because they rely so heavily on playing creatures from places other than their hands. Oath of Druids, Reanimate, Tooth and Nail, Goblin Welder, Ichorid, and any number of other amazing cards will be utterly worthless once this thing hits the field, which is potentially possible turn 1 (And let's face it, if you know you're playing against one of these guys, you'll mulligan until you have a Cage in your hand.)

"But wait! There are so many ways to destroy artifacts in Legacy/Vintage!" Yes, there are. That doesn't mean you'll necessarily have them early enough to save your life. Chances are if you get shut down with one of these on turn 1-2 you're going to die simply due to how fast the format plays out. You could conceivably counter the cage with a few of the above mentioned decks (Reanimate/Oath tend to use blue for free countering) but not all of them.

If you're going to claim that sometimes your opponent will draw a card that can stop your deck, then you have to also allow that he won't draw it at all, or that he'll draw it and you'll have your way to get rid of it. You're assuming worst-case scenario, and because of the randomness of drawing from a library, you can't always do that. Sure, Grafdigger's Cage sucks for recursion and fetching decks, but that doesn't mean it's going to single-handedly shut them down. It's a sideboard card that you put in during game two. You should be putting in an equal amount of artifact destruction/prevention. After that, it's up to your draws.

 

[theultimateend]

Wouldn't mind seeing a Urza or Mishra planeswalker...you know for old times sake. XD *HINT HINT WOTC*

Wasn't Urza's spark put in Karn? I think he's like ultra dead.

Also he's the most powerful of all planeswalkers I would think.

He made something and that something he made made a planet. That's baller.

 

[Souplex]

Wouldn't mind seeing a Urza or Mishra planeswalker...you know for old times sake. XD *HINT HINT WOTC*

Wasn't Urza's spark put in Karn? I think he's like ultra dead.

Also he's the most powerful of all planeswalkers I would think.

He made something and that something he made made a planet. That's baller.

I think Bolas is supposed to be more powerful.

 

[theultimateend]

Wouldn't mind seeing a Urza or Mishra planeswalker...you know for old times sake. XD *HINT HINT WOTC*

Wasn't Urza's spark put in Karn? I think he's like ultra dead.

Also he's the most powerful of all planeswalkers I would think.

He made something and that something he made made a planet. That's baller.

I think Bolas is supposed to be more powerful.

Hard to tell, Bolas hasn't been making any planets last I knew and he nearly got blitzed by an avatar of himself.

I think he's mostly lucky that Urza was dead before he really started cropping up as a planeswalker (instead of a book reading vampire dragon).

 

[Roamin11]

I went to pre-release today, pulled the mythic Werewolf card, but had no other transforming cards other than Tharben sentry/militia, so I ended up playing a blue/white control esque deck, which went 2/3 being my first Magic Event, I'm not entirely impressed, but at the same time glad I went.