Khans Of Tarkhir

Well from a personal point of view the Jeskai 'wallpaper' picture that has been used for all the promotions etc reminds me of the line up in a film such as Kung Fu Panda - not very inspiring from a game that wants you to take the flavor seriously.

Agreed about the clunkiness - though perhaps a return isn't necessarily impossible.

I don't have a problem with the clan mechanics - those worked to good effect in RtR. I think adding morph again as a separate entity was perhaps a mistake. It would have been nice if it could have been worked in as a clan mechanic. The three colors could be gotten around ok - Alara managed to do it - but it is a lot to work with at once if you include Heroic, Inspired and Constellation from Theros.

Not a great fan of those last two - I'd have preferred it if Theros had just stuck with Heroic or perhaps Heroic and Constellation (as I like Doomwake Giant / Eidelon of Blossoms) but dropped Inspired.

It is a lot to be playing around with at one time. Perhaps when Theros rotates next year this set will work better with whatever follows it...

True, I did. Amusing because that is the one I still use now in my aggro deck (Spiteful Returned).

Hm.. to give them the benefit of the doubt it could feel half finished intentionally - if Sarkhan is going back to change history then the feeling of the set might change over the next two releases?

I think an inherent problem is that Alara gave us the shards (yes I know wedges were around before that but... meh) and that was still quite recent so when you think of 3 color decks you consider Bant, Jund, Esper etc - this is not helped by the fact that until Innistrad fully rotated out Jund was a top 8 deck in Standard.

Immediately following that RtR gave us Guilds. Ok they were only 2 colors but they had identity, back story and unique mechanics that you could identify with and use - and people did. Gruul monsters is actually a deck now - despite all Gruul cards having rotated out. The set made enough of an impression to remain in the language. Theros continued those guild colors with it's deities and that worked for everyone. The cards available between RtR and Theros were good enough that no one needed to make 3 color decks to any great extent. You had Rakdos Aggro winning a GP, Selesnya Aggro in most top 8's and even the Mono-Black devotion began to evolve to carry Abrupt Decay etc.

So now - when we really needed a bit of a break to reset our brains to mono color we get a very specific set of 3 color clans that are outside of the ones we know and love. Yes I quite like the Junk (Abzan) and Jeskai cards - and there is no denying they are strong in standard - but there was no real opportunity to take on the flavor and come to 'own' a clan. I would suspect that a large number of people playing Abzan at the moment are doing so because "Siege Rhino is good" or simply because it's on the top 8 lists for major tournaments and they need a good deck. In RtR I played Boros and Gruul at times towards the beginning and was playing Golgari by the end but I really felt how each deck was different and all of them were home brewed because they had cards I wanted to play with.

I admit that I don't - yet - feel that type of connection with this set. Someone I was talking to at the game shop said something similar in that he intended to just keep playing with the Theros cards as long as possible then concentrate on the replacement set.

Perhaps things will change with the hybrid mana set that's about to come out. I hope so.

Awesome commander though...

Two magic words - First Strike & Hexproof, so she's resiliant from the start. Her ability is something you'd have to build around (not a creature heavy deck) but You could get a lot of value out of attacking with her and casting 4 artifacts or 4 instants. The only issue is that she exiles the cards you don't use so you will only get a limited number of attacks in with her before you mill yourself out. But if those attacks included being able to put down say Sword of Kaldra, Argentium Armour, Aquas Form on one turn then the next turn you attack someone is almost dead from commander damage - flip a boros charm or anything else that gives double strike at instant speed and you've just taken someone out of the game in 2 attacks.

Ok it's an extreme example but white is very good at tutoring for equipment and blue is good at making things unblockable. Red is either burn to the face or potentially a reset switch if the battlefield is looking less than friendly (white can do this too) so there are a few interesting combinations you might get on your four cards - the ideal one being a flicker effect and a boardwipe...

Her casting cost is the only thing that makes it difficult to make her a truly great commander candidate. It's high and by the time you can bring her out you should have at least one opponent at the table who has the means to kill her in their hand. But as she's hexproof that's a fairly limited pool of board wipes, sacrifice effects and untargeted bounce spells so it should be reasonably easy to work out who is 'safe' to swing for early on.

I'd be tempted to build the same general type of deck for her that I'd run for Jhoira of the Gitu - only without the eldrazi and massive creatures. Lots of instant and sorcery spells to get the maximum value out of her attacks each turn as well as some equipment to make her that little bit more deadly in combat and perhaps a few creatures that work well with a lot of spells being cast (Young Pyromancer etc)

I'd want to check on gatherer for any rulings but as far as I can see if a spell is exiled but you then cast it (that turn) it should end up in your graveyard as you have brought it back from exile to cast it - creatures and equipment that like spells in your graveyard would also work (What was the name of the izzet colored flyer that got bigger with spells in your graveyard? I've got a playset somewhere)

So yeah, I just think she would be fun to build around as long as you could work your mana base so you could consistently cast her.

Just found this video...

Woot - very well done. He's good - a staple in Abzan decks at the moment.

He is 4cmc for a 4 loyalty walker that will usually become 5 loyalty on the turn he's played. The lifelink and buff are relevant at the moment but the 2/2 flyer is also useful now there are so many flyers around. His ultimate - if anyone is stupid enough to let you get there - gives you a certain sense of inevitability.

He's good and he potentially has validity in modern (W/B tokens) and certainly in EDH.

Oooh - a nice little selection. Ankle Shanker is great. I got him at the pre-release. Jeskai Ascendency is a deck type that I absolutely hate because it can be so damn good if it comes off well. I took 26 damage in one turn to a J/A deck going off recently. Great card which, whilst not broken, is perhaps bending slightly.

Mardu roughrider is fairly standard fare. At worst it's a solid sized attacker with a bit of an upside.

Dragon Throne is interesting. I might want to get one and hold on to it for EDH use sometimes. It would probably be very good in cube...

Ankle shanker is awesome - I've got it in my Alesha EDH deck. It's just one of those little nasty things that make you smile.

Which was actually quite a good deck as event decks go.

It's not bad - like all event decks it's essentially an introduction to the cards in the format rather than a constructed decklist - but it's solid enough.