Six hours on an airplane is a pretty decent excuse I suppose. Was there also six straight hours of Octonauts for Lil Chandra? You know it!

Stuffed bear

First, that is one hell of a name and flavor win for Gothic Land. But is it any good? The activation cost is pretty burdensome if you’re paying it every turn to attack. However, if you get to sit back on defense and hold off a horde of smaller creatures with the threat of activation, THAT sounds appealing. I think this could end up being a common that defines aggressive decks, since they’re going to need an answer to a controlling deck that drops this early and passes the turn.

variable playable

duel for dominance

DfD is a fight spell that *sometimes* boosts your half of the brawl. This is something Wizards constantly tinkers with as they putter with green’s creature removal. Sometimes it’s a fight, sometimes it’s a bite/punch, sometimes there’s a boost, etc. etc.

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So is this closer to Pounce or to Epic Confrontation? 2-mana at instant speed is nice, but it’s not enough as Pounce was close to unplayable. Once again, it comes down to how often you have Coven. If it’s 100%, then we’re at “best green common” territory. I think WG will have coven enough to make it work. RG werewolves might not have Coven, but it will have enormous 6/6 werewolves who don’t need the help. BG and UG are (shrug emoji). I think this card will see play, but only in some green decks.

variable playable

Organ hoarder

Whoa, now THIS is what a Signal looks like. 4-mana Elvish Visionary, except it’s a 3/2 AND it gives you the choice of three cards AND you get to put two in the bin to fuel future shenanigans. That is just incredible value and I think every deck with islands will play them. There’s only one concern: 4-mana is a fair amount of mana. While it doesn’t clog as easily as the 5+ mana value slot, there are curve considerations if you get too frisky. Still, the flexibility and the automatic 2-for-1 nature means I’d rather start high on it.

signal

rem karolus, Stalwart Slayer

First, a lot of words. But at it’s core it looks like a Skyknight Legionnaire. Flying haste aggressive creature in aggressive colors. Check. But it has this neat passive that weakens any direct damage spells your opponent has while buffing your own. What do we have so far?

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One gold uncommon, one rare, and a selection of things that… aren’t spells. This right here speaks to the risk of trying to go deep on analyzing cards during spoiler season. If there are two solid red burn spells at common and a useful white “deal x to target attacking/blocking creature” then this might slide up to “Draft-Changer” territory and you build around to support it. Turning Shocks into Lightning Bolts is the real deal. As it stands, it’s probably just going to be a fine card if red & white are open in your seat.

Random prediction: I’ll bet that there’s some 3 damage red spell in this set that this card is going to be specifically immune to because why else would it have 3 toughness? Heard it here first kids!

variable playable