Today I was asking myself which new mechanic is my favorite in the three Shards of Alara sets. Let's go through them one by one...
1. Devour - Devour is an ability that allows the most vicious creatures to grow in size by preying upon other creatures.
2. Exalted - Exalted is an ability that pumps up a single heroic attacker.
3. Unearth - Unearth is an ability that lets a dead creature come screaming back to life for one last turn.
4. Domain - Domain is an ability word. It appears in italics at the beginning of an ability that counts the number of basic land types among lands you control. (An ability word has no rules meaning.) Domain abilities first appeared in the _Invasion_ block, although the word "domain" didn't appear on those older cards.
5. Cascade - Each time you play a spell with cascade, you'll get a free bonus spell from your deck . . . but you don't know what it'll be!
In all honesty I've only had the desire to play decks with the Devour and Cascade mechanics. I've played against a Bant Exalted deck but still have not come across anyone playing an Unearth or Domain deck yet. So, I can only speak on the three mechanics that I have experience with. Exalted is an interesting mechanic but unless you have a deck with 4 Noble Hierarch and 4 Rafiq of the Many than you're probably not going to win very many games.
Devour has been pretty fun to play with but I wouldn't call it a dominating mechanic unless you're playing Predator Dragon. Being able to come in on turn 6 with a hasty dragon that has Devour 2 can be a brutal hit to your opponent. If he devours 3 goblins in play than he attacks as a 10/10 flyer... hard to stop that.
I'm still getting used to the Cascade mechanic but I think it's already my favorite. One of the best cards in the Alara Reborn set is Bloodbraid Elf. For 4 mana you bring in a 3/2 creature with haste and you get to play a 3 mana or less spell for free. Pretty nasty stuff. I recently built a Red and Green Haste deck that features Bloodbraid Elf. I'll post the deck as soon as I test it out some more.
That's all I got for you today. Check back often and good luck on your next coin flip!
As for the themes, I think that they all depend on the card you are using. I like most of the themes. My ranking would be:
ReplyDelete1. Exhalted - it is such a cool way to play the game. Instead of attacking with a plethora of creatures (which is a typical white and green function), you only attack with one. I admit since I don't own playsets of the 2 best cards (Noble Heirach and Ragiq), my deck is not as powerful as it could be...but it is fun nonetheless.
2. Cascade - it is an entirely new way to play spells. Though different, it kind of reminds me of the Kamigawa epic spells (such as Eternal Dominion). The card can blow out the game or not..you often never know what you will get.
3. Devour - a cool way to pump your creatures. Predator Dragon is an awesome card, but I feel that the most underweighted card in the block is Voracious Dragon. In my goblin tribal deck, this card has won me the game time and time again (it deals damage twice the number of goblins it devours to target player when it comes into play; 5 goblins equals 10 damage...especially awesome comboed with Mudbutton Torchrunner which deals 3 damage when he goes to the graveyard.)
4. Unearth - a nice way to bring your creatures back to play and a very nice way to punish a control player. Anathemancer hurts control players for all their non-basic lands, dies, and gets to do it all over again. And since the unearth ability is uncounterable (you are using the cards ability, not playing it), most control decks do not have an answer.
5. Domain - the most lacking theme of set...There are a few cards that are okay, but all in all, very few domain cards or decks are competitive.