'Again' - An Account of Apocalypse's Application - Conclusion
**Five-Color
BWURG
Creature - Legend
BW: Destroy target creature blocking or blocked by Cromat.
UR: Cromat gains Flying until end of turn.
BG: Regenerate Cromat.
RW: Cromat gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
UG: Put Cromat on top of its owners' library.
5/5
He's kind of a weakling if you think about it. For five mana this isn't even the biggest creature in the set, and from sets past there's Saproling Burst and Shivan Wurm . Not to mention the options that can be had for one more mana, where creatures can bounce entire armies (Dromar), generate entire armies (Rith) or just be a lot bigger ( Draco ). Still, if the controller has a whole bunch of funky colored mana then Cromat has a lot of neat tricks available. It then has flying, regenerates and destroys anything it fights with. It can even become less of a total wimp. The color intensity required to actually take advantage of all that means that Cromat is reserved for the true five color deck. At that point, it becomes an option, but at present there are a bunch of dragons that I'd much prefer.
Red/White
RW
Creature - Goblin Soldier
R, Sacrifice Goblin Legionnaire : Goblin Legionnaire deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
W, Sacrifice Goblin Legionnaire : Prevent the next 2 damage to target creature or player this turn.
This is a very good bear. The red ability alone would be more than enough. Compared to its rivals, this is far more generally useful than the alternatives. Red decks were ready to use Rage Weavers without even having any targets. White decks without another color have the rebels, but if that's not the situation then the available 2/2s didn't really do anything. This is light years beyond all that, a bigger version of Mogg Fanatic . The only problem with Goblin Legionnaire is that it's Red/White, and that means it has to go into a Red/White deck. There are definitely reasons why such a deck might become a reality, Battlefield Forge being another good one. To use Legionnaire properly the deck will have to be aggressive. Unless this is a red deck with just a little white to use this card, and this card is good enough to consider things like that, the white probably means rebels. On the same note, the red means burn. That combination doesn't sound like anything particularly attractive right now, but if things change enough it might become interesting.
Order and Chaos
3W / 2R
Order: Remove target attacking creature from the game.
Chaos: Creatures cannot block this turn.
In limited these are both great spells on their own, even if the other one is uncastable. Order is interesting by itself in constructed as well. Exile was hurt significantly by its inability to remove white creatures (for example, Spiritmonger and Kavu Chameleon ) and that made it quite risky as a maindeck card. Order costs one more mana and doesn't grant life, but it's much more reliable. Still, the need to tap out during the attack in order to use it probably dooms it in control decks without the ability to get the potentially juicy results of Exile . White removal is at a premium, but this premium is just too high. That means that Chaos needs to pick up the slack. Blocking is a very bleak place to look for worthwhile effects, but if it's ever going to happen, as an effect for the whole army that doubles as potential creature removal would probably be the place. The question is, are there situations where this effect is particularly useful for a deck that can use Order? Again, to be White/Red with creatures seems to indicate rebels unless the white is a splash. So the theoretical situation is a rebel deck that has a bunch of creatures and the tools to stall like Defiant Vanguard and Cho-Manno but can't get through for the kill either. In terms of aggression, these slots could probably be spent more usefully on bigger rebels if the plan is to finish off an opponent. It makes more sense in a more aggressive rebel deck, probably the same one with the above mentioned Goblins along with other bears. Still, searching out Defiant Vanguard seems just as effective as using Order on most attackers, and Chaos won't do it if the engine renders Order useless. The question is whether certain creatures, in particular Spiritmonger and certain flyers, might be too hard to deal with, especially in multiples. My guess is that the uselessness of this card against control decks will keep it from seeing play.
Squee's Embrace - eww, I do NOT want to think about that. Isn't quite good enough for standard anyway. Skip it.
1WUR
Creature - Angel
Flying, haste
Attacking doesn't cause Lightning Angel to tap.
3\4 (man, Word, cut it OUT! Why must you assume I'm trying to write a fraction?)
Could there be a more perfect example of a seemingly outstanding card being rendered totally useless because of the existence of another card? In this case, that card is Flametonge Kavu. All the red decks are using them, and Flametonge Kavu seems custom made for killing Lightning Angel among many other things. The deck that wants to be using Lightning Angel would otherwise be happy to face Flametonges, but if the Angel has to be protected with counters to avoid disaster then it's far too slow and would be better served by something bigger and badder. Actually, Lightning Angel isn't out of line in any case, and given how big the green creatures are in general it seems like a poor option even without FTK. The days when Serra Angel was a great creature are over - if you don't believe that, it's legal now and no one uses it. The good control creatures lock up the game in some way like Blinding Angel or Mageta the Lion . Mahamoti Djinn is the only non-dragon that passes the size test for a fighting creature at 5/6, able to deal with Blastoderm and Jade Leech . In fact, this type of card is a good players' best friend. It doesn't actually accomplish anything that other creatures don't accomplish more effectively, and yet there will be players messing up their mana bases in order to play it. Even better, it will have trade value to help get back the money from all those drafts trying to make sense out of the new limited environment. Who could ask for anything more?
1BWR
Enchantment
Whenever a creature you control attacks, it gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
Here's the secret formula. Take a type of card that's never good enough to play in a constructed deck. Add additional color to the casting cost, thereby creating an excuse to reduce that cost and increase the effect to the point where it starts to look tempting to players again. Sit back and see if they actually use it. Then, if that doesn't work, try opposing colors for extra added power. Did it work? It worked well enough that I looked at it and decided not to just skip it as completely useless. That doesn't mean that anyone is actually going to use it. The problem there is that the color requirements are a major pain. At least one of the three is probably going to be mainly for Fervent Charge . In addition, this doesn't protect creatures very well because they have to sleep sometime too. But it makes the attacks very hard to stop and it makes them do a lot of damage. Unless Pyroclasm suddenly catches on, that might well be enough. It certainly makes Saproling Burst and other token generators extremely scary; if only this wasn't three non-green colors. In short, the card is finally good enough to be used if only it wasn't impossible to cast. If the right deck comes along that might change, but it's going to have to be a 'natural' fit rather than a deck designed around this card. It's just not strong enough for that.
Red/Blue
Fire and Ice
1R
Instant
Fire and Ice does 2 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures or players.
Cycling 1U. err, I mean technically that's just Fire, and Ice is U1 to tap target permanent and draw a card.
I'm not saying Ice is a useless option, in fact there will be decks that use Ice more often than they use Fire. Removal is great except when it isn't, and the great problem with it is what to do when it doesn't do anything. This is especially true when there isn't enough to have a shot at going to the head, at least for a LONG time. Fire and Ice solves that problem by essentially having cycling. For 1U the card will replace itself, for matchups without things to kill or just situations where land or new options are needed in a hurry. The ability to split the damage up allows this to kill multiple mana creatures or sometimes other things. Finally, don't rule out the usefulness of tapping a permanent at an odd time to go in for the kill or just to stall something big with an Armadillo Cloak on it. No one's going to play this to tap permanents, but that doesn't mean the ability won't be useful in any number of unexpected ways.
3RU
Instant
Prophetic Bolt does 4 damage to target creature or player. Look at the top four cards of your library. Put one in your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library.
Lightning Blast and Impulse , together at last. If only there was a good reason to actually want Lightning Blast . There's always room for Impulse , but there's less room when it can't help get out of mana problems. Similarly, Prophetic Bolt 's four damage is not generally going to be used very efficiently. Looking around at the current crop of targets, it's likely that either Prophetic Bolt will need some assistance or two of the four damage will go to waste. How did this happen? Your friend and mine, good old Flametonge Ka-VU! Playing creatures with four toughness is just an invitation to disappointment. See Lightning Angel , for example. In addition, there are juicy cards with five toughness, in particular Jade Leech and Blastoderm , that render the alternatives obsolete and outmatched if they did choose to show up. Impulse and Shock for three mana would be a far more interesting option right now, maybe even for four. It's also just quite dangerous combining the card drawing with the defense, since it means often wasting one.
1RUU
Instant
Counter target spell, and Suffocating Blast does three damage to target creature.
Less is more when more doesn't have enough valid targets. If this could be pulled off consistently, three damage to a creature is certainly worth the extra mana cost. The problem is that if there isn't a creature to kill, this can't be cast, which means that a seriously blue deck has to let a creature through and wait for another spell to counter. In addition, there's the same theme of burn not being very effective in the current environment, but even if that wasn't true this is pretty lousy. Except in special cases this basically has to jump on the first spell it sees in order to insure it can be used at all. Again, this one looks good but in practice isn't worth using. In fact, I kind of only included it so that no one would bother me and ask "so what about Suffocating Blast , isn't that amazing?" and force me to put them on ignore, which could lead to major lossage of technology later on when they get to be good. Kind of like the guy who asked me why I didn't review the gold cards and apparently didn't know what "part one" means. Sigh.
Blue/Green
Creature - Elf Merfolk
GU
Flying
2/2
This is a very good, solid creature but it clashes somewhat with playing Birds and Elves and it has to compete with all other green creatures instead of just blue ones. This card is looking for the right deck. It's an amazing Merfolk if the deck can support it, for example, and it would also fit right into Skies, but what deck can cast it and wants it? A good guess would be some weird Opposition deck, unless an Elf or Merfolk deck can find an excuse to run the other color that I can't currently think of. This is nice, but it's not enough to justify a splash because the mana needs to be there on turn two. Another great card in search of a deck that can use it, with a tier two candidate that is probably its only hope.
Creature - Wall
2GU
When Jungle Barrier comes into play, draw a card.
2/6
This is a great blocker for Blastoderm , although there are plenty of other Walls that do the same trick, and it's a cantrip. This does allow decks to run another version of Glacial Wall , one that can kill the smaller attackers. There's no real difference between six and seven toughness, since Spiritmonger will just keep getting bigger anyway and nothing else is sitting at six. The most common candidate would probably be a Scoria Cat , and that's not very common. Being a cantrip is quite nice, and the multicolor nature of the card helps make up the additional mana cost of the card. The problem is how to get this on the table without opening up to Spiritmonger or Shivan Wurm , since that is where the card is most useful. In an Opposition deck, playing too many Walls as creatures makes things very dependant upon Opposition itself against control. In general, Wall of Blossoms was useful as a mana fixer and could come out really quickly (and was really cheap for its size), much more so than this.
Creature - Snake
1GUU
When Mystic Snake comes into play, counter target spell. You may play Mystic Snake any time you could play an instant.
2/2
Now we're talking. This spell is actually good. Even without stupid recursion tricks this is a good deal, and it's especially good with counters at a premium. It's a great fit into an Opposition deck. Then there are people who try to pull stupid tricks and REALLY use this. Gating is one good idea, being able to use bounce (start with Repulse and work from there) is another. That's the kind of 'combination' that tends to actually work: Two good cards that occasionally combine. Using this as a sole damage source is extremely risky because it means stopping basically everything, as well as making the deck vulnerable to practically everything when it didn't care before. In a deck that already has similarly strengthed creatures it should get a lot better. All this needs is a deck that can use it.
Black/Green
Creature - Treefolk
1GB
GB: +1/+1 until end of turn.
3/3
There's no question this is a very efficient fighting creature, the best three casting cost creature in the business unless a deck needs to work around Wrath of God and such with Chimeric Idol . That leaves only two questions. One is how good the Green/Black creature deck is, and the other is whether it wants to play a three casting cost creature. Clearly the color combination has a lot of potential, but the black can't just be a splash or the ability isn't worth much. Real Fires decks still need not apply. On the second question, since Fires of Yavimaya is gone and the deck is full of Birds and Elves I can't see how this isn't worthwhile. Certainly this is a rather scary creature to force through early and a powerhouse later on. In practice pumping it has to wait a while, especially if the deck isn't set up specifically to gain advantage from it. This should basically go into every deck with the mana base to support it, unless the deck is going creatureless or close to it. Pernicious Deed can wait a turn, don't you think?
Creature - Elf Zombie
GB
T: Add B to your mana pool.
2/2
Now the bears produce mana. This is especially helpful when trying to either insure mana acceleration, ensure the mana acceleration can fight or trying to get two mana creatures out to bring out a third turn Spiritmonger or Shivan Wurm . The danger is an overabundance of riches in the mana department. Green/Black combines this with all the old mana creatures and for a little while even Dark Ritual . Then the deck has to support two real colors of mana from the lands to get off the ground, and enough land to operate if the creatures die. Fires decks already have problems with having too much mana, and adding even more mana could become very risky even if it is a halfway decent spell in its own right. In a Fires matchup, this sure won't seem like a real spell after the need for mana goes away. Another thing to keep in mind is that this needs to be castable on turn two, or it is basically useless. Then again, my judgement could be clouded here. See my thoughts on River Boa in Fires decks.
Enchantment
1GB
X, sacrifice Pernicious Deed : Destroy each enchantment, artifact and creature with casting cost less than or equal to X.
Everyone who understands what this card does knows it's amazing. It even kills enchantments, and decks have to adjust to deal with it. If mana to activate it isn't tight this is potentially much more powerful than Nevinyrral's Disk . Still, people are putting it in everything that can cast it, and that must be wrong. Plenty of decks didn't want Nevinyrral's Disk or Powder Keg , and those too were extremely powerful. I would think only a deck with few permanents or high cost ones should really be playing this. I don't think it's good enough to break the barrier and get used by every deck that can hope to cast it. It's definitely close though. This needs to be studied to see how much other players are willing to give up in order to play it, because if this is all over the place than it drastically changes how a lot of strategies have to be constructed. The amount of removal in decks tends to have approximately zero relation to whether they need it and whether there are targets that need to be killed. It simply sets a standard that everyone else must deal with, and this could easily end up pushing up the average by two.
Creature - Beast
3GB
Whenever Spiritmonger deals damage to a creature, put a +1/+1 counter on Spiritmonger.
G: Spiritmonger becomes the color of your choice until end of turn.
B: Regenerate Spiritmonger.
6/6
It doesn't trample. That's all that separates this creature from pure insanity. Try having one of these out against Shivan Wurm and it becomes clear that they will be looking at each other for a LONG time. The way the cards interact, this is less powerful than it seems like it should be, but that doesn't mean that it isn't amazing. On the other hand, when it gets into fights often the enemy has the tools to prolong things for a while. In short, it's not all it's cracked up to be, but that doesn't mean that it isn't hot stuff. A creature this big and this cheap doesn't need anything more, and the green ability is a nice plus that gets annoying at the strangest times. It basically is tacked on 'for free' to an already great creature, and that's the kind of thing that forces reactions. Story Circle now has issues with what is likely to become the most popular big creature, whereas before it had a great time stopping Shivan Wurm . One thing to watch out for is Nether Spirit , since it can hold off a Spiritmonger forever. So can any regenerator. Cloak this baby up though, and the results would be impressive.
White/Black
We're getting down to the end here, folks! (crowd cheers)
Sorcery
XBW
Death Grasp deals X damage to target creature or player. Gain X life.
This is Drain Life , with a Black/White requirement instead of an 'all the black mana in the world' requirement. For the relevant decks, the two cards will function in more or less the same way, except that this can overload on a creature for fun and profit. The problem is that Drain Life was never that good outside of the dreaded Necropotence decks. When life is just life, X spells don't really cut it. Phyrexian Arena is on the edge here, since there's no way to Necro with it fast enough to take advantage of this type of spell fully but the deck still needs some kind of life gaining. In general I feel like I should have better things to do with my time than casting this. We've outgrown it before it was even printed.
Sorcery
BW
Target player discards two cards from his or her hand. Gain 3 life for each land discarded in this way.
This is very good discard, if a deck can support it and wants to play discard. For a deck that's trying to use Phyrexian Arena , the side effect is really nice, otherwise it's just some random life. There really isn't that much more to say - it is what it is. Talk of 'extended mana curves' and such doesn't strike me as all that exciting, but it does allow a deck to run something approaching critical mass of quality discard, since Duress and Bog Down are also good enough to use. The question is whether that's worth actually doing, and my sources say probably not, as a deck that doesn't need its hand becomes far too dangerous.
Sorcery
1BW
Destroy target permanent.
This goes into every deck that can cast it. I can't think of a reason for there to be an exception. How many decks that is remains a matter of some debate. Black/White was dominating inside WotC, but I don't expect that to still hold in the real world. If that's true, then other decks will be the ones trying to squeeze this in, and this IS good enough to justify a splash. Just don't be so surprised when the impact doesn't seem like all that much in any given game.
That should be everything. Or at least everything good, which is the same thing.
- Zvi Mowshowitz
** [**](#top)