Saturday night was a big night for spoilers, I wasn’t able to watch the stream but instead monitored Twitter from the bar where I was celebrating a friend’s wedding (congrats James and Amanda!). Seeing new dual lands, a new Ulamog and a colorless instant left me pretty excited and anxious for this new set. I immediately started wondering which of the spoilers would possibly see some play in Modern and Legacy and what they would mean for eternal formats.
As a Mudpost player these spoilers were beyond exciting for me and if you follow me on twitter you probably could tell that I want the new Ulamog yesterday.+++ I haven’t been playing Mudpost recently but the minute this new set becomes legal I will definitely be running a new Mudpost brew. Right now Gurmag Angler, Dig Through Time and Tasigur are all seeing a lot of play and many decks are loading up on cantrips to fuel these powerful delve cards. I believe this makes the super-mill ability on the new Ulamog extremely strong in this meta. Even if your opponent has blockers to survive two direct hits it will most likely will mill out their deck. Ulamog might not have annihilator but you do get to exile two permanents when you cast him which is pretty good by itself. I’m also fairly impressed that it’s only 10 mana. While Emrakul is an obvious game winner, 15 mana can be hard to achieve as opposed to 10. Oh and did I mention it’s indestructible? I also think it would be good in a lot of Tron decks that are still running the original Ulamog for all of the same reasons. I’ve already seen a lot of people talk about putting it in other decks but I’m not sure how I feel about that. I could see it being fun in Sneak and Show or as a creature to reanimate. Though I do understand it must be exciting for Reanimator players to think that they can finally run an Eldrazi since the rest have the shuffle effect. However, there a lot of existing good targets for both of those decks and the decision is a little less cut and dry than in Mud, where I feel like Ulamog should instantly be added to the 75.
Shortly after the reveal of Ulamog, they revealed Titan’s Presence, a card that I am dying to play. Mudpost is desperate for some instant speed removal and Titan’s Presence couldn’t be any more perfect for the deck. Even a Metalworker would kill an unflipped Delver of Secrets or a Deathrite Shaman which is a big deal for a deck that currently doesn’t run any instant speed spells at all. Delver can be extremely hard for Mudpost if it lands but in a deck that can easily make three mana turn one Titan’s Presence makes the matchup much better (if you don’t have your turn one Chalice of the Void). Then Ulamog, Emrakul, Sundering Titan and Wurmcoil Engine can remove almost anything else; it’s extremely powerful removal for a deck that runs such large creatures.
The last thing I’m excited for is the fetchable dual lands which I think have a lot of potential for Modern. Shocklands are great, and are without a doubt not going to be replaced by these new lands. However, I think that these new lands will be great to mix with shocklands in a lot of Modern decks. In decks with greedy mana base like Jund I think it will be great to add in some more fetchable dual lands, especially since they have the potential to come in untapped (without eating at your life total). However, if you decide to run these lands I will see people running more basics so I’m still on the fence about how good they will be. I’m also hoping it will help a few more people break into the format since it will be another type of dual land that will be available for people. While it’s no Legacy, Modern is still an expensive format and I always support measures that will bring in new players.
They haven’t spoiled much of Battle for Zendikar but what they’ve shown so far has me extremely excited. I’m going to be waiting extremely impatiently for the rest of the set and it’s even got me considering playing standard. I hope that Battle For Zendikar lives up to its hype. Wizards has set a pretty high bar so far, so let’s hope it doesn’t disappoint us.