Insider: Crimson Vow – Spoilers!
Yesterday started the spoiler season from Innistrad: Crimson Vow and in this week's post we thought we would show some of the cards and dream a little about the cards' potential.
Slowlands
To start with the most important – countries. Now we get access to the rest of the countries in the "slowlands" cycle. So now there are all 10 countries and it forms the basis of what you can build for games in Standard and let's be honest the "Snarls" that came in Strixhaven are pretty bad...
Even in Commander, Slowlands are really good! They will rarely come in tapped and an untaped double land is just stuffing into any deck that plays these suits. My own assessment is that this is a better country than the so-called "mainlands" that have existed before (in Commander). My logic goes like this: You never keep a hand with only one land and rarely a hand with only two lands - in that case you just play this land turn 1, unless you have a Sol Ring or similar and then you play the land turn two instead. Turn three and onwards, just honk and drive.
For Pioneer, it depends on the deck and it's not certain that you want all four lands anyway, but one or two copies in decks that want to play longer matches seems fine. For older formats than that, the lands will be too slow as turns 1 and 2 sometimes decide the whole match and not being able to use your land directly can lead to outright loss.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
One of the best white creatures ever made. Has been the mainstay of many decks over the years and it will be interesting to see if she has any impact on Standard (I'm a little doubtful). For Pioneer players, it can be an important card to get into the format. That all non-creature spells cost 1 mana more may not sound like much but it's incredibly hard to play against and as a control player it means all your spells come out a turn later in the early game. Your counter costs four instead of three and your Wrath of God costs five instead of four. The extra time an aggressive creature deck gets can often be the difference between winning and losing.
But I have to stop at the picture on the card. Enough that Innistrad no longer gets sun, but doesn't Thalia look a little suspiciously pale..?
Sorin, the Mirthless
To begin with, I had to google "Mirthless". Humorless it apparently meant.
Now for the card.
+1, and you get to draw a card (yes, it's usually worth paying life for a card).
-2, you get back life you paid to draw cards
This is how Plainswalkers have looked for a long time and depending on the Meta in Standard they are good sometimes and less good sometimes. Sorin costs four mana and that might be enough to make him playable. Outside of Standard, I have no expectations for the card to have any impact. A bit of fun curiosity is that the artist (Ayami Kojima) for this card worked on the Castlevania games for many years, so if you think you know Sorin from something else, you probably have the answer there.
Olivia, Crimson Bride
Olivia is the set's protagonist and focus. Olivia is going to marry Sorin's grandfather Edgar(!) and hits it big! Olivia's card is also interesting: six mana for a 3/4 with flying and haste (expensive), but lets you reanimate a creature from the grave that attacks directly. But there is a risk with the card in the last sentence: It gains ”When you don't control a legendary Vampire, exile this creature.” In other words, it is not without risk. If your opponent succeeds in killing Olivia, not only Olivia disappears but also the creatures she has dragged out of the grave. You need to make sure Olivia survives at least one attack to want to play her, and you need to have something really juicy to pick up from the grave that's worth just getting in one attack. There's a little too much that needs to go right for me to be attracted to this card, but it's not hard to dream of picking up something really creepy (and expensive) for free from the grave that pretty much gives you the win more or less immediately (Emrakul, Ulamog, etc.).
Sigarda's Summons
For everyone who plays White-green Counters in Commander, this is a great help in winning the matches when all of a sudden all their creatures fly and generally also become somewhat stronger. This is a finisher for Counter games along the lines of Craterhof Behemoth (not really that strong, I know). This is the last card you play right before attacking a player or two for lethal damage.
Spoilers have only just begun and if you want to follow the spoilers that will be released in the next few days, scryfall.com is recommended.
After a record short (?) time between sets, I thought it would be harder to tag for new cards - but it wasn't! Have fun with all the spoilers and we'll be back next week to pick our favorites from the cards released until then.
Have a great time!
/The wedding cod