Scars of Mirrodin Abilites and Keywords

So as i promised here is this article on the newest abilites and such of scars of mirrodin so you people aren't too confused on what they are and how they work, the three key abilites to look out for are, Metalcraft, Infect and of course Proliferate, so let's begin examining all of the three abilites starting with Metalcraft.

Metalcraft is a unique keyword that focuses more on artifacts and how many you control a few examples of metalcraft are Chrome Steed, Ezuri's Brigade and of course Argent Sphinx with each their own metalcraft ability, note there are no two same abilites in metalcraft, each affects a card in a unique manner and it's interaction is always different when it comes to artifact based decks in general, a good example of this is Galvanic Blast, it's a burn spell that only costs 1 red mana, but metalcraft effects this card greatly in the long run, espically since the amount of damage with metalcraft is doubled from 2 to 4. A more interesting card in terms of metalcraft usage i feel is Argent Sphinx as it's ability to blink in and out when targeted by damage in general is something most blue players would appreciate these days, espically when it comes to blocking, as the Sphinx comes into play at the end of a turn, whether it be the opponent's or yours. Another card with metalcraft that is very unique and useful is Kuldotha Phoenix, it has a return to the battlefield clause from the graveyard with metalcraft, as long as you have the 3 artifacts and pay the 4 mana cost for it's ability, however there is a small drawback, you can only use it during your upkeep at the beginning phase of your turn, this in mind however it's nice to have a 4/4 that is pretty much unkillable with metalcraft similar to Argent Sphinx in it's respect, metalcraft however is a brand new mechanic and i think we may end up seeing in the late set of the block again since it seems to be kicking off very well, depending on how things go of course.

Before i begin detailing infect, let's look at the other ability of course Proliferate, this is a keyword that phyrexia uses for conquering and such in the magic universe, Proliferate is as follows, A card with this ability when proliferate activates, you may place a counter on a already existing counter and any other counter present on the battlefield, so meaning you may place another poison counter on your opponent if he/she has one prior to proliferate, a counter on your planeswalkers, whatever is present, -1/-1 counters on creatures that possess these counters and +1/+1 counters on any creatures that possess these counters, you are allowed to choose any and all of these effects when proliferate is activated, so meaning you have the oppourtunity to put yourself ahead of your opponent when proliferate activates, there are 12 cards with proliferate in this set, let's look at a few of these shall we?. The first one i want to go over is Steady Progress, this costs 2 and a blue mana and has proliferate as well as giving you a extra card in that respect, this is useful since it is a common blue card in this set and your going to be seeing it a lot passed around during drafting and the like. Proliferate is not bad at all but it does have some minor drawbacks, if you choose not to put any counters on anything, then no counters are issued and such the game continues as per normal, if you do select one then that particular thing will get a counter, whatever it may be of course. The next card on my list for proliferate is of course Throne of Geth, this is a artifact that costs 2 mana and has tap this artifact and sacrifice a artifact to proliferate, this is unique as there are only one of these type of effects where sacrificing something causes you to proliferate and add counters as per you want, again if you choose not to, then it is your decision proliferate is a mechanic that speeds up what i am about to talk about Infect.

Perhaps the most common keyword of the three in this set with over 20 cards possessing this keyword, infect is a damage based ability where as you deal damage the power of the creature that deals damage puts that many poison counters onto the player whom was dealt damage on the turn he/she was attacked, blockers who decide to block creatures with infect receive what is known as -1/-1 counters which remove a point from power and toughness making a creature all the more weaker, however there are certain things which make infect a little more powerful, one of them being trample damage, the remaining damage is dealt as poison counters plus standard combat damage, so if a Ichorclaw Myr attacks and is blocked, but has something that gives it trample such as overrun, it has a overall P/T Ratio of 4/4 without the blocking effect kicking in and it is blocked by a 2/2 Runeclaw Bear the runeclaw bear will receive 2 -1/-1 counters and be removed from play with the remaining damage which is 4 in this case being dealt as damage plus poison counters, note you only need 10 poison counters to win against your opponent, Also the damage is chosen as per obvious from this, so if two blockers are chosen, you assign damage as per normal in this case, then the -1/-1 counters are issued from the combat damage and assigned to the two blockers whom blocked the creature this makes things a little easier to understand doesn't it?

There is a returning effect from this set called Imprint, which removes a card from the game, depending on what imprint ability card is put into play and the effect varies, i don't need to explain imprint as it is a older ability and is such taken care of by the rules FAQ which is found here ----> Rules FAQ Well that is all for now and i hope you find this article useful for some respect for the new set of scars of mirrodin which is a week old as of this article, thank you for reading and i will see you next article.

MTG Set Review #5 Scars of Mirrodin

It's been a couple of weeks since i've had the motivation to write recently and i figured let's talk about the newest magic set scars of mirrodin in this set review so let's break down the basics of the set as per usual, there are 249 cards, 26 of those being lands as well as 223 regular spells to sling in this set, with 15 mythics, as well as over 50  rares for this set which i believe this is the most a set has ever had to be quite honest so let's go.


So for this set i'll be going over quite a few things, including the cycles of cards, some interesting picks and such for various ideas in drafting as well as the fact i want to also go over a few cards i believe will assist you in winning a local draft as well as possibly a standard event or two, depending on the deck of course, first one i want to talk about is the walkers for this set, each walker in itself is very powerful as i'm sure you all know and this set has no exceptions to this rule, in fact this set has produced 3 of the most powerful walkers in the game today so far which are, Venser, The Sojourner, Elspeth Tirel and of course Koth of the Hammer, let's go over each of them shall we. First on the list is venser, this bad ass walker is a combination of a white and blue casting cost, meaning he's only the third walker to get this rare dual colour casting cost or higher, the other two being Ajani Vegenant and of course Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. There was also a rare printed with this known as Venser's Journal, think of it as a Spellbook on steroids but at a high casting cost like venser himself, now you may be wondering what makes venser so special in this set, let's take a indepth look at his abilites. His first ability alone is worth more then enough for this card to warrant it's price tag which is still over 40 dollars US these days, his uber blink ability is just supreme and can really change the game by giving out a nasty 2/2 the ability to blink in and out for 1 turn, much like Argent Sphinx can when it has metalcraft which is easier to achieve then summoning venser to the field i think, but it's second ability to make things unblockable is a game changer which means all your creatures can alpha strike your opponent for a nasty amount of damage sometimes even enough to win the game, but his ultimate is useful as well, since it's a path to exile for any and all spells that come into play on your side of the field, genius wizards sheer genius.


The next one i'm going to talk about is Elspeth Tirel and her nasty white weenie abilites, now white weenie i feel is going to change, since she can make dudes, give life and do a wrath of god like effect on all nontokens and lands, so she's a perfect fit for this deck type right, yep and no, she is more versatile then one would think, i mean she makes dudes, that's good enough,  gives life for all the dudes you make, damn good, then wraths the boards for her ultimate, white weenie tokens anyone, this and spectral procession and perhaps even bitterblossom to splash black into it makes this deck a more viable option in extended these days, probably tommorow i'll do a indepth review of some of the decks she has been featured in as of late since scars has been out for less then a week as of this point and all, but that is another article for another time.


Finally it's time to go over Koth of the Hammer, this guy is bad ass, makes lands animate, he gives off mana for every mountain you control and even makes lands do damage when they tap, i can see a few things outta this guy even if he is priced currently at 50 dollars US and 80 Dollars US for the foil versions, i swear this is more then jace ever was in terms of power level, this guy is beast when it comes to RDW or red deck wins as well as mono red decks in general, he's got the same CMC as Garruk for crying out loud and he's been priced at 10 dollars for a good year and a half, wait a couple of months though and this guy will probably go up even higher then JTMS or Tarmogoyf from Time Spiral, seriously if you get this card don't let go of it at all costs, even if it means your life, this guy is a collector's piece for a lot of people and all that,  plus he works well with SOM's new ideals and mechanics quite a decent fit for 3 new walkers which are very powerful probably easily beating JTMS And Garruk as the top walkers of all time.


Now i believe it's time to move onto the cycles of cards for this set, there are 3 cycles as per usual with every new set, let's go over them shall we, first there is the smith cycle which is a set of 5 commons that all interact with artifacts and the like they are as follows, Myrsmith, Painsmith, Embersmither, Riddlesmith and Lifesmith. Then of course there is the Replica cycle which are Moriok, Auriok, Neurok, Sylvok and Vulshok which each correspond with their respective colours as well as the smiths, these are always a unique thing since wizards tends to make cycles based off the set ideals and the like which is nice, the smith cycle itself is very fun to play since one makes dudes, one deals damage, one gives life, one gives deathtouch and a pump and one lets you replace useless cards with better ones, which is always nice in my book, the replicas though are a tad underwhelming i feel as you need a certain type of mana to use their effects and the fact they always cost 3 colorless mana means you will probably pass on them unless you need a slot to fill for your draft deck and all that, but onto better matters the final set of this block is dun dun dun, the trigons which are these weird shaped objects according to the pictures of them, ok then, this seems like a decent uncommon cycle for this set, i mean they all represent some form of color in terms of abilites and each correspond to their color in general which is all well and good i feel, but the best one of the 5 i feel has gotta be the trigon of thought since it's my favorite color costs and well it gives good reason to proliferate most times.


The final thing i want to touch on is the amount of rares in this set, there are good rares in this set such as Argent Sphinx, Sunblast Angel, Myr Battlesphere and even Ratchet Bomb, if i had to choose a set to start with though for magic if i was going to enter the game i would see this being the set of choice to enter with and get started since this is a reimagining of mirrodin in general and all, but some rares are undesired and are considered junk, next time i talk about SOM i'll go over each of the abilites and the cards to look out for and all, till next time this is vergil signing off.