I suppose I shouldn’t be too impressed with myself that I managed to continue this a whopping two days in a row, what with being on vacation and all. But still! Two days! Go team! Let’s see what Wizards has brewed up for us to salivate over.

diregraf rebirth

Interesting, so a five-mana reanimate with a seven-mana reanimate cost for a sequel. Technically a 2-for-1, but also very expensive. How often can one get the discount? Well you can suicide in attackers, or send in a decayed creature (since it sacs itself at the end of combat), or use a different sac outlet. I’m going to start out a little cool on this card as it just seems to be asking a fair amount of the player. Self-mill, get something good (preferably cheaper than 5 mana value), all while staying alive. I don’t think it’s worth drafting around, but it could be a reasonable payoff (that should wheel) if you’re in Golgari.

Variable Playable

sludge monster

This is pretty interesting. A 5-mana 5/5 is on rate, though nothing particularly special. What’s interesting is how it ‘sludgifies’ things, turning them into a vanilla 2/2. That strikes me as very powerful abilities, effectively neutralizing bombs, utility creatures with powerful abilities. I’m assuming that they remain a vanilla 2/2 even after the Sludge Monster dies as it doesn’t have the wording, “until Sludge Monster leaves the battlefield”. If so, I think this qualifies as a “Game-Changer” (aka bomb), if only barely. It hits the battlefield, neutralizes their best creature, and provides a very sturdy blocker. It can attack pretty fearlessly (creating more 2/2 slime, though now they have two of those to block with) or can just sit back and stabilize.

game-changer

Unnatural growth

The power of this card is undeniable. At worst it gives 1/1s an Anthem effect of +1/+1 and rapidly gets out of control from there. It’s only of use on the attack: it won’t help stabilize a situation if you’re behind. But the real question is this: how often can you reliably cast GGGG (that’s four Gs) in this set? If fixing is weak, I think it’s actually unplayable. However, there have been a few werewolf cards that can provide some extra R or G mana. So it is not outside the realm of possibility for an aggressive deck to cast this as a curve-topper as a permanent Overrun effect. I think it’s not going to be that castable and put it as the Unplayable. However a little fixing and it goes straight to Power.

unplayable

croaking counterpart

What the fresh hell is this? First, as a card goes it’s just hilarious. I’m not even sure why the flavor text makes me chuckle, but it does. But how does it play out? It’s not a Kasmina’s Transmutation-esque weak removal, it’s a clone. But it’s a 1/1. But it will keep its abilities. And you can do it a second time. So what sort of deck would have creatures with abilities (ETB, activated, otherwise) where it’s worth it to spend this amount of mana? For now, it’s unplayable. If there are cards that are just busted to clone without also getting the power/toughness, I guess I’ll reassess then. I wonder how this interacts with flipping cards? I assume that it could turn over and get the power/toughness of the other side. But I’m not sure. Complicated!

unplayable

Faithful mending

Now this is a more interesting challenge. On its face, it’s card disadvantage. Spending a card to loot twice–even with a lifegain kicker–isn’t worth it. However this set as Flashback (as seen here) and Disturb, which is basically flashback redux. So the dream is discarding cards with the ability to come back from the graveyard for much less (or no) loss of card advantage. Similar to Diregraf Rebirth above, I don’t think this is powerful enough where I would be inclined to take it early and try to make it work. Rather it is something that could wheel around and be a mid/late pickup in the pack, since I doubt a non-Azorius player would be interested.

variable playable