KALADESH TOP 8 CONSTRUCTED CARDS
The time is almost upon us, Pro Tour Kaladesh is only days away, and we will soon know what archetypes will be dominating standard in the weeks and months to come.
With rotation comes the excitement of getting our hands on new cards we actually want to play with and the chance to dive straight into a brand new Standard format. We are now safely into the eighteen month, three block rotation that Wizards have been moving towards as the new landscape for the Standard format. So far new sets have been shaking things up, having a considerable impact on the style and shape of the format, rather than just adding one or two cards to existing archetypes in a solved format.
Kaladesh is full of new, interesting and powerful cards, and I see no reason why we won’t see another dynamic shift in the format. These are my picks for the top constructed cards in Kaladesh.
As a six mana sorcery early in an aggressive format this might not shine as brightly as I feel it will in the long term. However what you are getting for six mana isn’t just one clone effect but two. Phyrexian Metamorph was a powerful card in its time and I feel this is no exception. In a format where powerful artifacts are likely to be present building your own deck to take advantage of this is easy enough, but worse case it will copy the best creature on the battlefield and that could be an Emrakul.
Copying your opponent’s Verdurous Gearhulk twice, once as a creature and once as an artifact seems very powerful but the potential for value with enter the battlefield triggers such as on Torrential Gearhulk creating two six mana creatures and getting to cast two instants for free from your graveyard all for the investment of six mana is something that appeals to me greatly.
7: Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
The flashiest of the new Vehicle card type, Skysoverign doesn’t mess around. A flying 6/5 body for a low cost of five mana provides an airborne threat your opponents will need to answer quickly or likely lose too. Its weakness is it needs creatures to crew it but it will be at home in the top end of a creature heavy aggressive deck or as a resilient threat in a control deck. The five toughness makes it hard to block and kill with creatures, the fact it is immune to creature removal unless it has been activated and crewed and there is little removal that can easily deal with the five toughness it possess.
A five mana evasive threat of this nature is dangerous enough but it also possesses a similar ability to Inferno Titan, presenting you with a reusable lightning bolt when it attacks, not to mention its ability to kill something when it enters the battlefield to start with.
This is the current poster child for the Gearhulk cycle and many professional players have been talking about decks that include them. Early in a season decks traditionally are built on an aggressive basis until people work out what answers they need in their decks to allow midrange and control strategies to flourish. When you resolve this Gearhulk and it pumps your team or makes an evasive threat huge it is going to be hard for your opponents to block profitably and near impossible to race.
The more I have considered new strategies and drafted potential deck lists the more and more I come back to this card. I think this will fit well into both midrange and control strategies alike and in a format where people are playing ‘Battlecruiser’ Magic and resolving giant threats the tempo and life gain this card brings might be one of the best.
Pairing it with the well know Eldrazi Displacer may seem obvious but unlike Reflector Mage it will be sending cards to the opponent’s graveyard and padding your life total while taking board states to a place where your opponent can no longer block a 5/4 body with Menace. Casting this on turn six then flickering it twice on your following turn seems back breaking. Until your opponent has a removal spell for the Displacer they are in a position where playing out creatures does nothing for them.
4. Kaladesh ‘Fast’ Lands
Kaladesh brings us a cycle of enemy coloured dual lands of a type we were introduced to in Scars of Mirrodin. These lands come into play untapped when you control two or fewer other lands making them ideal early plays and fixing mana for two or three colour decks. The cycle includes Blooming Marsh, Botanical Sanctum, Concealed Courtyard, Inspiring Vantage and Spirebluff Canal. These will be staples in many decks going forward and will be legal in standard for eighteen months, I suspect you are going to play with them a lot in that time frame.
The basis of any consistent deck is its mana base, I always grab a playset of lands early in the format to allow me to be able to build any mana base for any deck I am considering. It means additional copies you pick up can be traded away without fear and considering how integral the Scars of Mirrodin lands are to many Modern deck mana bases these are cross format playable and likely to be used for many years to come. The price of Modern staples seems to be constantly rising. so picking these up now is a sensible point of speculation.
This new Nissa has not had the same hype surrounding her as the latest Chandra but I do think she is very powerful in her own right and will see a lot of play, especially in midrange and grindier decks which feature green.
There has been a lot of talk of using her ultimate as soon as you get to it to ensure you can draw additional cards whenever you play a land. I had the good fortune to open and play with her at one of the weekend prereleases I attended and her +1 ability seems very strong. You have the option to be aggressive with the land you animate with her, 5/5 creatures are fantastic on a developing board. Being defensive sitting there with a 5/5 blocking often means without flyers your opponent is helpless to make profitable attacks or push through enough damage to kill her. I expect to see people being able to be greedy, taking her to seven loyalty, ultimating her then continuing to tick her up further. Playing Nissa’s Renewal with her emblem in play suddenly looks amazing.
When you consider that Sylvan Advocate is a highly playable card in green decks and when you get to six land the static ability will boost lands you animate with Nissa, a stream of 7/7’s, 9/9’s or more will start threatening lethal very quickly.
Additionally she may play well with Drownyard Temple, allowing you to return your land to the battlefield even if it gets killed off. My final belief is that she will fit into a shell that also contains The Gitrog Monster, the potential for a stream of card advantage and ramping out lands.
Having reviewed Chandra, Torch of Defiance a few weeks ago when we first saw her how could she not be in my top 8. The only surprise is that I have not installed her in first place. I talked about her extensively here and if you haven’t taken a look feel free to see my early opinions on the card. She is a beautiful, powerful and versatile Planeswalker and one that I imagine will see a great deal of play over the coming weeks as the format evolves and shapes up.
She will give aggro decks reach with those last points of damage from her first +1 ability. We will see midrange decks jump ahead with her second +1 ability going to a seven drop or a four drop and a three drop on turn five. In general she will be a threat that needs to be answered before she accrues too much card advantage.
The true test will be just how many different builds and archetypes she fits into successfully but I have no doubt the fiery redhead will be number one amongst the Planeswalker pantheon we have access too.
My number one pick isn’t a creature, a Planeswalker or a ridiculous spell but rather a totally new card type, yes I have unsurprisingly chosen a vehicle. Smuggler’s Copter is straight up a fantastic card. It has a very low casting cost, is easy to activate with a Crew 1 requirement. Attacks well and aggressively being an evasive threat that can be bashing for three damage on turn three. but most importantly the card filtering ability it provides when you use it to loot with. The loot is a ‘may’ ability so it is your choice to activate. At the risk of staring a looting controversy the choice is always to loot.
I was lucky enough to play with this card in not one but two sealed pools over the weekend and it very quickly showed me just how good it was. It enables keeping a two land hand knowing you have opportunities to draw out of being mana screwed. Allows you to play your land post combat in case you pick up a different colour of land that develops you mana better than the one you might be holding. You can draw into a trick or removal spell you can use before or during blockers to ensure your Copter remains in one piece and good to be used again the next turn.
This will pressure Planeswalkers, take chunks out of your opponent’s life total while all the while improving your average card quality. Later in the game it allows you to turn additional lands into potential draws and if you can combine this with any ability to scry and you could improve that even further. Not to mention it turns weaker creatures, outclassed in the late game into viable threats.
It also dodges sorcery speed removal, unless you are playing with it on defence, which is a legitimate plan if you are behind as it loots when blocking as well.
Smuggler’s Copter is a clear pick for my number one constructed card.
Do you agree? I’d be interested to know your top picks, feel free to let me know in the comments below.
