Reality Fracture - First Impressions
While the Hobbit was a letdown as someone who loves the IP, I'm looking forward to getting back into Magic's own IP with Reality Fracture.
I will preface this by saying that while I haven't read all the cards yet, I've read enough to see a massive power-level spike from Hobbit to Fracture, and the set looks quite good so far.
Let's look at some cards that stuck out to me.
For whatever reason, one of the first cards that caught my attention was this little Battlemage.
Pompous Battlemage is like a powered-down version of the blue one-drops that have been making the rounds in Standard the last few years, such as Elusive Otter and Stormchaser's Talent. While it's not on the level of either of those cards, this one-drop is still exciting. In a focused Prowess deck, it is a part of your low-mana curve of Prowess creatures, and it enables a Prowess trigger with a free rummage spell. Multiple copies yield powerful draws. If Stormchaser's Talent was still around, then we'd see many fast starts with both.
Pompous Battlemage alone is not a powerful card, but it's a nice tool for the Prowess toolbox if it gets lower to the ground.
This is a sick card that I can't wait to see played in Izzet shells.
A callback to Sunfall, Overwrite the Multiverse seems too expensive at six mana for Standard. It's still the kind of card you may see as a one-of in the main deck or sideboard of a deck like Dimir Control as a vehicle to various creature-heavy decks.
This is an Empower Jace card, which gives you a Jace token planeswalker that has -1 surveil and - 3 draw a card. It can be attacked like a normal planeswalker, but its existence will lead to a nice mini-game like Battles from MOM. It's a cool mechanic, and I'm excited to see how it plays out. It should lengthen games by giving you a higher life total, as the winning player in a close game will often want to strike down the Jace to keep the opponent from getting back into the game.
Getting back to Overwrite the Multiverse, since the card relates to Sunfall at five mana, this would be worse than Sunfall, which is a win-con by itself. Overwrite will likely at best draw an extra card. It's hard to kill more than three creatures with it and still be alive to cast it. Thus, its ability to empower Jace seems worse than a 4/4 creature or whatever you would end up getting from Sunfall.
Even though this card is fairly powerful, it's too overcosted to make a huge dent in Standard outside of niche one-of play. However, I like that a tool like this exists and will potentially shoehorn Empower into games now and then.
Historically, my favorite Standard formats have been dominated by decks with solid five- or six-mana planeswalkers. Garruk looks exactly like that style of planeswalker. There's been a lot of power creep and Standard has more than doubled in size since then. My expectations are lower, though I love the looks of this card.
Every mode on this card seems great in certain spots. The +2 can pick off one-toughness creatures that would otherwise be in the way of making the -2 sacrifice ability good. On an empty board, we get to attack the opponent's hand.
Garruk seems like it will play best in and against black midrange decks. If those exist, I would expect to see Garruk make its way into at least the sideboards of these decks because it has so much value built into it. It can even exile creatures like Bloodghast that would make it a far less effective tool.
This card has made the rounds on the internet, which is how it caught my eye and how I first learned the previews were out. Hexhaven Instigator looks innocuous, but it has the potential for a turn three or four kill in Modern, which is why I bring it up.
If you can Farseek into this with all Stomping Ground-like lands and Mine Collapse on the same turn, you can put Valakut into play, ping it again, get more lands, and win with all the triggers.
Does this seem like a good deck? Well, no, not in a format with Solitude, but the redundancy with Scapeshift means that it could work. Outside of these kinds of interactions, this card looks bad. I doubt it will see any play unless used for a combo like Valakut.
It's nice to see a green Phyrexial Obliterator, but both it and the combo will likely be too weak.
I know this is part of the set's lore, but it's still cool to see a timeshifted Dark Confidant. Enlightened Confidant might play better than it appears.
If you can clear the path and connect with Enlightened Confidant in a low-curve deck, you're essentially drawing a card every time you connect, or a high percentage of the time, because white aggressive decks often don't load up on three-drops or anything more expensive. You can always gain life outside of combat and draw extra cards that way. Regardless, this two-drop can snowball, meaning it demands answers early.
For this card to be good, we need to solve for how it gains life outside of combat. That's not to say we need to build a Soul Sisters-style, life-gain deck. However, if we can complement it with cards that gain a little life in addition to having other more meaningful effects, then this card should slot in nicely.
There's a good chance we'd see this in a normal Standard format. When Standard is fresher after rotation, this may see play after a massive metagame adjustment.
It's a solid card, nothing is broken, and it could see play in some Constructed decks.
Maybe I'm crazy, but even with only two toughness, this card looks phenomenal. Sphinx of False Conclusions is versatile, lets you play Magic at instant speed with counter magic up, and protects itself. Often, the issue with some of these flash creatures at higher mana costs is you tap out to cast them. Then, they cast removal like Go for the Throat while you're tapped out in the end step. Sphinx, however, will respawn in that step, attack, and add a loot to smooth your draw.
Sphinx can also ambush an opponent's attacker, trade, and leave you with a sizable threat on the battlefield.
If this card sees play, I expect to see more cards like Torch the Tower in the format and fewer copies of Burst Lightning.
I'd love to build a nice blue tempo deck after rotation that features this Sphinx at the top of the curve.
Reality Fracture looks like an incredible set so far. I like the idea behind Empower Jace, and prepare is an awesome mechanic. I'm excited to see how the Limited format reshuffles. From my first examination, it seems like it will also heavily impact Standard for a nice shake-up.
There are a lot of cards to examine and discuss, so I'm sure I'll be doing this for a few weeks. Stay tuned.
Comments