Born of the Gods

Well, that took long.

When I typed up the ending to my previous post yesterday, I had completely forgotten today was the day the Born of the Gods set in its entirety was released to the public. So, as I understand, this is where I would put my opinions about the set.

The set itself looks promising, as a person who in recent times has been looking into drafting and sealed tournaments, the strong drafting scene of this set is somewhat reassuring. The inspired mechanic has shenanigans written all over it; I wish I could say the same about tribute, but all that says to me is 'Let me do this... no?... Oh ok, then I'm stronger!... Oh... Dead.' We shall see, but I'm pretty sure Inspired will outdo its Tribute sibling.

Onto cards I'm particularly looking forward to:

- Spirit of the Labyrinth. People all over the internet are clamouring over this one, screaming bloody murder over how powerful it is and how it will break eternal formats. Me? I just think it'll be a cool sideboard card
for my favourite deck, Orzhov Control.

- The Archetypes. All of them. They're in all the colours, but I may as well cover all of them here, as they do more or less the same thing. I love the idea of them. I don't quite understand the flavour involved, but that doesn't stop me musing about how long multiplayer games could descend into a war for keywords, and then there's that one guy who builds a Chromanticore deck and takes them all. Glorious.

- Hero of Iroas. This card is more personal use than anything; I haven't covered it in this blog yet but one of my favourite decks is my Boros Aggro deck, which centres heavily on 1) Heroic triggers on most creatures, of which this card has one; 2) Aura spells, which this card makes ever more efficient. Needless to say with athe Wrath of Keranos) I have a space in which to put him as well.
card that's falling out of favour (the Adept doesn't quite do the work here that he does in

- Tromokratis. Ok, so I'm putting this here because I'm not that big a blue player. And the flavour overload is amazing. This card will be a free win at the prerelease if the poor sod trying to make it work can unleash it onto the board. That'll be the problem with 16-18 land though. Even still, lots you can do with this card, and I can't wait.

- Gild. Ah, King Midas. Once again, this one is because I'd like to try it out within the Orzhov Council. An easy answer to pesky gods, as well as ramping me up, deserves some kind of mention. Covers new ground
as far as black is concerned too; I didn't quite put transmuting a target into solid gold into the black player's thinking.

- Fate Unraveler. These bleed affects are a guilty pleasure to my sadistic side. Really. Mind Seize is my favourite Commander deck for good reason, and this old hag will be a very synergistic addition to Nekusar's card draw/punish engine.

- Drown in Sorrow. A double Shrivel. That's neat. A double shrivel that costs less than double shrivel? Now you're spoiling me. Double shrivel, cheaper, that scrys? Wizards you sly bastards.

- Bolt of Keranos and Scouring Sands. These I'm looking forward to for the same reasons. If you're wondering why, have a look at my previous post, about my deck; The Wrath of Keranos. These would be
happy additions to at least consider.

- Searing Blood. What isn't there to like about this card? Burn. Very red. Burn that burns the player. Also quite good. At that mana cost, at instant, there's not much I'm going to complain about if I draw this in a draft, really.

- Scourge of Skola Vale. My token green card for the 'Stuff I'm looking forward to' article, that's also going to serve its purpose in my Golgari deck, running things such as Corpsejack Menace and copious amounts of creatures with Scavenge. The synergy is delicious.

- Karametra and Phenax. My two favourite gods of this set, Karametra is itching for somebody to break her.
Phenax has people stepping up to the plate to break him six ways from sunday because, deep down, we are all criminally insane.

Thus concludes the synopsis of my opinions for the Born of the Gods set of Magic: the Gathering! Thanks for reading.