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What 9th Should look likeBy Stefan Preiml on May 26th, 2005 · Filed in General Magic · 67 Comments
White - Creatures Angelic Wall Aven Cloudchaser Aven Flock Crossbow Infantry Eager Cadet Glory Seeker Kabuto Moth Master Decoy Samite Healer Standing Troops Suntail Hawk Tundra Wolves Venerable Monk White has a wide range of creatures with combat abilities and abilities that help other creatures in combat. Here we see a fine arrangement of fliers and cheap weenies White is known for. Angelic Page is gone for the better Kabuto Moth. There were too many two-mana creatures anyway, and +1/+2 feels more white, too. White - Spells Demystify Healing Salve Holy Day Holy Strength Pacifism Redeem Sacred Nectar Solidarity Spirit Link White's spells has everything White should stand for. Lock-down creature enchantments, damage prevention, life gain, a little bit of pump and enchantment removal. Should be good.
Blue - Creatures Aven Fisher Coral Eel Covert Operative Fugitive Wizard Giant Crab Horned Turtle Sage Owl Sea Monster Sneaky Homunculus Storm Crow Thought Courier Vigilant Drake Blue has some cheap fliers and a nice defensive card in Horned Turtle. I've put in some untargetability to showcase this Blue ability a bit more. Also card drawing is represented in the common slot by Thought Courier. Blue - Spells Boomerang Counsel of the Soratami Flash Counter Flight Frozen Solid Mana Leak Remove Soul Repel Unsummon Mostly card drawing, counters and bounce: exactly what blue is known for. These cards should be good enough for Standard players as a fallback resource if upcoming Expert sets don't offer enough meat. Black - Creatures Bog Imp Disease Carriers Dross Prowler Drudge Skeletons Dusk Imp Giant Cockroach Gravedigger Looming Shade Phyrexian Rager Ravenous Rats Scathe Zombies Spineless Thug Soul Scourge
Black has some utility creatures for life loss, discard and card drawing. Disease Carriers is a two for one when he dies. Phyrexian Rager works as a card advantage tool the other way around, fetching you another card when he comes into play. I've put in Dross Prowler as the Fear creature to correspond with our list of known cards, although I would have liked to include Severed Legion, which is IMHO the better and cooler card. Black - Spells Blackmail Consume Spirit Dark Banishing Despondency Distress Fear Mind Rot Raise Dead Unholy Strength Consume Spirit was added for the "X-factor" to teach new players. The Dark Banishing was kept as the staple kill spell in Black, since there still is Nekrataal in the uncommon slot. I also have chosen Distress over Coercion to have discard more Black-centered and get Black playing a bit faster. Red - Creatures
Balduvian Barbarians Canyon Wildcat Cinder Wall Dwarven Demolition Team Flame Spirit Frostling Goblin Chariot Goblin Cohort Goblin Raider Hill Giant Sabretooth Tiger Shock Troops Skirk Prospector Red's creatures are a bit faster now with the inclusion of Goblin Cohort and Skirk Prospector. This means Red now has 3 one-drops. Also Flame Spirit returned as a mini-Dragon for Limited play. Red - Spells Enrage Panic Attack Reflexes Shatter Seething Song Shock Stone Rain Tremor Volcanic Hammer I've included Seething Song in addition to Skirk Prospector for the new fast-mana theme Red has now. The rest consists of staples with some burn, power-pumping, land and artifact destruction.
Green - Creatures Canopy Spider Craw Wurm Elvish Lyrist Elvish Pioneer Giant Spider Giant Warthog Grizzly Bears Horned Troll Llanowar Elves Moss Monster Nantuko Disciple Norwood Ranger Rushwood Dryad Seeker of Skybreak Trained Armodon Wood Elves Pretty staple here again. The only major change was the return of Seeker of Skybreak for the possibility of an Elf theme Deck and putting in Giant Warthog as a common trampler. He has also proven to be a nice Limited player before. Green - Spells Fertile Ground Giant Growth Naturalize Rampant Growth Regeneration Stream of Life Life gain, Regeneration, Naturalize, land search: just what green does. This is another "fallback" group for Standard players. You may wonder why I still put in Rampant Growth over Sakura-Tribe Elder. First and foremost, I believe the Elder is seeing a bit too much play at the moment. Maybe I would include him in 10th Edition, but the Elder still stays till a year after 9th's release. Second, Green has the most creatures anyways, and I still think I overloaded it a bit. The uncommons I've included a cycle of tutors in the uncommon slot (with the exception of Red, that gets it tutor in the rare slot), because they would vanish from the Extended scene otherwise. Here is also a double cycle of colorhosers as in previous base sets. There is also a small cycle of creatures with comes-into-play abilities.
White Ancestor's Chosen Ardent Militia Daraja Griffin Leonin Skyhunter Longbow Archer Seasoned Marshal Staunch Defenders Wall of Swords Argivian Find Chastise Circle of Protection: Black Circle of Protection: Blue Circle of Protection: Green Circle of Protection: Red Circle of Protection: White Enlightened Tutor Ghostly Prison Renewing Dawn Tempest of Light CoPs are uncommon like in 8th, since they would spoil the common slot too much in limited play. Daraja Griffin is the Black-hoser here, since he is mostly a two-for-one against a Black player, and if not he's still a 2/2 flyer for 4. Sanctimony was kicked for Renewing Dawn, as I think it's the more interesting card. Leonin Skyhunter is also back again for some flying weenie madness, and Ghostly Prison would make its shift from Blue to White perfect with the inclusion in a base set. I would have liked to bring back Thunder Spirit as a flying first striker, but unfortunately that guy is on the reserved list. Basically the same goes for Altar's Light, but the remove from game part was a bit prohibitive and I also didn't want to push too many Mirrodin cards. Instead Argivian Find was put int as a bit of a Johnny card.
Blue Air Elemental Aven Fateshaper Cephalid Pathmage Fog BankMan-o'-War Plasma Elemental Spiketail Hatchling Telepathic Spies Thieving Magpie Baleful Stare Compulsion Concentrate Confiscate Curiosity Hibernation Hinder Hoodwink Mystical Tutor Rewind Aven Fateshaper is a nice big flyer and acts as a replacement for Index, but there still is Sage Owl in the common slots. Baleful Stare and Hibernation are in to hose Red and Green. Fog Bank is a nice tournament-playable wall, that also acts as a countermeasure against Green beatdown decks. Man-o'-War, on the other hand, has made it back as a 187 for blue that is useful in beatdown decks as well. Also there is Compulsion, a neat little card from Torment that should show some new players that digging is a fun and intelligent thing to do.
Black Abyssal Specter Bog Wraith Carrion Wall Deathgazer Nekrataal Primeval ShamblerWill-o'-the-Wisp Withered Wretch Woebearer Bereavement Cremate Diabolic Edict Diabolic Tutor Infest Megrim Night's Whisper Phyrexian Reclamation Yawgmoth's Edict Zombify Pretty standard here. Nekrataal is back as the 187 in Black and Will-o'-the-Wisp has become uncommon in hopes it would see more play. Cremate and Withered Wretch cover the graveyard removal that 7th and 8th Edition totally lacked, despite the fact that they remove cards from the game, but this is a very basic ability for black and should be introduced as early as possible. With Infest, Black finally has a mass removal in the uncommon slot in the base set. Phyrexian Reclamation is the cemetery recursion engine, along with Woebearer... I wonder which of those would see more play. The Reclamation shows a bit of Black's self destructive side, as does Night's Whisper which replaces Ambitious Cost. I also wanted to include a card that forces an opponent to sacrifice a resource in black. The choice fell on Diabolic Edict, but I needed to make it uncommon since I would have too much creature kill in the common slot otherwise.
Red Avarax Goblin Glider Hulking Cyclops Minotaur Explorer Renegade Warlord Viashino Sandstalker Viashino Heretic Vulshok Sorcerer Wall of Stone Blaze Boil Demolish Extra Arms Flashfires Lightning Blast Pyroclasm Pyrostatic Pillar Pyrotechnics Threaten Threaten is back to showcase Red's ability to temporarily take control of an opponent's creatures, and Vulshok Sorcerer is back as the new Tim in town. Pyrostatic Pillar is here to keep combo decks in check, and the Minotaur Explorer shows a bit more of Red's shortsightened vision. The hosers for Red are Flashfires and Boil like in 8th Edition. I also wanted to focus first strike a bit more in red, since 8th only had Reflexes and Sabretooth Tiger. The original design had Akki Coalflinger, but as a Kamigawa cad, it got cut. Renegade Warlord replaces him. As talked earlier, the uncommons have a broken cycle of tutors. Since red never had a tutor at uncommon, I've put in Avarax as a replacement. This guy has seen tournament play before, and I think he will again.
Green Argothian Elder Crashing Boars Fyndhorn Elder Gorilla Titan Hunted Wumpus Rooting Kavu Tunneler Wurm Utopia Tree Viridian Shaman Wall of Blossoms Choke Creeping Mold Elven Cache Lure Nourish One with Nature Reap Wing Snare Worldly Tutor Gorilla Titan made the cut to show trample to the new players a bit more. He also works fine with the graveyard department green has with Elven Cache, Reap (which is also the black-hoser for green) and Rooting Kavu. The Kavu was chosen over Barishi for the better creature type, and over Elvish Soultiller since I didn't want to have mutants in the base set and the "choose a creature type" part was also a bit unattractive. Utopia Tree has become uncommon since I don't want to see it as a rare again, and I don't think any other player wants that, since the card could be easily at uncommon. Choke is the other hoser in green.
Artifacts Angel's Feather Bonesplitter Bottle Gnomes Brass Secretary Chimeric Coils Demon's Horn Dragon Engine Dragon's Claw Kraken's Eye Rod of Ruin Vulshok Battlegear Wurm's Tooth Lucky Charms are back in their updated form from Darksteel. Brass Secretary gives each color a bit of card draw, if they need to have it. Also Equipment is here to stay, but I had to make them uncommon since there are no common artifacts in the core set. At one point I even had Leonin Scimitar as an uncommon, but that was changed to Vulshok Battlegear a bit later. I would have liked to put in Goblin Cannon as a learning curve feature (costs and effects), but we already have confirmed Chimeric Coils, which basically fulfills the same purpose. Lands Urza's Mine Urza's Power Plant Urza's Tower The Urza Lands for the Timmy players. Nothing more to say here. The rares Everyone loves rares since they realy hold power (or at least Timmy thinks so). I've put in a cycle of 4 mana 4/4s to give each color a little bit beats. There is also finally a complete cycle of lords in each color, although not each of those has "Lord" as its creature type. More on that later.
White Ageless Sentinels Aven Brigadier Blessed Reversal Blinding Angel Convalescent Care Elite Archers Intrepid Hero Savannah Lions Serra Angel Weathered Wayfarer Glorious Anthem Ivory Mask Righteousness Sacred Ground Story Circle Worship Wrath of God Ageless Sentinels starts the cycle of 4/4s. Glorious Anthem, Sacred Ground, Serra, Worship and Wrath are the staple rares. Aven Brigadier is the first Lord in the Cycle. He has the purpose of a double-Lord for both soldiers and birds. I had to choose between him, Catapult Master and Daru Warchief, and I think he's the right choice. There was also the decision whether Ivory Mask or True Believer should be the card to make you untargetable. I settled on the Mask since it has a bit more tradition and it is harder to remove as an Enchantment.
Blue Archivist Daring Apprentice Extravagant Spirit Mahamoti Djinn Patron Wizard Temporal Adept Tidal Kraken Bribery Coastal Piracy Evacuation Intruder Alarm Mana Short Mind Bend Opposition Stifle Time Warp Zur's Weirding Intruder Alarm is a nice combo enabler which is always good to have in a base set, since it gives the players something to tinker with. Patron Wizard and Extravagant Spirit, one of the few upkeep cards, are the cycle cards in blue. Also Time Warp is back. Without it even Extended wouldn't have a simple "take another turn" card after the rotation. Some people asked me if I really wanted to include Stifle and Opposition in the set. The answer is yes. Stifle represents a relatively basic Blue ability, and its inclusion should make a little twist in standard. Opposition, on the other hand, is one of the few real Spike plants in the set that should see tournament play.
Black Fallen Angel Kezzerdrix Lord of the Undead Mortivore Nightmare Phyrexian Plaguelord Royal Assassin Yawgmoth Demon Beacon of Unrest Death Match Cruel Tutor Death Pit Offering Grave Pact Head Games Morality Shift Persecute Phyrexian Arena Kezzerdrix, the original Killer Bunny, makes his return to replace his brother Vizzerdrix and conquer some hearts. Mortivore replaces Llhurgoyf and serves as another black regenerator. Head Games and Morality Shift are some tools for Johnny. Phyrexian Arena stays in the Core Set for being a nice, tournament-playable black card drawer. Persecute keeps its job as the discard extraordinaire, which is good since we left Mind Sludge out of this set. 8th felt a bit funny with two mass discarders in black. Black also gets an additional tutor with Cruel Tutor to focus on Black's overall tutor ability and its "life-trade" system. I've put in Yawgmoth Demon from the Selecting 9th Edition Ballots, although I would have preferred Havoc Demon in that slot.
Red Bloodshot Cyclops Goblin King Lava Hounds Magnivore Okk Rathi Dragon Shard Phoenix Shivan Dragon Blood Moon Blood Oath Earthquake Furnace of Rath Gamble Insurrection Mass Hysteria Obliterate Searing Wind I've chosen Mass Hysteria over Fervor for being the more "shortsighted"-card. Rathi Dragon makes Timmy smile, and Gamble is another lucky card for red, finishing the tutor cycle. Blood Oath also returns as an anti-control card. Lava Hounds and Goblin King extend their specific cycles. Obliterate is also back as the reset button of the set. The fact that it saw tournament play in the last two years was a bonus. The rest is pretty staple with Shivan Dragon and Furnace of Rath. Also here we find Gamble, a very funny card and one of the few "luck" cards we have in this set. It finishes our broken tutor cycle in the uncommons.
Green Ambush Commander Elvish Champion Elvish Piper Emperror Crocodile Gaea's Herald Nantuko Cultivator Ravenous Baloth Silklash Spider Symbiotic Wurm Verduran Enchantress Viridian Zealot Heartbeat of Spring Hurricane Might of Oaks Natural Affinity Plow Under Weird Harvest Ambush Commander is another card for the kids. It was pretty chased after when it first came out. Heartbeat of Spring replaces Vernal Bloom. Ravenous Baloth makes his glorious return, and Silklash Spider takes some anti-air measures. Symbiotic Wurm is the only card dealing with tokens in the set, since I think tokens should stay in Expert sets. There was also some discussion on Verduran Enchantress vs. Enchantress's Presence. I took the creature for more traditional feeling. Some might also notice the absence of Maro. IMHO it was time for him to go (not the real MaRo though). Nantuko Cultivator should be a fine replacement.
Artifacts Aladdin's Ring Coat of Arms Crumbling Sanctuary Dancing Scimitar Defense Grid Disrupting Scepter Ensnaring Bridge Goblin Charbelcher Grid Monitor Jade Statue Howling Mine Millstone Phyrexian Colossus Triskelion Ensnaring Bridge, Coat of Arms, Defense Grid and Millstone are back as staples. I wanted to include and alternative win condition card and a card that makes a good position on defense. Crumbling Sanctuary fulfills both of these needs one way or another. Grid Monitor is another tool for control decks. I also replaced Vexing Arcanix with Goblin Charbelcher as the "complicated artifact rare". I've seen some very funny games for both players with a Charbelcher in play. A realy enjoyable card. Lands
City of Brass Adarkar Wastes Underground River Sulfurous Springs Karplusan Forest Brushland Caves of Koilos Llanowar Wastes Yavimaya Coast Shivan Reef Battlefield Forge I think with the inclusion of all ten pain lands the Standard metagame would become way more interesting again. For the needs of 4- and 5- color players there still is City of Brass as a fallback option. Also, all these cards act as chase rares as well. Conclusion So this is my list what 9th should look like. Sure, on some choices some people might disagree, but not everything can be agreed on all the time. I got asked once, "Can this all really be in 9th?" I sure hope so. 9th Edition should make at least some tournament impact, and provide some useful tools for the soon-rotating Extended format. The thing is, 8th Edition wasn't really a big success as a tournament set. The only notable cards that saw play beside the staples of CoP: Red and Pyroclasm or Karma were Plow Under and Phyrexian Arena. I hope I've done a better job on this. Thanks for reading my article. I hope you've made up your own mind on what 9th could look like and you enjoyed the read. By Stefan Preiml on May 26th, 2005 · Filed in General Magic · 67 Comments |
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Better than 
Giant Crab for another basic Blue ability.
A common spell with X in its mana cost.
Another push on reds fast mana.
Trampling common goodness.
Making the shift perfect.
The 187 is back in blue.
Would you like to see this rare?
There is a new Tim in the West
Giving Johnny something to tinker with.
Uncommonness as a nessesary evil.
The only Doublelord here.
Taking extra turns is easy.
Black gets extra tutor madness.
Believe it or not, but this guy was in my originial list, even before the precon was known.
Only many tokens are good tokens.
Being Defensive can be a bonus.
I know, this is going to stir up some discussion.
