#karona is kinda cool

[thisangstriddenschoollifetragedy]

Just watched a video about the Onslaught block storyline, and wow it sure it something.

[dailymtgflavortext]

Ravnica Allegiance Overview

Hello everyone!

I had a good time at the prerelease yesterday. It was a weird split of guilds, something I didn’t expect. There were 4 people playing Gruul (I thought there would be many more, it seemed like the best guild to me), two people playing Azorius, a handful playing Simic, and about a dozen (myself included) playing Orzhov. Nobody chose Rakdos. I ended up going 2-2 in the end, but we split the prize in the final round. Actually, the final round was pretty bad to be honest. I had no mana in the first game, he had only mana in the second game, and once again I had no mana in the third. Quickest three games I’ve ever been part of.

Anyway, I’ve done this once before, so I thought it would be kinda fun to do again. After the break, I’m gonna go through the cards in the set that I’m most looking forward to using. Keep in mind, I play commander almost exclusively, so that’s the lens through which I view them all.

First and foremost, there are a few angels in this set that I’ll have to acquire foil versions of.

Fine additions to my collection.

Now, on to the cards I need for my decks. There are a lot of Gruul goodies in this set, so Thromok gets some cool things to play with:

Riot is such a good mechanic. Haste is important for Thromok, so being able to give it to any creature I cast is super. Domri will probably find a home in the deck, and I’ll give Rhythm of the Wild a shot as well.

Nikya will be an interesting experiment. I really like the design of this card, and Thromok only has like 6 non-creature spells in the deck, so the huge mana-boost it gives might just be worth it.

Although I didn’t see a lot of Rakdos in the prerelease, there are still a number of cards I want to try out. Tymaret and Mathas both get some potential upgrades here:

Tymaret can deal direct damage pretty easily, so I don’t think it’ll be much of an issue to play the cards Theater of Horrors exiles. It’s almost like another Phyrexian Arena, so I hope it works out. The only possible issue is that something important could be exiled before I’m actually able to cast it.

One of the gimmicks of my Tymaret deck is to create a lot of tokens and sacrifice them for various effects. Sacrificing two at once may not always be feasible (or a good idea), but I think Priest of Forgotten Gods has potential.

Bedevil is an extremely powerful kill spell, so I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t use it. The instant-speed makes it worth running over Dreadbore, but I think I’ll still run them both in Tymaret if I can. Mathas has plenty of good kill spells already, so it will be a strict upgrade there.

I don’t actually think Captive Audience will be that great, but it seems like the kind of thing I’d use in the Mathas deck. It’s worth a shot, anyway.

Daghatar gets a bit of love in this set too:

I feel like this is a weird effect for an “Azorius” card. They don’t usually give their things +1/+1 counters, do they? Well, it’s still something good for Daghatar, so I’m not complaining. It can be used both defensively and offensively, so the versatility is great.

This seems like a neat counterpart to Gyre Sage. Throwing a counter on it shouldn’t be a problem, so it should make for some pretty good mana-ramp.

Unfortunately, this set didn’t give me the kind of Orzhov cards I wanted. Not to say they were bad, they just didn’t have a lot of synergy with my Karlov deck.

I want the deck to mess around with everyone’s life totals a lot, so Revenge seems like a good addition. Probably a game-ender with Sanguine bond as well, so that’s something. Even Revival is a decent choice, since there are a lot of small creatures in the deck.

This was my foil from the prerelease, and I think I might give it a try. I know, the irony of using it in a Karlov deck is pretty heavy. Oh well, RIP Obzedat and my dream of you getting a third card...

Smothering Tithe is just a cool card, so I hope it’s worth using here. Honestly, it would probably be better with Mathas, since I have Revel in Riches in that deck as well. Hmmmm...

Now, just for a few miscellaneous one-offs for various decks:

As I play Shu Yun more and more, I’ve found how necessary it is to always have some sort of evasion spell. This one gives a decent boost in power as well, so I think it’s worth using. It’s kinda funny how many of these little common combat-trick spells I’ve managed to fit into that deck.

It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at my Scarab God deck, but Thought Collapse continues my tradition of using bad “mill slightly” counterspells in it. Hooray!

Awwwwwww yeeeeahhhh more Gate-tech for Karona. It doesn’t even enter tapped, so it’s not a bad multi-coloured land for the mid-game.

Excellent. Another excuse for Iwamori of the Open Fist to PUNCH!

And finally, a card that I’m sure many people are excited for. I don’t like using a lot of X-cost spells in Melek, but I feel like casting this one and copying it a few times is just tooooo good to pass up. And at Instant speed, no less. Just crazy.

Well, if you‘ve made it this far, I congratulate you. I hope you enjoyed my opinions on these cards! Now, I must ask, what cards are you most looking forward to using? Not even just in commander, but any format?

[dailymtgflavortext]

Yup, that’s it.

All ten. The whole set. Every one.

Foil Guildgates.

My Karona deck has the best lands!

Hm, and I guess those other ones up top are kinda cool too.