Deathrite Shaman

“Deathrite Shaman” is yet another outstanding Black/Green creature from Return to Ravnica, and this time, one with multi-format appeal! As a 1/2 for one, his body is certainly reasonable, but it’s his incredibly flexible glut of abilities that really define him. This creature does it all, and while messing with any graveyard shenanigans your opponent may have going on. Deathrite has three abilities, each one revolving around removing a card in a graveyard from the game (it is important to note that it is any graveyard – yours or your opponent’s).

He can dig a land out of the graveyard to produce a mana of the color of your choice. In standard, this doesn’t do much of anything, unless you run Ghost Quarter [Innistrad] (which may not be a bad idea, considering how many fantastic nonbasic lands are running around the format), but in old formats, this is incredible. A first turn fetchland [Onslaught, Zendikar] into Deathrite is a frightening set-up in either modern or legacy – especially legacy, where Wasteland [Tempest] is very much a thing.

Deathrite can also dig up creatures or instant/sorceries, at a boon of +2 life/creature or -2 life/spell. This is quite relevant in both standard and older formats. He’s hell on wheels against a reanimator deck as Deathrite can pop off the ideal reanimation target before the resurrection spell is cast. And in any given game of Magic, instants and sorceries will fly around, letting Deathrite turn into a repeatable source of burn, which can finish out some games that stall. These abilities do require a specific green or black mana, meaning he’s only at his best in a deck using (or splashing) both.

Good:

-One mana cost, in either of two colors, allowing for consistent easy casting

- 2 OUTSTANDING abilities, if you have access to the colors

- 1 very relevant Legacy acceleration ability

- Messes with graveyard strategies

- Uses either graveyard, so should have no shortage of ammo

Bad:

            - Small body

            - Specific color requirements for abilities, so only thrives in black/green

            - Mana ability isn’t relevant at all in standard

            - He’s an elf. No one likes elves. :p

Scully Rating: 8.8 out of 10

Projected Settled Value: $6-8

Rakdos, Lord of Riots

“Rakdos, Lord of Riots” is one of the “Paruns,” leaders of the 10 guilds of Ravnica, and our second returning Parun from the original Ravnica set (Niv-Mizzet, Parun of the Izzet guild, and Isperia, Parun of the Azorius (though she was only lieutenant in the first block) also received new versions). He’s an incredibly aggressively costed 6/6 for four mana, with some heavy beating abilities.

He flies, he tramples, he makes your other guys cheaper when he beats some faces. What could possibly be bad about this guy? Well, he’ll only come out if there’s a party, you see. You need the incredibly specific cost of double black and double red, which means that pretty much only red and black decks can support him. This isn’t the kind of color requirement you just splash for. Rakdos also can only be cast if your opponent has lost some life this turn, which is a taller order. If you’re curving out well with your red/black deck, this should be no problem whatsoever. But when you draw him in the late game, after the stalemate has set in against control, you may have to sacrifice some serious board position to let him come down. Or waste a burn spell prematurely to get him into play. A 6/6 for 4 is usually worth the stretch to get him on the field, though.

Good:

- Girl, look at that body. He works out. With fire scythes.

- Can help you get other creatures into play more efficiently. Things like Rakdos Hellsteed and Chaos Imps are a lot more reasonable when you take two to four mana off their costs.

Bad:

- Restrictive mana cost means he’ll only show up in one type of deck

- A restriction to being able to cast him means he’s a rough topdeck in the late game

Scully Rating: 7.0 out of 10

Projected Settled Value: $10-15 (10/09/12)

Lotleth-Troll

“Lotleth Troll” is a rare creature from Return to Ravnica set and one of the premiere monsters from the expansion. At an incredibly efficient two mana, the troll comes out of the gate quickly, and makes a substantial threat with very little investment. Having a cheap regenerate and trample on a two mana creature is already solid, especially with Rancor running around, but throw in the ability to grow himself permanently (at instant speed, no less!) and you’ve got a powerhouse creature, ready to rip through other decks.

The most obvious application of the troll’s discard ability is to throw creatures featuring the new Scavenge mechanic, and then activating Scavenge and making the troll even bigger. But what if the creatures you threw down didn’t actually stay down? “Lotleth Troll” is actually a zombie troll, which means that you can toss a Gravecrawler (from Dark Ascension) and then cast it out of the graveyard! Talk about having your cake and eating it, too (though it appears the troll prefers… other delicacies).

Good:

- Efficient body at an affordable cost in a color pair that’s getting a lot of support

- Lets you play a bluffing game with the cards in your hand (Are they three creatures to make the troll +3/+3 bigger? Or are they lands?)

- Trample, because just regenerate on a monster that gets huge wasn’t enough of a beating

- Combos well with the other zombies running around from Innistrad block

Bad:

-It’s not free? There is so little bad about this card, it’s hard to say. It does have a very specific mana cost, which may delay the troll’s arrival in some less-than-perfect hands

Scully Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Projected Settled Value: $8-10 (10/08/12)

Return to Ravnica

“Return to Ravnica” is the Magic: The Gathering expansion being released in October of 2012. The full 274-card set has been spoiled, so we can take a look at all the mechanics and the overall set themes.

The original Ravnica block was one of Magic’s most well-received expansions, popular for both its interesting flavor reflected in the block mechanics via the guild system and the impressive power level of the cards, leading to a variety of fun and interesting decks emerging from the block. Return to Ravnica promises us a satisfying follow-up to its predecessor. RtR brings us back to the plane of Ravnica, a plane-wide city held together by its system of 10 color-pair guilds, each with a particular job relating to the upkeep of the city. The five guilds RtR reintroduces us to are the naturalistic Selesnya (responsible for agriculture), the bureaucratic Azorius (responsible for government and lawmaking), the insane Izzet (mad scientists, focused on research and invention), the hedonistic Rakdos (dedicated to having fun and blowing things up), and the morbid Golgari (who handle the sewers and catacombs). Each guild has its own keyword mechanic to bring to the table and some impressive creatures and spells.

Green-white Selesnya provides the Populate mechanic, which propagates your creature tokens. This mechanic could prove quite beneficial, especially in conjunction with the impressive creature token production that the Innistrad block gave us. Azorius introduces the Detain mechanic, which prevents targeted permanent cards from being used for a turn. Detain is exactly what control decks want, conveniently, and un-coincidentally, in the blue-white guild. Izzet, representing the red-blue cards, offers the Overload mechanic, which provides options for casting a spell aimed at a single target or “each” target, depending on how much you pay for it. Overload will be fairly useful in control decks, where options are always appreciated, but fast decks won’t really have time to build to the Overload costs. Black-red Rakdos provides the Unleash mechanic, which lets creatures trade their ability to block for a +1/+1 counter upon entering play, excellent for aggressive decks. Finally, Golgari offers the very black-green Scavenge mechanic, which turns your dead creatures into +1/+1 counters, another excellent mechanic that will allow for agro decks to have some late-game play by reusing their already dead cards.

Some notable cards in this set include:

-The reprinted Ravnica dual lands: offering both basic land types and the ability to come into play untapped for a price makes the Ravnica duals some of the most sought after dual lands since the original alpha/beta/revised duals.

- The charms: Each color combination offers a multi-faceted charm that has three different options whenever you cast it, allowing for significant versatility

- The extensive gold selection: There are so many multi-color cards in this set, significantly in some enemy-color combinations (red-blue, green-black), which don’t get much support.

Good:

- Powerful creatures and spells, moreso than we’ve really seen lately

- Rare color combinations in Izzet and Golgari

- Evocative and intuitive flavor and mechanics

- Very few crap-rares compared to most sets; most every pack is likely to have something playable

Bad:

- Will be an expensive set to get ahold of!

- Many common cards are more underwhelming than usual, but that’s only because of the high density of exceptional rares

Scully Rating: 9.8 out of 10