Category Archives: Rise of the Eldrazi

April 21, 2010

The Really Big Rise of the Eldrazi EDH Review

By MTGColorPie

And boom goes the dynamite

Grab a Snickers, find a comfy seat and put your feet up; you’re not going anywhere for a while.

New set, new review, new awesome cards heading our way.

You know how it goes: Wizards prints up a new set and we, as players, take a look at all of the goodness they dropped in our laps and we drink it up. That’s right, we drink their milkshake. What flavors did they leave for us this time? Let’s see what we’ve got.

Yes, EDH is the format where we take what the Pros deem as “Slow” and “Win More” and turn it into our gold. Sure, we might have some of the same spells that our formats jointly like, but we don’t care if something is 7 mana, we still play it anyway.

As you know, for the first time ever there has been true colorless spells printed. Any of these colorless spells can be put in any EDH deck and for the first time Karn (and the new Eldrazi Generals) can finally play an instant spell. Not only will those cards be good for those decks, but really, almost any EDH deck. What does all of this mean? One of the best EDH sets ever; certainly one of the top two I’ve ever reviewed for this blog.

Magic the Gathering Links for this WeekPlease remember, almost any card in the set can be used for EDH; these are the ones that I feel will impact your playgroups and decks the most. As always, you’ll get my Top 10 of the set at the end. I didn’t really focus on some of the tribalish cards such as the Merfolk and Elf Levelers because if you’re playing those decks, you’re going to put them in there anyway; they’re no good to you in Goblin decks.

Lucky for you guys I went and made every new ROE card linked to a new tab/window; click away with joy now.

And, without further ado, the reviews. Continue reading

15 Comments | posted in EDH, Magic: the Gathering, Really Big EDH Review, Rise of the Eldrazi

April 13, 2010

ROE EDH General Review – Livala, Keeper of Silence

By MTGColorPie

Doug Beyer gave us the last Legendary creature out of Rise of the Eldrazi, and boy will it make an impact when it hits play.

While it isn’t a complete bust like Tuktuk was, there will be very few people who will actually play this as their General. For the people who do, let me give you this message:

You’re a sick, sick person.

Let’s take a look at what she says:

Flying
Activated abilities of creatures your opponents control can’t be activated.

A quick primer in case you forgot what activated abilities are: If you see an ability in a text box that has a colon ( : ), that’s an activated ability. In other words: “Cost: Effect.” Example: Llanowar Elves have an activated ability that reads, “T: Add G to your mana pool.”

So, Linvala shuts down a huge majority of creatures. Remember that triggered abilities have the words, “At” “When” and “Whenever” and Linvala doesn’t do anything about that.

But why would you pick her as your General?

Because you’re a jerk.

Yes, in certain play circles there are combos that require activated abilities (actually, change certain to most), so she will be a great part to any deck. Yes, she’s a really great card, but as your General? Maybe that’s a little overkill. Yes, White control decks can be good and certain shut down decks, but maybe this is a little much.

As a General.

Having her in your deck against other decks is not so much a jerk thing, but building up defenses to shut down your opponents decks. There’s not a whole lot that combos with her (Doug suggested turning all your opponent’s lands into creatures so they can’t tap for mana). If you want to do that, you’re gonna have to play a different color than White, which means you need to go in another color.

Final Word: Yes, she’ll see play. While most likely she won’t be a General unless you need to teach your playgroup a lesson, she will see play in decks she can go in. Doran will love her, Crovax will certainly use her, and other Generals will be glad to draw her. I would suggest you go pick her up and teach those combo players a lesson.

Site News: You’ll get one more post before the ROE Prerelease (I encourage you to go if you weren’t planning to already), then the big ROE EDH set review. Also, I’m in the process of showing all of your requests for EDH deck clinics to some of the other writers on this site since they’ve shown interested in helping out as well. We’ll get to some of your decklists in the next couple of weeks.

5 Comments   |  tags: | posted in EDH, Magic: the Gathering, Rise of the Eldrazi

April 9, 2010

ROE EDH General Review – Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief

By MTGColorPie

Just don't look at her in that way, she can tell

Another Vampire Legend. Sigh, really?

Alright, this one we kinda knew. In what has got to be a good start, Drana was actually featured on the front of an intro pack. You know what that means?

That’s right, if you buy the Invading Spawn intro deck, you get your foil General.

I’ve been asking this for a while and it seems like either Wizards listened, or they realized it just seemed like a good idea. Score one for EDH players and a big thumbs up to Wizards; let’s hope we continue to see this trend. But, that doesn’t matter if she isn’t a very good General. Let’s see what she does.

Flying
XBB: Target creature gets -0/-x until end of turn and Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief gets +X/+0 until end of turn.

Ah, yes. very nice. A 4/4 for 3BB and a very Black ability? I think I might like her.

Continue reading

4 Comments   |  tags: | posted in EDH, Magic: the Gathering, Rise of the Eldrazi

April 6, 2010

ROE EDH General Review – Tuktuk the Explorer

By MTGColorPie

So good, they named it twice

Doug Beyer just gave us our first non-Eldrazi Legendary creature for EDH. Tuktuk, a great name, with a fun ability, looks like it could be an awesome General. He doesn’t cost that much (really, not many Goblins do), he’s got haste (which so few Generals do), and he’s got an interesting ability. I mean, he makes Legendary tokens! How cool is that?

Let’s take a look at the text box:

Haste
When Tuktuk the Explorer is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a legendary 5/5 colorless Goblin Golem artifact creature token named Tuktuk the Returned onto the battlefield.

You have to admit, that’s pretty awesome flavor: there’s another token of him when he goes to the graveyard. Goes to the graveyard? Aw, man.

Whenever a General would go to the graveyard to gets exiled, you may put it in the Command Zone instead; graveyard triggers do not trigger, it’s a replacement ability. So while his ability triggers once, you can’t get it over and over again. He’s a single-serving General.

If Tuktuk was Green, or Black, or even White then this would be a completely different story. Those three colors have ways to bring Tuktuk back from the graveyard. Red has one card to bring Tuktuk from the graveyard to your hand or onto the battlefield (remember it has to be Mono-Red because he’s the General): Search for Survivors. Good luck with that.

Final Word: Look, he’s a cute card, and I’m sure he could see some fun in a deck that constantly recurs creatures (this is why Recurring Nightmare is banned). Yes, he’s very flavorful and I see why they did this and it’s a great design. As a General, Wizards really missed the ball on this one. I’d rather have Norin the Wary than Tuktuk leading my guys into battle.

Note: This also uses up 2 more instances of Legendary in the Orb of Insight: 5 out of 7. Two more possible EDH Generals to go.

3 Comments   |  tags: | posted in EDH, Magic: the Gathering, Rise of the Eldrazi

April 1, 2010

ROE EDH General Review – The Problem with Eldrazi

By MTGColorPie

With the three Legendary Eldrazi finally spoiled, I feel like I need to say something about them. I’ve heard people go on and on about how wonderful they are and how they should go into every EDH deck they have. Some of the people say they’re going to build EDH decks with them as their Generals. I have to ask them one simple question:

Why?

Listen, I’m all in favor of them being printed, and the fact that they’re colorless is actually kinda awesome. Yes, they can fit in every EDH deck, but I’m not starting out my list with these three at the top of the list. There are some very simple things you got to keep in mind. Sure, they aren’t bad, but they aren’t amazing.

Blasphemy? Well, they are Gods.

Consider this your General review for all three.

Continue reading

7 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in EDH, Magic: the Gathering, Rise of the Eldrazi