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| By: Jeff Lake |
Our Honest Gamers, it is time to bust open some packs, it is time to review the final set of the Return to Ravnica block: Dragon's Maze.
After playing in three pre-releases, I have had a chance to play with some of the cards. Prior to the pre-releases I was anxiously observing the spoiler list until the set came out like any good magic player. I tried to figure out what cards are out of this world awesome and powerful as well as which cards were complete let downs. Now the time has arrived. Grab your guild champions, it is time to enter the Dragon's Maze (You cannot pick Varolz, I am going through the maze with him) as I will share with you some my discoveries and observations.
The Best: 1. Voice of Resurgence Voice of Resurgence is hands down the best card in the set. It is a cheap creature in the long line of “hate bears” that punish your opponent's play style. It is good against both creature decks because it is at least two bodies in one, as well as being good against control decks for being two bodies in one plus punishing your opponent for casting spells on your turn. This card will also cause people in standard to try and fit Pillar of Flame to help cancel out some of the card advantage this card can create. Pick up this card if you can, as of writing it is pushing a $40.00 price tag, and I can foresee it staying up that high. This card will see play across all the popular constructed formats and casual players will want it because it can create an army of tokens.
• 2. Varolz, the Scar-Striped. It is Blanka! Most people when I told them about this card did not know what I was talking about unless I called it Blanka. Varolz, the Scar-Striped is the only guild champion to make the awesome list. It is my favorite card in the set because it has so much potential combined with all the things needed to make a cheap legendary playable. Sacrificing creatures is quickly being learned by all players to be a powerful outlet to creating card advantage. His ability to give all your fallen creatures scavenge can turn anything in play from a measly mana dork to the classic Ornithoper combat potential.
I have already built a commander deck around him and he has become one of my favorite decks to play. Varolz has lots of legacy potential as well, and I can see him becoming playable as a one-of in aggressive decks that share his color combination.
3. Far//Away Far//Away is so far away from being bad. An instant speed unsummon attached to an instant speed edict. This card is everything a control player wants. A cheap way to get rid of creatures that only improves as the game continues. The best part is when you fuse Far//Away you play them in order, so you can bounce a creature you may be able to deal with later and make it so they will be more likely to sacrifice a creature you want gone.
A little bit of a fun fact. Both halfs of this card can help deal with a Blightsteel Colossus, one of the many go to threats in vintage. It can bounce it into their hand, where most likely it will never see play again. Or it can be sacrificed and shuffled back into the deck. This card when fused can also deal with two which I can imagine never comes up in vintage, but it is possible! Blightsteel is usually a vintage threat, but I have seen it at my casual player and there are never enough answers to indestructible creatures that can kill you in one shot. Now this card is two more.
4. Turn//Burn
Split cards are generally better when they are instants. Like Far//Away, Turn//Burn has the ability to deal with two creatures in one, but it also gives a color combination flat out creature removal when fused and both halves target the same creature. At worst this card is a two mana shock, but at best this card is a complete blow out. Unless you're opponent is actively playing around this card, it will turn them by surprise.
6. Sire of Insanity Sire of Insanity is completely insane. Resolving the insane sire against an unprepared opponent will leave them defenseless to an assault. A Craw Wurm sized body attached to an ability that triggers at the end of every turn, this card will be clogging up multiplayer games. I play mostly multiplayer and I can't wait to not only cast this card, but scream at how stupid the card is for leaving my plans of game conquering in the graveyard.
7. Ral Zarek Dragon's Maze's residential planeswalker. At worst he is a fog and a lightning bolt. Slightly better he will double lightning bolt. Oh right he can tap down blockers and ramp you up mana. And when crazy things happen you might take five extra turns. Ral Zarek is powerful, but in this his ultimate is not the most powerful effect on the card. It could completely backfire causing you to be down a planeswalker in addition to not taking any extra turns. But he has the ability to protect himself with his lightning bolt only costing two loyalty counters while Ral comes into play with four so if he is not dealt with it is possible he will do it twice. Like all planeswalkers he has the potential to fog some of the damage going at its owner's head. Definitely a goodie and a good card to pick up. Just not sure where his true home will be.
8. Deputy of Acquittals I have a love for flash rescue creatures. Whitemane Lion has been replaced by this guy by being two more relevant creature types and not needing another creature to return to have him stick around. I am brewing up several different decks including this card. Come standard rotation I can see this card doing a little of the work Restoration Angel has done for the last two years (granted Restoration Angel made a lot of things sillier than they needed to be. Thragtusk I am looking at you). An easy card to get a playset of it is a common after all and not everyone will be hunting this guy down.
9. Advent of the Wurm
Speaking of flash, get a hold of this giant, ninja, trampling, wurm of death. This is a card everyone intending to play standard for the next year and a half should pick up. It is an instant speed 5/5 that is easily useable using the likes of Snapcaster Mage and all the populate cards. An interesting little tid bit: it is only the second card to creature 5/5 trampling wurms. The first one being Armada Wurm, which totally fits into the same deck as this card. If you want to think inside the maze a little, Advent of the Wurm will trigger all the creatures with evolve in the set making your army better. Just something to think about.
10. Dark Confidant this card is not. Is this card still good? Of course it is. It is a cheap creature that will draw the aggro decks into more gas. It is also an extremely relevant creature type, giving zombie decks a real two drop to fill their curve. I can see Gravecrawler, into Blood Scrivener, into Geralf's Messenger plus other stuff just completely overwhelming any opponent. That is a lot of potential card advantage.
Now there is one card that did not make my list of ten awesome cards to pick up from Dragon's Maze. Put away your phobias because this one is a spider. I introduce to you Skylasher.
Skylasher has so many abilities and is not painful on the manabase that I have a hard time believing this card won't do...something. It is not powerful, but again has a lot of abilities. And any creature that punishes dedicated blue mages I can usually get behind. But wait, Voice of Resurgence already does that and does that better.
Pick up Skylasher too while you're off picking up the rest of the good cards in the set. It probably won't be too bad of an idea.
The set's biggest let down goes to Tajic, Blade of the Legion.
Tajic is the guild champion of the Boros Legion. But he just seems like such a let down. Other than his awesome sword he has very few redeeming qualities. I much rather be on the defensive with this card than ever try to invoke his battalion trigger to deal 7. I do like how with three hits with a battalion triggered Tajic will cause a player to lose a game of commander, but I doubt it will happen very often.
And lastly, I leave you all with my favorite artwork in the set: Nivix Cyclops.
A steam punk cyclops that is totally waiting to smash your face in. What more could you ask for?
Our Honest view gives Dragon's Maze a 6.5/10. Dragon's Maze has plenty of other goodies lying in wait, including eight more legendary creatures I did not mention for all you commander players out there. Any tools to promote the format I encourage, even if few of them feel legendary. Dragon's Maze also gave us a plethora of new removal spells that I feel like standard has been lacking in quality. Now we may not have quality but at least we have quantity to choose from. And the rest of the split cards. Split cards are just awesome and usually cleverly named. Pick up the good cards, forget about all the terrible ones.
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