menu

Born of the Gods Spoiler Coverage

Born of the Gods is scheduled to be released February 7, 2014 and will contain 165 cards.

About Quiet Speculation's Born of the Gods Spoiler Coverage:

A team of Quiet Speculation contributors will be following the gradual spoiling of the upcoming Magic: The Gathering set, Born of the Gods. Stay tuned to this page for insights from some of the brightest minds in the MTG Finance community on the noteworthy mechanics and cards.

And if you're an Insider, be sure to check out the Spoiler Season section of the QS forums for more Born of the Gods discussion.

bnglogo

Release Date February 7, 2014
Prerelease Events February 1-2, 2014
Magic Online Release February 17, 2014
Game Day March 1-2, 2014
Official Three-Letter Code BNG
Twitter Hashtag #MTGBNG
Number of Cards 165

Latest Spoilers:

1/28/2014 - Gervaise

Since the spoiler has completed, more Limited commons/uncommons have been spoiled. I will highlight my general thoughts on this 165 card set ( 60 / 60 / 35 / 10 mythics)

Mythics:

I feel from the mythics, the Xenagos god and Brimaz seem the only decent mythics at first glance. The other gods look reasonable but it really depends how easy it is to get proper devotion in Standard (Nightveil Specter is 3 devotion the UB god, NOT six!). if Rakdos becomes a thing as a result of MonoBlack devotion getting new goodies then Mogis, God of the Slaughter might be a good target. However SCG presells them at $19.99 so I'm out at that price.

Rares:

I want to try out Oracle of Bones in a RDW deck though I feel Tribute is just another Browbeat mechanic. Herald of Torment looks OK at first glance but then again we have Nightveil Specter in the same CMC.

Hero of Iroas probably makes Bestow mechanic cheaper instead of any enchantment-aura spell being played as a creature. If it indeed makes stuff like Nighthowler cheaper then it might see some random brews from people. But since we have the 3/1 spirit and Precinct Captain, this card must be that good at making cheaper stuff to justify a higher price that I rarely think it will happen.

Satyr Firedancer

It is listed at $2.99 on SCG and I still think this is sub-par. Yes it makes a Skullcrack a better card but one also has to take into consideration that you probably have to cut another 2 CMC drop (Ash Zealot, Firefist Striker, Burning-Tree Emissary) . The problem is his 1/x body and the needed condition you need burn in your hand to get full value.

The most expensive Raress in BNG are Spirit of the Labyrinth $7.99 (1W, 3/1 , Each player can't draw more than one card each turn ) and Pain Seer 11.99$ (1B, Inspired - Whenever Pain Seer becomes untapped, reveal the top card of your library, put that card into your hand. You lose life equal to the CMC ).

Those cards might see play in aggressive decks but I think the price will come down if BNG gets opened a lot which I think will still happen regardless whether this set looks dull.

Overall I am not really excited about this set, maybe it has to do with the high expectations so automatically anything below the required expectation psychologically speaking becomes a dissapointment.

I will play exactly one Prerelease and evaluate later if I want to play more (probably not)
Have fun! And don't forget to print out the cheatsheet for easy trading!

 

 

 

 

 

 

1/23/2014 - Gervaise

Peregrination

pCVvIZTsDZ_EN

As a non-native speaker, this is like the first time I come across this word. It's defined as ''A journey, especially a long or meandering one''. I like the art but other than that people pay 1 mana more for scry 1 compared to Cultivate , Kodama's Reach in EDH. I doubt this is going to get played elsewhere beside limited.

Perplexing Chimera

QI9zl86WxJ_EN

We can automatically rule out that this will be not competitive constructed playable. In EDH where things are big, flashy and nasty (Eldrazi's, Primordial, Consecrated Sphinx etc.), this has a lot of utility. The fact you can keep board control through people not wanting to cast their big spell because you can basically nick it. I will talk to the L2/L3 judges here what the ruling is if I bounce this on the stack, do I still get the trigger etc.

 

Marshmist Titan

8vTAGZkqQ9_EN

 

I still think Gary (Gray Merchant of Asphodel has a bit more utility as a 2 CMC 4/5 is only interesting so you need to have 4+ devotion to make it consistently better than Gray Merchant. I mean if you have 2-3 devotion, this becomes a mediocre Desecration Demon and the opportunity cost versus a removal spell on that specific turn is too much I think. I hope they print the same discount x devotion spell for the other colors!

 

1/23/2014 - Jason

Oracle of Bones

I don't like Browbeats. Tribute was certainly a creative effect but I think it will ultimately prove to be a disappointing one. We've seen a lot of Browbeat-esque cards lately, haven't we? Soul Ransom, Steam Augery- look, giving your opponents options is silly. At first glance I thought this was a Mindclaw Shaman effect, but if you get to play a spell from your hand, this is probably a slightly upgraded Bloodbraid Elf that doesn't actually give you card advantage, or it's a dork they can deal with. I am not convinced there are spells you want to resolve in Standard that  cost enough more than four to bother with this guy.

Gild

I liked the gold token better before I knew what it was for. Anticipation was much better than disappointment. Expensive, sorcery-speed removal that gives you the weirdest value ever? At least it can hit  both artifact and black creatures, which still makes it worse than the Edict effects we have that can kill stuff like Blood Baron. Eww. This card. Eww. Bulk rare, likely limited mid-pack pick. If you need to use this for mana fixing you probably built your deck wrong.

Eidolon of Countless Battles

Casual hit, competitive dud, likely. I realize it could potentially be very big, but weenies seem like the best way to pump him and weenies are going to get their bile blighted. Brimaz is a good pairing with this guy, but so are good cards. Save these for casuals. These are pre-selling for $4. Good grief.

Plea For Guidance

Search your library for two enchantment cards, reveal them and put them into your hand.

Here's some guidance- you don't want to play this card. No, not even in EDH.

Silent Sentinel

Maybe in Sealed. This seems like it would have casual potential but I don't see an angle. This is likely a bulk rare. Don't pay the $0.50 he is preselling for.

Arbiter of the Ideal

50% of all Sphinx cards are initially overrated and the other 50% are initially underrated.  There are too many durdly Sphinx cards right now, and no one cares because the decks that want a blue creature are playing Cloudfin Raptor or they're playing Aetherling. Better Sphinxes than this one are benched. Will EDH appeal make this guy above bulk? He seems abusable as all hell in EDH. Bare minimum I am jamming him in Derevi. That said, I think that limited scope will take a long while to make this go up, and it will go down, first. It's always weird to recommend people not buy cards I like.

Fellhide Brawler

This has nothing to do with finance but, really? You reprint Gutter Skulk and give it a drawback? This could have been a 1-drop with that drawback.

Forgestoker Dragon

I hope this set is fun to draft, because 90% of the rares are only good in limited.  Bulk.

Satyr Firedancer

Oh, sweet I get to stop being snarky for a minute. This guy has some real potential. He won't ever replace a card like Pyromancer's Swath because hitting their dudes isn't relevant in a dedicated burn deck. You likely don't play enough burn in limited for him to matter. So he's likely a card that will be played, maybe, in Standard. Most of the red decks want to do different things. He has potential, but I am not betting my money, not at $7.50. He has potential, but, unfortunately, a lot of that potential will become kinetic when his price plummets.

Whims of the Fates

Hot. Garbage. If you pay $2 for a playset, you'll lose money.

Courser of Kruphix

"It's Oracle of Mul Daya!" - people who didn't read the card carefully

Read the card carefully. This is the bad half of Oracle of  Mul Daya and it's pre-selling for $5.

This is better with Kiora, but it benefits more from the exchange than Kiora does. It doesn't bring a whole lot to the table in that exchange, either, because if there is a land on top you have to draw it with Kiora, so two lands in a row hoses you just as much as normal. This shines when you have business on top and a land underneath and you activate Kiora, but your opponent now knows your business. I don't even think EDH will make this card worth the $5 it is pre-selling for.

Hunter's Prowess

Oh, good, a cycle of 5-mana garbage spells. This is the best of the "cycle", but spells like this are traditionally sort of bad if they are sorcery speed. This is going to do work if they can't deal with a creature getting incrementally bigger and trampling, but that screams "win more" to me. It's a 5 mana spell that won't help you kill them any better than Giant Growth. Bulk rare.

Scourge of Skola Vale

This is Darwin Kastle's kinda hydra. It's also one of the less flashy hydras we've seen legal in Standard, and leads to 2-for-1 situations with their removal. However, if a creature is dying anyway, this benefits. Exchanges like that crop up in Limited more often. Coupled with cards like Corpsejack Menace, this could be pretty nasty. Still, I don't think buying in at $2 is wise.

Astral Cornucopia

I saw people excitedly talking about the EDH potential of this card. Let's review. It's worse than Darksteel Ingot at 3 mana. It's worse than Gilded Lotus at 6 mana. At 9 mana, what are you ramping into that you need to pay 9 mana to get back 3? Doubling Season is cute with this, but not strong. These are pre-ordering for $2. Eww. This will only affect the format of "sealed" where it will serve as a note that says "Good luck building with only 5 rares."

 

1/21/2014 - Jason

Heroes' Podium

Hardly an EDH staple in the making, this could see play in certain builds. Other than that, it's a puzzling card. It requires you to play lots of different Legendary creatures and punishes you for having multiples of the same one, which lends itself to EDH, but most EDH decks don't run a ton of Legendary creatures. Puzzling indeed. This seems worse than Conjurer's Closet and Conjurer's Closet was a bulk rare.

Whelming Wave

More like "Underwhelming Wave". How many of these types of creatures do you play outside of Limited? This is going to win games in Limited, by the way. However, Limited appeal (in all senses of the term) bodes poorly for financial potential. I expect this to be tested quite a bit in certain control decks, although since they likely won't run any of these creatures, it's basically a sorcery-speed Evacuation for 2UU. Nothing to sneeze at, but not great. I expect this to settle lower than its presale price.

Hero of Leina Tower

This is slightly better than a 1/1 for G with no abilities, something that you don't want occupying a rare slot in your sealed pool. I don't have room in my life for cards that are slightly better than Mons' Goblin Raiders.

Phenax God of Deception

Phenax the all-powerful has spun a twisted web of deceit, reaching his discombobulating tendrils into the realm of man, beguiling the Twitterverse and vexing them into saying things like "Awesome" and "Can't wait to build around this." His machinations know no bounds and the feeble-minded among us will be fooled most easily, induced into paying more than $5 for Phenax and wasting countless hours on the futile endeavor of unlocking Phenax's true potential. "Maybe if I go down one Omenspeaker and add a fourth Doorkeeper..." they will say, unaware that their very minds have been given over to a capricious trickster god whose sole pursuit is clouding the minds of men and leading them astray. The Paranoid Delusions that they hope will win the day are the very delusions that will cause them to double down on their irrational beliefs, shrugging off the data from dozens of games of fruitless testing as "unrepresentative" and taking a Phenax deck to FNM where they will fail to win even a single game by milling. "Mind Grind is practically a fireball in this deck!" they will write in the comments section of their decklist on tappedout for perhaps three other people to happen upon, ever. Oh, eaters of Lotus flower, pitiful, bewitch'd men, victims of the god of whimsy and chicanery, abandon your quest now or be forever damned by the spirit of the flim-flam made incarnate.

Seriously, though, Mill is bad. Flip these to casuals at the prerelease for $25 or whatever absurd pre-sale price these are at and don't look back.

1/20/2014 - Jason

Chromanticore

Remember when you were 12 years old and you got blank cards from the World Championship decks and you got your magic markers out and designed your own Magic cards? Well, when I was 12, my brother was 9, and he designed Chromanticore, except he didn't give it bestow. No prices up for this yet, but I have to imagine this is going to be a bulk mythic. No deck will play this in constructed and no number of Springleaf Drums will make this playable in Limited. Of course, I never expected Horde of Notions to get played, either, but mana was a little better in those days. Before you open your mouth to say "My Maze's End deck would LOVE this guy!" let me stop you right there. This is dorky enough that it probably will never be a bulk mythic, but I don't see this clunky abomination ever seeing play except as a joke.

Spirit of the Labyrinth

"Oh no, how am I supposed to deal with a 1 toughness creature?" - No control deck ever.

This card is really odd to me, Prima Facie. On the one hand, a 3/1 for 2 is insanely fast and could be a legitimate clock against control. Hate bears have a tendency to at least get tried out. However, the hate bears I like right now help against aggro more than against control, which has an uncounterable wrath currently. The pre-order price is going to be too high for this guy as I see him being worse than anticipated rather than better than anticipated. It is powerful yet very narrow and the decks it can't stop can race it and the decks it does stop don't lack for ways to deal with it. You're going to randomly stop some people who need to Sphinx's Revelation for a wrath, and that's cool. It's possible cards like Frontline Medic get more play to keep a lock going. I just feel like this may be overrated by people initially.

That said, I am so negative about the card because I feel like I am being pragmatic. Twitter is currently pooping its pants over this card. It's Legacy and Vintage playable and its 3/1 body make it a real threat in those formats, especially when you can put equipment on it. Its effect is symmetrical, limiting its appeal, but the decks that can run it will at least brew with it. There is a lot of hype around this card and I expect a high pre-sale price followed by a high price for two or three weeks. If this underwhelms in testing, you have plenty of time to sell.

1/18/14 - Sigmund

Herald of Torment

Herald

Translation: Enchantment Creature — Demon Rare
Bestow 3{B}{B}
Flying
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life.
Enchanted creature gets +3/+3 and has flying.

Three mana for a 3/3 flying is impressive, and with the right deck the drawback won't matter as much. My problem here is that a 3/3 flier gets trumped fairly quickly. The Bestow ability could help keep this card relevant in the late game though. I would head to the forums to see what our Insiders think about this one - I'm on the fence here.

Fate Unraveler

Fate

Translation: Enchantment Creature — Hag Rare
Whenever an opponent draws a card, Fate Unraveler deals 1 damage to that player.

Does anyone else have trouble picturing what an "Enchantment Creature - Hag" would look like? Personally I am not super impressed with this one. Four mana for a 3/4 creature doesn't do much for me. I know there's that silly ping-a-player-every-turn ability, and this could be nice sideboard tech against Sphinx's Revelation. But I don't think the 3/4 body is good enough to be maindecked. As a sideboard card, the price potential here is minimal. Now combining this card with Nekusar in Commander IS interesting, but that play won't yield value for quite some time. I suppose picking up foils of these on the cheap isn't terrible.

1/17/14 - Gervaise

Brimaz, King of Oreskos

Brimaz

 

This is a very interesting spoiler card for White Weenie where Selesnya favoured Loxodon Smiter in the same manacost, Orzhov has Xathrid Necromancer and some 2 CMC human goodie coming from BNG. In Boros we have Chandra's Phoenix and Boros Reckoner so there is a lot of competition for this kittycat. Being x/4 and Vigilance and creating 1/1 tokens when attacking/blocking makes me wonder if this would be a solid card to invest in. Honestly being a mythic, this will stay high in the beginning especially when looking at EDH (This is definitely going into my Captain Sisay Legends deck!) but I don't think this will have a sustainable price unless WW aggro decks become the number #1 deck to beat.

[Edit] I forced myself to re-analyze this card based on doing research on other website. For instance Craig Wescoe (Renowned for being a WW sensei) wrote in his new TCGplayer article about new shells with this King of the Cats. As of now (17th Jan, 16;07 GMT), Brimaz is selling at 16€ on magiccardmarket and at the moment only Ebay is preselling (not sure if reputable) but it sales around $20 according to some other QS writers on Twitter.
I think he has short-term upside due his Mythic status but it has a lot of risk the more you want to hold him for profit maximization. So when you are one of the lucky ones opening or acquiring this card, trade it away for more stable cards!

Brimaz into Spear of Heliod is pretty brutal!

Fated Infatuation

FatedInf

 

The problem with Triple monocoloured spells is mostly their extreme limited playability they have in competitive Standard. Boros Reckoner and Nightveil Specter are not monocoloured spells ofcourse unless you play these in 3-4 coloured decks. I'm referring to cards like Death Cloud.

This card directly competes with Cyclonic Rift & Rapid Hybridization in Mono Blue Devotion decks. However the 2 cards mentioned are far superior in playability and curve-considerations. I play Mono Blue since the start of the PTQ season so I feel this card can be make/break in Mono Blue Mirror matches where this is card thus competes with Curse of the Swine , Cyclonic Rift, Simic Manipulator, CloneDomestication. I still think I prefer Domestication for instance to get an additional 2 U devotion for Thassa/Master of Waves rather than to copy a Master of Waves.

Thus valuewise an extremily hard card to  make money on. I refer back to Cackling Counterpart which is easier to cast and even has Flashback creating ''hard'' card advantage rather than ''soft'' card advantage through Scry.

 

Felhide Spiritbinder

Felhide

 

Minotaurs! However this cost 4 CMC for a 3/4 which is a Vanilla creature in the first turn you can attack with it. Then you have to attack with it and pay 1R (I imagine on Turn 6, 2 mana is not that of a restrictment on mana) so it is very hard for me to judge this above bulk-value. If I open this fella in the PRL, I would immediately look to trade it away. This takes up a red rare slot and that is a big pity. Very uninspiring card to me.

 

1/16/14 - Jason

Karametra, God of Harvests

I am officially not holding out much hope for the tape deck. Trostani disappeared from the internet today and speculation was that its GGWW mana cost was going to help turn this god on. Anyone else bothered by her mana cost not being WUBRG order? Probably, in fact.

Nerds.

Corbin and I have been on Trostani for a while. We tend not to pick up too many copies of cards that we tell podcast listeners to speculate on because that's sort of lame. "Hey guys, buy Trostani at $5 like we just bought the internet out of . Um... buy them from us at $10?" Yeah... not the greatest. Still, if I were going to go in on a card despite extolling its virtues this would be a good one. It's got a nice, big butt, gains life and makes dudes. We got a token-producing spell already and there could be one more. The temple also makes GW betterish. Why all this talk of a card that isn't Karametra?

Karametra is bad in Standard. EDH likely wants it. My Mayael of the Anima deck likely does, anyway. That's about all I can say. Trostani wasn't bought out online to turn this guy on, that's for sure. Does someone know something we don't?

Xenagos, God of Revels

Finally, a card worth getting excited over. Timmys around the world are already salivating, and with good reason. This card promises to severely punish control by making their board wipes a liability. It promises to turn cards already run in RG like Polukranos into monsters. It promises to make people brew with bad creatures like Kalonian Hydra. It's pre-selling for $13.50. $54 a playset seems cheap to me. I don't think it's THAT good, but if this is the only exciting card in the set, it may maintain its price just to justify the redemption price and the price of a booster. I don't pre-order cards. If you get a second finance person who tells you to pre-order this guy, you might want to. I really expected it to be preselling for $30. Is it $30 good? Nope, but neither is Kiora. This at least has people excited, and excited people might give you $30 in trade at the prerelease or the first week or so of legality. Do as I buy, not as I say, right? I'm not buying these. But don't take my word for it 100% because I don't think this is not worth $54 a playset. I think it has room to grow for sure, and the more cards that are spoiled that are worse than this, the more this is likely to go up and maintain a high price. I learned a lesson from Voice of Resurgence- the best card in a set won't always go up and stay up, but the only good card in a set can.

Ragemonger

Could this make Rageblood Shaman go up? Not on its own. Minotaurs are a very popular casual tribe - look up the price of Didgeridoo if you don't believe me. Will this be financially-relevant on its own? Doubtful. Could it enable minotaur tribal in Standard on its own and push up a bulk rare like Rageblood? I doubt that, too. But with a lot more Rakdos cards left to spoil and a few decent uncommon minotaurs in Theros, we could see it. I am still inclined to say no given how much more popular slivers are as a tribe and how little happened with those. Still, these cards are focused into two colors, not 4, and with new, decent removal spells in Rakdos, anything is possible. One more decent, aggressive minotaur is all the deck needs. That's not to sat Rageblood won't be a few bucks long-term, but get those as throwins until then, don't buy them.

Mindreaver

Hey, guys! We made a bad Grimoire Thief!

No thanks. We already had a bad Grimoire Thief, and it was called "Grimoire Thief". This card is somehow worse. I played old GT in Lorwyn times because you could tap him easily with Mothdust Changeling and it exiled the cards facedown making it harder for your opponent to play around it. This guy just sucks. Bulk rare.

 

1/14/14 - Sigmund

Tromokratis

Trom

Fun card to play, disappointing power level for 7 mana. Don't get me wrong, Hexproof is cool and all but having it be conditional Hexproof is much worse. Of course if your opponent can't kill your guy when he attacks or blocks, he's in for a world of hurt in order to stop this giant kraken. But still, for 7 mana I expect to be able to do a bit more.

Want more discussion on this card? Check out the Insider Forums - there's a thread just for this guy! https://www.quietspeculation.com/forum/index.php/topic,5440.0.html

Fated Intervention

Fated

Translation: Instant, Put two 3/3 green Centaur enchantment creature tokens onto the battlefield. If it's your turn, scry 2.

Six power for 5 mana at instant speed isn't half bad. The clause about scrying 2 if you played the card on your turn is a nice little perk. Again, the fact that these guys are also enchantments is a bit funny and I have to imagine this will matter at some point in Standard. While this doesn't strike me as the hidden gem of the set at first glance, if Advent of the Wurm saw play maybe this has a chance?

Fanatic of Xenagos

Fanatic

Translation: Creature — Centaur Warrior
Trample
Tribute 1 (As this creature enters the battlefield, an opponent of your choice may put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
When ~ enters the battlefield, if its tribute wasn't paid, ~ gets +1/+1 and gains haste until end of turn.

At Uncommon, 3 mana for a 3/3 trample isn't terrible. The fact that this guy is pretty much guaranteed to be 4/4 is even better at this casting cost. I could see this card appearing in some sort of aggressive R/G Standard deck. What's more, there's even some subtle multiplayer implications here. Choose an opponent you are looking to ally with and they can grant your Centaur Warrior haste along with that +1/+1 counter. Of course at Uncommon, tons of value won't be prevalent. But it is still an interesting card.

If you want to brew up ideas on how to make the best use of this card, check out the Insider forum discussion: https://www.quietspeculation.com/forum/index.php/topic,5435.0.html

1/14/14 Jason

We got a demigod yesterday that was nothing to write home about; how would you feel about a demigod that you'll like a bit more?

Oh, I just answered my own question. You'll....like it a bit more.

Mogis, God of Slaughter

This guy belongs at Mythic because he is going to absolutely run the table in Sealed. He isn't super powerful when you think about how everyone is just going to say "Fine, I'll take the two" but he is going to wrap games up. He is going to be a Curse of the Pierced Heart unless you can switch him on, but casuals will eat this guy up. He is pre-ordering for about $12, which seems like it could be high. I imagine he will go lower before he goes higher unless someone breaks him in Standard, which I tend to doubt. The guys at your shop who only come to the prerelease? Trade this to them. I imagine SCG will start it at $10-$12 but I am hoping it climbs because I see this as a dump. Enough casuals will think this card is great that you can get rid of it easily and if it hits $15 in the short term, so much the better. Pack this, don't buy it.

Hero of Iroas

Needs more hexproof. Shaving an entire mana and an entire turn off of Ordeals, he probably doesn't fit into aura-based, non-EDH decks and I don't see them becoming a thing in Standard so this guy is most likely Fabled Hero 2.0. Don't pay more than $1

Flame-Wreathed Phoenix

This is a very good rare card. This is a disappointing mythic rare. A 4 mana, sometimes 5/5, non-haste flier is likely not good enough. A 4 mana 3/3 flying, haste, comes back to your hand is better, but still not likely to replace Stormbreath Dragon in big decks and Chandra's Phoenix in small ones. I would rather have Chandra's Phoenix; at least that doesn't do what my opponent wants it to do. In a world where Mizzium Mortars is the only way to deal with creatures, he's amazing. We don't live in that world. I think this card is a dud, and that worries me about the set overall. The $10 pre-order price seems like the best possible evidence for never pre-ordering a card. Please explain to me that I am wrong about this card.

1/13/14 Jason

What's up you bunch of speculating machines? You ready for some wild guessing based on a very small number of cards in the set? Let's get it on!

Ephara, God of Polis

Finally, a card that rewards me for dumping my hand. This is going to be great in a blue white aggro deck that doesn't exist. If you look at block (ew) however, it DOES exist. The question is whether the next block gives us a more compelling thing to do with cards. Is U/W aggro possible? Sure, but it seems unlikely. Then again, if you had told me Standard would be ruled by the power of Thassa, Master of Waves and their interaction with Judge's Familiar I would have looked around for Ashton Kutcher and a camera crew. Does control want this? I don't know. You get a 6/5 that your 1-of Aetherling can trigger, or your Elspeth. You can turn it on with a mere 3 Detention Spheres. I guess this seems more cute than good. If this becomes great later, I was operating with incomplete knowledge. I am not preordering this, and I think you shouldn't either.

Pain Seer

"Wow, it's Bob!" - someone looking at Dark Tutelage during spoiler season

"Wow, it's Bob!" - someone looking at Blood Scrivener during spoiler season

"Wow, it's Bob!" - you, just now

No it isn't. I immediately thought "So you have to SWING WITH THIS DUDE?" but I was proud of myself for thinking 3 seconds later "A HA! No! You can use him to activate Springleaf Drum!" Sure, OK. Sometimes. The rest of the time he's a bad Bob, and drum is good in ramp decks. You want to play this guy in a ramp deck? Every finisher right now is costing 4 mana. Do you want to get Charred to draw a card when Underworld Connections costs 1 life only? This guy is fragile, hard to benefit from and he is so reminiscent of Blood Scrivener I want to just copy and paste what I said about that card, minus the part where Scrivener had a tribal affiliation I considered relevant.

Inspired Mechanic

It appears like there will be a mechanic that triggers when the creature untaps.  That seems good on aggressive creatures. It seems OK with springleaf drum and better if we get a card similar to drum to use as a tap outlet. I am not sold on the mechanic, especially given the card they showed us. Still, if we get tap outlets, things that untap could get there. I am thinking specifically Prophet of Kruphix. If you can tap creatures a lot, you get an extra untap. If there is a good inspired card in UG or UG/x Prophet could turn into Profit of Kruphix. Get it? Because you'll be able to sell it for more than you paid for it. Profit.

If you have no way to retap it on their turn, though, Prophet is not the play. I would be mindful of tap outlets as they spoil more cards and be ready to connect some dots in your head as you see more cards spoiled. This mechanic has potential, but with so few cards spoiled, I'm not feeling inspired quite yet.

1/12/14 - Gervaise

Happy new year everyone! Let me continue the spoilers!

Dire Flames

iapTjrM

 

Translation: Instant
Dire Flames deals 5 damage to target creature or planeswalker. If it is your turn, scry 2

So this card is strictly worse than if it would be creature or player as player includes planeswalker (redirection rule). Therefore I do not see much application outside limited because of it is limited application. We still have Warleader's Helix for instance and smaller burn cards.

The art is inspiring though!

 

 

Firestoker Dragon

Drag1

Translation: Flying
1R: ~ deals 1 damage to target creature. That creature can't block this combat. Activate this only if ~ is attacking.

Together with the Green big dude, these are the prerelease promos for BNG. Therefore finance-wise these cards do not shine well except in the limited format. We have Stormbreath Dragon in the same block so I'm afraid this Dragon is going to be sub-par.

Wild Nessian Devastator

Hydra1

Translation:
Tribute 6 (As this creature enters the battlefield, an opponent of your choice may put 6 +1/+1 counters on it.)
When ~ enters the battlefield, if its tribute was not paid, you may have ~ fight another target creature.

 

Devastator sounds full of flavour! The keyword mechanic Tribute sounds very interesting and I am looking forward to the more Standard competitive cards that migh have new impact.
In limited this card is the nuts as a 12/12 for 6 mana OR a 6/6 + destroy target creature with power 5 or less for 6 mana is pretty much a big turnaround in boardpresence. I even think this card might see play with Flesh // Blood in a Gruul devotion deck.

 

 

1/11/14 - Sigmund

Silent Sentinel

Silent

Translation: Flying
Whenever ~ attacks, you may return target enchantment card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Interesting to see new Enchantment support - looks like this theme will continue throughout the entire block. But a 7 mana 4/6 flyer that does nothing upon entering the battlefield doesn't really impress me much. At least it does something cool when it attacks, regardless of whether or not it does damage or survives combat. This will be most fun in Casual formats, but constructed playable this is not.

Mediator of the Ideal

Mediator

Translation: Flying
Inspiration — Whenever ~ becomes untapped, reveal the top card of your library. If it's an artifact, creature, or land card, you may put it onto the battlefield with a manifestation counter on it. It's an enchantment in addition to its other types.

I love the flavor of the Inspiration mechanic. This particular ability is interesting. Once again we have more enchantment shenanigans, which will lead to some very strange flavor. Oh I revealed an Island, now I have an Enchantment Island! Yay? Of course we need to see what other Enchantment cards are printed in this set to truly evaluate the utility of Land Enchantments. Six mana is a bit steep, but if you can activate this card repeatedly you are due for many free permanents. I will keep my eye on this one, but if it's a promo card, value won't be nearly as high.

Devourer of Hope

Devour

Translation: Flying
{B}, Sacrifice another creature: Regenerate ~.
2{B}, Sacrifice two other creatures: Destroy target creature.

Sacrificing creatures to activate this guys ability just isn't worth it. And 7 mana for a 6/4 flying is underwhelming. This guy is probably a bomb in Limited, but I don't see it getting played elsewhere unless sacrificing your own creatures suddenly becomes amazing.

12/25/13 - Gervaise - Kiora, the Crashing Wave

 

Kiora

 

First of all I want to welcome you to the new spoiler page for the upcoming set Born of the Gods. Personally THS limited has been very enjoyable though it looks (from a Competitive point of view) that sealed really punished tempo-loss a lot. Though having a small results sample, four out of eight PTQ finishes in THS Sealed (including myself) played R/W Weenie with interesting one- and two-drops like Travelling Philosopher and Priest of Iroas

 

Let's hope Born of the Gods injects some more life into the mono devotion metagame, thrilling limited environment and maybe some Sudden Impacts on Modern & Eternal formats! Kiora was a Christmas gift from Wizards and starting out with a meager 2 Loyalty for four mana, this looks really sketchy at first glance. The Blue/Green combination has been historically not impressive mostly forcing to go to three colors in constructed (Bant Hexproof, Bant Control, RUG, BUG etc.).

For it to survive another turn and thus create any form of card advantage, one has to create board presence on Turn 1 until 3. To me this does not look like an Aggro card but more of a control card meaning the deck potentially using this has to be either BUG or Bant. Therefore any form of board presene in control decks mostly involve getting rid of the opposing board presence. I think that this card is more a marketing tool to attract casual players to buy Born of the Gods, I do not think this card generates enough card advantage (if it survives that is) to be useful. The Andrios, Roaming Explorer minus ability makes one cycle the card basically for four mana. And grinding to the ultimate is mostly a harder journey than Frodo's expedition to Mount Doom.

It will have casual appeal so trade it away immediately will be the best strategy when opening/acquiring this during the prerelease as the value will quickly plummet. It will have an Ashiok effect at best where someone finishes high in a popular tournament but not convincing enough to sustain the demand.

Join the conversation

Want Prices?

Browse thousands of prices with the first and most comprehensive MTG Finance tool around.


Trader Tools lists both buylist and retail prices for every MTG card, going back a decade.

Quiet Speculation