Redrum, Redrum!

And here’s the home stretch (White, Blue, Black, Red and Green). There’s not much more I can say but hope you guys have enjoyed the articles. I am curious about how you like this rather then the one really long post. Of course, I’ll spread these out better next time if you do like them since the 1-2-3 posts a day is really throwing me for a loop. Really? 6 posts in 3 days. That’s almost unheard of. I know you would like it a little more like that but there’s only so much time in the day to write.

This last section are for the cards that can go in almost every EDH deck (except some of the lands). These cards tend to be a little more powerful because they can go into any deck. If you’re going to get foils of cards, it’s usually these that fetch the most money.

Cards in italics are reprints. At the very end of THIS REVIEW, you’ll get my Top 10 list of EDH cards for M11. Exciting that it’s almost here, right? Any predictions?

Like any time when I review these cards, most of them can see play in EDH; there’s only one in this set that is absolute trash in EDH (Squadron Hawk). These are just going to be the better cards I would recommend playing.

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Primeval Titan will watch you sleep.

And now comes the last of the actual colors (White, Blue, Black, Red are there). With Green comes a whole influx of creatures. That really shouldn’t be all that surprising, should it? White is about gain life and prevent damage and making sure everything is in order. Black kills things, anything to do to win. Blue counters, draws and bounces everything but doesn’t really destroy anything. Red burns and creates havoc while destroying what it can. Green is all about nature and lands and creatures.

My philosophy about Green is it can do anything it wants as long as it’s creature or land related. So while Hornet Sting stands out, it can still, somewhat seem Green related.

To see more of my design philosophies, head over to my Magic design blog: mtgcolorpie.com. I’ve noticed that a number of people come over there to this site, but not the other way around. Thought I’d cross-promote it a little bit.

Cards in italics are reprints. At the very end of all the reviews, you’ll get my Top 10 list of EDH cards for M11.

Like any time when I review these cards, most of them can see play in EDH; there’s only one in this set that is absolute trash in EDH (Squadron Hawk). These are just going to be the better cards I would recommend playing.

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Do you really need to keep that 1995 SI Swimsuit issue?

Entering part four of this series (White, Blue, Black). Luckily this series isn’t like Lost where you have to have see the previous in the series or it will all not make sense. Because I’m not building on the last post, each one of these can be read separately if you’re curious about one certain card from the set. I guess that’s one benefit of breaking them, up by color.

But what these colors have in common are three cycles of Rare/Mythic cards: The Planeswalkers, the Titans and the Leylines. Not all of them are made equal. The Red one really only works against White (sometimes Green) decks, so I didn’t even mention it down below; the Blue Titan is clearly the worst. In any cycle, there must be a best and and worst; it’s just odd nod seeing Green at the bottom of those cycles.

Cards in italics are reprints. At the very end of all the reviews, you’ll get my Top 10 list of EDH cards for M11.

Like any time when I review these cards, most of them can see play in EDH; there’s only one in this set that is absolute trash in EDH (Squadron Hawk). These are just going to be the better cards I would recommend playing.

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Well, I guess that's one way of reading a book

Welcome to part three of this huge M11 EDH review (hence the title). If you missed parts one and two they are here (White) and here (Blue). The most interesting thing that has come out of Magic and reviewing sets is something that Pro Player Patrick Chapin wrote (Star City Games Premium article, sorry). Basically what he says is that reading review articles are boring. Most of the time they say the same thing, which is “Oh, this is what the card does, this is the type of decks it can fit into.” I do my best to try and avoid it, but I know I do that from time to time. It’s like reading movie reviews of the same movie: soon you’re going to get the same type of dialogue repeated over and over again if you read enough. There’s only so much ground you can cover with the same material as everyone else.

Now, he suggests adding humor because it does liven up the same old thing. So I’ve decided to follow his wise advice. In the Worldwake and Rise of the Eldrazi review I had Billy Mays review a card in each while Vince pitched a card in RoE. Though my contacts in Hollywood (every MTG blogger has contacts in Hollywood), I was able to get comedian Lewis Black to review every single Black card in M11. Say hi, Lewis.

Oh, is this because my last name is Black?

Now you’re getting it.

Very creative.

Thanks.

That was sarcasm.

I know. Wait, where are you going Mr. Black? (Door Slams). Sigh. I guess I’m going to try to do the comedy. Cards in italics are reprints. At the very end of all the reviews, you’ll get my Top 10 list of EDH cards for M11.

Like any time when I review these cards, most of them can see play in EDH; there’s only one in this set that is absolute trash in EDH (Squadron Hawk). These are just going to be the better cards I would recommend playing.

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CANNONBALL!

Part two of this M11 EDH review. If you missed part 1 (White), click here. If you’ve never really written a review before, it’s an interesting experience. Sometimes people check these things to see if other people feel the same way about certain cards that they do. Other times, they’re just curious to see how other cards see play in different formats. I don’t rate these cards as people would use them in Sealed or Standard, so people might look at some of these reviews and go, really? Yes, really.

Another thing about reviews is that people want to take a look at the rares and if they should do pick them up. This is pretty obvious since they cost the most money and are harder to get. On format reviews like this where you don’t touch upon every card, it says a whole lot if I don’t talk about a rare since most everything can be used in this format. Sometimes, they won’t even make a dent in this cardpool.

Cards in italics are reprints. At the very end of all the reviews, you’ll get my Top 10 list of EDH cards for M11.

Like any time when I review these cards, most of them can see play in EDH; there’s only one in this set that is absolute trash in EDH (Squadron Hawk). These are just going to be the better cards I would recommend playing.

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Note: Sun Titan not actually from The Sun

M11 is coming out Friday and as of the Prerelease, all of the new cards are legal for EDH. So what ones do you spend the time to go get and which ones really won’t make a difference in this great format? Are you Confused? How about Bewildered? Or are you here to laugh at my outlandish predictions when I nominate “so and so” as the best EDH card in the set? Are there enough questions in this paragraph for you or should I keep asking them? Why do you think I’m playing the question game?

Since M11 is a Core Set and there are about 50% reprints, I’m going to mainly focus on the new cards. I will touch on some reprints as they are either good or bad for the format, I won’t spend too long on them in general. The cards that are in italics are reprints.

If you notice, today’s it just White. Usually I’d write the whole thing up on one post, but when I reported to twitter (@mtgcolorpie) how much I’ve written just for White, they were like “Break it up, everyone else already does.” Yes, I’ve become a sheep to follow everyone else (Baaa). So, while it’s weird to get this started on a Tuesday instead of the more logical Monday, blame the twitter peeps. That means, yes, there will be a post for each color. At the very end of it all, you’ll get my Top 10 list of EDH cards for M11.

Like any time when I review these cards, most of them can see play in EDH; there’s only one in this set that is absolute trash in EDH (Squadron Hawk). These are just going to be the better cards I would recommend playing.

Continue reading