Dragon's Maze Previews

[Kapol]

If I were running this card in Standard I think I'd want to have Dispel in the board against controls. tap out minus one to cast this guy and then counter the inevitable counter yourself

Then, if they have any other counter, they counter your counter. Otherwise, you're not getting any counters from them anyways since they used them anyways.

[Utilitarian]

I'm willing to believe that my Control opponent always has a counterspell in his hand. I'm not willing to believe that he always has two counterspells in his hand. Just assuming your opponent always has a counter to anything you do isn't helpful theory. It's like discounting any creature by saying "well yea but then your opponent just kills it"

[Kapol]

I'm willing to believe that my Control opponent always has a counterspell in his hand. I'm not willing to believe that he always has two counterspells in his hand. Just assuming your opponent always has a counter to anything you do isn't helpful theory. It's like discounting any creature by saying "well yea but then your opponent just kills it"

My point wasn't that he WOULDN'T have two, it's that, if he doesn't have a second one to use, then you're not going to be getting any counters out of his deck because of the fact he's got no counters in his hand to pick.

[Volafortis]

The proper way to play against counter is to bait the counter, rather than wait for them to tap out. Them tapping out is certainly nice when it happens, but you should never rely on it. A lot of practice against opponents packing Force of Will will teach you the proper way to do this.

[Utilitarian]

I was into Unflinching Courage back when it was called Armadillo Cloak.

Seriously though it's the exact same card except with proper lifelink instead of spirit link

[Lemegeton]

Ahem ... Moving on



this card is flippin bonkers good. Great Evasion and unblockable is always good and you can even pump for whatever the situation dictates

[Mara Kalat]

this card is flippin bonkers good. Great Evasion and unblockable is always good and you can even pump for whatever the situation dictates

That just looks like a new Morphling, really...


Mara.

[Lemegeton]

its much better than morphing IMO. morphings removal defense is hexproof. thats not so good these days with removal like supreme verdict and terminus that dont target. if anyone tries to remove this guy just pop him into the exile zone for a turn and get him back.

it should also be noted that i am coming at this as someone whose knowledge of magic pre-innistrad is very limited.

i also really like this guy.

[ArchieO]

Aetherling does look very very good, I also like that its mono colored and not so color committing as some of the other bomby rares we've seen

[Drecon]

Be honest about Morphling. The main reason that card was so good back in the day is because it's in the same colors as counterspell.

AEtherling seems very promising. It's basically a seven-drop though, so aggressive decks hardly have to deal with it at all. It's basically just for the Revelation Mirrors, and as I'm poor I'm probably never gonna see it outside of limited.

Oh and Lemigeton: I'm pretty sure that Gorgon's a girl :p

[Lemegeton]

hey the Golgari dont concern themselves with trivialities such as gender and neither do I.
or maybe i just mis-typed.

[Dominic Appleguard]

Morphling's ability is also a big combo enabler, though.

That said, in this format, Aetherling has some very cool skills. An 8/1 unblockable half the time, and an 0/9 on defense? At-will avoidance of just about every kind of removal there is? Do want, even at that price.

[Dubious_wolf]

Torching yo. Except this guy blinks with is neat. You could shenanigans him with simic.

"Oh look my board just got cleared. Good thing I blinked my aetherling," cloud fin, cloud fin, flash in shambleshark, blink aetherling 4 times. "Lol what wrath effect?"

[Utilitarian]

Torching yo. Except this guy blinks with is neat. You could shenanigans him with simic.

"Oh look my board just got cleared. Good thing I blinked my aetherling," cloud fin, cloud fin, flash in shambleshark, blink aetherling 4 times. "Lol what wrath effect?"

Aetherling's exile ability returns him at the beginning of the next end step, not right away, so you can't just flicker him repeatedly to evolve

[Utilitarian]

Between Korozda Gorgon and Ooze Flux I wonder if you could put together an effective Undying +counter stripping deck.

Gaze of Granite: Because Junk Reanimator needed a sweeper, let alone a potentially one sided sweeper

Pontiff of Blight: Man... that'd be a lot of extort... especially if you had a Crypt Ghast down so you could pay for it all... Heh... make a deck with this guy and Exalted Archangel: It's the Double EX deck. All Extort, all Exalted!

[JQuill]

So looks like the full set is out now. Some of the ones I liked or at least found interesting...

1. Pontiff of Blight... Build your own Extort deck! Also, Double-Extort!

2. Rubblebelt Maaka... Very similar to Slaughterhorn, but as red he goes into Boros and Rakdos decks too, where the Giant Growth he brings can be very useful

3. Battering Krasis... Evolve and trample seems like a potentially very powerful combination

4. Thrashing Mossdog... it's a Plant Hound

5. Bettleform Mage... Simic 2-drop that evolves most things and a 4/4 flier is a very real threat in later turns

6. Bronzebeak Moa... Can be insane with populate going off, you can have an 8/8 attacker or blocker just from an Eyes in the Skies, but mostly their kind of hilarious

7. Gruul War Chant... Mini-Madcapz but for all your creatures and sets up some big Bloodrush blowouts

8. Maw of the Obzedat... I mean just look at the art

9. Species Gorger... a 6/6 for 5 that can setup some sweet enter play effects

10. Tithe Drinker... it's an Orzhov 2-drop common with Extort that other guilds won't really consider taking (like with Screecher/Dimir and Syndic/Boros) and even a bit of a bonus in lifelink

[Drecon]

Reading the spoiler, two things jumped at me:

1: Sin Collector is going to be a constructed powerhouse. Real nice to see that in a common.

2: There's a combo out there for Maze's End and Scapeshift. Might that be a deck in Modern?

[ArchieO]

1: I love the flavor on clear a path: Kill a defender; Picture, two dead basilica guards

2: Get poniff of blight down in a white weenie/ lots of tokens commander deck and awesome things will occur

[Utilitarian]

The issue with Rubblebelt Maaka is that the base creature is a lot less inciting. Most draft decks are happy to run a 3/2 for 3, especially with the bloodrush. On the other hand, a 3/3 for 4... people will run canyon minotaurs but you're rarely happy about it. I kind of imagine he's going to end up in the spell slot more than the creature slot.

[AzureAngel17]

I LOVE the new Orzhov stuff. I can't wait to get the Blood Baron, Teysa, and Tithe Drinker into my Vish Kal commander deck (Which might become a Teysa commander deck...)!

[Dominic Appleguard]

I'm trying to figure out the new gate riddle. Here's what I have so far.
[Recall that in the RTR and GTC gates, certain lowercase letters had a small vertical offset (small enough to resemble a printing error) that, when combined and unscrambled, spelled "the guilds of ravnica will destroy each other".]

Azorius: the azoriUs symbol stAres down like a great eye, reminDing visitors of the watchfuL presence of isperia and her lawmages.
Boros: it promises protection to tHose in need and procLaims a warninG to any who would thrEaten ravnican law.
Dimir: in the coLd corridors of the undErcity, misinformation uNfurls from duskmantle like a sPreading stain.
Golgari: every part of the gate waS reclaimed from forgotten ruinS and imbued witH new purpose by The swarm.
Gruul: the scarred rubble around the gaTe is testament tO past meetings of the clans, summits that inEvitably devolved into bRawls.
Izzet: beyond liEs the culminatIon of all izzet projects, a granD experiment led by the drAgon niv-mizzet himself.
Orzhov: "we do not believe in hidiNg our wealth in the shadows. this is orZhov, and this is how we rewArd greatness." -teysa karlov, granD eNvoy of orzhov
Rakdos: maze-runnerS who paSs through the rakdos gaTe leave behind their scruples and a signifiCant amount of skin.
Selesnya: the selesnya welcome all to help them hEal the city's wounds. the price, however, is deVotion to the gUild and a selfless Belief in trostani.
Simic: simic bioMancers don't concern themselvEs with guarding a gate. theIR ever-present creations are enOugh to ward off trespassers.

UADLHLGELENPSSHTTOEREIDANZADNSSTCEVUBMEIRO

Any insights? I could be missing letters and some of my letters might be wrong, but that should be enough to start looking for words. I can find "ravnica", "gateless", and "maze", but there aren't enough A's for all of them.

EDIT: Found the answer on Reddit.
THE GUILDS OF RAVNICA WILL DESTROY EACH OTHER UNLESS THE MAZE IS SOLVED AND THE GUILDPACT REBORN

[AdmiralMemo]

As a cheap CMC card for drafting, I'm loving the Skylasher. Same with Zhur-Taa Druid.

Exava makes me want to figure out a way to reliably mix Simic and Rakdos.

I just love the flavor text on Morgue Burst.

Spike Jester looks like a good uncommon.

[JQuill]

The issue with Rubblebelt Maaka is that the base creature is a lot less inciting. Most draft decks are happy to run a 3/2 for 3, especially with the bloodrush. On the other hand, a 3/3 for 4... people will run canyon minotaurs but you're rarely happy about it. I kind of imagine he's going to end up in the spell slot more than the creature slot.

Yes Slaughterhorn is certainly a higher priority in say a Gruul deck and I would almost always take it over the Maaka. But in a Gruul deck I like the Maaka slightly better than say Scab-Clan Charger, and that guy was always a solid addition in the 4-drop slot. And of course you can't use Slaugherhorn in Boros or Rakdos and those decks are where I see a lot of his value being as those kind of decks really need to be attacking, so the cheap bloodrush becomes very strong.

[Kapol]

It seems like a lot of the commons and uncommons in DGM will make for good limited fodder. But there aren't many I see going beyond that.

[Lemegeton]

As a cheap CMC card for drafting, I'm loving the Skylasher. Same with Zhur-Taa Druid.

Exava makes me want to figure out a way to reliably mix Simic and Rakdos.

I just love the flavor text on Morgue Burst.

Spike Jester looks like a good uncommon.

i really want to make a deck with Exava. its such a flexible card in the current meta. tested one yesterday with Exava + Corpsejack menace + Savageborn Hydra. i got the hydra out for 8/8 so i had a 8/8 doublestrike with haste.

i am also going to be running gaze of granite as a SB card in all my standard decks from now on. a Big weapon against token decks