Coming into this one i ended up thinking to myself, i've already done all three block format sets for the year and soon to be the next one, provided it comes out on time of course at the beginning of october as planned this is perhaps the last set review for a while, so let's get down to the basics of this core set with the newest mechanics and cycles revealed for 2011 so let's go.
The Titan Cycle - This is perhaps one of the most brutal cycles to come out in a core set, you have one for each colour as well as the various mechanics for the colour it represents for example we have Frost Titan which represents blue and control elements, Grave Titan which has control over zombie generation and generating infinte amounts of creatures, Inferno Titan which makes burn spells happen and pumps itself up to massive levels to make the most damage, Primeval Titan for land generation and massive trample damage and of course Sun Titan to return cards to your hand to play them again and again till it dies, generating a infinte amount of cards if done correctly. This particular cycle is one of the most powerful ever seen, a set of creatures so deadly it's unreal and some of the costs of these beasts are huge in comparison to the other core set cards i am going to be talking about in this article.
The Leyline Cycle - Another enchantment cycle you ask, haven't we seen this before you ask, hmm no not really, the leylines were in a prior set known as Guildpact, and even one of them is a standing reprint bet you can't guess which one that's right the first one i'm talking about Leyline of the Void which is the same as it always was with removing cards put in the graveyard from the game if this is out, best of all, if you got these in your opening hand, you get to play them for free, i mean no cost in mana or nothing, absolutely, 100% free and no charge. Now of course each one has a specific colour and effect, let's start with the void, it prevents graveyards from being in use while it is out, exiling every card in the graveyard from the game, it normally would be a turn 4 play if it was not in your opening hand, if it was turn 1 this would screw a lot of dredge decks again if dredge was still a standard thing but it's not anymore. Let's move onto the next one the red one known as Leyline of Punishment which does prevent lifegain from being used and prevents damage from being countered, think of it's prevention effect much like a Banefire that is paid for 5 for X at all times, except damage is not dealt instead the damage is uncounterable and hits no matter what. Now for a new entire idea green's leyline Leyline of Vitality which pulls a lifegain effect each time a creature enters the battlefield under your control and gives +0/+1 counters to everything. making them all that much tougher, nuff said. For white it's of course Leyline of Sanctity which makes you unable to be targeted by spells or abilites, a permanent shroud effect if you will, awesome this raised white's drafting potential to new standards and finally the last card is Leyline of Anticipation which gives everything flash, which i've talked bout in my previous article which is listed somewhere in here, find it i don't wanna bother linking it.
Planeswalker spells and creatures - This set introduced us to a new sort of card, ones that are closely tied together with the 5 main planeswalkers Ajani Goldmane, Jace Beleren, Chandra Nalaar, Lilliana Vess and Garruk Wildspeaker, each seems to be used for their own colours and have the various abilites of each colour and such, let's take a look at them shall we. Ajani's Mantra and Ajani's Pridemate are the first two in this set, they both work on lifegain, the pridemate gets counters on it for each 1 point of life gained and the mantra gives 1 point of life during the upkeep step which is really cool, combo'ing this two cards together with the planeswalker they are named off can make some seriously bad ass creature in the pridemate, drafting them seems to be no trouble at all either, since they are both common and uncommon. The next two is Chandra's Outrage and Chandra's Spitfire it works much the same as the card from ROE known as Kiln Fiend except the outrage is the spell that triggers the spitfire's ability to give it a +3/+0 boost since the outrage does 2 points of noncombat damage to a opponent this way, perfect in combination again, wizards really knew what they were doing with each of these particular cards. The next two cards are a pair of creatures since they are of the green variety Garruk's Companion and Garruk's Packleader are both creatures that work off each other, one has trample and the other gives you card draws when a creature with power 3 or greater comes into play, not bad for a pair of creatures huh. Blue ends up getting a pair of spells in the form of a enchantment and instant speed spell known as Jace's Erasure and of course Jace's Inguenity which both focus on milling and card drawing since it's a blue essential aspect, the inguenity reminds me of another card called Brainstorm but without the nasty side effect of discarding 2 cards in response. The last two from this new cycle is a enchantment in the form of Lilana's Caress which causes a lifeloss effect when a card is discarded and Lilana's Specter which makes opponents discard causing the enchantment to trigger which is all well and good to be quite honest.
That's pretty much it in terms of new cycles and cards worth talking about, tommorow i'll more then likely end up discussing the main stuff to come for the next bit, including thoughts and speculations on the latest block started Scars of Mirrodin, till next time this is vergil signing off.
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