Sound Familiar?

Chad Ellis

Planeshift introduces a new mini-mechanic in the Familiars - slightly overcosted creatures that reduce the generic mana requirement of allied spells. The Familiars are just the sort of cards I like to see in a set, as they don't automatically fit into every Limited deck but can be quite useful in the right ones. In other words, they enhance the skill-testing nature of Invasion Block Limited. Now let's look at when to play them and how high to draft them.
Speed

While there are other benefits to running Familiars, their main purpose is to speed up your deck. Thus, the first question to ask is how much they will actually help out. Let's start by comparing them to the Block's other mana acceleration two-drops, Quirion Elves.

Familiars trump Elves in two important ways. Because their ability doesn't require tapping, they can attack and block while still providing their ramping effect. More importantly, they can boost two or even three spells a turn. It's important, however, to recognize two areas in which they fall short. Familiars don't get you colored mana and they only help you cast allied spells. Thus, whether Familiars are better or worse than Elves depends on whether their board presence is a bigger factor than their generally worse acceleration ability.
The Familiar Paradox

Familiars present something of a paradox, in terms of how they relate to your mana and other spells. Like most mana rampers, they are best as early plays. A turn two Familiar can provide a significant boost, enabling you to put heavy pressure on your opponent, but a turn eight Familiar is probably a signal that you're out of gas. The earlier you want to play a spell, the more important it is to have it be in your base color, so for mana considerations you'd prefer to run Familiars in your primary color. The Familiar's ability, however, only works with allied spells. That means its power is greatest when you have lots of spells of other (allied) colors.

In other words, the Familiar is most powerful when it isn't in your main color but is most likely to be useful when it is. Clearly the answer isn't to splash a Familiar in an otherwise mono-color deck (which would require either wrecking your mana base for one spell or almost never being able to cast it on turn two if you draw it) nor running a Familiar in a true mono-color deck where it will always hit turn two but will effectively be a vanilla creature. As with most optimization problems, the best answer is somewhere in the middle... either your base or secondary color, with probably no fewer than six lands producing its color, but with a large number of spells that will enable you to capitalize on the Familiar's ability if it comes out early.
What spells?

The basic characteristics of spells that benefit from a Familiar in play are pretty straightforward: colorless mana plus an allied color mana requirement. Four and five mana spells often benefit more than two and three mana spells, just as you'd normally hope to follow a turn-two Elf with a four mana spell, but not always. Casting a three mana spell with one left over might let you cast a second two mana creature or use a two mana spell on your opponent's turn, such as killing their blocker with Scorching Lava.

Removal and pure reactive spells such as Exclude benefit a lot from Familiars for two reasons. First, you can use them without tying up too much of your own mana. One of the reasons Repulse is generally much better than Exclude, for example, is that you have to leave three mana open for Exclude, which can be difficult if your opponent has board advantage, while Repulse lets you play actively. With a Nightscape Familiar in play, you can put out a three drop on turn four and still have Exclude mana up.

Another benefit Familiars provide for reactive spells is that Magic players tend to do at least some of their calculations instinctively, meaning that even experienced players will sometimes walk into ambushes because you have the wrong mana available for a spell they would normally look out for. Darwin Kastle Confounded Dave Humpherys's Magma Burst (with kicker) during Grand Prix-Boston with only one Island untapped. Did the mighty Hump know that Confound (which he knew was in Darwin's deck) was a possibility? Probably... but in any case, Darwin's Nightscape Familiar was what enabled him to cast spells so aggressively and still keep that powerful reactive option up.
The Familiars

When deciding how highly to value Familiars, you have to ask two questions. First, how well does the card fit my deck on its own, ignoring its special ability? Second, how valuable is the ability itself? Some Familiars almost always make the cut, in part because they would be playable without their special ability, while others should only be used when they offer good synergy. Until Apocalypse comes out, you have the luxury of knowing how two-thirds of your picks have gone when it comes time to draft Planeshift, and one of the questions you should be asking yourself before opening your last pack is how high you want to pick Familiars given the deck you've drafted so far.

Nightscape Familiar. Drudge Skeletons have always been reasonable cards in Limited play, so one that is a little harder to regenerate doesn't need much of a special ability to be good. Nightscape Familiar more than makes the cut. With Red-Black-Blue typically the most powerful color combination for sealed and quite popular in draft, this is the Familiar you are most likely to see played against you.

Thornscape Familiar. A 2/1 for two is fine on its own, and Thornscape Familiar often offers excellent synergy in both G-W and R-G draft decks. White is full of common 2/2 flyers for four mana, and a second turn Thornscape Familiar can allow all sorts of explosive third turns for R-G, like Quirion Sentinel and a 3 casting cost spell, 3 casting cost Red spell plus Scorching Lava, Ancient Kavu, Kavu Runner, Sparkcaster, Flametongue Kavu, etc. Probably my favorite Familiar in draft, I've occasionally taken one first pick and not been disappointed. This and Nightscape Familiar are the only two that I think make the cut in nearly all sealed decks that use their colors, although I did leave both of mine in the board of my 5cG sealed deck at Grand Prix-Valencia.

Stormscape Familiar. A 1/1 flyer is less of a board presence than either a 1/1 Regenerator or a 2-power creature. You won't be excited to topdeck this little guy late in the game, and against a White mage he may do very little direct work. Playable but not great in U-B, I'm really a fan of Stormscape Familiar in a U-W (or U-W-b) draft deck. Just as in G-W, turning your many 4 casting cost flyers into Wind Drakes can significantly speed up your deck's tempo, and casting Acolytes for one mana can improve your ground defense, either bringing them out a turn earlier or letting you keep White Mana open for their ability. U-W also has one of the best gating commons in Silver Drake, so a cheap target for it definitely gains in value.

Sunscape Familiar. The value of a 0/3 wall depends a lot on your opponent's deck and at best achieves parity by neutralizing an opposing two-power ground creature. G-W needs to be aggressive, already rules the ground and usually has lots of good choices for the two-mana slot, so Sunscape Familiar isn't likely to make the cut. I like it more in U-W where you want decent ground blockers and where it can enable you to play out your threats and still use reactive spells, but it generally goes later than any of the above Familiars, so don't waste an early pick on one unless your deck really cries out for one.

Thunderscape Familiar. Do you have Magic dreams? One friend of mine was late for work because he woke up from a dream and turned off his alarm clock, convinced he didn't have to go to work because he had Morphling in play. Chris Manning apparently has a recurring dream that goes like this: turn one, Urborg Volcano. Turn two, Swamp, Thunderscape Familiar. Turn three, Swamp, Sinister Strength times three, attack with a 10/4 Black first striking creature. Despite it's obvious synergy with Sinister Strength, the Thunderscape Familiar is my least favorite. Sometimes a 1/1 first striker is a great defender, but it's almost never as good as a 1/1 Regenerator. Being able to serve for one while ramping hardly compensates for the general Familiar shortcomings when compared with a mana elf. Furthermore, one of Red's strengths is its abundance of solid creatures, meaning that the early plays a Red deck would most like to ramp are likely to be unaffected by the Familiar.