Lens of Clarity - Release... the PRE-RELEASE!

Lens of Clarity: Release the prerelease

with Adriel Colon

Of the prereleases I have attended I was most excited for the Khans block prerelease this weekend. I love gold cards because they can mix abilities from the color pie and the power/toughness combinations or sometimes “above the curve” so to speak. Moreover, each of the mechanics in the set I find easy to use on the field and grasp for newer players with the exception of the morph mechanic for anyone who has never seen that ability in use before.

My favorite thing about the Khans prerelease has to be the art. I am stunned by much of the new art in this set and with M15 having been the typical bland (but good) art style I am happy to get back to a themed set. When Wizards leverages their considerable resources to produce new flavorful art even for reprints like Despise and Shatter, to me, I get to rediscovering them again.

Lens of Clarity- Khans of Tarkir reactions

Lens of Clarity - Khans of Tarkir reactions

with Adriel Colon

Khans of Tarkir is going to be a a unique and game changing set. Lots of cards are coming in but more is going out on rotation. Get ready to have the format at first defined by what leaving us rather than what is coming in. I want to highlight a few cards that represent the upcoming Khans mechanics and what my impressions of these cards as well as the impact the mechanics will I fell will have on constructed play.

Delve is back. Making spells cheaper/ adding to their effect for the cost of exiling cards from your graveyard is good. My favorite delve card is Empty the Pits. Instant speed token creation is fantastic and with the ability to exile cards AND dump mana into the spell you can feasibly have 5 zombies hit the battlefield on endstep. I know the XXBBBB mana cost will scare people however there is actually a tremendous amount of enablers for this card. Satyr Wayfinder, Sylvan Caryatid , Temples, Mana Confluence, Fetches and EtB tapped dual color lands all make this possible however the card that most enables this is Urborg. Both yours and your opponents who play Urborg turn this spell active. Satyr Wayfinder is a huge fixer for this card as it both fills the graveyard and culls up Urborg or other swamps for you. The graveyard and cards that work off of it will be relevant in standard.  

Cards I most want to use with: Purphoros, God of the Forge and Empty the Pits.