Invasion Draft: Red Rares

Gary Wise

Bend or Break
I had this cast on me at GP Dallas and I had to stifle a laugh. This card is so unplayable that none of the Invitationalists knew who divided when I asked on our tour bus. The correct answer: you can't divide if it's in your sideboard. A 13th-15th pick.

Callous Giant
The 'corrected Ogre Enforcer', the Giant is slow but vicious. One of the harder creatures to stop in the set, the Giant is generally going to live against anything but a rare, uncommon or Serpentine Kavu. A 1st - 3rd pick.

Collapsing Borders
If you're playing 5cG vs. a 2-color deck in a match that seems destined to go to creature lock, then you have to be really desperate to bring this in. I suppose that the gaining of two life a turn could make such a strategy viable, but it should be pretty bad. A 11th - 13th pick.

Ghitu Fire
In competition for the title of best card in Invasion for Limited play, Ghitu Fire offers a little bit of every kind of goodness: It's mana efficient, mana friendly, creature kill and direct damage. I can think of very few situations in which I would pass this card, regardless of the colors I was playing. A 1st pick.

Kavu Monarch
In a format where 3/3 for 4 is abnormally solid, this guy usually ends up being a lot more efficient then that. Being a Kavu himself, the Monarch usually will get to at least 4/4 or 5/5 pretty quickly. The only drawback I can see here is that any deck that plays him will have an abnormal number of Kavus, meaning that cards like Shoreline Raider, Tsabo's Decree and the like will punish the controller more than usual. A 2nd - 4th pick.

Loafing Giant
4/6 for 5 is usually a really good deal, but not here. The only use I can see of this thing is as a wall when you really need a big one. In a deck with three Harrows it could be viable, but really it's too inconsistent to ever be considered good. A 9th - 11th pick.

Mages' Contest
Not a stock card in Limited, the Contest may be playable in a very aggressive RG or RB deck that tries to deal twenty before control-oriented decks can stabilize. A 7th - 10th pick.

Obliterate
I've seen Obliterate picked first and I've seen it left in the sideboard. A potential game winner, this card's value depends on the format you're playing with Rochester Draft devaluing it greatly. This said, if you hold a few lands and a quick creature or two, once you get to 8 mana, this is a game winner. A 4th - 6th pick.

Ruby Leech
On the good side, this card is super fast, on the bad side, it makes your purposely fast deck slow, and too much so. If you have very few red cards and a lot of 2 casting cost creatures, playing this could be a legitimate choice, but generally speaking, its drawback outweighs its benefits. An 8th - 10th pick.

Skizzik
Now this thing is a beast. Aggressive like Ball Lightning but with more staying power, Skizzik is as good as it is due to its toughness, which more often than not requires the use of two cards to overcome. The combination of haste and trample is a lethal one, and more often than not this will be the best creature in your deck. A 1st - 3rd pick.

Stand or Fall
I really don't think this card does enough. Sure, your opponent loses 'blockers,' but more often than not, those 'blockers' are already tapped from attacking. A 10th - 12th pick.

Tectonic Instability
An interesting card with Rhystic spells...this is a better format though. A 13th - 15th pick.

Thunderscape Master
I've heard this referred to as the worst of the Masters, but while the two abilities may not be the strongest, I think they suit the decks you want to buld around their colors extremely well, providing powerful aggression in aggressive archetypes. If you're playing two colors and one of them is red, you should almost never pass this. A 1st pick.

Urza's Rage
Obviously very strong, its very seldom that the 12 mana ability gets used, so the card should be judged on its 3-mana merits. When you look at it that way, it's better than Scorching Lava, meaning it's a very strong card. A 1st - 3rd pick.