My Take on M11

Heya,

Well, after getting a chance to actually play with the cards from M11 over the weekened, I feel I can comment on them with some degree of certainty. M11 is a great set. It's fun to draft, fun to play sealed, and very flavorful. It reminds me a lot of what Magic was like when I first started- back when most of the players had a background in RPGs.


Anyway, starting with white...


Banelsayer Angel: Not good enough for Vintage but seems playable everywhere else. Given my experience at the pre-release, the printings of Combust and Plummet should moderate BSA's dominance (if it really was dominant in the first place).


Leyline of Sanctity: This card will see Vintage play. It stops Oath, Hurkyl's, Tormod's Crypt, Tendrils of Agony, Intuition, Gifts Ungiven, Duress, Thoughtseize, and Cruel/Diabolic Edict. That's an aweful lot of important cards nullified by this thing. If Nature's Claim weren't so widely played, I think this card would be in nearly every deck. As it stands right now, I'm not sure who'll be brave enough to sacrifice 4 slots for it. Ichorid might instead of LotV or CotV. Stax might. But who else? I don't know, but I do know it will find a home somewhere soon.


Silence: I'm a little disapointed this card never found a home anywhere. With Silence, Orim's Chant, and Abeyance, you can stop a lot of cards from being played by your opponent. I guess there's just too much countermagic for a Silence.dec to work. Too bad. I like the design.


Sun Titan: I like this card a lot in Dredge and Oath. For Dredge, it can get you there by bringing back an extra Bazaar to finish dredging your deck. He'll be played in Dredge for sure. In Oath, he could be used to assemble a Vault-Key combo. Oath pilots will have to decide if that's better than just blowing up stuff with Terastadon or locking out the other player with Iona or decimating the opponent's board with Emrakul. Time will tell. Good card, tho.


War Priest of Thune: There's better cards out there for this.


BLUE


Call To Mind: This card only reinforces the point that Regrowth can come off the restricted list. Getting a single card out of the graveyard at sorcery speed is just not that great in Vintage- even if the card letting you do that is printed in the most powerful color and has a splashable casting cost. I like the art, tho.


Conundrum Sphinx: Sick with Top! But not sick enough for Vintage. :(


Foresee: This is a card that demonstrates why I think Vintage may suffer a little bit. Foresee lets you look at up to 6 cards for 4 mana. That's actually pretty good. But the sorcery speed and honestly the total mana required to play this spell make it impossible to use in Vintage. Too bad. I think it's really a powerful effect that's highly underrated in other formats.


Jace's Ingenuity: Apparently the fair casting cost for Ancestral Recall, Timetwister, and Time Walk is 5. This card's not good enough for Vintage, but at least RnD is paying homage to the old cards.


Leyline of Anticipation: This card lets you break some of the most important rules in Magic. This will change things, I just don't know how. In a Workshop deck, this thing can be quite good. Let's say you're on the Draw. With 2 Moxen, you can cast a Sphere on your opponent's upkeep before he even gets to play any spells. Suddenly, you have to take a look at Grim Monolith and wonder if it's worth using here to power out nasty turn one lock pieces. One of the biggest things this card could change is how players choose whether to play or draw. With this card in hand, being on the draw is no longer a drawback. I don't know if that's important enough to play this card. We'll find out.


Preordain: Here's the card we've been talking about for a while now. Will this be the second coming of Ponder? There's no doubt this card will get played. It's not as good as Ponder, but it's better than Portent and Impulse. Will it get restricted? Check back with me in the fall of 2011.

Scroll Thief: Ophidian gets an update! This version is much better. It still gets to deal damage and it's a merfolk. It won't see play in Vintage, but maybe in Legacy. It has some stiff competition from Cold-eyed Selkie, IMO, but its 3 toughness is definately a plus.

Stormtide Leviathan: Probably a replacement for Blazing Archon. Except, who plays Archon in Vintage?

Time Reversal: I can't believe they printed another Draw 7. I admire RnD for this. It's not good enough for Vintage (and I don't think it's good enough for Standard either). But I do admire the courage it took to print this card.

BLACK

Dark Tutelage: It's the worst parts of Phyrexian Arena mixed with the worst parts of Dark Confidant. Still, it doesn't trigger Oath of Druids. I think it deserves testing in Tez decks.

Demon of Death's Gate: I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.

Nantuko Shade: (reprint) I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.

Phylactery Lich: I don't know if suicide black is still viable, but if it is, this card might have to be considered.

Reassembling Skeleton: I don't know if suicide black is... just kidding. I like this card. I think it costs too much for Dredge decks, but any deck where you have to sacrifice creatures for effects might like this thing. I think the design is great.

RED:

Act of Treason: Thing thing at the common level is nuts in Limited.

Arc Runner: A lot of things are wierd about this card. First, can they make up their minds about how to template sacrificing someting at the EOT? This is the third iteration of it, and I think it's the worst. Second, for a set focussing on flavor and "making sense" in a fantasy sort of way, why is this thing an ox? The flavor text isn't any better. For a storm that hits hard, it can be easily blocked by an Eldrazi spawn and not deal any damage to a player. A powerful thunderstorm stopped by an 0/1 token. Nice. None-the-less, it is a fine Ball Lightning knockoff if you are looking for more of these types of cards for your burn deck.

Chandra's Spitfire: Speaking of burn. This may get used over Kiln Fiend since it has evasion. I'm not sure. It's still not good enough to make burn viable in Vintage. But it's getting closer.

Ember Hauler: I'm not an expert in Goblins, but I think I'd still rather have Mogg Fanatic to exile Bridges.

Hoarding Dragon: New Flash deck! Vault-Flash-Dragon ftw! Except Flash is restricted. Cool card, nice flavor.

Manic Vandal: Overcosted for Red. Should have been a Goblin.

Reverberate: People are pointing to this to show that WotC plans to skirt around the Reserve List. To me, this is a red Twincast- a card that showed me a long time ago they planned to skirt around the Reserve List. I guess it takes a little more than that to get me excited. Let's see this same treatment for Thunder Spirit and then we'll talk.

GREEN

Autumn's Veil: Autumn's Fail. All the other color hosers blow someting up. This card just outsmarts itself. I'd rather have a Green Elemental Blast. We'll see what the replacement is next year.

Back to Nature: Nice upgrade. Not sure it'll make a difference, but I'm all for this sort of spell getting more powerful.

Fauna Shaman: (AKA, Magus of the Fittest) This card is hard to evaluate. The biggest problem is the summoning sickness. But in Vintage, creatures are actually more stable than enchantments! Between Seal of Cleansing, Seal of Primordium, Krosan Grip, and Nature's Claim, there's a ton of enchantment hate out there. Fauna Shaman actually has a decent chance of living. I'd love for Combo Elves to make a hit in Vintage. With Concordant Crossroads or Lightning Greaves in play, this card is good. I personally witnessed it power with Vengevine while some guys were playtesting their Standard decks. But I'm not sure it's good enough for Vintage. Here's to hoping, though!

Mitotic Slime: I've heard this discussed in terms of a Dread Return target for Dredge. I dunno. Space is limited and it's best use would be when some of your bridges have been removed. I'd put it in the maybe pile.

Plummet: So green has a way to kill Iona now. I suppose you can play one in your SB with PtE or StP.

COLORLESS

Brittle Effigy: I'm actually somewhat high on this card. It can be tutored up with Trinket Mage. It can fit in any deck. It exiles the creature which is important. It gets around Iona's ability. The real problem is it lacks synergy with Null Rod, which is the type of deck that really needs this card.

Crystal Ball: Great in any format where Top isn't leagal.

Steel Overseer: This card could be really interesting with the Modular creatures from Mirrodin. Not viable in Vintage, but a blue based artifact deck in Legacy that takes advantage of the +1/+1 counters to evade blockers would be very interesting. He has great synergy with Etherium Sculptor and Master of Etherium. Good card.

Sword of Vengeance: Nice to know they can still print decent equipment!

Warlord's Axe: Nice to know they can still print really crappy equipment!

Voltaic Key: Autmoatically good in Standard and Extended. I can't believe they reprinted this thing.

Mystifying Maze: This is drawing comparisons to Maze of Ith. That's fair. The Ith version can't tap for mana, leaves the creature untapped, and costs $30. Mystifying can tap for mana, keeps the creature tapped, and costs 1/10 as much. The sticking point is the four mana to activate, which is one too many IMO. Mystifying Maze is a fine budget card, but in the end, it's just not as good as Maze of Ith and Karakas.

Overall, this is a great set. If I still played standard, I'd be really excited. As a Vintage player and Magic enthusiast, I'm still excited. I give RnD a thumbs up on this set. I really enjoyed the pre-release.

Peace,

-Troy