2012)

Hello again and welcome to the third edition of the Chaos Theory. This week I was going to take a look at a Jund Madness deck sent in by a reader, but that will have to wait until next week, since Dark Ascension is now fully spoiled and I want to give my input on some cards.

I hope to do a set review with each new set so I will give you a run-down on how I plan to do them. I will not talk about every card, I will touch on every rare/mythic rare, but boring or weak commons/uncommon I won’t touch.

White
Archangel’s Light – The fact that a glorified Elixir of Immortality takes up a Mythic slot makes me very sad. Like Elixir this card is absolutely terrible, although if you want to play one stick with the Elixir, at least it is cheap.

Faith’s Shield – Without Fateful Hour this card is not particularly interesting. However, at the end of a multiplayer game when there only a few players left and a somewhat stalled board, this can act as a Fog or as a way to get in an alpha strike. It seems especially good if you play one in a Sunforger based deck to tutor it up at the critical moment.

Gather the Townsfolk – Great if you need a way to make Human tokens specifically, otherwise it is not great.

Gavony Ironwright – A three mana 1/4 in multiplayer is pretty horrible, unless of course you happen to be playing Doran, the Siege Tower. If you hit Fateful Hour with Doran in play... well I hear +4/+4 is a nice thing to have. Even without Doran this guy is bonkers if you hit Fateful Hour. If I was playing him I wouldn’t look to include more than one though, and I would ensure I could tutor for it.

Increasing Devotion – This is a fairly solid token producer, and should see play in many mono-white token based decks. Ignoring creature types I think this is superior to Conqueror’s Pledge as it is less color intensive (white/black tokens anyone?), and the ability to make tokens twice gives you some ability to recover from a board wipe. Downside, ten is a lot of mana if you want to make sure you can flash it back, ensure you have a way to get to 10 mana aside from naturally drawing almost half the lands in your deck. My suggestion? Springjack Pasture.

Lingering Souls – This is also known as Midnight Haunting II. If you are playing Haunting then definitely consider this card even if you splash black with a couple of Swamps and Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds, or white/black dual lands.

Loyal Cathar//Unhallowed Cathar – This guy happens to be a soldier on both sides so don’t discount him if your soldier deck is weak to board wipe effects.

Midnight Guard – This guy is again a soldier, and with Catapult Master/Catapult Squad and all the easy ways to make soldier tokens this guy could be vaguely ridiculous.

Requiem Angel – I initially disregarded this card because my brain inserted the words “non-token”, because that would be fair. But it just says non-spirit, so this is a perfectly reasonable finisher in a non-spirit token deck. I will be finding space for a copy in my Teysa, Orzhov Scion deck that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.

Seance – Cool with “enters the battlefield abilities” but otherwise ignore.

Sudden Disappearance – Picking on one opponent in multiplayer usually isn’t great, and if you are exiling your own stuff you probably don’t need to exile all of your toys, Mistmeadow Witch seems like a much better choice.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - Will randomly hose people who aren’t paying attention, otherwise little value for multiplayer.

Thraben Doomsayer – The ability to make a token every turn is very good as Bloodline Keeper showed us. This guy isn’t on the same power level unfortunately as the Fateful Hour ability means opponents will just wait until they can do enough damage to kill you. If you need a consistent Human maker for your Ravenous Demon/Archdemon of Greed then this is your best option.

Blue
Beguiler of Wills – Another largely unimpressive mythic. A powerful card against control decks, but in multiplayer this will be inconsistent at best.

Call to the Kindred – A lot of work for some card filtering and a free creature, generally not great for blue tribes as they play cheap creatures and have access to better card draw. A potential include in a Quest for Ula’s Temple deck?

Counterlash – A six mana counterspell is generally not great. However, free spells generally are great. I would be looking to play a creature off of this as they seem to be the most common spell type for multiplayer. Did someone just say Quest for Ula’s Temple deck?

Curse of Echoes – Wizards, Hive Mind is not witty or cool, please stop doing this.

Dungeon Geists – Tapping down one dude is not great, NEXT!

Geralf’s Mindcrusher - Interacts well with Undead Alchemist, aside from that you probably want to mill yourself.

Havengul Runebinder – Seems fine in the aforementioned Undead Alchemist deck.

Increasing Confusion – Milling one player isn’t great. If you want to mill a player for lots use Traumatize instead.

Black
Curse of Misfortunes – If you are playing a curse deck this seems like a cool way to tutor for Curse of Thirst.

Curse of Thirst – A kill condition in a curse-based deck, get some Copy Enchantments and go to town.

Fiend of the Shadows – I generally don’t like these sort of cards as your opponent will always try to exile something that is useless for you.

Geralf’s Messenger – The triple black is a bit restrictive and causing an opponent to lose two life isn’t massive. However, this does combo nicely with Noxious Ghoul. [Editor's note: To clarify, Noxious Ghoul's -1/-1 won't knock off the +1/+1 counter from the Messenger's Undying ability. I think he means you can potentially get two uses of the Ghoul with the Messenger.] Carnifex Demon is great route to take if you want him to come back multiple times.

Gravecrawler – This is the zombies' version of Bloodghast, and since zombies have Noxious Ghoul I think I know whose side I am on.

Increasing Ambition – I really want to like this card, unfortunately I think it costs far too much initially to be good.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed – Now here is a card. I could probably dedicate an entire article to him. For now I will just share the favorite interaction I have come up with so far: Gravecrawler + a sacrifice outlet (like Blasting Station or Phyrexian Ghoul). For a single black you get to bring him back. Twice!

Ravenous Demon//Archdemon of Greed – This is a very fussy demon, but if you can satisfy his hunger you will certainly be able to take over a game.

Skirsdag Flayer – This guy makes the white/black humans deck in my opinion. Four mana to unconditionally kill a creature at instant speed is uber-powerful, and being able to sac himself is a nice bonus for the sticky spots.

Tragic Slip – I heard somewhere that -13/-13 is a lot. Especially when it costs a single black. In multiplayer creatures tend to die all the time, expect to see this in black decks that are running Dismember. The art is also hilarious.

Zombie Apocalypse – Better than Patriarch’s Bidding in zombie decks. You will probably gain a lot more value out of this than you would first expect from killing random humans.

Red
Alpha Brawl – A potential one-sided Wrath seems powerful, but for 8 mana I would hope to hurt more than one player.

Curse of Bloodletting – If the curse deck becomes a thing this feels super powerful. Even the ability in red to make everyone want to attack that other guy is relatively powerful.

Faithless Looting – This is a very powerful card, especially if you are looking to dump something for reanimation purposes like Demigod of Revenge. Also, don’t discount this card in aggro decks where you can filter away land to draw gas.

Flayer of the Hatebound – I guess I’m getting good at this foreshadowing thing because Demigod of Revenge is also bonkers with this guy! And don't worry about effects that pinch creatures from your graveyard, it will still cause the ability to trigger and you get to decide where the damage goes!

Hellrider – HELL YEA! Hellrider has battle cry on steroids, and the fact he has haste pushes him way over the top. This is a fantastic reach card for any red creature-based deck.

Increasing Vengeance – I think the “spell you control” drawback is not too significant here. Since, I generally do not like relying on my opponents to cast impressive spells I would hope I have some in whatever deck I put this into. It also interacts very well with Chandra Ablaze.

Markov Blademaster – Three mana for what is in essence a 2/1 is a bit steep. If you manage to get some equipment on him then he feels powerful, I’m just not convinced I wouldn’t rather have Mirran Crusader who feels similar but comes with on board protection.

Mondronen Shaman – If this guy ever flips don’t expect your opponents to waste time flipping it back, I would expect it to meet the pointy end of a Doom Blade. However, if they can’t get rid of it this will deal a lot of damage, fast.

Moonveil Dragon – I am getting thoroughly sick of all the big lame-ass dragons being printed at mythic these days. I want to see some new design space explored instead of here is another dragon with some ability that makes it mythic. YAWN

Pyreheart Wolf – This card feels deceptively strong. When combined with Hellrider, opponents of red decks are going to be hurting for the next little while.

Green
Deranged Outcast – If I am playing a human-based deck I don’t feel like I want to be in green, but is relatively powerful if he can be made to work.

Feed the Pack – This is a cool card. I can see this slotting in as a one-of in lots of different green decks, but for now I will just suggest the Doran deck I mentioned in the white section.

Ghoultree – A 10/10 with no trample, enough said.

Increasing Savagery – Going “all in” one guy, just to do it again when they kill him? Not great.

Lost in the Woods – What I dislike more than Fog effects is Fog effects at rare.

Tracker’s Instinct – This will be getting a test-run in my BUG Self-Mill deck.

Vorapede – Better than Kodama of the North Tree, otherwise uninteresting.

Wolfbitten Captive – A relatively good aggressive drop for a Werewolf deck. It will be great to cast him on turn 1 and follow him up with a Mayor of Avabruk. Interestingly this is one of the few werewolves you may not want to flip as four mana is a much bigger investment than two.

Multicolor
Diregraf Captain/Drogskol Captain/Immerwolf/Stromkirk Captain – These are all very good, even if you aren’t going to be playing the tribe anytime soon I would recommend picking up a playset just in case.

Drogskol Reaver – On the face of it this card seems to be a worse version of Consecrated Sphinx. However for multiplayer I think I prefer it. It doesn’t have the “oh-god-someone-kill-it-now” feel that Consecrated Sphinx has, but still has the potential to draw a lot of cards. If you manage to throw in some equipment/auras there is serious potential for massacring an entire table.

Falkenrath Aristocrat – Red/black vampires is definitely a deck that will be popping up at casual tables, but unfortunately the Falkenrath Aristocrat is not a good fit. When compared to Olivia she feels underwhelming. The ability for her to stick around is nice even if the human side of the ability is not being used, but I feel an overwhelming “meh” about this card.

Havengul Lich – A definite contender for most exciting multiplayer card of the set. The ability to cast creatures from anyone’s graveyard is bonkers, and with the random upside of being a pseudo-Necrotic Ooze! Havengul Lich too sexy for words. There are minor issues of not being able to cast all of your opponents' creatures, but with a few Vivid Lands you should be able to ensure you can cast a good portion of them. When you combine Havengul Lich with Memory Plunder, Beacon of Unrest and Geth, Lord of the Vault there is some serious potential to make your opponents curse at you as you beat them upside the head with their own fatty of choice.

Huntmaster of the Fells – Another absurdly powerful werewolf, although it creates an interesting tension if played in the same deck as Immerwolf. His ability to make guys and kill guys pushes him to the front as one of the top dogs in the werewolf deck.

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad – When evaluating Sorin I compared him closely to Elspeth, Knight-Errant, as they are both 4 mana walkers that +1 to make a guy. I think that for multiplayer the permanent +1/+0 is better than the one use “jump” and that Sorin’s finisher is much more powerful than Elpeth’s, so he comes out on top for me. (If you want to see some multiplayer ideas for him, check out my first article: Teysa’s Tokens).

Artifacts
Elbrus, the Binding Blade – This is definitely the coolest card in Dark Ascension. Is it good? If you can cheat it into play with Stonehewer Giant it seems beyond awesome, otherwise it might be too much effort to make it work well.

Grafdigger’s Cage – Trade to competitive players and acquire real cards instead.

Helvault – I feel like there are some interesting applications for this card that I am missing, but I don’t find the card interesting enough to actually bother working out what they are.

Jar of Eyeballs – Flavor win, otherwise it's just okay; creatures die often enough in multiplayer and it is reusable.

Land
Grim Backwoods – Seems really good in a Savra deck, and in general black/green decks are fine with creatures dying, and being a color combination that is notoriously difficult to draw cards in I think this land is very good.

Vault of the Archangel - If Grim Backwoods is good then this is great. I wrote about a black/white tokens deck two weeks ago, and this land is perfect for the deck. If you attack someone with this land up you can look the defending playing in the eye, smirk, and casually ask “Gonna block?”

So there it is my first ever set review. Let me know what you think in the forums, do you disagree with any of my evaluations? Don’t forget to follow me on twitter @DelverOfSecrets, and , see you next week!

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