Judge's Den: Chapin at the Pro Tour

Ariel at Wizardden.com weighing in today on the Pro Tour feature match of Patrick Chapin vs. Michele Ancona. While I tend to avoid the over discussed topics, I have been asked my opinion on the scenario so many times that I thought it best to write this article. As a reminder I am level 2 judge, tournament organizer at a local level, and still a very active player in standard and modern events both locally and regionally. I am also a huge fan Chapin and all he has done to help other players bridge the gap from semi-casual play to highly competitive play.

If you missed the coverage, Chapin made two game play errors. The first was missed by all parties present and can not be truly determined as intentional or not. Chapin played a scry land, put the card on the bottom of his library, then cast Read the Bones, put the top two cards of his library on to the table, modified his life total accordingly, then placed the cards in his hand. This is the first place I'll stop. At this point he makes a visible reaction to his misplay of immediately drawing the cards without scrying first, while legal it was a play mistake. As a player what I notice here is a visibly flustered player that is now likely to make more mistakes going forward. At this point Chapin activates his Ugin, the Spirit Dragon to remove some soldier tokens, then plays his second land for the turn to cast an Elspeth, Sun's Champion. This is against the rules beyond a doubt, but I can not determine from the coverage if this was intentional foul play or not. An argument has been raised that he increased his pace of play afterward indicating that he may have realized it after the fact and wanted to get as much play between him and his mistake. While this could be true, it is in no way definitive.

The second was the big one that drew everyone's attention. Chapin used his Ajani, Mentor of Heroes to look at his top four cards, chose one and put it in his hand. This has been an extremely polarizing topic for the community. On one side thanks to coverage we can beyond a doubt prove he made a legal choice in which card he picked. On the other side adding a card to your hand is considered a game rule violation that is to be upgraded when it is dealing with hidden information that can not be confirmed by all players. My first thought on this seems to be one that is missing from most arguments I have heard. This is the Pro Tour, it is not competitive level of rule enforcement, this is at professional rule enforcement.

From the Infraction Procedure Guide:
Competitive events are usually those with significant cash prizes or invitations awarded to Professional events. Players are expected to know the game’s rules—but not to a technically detailed level—and be familiar with the policies and procedures, but unintentional errors are not punished severely. These are events that protect the interests of all players by providing event integrity while also recognizing that not all players are intimately familiar with Professional-level event structure, proper procedures, and rules.

Professional level events offer large cash awards, prestige, and other benefits that draw players from great distances. These events hold players to a higher standard of behavior and technically correct play than Competitive events.

In professional rule enforcement there are not often downgrades. In this scenario there was no way short of coverage to confirm the identity of the card beyond a doubt. I add the beyond a doubt, because Chapin argued that his cards were known anyways and he could just reveal his hand. Unfortunately this would not definitively confirm that he did not put a land or something else into his hand via the ability unless the opponent confirmed knowing all the contents of his hand.

From the IPG:
An error that an opponent has no opportunity to verify the legality of should have its penalty upgraded. These errors involve misplaying hidden information, such as the morph ability or failing to reveal a card to prove that a choice made was a legal one. If the information was ever in a position where opponents had the opportunity to verify the legality (such as on top of the library, as the only card in hand, or on the battlefield), do not upgrade the penalty and reveal the information if possible.

So our last point of contention is should coverage be a tool for judges. Simply put, no. This would be unfair to other players. Why should one match have this tool that the rest of the matches in the room are not granted. On top of this time is a concern. This is a publicized event via live stream, delays in coverage are extremely detrimental to their objectives. The other players in the event would also be forced to wait an additional period of time for this tool granted to certain players. Keep in mind coverage is generally granted to players by preference. If Channel Fire Ball is running an event they are more likely to put someone from their team on the screen than two random unknowns with high seeds. We as judges must be fair to all players, so no advantage or disadvantage should be given unless it can be granted to the room as a whole. It is my personal belief that we should be allowed to use this tool if all players are on coverage (i.e. the top 8). That however is a discussion for far more experienced judges than myself to have.

Those are my thoughts on the Chapin Pro Tour incident. I hope that this doesn't haunt him too much, and more so that he doesn't make any more mistakes like this. Pros and the Pro Tour are looked to by the semi-competitive player base on what to strive to, this is not the kind of thing that a Pro Tour should remembered for. This has been Ariel with Wizardden.com, thank your for reading.

Announcing: Vintage League

That's right, Wizardden.com will be hosting a vintage league. Full proxy allowed. This will be a four week league taking place on Sundays. $15 one time entry gets you into the league so you can start earning points.

3 points for showing up on Sunday
3 points for every match you win
1 point for each loss

At the end of the fourth Sunday the winner will receive a Tundra and the runner up will receive a Demonic Tutor. All of this starts on Sunday, April 26th. Bellow is the banned and restricted list for Vintage. Happy brewing and we'll see you down here for Vintage.

Conspiracy card type, Ante, and Dexterity cards are all banned
Shahrazad

The following cards are restricted, which means you can only have one of them in your main deck and sideboard combined:

Ancestral Recall
Balance
Black Lotus
Brainstorm
Channel
Demonic Consultation
Demonic Tutor
Fastbond
Flash
Imperial Seal
Library of Alexandria
Lion's Eye Diamond
Lotus Petal
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Memory Jar
Merchant Scroll
Mind's Desire
Mox Emerald
Mox Jet
Mox Pearl
Mox Ruby
Mox Sapphire
Mystical Tutor
Necropotence
Ponder
Sol Ring
Strip Mine
Thirst for Knowledge
Time Vault
Time Walk
Timetwister
Tinker
Tolarian Academy
Treasure Cruise
Trinisphere
Vampiric Tutor
Wheel of Fortune
Windfall
Yawgmoth's Bargain
Yawgmoth's Will

Judge's Den: Forcing Priority

This topic will be a little different than normal in that I can't actually give you a black and white answer to it. If you remember the first Judge's Den article posted here on Wizardden.com some of this will be a recap. Magic the Gathering has some rules that can be a sore spot for judges when we are asked to a table to rule on a situation. This particular rule boils down to the biggest problem in every TCG; communication. Here is that rule from the Tournament Rules:

• A statement such as "I'm ready for combat" or "Declare attackers?" offers to keep passing priority until an opponent has priority in the beginning of combat step. Opponents are assumed to be acting then unless they specify otherwise.

This is an example under the section on shortcuts. If you take a moment to recall the situation with Goblin Rabblemaster covered in a previous article, we can modify that situation slightly to create an entirely different outcome. Lets replace the phrase "move to combat" with "move to attacks" thereby purposing a shortcut to the declare attackers step. In this altered scenario the opponent's only response is "Hero's Downfall" targeting the Rabblemaster. If we strictly adhere to the rules on shortcuts we are to assume that spell was cast immediately prior to declaring attackers since he did not state otherwise. This means the goblin token has already been created and will presumably attack. Whisperwood Elemental creates the same situation when a player says "go" there by purposing a shortcut through the end step and on to their opponents turn granting them a manifest creature.

In essence these phrasings will trap opponents who don't say the right thing into accepting moving past some number of phases and any corresponding triggers. An argument can even be made for missing any triggers within the shortcut basically allowing players to modify the course of the game through sly wording.

All this sounds pretty bad doesn't it? Not to worry though, noble judges ride against what we call "gotcha magic" where you trick your opponent into something by a sleight of words or superior rules knowledge. This is where the judge's greatest tool when making a call comes in; the investigation. A simple question of "what happened here" can tell us everything we need to know. However this also opens a door for you to make the same mistake again. If you say that you moved to combat and tried to kill the creature well too bad, you're in combat and the token has been made. So be clear, "My opponent said move to attackers and I stopped him before the goblin trigger (or whatever trigger/action you're trying to avoid) with this spell (or whatever action you want to take)." Making your intent clear to the judge is the best thing you can do to preserve the game itself.

At the end of the day we are all here to play a game of Magic the Gathering. We may not have the same knowledge of the comprehensive rules text, silver tongues, or even speak the same language. We do all however know how to play the game and what it is we are trying to accomplish with each of our plays. It is up to the players to communicate as clearly as possible with their opponent, and when that doesn't work, with the judge so at the end of the day we can do what we all came here to do, play magic. This has been Ariel with Wizardden.com, thank you for reading.

Rogue T3ch VS The "Real" Idaho State Championship

Hey party people. I'm back to talk about the State Championships this past weekend and what we at Wizardden.com and Team Rogue T3ch sleeved up to try and beat the competition. Now, before I go any further I have to tell you; no, I didn't win but I was knocked out of the swiss in round five by the guy who did win so that should count for something, right? *nudge nudge*

Now I'm gonna start with the 75 Team Rogue T3ch member Danny O'Berry piloted to a top 8 finish. I want to say, Danny doesn't play standard much but when he does he tends to put up the best record out of all of us. Fellow team member Will Lotz did that this time but the point is the same. When Danny comes out, He intends to crush face and does just that. His weapon of choice this time around being a super sweet Mardu Control deck. It's mostly sweet because I helped him build, test and adjust the deck but I digress.

Danny O'
Weapons of Mardu Destruction (WMD Control)
7-8th place at Idaho State Championship

Creatures:
4 Seeker of the way
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Thunderbreak Regent
2 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury

Spells:
4 Thoughtseize
3 Wild Slash
2 Magma Jet
3 Lightning Strike
2 Ultimate Price
3 Crackling Doom
3 Outpost Siege
2 Murderous Cut

Lands:
4 Nomad Outpost
4 Temple of Triumph
3 Battlefield Forge
2 Caves of Koilos
2 Mana Confluence
4 Bloodstained Mire
5 Mountain
1 Swamp

Sideboard:
3 Arc Lightning
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
3 Duress
2 Erase
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Radiant Purge
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker



When building this list we tried to use other Mardu aggro and control lists as reference but it was significantly different than any we could find. I would like to thanks the dudes over at spikes reddit for the recommendation of Kolaghan as a planeswalker killer. He did plenty of that and lead Danny to 4-0 and gave him the luxury of a double draw into top 8. Two hour breaks always help top 8 performance and i'm sure was much needed.

Next up we have Will Lotz's G/R aggro. We knew the deck was well positioned for an aggro heavy meta like we expected (And ultimately got, the SCG open on the otherside of the country had a top 8 of all aggro decks for Christ's sake). He finished top 4 and here's the 75 that took him there.

William Lotz
Petro's Binder Special (PBS Aggro)
3-4th Idaho State Championship

Creatures:
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Heir of the Wilds
3 Boon Satyr
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Thunderbreak Regent
4 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells:
1 Stoke the Flames
1 Roast
2 Wild Slash
2 Lightning Strike
4 Crater's Claws

Lands:
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Temple of Abandon
2 Mana Confluence
1 Rugged Highlands
6 Mountain
6 Forest

Sideboard:
3 Destructive Revelry
2 Xenagos, The Reveler
2 Atarka's Command
4 Ashcloud Phoenix
2 Stoke the Flames
2 Roast

Will had a top 4 finish out of 70 people. That is super sweet. I have to admit i'm salty as there were promises of beer had he took 1st or 2nd but his loss to Ramzi in the semi-finals crushed that dream and the free beers that came with it. That aside, Will had an intense tournament. A round four loss brought him to 3-1, same record as me at the time and the fear of us being paired was real as X-2 had no hops of top 8 and us in Rogue T3ch always seem to knock each other out of tournaments quite frequently. For once, that didn't happen then as I was paired against Ryan and took a rough loss in game 3 of the match and Will took his match down and progressed in the tournament to ultimately finish X-1 in the swiss and make the cut to top 8.

Us at Wizard Den couldn't be happier with Danny and Will's finishes. For now, we move back to the Grind. Next on the Rogue T3ch agenda: Team member Josh Kreiter has a Regional PTQ to test for and I'm sure he will post soon with his list and preparation for the event.



Much love,
Christian.

Judge's Den: State Champion! Setting up for Success

This Saturday is an extremely important day. The Real Idaho State Championship is happening, for the first time since Innistrad we will have a real state champion. If you are unaware or from anywhere out of state let me explain what we mean when we say a real champion. When Wotc stopped supporting state tournaments other well known shops took up the mantle and kept the state championships going. This was good until we started having a new 'state champion' every couple of months, there was no more prestige in the title when three of your five opponents at fnm were state champs. Wizardden.com and other local stores had a better idea.

Working together, the six biggest shops in Idaho removed all the state championship events from their calendars and made one true state tournament. With a $500 top prize, prestige returned to the title of State Champion, and teamwork between all the shops this has been a huge success! You can follow everything about it here at http://mtgidaho.blogspot.com.

This is of course a Judge's Den article though so that's enough about this event, on to the main topic. What can you as a player do to best prepare yourself for this type of event?

• Sleeves: Bring extra. Wear and tear happens. Intentional or not the likelihood of gaining an advantage (or even disadvantage) from recognizing a card that should be unknown due to the condition of its sleeve is there.
• Pen and Paper: Life disputes happen, having a record to refer to can help clear up a lot.
• Silence your Devices: Keep in mind electronic devises are not allowed at competitive level.
• Deck Reg: Being prepared by printing one out or showing up EARLY does a lot to get the tournament moving and keep your fellow players and judges happy.
• Know your cards: Know the rulings for your cards.
• Food and Water: Dont let yourself get hungry and cranky in the middle of a long tourney.
• Know where you are going: Check ahead of time when and where the tourney is.
• Shower: Seems to be less of a problem now days, but still.

There are many things that go into being prepared for a tournament, only a few of which I highlighted today. I highlighted the ones I felt were most important for players newer to competitive rules enforcement. Good luck to everyone playing this weekend and thank you for reading this weeks issue of Judge's Den here at Wizardden.com

Dragons standard and you!

This past weekend Dragons of Tarkir became standard legal and with it came an SCG invitational showcasing the new cards and archetypes that you're sure to play with and against in the coming weeks. Abzan and mono-red aggro were among those to top 8, but, those decks need no explanation so let's look at some of the more interesting decks that came out this weekend but didn't quite make the cut to top 8.

Esper Control
A Standard Magic deck, by Shaheen Soorani
12th place at a tournament in Richmond, Virginia, United States on 2015-03-27
As reported at www.starcitygames.com

Maindeck:

Instants
3 Anticipate
4 Dig Through Time
4 Dissolve
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Silumgar's Scorn
3 Ultimate Price
2 Utter End

Legendary Creatures
2 Dragonlord Ojutai
2 Silumgar, the Drifting Death

Planeswalkers
3 Narset Transcendent

Sorceries
3 Crux of Fate

Basic Lands
4 Island
2 Swamp

Lands
1 Caves of Koilos
4 Polluted Delta
2 Radiant Fountain
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Temple of Silence

Legendary Lands
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard:
1 Pearl Lake Ancient
1 Stratus Dancer
4 Encase in Ice
1 Virulent Plague
2 Negate
1 Ojutai's Command
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
4 Drown in Sorrow

Blue/Black control has been a pillar of this standard environment for a while now but with the printing of Narset it gives U/B players a major incentive for the splash of white. Any of you who watched coverage of this list being played know that rebounding dig through time is absurd and rebounding wrath/removal/draw spells is pretty unreasonable. During the deck tech, Shaheen stated that the U/B control decks weren't "Good" decks but just performed well but this on the other hand, plays well and actually feels like a "good" deck. If you played U/B control for any amount of time you can understand what he means. With that being said, it looks like this is the beginning of control coming back into standard and people like me (Who are tired of endless midrange mirror matches) can and will struggle to contain our excitement.


U/R Dragons
A Standard Magic deck, by Jeff Hoogland
15th place at a tournament in Richmond, Virginia, United States on 2015-03-27
As reported at www.starcitygames.com

Maindeck:

Creatures
3 Flamewake Phoenix
2 Icefall Regent
3 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Thunderbreak Regent

Instants
1 Aetherspouts
4 Anticipate
4 Dig Through Time
4 Lightning Strike
4 Silumgar's Scorn
1 Stubborn Denial
3 Wild Slash

Sorceries
2 Crater's Claws
1 Roast

Basic Lands
3 Island
3 Mountain

Lands
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Flooded Strand
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
1 Polluted Delta
4 Shivan Reef
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
4 Temple of Epiphany
1 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
1 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Aetherspouts
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Dragonlord's Prerogative
2 Twin Bolt
2 Anger of the Gods
3 Roast
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon

Now this is the type of deck they drew up in R&D. U/R Dragons was the single most talked about deck at the shop this past weekend. Counter-Burn is a super fun archetype to play and being able to top it off with powerful dragons? Nothing sounds more Rad than that. Now, the deck had a respectable finish for sure, but, given the popularity I would recommend you be prepared to play against similar lists in the coming weeks, even more so than esper or U/B. People like casting dragons and countering spells, I can't blame them. Sounds awesome.

G/R Dragons
By Seth Manfield

2 Ashcloud Phoenix
2 Boon Satyr
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Thunderbreak Regent

Creatures [24]

3 Atarka's Command
4 Crater's Claws
4 Draconic Roar
3 Stoke the Flames

Spells [14]

5 Forest
3 Mana Confluence
6 Mountain
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Wooded Foothills

Here we have another one of those "Drew it up in R&D" Decks. I recall watching this deck on coverage but was unable to find the exact 75 Seth sleeved up for the weekend but this is a similar list that he posted in an article recently. This dragons deck utilizes Draconic Roar and in coverage it was played with or revealing a dragon 100% of the time and this list plays less than dragons than the U/R while the U/R had none in the 75. I forsee this changing. I expect to see this deck adapt into devotion adding the new Atarka and the U/R running roar over strike and both will be better for the changes.

Now let's take things a little more close to home with the deck that went undefeated for our first Dragons of Tarkir Friday Night Magic.

Mono-Black Aggro
By, Christian Rasmussen

Creatures:
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Gnarled Scarhide
3 Mardu Shadowspear
4 Tormented Hero
4 Pain Seer
4 Mogis's Marauder
3 Pitiless Horde

Spells:
4 Foul-Tongue Shriek
4 Bile Blight
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Ultimate Price

Land:
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Polluted Delta
16 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Duress
2 Dark Betrayal
2 Self-Inflicted Wound
4 Herald of Torment
3 Brutal Hordechief

Christian's been known for running suicide black decks in the previous standard format to great success when we had access to rakdos cackler and the like. The break out card to bring him back to the archetype being foul-tongue shriek. This is a card that's seen absolutely no love in any set reviews but closed out 99% of his games this past Friday. Moving to combat with three 2/1 creatures into unfavorable blockers seems loose, but, most times it is followed by 1-2 shrieks draining from 3-6 life. The card acts as a black lightning helix of better for 1 black mana. That is absurd. Also, with the growing number of people playing G/W or other G devotion strategies, Mogis's marauder allows for huge unblockable life swings. Even against decks like Abzan who uses numerous black creatures, most of the time the only creature able to block is one siege rhino or tasigur allowing 4-8 damage through their coursers and fleecemane lions and the aggro deck only losing one attacker in the process. Back that up with foul-tongue shriek and you have a lethal attack on turns 4-6 most of the time. The deck has over performed and I felt I had to share the list with you so you can prepare for the archetype should it gain popularity.

These were the three decks I wanted to share with you as they are in my eyes the most interesting. Had this tournament been only standard, the top 8 may have shown more of these lists. Hopefully people take these and run with them. With the Idaho state championship this weekend, I honestly hope we see some dragons in the top 8 or taking home the check.

Thanks for reading,
Until next time.

Dragons of Tarkir Prerelease Primer (pt. 2)

Hey guys thanks for checking out part two of the Dragons of Tarkir Prerelease primer. Today I have the red, green and multi-colored cards from the set. Let's dive right in!!!

Red Uncommon

1: Roast
Even at sorcery speed this card is pretty house in limited. Being able to kill pretty much every creature in this format is a very good card. Giving this to the red players who got a slew of good cards in this set is a little frightening to me as those decks are getting something they have been missing in efficient removal.

2: Dragonic Roar
Another excellent removal spell for red. It won't be often that you get to hit your opponent for three but that doesn't matter because as a two cost removal spell at instant speed it is good enough on its own.

3: Qal Sisma Behemoth
I'm a big fan of the aggressive red deck that seems to exist in the new limited format. This guy lets you go really big, really fast. I think that this is going to be a huge player in this environment. If you have a deck with some solid two drops your turn four plays are going to be outright disgusting.

4: Atarka Pummeler
The Formidable ability tacked onto this guy is really strong. Being able to make bad blocks happen is something that will come up often as this guy comes stock with half of the ability on his own. if you have something like a Summit Prowler in play this guy is just insane.

5: Warbringer
This guy is just okay in my book. It's not often you'll have a complete dash deck. When you do he'll be really good. But even with only 3-4 other good dash creatures he is a powerful addition to the crew. Even when you aren't using him to pump other dash creatures into play you can still dash him for 3 damage on turn three and have a 3/3 when you need one.

Red is a pretty strong color but I personally feel its uncommons are somewhere in the middle of the pack in comparison to the rest of the set. When paired with black or white it can be a nightmare but I think it is RG that has me most interested in this color combination.

Red Commons

1: Tail Slash
I am wrestling with this decision even as I'm writing this and I've had my lists made for like three and a half days now. There are a ton of commons that are really close. This card along with Twin Bolt, Summit Prowler and Hardened Berserker are all really strong cards. I'm 99% sure as I am writing this that this is more like the fourth or fifth best common but hey, no turning back now.

2: Summit Prowler
"Wha?!?!?!?! Is this guy crazy?" Yeah. I am. Big whoop wanna fight about it? In all seriousness though, this card is way better now than it was in Khans. This formidable mechanic has a change to be the real deal and this guy helps promote that. I mention in the uncommons I really like GR and it is because of formidable that this is true. Games go long and being able to keep the board at parity while you are gaining some form of advantage is going to be really good. Plus a 4/3 for four mana really isn't a terrible rate in limited.

3: Hardened Berserker
Speaking of the formidable deck, this guy is quite formidable himself. He has the ability to ramp you into a pretty big threat on turn four which is pretty good time to get a huge threat on board. I think this guy is going to make some pretty gross things this weekend and I am hopeful they are on my side of the table.

4: Twin Bolt
This card seems underwhelming but it kills a morph for two at instant speed. Did I morph?? I meant super, mighty, megamorph. That's just about as real as it gets.

5: Volcanic Rush
Giving your team trample while on the offensive at instant speed is really good. You have the ability to completely steal a game as your opponent will usually be oblivious to this trick, at least the first time.

6: Sarkhan's Rage
It does cost five but it's fairly efficient removal that serves a dual purpose of going to your opponents dome. I'm kind of reminded of Arrow Storm but this card is much better as it is less prohibitive in cost, is an instant and it doesn't require raid to hit for five damage.

7: Kolaghan Aspirant
This guy isn't great but I am a fan of two drops and red is definitely an aggressive color in Dragons of Tarkir so the fact he can trade up to any of the 2/3's running around makes me happy to play him.

8: Screamreach Brawler
I am a fan of a guy who beats megamorph and this guy does just that. You can generally hit for a sizable amount of damage throughout a game and this can contribute to that or close out a game in the right board state, I like a card with that kind of versatility.

Red seems like a pretty strong color. I don't think it is the strongest color in the set but it certainly has the ability to contribute to some of the more powerful decks that will exist in the format in R/X aggressive decks and RG formidable.

Off to the last of the colors and what I will finally say is my favorite both in terms of the rares and the commons and uncommons that fill out your deck: Green. We'll start with the uncommon cards which are pretty exciting in my opinion.

1: Salt Road Ambushers
This guy is the king of the manisfests and megamorphs. He gives you a huge advantage whenever you flip a creature in that you will rule the battlefield. Your megamorphs will end up getting three +1/+1 counters while whatever you might manifest ends up being a giant beat stick as well.

2: Salt Road Quartermasters
The Salt Road Squad is pretty good it seems. I've been a fan of these types of cards ever since I first cast Spike Feeder in Living End. The fact he enters with the counters turns on the few gets x effect if it has a +1/+1 counter which is pretty cool.

3: Circle of the Elders
I really like the formidable mechanic. In some cases this guy can just be a win more in that you will probably be ahead on board if you have 8 power out. When the board is stalled though, this guy enables you to easily play two spells a turn which is pretty good thing to be doing in limited I hear.

4: Press the Advantage
This card is going to win someone a game, maybe even a few games at the prerelease this weekend. You can just demolish your opponent by adding four power of trample damage. This is a very easy way to win a game in that if you don't kill your opponent with the attack, there is a good chance you solidified your win by wiping out their defenses to punch the last few points of damage

5: Dromoka's Gift
This gift is quite a gift in combat or as a way to stay mana efficient. I just want to cast this with a Typhoid Rats on board. Better yet, any of the efficient blue or white flying creatures in the format.

Green has some pretty overwhelming uncommons and I'll say in advance the commons aren't lacking in power either.

1: Epic Confrontation
This is a pretty powerful spell. In comparison to Hunt the Weak, a very powerful green card, this is just a mile better. You don't get the counter but you are pretty much guaranteed to beat the creature in the fight and still get through. Savage Punch required that you already have a large creature in play to get the best value making it better in the mid to late game whereas this will be good in those stages as well as an early way to clear a creature that is generally problematic when played early.

2: Servant of the Scale
I really like the fact that this guy provides some help on his way out of the battlefield. What I like even more though is that bolster exists. This guy can easily pick up a few counters and become a terrible conundrum for your opponent as if they kill him they have to kill your whole board first or risk having another problem creature, or he becomes a 2/2 or 3/3 that can halt or lead an offense.

3: Aerie Bowmasters
This guy is good for the same reasons as Summit Prowler in that he is a good sized body at a reasonable rate. This guy definitely next levels the Prowler in that he has reach and can megamorph to shoot down a flier in combat.

4: Collosodon Yearling
That is one sexy beast. A 2/4 is a great body for three mana that while it won't be winning you the game by itself generally, it will be making sure you get to cast your spells that will and that is just gravy.

5: Stampeding Elk Herd
A 5/5 for five is a really good rate on a creature and the fact that it takes almost nothing to give him trample makes this herd of elk a great addition to any deck that is using green.

6: Glade Watcher
If you really want a card that will over-perform for its mana cost look no further. You can get some pretty gross starts with this guy involved. You certainly won't be dying in the early game either as this guy blocks profitably all the way up to the four spot which is a good thing to have in your two drop.

7: Guardian Shield-Bearer
This guy is a pretty good way to curve out without investing a ton of creatures. He is a little awkward in that you'll be drafting him in the three spot but he isn't as good as the larger morphs when it comes to that aspect. The way Shield-Bearer gets good is having some other form of a two drop to get the 2-3-4 trifecta.

8: Atarka Beastbreaker
This is a pretty good two drop to go with the Shield-Bearer. when the game goes late he isn't a bad top deck either. I really like cards with late game potential and this guy has a ton of it.

Green is in my opinion the strongest color with black coming in a close second. The two colors do play well together as well even though the set doesn't push you into those colors.

The multicolored cards are actually pretty few and far between. There are five uncommon dragons, one for each of the allied colors. Of these I feel as thought the strongest of the dragons is either Enduring Scalelord or Cunning Breezedancer. With the exception of Swift Warkite all of these dragons rely on not being killed to get effect and your opponent is well aware of the fact that this set is called Dragons of Tarkir. So there is a good chance they will have some form of answer for any of the dragons in this cycle. Be weary when casting these as though they are certainly powerful they are not invincible and can easily turn into a huge tempo play if your opponent can kill it the same turn it was cast.

Thanks for the read and I hope this information sends you to the skies at your prerelease this weekend. I am really excited to play with this set as it appears to be more powerful than Khans of Tarkir and I hope that you are too!!