Welcome to another edition of Spoiler Season by Hipsters of the Coast! We’ll post all of the officially revealed cards so far and have our writers discuss each one.

Monday, April 3

Hazoret the Fervent

Ryan Sainio: Not as ridiculous as the red analog on Theros. But frankly, that’s a really good card. I hope the “animation” condition is different for each God. Hopefully all hand related for memory issues. Other 99 candidate for CMDR, don’t think it’s general material.

Carrie: Good madness enabler, at least for cheap stuff like Fiery Temper. I really like this card, and it’s great as a topdeck late when you have no cards. Exactly what an aggro deck wants. Also funny to block with this by casting a trick or using the discard ability, though I think if you’re blocking with Hazoret something went wrong.

Zach: I can’t wait to lose to this in Limited. This is such a Spike god. I really, really hope there’s another awkward white spell in the graveyard that’s like:

Someone’s Judgment

4W

Sorcery

Exile target creature or player’s graveyard.

A lack of a reliable answer to indestructible creatures will be really annoying. The Theros gods at least let you kill other permanents to turn off their devotion, but Hazoret is basically impossible to answer without exiling it.

Rob: The Invocation for this looks like it reads “Legendary Creature–Gob!” Expect alters to be extremely popular, and expect to take 5+ a turn in one of your Prerelease matches.

Beck: Maybe there will be targeted card draw so you can make your opponent draw cards to turn off Hazoret, Zach! In other news, as a green-red aggro player in standard, this can just get in my deck.

Nate: I could see this finding a home in some of the red stompy decks in non-rotating formats. If it can attack the turn it comes into play, it could be very strong.

Rich: One of the best ways to combat this would be returning your opponent’s permanents to their hand. In the absence of strong countermagic it would be interesting to see if that mechanic makes a strong comeback.

Destined to Lead

Carrie: These seem worse than normal split cards, as they don’t give you two options at once. The aftermath mechanic is really just flashback with a different spell coming out of the yard. Still sounds good, though.

David: Worse than split cards, worse than flashback…usually..

Zach: As a pseudo-fuse card, this is way worse than Armed/Dangerous, but it’s a neat combo trick that turns into an alpha strike enabler. Neither card is worth much on its own, but together, it could do some damage as a late pick.

Beck: I love the story that emerges from the combination of art, title, and rules text on this–someone surviving/triumphing in a trial that perhaps should have killed her and becoming a leader of her people because of it.

Rich: I miss the tombstone symbol from Odyssey block. I like that they keep experimenting at least.

Anointer Priest

Carrie: This is a lot of blocking and a point or two of life. I like the sound of that.

Zach: A two mana 1/3 isn’t good or exciting (particularly when there’s a two mana 1/4, suggesting that 2/2s for 2 aren’t going to be much good). Incidental lifegain and card advantage are decent, however. Perhaps there’s an aristocrats/lifegain theme akin to what we saw in BfZ’s BW allies deck.

Rob: Anointer, Zulaport Cutthroat, Scion tokens, and Pious Evangel for maximum Aristocratic board-clogging. Also counteracts the life-cost and plays well with Westvale Abbey.

Rich: The art for this looks like it would fit into Fallen Empires or Alliances. Not sure if that’s good or bad.

Cartouche of Solidarity

Ryan Sainio: Seems good against Liliana of the Veil in Modern. Maybe Dakkon Blackblade Warrior Tribal in CMDR.

Carrie: You don’t get the token unless this resolves, but it’s decent value for one mana. You probably want some trials before you play this in Limited, though.

Zach: Cartouche, cartouche, can you do the fandango?

Beck: Hazoret and Rhonas will sacrifice to Bolas me!

Djeru’s Resolve

Carrie: Cycling makes bad situational cards playable. This one is good with exert.

Zach: Carrie nails it in one, again. Could you let me say some of this stuff sometimes, man? /s

In all honesty, I love cycling. It lets you play situational bad spells and a sort of smaller deck.

Rob: The only downside to cycling is that I end up trying to cut my deck down from twenty-eight cards.

Rich: I wasn’t expecting to see any untap effects to combo with Exert so this is kind of surprising especially at common.

In Oketra’s Name

Ryan Sainio: 2002 Ryan would be so confused about white Zombie tribal. Good warchief effect.

Carrie: As an instant this can help save creatures from damage-based sweepers, in addition to the normal aggressive uses. Two mana is a reasonable price.

Zach: This is some weird text on a white card, and the artwork doesn’t sell me on the flavor. Why aren’t the mummies charging ahead of everyone else, suggesting that they’re more emboldened?

Rich: Because they’re still slow Zombies, Zach

Trial of Knowledge

Carrie: Four mana is one too many to like this, but it might still be fine. If you have some cartouches, it gets better, though card draw gets worse when you have to load up on bad cards to enable it. I guess you can discard the garbage at least.

Zach: Sift with upside is nice. I have high hopes for 3.5/5 of the Trials. Either red or black will get to kill a creature, which means the other one will burn the face/discard cards for too much mana. And we’ll see if green or white gets the token-making one.

Rob: Presumably, Cartouches buff creatures and bounce Trials–in other words, they make Theros-block Heroic/Constellation engines. Interesting for EDH and the kitchen table.

Beck: White trial is solidarity, so I bet that will be the token-maker. Green trial is strength–might be +2/+2 to your creatures until end of turn? Or maybe +1/+1 and trample?

Nest of Scarabs

Carrie: I’d need a lot of ways to make -1/-1 counters before I wanted to play this card in Limited. Even then, I’m not so sure. But the 1/1s are better if you’re busy shrinking your opponent’s board.

Zach: I do quite like the flavor here. Does seem like a rich get richer card, but perhaps there’s a really cool -1/-1 counter deck in the format? Perhaps there’ll be another card which lets you sacrifice these tokens to put -1/-1 counters on a creature?

Rich: This looks like it’s going to find a nice home in a lot of Commander decks. I’m sure those decks are finely tuned machines by now, but I really like this as a card for singleton formats like Commander and Cube.

Ahn-Crop Crasher

Carrie: This card looks amazing. I wrote about it in my column, so check that out. Very skill-testing card.

Zach: I dislike this card for that very reason. I love Goblin Heelcutter because it presented an interesting choice, where both of the options were clear as to what you want to do (beat your opponent’s face in [as opposed to this card which wants to bleat your opponent’s face in]). Ahn-Crop Crasher is crazy aggressive, and probably doesn’t exert all that often, unless it’s winning you the game or creating an attack that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. Exert is this weird, super skill-testing mechanic which can punish you for playing with the cool thing and that’s dangerous design space.

Beck: I don’t know, I think you will want to use the exert ability more often than not… Two toughness makes it pretty easy to kill, and if this attacks into a board where it’s apt to trade anyway, the exert ability is just bonus.

Rich: File this one under “exploring the design space for Exert” which is a mechanic I think we will be seeing a lot of in the future.

Limits of Solidarity

Zach: Threaten as an uncommon is fascinating. Sure, cycling makes it more expensive, but this card at uncommon kind of convinces me that there’s a decent amount of sacrificing in the set (which makes a lot of sense).

Rob: Fun name. That extra mana makes sense as a cycling tax (c.f. Expunge or Angelsong), but the rarity bump is, as Zach suggests, more interesting in terms of what it reveals about the set. No Traitorous Bloods here.

Beck: Flavor text gives us the confirmation that the Trials end with only one true Worthy. Judging by the Amonkhet trailer, I think it’s this Djeru fellow.

Flameblade Adept

Ryan Sainio : I love this card.

Zach: Monastery Swiftspear wasn’t a very good card in Limited. This protects itself a little bit better (because of menace), but the lack of toughness increase means that when it’s going to die, it’ll die. This will be a lot better if a few cards cycle for a single mana.

Nate: This is the most interesting card spoiled today. It could be nothing, but it could also be super busted. It’s interesting for not being a keyworded ability, so I’m not sure there will be many other cards with similar cycling/discard triggers. The comparison to Monastery Swiftspear is apt, and I really think similar to that card that in the right deck this could be very strong.

Rich: All of Aaron’s hopes and dreams of playing Astral Slide in Modern are coming true! This could also be great in an aggressive/tempo deck.

Crocodile of the Crossing

Carrie: Crococross doesn’t impress me, but I’m sure I’ll lose to it.

Zach: A 4/3 haste for four is a decent creature, particularly in a format where four toughness seems to be the magic number. I’m much more bullish on this croc.

Beck: With the way stats line up, it might often be reasonable to dump the -1/-1 counter onto your two-drop and keep this huge… I’m excited to try playing with this card.

Rich: I feel like every set has a solid green uncommon creature that we all get excited about and it never pans out that way, but who knows?

Friday, March 31

Carrie: Best dual land cycle since the shocklands. These are going to prove to be really, really strong. Control is back in Standard, and midrange might like these even more, except when those decks just lose to control.

Zach: These are so weird. They’re the worst possible lands to fetch for, but they’re the best fetchable topdeck lands in the late game. I’m also a bit saddened that there are now three fetchable allied color lands and only the enemy shocklands for cube (okay, four if you count the original duals, but those aren’t going into my cube). But they’ll come out eventually (perhaps even in the next set!).

Rob: And the fluctuations in Life from the Loam’s value continue. Land Grant will also get them, Nissa’s Pilgrimage will not.

Beck: Could some cards that tutor a land type to your hand be coming back in standard? That would create really interesting game play–you could get the land you need to play in the early game, or you could get one of these and cycle it away in the late game to thin your deck. Also, I love the art on this one.

Beck: This is not what I was hoping for for my red-green aggro deck.

Zach: Sorry we got all this muck in your pool. Here, have a mudhole.

Rich: The fact that this doesn’t line up with Fetid Heath in any way is going to frustrate me for a long time.

Zach: Pretty geometric farms are pretty.

Carrie: This illustration is fantastic for sure.

Zach: When asked how high it would jump, Aven Mindcensor jumped from 2007 into 2017.

Carrie: Good reprint, but I doubt they knew it would be on Egypt-plane when they “future-shifted” it a decade ago.

Rich: Still waiting to find out which plane Tombstalker comes from. Sigh.

Zach: The existence of this card suggests that aggro might be more of a thing than the midrange value Mardu vehicles deck. Or it was just spot on the flavor of Gideon finding his gods again.

Carrie: Cool old card added to Modern. Seems like a reasonable card for UW control, which had a decent showing in Team Unified Modern and might show up more in normal Modern as well.

Rich: I can’t wait for Nicol Bolas to shatter Gideon’s faith all over again.

Zach: I love the weird, accurate creature type. One wonders whether this card exists to hose some upcoming powerful counterspell, or if it’s just another red herring-rhino.

Rob: Sir Pops!

Beck: With how many powerful counterspells landed in the Invocations, I sure hope it’s a sign of things to come for the set’s actual counter-magic. It would be one of the best checks on a set with powerful indestructible gods.

Carrie: Negate is the best counterspell in Standard these days, but maybe Amonkhet has some good ones in store. Has to be two mana to be worth countering this, though I suppose it’s more about protecting your bigger threats than itself.

Wednesday, March 29

Zach: Imagine if after “FLASH” it instead said “WAOOOO.” And then someone miracled a Terminus.

Carrie: Embalm be like “cool story bro” and CP be like “wut r u doing in Legacy?”

Rich: Is this art a holdover from Mirage? It kind of looks that way.

Zach: Sorry, I Biverted that spell.

Carrie: At least the art fits the frame here.

Rich: So many lulz in limited with this one.

Zach: The god totally pierced the flames it’s standing in.

Carrie: Did Spell Pierce really need a fancy reprint?

Rich: Everything needs a fancy reprint except Stasis.

Beck: So, this is one of the pieces of art that piques my interest most. It looks like traversing a trap-infested pyramid might be one of the Trials of the Five Gods.

Rich: I hope you’re right because otherwise I can’t tell what’s being stifled here.

Carrie: The poor human depicted here is trying to make mono-black viable in cube.

Rich: Story-time: Back at Neutral Ground after they moved next door to Girl Scout HQ but before they closed for good they had a bulk rare re-pack draft which I finished second in thanks to a token-engine Attrition deck. I lost in the finals to another black deck. I should have seen that coming.

Carrie: I didn’t even know this card existed.

Rich: It’s part of a whole cycle that required you to sacrifice a creature. I think the cycle was in Planeshift.

Beck: Another art that makes me think “get through this booby-trapped pyramid” is one of the gods’ trials.

Rich: It’s going to be the pre-release trial perhaps

Rich: On a scale of 1 to infinity this card is inifinitely fun in limited.

Rich: I guess they can’t all be winners. This is nice art but it’s on the wrong card.

Rich: I’m glad I don’t still play competitive Legacy so I don’t need to shell out cash for a set of these.

Tuesday, March 28

Loyal Retainers

Zach: Wow. That’s some beautiful artwork on a garish card layout and font. …I feel like I could say that about pretty much all of them.

I don’t know what I’m supposed to say about any of the Invocations. Thanks for printing a bunch of cards which benefit from a reprint and a premium version? Sorry, they look awful and are difficult to read? Thanks for not reprinting anything as stupidly overpowered as Sol Ring or a Sword in a format lacking a decent Shatter?

Matt: This is the greatest card border design i’ve ever seen WOTC come up with. I know you think I’m joking, but I’m not. It makes almost no sense to print a card in this manner beyond sheer awesomeness. I am a huge fan. I would love a Dark Ritual in this style if anyone opens one. Will trade a drawing of something you like for it. Thanks.

Carrie: I always love to see reprints from Portal: Three Kingdoms.

Jerry: This one actually not as offensive to the eyes as some of the others. I feel the new design is kinder to White and Black cards due to the overall lack of color.

Dark Ritual

Carrie: It’s going to be a pain to figure out what these cards are when you see them. At least Dark Ritual has a short and iconic text box.

Matt: Again, in love. I am in love with this ridiculous design. It’s so not-user-friendly. It’s so garish. It’s so decadent. It’s so beautiful and horrible and amazing. I am not sure who to thank but someone at Hipsters needs to find this out for me so I can send them a drawing, a coupon for a hug, and the naming rights to my first born.

Zac Clark:Jones! It was me. I’ll take something space related, put my hug coupon on the tab and “Rock me Amadeus” Jones seems like a really great name. In seriousness though, I’ll get you one of these, for some neato art!

Zach: Behold another card with horns and a washed out everything!

Jerry: It’s just so blaah… why is everything washed out and muddy?

Vindicate

Carrie: Destroy target aesthetic.

Matt: I really really really really want these in high resolution so I can stare at them and their insane beauty whenever I’m down or think my own art practice doesn’t make any sense and I don’t know what to do. These inspire me.

Zach: Gaze of Justice really grew up.

Jerry: This is the Michael Bay of Magic cards.

Matt: This card’s border is conventional and hopeless.

Jerry: It’s just like Swords to Plowshares!!!! Well sorta… just so much worse.

Force of Will

Zach: Always happy to see this card reprint. …but not like this. Not like thissssssss!

Matt: I have never actually wanted to own any version of Force of Will, well, maybe I did like buying those German Force of Wills back when I played Legacy, but hot damn I want to own this. Within the gnarly clunky design of the border (which is beautiful and I love), the subtle use of color identification figuratively blows my mind. How could anything subtle exist in this monster border?! OMG. Love.

Jerry: Whew!!! I thought I was going to have to shell out for an awesome Force of Will expedition. My Wallet really dodged a bullet with this one.

Mind Twist

Carrie: Destroy target opponent in sealed.

Zac Clark: I miss casting this card in 4th Chronicles Homelands Fallen Empires Ice Age Standard. Maybe they will unban this card in legacy soon?

Zach: I can’t wait to lose to this. The artwork is cool. Shame it had to live inside that ugly border.

Jerry: This artwork is soooo sick. My tin foil hat tells me this could be a sign that Mind Twist might be unbanned in Legacy soon.

Worship

Carrie: This is a good reprint for Modern availability. This version might be uglier than the white-bordered one, though. The art reminds me of that creepy fantasy-adventure episode of Rick and Morty, though.

Zach: BEHOLD THE MIGHTY GOD-FEET! ALL SHALL $#@%@WORSHIP%@#%@ AND HAVE DIFFICULTY FINDING WHERE THE PUNCTUATION IS

Jerry: In the wise words of Thumper… “Ma’ma always said that if ya don’t have something nice to say, ya don’t say nothing at all”.

Cryptic Command

Zach: I was so happy with the modal-templated MMA15 version of Cryptic Command. It was so nice and clean and easy to read. Then they did this center-aligned version (which I keep reading the card type as IRStart). …sigh.

Rich: It’s about as readable as the textless version (sorry I couldn’t resist)

Chain Lightning

Zach: CHAIN LIGHTNING DEALS 3 DAMAGE AND THEN SOME OTHER STUFF HAPPENS THAT PRETTY MUCH NEVER COMES UP AND ALSO THIS TEXT BOX IS HARD TO READ. PLEASE IGNORE THAT THESE FRAMES DON’T HAVE CONSISTENT BORDERS.

Rich: It’s amazing that 20 years later Chain Lightning is still just as verbose.

Matt: I prefer this in Zhalo Supercell format and for my lightning to be blue based (not red). Thank you.

Aven Mindcensor

Carrie: The 3D window effect works better with Aven Mindcensor than most of the others.

Matt: Didn’t the most recent shitty X-Men movie re-invent ancient Egypt with their characters? I keep thinking that Apocalypse is Bolas and how that trope is obviously played out but then I see the crazy borders of these cards and get crazy excited and inspired again.

Zach: That’s some neat artwork. Shame this border had to happen to it. The text reads okay with single word lines, and then the paragraph craps all over the card’s scannability. Also, it took me a moment to figure out that the power and toughness hadn’t been accidentally left off.

Jerry: This art is amazing, I can’t wait to see the foil in real life so I can see the glint of the golden wings.

Pact of Negation

Zach: YOU LOSE THE GAME looks cool on its own line. I like the idea that if you cast this card, you lose the game.

Jerry: One of the most jarring factors for me is the lack of color in the mana symbols. It really stands out in the text box of this card, in a bad way.

Wrath of God

Carrie: Look out the window! The apocalypse is coming.

Zach: What a perfectly flavored card for this set. Shame it’s all the color and readability of sand.

Matt: Zach! The color identification is on the SIDES!!!! It’s so sneaky!!

Zach: I know. It doesn’t change the fact that the card frames, borders, and art are all so similarly-colored.

Jerry: Hands down the best art in the set. Seriously if you haven’t already, go online and look at the high resolution image. I have already set it to be the background of all my electronic devices.

Maelstrom Pulse

Carrie: I’m most excited to see how this interacts with embalm. I assume you can kill both a card and a token copy of the same creature, though that seems unlikely to come up very often.

Zach: PHARIKA-ER-EGYPTIAN PHARIKA ANGRY! THIS IS NOT THE ARTWORK FOR EXTINGUISH ALL HOPE FROM ANOTHER ANGLE!
Matt: The color identification here isn’t as good. I get the gold. I see the black. There is no green on the border at all.

Jerry: OH MAN IT’S THE REVERSE IMAGE OF VINDICATE!!! I see what you did there you sneaky artists you.

Consecrated Sphinx

Carrie: Woe to the two lucky players in a sealed tournament that both open this card and get them in play at the same time.

Zach: I hope that the removal in this format is good enough that this card is beatable. Playing against this ^#$#%CREATURE-SPHINX$%@ is not fun.

Jerry: Ah yes Consecrated Sphinx, the god of salt and tears.

Counterspell

Zach: I love the idea of a premium version of Counterspell. The idea of it, not the execution. This is an overly 3D Force Bubble/Force Void.

Matt: Worst Magic card ever gets a sweet new border. #fan

Zac: Everytime “Counter target spell” is read, I read it like it’s in all caps.

Rich: That is a very nice card indeed. Probably the best premium Counterspell promo.

Counterbalance

Zach: ALL ABOARD THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SEE-SAW. It’s just what Miracles players needed: even more ways to give their opponents headaches.

Jerry: So sad to see such amazing art wasted. Reminds me of the old Stasis art, an equally infuriating card. I have already heard many miracles players say that they cannot wait to troll their opponents with this hideous Counterbalance.

Rich: This should have been Stasis with that art. I’ll never forgive you Wizards. Also, Jerry, Stasis is way more infuriating than Counterbalance. Fight me.

Monday, March 27

Trueheart Duelist

Zach: Blocking an additional creature is a weird ability and not one often found on a cheap aggressive creature. That said, Trueheart Duelist creates card advantage, and that’s always a good thing.

David: Maybe she should have been Trueheart Dualist.

 

Zach: YEEEEAAAAAHHHH!

Rich: That was a terrible pun. I guess it’s nice to have an aggressive creature who can play defense later on.

Jerry: Honestly I’m surprised the “block an additional creature each combat” has not been turned into a mechanic already. Back in my day we didn’t have all these fancy keywords and mechanics. Cards said what they did and you liked it!

Angler Drake

Zach: This card is quite good. Mist Raven and Man-o’-War are both excellent cards, and stapling onto a reasonably costed dragon is great. I expect to run every single copy of this I can get my hands on.

Carrie: Hard to load up on sixes, but as an uncommon I think this falls in the right spot. Hard to imagine this isn’t great in Limited; I certainly plan to find out.

Rich: This ability is Unfair with a capital-U.

Gravedigger

Zach: So far I’ve reviewed three uncommons and all of them produce card advantage. Gravedigger is always solid and I imagine it’ll only be better alongside (presumably) creatures with cycling.

Carrie: Good card gets good art this time around.

David: You don’t like the OG art?!

Rich: I won’t be happy until the art features the monster truck of the same name.

Glorybringer

Zach: A five mana 4/4 flying haste is already an excellent creature. A five mana removal spell ain’t bad, either. Combine them and give that removal spell buyback and you’ve got a very, very strong card. I’m not yet sold on the gameplay of exert, but I look forward to trying it out.

Carrie: Exert seems hard to track, thus the new cutout markers they’re putting in packs. In theory, this gives your opponent some time to recover from the sick blowout of a hasty flying Flametongue Kavu. We shall see if that plays out.

Beck: A five-drop that trades for both Heart of Kiran and its pilot! (Unless Gideon’s the pilot.) Could be intriguing as a 2-of curve-topper in a red-green aggro deck?

Rich: New Achievement Available: Enchant Glorybringer with Instill Energy. Reward: The look on your opponent’s face.

Fling

Zach: WHEEEEEEE! I can’t wait to fling mummies at people.

Ryan Sainio: seems good with the functional reprint of Atog.

Rich: The flavor value on Fling is amazing when you use it to launch things like Gearhulks and Eldrazi Titans.

Carrie: Too bad Hangarback Walker rotated out of Standard.

Sixth Sense

Zach: I really don’t like this card. Not that I have anything against Curiosity as an effect, but the name and artwork of this card are deeply confusing. Having a sixth sense about things suggests being able to perceive things others wouldn’t (which is sort of on point). However, the female subject with the Ophidian Eye has the Sixth Sense and she’s got the jump on some invisible assailant – at least, that’s my interpretation. How does that have anything to do with her gaining wisdom from dealing combat damage to players? Or do I have the flavor wrong and in fact a “sixth sense” is that ability to be invisible? But then how does that subterfuge translate into drawing cards (or not being a blue effect).

David: I’m…sensing…that this art was commissioned for a different card.

Carrie: The evolution of this effect, from Curiosity to Keen Sense to this, feels like a game of telephone. Something got lost in translation. The shift from blue to green makes a lot more sense than the art/name, as Zach wisely notes.

Beck: Note the snake-like eyes of the subject–the snake-god is the green god. This might be connected somehow to the boon that the snake-god offers to those who complete its trial.

Ryan Sainio: This seems good, hopefully the increased supply compared to Planar Chaos will mean it doesn’t spike as high as Keen Sense.

Rich: Without a consistent evasion ability, like Skulk or Shadow, it’s hard to get too much value out of this effect. Triggering an effect when you connect with your opponent is solidly in Green’s slice of the color pie but I wish we’d see something more interesting that card draw.

Carrie: Yay vanilla Limited cards. Note that 3/4 for this suggests a slower format than the usual 4/3 red gets at this cost. Though it’s not like Khans of Tarkir was a fast format.

Zach: As often is the case, I agree with Carrie. These are fine stat for this size and suggest, along with Dune Beetle, that 4 power is the magic number of this format.

Rich: I wonder if this set is going to have a strong multi-color theme and if that’s going to make cards with casting costs with two of the same symbol more difficult to hit on-curve in limited. Could slow the format down even further.

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Carrie: How is this not Dung Beetle? Power creep coming up on the usual 1B ⅓ we’ve seen in the past. Or maybe I should say toughness creep?

Zach: Dun…e Beetle makes a strong case for this being a slower format, at least on the ground. Or perhaps wither (or some form of it) is back. Horned Turtle for two mana isn’t exciting, but it can do a lot to stem aggression and punish X/1s.

Rich: What I don’t get is why Black has this sort of defensive creature in its arsenal anyways. I think getting rid of regenerate, while good for the game, robbed Black of its traditional defense mechanism.

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Carrie: Hello old friend. Amonkhet looks like a blocking format so far, though Glorybringer might have an opinion on that topic.

Zach: So many defensive creatures! The prevalence of 4 toughness creatures and now reach among them suggests this format will be slow or have a lot of -1/-1 counters.

Rich: I think we’re going to see lots of -1/-1 counters based on their appearance on that punch-card.

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Carrie: I thought this card was older, but it debuted in Oath of the Gatewatch. Expect it to be better this time around.

Zach: Defensive, mediocre creature is… well, you know.

Rich: a.k.a. Last pick in draft

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Carrie: Ok, here’s a creature that wants to attack. Not into a team of 1/4s though.

Zach: It was only a matter of time before we got a black Boggart Brute, now with way more goat horns.

Rich: Another addition to the Didgeridoo deck!

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Carrie: That’s one way to avoid ground blockers. For a turn. If you’re lucky. Pump spells that give flying are dangerous since you have to use them before attacking or blocking to get full value, opening up the two-for-one for your opponent.

Zach: Mighty Leap is usually a fine but unexciting combat trick. In a format full of X/4s, this is probably a bit less likely than usual to help an aggressive deck get in the last few points of damage.

Rich: Good for defense, especially if -1/-1 counters are as prevalent as I think they’ll be, but this card rarely shines on offense. It’s a good combat trick but I prefer +2/+2 and First Strike instead of Flying.

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Carrie: This one is a little better than Mighty Leap, at least if Exert is a real thing. If you use this on an exerted creature, you don’t care if it won’t untap next turn. You do care if your opponent kills it in response, though.

Zach: This was always a fine combat trick in Innistrad and is likely to be better when creatures have power tap and exert abilities.

Beck: This is also our first glimpse at any of the Trials of the Five Gods, with the Trial of Strength. Seems to be some kind of monster-infused labyrinth?

Rich: Does Exert make this a higher pick than it would be otherwise? I would think so. Gonna be solid in Sealed pools.

Impeccable Timing

Carrie: This card showed up in Kaladesh and sucked. Not great timing if you ask me. But I bet it will be good on Amonkhet if the set is about blocking. You want this card when you block with a 1/4 and they go for a combat trick.

Zach: I feel the opposite. This card sucked in Kaladesh where if creatures weren’t green, they usually died to this. In a slower format full of X/4s, this is likely to do less work… unless, as Carrie says, combat tricks are good.