Avacyn Restored: Visual Spoiler (Complete)

That angel is just nuts. Luckily it’s mythic and costs 8 mana
or is this a late April fools joke?!

I guess that’s about right. This seems like a dangerous card to have when there’s a recursion deck going around. It’s a bit sad, but in the wake of so many recent protection/indestructible angels, she doesn’t feel as mythic as the storyline suggests she should. I mean, Avacyn will win matches by herself in limited if AVR is a mercifully slower format, but she costs Akroma mana. You’d expect her to be cooler, maybe have an ability to get her into play earlier with Helvault. As it is, I see her getting slided into block Frites as the finisher of choice, with little impact beyond that. Other formats have access to Elesh Norn and Titans. Unless the indestructibility is crazier than I think, this is another mythic that will destroy draft without much impact or value beyond.

I think we will be seeing an exile card similar to path in AVR… if not a direct reprint. the one thing against this theory is the recent reprinting in the venser vs. koth deck.

question: is the keyword “exile” a color wheel specific mechanic? is white the only color that can exile creatures/permanents? or can other colors gain a removal spell similar to ‘path to exile’ but in a different color like black or red. red doesn’t seem logical, but black perhaps. unfortunately that theory runs against tragic slip which was just printed, and also is the only answer for the new angel.

so many things to speculate on now. great spoiler.

Whoa, 1/244? Avacyn restored is a large set?!

Thats wild, I don’t remember seeing that mentioned in the block structure discussions, but maybe I missed it completely.

So I gathered – thats really a shame. I really loath two pack/1 pack draft formats (much preferring triple or 1/1/1) and its a shame that we won’t get to draft DA in three sets. I assume that means flip cards cards and the like will make way for a new set of keywords, but maybe they won’t make the shift as drastic as in Rise.

On the other hand, Rise was one of the all time great draft formats – so here’s hoping Avycyn can live up to that legacy.

It’s not playable in standard, but IMO, that’s how mythics ought to be (aside from planeswalkers). Standard is way too mythic-heavy at the moment which makes building a deck from scratch a financial nightmare. Mythics are great when they’re flavorful fatties with unique abilities, no-so-much when they’re format-defining cards like huntmaster, swords, or geist of saint traft (all of which should have been rares IMO).

I think that there might be other cards coming out in this set that will let you get Avacyn out faster. But hey, what about Quicksilver Amulet and Heartless Summoning? Those can get you your Avacyn out faster plus makes room for other big creatures because Quicksilver Amulet and Heartless Summoning because they’re undestructible. Maybe that could be a good deck.

Mitotic Manipulation anyone? i’ve run a really awesome deck with that involving just spamming out either Elbrus, the Binding Blade, Blightsteel Colossus, going to Modern the big 3 and so many more, and now a turn 3 Avacyn, Angel of Hope.

was just wondering- on the miracle card- if you say think twice end of their turn and its a miracle card can you pay the miracle price or is it on your turn only?

@kaos…miracle says ‘first card you drew this turn, so it would be either your turn or opponents turn. with ponder, and scry, you can set up the lava axe for 1R real nice.

It sure doesn’t look like banding. Soulbond looks like a mini-lord effect just for the bonded creatures. I don’t think they would compress the stats if each paired creature has double strike. That reminder text is pretty unwieldy. Oh man, Geist of St. Traft plus Paladin has some potential, huh?

What are you people even doing on an mtg strategy site if you are busy swooning for as terrible of a card as Avacyn is in standard. Not so much because learning isn’t needed on their part, but because they’re clearly beyond grasping anything. Look at the dominant decks in the format and look at Avacyn…every deck has a way to deal with her and that’s not counting winning the game before she matters.

Use your heads. Just because you like a card does not mean that it is good.

The art on the lands is the coolest Iv’e seen in Magic so far, ever. They are the same basic lands from ISD except now they are not as dark, and the coming sunlight heralds hope. genius, IMO.

Oh, hyperbole! How 1.5 players are wont to employ you when they consult their crystal balls.

Soulbound: Seems like a powerful and fun draft mechanic. Might make a splash in standard, but nothing spoiled yet is all that powerful. Dumb name for a Mechanic.

Miracle: In a format with ponder or preordain it seems just insane. Maybe even broken. I mean time walk? Really?

Undying: Could be extremely annoying in a Triple large set draft format. It was OK in DA cause you only saw one pack. Hopefully its pretty sparse and hangs out mostly in uncommon/rare. It would suck to have to kill EVERYTHING twice.

Loner: Seems OK. Don’t have much to say about it.

Blink: This is a fun mechanic. The Blink angel seems like a lot of fun.

Sigarda: I already hate this card. Not hard to imagine how frustrating this is going to be when your opp slams this down turn 5 in draft. Oh, an undercosted 5/5 flier, that I can’t interact with? Sounds fun! This better make a splash in constructed for the amount of frustration its going to cause in limited.

Bobby, you have to reveal the card when you draw it if you want to play it for it’s miracle cost. I quote from Wizards’ official page, “As you draw an instant or sorcery with miracle, if it’s the first card you’ve drawn this turn, you can immediately reveal it. When you do so, you may cast it for its miracle cost. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an instant or sorcery; if you choose to cast it, you do so right away, even if it’s at a time (such as your draw step) when you couldn’t normally cast it. You’re not required to reveal a miracle card, even if you could pay for it. You can always choose to just draw it as normal.”

Indeed, hexproof sucks. Can’t get how Wizards think pushing that much non interactivness into their cards makes the game better.

Anyone else disappointed Sigarda isn’t a bird lord?

Angel of Jubilation is a card to get excited about. The spear is a good card, but whether or not it will see play is say with any certainty.

To the guy crying about hexproof: it is part of the war on control decks, which caused bad players to whine as they did about Mindsculptor and Caw-Blade, except for about a decade continuously. Hexproof was around before it was made a keyword and makes it so equipment and enchant creatures will always have a chance of being seen in competitive play.

It is interesting how you don’t see longtime control players bemoaning cards, like Thrun, even though they represent the general ethos that has killed the archetype, yet the same types who used to whine about vanilla counterspell being better than their Rathi Dragon are now whining about creatures that are better than vanilla counterspell.

Get it over with and just quit playing magic, please. The game is better off without you whiny idiots.

Temporal mastery seems like a card that is going to get quickly restricted in vintage and legacy and probably modern. I cannot see it lasting past one major tourney in any of those formats before getting restricted/banned. Legacy especially since you can play 4 brainstorm and never have to worry about having a temp in your starting hand.

Wow. Won’t be long before everyone’s doing “The Wave” instead of “The Wrath” lol.. You’re talking about the ability of tapping 2 mana and wiping the opp’s board (best case scenario) and this is very doable if built around properly and timing is right. My forecast: The Wave is gonna be HUGE.

So there’s angels and demons all over the place. Dan Brown would love this. I wish they would print Kaalia of the Vast in this set.

@PlanetWalls

Sounds about right to me!

@MikeC

Vexing Devil isn’t really like lightning bolt, but I totally agree that it will see play. However, lightning bolt was good because it was cheap removal for a wide range of creatures, not because it burned for 3. Also, since the devil is a creature card, it can’t be snapcaster’d which is something that made lightning bolt much better. Finally, it’s only really a burn card when you don’t want it to be — if your opponent is at low life late game and have board presence, the devil is a miss, and that’s the stage of the game at which red aggro is already weak.

Man, does having Maro on the design team of every expert level set mean that all of our awe inspiring Mythics come in forced feeling cycles? The RW one has a certain elegance to it which is thrown by the mana cost. It also feels like it should have haste for seven.

It would be cool if this set is skewed mana-wise like in some older sets. The spoiler so far hints at a you choose: White versus Black feel in which one of those two is the base color with other colors as a support. Flavor-wise, that would be awesome.

Gotta love how every time a new set is spoiled the competitive players come out of the gates with, “this won’t see standard play” etc. These are awesome cards. Half these cards are gonna go straight into my commander deck. May even build a deck around a couple. Love the angels! Innistrad is the best block to come out in years and Avacyn restored already looks to be one of the best. Scars block was absolutely awful and Zendikar block was only saved by Rise of the Eldrazi. Really excited to see these flavorful cards in this set.

Emancipation angel: 3/3 flying for 3 is way above the curve for limited. Especially since its drawback is usually an upside. The uncommons in this set have been quite powerful.

Bruna: This card seems like an amazing EDH commander. I like that WOTC designs cards specifically for that format now.

Taimyo: I love the art on this one. Ultimately I don’t think its going to make much of an impact. Its definitely worth testing with, but it seems like it is one mana away from being a powerhouse.

Bruna does look like a commander, if only because they did everything to make Auras work with her on the battlefield. The result is a pretty ugly block of text and an Angel that feels funny in UW, but yeah, she’s cool.

Am I the only person that sees Tamiyo and shrugs? This might be the first blue planeswalker wih no impact on standard. At five, you have to do something crazier than half a frost breath. The ultimate is cool but should never effect a game. Maybe the fact that I didn’t play Kamigawa means that I’m missing a parallel between INN and that set, but she is out of place in so many ways.

Sorry meant revenge not hunger.

the new Planeswalker is totally aaawwwweeesssooommmeee!!!!!!

Translation of Fanatische Rekruten:

Zealous Conscripts 4R
Creature – Human Warrior
Haste
When Zealous Conscripts enters the battlefield, gain control of target permanent until end of turn. Untap that card. It gains haste until end of turn.
3/3

Red is getting the rare hookup. Fifteen days from now we get the barely playable common creatures to make up for it. My prediction is that white will be the dominant color of the set. Angels are a predominant theme and so far they deliver smashingly. Any skies deck will have to contend with all of the other 3/3 and larger fliers. This could be a “zeppelin war”, in which each side tries to assemble the largest luftwaffe. I desperately want this to be a slower format. After M12 and INN/DKA, a format in which Griselbrand or an awkward mythic Angel is playable would be a breath of fresh air. We’re seeing the bombs now, what we need are efficient walls and blockers (Wall of Denial, Reverance, Omens, Fog, 2/4s and 1/4s), decent removal and ramp to get there. If there was a common echo to Herald of War, that would help.

Bonfire: Another insane miracle mythic. Not time walk insane, but still incredibly powerful. I do not know yet how to feel about these cards. Might be too format warping, but if they’re not they look like a ton of fun.

Tibalt: RR is a pretty exciting casting cost for a planeswalker. At RR it almost has to be good. Someone just has to design a deck for it.

Zealous Conscripts: I think this one is deceptively powerful and could surprise people by showing up in standard. Its a ton of damage out of nowwhere, and if you can abuse the ability with sac effects its just a blowout on any board it resolves. Absolute bomb in limited.

god Tibalt is unbelievably cool.

It needs to be the first card drawn that turn, so making it work will be cumbersome at best. Noxious revival is sweet with a miracle card, but so are delvers that get flipped on the first turn and so on. Taking multiple turns has generally been something that combo decks have done, so it will be interesting to see how a format that is dominated by creatures will manage to capitalize on Temporal Mastery when it basically requires:

4 ponder
2-4 probe
2-4 thought scour
4 delver
4 vapor snag
4 snapcaster
2-4 mana leak

and that’s just the blue stuff. After the blue stuff, higher impact stuff will be needed, like equipment and efficient beaters. Then, all the stuff to make miracle triggering more often will need to get jammed. Such is life with new set- cool cards that seem really sick and then once you actually get around to making the deck, space reveals itself to be hard to come by. Havengul Lich comes to mind, as a recent example of a zomgbbqbahroken card that unsurprisingly fell flat.

All of the miracle cards so far need support. Taking an extra turn is especially bad if you have little else to do beyond drop a land after drawing and passing. I don’t know about you, but I remember playing Time Walk as a cantrip, as well as Time Warp and Final Fortune and both were cards that took considerably less resources than Mastery and they were still conditional.

Actually hash-out numbers for decks that use miracles, proxy the deck, and see how well it works. More likely than not, as it stands(current cards that are spoiled+T2 pool), the results will be a deck that frequently takes extra turns that it isn’t able to capitalize on very well OR it will be an okay deck that occasionally takes extra turns, but could stand to have the slots taken up to do so more effectively…

3 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Thought Scour
4 Ponder
3-4 Revival
4 Temporal Mastery
18-20 slots are dedicated to consistence and taking extra turns. Let’s assume that 22 lands does the trick; that means you’ll have approximately 20-22 slots available for stuff that makes the consistence and extra turns worth it. If you plan on running delvers, that means an emphasis on tokens. My forecast is people shoehorning temporal into spirit-delver decks and managing to make it even more sketchy than it already is.

I don’t mind being wrong with these predictions because pragmatism has a pretty good track record with myth-busting hype cards and saving loads of money on sleeper cards.

The blink effects are helpful with soulbound. Resp to Doom Blade, blink! Whoops fizzled. Soulbound is not good across the board, but saying that it is not feasible in competitive play is a rather sweeping generalization when the set hasn’t been completely spoiled. The five mana guy costs five mana, which means it is in direct competition with Vorapede and Acidic Slime. It is more accurate to point put that it is 3gg for twelve power; not merely an 8/8. The idea of one being played the turn after a Primeval Titan against a lame deck that has issues dealing with creatures, like humans, is pretty funny though.

Holy Avacyn, this land is powerful in Limited. just adding +2/+0 to any one creatue completly wracks combat for opponent….basically enables you to suicide weenies into Big Guys in the later stages of the game…

What is the deal posting the foreign versions? All you’re doing to giving me a reason to leave your site and look it up on a competitor’s site.

oye.. entreat the angels looks enticing in tokens decks

Translation of Daemmerwald-Weise:

Somberwald Sage 2G

Creature – Human Druid
Add 3 mana of any color to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast creatures.

0/1

UWb Reanimator anyone? Mill every fatty angel into the yard and use Unburial Rites and Defy Death to bring them back.

Sage: Seems really strong. Birthing pod decks and other green decks that want to power out fatties should look at this. Turn 1, Birds. Turn 2, This guy. Turn 3, 7 drop or Titan. Pretty easy to disrupt but still…that’s a powerful enough turn progression to take the risk.

Defy death: Another strong card, although Burial rites is just better. Reanimator decks in standard now have access to 8 reanimation spells but is still probably less consistent than ramp.

Entreat: Mana leak being so prevalent makes this a lot worse than it looks. Are you ever going to want to tap out in your draw step If your opponent has 1U open. Still powerful but I wouldn’t run it in the current metagame.

To my point about Entreat. The value of counter-spells applies to all Miracle cards. If your opponent is incentivized to play their key cards in their draw step it makes it really tough to play around counter-spells. I suspect we’ll get a playable counter-spell(for precisely this reason) in this set to compliment leak and dissipate. That will give us enough redundancy to build a powerful draw-go control deck which will just hose Miracle decks. As a nifty bonus for draw-go players(Or really anybody not running a deck with miracle cards), making live reads on your opponents hands becomes a lot easier once they start tanking in the draw step.

I really like how the art on Descendant’s Path has nothing to do with anything that ever existed…

Aw man, bloody vampire chewing arm is going to be great in… yeah I just wanted to say that.

Crippling Cold 2U

Instant
Tap target creature. It doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.
Draw a card.

Tormentor’s Trident
Artifact – Equipment 2

Equipped creature gets +3/+0 and attacks each turn if able.
Equip 3

Sanctuary of the Seraphim

Land
When Sanctuary of the Seraphim enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life.
Whenever an Angel enters the battlefield under your control, you gain 1 life.
Tap: add 1 to your mana pool.

Angelic Armaments 3

Artifact – Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2+2, has flying and is a white Angel in addition to its other colors and types.
Equip 4

Thachers’ Rebellion 2R

Sorcery
Put three 1/1 red Human creature tokens with haste onto the battlefield. Sacrifice those tokens at the beginnig of the next end step.

Malicious Intend 1R

Enchantment – Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has “: Target creature can’t block this turn”.

Murderous Recluse 4B

Enchantment
As long as you control exactly one creature, that creature gets +3+1 and has lifelink.

Push into Nothingness 3U

Sorcery
Return up to two target creatures to their owners’ hands.

Apprentice Alchemist 1U

Creature – Human Wizard
Sacrifice Apprentice Alchemist: Draw a card.
1/1

Predator’s Gambit B

Enchantment – Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+1.
If enchanted creature is the only creature you control, it has intimitade.

Grave Exchange 4BB

Sorcery
Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. Target player sacrifices a creature.

Wind of Death XB

Instant
Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn.

Peel from Reality 1U

Instant
Return target creature you control and target creature you don’t control to their owners’ hands.

Polluted Death 4B

Creature – Zombie
When Polluted Death dies, destroy target land.
3/3

Crypt Creeper 1B

Creature – Zombie
Sacrifice Crypt Creeper: Exile target card from a graveyard.
2/1

Barter in Blood 2BB

Sorcery
Each player sacrifices two creatures.

Thacher’s is very sick with anthem effects and champion. Barter saw a fair amount of play when it was in standard before; what aggro decks are doing will always dictate what control does, so time will tell whether it is useful or not.

Considering the biggest issue with barter is the fact that the format is filled with tokens, yet you say that sorcery speed is the big issue…that’s a pretty big strike against your thoughts having any validity.

Additionally, Not being able to waylay the tokens off of thacher’s is trivial compared to the fact that with anthem/rally effects, it can be pretty ridiculous…the biggest factor in whether it’ll see play pther token generators; not whether it is an instant or not.

Don’t interpret this as an attack on you, so much as it is a reminder that you have some learning to do, I’d say.

No, I completely did. It annoys me when people who are clueless speak with a sense of authority.
Arrogance and confidence are a matter of opinion in most cases. I prefer pragamatism to making ridiculous assumptions based on incomplete or entirely wrong information, so that’s how I manage to be so confident in what I say.

On a lighter note- rite of ruin and mauler are going to probably be good. The latter makes the comes into play tapped caveat of a few zombies seem especially thought-out. Rites seems like a pretty desirable thing to ramp into. Neither of the cards in question would ever go into anything that I can see myself enjoying playing with, so I’m not so excited about them lol

Pit Dweller: This card is crazy. A 2 mana 4/3 is definitely worth taking a look at, but that is a serious drawback. The natural fit is a blue deck, play this on turn 2 and protect it the rest of the game, but BB wants a mono-black or close to it manabase. Cool card.

Mauler: This is the first soulbond card that’s basically a slam dunk for constructed. A little awkward its not a goblin, but creature based red decks will want this anyways. Its a pretty powerful followup to a 1 drop. Giving your turn 3 play haste is good too. It might also have a place in a combo deck that wants to give its finisher haste. Of course the creature based mono-red deck will probably not be tier one, but that’s not this cards fault.

I’ll continue to do as I like, thanks.

Yes! Another wrath-like effect for white!

@abon: I agree the 2U 3/4 flier is a good card for creature light control decks. Probably nothing more than a good sideboard option though. Don’t act as if you’re correcting me if you’re just going to restate my point in a different way.(Although I don’t really care if you’re rude, I wouldn’t have even said something if it wasn’t already a thread in the comments) My point was that BB is basically uncastable in decks that want the effect.

Terminus: This is just worse than all the other wraths in the format, right? Even if there was some sort of hyper aggressive deck that can kill you consistently before you hit 4 mana, you still have to draw this in your first 3 turns to make it better than day of judgement.

Misthollow Griffin: Interesting ability on this one. I imagine their must be some sort of interaction I’m not familiar with that makes this card good but I’m just not seeing it. The fact that its mythic is like WoTC goading us into trying to break its ability. It could have some sideboard applications against decks that only run exile effects for removal but that doesn’t seem likely.

Alchemists refuge: Another cool card. I’ve played UG decks in the past where the goal is to land an undercosted beater early and protect it with counterspells. This plays perfectly into that strategy although I don’t remember it ever being a tier 1 deck, and I don’t think refuge puts it over the top. Anyways with the advent of delver, blue decks don’t even need to play green at all to play aggro-control.

Malignus + Curse of bloodletting + Fling = iffy 3 card combo ftw!

@Abon ( Or sophisticated troll? )
So you were not “White Knighting” when you called me a “whining idiot who should just quit playing magic” ?
I was not crying about hexproof but decrying rather.

I only play in draft formats which I did not state earlier, however I figure that a man of your caliber and mental prowess would have taken that into consideration, apparently I figured wrong. When you repeatedly face down butchers cleaver+invisible stalker+auras and realize that there’s no interaction whatsoever then it doesn’t feel like Magic anymore. You would know that though wouldn’t you? Since your an expert at not playing magic but rather a sophisticated troll who uses their intelligence to point out where everyone else is wrong in a condescending fashion.
I’ve always wondered about people like you. How come you have such a deep psychological need to be “right” by claiming others are “wrong”? I know your personality type and modis operandi and people like you never get that you win more arguments with honey instead of vinegar. When other people are wrong it is not an attack against you, so why attack them as though it was? An expansive vocabulary doesn’t give you the rite to bash people over the head with it like some kind of savage brute, take a more civilized approach by keeping your intentions pure. Your not our father, teacher or grand poobah so stop putting yourself in that position!

Aside Begin

They printed the answer to hexproof like I hoped they would with Terminus
( Maybe those whiny idiots had a valid point after all?)

Aside End

Here’s another word for your vocabulary: Erudite

It must get lonely up there on your pedestal so come on down every once in a while, or in the words of Marshall, ” come on in, the waters fine “.

@mindecho

Amen to that, my first post was done in joy and humor. Things got a little sour though because some people…….

I love magic and can’t wait to draft this set, it’s awesome!

I’m going to make my friends draft restored/ascension/ins! mwa ahahahahahahahha

genesis wave for 7 that hits your entire deck? now we have two big green cards to ban in EDH
@MindEcho: prime titans ability would go on the stack, but you would continue resolving primal surge, putting any other ETB triggers onto the stack when they hit the battlefield.

@MindEcho

I was told by a level 1 judge that when you encounter a “period” ( . ) in a cards text you can treat it as though it’s a pause or sorcery speed effect. When you see a comma to treat it as though it’s an instant speed effect.
For example: Phantom Nishoba enters the battlefield with 3 1/1 counters on it. If Phantom Nishoba would be dealt damage, prevent that damage. Remove a 1/1 counter.
So if I were to enchant this creature with say, Armadillo cloak which gives it +2/+2, when damage is dealt to the creature it’s always prevented because of the ( . ) and then I remove a 1/1 counter. Now even if this creature has no more counters left to remove it still lives due to the +2 defense and the damage is still prevented since the counter removal text happens after. If this was worded with a comma then it happens at instant speed and you would have to have a counter to remove to prevent the damage.

Since Primal Surge says: “put it onto the battlefield.” allowing “come into play” abilities to resolve before you have to repeat the process.

Fun fact. Did you know that when the printed wording for the “undying” mechanic first saw REL competitive play judges were flummoxed at first since when the creature with undying dies, since there was no way to respond according to the way it was worded? I.E. that Thraben creature that exiles a creature when you tap it couldn’t remove an undying creature in time! So, the errata for undying text was treated as though a period exists in there somewhere. lol. ( how do you like that for specifics? )

It would be fun to primal surge into inferno titan + infinite reflection! Or if some one can find a card that puts a permanent on top of your library at instant speed, it would have to be a repeatable ability with no mana cost though so thats a stretch.

Sadly, 10 mana is very restrictive.

How does Misthollow Griffin work with Mimic Vat and the other like cards?

you know, have you seen exquisite blood? pair it up with sanguine bond and its an instant win…
wizards, why? these 2 cards are going to be the most popular combo be the end of April…

Yes! They listened to everybody who wanted Angel’s Mercy reprinted! I finally have a reason to play constructed.

So far whick color combinations in Limited AVR you guys see strong? My vote goes to B/R (removal and loners) or U/W(bounce spells and evasion creatures). Any comments?