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I've said before that I was looking forward to the Final Fantasy set. The set looked fantastic for Limited, and admittedly, the flavor appeals to me as someone who spent countless hours playing Final Fantasy XI. This format has been tricky. I've generally been more focused on exploring what's going on inside the format rather than maximizing my win rate, but I still find the games and the drafts challenging. While my goal isn't to win the most games during the format's first week, I also don't want to just lose games in the pursuit of knowledge. At the time of writing, I've played over 350 games of the format with a win percentage of approximately 64%. I'm far from completing a full exploration of the format. I've tried everything I can within reason of how I've opened and what I'm being passed. I'm often pushing to extremes, but needless to say, I have a reasonable grasp of the format. In fact, I have almost 40 deck images saved on my computer in the format's first week. That's close to the most reps I've had of any format this early. You might say I'm enjoying it. I'll share first with you what hasn't worked. The archetype that stands out to me as a clear loser is Rakdos. Rakdos has consistently underperformed and is by far the biggest loser of decks I find myself in often. My win rate with Rakdos at 44% is the only negative win rate over archetypes I've drafted more than once. What is making me lose with Rakdos? Well, Rakdos has this fundamental issue where it looks cool when you end up with several wizards in play and chain some cantrips to deal a bunch of damage in a turn. The issue is that your wizard tokens don't block effectively, and cards like Cornered by Black Mages are a lot worse when the opponent curves out well. If your opponent can put an extra token in play or play a one-drop, then the card becomes awkward the entire game. Your wizard tokens don't attack or block well, and individually do little damage. Best-of-one is not a suitable place for this because people rarely miss plays. The hand smoother insists that people spend all their mana each turn. That's not to say Cornered by Black Mages is a bad card, but it is a bit higher variance than I'd like when it's the core identity of your deck. Rakdos also has this issue with flooding out. Because of how the black mage tokens work, it's necessary to cast spells and get a critical mass of triggers. Even when things are going well, you're usually playing this nickel-and-dime game of making small, positive exchanges and dealing incremental bits of damage over time. You can play a card like Black Mage's Rod on turn two, but you're often reluctant to trade because you'll lose your triggers, and it's too expensive to equip later to continue to accrue triggers. This leads Rakdos to play a slightly slower game, which makes you more vulnerable to explosive draw steps from the opponent. The format is high-powered, so you don't want to approach it in a small-ball manner. Rakdos Equipment is one of the format's most punishing mechanics. This format's equipment is mostly attached to creatures, and after those trade in combat, you're left with a game piece to spend excess mana on. Rakdos, however, can't utilize this as well because the creatures are generally too small to win a combat even when equipped, or the creatures are off-plan and don't trigger the wizard theme. If you spend your mana equipping or casting creatures, then your wizards aren't triggering, leaving you behind in the life race, and generally still with smaller creatures than your opponent. Rakdos is plagued by consistency issues, creature sizing, and overall seems to be playing behind on almost every turn. There's limited card draw to pull ahead and keep the spells flowing when you are ahead. If your clock is slow, you're often hoping your opponent gets unlucky in their draw step because you're not likely winning by enough to fade a strong draw. As of right now, I've all but sworn off Rakdos. I'm training myself to ignore Garland, Knight of Cornelia when I see it in packs after taking a couple of red or black cards because I know it's going to end up going poorly. As for my favorite or best performing archetype of the format, it may be surprising to some, but it's been Golgari-based decks. The talk of the Starting Town is definitely Izzet, but Golgari has been my comfort zone. Golgari is one of the most consistent archetypes in the format, if not the most consistent. As a premium common for the archetype, Town Greeter lets you get deep into your deck, find your mana, and black cards, such as Fight On! and Evil Reawakened, allow you access to your graveyard. Additionally, both of Golgari's uncommon signpost gold cards range from good to excellent. Cloud of Darkness is one of the better gold uncommons, and one of the set's best uncommons at its ceiling. You want to get through your deck, find your best cards, and constantly play large creatures while accumulating value. Free flashback stuff is nice, and as much as I want Final Days to be broken, it's not, but it is solid in these decks. Golgari Self-Mill Golgari's most important attribute is its flexibility. You can be a typical Golgari self-mill deck, which is how the archetype was designed, but Golgari's card pool lends itself to splashing quite easily. Mana fixing is readily available in green, which lets us take powerful cards and throw them in our decks. Jund Midrange Here's a picture of a Jund deck I drafted and trophied with, but it's more of a straight Jund value deck. Regardless, it's using the core of green fixing and green-based gold cards to play good cards every turn and avoid playing filler. I've also had Golgari aggro decks that push tempo and leverage a fast start using removal and combat tricks to push damage and close games early. Fast Car Golgari Golgari can brick off the opponent's offense and play enough removal to keep the battlefield empty, but also close the door when needed, unlike Rakdos, where you lose access to giant green creatures. This Golgari aggro deck looked like a complete car wreck, but it played out quite well. If I recall correctly, I lost playing for the trophy in the last match, but I expected not to win any games, and the deck played out better than I anticipated. One thing I have noticed is that while my win rate isn't as high with Izzet as it is with Golgari, that is likely a metagame issue. Izzet is widely considered the strongest or one of the strongest archetypes, which means you will have lower-quality Izzet decks when you're contested for the cards. As of right now, Golgari is underdrafted, and I'm still seeing Cloud of Darkness deep into pack one, which is no longer the case for cards like Shantotto. As long as I find holes in the armor, I'll keep drafting what's coming and learning how to draft each archetype to the best of its capabilities. This format has been fast and punishing, where I feel like every few games, I lose to a card I've never seen before on the bonus sheet. That's it for me this week, but I will continue my exploration of this format through the Pro Tour this weekend and compete in the Arena Direct. I'm looking forward to enjoying a weekend of playing and watching Magic and further exploring the Limited metagame.

While I eagerly awaited the early release of Final Fantasy Limited and was slated for early access on MTGO, the set was abruptly canceled. I was left waiting a few more days, but at least so far, it has been worth the wait. Final Fantasy is a unique set. There are lots of overlapping synergies and decisions in the gameplay and, most importantly, the drafting portion. While I only have at most ten drafts under my belt (as of writing), it's going to be a challenging format to master, and I'm all about this prospect. Usually, after this many drafts, I have a strong opinion on where I want to be in a draft, but I find there's a solid balance with Final Fantasy. You want to let your rares and powerful uncommons steer you, much like you would in a set like March of the Machines. The format is high-powered, and you want to be working towards something. Mana curve and affecting the board are extremely important. The creatures hit hard, but are also easy to trade off with or brick off in combat. Between job select and chocobo tokens, creatures usually end up with higher power than toughness. Additionally, this means you don't want to miss land drops or keep loose hands that are missing mana colors, so you don't end up with bad turns that are too slow. It feels bad to trade with job select tokens, but bear in mind that the equip costs tend to be taxing. While the equipment will be left in play after a trade, it will usually be a while before the equipment affects the game in a meaningful way. To that note, keep in mind what your deck is trying to accomplish. There are so many synergies in this format, and my decks have usually been very focused. It is almost the opposite of Tarkir: Dragonstorm, which was mostly just good-card soup and removal. You want to get the additional value of having your cards work together. Try to stay focused with your strategy, but don't be afraid to branch out when circumstances dictate. Sometimes you'll have a Gruul-all-Chocobo deck, but you might also end up with a Gruul deck that's more focused on self-mill and putting Diamond Weapons into play for cheap. This is not atypical in Limited, but archetypes are more fluid than usual in this set. Because of the complexity of the cards in this format, I'm still piecing it all together. Rather than give hard instructions on what to do, let's take a look at some of my decks and talk about what I have learned. Final Fantasy Draft 1 This was my first draft of the format. I started with a pick-one-pack-one Ardyn and wanted to sculpt my deck so I wasn't only exchanging resources. I wanted my cards to provide additional value so I could continue to make land drops and find Ardyn to close the game quickly. Ideally, I'd have Town Greeters and additional ways to bring back Adryn from the graveyard. Since my deck lacked the self-mill I'd normally want, I filled it with cards that helped me put permanents in graveyards and allowed the Clouds of Darkness, my deck's backbone, to carry me into the end game. People are currently undervaluing Summon: Anima, as it's similar to a slightly more expensive, larger Mulldrifter. If they kill it, they're still down a card in the exchange. If they don't, it continues to provide raw cards. The major thing I learned from this draft was that eight mana isn't too much as long as you can build your deck to survive the mid-game through explosive starts. My deck was capable, and I cruised to seven wins, mostly on Adryn's back. Final Fantasy Deck 2 I keep getting pushed into green at the start, usually for gold cards. However, this deck was interesting. I overloaded my deck with creatures and Ride the Shoopufs. Looking back at my build, I wish I had made a couple of small changes, specifically playing my second Shinra Reinforcements and probably the copy of Resentful Revelation. The reason I didn't start them was that I didn't understand how good The Final Days would play out in this deck. My deck would almost always come out fast, hitting hard, and then get stopped in its tracks. Then I was either grinding out the opponent with large creatures, such as Balalmb T-Rexaur or the transformed Ride the Shoopufs, or in most cases, closing the game with The Final Days for four to eight tokens. As a lover of Spider Spawning, the Final Days is an awesome example of that effect type. It's not great defensively when cast, so don't be fully on the back foot when you get to your endpoint. By having an aggressive pivot on my build and deck, I could leverage the Final Days to the fullest. I will definitely be looking to draft around it again and hopefully push it even further. This deck surprised me with a 7-1 trophy. I thought it had holes, but it played out much better than anticipated. FInal Fantasy Gruul Chocos I decided to embrace my inner chicken with this deck and go full press on the birds. My deck was full of two-drops and only played downhill. I had to make sure I was on the front foot, which meant mulling aggressively to ensure I had a solid two-drop to leverage. If you fall behind, Chocobos are much worse at blocking than attacking.  Terra was obscene in my deck and carried me when I drew the card. Otherwise, the deck was mediocre. I often missed plays, flooded out, and wasn't able to recover when anything went wrong. The deck went 5 and 3, but I’m not swearing off the archetype yet. It makes me realize how important it is to get your archetype's signpost gold uncommons. I saw zero in this draft. I realized I like Self-Destruct more than I anticipated because of its synergy with the sagas. The sagas are balanced in how they provide enough value to fade away and not leave you too far behind, but they also give you a free target for your self-destruct. This is a solid deck, but it’s not my favorite archetype so far because of how one-dimensional this deck ended up. Mono Red Equipment The last deck I'll discuss is this surprising masterpiece: Mono Red Equipment. This is something that seems to happen now and again, and it's a nod to the format's depth. Occasionally, you don't need a second color. This deck had a great curve, removal for virtually anything I encountered, and it closed out well. Thunder Magic is on my shortlist for best common because of its combination of early efficiency and late-game utility. Gilgamesh was hit or miss, but several times it put multiple equipment in play when it entered and completely swung the game. I attacked with it once, and the game ended on the spot. Firion looked mopey, but the one time I curved it into a Warrior's Sword, I realized it's a strong rare worth spending early picks on. The deck's only, if any, issue was its inability to draw more gas. Summon: Brynhildrs helped, but it wasn't particularly strong, just a bit of cardboard to cast that often played out like an elvish visionary that would fade away and die in a couple of turns. Because of the inability to give job select tokens haste, it didn't fit into the deck and is not a card I'd take highly in any circumstance. This deck cruised to a 7-1 trophy, and most of my games weren't close. Either my opponent couldn't keep up, or one of my equipment-focused rares took over the game. I've drafted a few more decks, and next week, when I flesh them out, I plan to focus more on specific archetypes. For the first week, I'm focusing on trying as many cards as I can and finding the Limited shells where they fit best. This set is incredibly unique in that there are many cards that are great in the right archetype but fall short elsewhere. Knowing these differences is a pivotal part of staying ahead in this Limited environment. Until then, I'll keep jamming games. I highly recommend this set for Limited so far. The bonus sheet is the best thing to happen to Limited in a long time, and Final Fantasy's sheet makes the drafts extra enjoyable.

We're not quite done yet with preview season, but the highly anticipated Final Fantasy Universes Beyond set is right around the corner. After seeing almost all the spoilers, there's a lot of skepticism about the power level of the set, which is concerning for a massive release. With pack prices at a premium, it will be disappointing if a lot of these cards aren't Standard staples. Let's look at a couple of the more interesting cards left in the set. Terra, Magical Adept Terra, Magical Adept is interesting if you can find a shell where you have enough sagas and other enchantments. I suspect decks that meet those qualifications are few and far between, but evaluating this as a 4/2 for three that draws a card would put it in the category of playable. While it doesn't quite do that, there are potentially some use cases for Terra. If you're able to flip it, you can likely win the game if it's unchecked. Terra provides a lot of self-mill, so it could enable Delirium or even various threshold cards we've seen recently. I'm not too high on Terra. It will take the stars aligning for it to be a solid role player, but the potential is there, so it's worth keeping an eye on. Memories Returning Memories Returning is an extremely interesting draw spell. It plays a lot like the beloved Fact or Fiction, in which your opponent gets a choice in what you get. Memory Deluge would be the most recent closest comparison, but instant speed carries more value than an extra card. For that reason, I'm lower on Memories Returning than a card like Memory Deluge. In 2025, raw card advantage drawn to hand isn't as valuable as the optionality you get from holding up mana on the opponent's turn. Also, nine mana to flash back is far too much to be reliable, but it's a nice bonus for control mirrors that can go for a while. This card may have its use cases, such as a better Harmonize. I'm not too keen on Memories Returning and will look elsewhere for control deck draw spells. I could see decks sneaking a single copy of this somewhere in the 75 because it can provide so many raw cards, which is sometimes all you want in specific matchups. It's potentially playable but definitely not a competitive staple. The Masamune I'm only showing The Masamune because it was a highly anticipated card, as Sephiroth is one of the most beloved characters from the IP, and people really wanted to see what they'd do with his Masamune. Well, this is one of the biggest letdowns of the set. The Masamune is functionally unplayable since it's extremely expensive to cast and equip, and it requires on-death effects from other cards to be relevant. The card may play out well in Limited because it can be cast for five mana, force a favorable block, and continue to provide value. Outside of that, this card is laughably unplayable across the board. I would have liked to see WotC be more aggressive with The Masamune, as equipment as a card type is largely outdated unless there's already a creature attached. The Gold Saucer The Gold Saucer is one of the most beloved locations from the Final Fantasy series. My favorite part of Final Fantasy VII was going to the Gold Saucer and playing the snowboarding game. I played it for literally years here and there, more than the game itself probably. For MTG's sake, The Gold Saucer is not a bad card. It's a value land that would look better if Fountain Port didn't exist. While The Gold Saucer is cheaper to activate, it likely won't see any play while Fountain Port exists. It is an interesting card that has some upside, but it likely won't see play outside of niche circumstances. I enjoy the gambling aspect of the card since The Gold Saucer is essentially a casino, but I wish they had pushed it further and made it a rare with real Standard implications. I would not be surprised to see The Gold Saucer show up as a one-of in some spots, but that's extremely unlikely, especially as long as Fountain Port is legal. Wandering Minstrel Wandering Minstrel is potentially the best card in the set. The issue is that it's a one-trick pony and a bullet creature for Modern Amulet Titan as an effective redundant amulet effect that you can find with Summoner's Pact. Most of the text on the card is largely irrelevant, but your lands coming in untapped is a big game, and it falls into the right color pair for the deck. I don't foresee this card being played or built around as a town card, but it will be a happy accident in Limited. Wandering Minstrel adds yet another form of redundancy to one of Modern's most powerful and complicated decks. Maybe, just maybe, Wandering Minstrel will be the straw that breaks the camel's back, and we finally get a key piece of Amulet Titan banned in Modern. I largely doubt it, but it is a nice add for the deck. It shouldn't break it and will just make its slower kills more consistent. Wandering Minstrel, Spelunking, and Scapeshift are all legal in formats like Pioneer, so maybe there's something there as well, perhaps some kind of Lotus Field deck. We'll have to see the best ways to utilize Wandering Minstrel. It's all but guaranteed to see play in Amulet. It's safe to say that Wandering Minstrel will be one of the most played cards from the set for years to come. Balamb Garden, SeeD Academy Balamb Garden is an interesting spin on a creature land. It's expensive to flip, but that could be mitigated by playing a few extra towns. In true creature land fashion, it enters tapped. When flipped, Balamb no longer produces mana and instead provides a large flying win condition that draws extra cards. I'd say The Gold Saucer would play nicely with Balamb, but Fountain Port is likely still better because it can provide tokens to crew Balamb to close out the game rather than just make it cheaper to transform. It's worth noting that it won't have summoning sickness once transformed, so you can flip and attack immediately, which is big for a card like this that really can swing a game if it connects clean just once. Balamb will likely see play in some numbers, but lands that come into play tapped have become more punishing as threats get more powerful, so you need to pick your spots. There's not much to see with Balamb. It is incredibly powerful when transformed and is likely worth playing in decks that can afford to play tapped lands and crew it reliably. Ignis Scientia Ignis Scientia finding Balamb may end up being a common sequence. Ignis being able to find and crew Balamb is a great upside added to a Simic deck that wants to play these cards. Ignis Scientia is unironically one of the better cards in the set. It digs deep enough that you'll basically never miss putting a land into play with it, and it provides you with a piece of ramp that puts a body into play. While its activated ability is irrelevant, it does provide some utility. One of the biggest problems with a three-mana ramp is how far it puts you behind, but like Wood Elves, Ignis adds a much more relevant body to the battlefield. Ignis Scientia is not broken, but it's a solid addition to any deck that wants to hit five mana regularly. I would have loved to play this in a deck like Slogurk during the last iteration of Standard. Ignis is a solid card that is playable mostly in decks that want to cast cards that cost five mana or more. I'm excited to see how much of this card we see because it looks excellent. I could also see it not lining up well in the format with how fast it's shaping up to be. The set's flavor and design are true to Final Fantasy, and the essence of the Final Fantasy universe is captured. However, I'm perplexed that the set feels weak on the surface despite everything it has going on. Granted, we need to play with some of the cards to understand how well they'll function, and it's possible cards like the saga creatures end up being better than they look. Regardless, I'm excited to start playing with these cards and can't wait to draft the set. It looks super fun for Limited at the very least.

This week we're going to dive right into more previews from Final Fantasy, likely the most anticipated set ever. Here are some more interesting cards to take a look at. Astrologian's Planisphere Astrologian's Planisphere is an equipment I've seen compared to Cori-Steel Cutter. This is not a great comparison, as Cori-Steel Cutter has the strength of continuously producing tokens, even on both turns of the game. That doesn't make Astrologian's Planisphere a bad card, and it may play well in the same decks in Standard. Both cards want a lot of cantrips and cheap spells that, in order to fully get rid of, require your opponent use multiple game pieces. Two-mana cards often don't do this in Standard, so I can see Astrologian's Planisphere being played specifically in Izzet in addition to Cutter. If you got confused like I did reading the card, " Diana " is just flavor text, it has an equip cost of two. This is a solid card that will need to be tested in Izzet, especially given that the two-drop slot beyond Cori-Steel Cutter is in flux between Slickshot and Drake Hatcher. Ultima Ultima looks bland at face value, like it's just another five-mana Wrath, but it likely will be an omnipresent part of Standard, especially as long as Cori-Steel Cutter is around. Ultima destroys creatures and artifacts, so it will clean up almost all threats that are currently played in Standard. The interesting part of this card is the "end the turn" line. It initially looks like a downside and likely is in a format like Limited- you can't cast your sweeper and follow up with a threat immediately. However, Ultima allows you to safely play a Wrath into a flash creature. A common play pattern is holding up your Faerie Mastermind to cast after a sweeper, but when this resolves, it will immediately end the turn. This will also eat any end-of-turn effects you or your opponent may have. Your opponent's end-step trigger effects will also be skipped. Ultima will undoubtedly see play and push decks like Izzet to respect it with counter magic or at least not dumping their hand into it as they would with a Temporary Lockdown. You can always bounce a Lockdown and swing for lethal later, but it's all gone with Ultima. Summon: Knights of Round This is another extremely powerful creature-saga. Knights of Round was one of the more powerful abilities in FF7, and the same is true in MTG's Final Fantasy universe. Eight mana for a a 3/3 that brings three more tokens immediately and another three subsequently for the next three turns. On top of that, it gives you an overrun effect to follow up if you weren't able to kill the opponent. A massive key to this card having any playability is the indestructible keyword. If for 8 mana you put a couple of tokens into play and then it gets taken out with enchantment removal, then it wouldn't be nearly as powerful. Because it's indestructible, it immediately puts the pressure on your opponent to find a way to beat you or ultimately die at the hands of the knights put into play. Eight mana is too much by today's standards for anything. However, this is a creature, and we know there are plenty of ways to cheat creatures into play. I don't foresee Knights of the Round as a card that will have a massive impact in Standard, but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm wrong because it's going to inevitably win the game on its own. We won't be seeing players play four copies of the card with intentions of casting it fairly, but I could see a copy slipping into controlling decks for certain matchups as a way to close the door on the opponent, but it's unlikely. I suspect where we'll see this the most is in the MTGO Vintage Cube as a target to Reanimate. This is a cool card that we won't see many copies of, but I personally want to own one because of the iconic lore. Buster Sword Buster Sword is reminiscent of the swords we all know and love from prior sets. That said, those Swords, even by today's standards, were a lot more playable. Once equipped, their protections made it difficult to interact with the creature. However, in most cases, Buster Sword only plays well into no interaction and a completely clean attack. Additionally, you need more juice in your hand to get the big impact of spending your 5 mana, doing 5 or 6 damage, and getting another 5- or 6-mana card into play. Buster Sword doesn't look particularly good in a vacuum in Limited, so I have low expectations for the most iconic weapon from Final Fantasy in MTG. While I'm glad they didn't push Buster Sword hard like they did The One Ring for Lord of the Rings, it would have been nice to see it pack a little more punch. Unfortunately, I don't see Buster Sword being played in any format outside of people just liking the card and shoehorning it into Commander decks for fun. Summon: Bahamut Bahamut is one of the most iconic characters from Final Fantasy. It's almost always an epic event when Bahamut is involved, and this card is fairly epic. While it's different than Knights of the Round, I ultimately see it being used in the same way. It's a big dragon that can be cheated into play and will win you the game in many cases. Bahamut seems worse for that than Knights of the Round because it's missing the indestructible keyword. You can spend a lot of time and effort trying to put Bahamut into play, have it eat a Doom Blade, and it wasn't any better than an Angel of Despair. Bahamut has the added upside of being a colorless dragon, making it easier to get into play, potentially with Tron lands, but this is a worse payoff for that than a card like Ulamog or even Ugin. While I love the card's cool abilities and how flavorful it is, it probably won't be played much. It's too expensive for competitive formats and will likely live in Commander decks for eternity. Yuna, Hope of Spira Even though Knights of the Round and Bahamut are too expensive to see play. Yuna can put them directly into play. While I'm evaluating the other cards in a vacuum, there's potentially some kind of shell where we can play those sagas with Yuna and various self-mill for a midrange plan that has this combo upside. The problem is Standard is too fast and punishing for any cute stuff. It would have all worked a decade ago, and been quite good, but the game is now too fast with Izzet and Mono Red still being two of the best decks in the format. Yuna is strong, and that it gets ward right off the bat means you're very likely to get a reanimation trigger if it resolves. In a world with Ghostly Vacuum in most sideboards, I'm skeptical this will be a workable plan, but I've seen stranger things. I'm curious to see if anyone can make this kind of archetype work. Likely, reanimator is too easy to hate out. I'd expect a deck like that, if functional, would only get a week or two of freedom before it's completely hated out. Yuna is a cool card with a high ceiling, but I think the days of five-mana reanimation spells are well behind us. Yuna does benefit a good deal from Cavern of Souls being in the format, so maybe I'll be proven wrong. The set looks incredibly well-designed from a flavor perspective so far. I'm excited to see how new players respond to Magic, as we're surely going to have an influx of new players with this highly anticipated crossover. I'll be looking over more previews next week, and much like you, I'm thrilled to see more reveals between now and then.

Final Fantasy is one of my all-time favorite game series. Like most 90s gamer kids, I fell in love with FFVII. While I only played a few others after, I played the FF MMO, FFXI for years and picked it back up for a while during the pandemic. For a bit, I also dabbled in FFXIV, the popular MMO, but it left me wanting to play more FFXI. All that said, weirdly, this new MTG Final Fantasy set doesn't get me hyped for the set, but it gives me the itch to look back at some of my favorite old video games. It's no secret I'm not a massive fan of these crossovers, and this one is aimed at me. While it doesn't hook me in like I thought it would, there are a lot of cards worth looking at once I can separate myself from Final Fantasy's lure. First, I'll take a look at my nostalgic card from the set, Absolute Virtue. Absolute Virtue Absolute Virtue is tailor-made for Commander. Sadly, it doesn't appear to have any applications in competitive Constructed formats, however, there's a cool story behind the character in FFXI. This boss was released when I first started playing FFXI. It was the most challenging boss in this, and potentially any, game. Absolute Virtue could heal itself to full after countless hours of fighting, making it frustrating and nearly impossible. Eventually, it was taken down. In the current game, it is much easier, as the level cap has been raised and, much like in Magic, power creep has ramped up over the past 20 years. While the character and origin are cool in terms of FFXI, I plan to get a copy of this card just to look at and admire it, as it will have no practical use in Constructed environments. Vivi Ornitier Now, for the exact opposite. Weirdly, I don't know much about this character even though I've seen it a million times as the stereotypical image of a Black Mage in Final Fantasy. That said, the character is not what interests me here. Vivi Ornitier is on the shortlist for best card in the set and would be my pick currently. On its face, it looks like you'll cast it for three mana, have it trade down on mana against a Go for the Throat, and you'll get nothing out of the exchange. When you account for the times this doesn't happen against a deck like Izzet Prowess, you will win when you use it to untap. You can chain spells, grow Vivi larger and larger, get more mana to grow it even more, and then close the game on the spot. This card goes into that same category as Sheoldred, in that you need to kill it immediately or the game is likely over. This also costs a full mana less, making it a narrower window. Vivi gets the advantage of turning effects that pump it, such as Monstrous Rage, into Dark Ritual effects. Think about its potential applications in formats like Modern or Pioneer, where various Moxes and zero-mana spells are legal. You can play Vivi and immediately Mutagenic Growth it, which becomes a Black Lotus. Two Mutagenic Growths? Now we have six free mana. Between Mox Amber, Mox Opal, Mishra's Bauble, and everything else, Vivi is a cracked Magic card and likely the best card we'll see in the set. I don't think the hype is exaggerated on this one. If anything, it's underrated. I can't wait to play this card, and soon enough, we'll be counting the days we don't have to play with this card anymore because it's potentially that strong. Tifa Lockhart I know more about this character as a FFVII enjoyer, but let's look at the card's substance. While Tifa is certainly no Vivi, they both benefit from pumping their power, and Tifa can kill the opponent with a fetch land and any number of pump spells, such as Become Immense or Might of Old Krosa. It's almost as if she has infect since she'd slot into an infect deck but without the keyword. Tifa isn't groundbreaking or broken like Vivi, but there is a chance Tifa could see some play in a zoo-like deck that can use her to one-shot the opponent out of nowhere. At only two mana, Tifa has some potential, even if she does look tame for modern-day MTG standards. Tifa is playable, albeit deck-specific and not a card you'd want to build around, but it provides more redundancy as a two-mana threat that threatens to kill opponents who don't interact in her first attack. Starting Town Starting Town is a perfect example of gameplay tripping over the feet of flavor. Because it's a "starting town," it only comes in untapped during the early turns of the game, rather than as an early land of the game. This doesn't even make that much more sense to me, and it doesn't win me over as to why it needed to be designed this way. This flavor win is a gameplay fail because it makes little sense as to why this wouldn't be consistent with the original Kaladesh fast land cycle, like Blooming Marsh. Regardless, Starting Town is going to be a great land in Standard and Pioneer and will facilitate three-color decks in Standard for years to come. While many people may have never played with Mana Confluence or City of Brass, Starting Town tapping for colorless goes a long way. You can play four copies without having to be incredibly linear or aggressive. However, it will still work best in those strategies, as it mitigates both downsides of the card if you can end the game early. While Starting Town isn't one of the better lands we've seen in Standard, it's one of the most flexible, so I wouldn't be surprised to see if this ends up being one of the most played cards, if not the most played, in Standard. It will be played in many multicolor decks and two-color decks as an additional pain land if necessary. Starting Town is solid and definitely a future role player in Standard mana bases. Summon: Primal Odin Primal Odin is our first look at a Saga Creature, and while I didn't appreciate the flavor of Starting Town, Odin's flavor and design are on point. I like the idea of Saga Creatures, as they have interesting gameplay where you don't want to get them into combat in many cases before you can capitalize on all saga chapters. This makes for interesting in-game decision trees, which I appreciate. I must give credit where it's due, and Odin feels a lot like it does in the video games. Zantetsuken is known for one-shotting players in any version of Final Fantasy I've ever played and has required clever gameplay dodge. While you don't need clever gameplay to prevent being one-shot by Odin, on its face, it's at least a Noxious Gearhulk, a six-mana Nekrataal effect that can kill the opponent in one hit or draw extra cards if it's unable to connect. Odin isn't a staple, or even all that playable, but it has a minor amount of potential because of the whole package. I wouldn't be surprised to see a copy in various midrange mirrors if creatures are dominant, but I doubt we will because six-mana spells these days have to do a lot up front, and Odin does just enough to potentially see play in swingy, creature-heavy matchups. I love the flavor of Odin, but outside of Commander, I don't think we'll be seeing it in competitive Constructed formats. Ishgard, the Holy See Ishgard, the Holy See introduces a new card type, adventure lands. Much like a Bonecrusher Giant, we can play this as a land, or we can get maximum value by playing it as a spell and then playing it from the adventure zone as a land. In general, I hate lands that are free spells because they end up almost always being too powerful or warping deck building in various ways. For instance, Spikefield Hazard is one of my least favorite cards because it had the Goblin Chainwhirler effect where one-toughness creatures were kind of banned while it was Standard-legal because the card was in all red decks. It felt bad to rely on a one-toughness creature when the opponent didn't have to even make deck space to interact. These lands look too weak. Faith and Grief is a reasonable spell to get for free, but most of the time we won't want that effect, and we're certainly not building around it, so it's more of a way to add some value to our land. Unfortunately, this land comes in tapped all the time, which takes it out of the equation as a playable card. There may be some spots for it, but it won't be ubiquitous in all white decks because the cost is too punishing. One way they could have pushed this cycle was to have them come into play tapped from either the adventure zone or your hand, but not both. From the three lands of this cycle I've seen, I'm low on these adventure lands, and unless the spell portion is highly desirable on any others we see, I don't think they'll see much, if any, play. From what I've seen of this set, I'm enjoying the walk down memory lane. Ultimately, the set doesn't look overpowered, and it looks in line with most Standard sets, with the exception of a few outliers, which is normal. That makes me happy for a Universes Beyond set since I was worried they'd go out of their way to push cards like in Lord of the Rings. I'm excited to see the rest of the set. It has some interesting mechanics that will make gameplay interesting. Final Fantasy is the most hyped set we've ever seen in Magic, and I hope that brings a lot of new players to the game. Hopefully, those players are as intrigued by the game as we are and stick around for a while. I'll be back next time to look at more Final Fantasy previews, as there is a lot to go over in this set and a lot more to be revealed. See you then.

It's no secret at this point that Izzet Prowess is likely the best deck in Standard. The printing of Cori-Steel Cutter spawned this outrageously strong deck that feels a lot like a strong Pioneer deck or an old-school Modern deck. I usually don't play much Standard, but the deck looked fun, and with the RC around the corner, I wanted to get some reps in just in case. Seriously, I feel like I'm playing Phoenix in Standard. Izzet Prowess plays some of the most powerful cards in Standard like Cori-Steel Cutter and Stock Up, but it's low-to-the-ground aggressive, and the two cards I just named aren't even the cards that put the deck over the top. The strongest card in the deck, the glue that puts the deck on another level, is Stormchaser's Talent. We've seen this card in other decks with This Town Ain't Big Enough. People should be running exactly one copy of This Town Ain't Big Enough in Prowess. Not more, not less, exactly one copy. This Town allows you to set up a loop with Stormchaser's Talent to give you an endgame when things start to fall apart. It's easy to find the one copy in long games because of the cantrips and Stock Up. You can see a large percentage of your deck just chaining Stock Ups and filling in the gaps with Opts and Sleight of Hands. The deck applies a ton of pressure early. A copy of This Town later in the game lets you control the battlefield while also not running out of gas because of how well it synergizes with Stormchaser's Talent. Like any aggressive deck, the strength of the deck is in the early turns. Decks that are able to interact with your cheap plays can bury you. Stormchaser's Talent ensures you never run out of gas and have a way to close the game if your opponent thwarts your early aggression. If the opponent is messing around and advancing their own plan, say a deck like UW Omniscience, you can easily punish the time they take to set up and interact with their combo in a variety of ways. Decks that have a fair amount of dead draws and spend a lot of mana not affecting the battlefield will fall too far behind. Here's the list I'd register right now for the RC, but I'd likely tune a card or two by the tournament, specifically in the sideboard. Izzet Prowess has a fast goldfish, but it gets to do something most Standard decks don't, which is cover all its bases with its sideboard thanks to all of the cantrips and Stock Up. Rather than play multiple copies of the most important cards, you're able to trim numbers and play one- and two-ofs because of how easily you'll have access to them with the card selection. We do this with other decks when they're stretched thin in the sideboard, or in many cases, we make concessions to our sideboard mapping and play a card that's more flexible rather than higher impact. Izzet Prowess gets to have its cake and eat it too. You're able to find one or two of anything frequently. Into the Flood Maw covers any problematic permanent you need to interact with in game one. You can put whatever you need to attack the metagame in your sideboard, whether it's a few counterspells, graveyard hate, or creature removal. I feel this deck would be weak against an optimally built black midrange deck with a lot of Sheoldred at the top end. The package of Duress, Cut Down, Go for the Throat, and Sheoldred can pressure you to find an answer to Sheoldred quickly. Stormchaser's Talent offers a way to rebuy the first copy you find, so play an extra Witchstalker Frenzy if that concerns you. Orzhov Pixie has shown it can hang in this matchup, but I think Izzet Prowess is just the better deck. I like the first copy of Negate in the SB, a card I rarely see. If you're playing close games with slower decks, it's not rare to use it to leverage your position and then use Stormchaser's Talent to rebuy it to close the game out. Get Out was a card suggested to me. I like the idea of it because Temporary Lockdown is the scariest card, but the mana is wonky, so I'm concerned about adding a card that costs two blue mana. Negate can be awkward at times because the deck spends mana well. It can feel clunky, but if you pilot the deck enough, you'll know the spots you have the luxury of leaving mana for Negate. You'll have Negate in your hand other times but not bother leaving the mana open to cast it because your opponent won't be able to do anything threatening. I often used it as a hard counter on my turn to protect a creature and push through a lethal attack. Negate is flexible enough to warrant a sideboard slot, while giving you a hard counter against slower, grindier decks where casting it at the right time ends the game. It's an excellent card to see in a Stock Up pile when you're ahead. I tried Drake Hatcher, and while the card can be cute in mirrors since it's not easily removed, it's too bad in other matchups and not good enough in mirrors to warrant a slot. You want your creatures to have haste in the mid game, with the only exception being Stormchaser tokens. I'm least excited about Obliterating Bolt in my sideboard. I could easily see changing it to another Witchstalker Frenzy if we see more Sheoldred's running around because it answers Preacher of Schism. While Witchstalker Frenzy isn't as efficient for that, it's better against that pair of creatures. RC Hartford is over a week away. While I'm not sure I'll play an LCQ or not, I'm likely to show up. If I end up playing and qualifying in an LCQ, I will play Izzet Prowess. Any other choice would be trying to attack the metagame, and Izzet is likely going to be the most popular deck. Because of that, we may see an uptick in decks like Orzhov Pixie. I'm not worried about it being enough of the metagame to change my opinion. It will likely be a close matchup, and Izzet is so much better against the field. It's head and shoulders the strongest available deck at the moment. Playing another deck would be a mistake, especially if you know the deck well and have time to put in reps. While I have to figure out childcare, I plan to at least stop in at RC Hartford, so come say hi. See you then!

This past week, I was on a bit of a "staycation" since my wife had vacation from work. We spent the days going out with our kids and touching grass. Upon getting back into the swing of things, I was excited to see a twist on a format where my feelings were lukewarm. Last week, I wrote about how Dragonstorm Limited had so much potential but, for a couple of small design reasons, was an average Limited experience—at least from my perspective. I gave Aetherdrift a similar final ranking. Despite expecting to hate Aetherdrift, it ended up being average or slightly above average due to some creative and fun design. However, once the Alchemy cards were introduced, the set was incredibly enjoyable for me. It's not an all-timer, but I didn't grow bored with the set. I'm the type of person who loves Alchemy because I like playing with and against powerful cards in Limited, so I'm biased. You can usually beat the best cards printed if you play well and bury your opponent with good play, drafting, and decision-making. Solving those complex games is my favorite part about Limited. Alchemy provides more weapons to overwhelm my opponent while giving them more cards that are so powerful it's hard to find ways to beat them. But what can I say, I love the challenge. In Aetherdrift, you were often able to identify the open lane, but there was still a shortage of powerful cards. You'd often be in the right place at the wrong time. Dragonstorm had the opposite problem. Its main issue, as illustrated last week, was that archetypes lost their identity because the synergies are too soft, and any player can take any card and shoehorn it into their deck due to the amount of mana fixing. There are a lot of powerful cards, but you never saw them after your first couple of picks. Adding more powerful cards to the mix won't solve it and may just exacerbate the issue. I spent some time drafting the set, and while Alchemy didn't solve the issue, it improved the format, though not by a substantial amount. Adding more powerful cards at least led to some interesting decisions. Take a look at my first deck that I managed to trophy with: There's only one Alchemy-specific card in Desert Cenote, a strong land, but all my spells are from the normal set. However, my deck is still incredibly powerful. I had some tough picks between some good Alchemy cards and other broken rares, and I ended up taking the cards from the base set. I floated tons of powerful Alchemy cards, which overall leads to more decks looking like soupy sealed decks. They added some obscenely powerful cards. While that isn't super fun to play against, it's always fun to have a draft here and there where you run over the competition because you ran hot. That's a feeling we all chase playing this game, and I'm fine with that experience existing, even if I'm on the other side. We're not playing chess here. I wish they'd get back to rebalancing some of the cards and adjusting the format. For instance, in a set like this, once they see what's going on, I wish they'd take more chances and use some of these suggestions to spruce up the format: remove the monuments and Evolving Wilds, and add more double pip, powerful, cheap cards to push people in the direction of being more focused on a tribe rather than scooping up every gold card. This set would have been a good one to rebalance, even if WotC didn't devote a ton of resources to the cause. If they gave me an hour or two, I could come up with some ideas that would have made the format play out differently without ruining the experience. Regardless, you apply the same rules that you'd apply to normal Dragonstorm. You need removal, you want to shoot for high-powered cards, and card advantage is still king. Yes, Teval, Arbirter of Virtue is a strong card, and while I drew it almost every game, it rarely did more than a normal uncommon solid five-drop and nearly always died. Maybe I connected with it in combat once, but it's doubtful. You're still taking the bombs and powerful gold cards early and following up with whatever removal or fixing is available. The latter half of the pack is when you fill out the curve with cheap creatures and whatever small stuff you need. There's no strategy shift. While there are some cards that are difficult to beat, the format is still fun and interesting. It just won't last as long because you're often pushed into these multicolor decks since there's a massive power level difference between the worst and 10th-best cards in your deck, unlike a typical draft format where it's a more marginal power level differential. Alchemy does freshen up the format, gives you some more things to think about, and has a few more fun draft-arounds to reinvigorate the experience if you've grown bored of drafting midrange multicolor Dragon decks. You can draft those decks, but at least you have a few new fun toys to play with too. If you grow bored of a Limited format, you can stop playing it, or you can jump back into Alchemy to see if it makes something click for you. It often does for me. Many players these days are old school and don't like "fake" cards, but the cards are interesting and exciting in many cases. You'll see the most powerful cards you could imagine and some of the best-designed cards. For instance, Desert Cenote is so well-designed that I can't help but appreciate the card. Skip the set if you hated Dragonstorm Limited, especially if you thought it was too bomb heavy. If you thought it was fun and just got bored with it, you should try Dragonstorm Alchemy and see if it freshens it up for you. I'll continue to play this format for the next week or so, but I'm invited to the MTGO creator program, so I may check out some MTGO formats. Whatever I choose to do, I'll see you soon.

I was hyped coming into this set, and for what it's worth, I enjoyed Dragonstorm Limited in the honeymoon phase. There were flashy cards and lots of choices in the drafts and games. My enjoyment started to plateau early, and the fun decreased at an accelerated rate. I thought about why and poked around to see if others enjoyed the format, but other people shared my sentiments. I haven't been losing or anything. My win rate of 72% in best of one is unusually high for the earlier parts of the format. That said, my sample is small, and I'm just pointing out that I'm not being biased because I can't figure out the set. In fact, I feel like I figured the format out in my first few drafts. Dragonstorm Limited feels like an underpowered cube or battlebox. It's a pile of fairly powerful cards and mana fixing. What are the issues with the format? While the set looks and feels cool, the experience doesn't expand beyond the name. Most decks become piles of dragons and 4-5c decks. We aren't spending time analyzing archetypes, as most of the archetypes as designed fall flat. We just want to accumulate good interaction, bombs, and cards that are strong on rate. The best synergies are dragon-themed, and in most cases, you can shoehorn the powerful engine uncommon dragon enchantments into any dragon deck. This brings me to the next problem, and perhaps the catalyst for all of these issues, which is the mana fixing. The mana fixing in this set is too good. Give me less mana fixing. Just looking at commons, we have a cycle of common dual lands, Evolving Wilds, Dragonstorm Globe, Sagu Wildling, and one of the most underappreciated cards in the set, Embermouth Sentinel. If you're desperate, there's also a cycle of Devotees to smooth your mana. To go on a slight tangent about Sentinel, while it doesn't scale into the game well, playing a 2/1 on turn two and setting up mana for the rest of the game is ideal in this set, which has been solid for me in an absence of fixing. Back to that fixing, once we look at uncommon, we get a cycle of tri-lands and the monuments, which are all strong. Playing four colors in this set is a free throw. You can expect to do it in basically every draft unless you draft the only other archetype available in my eyes, which is a base white aggressive deck. This is generally Boros, but you can end up with a BW shell as well. Regardless, it's flavors of Mardu, sometimes splashing the third color and sometimes not. Some people would argue that one problem with the format is the rares. The format has a relatively flat power level throughout uncommons and commons. Some are better than others, but there are smaller margins in how much better one three-drop is than another, for example. At least it feels that way, with rares being the reason why. It's not that the rares are too strong, but it circles back to the fixing - anyone can play any rare they open, much like sealed decks. You're usually not cut off from playing rares you see, as you can always find the fixing later for it. This means you're not able to find yourself in the right seat and get hooked up with solid rares late in packs. You just play what you open. This gives the format more of a sealed deck vibe where you look at the rares and gold uncommons you've accumulated and then your lands. The only difference is that you can draft a mana pool you want rather than hoping it aligns. What could have been done differently? My number one complaint would be the mana fixing issue. The solution is to simply remove some of the fixing. I'd start with Evolving Wilds and the monument cycle. Further steps may be necessary, but by at least making the fixing not "free" and colorless, you can push people into certain archetypes and inspire them to draft a tribe. I'd replace the monument cycle with some gold cards to push people further into the tribes of Tarkir rather than giving them another tool to play everything. Flurry, counters matter, and self-mill are all softer synergies that never pop off. Temur's purpose is, I guess, because big creatures matter. It doesn't feel like it has a core mechanic. While the set mechanics are cool, they don't line up into archetypes well. That would be the next fix. I'd implement mechanics that aren't creature-focused, as they usually fall apart. Creature-focused set mechanics that involve multiple creatures in play or similar often fall apart because good drafters can interact with the right creatures at the right times. It sounds cool to play three creatures, pump them all with +1+1 counters and what not, but the reality is combat happens, your opponents play removal, and then you don't have useful ways to utilize these extra counters. On the other hand, in some cases they can't interact with your creatures and the game quickly ends. Self-mill should have some sweet payoffs, flurry should have more uncommons or rares that push the mechanic, and all of this stuff should replace fixing, so people have to choose which lane to move into when drafting. Additionally, we need to have cool draft-arounds in most sets. Maybe not every set, but decks like Push the Limit, Spider Spawning, and even Zenith Flare were fun ways to draft. Hidden archetypes like this let you draft to feast on opponents in the early days and famine later when the archetype is contested. Those are some of the most enjoyable draft experiences, and there isn't anything like it in Dragonstorm. While it's a delicate thing to balance, it pushes the draft formats over the top for replayability. In fact, I'd put the companions in this camp, as they bring you down this unique path that is fun to draft and play. Focusing less on fixing and more on the actual Limited synergies would give the drafter real, meaningful choices and fix the format to a degree. These set mechanics could work well, but they forgot to put the reasons to focus on those mechanics in the set. A few solid uncommon designs could push this set into great territory, but they're absent. Dragonstorm Limited is an average five out of ten set, and the potential for this set to be something much more than that was squandered. I will still play the set until Final Fantasy hits us, but a set I thought I'd play for hundreds of drafts wore off on me after about ten, and I don't feel the urge I normally do to immediately join the queue when I'm done. That's the end of my rant today. We'll be back next week with some more wholesome Siggy content.

Dragonstorm finally hit the digital shelves, and I've spent some time watching and playing the format. It's a breath of fresh air after an unexciting Aetherdrift Limited format. Aetherdrift was fine but not one we'll remember. So far, I'm quite pleased with Dragonstorm Limited. The gameplay and draft experience are interesting and exciting. There's a lot of room to bounce around, and especially on Arena, it's easy to get into five-color decks. I caution that this may not be replicable in stronger draft pods. It may hurt you to try drafting powerful four-color or more soup decks when events like the Arena Open roll around, as the powerful cards and fixing will be more heavily contested. I'm eager to see how that all plays out. I've noticed that the set is grindy, but you can die quickly if you stumble around too much. Cheap interaction is excellent, and removal is important. Generally, games get bogged down at some point, and it's all about keeping the largest threats in play. Small creatures tend to get picked off. I've played quite a few games where my opponent puts a plethora of 2/2s into play but all that mattered was what was going on in the skies. Between large creatures, lots of reach, and tons of value creatures, the board can quickly stall out. The set, truly, is about the dragons. Top-end is exceptionally easy to get because of the omen mechanic. From common to rare, there are a lot of late-game options, and some players aren't making relevant adjustments in their picks. There's so much good top-end that your normal solid-rate common top-end isn't good enough unless it's coming attached with a cheap cantrip omen. I don't have enough reps yet to be sure, but my suspicion is that the fixing is better than usual, so you should also slightly downgrade lands and such in pick orders. This is especially true in softer draft pods like you'll find in an open setting on Arena. We have the common dual lands, Evolving Wilds, tri-lands, and monuments at uncommon. There's also your typical green fixing, as well as a Manalith with upside. While the format is grindy, you want to play to the board early and often and set yourself up for the grind. In general, I want my two-drops to scale into the game better than usual or, at the very least, solve a problem the deck is facing. For example, if fixing is off, I'm happy to play a copy or two of Embermouth Sentinel. Its ability to ramp in the midgame is relevant, but ideally smoothing your mana and curve on early turns sets you up to play any kind of game. There is no shortage of playables, so jumping around early in the draft is highly recommended. Take the best cards and figure it out later. If you start in Sultai, it's not that hard to pivot into Jeskai after a few picks. I like to start in two colors but specifically enemy colors, so that I get gold cards. You can easily play a base UG deck splashing both Sultai and Temur gold cards. There aren't many actual mana sinks in the format. Instead, they're replaced with value cards and two-for-ones. Because of this, I like blue thus far. Blue has a lot of value cards that keep cards flowing and make it difficult to run out of gas. Spending mana is important. If you take turns off, it will be difficult to come back because there's so much value in the set that it snowballs quickly. Try to make sure you draft a plan for long games. As I said before, the best commons are removal. I think Piercing Exhale is overrated, despite my chat telling me otherwise. There's a lot of recency bias from this effect because of Run Over, which was legitimately great. Piercing Exhale costs more mana, as Run Over often costs only a single mana, and it doesn't kill everything. The format is more about grinding, so I want my removal to always kill the biggest creature or have it castable early, so I don't get run over. Having to play tapped lands, drop a creature, have it stick, and then kill an opposing creature is too much setup. That's not to say I won't play it, but my experience so far has been lukewarm. Here are a couple of decks I've drafted. This looks like a typical early-in-the-format Sultai deck. I recognized the open lane and got paid with a variety of Sultai gold cards. One thing I like about the monuments and Embermouth Sentinel is I can get away with playing 16 lands if I have a couple because both cards don't want you to be flooded. I like my curve nice and lean, but I want enough value to also have inevitability if possible. I won all of my games in the air by stabilizing the ground and going to the skies. I think most blue decks will win this way, while Abzan and Mardu will win by being lower to the ground. The other deck I took a screenshot of is also Sultai. This one is more focused on putting stuff in my graveyard. This deck is exceptionally good. There is a lot of synergy and power, and it's consistent thanks to Gurmag Nightwatch setting up my midgame. Worthy Cost is out of place, but my deck had so much value and a variety of renew creatures that will serve me better in the graveyard in the middle of the game. Having access to an exile effect is relatively decent. I'm enjoying Dragonstorm Limited. This format will likely have a lot of ebb and flow as people adjust pick orders and we stop wheeling great gold uncommons and lands. I will be back with a more informed opinion next time. For anyone going to Denver for the Spotlight event, this is a set you'll enjoy and should work on since there's a lot of value to be gained with reps. The 17lands data will be harder to parse in a set like this. Personally, I can't wait for my matches to end so I can hop back into the queue. The drafts are exciting, and the games are tight.

At this point we have all of the card pool of Tarkir: Dragonstorm. The set is nothing short of a home run in my eyes. Original Khans of Tarkir was a beloved set in the community, and I hope the hype translates to the cards seeing a ton of play. We had a B&R announcement this past week and Standard remains unchanged. Let's hope Tarkir can shake it up enough to keep Domain and the Mice in check. Let's take a look at some more interesting cards from Dragonstorm. Sinkhole Surveyor Sinkhole Surveyor looks solid. While it's not quite a Bitterblossom, as some have liked to call it (because it doesn't create fliers) it does have snowball potential since it could run away with the game on its own. It's a bit durable for a two-drop with three toughness and can get out of Lightning Strike range in a single attack if you choose. I think Sinkhole Surveyor has excellent potential in all kinds of strategies, as it's a good solid card that can work with various synergies but also does tons of work on its own. Sinkhole Surveyor should find a home in Standard, but it may end up playing out well enough to fit into any black midrange deck playing creatures. Voice of Victory Voice of Victory is remarkably similar to Sinkhole Surveyor. It has the same converted mana cost and stats, but Voice of Victory loses flying and gains the ability to shut off opponent casting spells during your turn. This card looks devastating against various control decks. It's a must answer if you're trying to play at instant speed, and it clocks the opponent quickly as it attacks for three damage on its own. It will even scale more with anthem effects as it creates multiple tokens. Voice of Victory is a must play in white aggro decks if they exist in the format. The best and most overlooked part of this card might be the potential surrounding play patterns. Reactive decks will be looking to kill your two-drop. Unfortunately, if you play Voice of Victory on two into removal, your opponent can't cast their removal until their own turn, which eats their mana and removal spell, thus opening the door for your next threat. Voice of Victory could see play across all formats because of its stat line, mana cost, and ability to create tokens. I'm excited to see how this card pans out because it looks extremely strong and like the set's best white card. Songcrafter Mage People are excited to play Songcrafter Mage, a spinoff of Snapcaster Mage. Songcrafter Mage has a couple of advantages over Snapcaster Mage, mainly being that while Snapcaster Mage plays better with cheap spells, you can play with cheap or expensive spells with Songcrafter Mage because of how Harmonize works. As an incredible tempo play, the most obvious spell we may see Songcrafter Mage targeting is This Town Ain't Big Enough. Snapcaster Mage can tap itself to reduce the mana cost of anything it targets by three, but that provides a window of counterplay for the opponent, which may make this card more tricky to play with than it looks on the surface. If I were to cast it targeting an expensive spell, like Sublime Epiphany, to start a chain creating more copies of this, and I have the available three mana I'd need, the opponent can cast removal on the Songcrafter Mage with the ability on the stack, making my targeted Epiphany uncastable and breaking up my entire turn. Songcrafter Mage is a strong card that has the potential to see play in a variety of formats, but it is important to remember how the stack works when casting it and play carefully. There's no doubt Songcrafter Mage sees play if there's a home for it in a Temur deck, but in today's Standard there are no guarantees on any strong cards. In a bloated Standard, there are so many awesome cards that some just won't see play. Those with more restricted costs like Songcrafter Mage need a good home to see play, rather than being a card that needs to be built around. Road of the Endless Song Speaking of Temur Cards, let's talk about the Elephants in the room. Roar of the Endless Song looks gross from the perspective of a Limited player. It is a lot of card for five mana, producing two giant creatures and giving you a chance to deal 20 damage in one attack phase with the two Elephants. While this card looks strong, it will only play well in back and fourth interactive games since it's easy to kill the tokens with various bounce effects, such as This Town Ain't Big Enough. Oddly enough, it also works well with This Town Ain't Big Enough, so I'm interested to see if this could be the top end in a deck with both Songcrafter Mage and This Town Ain't Big Enough. As far as the cycle of Sagas in the set, this looks to have the most potential, as the others are a bit bland. I'm interested to see if Roar has what it takes to break into a fast and powerful Standard format. Kheru Goldkeeper Kheru Goldkeeper is potentially the most breakable card in Dragonstorm. Kheru's stat line and renew ability are not very desirable, but its ability to create untapped treasures whenever any card leaves graveyards during your turn can be explosive and create some potential loops with a variety of cards. Specifically, creatures that enter the battlefield from the graveyard for a single mana, such as Gravecrawler or similar with any kind of sacrifice outlet. Kheru Goldkeeper looks like it could be broken, but I have doubts that it will amount to anything, as it seems like a lot of setup is necessary. The body is vulnerable, and it has an issue against various graveyard hate. All of that rolled into a four-drop might be too much despite how broken it could be. Personally, I think a lot of time will be spent on this card, and it will likely amount to nothing, at least for now. Kheru Goldkeeper likely won't live up to the hype. Perennation There's a cycle of powerful mythic rares across each clan. None of them look bad, but they're all expensive. I could see any of them getting played depending on the contexts of the format. The most raw power amongst these cards is Perennation. Perennation allows you to set up any permanent in play that doesn't permit interaction. Hexproof and indestructible is the hurdle to push through. It's likely better to target a non-creature permanent, as cards like Sunfall won't be able to pick it up. Omniscience comes to mind as a potential target, but there are others, as well. Atraxa is the most obvious target. If we see any of this card, that is the likely spot it will find. Unfortunately for Perennation, it's expensive and easily interacted with on the stack or with any graveyard hate, so its best home would be in a midrange deck as the only card that cares about your graveyard and likely in low numbers as a value add, rather than a build-around. I wouldn't rule out that you can build around this since graveyard hate can be circumvented by cards like Leyline Binding, but the spell being so expensive and easy to counter makes that strategy more difficult to execute. I won't be surprised to see a few copies of this powerful reanimation spell roaming around, but I doubt it's a serious contender in competitive formats, even with the scary keywords of hexproof and indestructible. This will wrap up my Constructed review for Dragonstorm. While the set looks powerful, Standard is big and unchanging, so it takes a lot for cards to see play. Without another cycle of dual lands to help three-color decks, it might be a challenge for any of these cards to see play immediately. However, in the long run, we'll get more dual lands and these cards will become more castable. If these cards aren't seeing play immediately, it might be a good time to pick them up cheap before the mana issues are fixed. Next week we should be able to play Dragonstorm Limited, and I'll focus my attention on that. This looks like it has potential to be a Limited all-timer and I can't wait to crack open my first packs.

While we don't have the full contents of Tarkir: Dragonstorm, we're in the homestretch. The hits kept coming as previews continue to roll out. Dragonstorm is shaping up to be one of the most high-powered Standard sets I can recall seeing. Let's take a peek at some more potential bangers. Rot-Curse Rakshasa Rot-Curse Rakshasa is an interesting take on Decayed, and it's a design we haven't seen before. A two-mana 5/5 is pushing the boundaries, but this is more of a Ball Lightning than a creature. It can't block, only gets to attack once, and so on. There's a variety of ways to take advantage of this creature staying in play despite not blocking or attacking. We could use it to crew a vehicle or sacrifice to an effect that looks at power or toughness. Even as a Ball Lightning, it has the ability to Renew and decay your opponent's creatures, which blasts through blockers at no cost. Rot-Curse Rakshasa could come in handy postboard when an opponent has a large creature sideboard plan. It's worth noting this is a demon, which is an upside for a card like Unholy Annex but a downside against Baneslayer Angel if that situation arises. To top it off, you don't need to cast Rot-Curse Rakshasa to get value. If you discard it to another effect, you'll still have this powerful renew effect at your disposal, which would pair nicely with a card like Fable of the Mirror Breaker. You produce a goblin token when Fable enters, discard this little demon when you untap, and can immediately renew on a blocker pushing your goblin through. Rot-Curse Rakshasa is solid, and I expect to see it on the battlefield in competitive environments. I'm excited to try this one out. Dragonlogist Augur of Bolas saw Standard play, and while Dragonologist is one mana more, it provides a better effect. It can find your top-end dragon and protect it once it resolves through hexproof. You're playing blue if casting Dragonologist, which means you can keep protecting your top-end with counter spells or patiently set up before you attack and expose the dragon. For instance, if you put multiple dragons into play over the next few turns, your opponent may not have a window to interact with both dragons at once, giving you a massive tempo advantage if you chew up your opponent's mana. Dragonologist looks extra nice when paired with a dragon with vigilance, such as Shiko, Paragon of the Way, by casting an excellent spell from the graveyard, which protects Shiko and allows more card advantage. I hope we see this sequence regularly in Standard. This is the small-ball, grindy Magic I love and have been missing. I'm looking forward to trying out Dragonologist. It has a shot in Standard and will almost certainly be a Commander staple. Scavenger Regent Scavenger Regent doesn't look that good, and I doubt it will see much play. So, why am I looking at it? Scavenger Regent does one thing that scares me. It can, in some circumstances, be a win condition on its own without ever having to attack. While it's not many decks, and this is more hypothetical, it's possible that with enough card draw, or the ability to mill yourself to a small or non-existent deck, you could cast a damnation effect every turn of the game until your opponent runs out of cards. This is the exact kind of effect I would have liked to see avoided on an omen, as it creates potentially bad incentives. Nexus of Fate was a massive problem when it was printed in Standard, and shuffling in this type of effect could be problematic. It's more likely that we rarely, if ever, see this card again, however, it's not too bad on rate and maybe sneaks in somewhere regardless. I'm not a fan of Scavenger Regent's design, but it's likely much ado about nothing. Cori-Steel Cutter Cori-Steel Cutter is a twist on Living Weapon. The equipment doesn't play out well in Constructed. The reason is mostly that they're so easy to out tempo. Adding this flurry ability to Cori-Steel Cutter provides a cheap threat that delivers value over the course of the game, similar to a card like Young Pyromancer, however, Cori-Steel Cutter doesn't have easy interaction. You need to be able to interact with an artifact, and if you can't, it will keep supplying prowess tokens. Cori-Steel Cutter looks custom-made for a low-curve, aggressive deck, specifically a burn deck that utilizes the prowess but also a deck that can play multiple spells a turn and pressure the opponent. It's worth noting that it will also trigger on the opponent's turn, making more traditional Izzet Prowess-type shells an interesting place for this equipment, as you can go wide quickly with cantrips and deal a lot of burst damage off of multiple prowess creatures. Cori-Steel Cutter is a great Standard card, and we'll potentially see it in other eternal formats given its cheap mana cost and synergies with other cheap cards, which there are more of as the format gets older. Mistrise Village Weirdly, we have yet to see any dual-land cycle in Dragonstorm, but we have this land cycle of lands that produce one color and come in untapped if you control other basic types. Mistrise Village has received a lot of buzz. While I see that this could be a powerful card in a Commander format with much longer games where mana is more abundant, this card seems merely fine to me in competitive formats. Adding an additional mana to your spell's cost is not optimal. Generally, the important turns against a deck with a lot of countermagic are early turns when you can't afford to activate this without falling behind. That doesn't make this a bad card in a vacuum, but even lands have opportunity costs these days. Depending on the format, you have options like creature lands, Otawara, Castle Vantress, just to name a few. While I suspect Mistrise Village will see play, it will likely be in small numbers and not warp the format that much. The best home for a card like this is likely a deck that's trying to resolve one massive threat that single-handedly can end the game. A deck that could benefit from this printing is Indomitable Creativity, my favorite deck that I've played in years. Being able to push that through countermagic seems like a reasonable spot for Mistrise Village. Mistrise Village will likely see a lot of play in small numbers in a variety of formats but might not impact deck building or matchups as much as some people think. It's not busted nor bad. It's just another solid utility land option in a world where we have so many. Severance Priest Severance Priest combines Elite Spellbinder and Skyclave Apparition. Its stats are fine, and its ability is interesting, but ultimately I'm not a fan. It will be excellent in certain matchups, like a combo deck with limited creature interaction, but in a normal interactive Magic game, leaving behind any kind of meaningful token when this creature dies is too big of a downside. You can proactively exile two- and, maybe, one-mana spells, but you'll often be in a tough spot if this creature dies and you exile that scary four-drop. We're not putting this in our deck to take nothing, and while the option is always there to not take anything, that's not a ringing endorsement either. That's not to say Severance Priest is completely unplayable. I will need hands-on experience with the card to make a judgment. I could see it being excellent in an aggressive Abzan deck that closes the door quickly. That deck style in this color combination is harder to come by these days. As a three-mana spell, this card works with Collected Company, so there may be a home for it in eternal formats where combo decks are more plentiful and CoCo decks need more permanent ways to interact with the opponent's hand. This is a tough one to gauge, but my hunch is that its downside is too large and we won't be seeing much of Severance Priest. Rakshasa's Bargain Rakshasa's Bargain is another solid card-advantage spell that would see play regardless of other interactions since it's essentially an instant-speed Stock Up with the additional upside of putting some cards in the graveyard. Rakshasa's Bargain synergizes well with one of the best cards they've printed in years, Up the Beanstalk. Between these two cards, you don't need much else to keep cards flowing, producing a powerful card-advantage engine. There's no doubt in my mind Rakshasa's Bargain will see heavy play in this kind of shell. I'm curious if the printing of this card cycle is what gets Up the Beanstalk banned in formats like Standard and Pioneer. People can overhype interactions, but the Rakasha's Bargain and Up the Beanstalk duo will likely be a difficult engine to ignore because both cards are extremely good individually, as well. Rakshasa's Bargain offers so much selection, provides a way to dump specific cards in the graveyard, and fuels delve, all at an efficient cost at instant speed. This is one of the best cards from one of the best sets I've seen in a long time. That will wrap it up this time, but there are so many more cards I want to look at, and we still have a few cards left to preview. I'm excited to see how the set shapes out, and we'll continue to look at what the set has to offer.

We had a lot of previews for Tarkir: Dragonstorm. I had my eyes set on Final Fantasy and completely forgot Dragonstorm was in between. I must say, they are not playing around, and Dragonstorm is shaping up to be one of the more powerful sets in recent memory. So many cards jump off the table at me that it's going to be hard to not leave some out over the next few weeks. Let's look at some cards that stood out to me for one reason or another. We'll start by addressing the spirit dragon in the room, Ugin. Ugin, Eye of the Storms Ugin, Eye of the Storms is a remarkably powerful card. There are no two ways about it, they wanted this card to be good. At 7 mana you get to exile an opponent's threat even if the spell doesn't resolve. If it does resolve? There are so many varied board states, and it will have a big impact on any of them. Let's say the opponent has nothing on the battlefield and you exiled their only threat. Ugin can tick up loyalty by drawing extra cards. If it takes a full card to kill Ugin after that, it was still a 3 for 1, and that's the best-case scenario for the opponent. On a battlefield with multiple threats, we can add colorless mana, play a colorless spell from our hand, and use its static ability to neutralize any existing colorful threats. The most obvious home for this card would be in a Modern Tron deck, but the card would be bad in mirrors, potentially leading to some mixing and matching of Ugins and Karns, as Karn can exile land and colorless threats, and Ugin cannot. Ugin wants you to support it with other colorless cards, so it will be interesting to see which, if any, shells it fits into in Standard. I would be surprised if we don't see it in Standard since it's an incredibly powerful card. Ugin is a slam dunk to see play somewhere. I hope we see it do a lot of work in Standard because this is the exact type of card that is fun to play with and interesting to build against. Taigam, Master Opportunist Taigam stood out for the exact opposite reason of Ugin. Taigam, while a cool card, is fairly weak. The best kinds of interactions I can see with Taigam are playing it with three mana, casting a Treasure Cruise, and trying to play a long attrition battle. Taigam can't be used in a combo deck, as getting value in four turns isn't enough. If you want value with Taigam, you need to settle in for a long, grindy game. It's a creature that plays better in a midrange or control deck, but even then, waiting four turns for the additional value it provides is too long. Magic games aren't long enough to support that wait, and we're better off playing a two-drop that can have an immediate effect. While flurry is a new mechanic name, it's not really a new mechanic since we've seen this kind of ability before. Taigam is a miss for me. I'd like to see some toning down of the suspend counter, but even three turns are likely too long. Two is probably the sweet spot where I can see this card seeing some play. Maybe it gets too strong then, but I doubt it. Teval Arbiter of Virtue Teval is an interesting creature. Teval has beefy stats with lifelink. Against some decks that are unprepared for it, Teval can run away with the game without casting any other spells. On the other hand, its ability to give all your spells delve could lead to some disgusting turns if you fill your graveyard while finding ways to gain life. Imagine casting this and then using 7 life and 7 cards in the graveyard to cast an Ugin. There are many other powerful play patterns you could adopt with this creature, even something like chaining Stock Ups. Teval has a place in Standard, at least as a creature that can survive cards like Witchstalker Frenzy. It has so many ways to go that it will see play somewhere, even if it's just for its stats as a bigger Baneslayer. Shiko, Paragon of the Way Speaking of Stock Up, it looks as if Stock Up's stock is, indeed, up. Shiko, Paragon of the Way pairs well with the broken card selection spell. Curving Stock Up into a resolved Shiko into another Stock Up is enough of a card engine to never run out of spells. Shiko's stats are nothing to sneeze at either as a sized-up Serra Angel. Shiko isn't a card that wins the game on its own like an Ugin or Teval, but it allows you to play a longer, grindier game in any matchup. In creature matchups, it can be like Nekrataal by copying a card like Get Lost. On empty boards, it generates raw card advantage or copies a permanent you have in your graveyard like another creature. Shiko is the kind of card that was a slam dunk to be good a decade ago. While it is quite good, Jeskai will have to be a color trio worth playing for it to see play, as it's on par with what I expect out of a good card these days. Winternight Stories Winternight Stories seems really strong. While it's just a dressed-up Compulsive Research, it seems strong combined with a card like Hollow One, or any other creatures, especially if they return from the graveyard like perhaps Bloodghast, a recent addition to Standard. Chaining harmonize and the original spell in a single turn is powerful and could lead to explosive turns. Winternight Stories could be a card for Phoenix, but I'm not interested in taking a turn off from attacking to draw more cards. Harmonize is a cool ability that I hope we see on more impactful cards. I suspect Winternight Stories will only see play in decks that play cards from the graveyard, or alongside something like Hollow One. It seems like it could be potent in those styles of decks. I'm interested to see if anything shakes out. Marang River Regent Omen is a weird and obnoxious new mechanic. While the idea of it is reasonable, shuffling every time you cast one seems tedious. Imagine a control deck that wins by looping omens to not deck or something of that nature. It's not that big of a deal since your deck will likely have few omens. Standard has few shuffle effects, so the concept is perplexing. Marang River Regent is not a super strong card, but it doesn't look terrible. It's an instant-speed sift that, in the late game, turns into a massive threat that can stabilize the board. It's a solid card that could see play in a control deck that doesn't want to waste deck slots on actual threats. Omen is an interesting mechanic, but I don't see many previewed cards as constructed powerhouses, so we'll have to wait and see if anything stands out when Tarkir is fully released. For now, Marang River Regent looks like the best of the bunch I've seen. At first look, this set looks incredibly powerful, and there are more than a dozen other cards that I'm excited about. We'll dive more into those next week and continue looking at this powerful set beyond that. I'm excited to try this set in Limited, as the original Tarkir was one of my favorite Limited formats and the format of my first PT T8, which I'm feeling nostalgic for those days. See you next week with more preview reviews.