Planeshift Constructed Picks - Part 2 Brian Kibler Invasion brought us a number of powerful gold cards that quickly became tournament staples. Cards like Fires of Yavimaya, Recoil, Armadillo Cloak, and Rith, the Awakener made an immediate impact on the tournament scene, moving players away from the monocolored decks of old to open up a much wider spectrum of possibilities. This trend seems to continue in Planeshift, as many of the set's most impressive looking cards come complete with a shiny gold border, along with the lands to support them. Having said that, it's time to look at what toys Planeshift has to offer the multicolored mage in Constructed. Cloud Cover Not necessarily the most powerful card in the set, Cloud Cover is nonetheless very interesting and seems to have the potential to be an extremely useful tool against control strategies with a significant amount of targeted removal. If there is a viable aggressive U/W strategy after the inclusion of Planeshift, which seems perfectly possible with the addition of Meddling Mage and others, Cloud Cover can provide tremendous card advantage as long as the U/W player is willing to give up a bit of tempo. With Cloud Cover in play, Chimeric Idol becomes a nearly unstoppable threat, as it can't be destroyed by any global removal barring Void and can jump back into your hand to avoid any Dismantling Blows or Urza's Rages. The also notably affects all other permanents, rather than just creatures - what implications this has remain to be seen. Invulnerable Ankhs, perhaps? Doomsday Specter The big question for Doomsday Specter isn't if it's a good card, because it obviously is. The real question is whether there is any good deck into which Doomsday Specter fits. The fact that Doomsday Specter has gating puts a big damper on the plans of any player trying to fit it into a control deck, as more often than not, there will be nothing for the Specter to bounce. Aggressive U/B decks suffer from the problem of not having many other good creatures to choose from. Ravenous Rats are obviously an appealing gating target, as is Planeshift's Nightscape Familiar, as it can allow for a third turn Specter, but neither of those cards is particularly powerful on its own. If a deck can be built to fully utilize the Specter while remaining a good deck for the environment, this card will be a powerhouse, but for now that remains a big if. Dromar's Charm Certainly the best of the dragon charms for Constructed, Dromar's Charm has three abilities that are each very powerful in their own right. The best of these is "counter target spell," and at WUB, Dromar's Charm is one of the few cards in Magic to be a hard counter with only one blue mana in the casting cost. The secondary effects of the Charm are very good as well, as the -2/-2 ability can remove annoying creatures like River Boa that manage to slip under counters. The life gain ability of the Charm is also not inconsequential, as it can allow for a player to survive an all out attack or several burn spells aimed to the head, including the uncounterable Urza's Rage. With the new Lairs in the format making mana access a little easier, Dromar's Charm is sure to find a home in a new breed of control decks come March. Eladamri's Call Worldly Tutor was a card that saw a reasonable amount of Constructed play, and Eladamri's Call is strictly better as long as you can afford the extra white mana. So it should obviously be great, right? Not necessarily. Tutor effects are only as good as the cards there are to get with them, and while creature decks have been dominant in Standard since the recent rotation, that doesn't mean that tutoring for any creature is an ability worth spending a deck slot and two colored mana on. Previous decks that included Worldly Tutor used it to get cards like Argothian Enchantress, Skyshroud Poacher, and Masticore, all of which were creatures with tremendously powerful abilities that could make up for the Tutor's inherent card disadvantage and mana investment. While Eladamri's Call doesn't give up card advantage for its effect, the possible creatures for it to fetch in the current environment are much less impressive. It may be possible to build a deck with Eladamri's Call and single copies of "silver bullet" creatures like Crusading Knight, Radiant Kavu, Spitting Spider, Kavu Chameleon, Rith the Awakener, etc, but the effectiveness of this strategy remains to be seen. Eladamri's Call is a card with a lot of potential, but one that needs to prove itself before it gets top billing. Fleetfoot Panther Speaking of creatures to use with Eladamri's Call - damage on the stack anyone? Fleetfoot Panther is green's newest weapon both against other creature decks and against targeted removal. On its own, it allows a green/white player's other creatures to dodge Terminates, Urza's Rages, Ghitu Fires, and Dominates, or survive a brawl with an equivalent sized creature and not only live to tell the tale, but have a 3/4 friend to back them up on it. In combination with the Call, five mana untapped becomes akin to the dreaded two blue mana defense, giving the green/white player instant speed creature removal, of sorts, for any creature with three or less toughness, as well as acting as a counter for targeted removal - Call up a Fleetfoot Panther, bounce the targeted creature, and bam! Sure to have significant psychological impact, if nothing else. Horned Kavu At 3/4 for two mana, Horned Kavu is quite frankly enormous. But is he big and fast enough? Assuming he gates a Llanowar Elf or Bird of Paradise, he essentially costs three mana over two turns, which is still a very good deal for a creature this size. Tar Pit Warrior (the ancestor of Skulking Fugitive) saw some play in tournament decks at 3/4 for three, and while it had the advantage of being black and thus able to be Dark Ritualed out on the first turn, it also had that little problem of dying any time something targeted it. In the current environment full of Chimeric Idols, a 3/4 seems even better. Whether he's better than the alternatives remains to be seen. With Blastoderms and Jade Leeches aplenty filling the ranks of green/red decks everywhere, is there any room for a piddling 3/4? Hull Breach I've already talked at great length about the merits of this card in my preview article, and nothing has happened to change my opinion. A very powerful, very versatile card that will see a great deal of play. Meddling Mage Ahhhh... Pikula. Perhaps the cornerstone of a new aggressive U/W deck in Standard, Meddling Mage also has obvious applications in Extended, where it is most likely to shine. Play Meddling Mage and name "Necropotence," "Oath of Druids," or "Survival of the Fittest" and watch your opponent squirm. Countersliver decks will receive a big boost having Pikula in their arsenal as a versatile answer to countless different threats. In Standard, naming "Wrath of God" or "Blinding Angel" leaves control decks with very few solutions for your creatures. Meddling Mage in an aggressive rebel deck like that played by Team Rejects naming Tsabo's Decree or Earthquake can leave your opponent completely helpless against your assault. Be careful, though - Meddling Mage only prevents the card from being played, not brought into play. If you name Nether Spirit or Lin Sivvi, don't be surprised when they find their way into play from the graveyard or library. Questing Phelddagrif The hippo is back! The original Phelddagrif was a powerful, undercosted creature that saw a little tournament play, and the sequel doesn't look like it will be disappointing anyone. At 4/4 for four mana, Phelddagrif is extremely efficient already, but add a trio of powerful abilities and you have a true force to be reckoned with. While lacking the original hippo's return-to-hand ability, Questing Phelddagrif makes up for it by outshining its cousin in other departments. The green ability makes Phelddagrif nearly impossible to kill in creature combat, while the white ability protects the hippo from nearly all forms of removal except Wrath of God, Void, and Tsabo's Decree. And you can get it in Greek! I can guarantee that I'll be working on at least one deck with this guy for the next Standard tournament. Hippo-Geddon anyone? Radiant Kavu Spike Weaver's rainbow colored cousin, Radiant Kavu is a defensive machine and an offensive powerhouse rolled into one. In any deck able to easily support its tri-color mana requirements - a daunting task, admittedly - Radiant Kavu plays both sides of the ball with the best of them. As an anti-U/B fog machine, Radiant Kavu can single-handedly win games against Skies and the aggressive black decks that are sure to pop up in the wake of Planeshift's Phyrexian Scuta. At 3/3 for three mana, Radiant Kavu is an efficient attacker, on par with the ubiquitous Chimeric Idol. An attractive option for Red Zone style decks, Radiant Kavu will see its fair share of play, if not in main decks than definitely in sideboards. Shivan Wurm In deference to Ice Age's Polar Kraken, "It was big. No, bigger than that. It was BIG." Shivan Wurm is the largest animal around this side of the enormous blue beasts, and on top of that, he's playable. At 7/7 for five mana - in green, no less - the Wurm can come down and completely dominate the board in Standard's current creature rich environment. Not only that, but he tramples, turning River Boas and Nether Spirts into nothing more than speedbumps. At five mana, he fits the curve in such a way that he can save Blastoderms from the ignoble demise of fading away while still coming out early enough to do serious damage on his own. This big bruiser will definitely see play - the only question is in what numbers. Terminate Terminate, for when you absolutely, positively need something dead right away. A great deal has already been said about Terminate, and there isn't much more I have to add to that, except that along with Phyrexian Scuta, this may be one of the cornerstone cards for an emerging aggressive B/R archtype. An inexpensive answer to green's fatties as well as Blinding Angel, Terminate will likely be clearing the way for Blazing Specters, Skizziks, and Phyrexian Scutas for months to come. The Dragon Lairs And how are we going to cast all of these shiny gold spells? "Dragon Lairs, of course!" you might be tempted to reply, but let's not be so hasty. While the Lairs do give you access to three colors of pain-free mana, the cost of bouncing a land when they come into play is, for most decks, a steep one indeed. Tempo is an extremely important facet of the game of Magic - it's why players give up an extra card for the right to play first - and what the Lairs can do if you draw them at the wrong point in your mana curve is completely throw off your tempo, and this can potentially be crippling for both aggro and control decks alike. Consider the case of a Fires deck splashing for Wax/Wane, like that played by Jon Finkel at Pro Tour Chicago. Rith's Lair seems like it should be an obvious addition, but is it worth it? What a Fires deck ideally wants to do is play a Bird or Elf on turn one, play Fires on turn two, a Blastoderm on turn three, and seal the game with a Saproling Burst on turn four. How can Rith's Grove affect this optimal draw? If a Fires player draws the Grove in his or her opening hand without three other lands, he or she may be forced to play it on turn three to have sufficient mana for Blastoderm. This leaves only four mana available on the following turn after laying a land, thus slowing the assault by a full turn at least. If that Grove had been a City of Brass, or even a basic Forest, the Fires player would have the opportunity to draw a land off the next turn and play Burst immediately - an obviously superior scenario. Control decks face a similar dilemma, but rather than being set back a turn in their attack, they lose a turn of setting up to stay alive. This is often far more critical - being able to Wrath of God on turn four and play Blinding Angel on turn five is generally crucial to a U/W control deck's success. Add Rishadan Port into the equation, and the one turn loss of tempo turns an otherwise stable game into an upward battle. If U/W players start getting greedy and adding Dromar's Cavern into their decks for access to black spells, they will suffer for it. That's it for my Planeshift review. Please send any questions, comments, or concerns to majesk@aol.com. Good luck, and have fun!