[m10] Rules Changes and more

From the perspective of a more casual player who has to have a somewhat working knowlege of the rules, and somewhat the intent behind the rules, (being an organizer) I find the changes good. My scatter-brainedness will still screw me up 50% of the time, but that's another story.

The "play" versus "put in play" and play area thing annoyed me even after I understood the difference. The graveyard and library was beginning to look more and more like part of the play area, when cards like Path to Exile & Oblivion Ring made it pretty clear that "Out of Play" was not your graveyard. Very unintuitive. Trying to keep it clear with even more casual players was, I think more of an act of asking them to have faith in what they were being told, rather than understand it. Not so good in a competitive environment like Magic. Better they can actually understand the difference and can turn it against you. Adding the term "Battlefield" to clarify the in-play area, "exile" to clarify a card's not exactly being sent back to your collection/binder/sideboard and re-introducing "Cast" to indicate actually playing a spell versus sneaking it in some other way, is a very good couple of clarifications. I still get a bit iffy when you bring in stuff like "Suspend." But that is really more from lack of familiarity to more obscure abilities & effects.

The battle damage resolving immediately rather than on the stack of the assign damage step, for me personally, is just going back to the way I remember, and no longer feeling like I'm getting away with something every time I sac. a Mogg Fanatic after he's been assigned letha damage. More objectively I worry because it adds one more "timing" speed to the game, as if we were bringing back interrupts. And I really liked how The Stack resolved alot of that under the same umbrella. I worry there will be issues & confusion around damage dealing and timing.

At first I was thinking "regeneration" and unsummon really got the shaft. But upon further reading, because the damager assigns the order of damage to the damagees creatures during the declare defenders phase, there appears to be still time to respond sinsibly in regards to regeneration or a quick unsummon. You don't have to try and predict which monsters are about to take lethal damage and regenerate as something of a threat. You'll see which creature's going to be gorked first and can then choose to activate regenerate after order's been asigned, which will hopefully save it during the assign damage phase.

Then I got sleepy and all those examples and the deathtouch/lifelink stuff made me fall asleep! 

Newest round of rumors for m10 are quite exciting.  The return of the rack and lightning bolt!

Lightning bolt is a classic and almost universally better than any other burn currently in print.  Between lightning bolt and the return of Ball Lightning we will see some excellent red decks.  Red / Green aggro is going to be exceptionally good between the m10 release and the Zendikar release (Bloodbraid Elf, Ram Gang, Lightning bolt, and Ball Lightning?  The list just about writes itself.)

I purchased the new xbox live magic game and had a brief moment of shock when the computer playing a black deck put down a Rack.  A rack with new artwork (well, new to me).  Everything else in the game up to that point had been painfully type 2 oriented.  The only thing I could think was that the Rack had to be in m10.  I checked the forums and sure enough somebody had tracked down the artist and was able to confirm that the Rack would indeed be making an appearance in m10.

I don't think that the Rack will have as much impact on constructed play as lightning bolt, but I remember enjoying playing with both of those cards back in the day.  Perhaps we'll see a return of mono black hand destruction featuring Nyxathid and the rack.  Duress, another card that will be making an appearance in m10, would fit right in.

Both of these cards raise the question of what other old favorites might be reprinted.  I'd love to see a return of counter spell (if lightning bolt is ok, then clearly counter spell is ok), Black Vise (how can you have the rack without the Vise?).

Due to a bug in gatherer there was an explosion of spoilers today for m10.  Every reprint in the set has been spoiled, and in addition the usual slew of new cards were spoiled today.

There is a ton of info and more than half of the set has been spoiled at this point.  So check it out and get a feel for what the future of magic has to offer.

The m10 spoiler is getting very close to complete.  There are a few interesting cards in the set besides the obvious reprints.  Because I can, I'll give my picks.

First up is the Baneslayer Angel.  3WW for a 5/5 flying, first strike, lifelink, and protection from demons and dragons.  If this spoiler is accurate it will be one of the most mana efficient creatures ever printed.  The Angel might still not see serious play since it is vulnerable to every form of creature removal.  Broodmate dragon might see a lot more play (because it is naturally resistent to spot removal), but the Baneslayer will eat them for breakfast in a 1 on one fight.  While I think that the Baneslayer will see play it is good to keep in mind that just because something is really efficient doesn't mean that it will see play.  Wooly Thoctar and Jenara are very efficient (in my opinion), but see very little competitive play.

Captain of the Watch is a strange animal.  Imagine you took a wizened Cenn and a Cloud Goat Ranger and smashed them together, that would be the Captain of the Watch.  At 4WW you get a 3/3 that comes with three 1/1 soldiers.  But he buffs all other soldiers by +1/+1 and gives them vigillence.  In terms of pure power and toughtness to mana cost he is an excellent deal just slightly beating out the broodmate dragon.  The downside is that one removal spell and you are left with three very anemic looking 1/1 soldiers.  With the current popularity of Token decks he might see some play, but unlike the Baneslayer and Cloud Goat Ranger doesn't come with any built in evasion.  I think the card has some potential to see play in Soldier decks.

Honor of the Pure.  Depending on your point of view this card is a huge upgrade or a huge downgrade.  If you are a fan of Crusade, this is a strictly better card.  The casting cost is easier to deal with and the effect isn't symmetrical.  Decks like Kithkin or soldier based decks will want to run this card.  If you are a fan of Glorious Anthem this card isn't quite as spiffy.  It doesn't buff your non white creatures.  BW Tokens will be hurt by the loss of Glorious Anthem (but not as much as the loss of Caves of Koilos).  The days of buffed Bitterblossom Tokens are over, all hail our new Kithkin soldier overlords!

Elite Vanguard.  What is so cool about a vanilla 2/1 for W?  Players from way back might remember Savannah Lions; a Rare.  I have a feeling Elite Vanguard will see play with all of these new Soldier buffs that are coming out.  These guys plus the Veteran Swordsmith and Armorer, along with honor of the pure and some white spot removal sounds like a great start to a white sligh deck.

Harms Way.  W lets you prevent 2 damage and deal 2 damage to a creature or player.  Goof balls on the internet are comparing the power level of this spell to shock and occasionally lightning bolt.  This card WILL see play and might be m10's Path to Exile.  We might even see this card escape standard and see play in older formats.  I might even go so far as saying that this is damage prevention done right.

Planar Cleansing.  3WWW destroys all non-land permanents.  This is our Wrath of God replacement, it will not see nearly as much play as Wrath did, but as one of the few board clearers it will see some play.  The fact that it hits planeswalkers will either be a boon or a hinderence.  Most of the time if I want to sweep creatures I'll probably have a Planeswalker of my own, which means I tend to think of it as a hinderance.  Six casting cost sweepers *are* competitive, perhaps more so now that there are no other options.

For blue, very few cards jump out at me as great and/or potentially format defining.  My personal opinion is that blue got the shaft in m10 specifically so that it could get amazing things in Zendikar.  WotC has been trying to kill faeries for a while now and m10 gives them nothing new (doesn't really take anything away either).

Polymorph is a high quality reprint that will see play.  From my perspective it is a very versitile card, if a bit risky.  For 3U you can destroy a creature, and mill the owners library until a creature is revealed.  That creature is put into play.  You can use it to get a 4th turn progenitus / darksteel out with a few Token generators.  You can use it to hopefully downgrade an opponents beastie and get a bit of a mill effect.  I suppose if you are feeling lucky or if you have some recurrsion (as weak as it is right now), you could try it on your own creatures.  It isn't the best blue card ever, but i think it ranks highly in m10.  If you do try the polymorph Progen deck, don't bother with Darksteels, Progen is just better (unless the game has gone on super long and you happen to draw and play 11 lands).

Tome scour.  Half a glimpse of the unthinkable for half of the casting cost.  I have a feeling that this card will see play with Haunting Echos, which I will talk about a bit more later on.  The mill effect isn't as fun as Mind Funeral, or as efficient as Sanity Grinding.  Just so we are clear, this isn't a great card, but I like it.

There are a few big blue creatures that will excite a few people.  The Sphinx is hillarious and weird.  The Djinn of wishes might see some casual play with ponder backup.

Black seems a lot like blue to me, they have plenty of staples but not many cards jump out as amazing.  My picks are as follows.

Haunting Echos is a reprint, but holy jebus it is a juicy reprint if you like mill decks.  Lets imagine that we are playing our blue/black mill deck possibily with a healthy dose of discard and counters.  You mind funeral and end up with a perfectly average mill of 10-11 cards (4 of which are lands).  Then you follow it up with a Haunting Echos, which removes all copies of non-basic land cards in your opponents graveyard in their graveyard from the game.  In an extremely causual game it will probably net you *at least* another 10-20 cards, in a competitive game it will probably net you another 20-30 cards since basic lands are so rare and playing with singletons is quite rare.  By turn 5 (the earliest you could cast Haunting Echos without accel), they would have drawn 12-13 cards from their 60 card deck, which means they wouldn't have many cards left in their deck.  Add in Durress (to fish out counters, put things in the gaveyard, etc), instants/sorceries that the player actively plays, and maybe the random removed creature (perhaps with doomblade? or old school Royal Assassin?) and you might have completely cored their deck.  I don't think this will be super competitive, but man it would be fun!  Any sort of mana accel, highly efficient counter, good black sweeper, or propaganda lookalike in Zendikar could make Haunting Echos into a highly competitive deck.

Duress.  B gives you most of the benefit of thought sieze for 25 cents.  I expect that it will basically replace thoughtsieze after block rotation.  Until then it is an excellent alternative to thoughtsieze for the budget conscious, or for players who need a freak ton of highly effective discard.

Doomblade is a strictly better replacement for terror and darkbanishing.  Instant speed removal with only the restriction that the target can't be black.  This basically hits every competitive creature besides Doran, Tidehollow Sculler, and Demigod of Revenge.  I currently play terror in my tournament deck, so I can't imagine that I wouldn't play with Doomblade.

Red gets a ton of great cards but my main picks are:

Ball Lightning.  RRR gets a 6/1 trample with lots of classic flavor.  The amazing part is how well it works with Bloodbraid elf / cascade.  If your opponent doesn't have a first striker on the table they are going to be in for a lot of damage.  This card was great when it was printed previously and is one of the few cards in m10 that has a logical place to put it (mono red sligh, and Bloodbraid elf decks).

Borgardan Hellkite.  This reprint used to terrorize standard.  Without a combo to use it with, it lacks a bit of punch.  In limited it will destroy people.  It might show up briefly in warpworld decks.  It might also show up as a finisher if mono red starts to take off again.  I don't expect it to see much play until rotation happens.  This is still an efficient creature with a set of cool abilities.  Seriously, if you pull this guy in limited, just play him.

Siege Gang Commander.  Many people didn't think that Siege Gang would get reprinted after the new rules were released.  Others think that the Siege Gang Commander will not be played with the new rules.  All of that is crazy talk.  Even under the new combat damage rules Siege Gang Commander represents massive card advantage.  If Siege Gang Commander loses any popularity it is be because Revillark leaves standard, not because of the new m10 combat rules.

Green has some nice cards to look out for as well.

Acidic slime is one of my favorite cards in m10.  While it is a little slow for land destruction at 3GG, it is excellent removal and will almost certainly be able to 2 for 1 if it resolves.  I think it is slightly more playable than creeping mold, but anemic compared to maelstrom pulse.  With a little mana accel like birds, noble, llanowar, or Garruk the casting cost doesn't look that bad.

Birds of Paradise.  I think these guys still deserve a mention.  They are staples and well worth picking up.  If you don't already have birds and even occasionally use green I suggest getting some.  Compared to Noble Hierarch they are a steal.

Great Sable Stag is an excellent color hoser and doesn't punish you much (if at all) for running it main deck.  1GG gets you a 3/3 uncounterable with protection from blue and black.  The 3/3 body puts it out of range for the most common sweepers.  Protection means that you can force damage through on faerie players and it can't be bounced.  Lack of flying limits it as a hoser for Faeries, but it is still a good start.  They basically have nothing they can do about it besides splash a third color (Path to Exile, Lightning Bolt, etc).  Faeries will probably still out race you, and your other spells will probably be countered, but this guy might make them think a little.

Protean Hydra is just fun.  It will probably not find play in competitive decks, but it is certainly going to be a huge lightning rod for removal spells it has a curious relationship with sweepers like pyroclasm.  Lack of an evasion ability or way to avoid destroy effects basically means that it will not see much competitive play, but it will likely see some casual play.  Probably the most playable Hydra printed.  It even puts the newest batch of Hydra to shame because it does have *some* removal protection.

I'm not that impressed by the selection of artifacts.  Darksteel might see some play, but I don't see why it would with Progenitus as the go to super disgusting virtually impossible to cast or eliminate creature.  Pithing Needle has become a staple of sideboards, it is an amazingly versitile card and hoses many powerful cards (Planeswalkers, combo pieces, etc).  Plat Angel is a fan favorite, but doesn't really do much for me.

The dual lands don't impress me a whole lot, but everybody playing standard will need them at some point.  I would have been much happier if these were uncommon, but WotC needs to make money somehow.  People will buy m10 just for the new come into play tapped dual lands, not to mention all the goodies I talked about above and the reprinted Planeswalkers.  These lands will be used in standard, but I don't think they wil really take hold as must haves until after Lorwyn rotates (assuming Zendikar doesn't have amazing land).

Over all from what I've seen I think they have produced a pretty good set.  I'll miss a few of my favorite cards from Tenth edition (Painlands, Treetop village, Wrath of God, etc).  However, those cards were never a reason for me buy any Tenth, since they were all reprints.  I also think it is a little strange to push out a mono colored oriented core set right after a heavily multicolored oriented block.  I don't think we will feel the full effects of M10 until Zendikar rotates in.  Currently competitive decks are heavily Lorwyn/Shadowmoor based with a splash of Shards cards (with one big exception: Cascade decks).  When Lorwyn rotates people are really going to have to take careful stock of m10.

Quick random update.  I highly recommend that everybody playing in the prerelease check out the spoiler available at mtgsalvation (http://mtgsalvation.com/magic-2010-m10-core-set-spoiler.html).  It isn't quite as important as it would be with a draft, but it is good to have an idea of what you might have to deal with.  At this point I'm pretty confident in saying that the spoiler looks 100% accurate and all of the cards that I thought were potential fakes have been confirmed true by WotC (mostly I thought that they might have screwed up the casting cost on the Baneslayer Angel, at 3WW Baneslayer beats the crap out of Serra Angel). 

I think that in limited white is going to be a strong choice.  If you pull a few random soldiers and a captain of the watch or Baneslayer angel you are probably looking at a *very* strong pool of cards.  Additionally white continues its trend of having great spot removal.  Keep in mind that the new lifelink spell is NOT a functional reprint of Spirit Link, if you cast it on your opponents creature they gain the benefit.  If you are playing white I recommend including any copies of Harms way or safe Passage that you get.

Red has the possibility of being excellent there are lots of great commons and uncommons, and bombs include the Hellkite and Shivan dragon.  Lightning bolt and cheap common first strikers, and the possibility of a siege gang commander are all good reasons to play red.

Blue is a little underwhelming, but I think it has potential in limited.  There are a ton of cheap flyers and if you manage to pull it the Sphinx can be a an absolute terror in limited.  I would suggest playing with some of the 'risky' blue cards, like the illusionary creatures and ice cage.  They are more fragile than a normal creature or removal spell, but there are only like 3 or 4 effects that wouldn't kill them normally.

Green should be fine.  I think it is better as a secondary color, but it has some big creatures and excellent mana acceleration.  This core set features more green mana accel than previous sets, this makes it a good splash color if you have high casting cost cards from other colors.

Black looks a little anemic, but some of the removal spells are solid.  The smaller black creatures are quite efficient (but perhaps not as efficient as white / red).  If you get a few doomblades, I could see splashing black.  I really like the life link vampire, the new nantuko husk (despite the new rules, he is still good), and black knight.  The Cemetary reaper is a surprisingly good card in limited, effectively making 3/3s he could easily win games backed up by a few more zombies and some removal.

If you pull a Planeswalker, I recommend trying to play it.  More so than any other format limited tends towards stalemates.  Planeswalkers, removal, and burn spells tend to break stalemates.  The nice thing about Planeswalkers is that so long as you have a few creatures out on the board it will cause your opponent to think.  Nobody likes their opponent to have a planesalker out on the board for long.

Try to put as much removal in your deck as possible.  There is probably no such thing as too much removal in a limited deck.  Burn is good because it can finish a game, or it can double as removal.  A good rule of thumb is to try and start your 'mana curve' around 3, this means 3 casting cost creatures and up.  There are exceptions, efficient cheap creatures (like Elvish Visionary, life link vampire, Elite Vanguard), or flying creatures are great at lower casting costs.  You don't want too many huge creatures either, but having some in your deck is probably for the best.  If you can manage it a 1 or 2 color deck will probably be ideal.  Since the format is sealed, it might be difficult, but that should be the goal (it should be pretty easy when drafting).  Try to play with the minimum sized deck, you only have so many 'good cards' and you want to draw them.  With few exceptions you'll want 23 nonland cards and 17 land in your deck. 

That is as much wisdom as I've been able to pick up about sealed.  I'm horrible at sealed and drafting so don't expect too much from my advice.

Precon contents have been leaked.

Blue :
Snapping Drake x2
Zephyr Sprite
Sage Owl x2
Coral Merfolk
Horned Turtle
Air Elemental
Phantom Warrior
Wall of Frost
Clone
Djinn of Wishes
Essence Scatter
Divination x2
Doom Blade
Negate
Mind Rot
Cancel
Mind Control
Rise from the Grave
Sleep
Telepathy
Island x12
Swamp x5
Terramorphic Expanse x1

Red :
Fiery Hellhound
Lightning Elemental x2
Raging Goblin
Canyon Minotaur
Goblin Piker
Prodigal Pyromancer
Goblin Artillery
Berserkers of Blood Ridge
Wall of Fire
Dragon Whelp
Shivan Dragon
Divination
Lightning Bolt x2
Seismic Strike x2
Lava Axe
Negate
Fireball
Pyroclasm
Sleep
Earthquake
Island x5
Mountain x 12
Terramorphic Expanse x1

White :
Palace Guard
Razorfoot Griffin x2
Silvercoat Lion x2
Prodigal Pyromancer
Griffin Sentinel
Serra Angel
Elite Vanguard
Soul Warden
Stormfront Pegasus
Undead Slayer
Lightwielder Paladin
Glorious Charge
Lightning Bolt
Lava Axe
Pacifism x2
Divine Verdict
Armored Ascension
Harm's Way
Righteousness
Honor of the Pure
Plain x12
Mountain x5
Terramorphic Expanse x1

Edit :

Black :

Gravedigger
Zombie Goliath x2
Warpath Ghoul
Looming Shade
Bog Wraith
Enormous Baloth
Howling Banshee
Wall of Bone
Drudge Skeletons
Nightmare
Cemetery Reaper
Giant growth
Doom Blade x2
Assassinate
Naturalize
Mind Rot x2
Tendrils of Corruption
Consume Spirit
Diabolic Tutor
Rise from the Grave
Swamp x12
Forest x5
Terramorphic Expanse x1

The white precon looks like the best deal, but I have a feeling they should all play pretty well against each other.

The prerelease event was a ton of fun.  For those that didn't / couldn't make it I highly recommend attending the release event.  The set is pretty good for limited play.  There are fewer crazy cards and creatures tend to be more managable than in the Shards block limited.  It seems to me at least that there are fewer uncommons that can cause a blow out (such as the behemoth sledge, cascade spells, really cheap non conditional removal, and super common aggresively costed creatures).

Some people, myself included, felt that blue wasn't going to compare well with the other colors.  In both of the events I found myself using blue pretty heavily.  I didn't do so well in the sealed event, but everything sort of came together in the Draft event (even if I didn't feel like my deck was as good in the draft event). 

Both times I ended up with a blue / white flying weenie deck as a result of trying to maximizing the amount of removal that I had (I ended up with tons of ice cages and a fair amount of white removal in both events).  The sealed deck had lots of flyers (including an Air Elemental) and first strikers, with 2 gorgon flails, and only 2 ice cages and 1 devine judgement for removal.  The draft deck was mostly different because it had tons more removal, 3 Ice cages, 3 Devine Judgements, 2 Alluring Sirens (yes I think of these as removal, reusable removal with a little luck), 1 Blinding Mage, Mind Control, 2 Remove Souls, and a Safe Passage.  The entire day Ice Cage only ended up being a sub par card once when my opponent kept playing multiple blinding mages.  Both events I also had a Merfolk Looter, which was constantly an MVP (he helped me out of mana screw situations and got rid of lands when I had hit the magic number of 5).  If you are going blue and see a merfolk looter PUT HIM IN!  Your opponent will probably not 'waste' removal on him and if you turn even one spell into a land or land into a spell when you need it, you'll be happy to have the looter on your side.

I found the Blinding Mage and Alluring Sirens incrediably useful.  The Blinding Mage is good all of the time, it will basically nullify their best creature every round or mess up their timing on tap abilities.  The alluring Siren is way more situational, but excellent for keeping an opponent from building up.  If the quality of creatures is more or less even, or if you have more first strike than your opponent you'll be able to slowly pick apart their power base.  Combined with a Mind Control or a few bigger creatures (Air Elemental, Baneslayer, etc), you can really control the board.  It is also effective at removing a creature the opponent would have rather blocked with. I suggest that you don't underestimate the Blinding Mage and Alluring Siren in limited (and if you decide to draft Alluring Sirens get lots of first strike / Gorgon Flails).  These cards are not 'bombs', they will not win you games on their own but they can pick apart your opponent if your other creatures / spells are decent.

Razorfoot Griffin is a deceptively good card.  It is a 2/2 first strike, flyer for 3W.  That doesn't sound that great (a little too expensive), but it will kill anything that flies short of a Serra Angel, Air Elemental, Djinn, Sphinx, Baneslayer, Dragon, or Demon.  That means that the vast majority of flyers (even uncommon fliers) and many ground creatures will die to it.  If you have two out in play you have a pretty gosh darn good air defense.

Oh yeah, Mind Control is way better than Clone.  While I was pretty happy with clone when I played him, I always wished he was a control magic instead.  I suppose if I had drawn more beefy creatures of my own I would have been excited to play clone, but as it stood I was always far more interested in stealing my opponents creatures.

----------------------------

There are tons of cards I wish I had seen in either of my pools.  Harm's Way is a brutally efficient card and was used in ways against me that I did not expect.  I had already considered all of the ways to get 2 for 1 card advantage with the card, but I kept getting blind sided by the card when there were no blockers to be had (my poor poor almost exclusively 2 toughness flyers).  While the Air Elemental treated me fairly well, I was jelous every time somebody had Serra Angels, Djinn of Wishes, Baneslayer, Sphinx, etc.  Mind Control and Sleep are both amazing in limited, I wish that I had seen a sleep while drafting; it is basically blue's overrun in limited.  The one time Sleep was used against me it didn't win the game, but it sure came darn close.

I thnk that people are really underestimating Palace Guard and Prized Unicorn.  Sure, they are more or less sacrifical creatures, but the Prized Unicorn might as well be a splashable mini overrun, and Palace Guard is basically a creature + selective fog that effects ground troops.  Try putting indestructiblity (a bad card, but interesting) on either of those creatures for hillarity, or righteousness on the Palace Guard.  Entangling vines generally proved to be a better version of pacifism / ice cage.  If you are running Green these should be a relatively high pick.  It might not do much to a Serra Angel or against a defensive player, but it will shut down utility creatures and mess with their offense.  In the case of a player on the defensive, you are probably already winning and can afford to hold on to a piece of removal.  Combine with blinding mage or alluring siren to make it a lot less situational.  Another interesting combination is Prized Unicron / Palace Guard and fight to the death, while not possible in limited it should be a pretty fun trick in casual.

I'd say that out of all of the cards used against me, Pyroclasm, Blinding Mage, Mind Control, and Master of the Wild Hunt gave me the most problems.  With a white / blue deck pyroclasm might as well have been wrath of god.  Blinding mage kept me from swarming and kept what few big creatures I had impotent.  Mind Control can swing games in a huge way by eliminating a key blocker or taking away a huge creature.  Master of the Wild Hunt is an absolute beast, he generates an army, acts as reusable spot removal, and is just big enough to be a credible blocker.  I think he is nearly on par with the Baneslayer Angel, despite the fact that he requires a few turns to power up.  Honorable mentions include Magebane armor (makes weenies into a real problems, and big creatures into huge headaches), and Goblin Artillery (with and without life link <3).