Death Gaara's AVR Spoilers and Discussion

Hello all, and welcome to my first public article on iMtG. In celebration of Avacyn Restored being released in a week and a half, I thought it would only be fitting to go over some of the cards that have been spoiled.  Ready? Here we go

First up is Temporal Mastery

This card has broken written all over it. I highly doubt this cards constructed applications in standard. The only deck you would really want to use it in is a control deck and the extra turn does not provide enough advantage to merit this card as an auto include.  In standard, this cards is terrible when you have it in the opening seven, and mediocre at best when you top deck it turn 6 just to get an extra land and tap out that one turn. Where this card shows its power though, is in legacy. There are a number of cards that will let you take advantage of such a cards miracle cost. One extra turn in legacy is enough to end a game. Some of the cards that can easily sculpt your deck that are already legacy staple will benefit from this.  Sensei’s Divining Top is a nice choice, as it is a colorless artifact, and the one U mana on the miracle cost can easily be splashed to fit into any deck. Brainstorm is another legacy staple that is often played and allows for library manipulation as well. Again the U in the cost is easily splashed into preexisting archetypes. Another card that comes to mind is a card we all love and hate and that card is Jace, the Mindsculptor. Anyone who has ever played with this card can tell you it’s power and controlling abilities are off the charts. Brainstorming every turn is good, but also library manipulation while combined with a Time Walk is just absurd raw card advantage. The deck that comes to mind the quickest is UW Stoneblade. The deck already plays brainstorms and jaces, so tooling would not take too much from it. This deck is going to be absurd with Temporal Mastery in the format for one reason. And that reason is swords. Imagine getting a second turn to swing with a Sword of Feast and Famine for just two mana. Not to mention hitting another land drop and getting to draw 1 more card than you normally would have if you weren’t playing with mastery. This card is dangerously powerful and should be on everybody’s radar.

Next on our list we have Vexing Devil

This cards application is best suited for Standard and possibly Modern. Generally, when a card gives the opponent the choice of what happens, it is safe to rule it off of being playable. The opponent will naturally pick whatever affects him the least. If its early he is going to take the damage.  If it’s late or he has a Doom Blade, he is going to let the creature stay around. This card is an exception though. It’s a potential Lava Spike or a 4/3 for 1 mana. This to me, seems like it is going to see play, regardless of the fact it gives your opponent the choice. Red mages rejoice, as red decks are finally getting what they need to get back on the map. This card has serious potential and I think after the release of Avacyn Restored, we will see red decks popping back up again. Between this card, Stromkirk Noble, Fling, Hellrider, Shrine of Burning Rage, and Stormblood Berserker, I seriously think that red has a chance of showing up again (not to mention the other goodies red is getting in AVR). Vexing Devil certainly is another card that should be on your radar.

The last card we will be discussing today is Desolate Lighthouse

Comically referred to by many as the “Loothouse”, it does exactly as its alius implies. It’s a Merfolk Looter attached to a land. This card is definitely going to see play. With Return to Ravnica being announced, this card is only going to get better. Izzet seems like it is going to be a strong competitor. With cards like Snapcaster Mage, Think Twice, Faithless Looting, Mana Leak, and Dissipate we already have a strong foundation. After the release of Return to Ravnica, this card will show its true potential. With Sulfur Falls and the more than likely reprint of the shocklands (I’m looking at you Steam Vents) Izzet decks will have a sturdy manabase. Also, for those of you who have seen the spoiler art for Return to Ravnica, both Jace and Niv Mizzet are featured. This may well be hinting at a new Jace and Niv Mizzet (Or even a possible reprint) printing. If this turns out to be true, UR will gains some powerful new planeswalkers and spells. Imagine a reprint of Electrolyze. Izzet lovers like me will have a good time finding ways to combine the loothouse with standard cards to make for crazy deck. Think about the possibilities of a reanimator deck in standard playing this card with Faithless Looting and Unburial Rites. Who knows, maybe the Frites players will start playing blue just for this. In any case, this card is going to see some play and players will have a fun time doing crazy things with it.

That’s all for today, be sure to check out my other upcoming articles. If you want to give any feedback, that would also be much appreciated. Thanks again for reading and have fun.

Fantastic! I'm looking forward to more..

In other news we may have just found our draft cards commentator.

Very good discussion, I myself major in the art of BURN and vexing devils and some others will finally make burn decks a more common sight.

I am glad both of you liked it. Thank you for your positive feedback. There will be more to come in the future!

Love it. Very nice job Gaara. Looking forward to more

Good point about sword of feast and famine with temporal mastery.  I am main boarding the sword in my Delver Blade now.

Great job!

Good analysis. I'm looking forward to more. 👍

Everyone keeps talking about Ponder with miracles, but no one has meantioned what i think is goin to be a sleeper card, Jar of Eyeballs.  Keep it to the side, racking up counters.  Then, when you need a miracle, you crack the jar an set it up.  Also, i thought i'd mention Soothsaying too.  Black has a couple of options, although there aren't any black miracles. Maralen of the Mornsong, Liliana Vess, and Bringer of the Black Dawn can all set up a miracle when you need it.  I know these are not very strong cards, but I thought I'd mention them to see what you all think.

Edit: FAIL on my part for Jar o Eyeball. I was going from memory and I thought it worked like Soothsaying. Disregard my stupidity.

I forgot the repeatability of Noxious Revival and the idea of Izzet being able to Reverberate an extra turn.

Good analysis. I'm looking forward to more. 👍

Everyone keeps talking about Ponder with miracles, but no one has meantioned what i think is goin to be a sleeper card, Jar of Eyeballs.  Keep it to the side, racking up counters.  Then, when you need a miracle, you crack the jar an set it up.  Also, i thought i'd mention Soothsaying too.  Black has a couple of options, although there aren't any black miracles. Maralen of the Mornsong, Liliana Vess, and Bringer of the Black Dawn can all set up a miracle when you need it.  I know these are not very strong cards, but I thought I'd mention them to see what you all think.

The Ponder idea is weak. The sooner people realize the mathematics behind it, the sooner they will realize how bad the idea is. Here is why. Say you ponder and look at the top 3. If the miracle card is on top, you move it to the middle so you draw it next turn. But in retrospect, had you never used ponder to begin with, you would have got the ability on your next turn anyways. If you ponder and it is in the middle, you dont need to change the order and you essentially just payed 1 U mana to draw a card. The only time ponder helps miracle, is if it is on the bottom because you can move it to the middle. Breaking this down Ponder only helps 33% of the time you actually see the miracle card off of the ponder. Which in temporal mastery's case (since you dont want to play more that 2) you will see one around 32%-34% of the time by turn 4 (a standard turn to play ponder). This effectively means that, 34% of the time when you see the miracle card off of the ponder it then must fall into the 33% chance of being on the bottom. This is highly unlikely, which is why I did not discuss it in the article. One must analyze every portion and angle of the game if you wish to get better. This also means the mathematical equations as well. Ponder with miracle is just plain stupid and clunky. If people slow down to realize this, they could save themselves so many hours of play testing. Yes, when that slim chance happens, you are going to feel like you are on top of the world. But realistically, the idea is just weak and not practical.

EDIT: Glad you liked it. Thanks for the feedback!

Even if ponder doesn't help with temporal mastery it's a great card and the extra card is beneficial for card advantage. It also let's you manipulate your draw. And I like the idea of temporal master in a U/G deck because it'll allow the use of forbidden alchemy and noxious revival to munipulate the draw

Even if ponder doesn't help with temporal mastery it's a great card and the extra card is beneficial for card advantage. It also let's you manipulate your draw. And I like the idea of temporal master in a U/G deck because it'll allow the use of forbidden alchemy and noxious revival to munipulate the draw

Another common misconception about Ponder, it does not give card advantage. It cantrips, there is a big difference. You have 7 cards in your hand. You play ponder. Now you have 6 cards. Ponder away rearranging cards etc. Now draw your card. Again you have 7 cards in your hand. Effectively you are no further ahead in cards then you were when you started. Now use the same scenario, except play Divination (even though its bad, just roll with it). You spent 1 card in your hand, but obtained 2 more. You are now +1 card than you had when you started. This is card advantage. Your idea of UG Mastery seems fine. The Noxious Revival and Forbidden Alchemy plan is way more realistic and reliable then ponder. Perhaps for my next article, I should explain the theory of card advantage and its applications. I also might throw together a UG Mastery build (the deck just seems fun in theory if nothing else and should be stable enough for FNM) and discuss it as well. I plan on attending some pre-releases, so I also might give some more analysis's on singles and their limited applications.

My meaning of card card advantage was different in that sense haha. What I was saying was that it gives you an advantage because it allows you to manipulate your hand as well and replace ponder with card you would need to win faster or control better depending on your deck

Perhaps for my next article, I should explain the theory of card advantage and its applications.

Yes please!

I love using gitaxian probe and street wraith for card advantage.  My theory is that you can essentially reduce the size of your deck at the price of 2 life per card.  This premise is based on opting to pay 2 life to draw a card which does not tie your mana up.  This scenario is not too helpful with miracles but I like using these in combo decks to allow me to continually search for those pieces.