Explorer’s Scope: Gleanings of the Eldrazi

I love spoiler season. I crave it. I wait for it to arrive, and when it is gone I miss it, even though it leaves behind a new set to draft and revitalized formats to explore. With quarterly releases Wizards has struck that proverbial turning fork in my loins. Gone are the days of spoilers being completed months ahead of a release, Wizards knows how to pace themselves now. In fact, the excitement and anticipation that builds as each tidbit is revealed is… well “exciting” does not even begin to do it justice in my eyes. Now, I realize that not everybody feels as strongly about spoiler season as me, but nearly everyone takes an interest in the first succulent pieces of bait that WOTC dangles in front of the ravenous maw of the denizen’s of the internet.

In case you have just returned from a two week shift working on an oil platform: we have our first batch of Rise of the Eldrazi spoilers, and the rampant speculation has begun. My favorite game to play in this part of the release process is not to look too closely at the revealed cards themselves, but rather to try and guess what they mean for the rest of the set. Fortunately Wizards has seen fit to include several keyworded abilities worthy of expanded examination.

(Note: the mechanics article is now available!)

Annihilator & the Eldrazi

Annihilator X (Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices X permanents.)

Annihilator — a keyword ability sure to teach authors to count their “n”s. This was the first keyword ability revealed and its debut on Kozilek, Butcher of Truth made Living Tsumani sized waves across the magic web. However, his Mythic rarity, Legendary status, and legendary sized casting cost (10!) made many question the extent to which Annihilator would play a role in non-casual games. Since then additional Eldrazi bearing the Annihilator clause have been revealed, even appearing on both Common and Uncommon ancients. Taking the Eldrazi (and Annihilator) out of the realm of the Mythical greatly increases the chances that Annihilator will be an ability to be taken seriously, at least in Limited and specialty formats, so why don’t we examine them a bit more closely.

Note that to date only Eldrazi have Annihilator. It is certainly possible that a cycle of non-Eldrazi iconic creatures (Dragons, and Demons, and Angels, oh my!) might get in on the act, but I think it is safe to say that the bulk of Annihilators will continue to be Eldrazi.

There seems to be no real ceiling on the size or cost of the Eldrazi, but double digit power, toughness, and casting cost seem to be the rule rather than the exception. Assuming Annihilator status will only be reserved for the awakened ancients a key question will be how small can they come? In particular, what is the lowest casting cost we will see on an Annihilator wielding behemoth? To date the smallest Eldrazi I have seen is the relatively pint-sized Ulamog’s Crusher, clocking in at a not immodest 8/8 for 8 with Annihilator 2. This Crusher is referred to in the mechanics article as “one of the smaller Eldrazi” — but not the smallest. We already know from Emrakul’s Hatcher and other Eldrazi Spawn creators that smaller Eldrazi theme creatures exist in this new world of busted open hedrons. Can we take this knowledge and hypothesized what minimum size of an Eldrazi might be? Assuming that every Eldrazi has at least Annihilator 1 I think we can form a pretty clear picture of what the wee one might look like.

Even on a 1/1 creature Annihilator 1 would be absurdly powerful if that creature cost three mana or less. If it was accelerated out on Turn Two and was not dealt with immediately it would singlehandedly consume an opponent’s board and crippled them. Wizards has emphatically declared their dislike for cards that are capable of enforcing a lack of interaction. A creature that could lock your opponent out of the game as early as Turn Three manifestly falls within this embargo. Likewise, given the presence of mana ramp and Eldrazi support cards like Eye of Ugin four mana is also likely going to be to low for our hypothetical creature. My guess for the most aggressively pushed Eldrazi would be something along the lines of a 6 mana 5/5 with Annihilator 1 — and even that may be too small.

Why is that as low as they are likely to go on the Eldrazi? We already have the Eye printed, and at least one additional Eldrazi support land is already rumored to be able to tap for two mana if you are casting an Eldrazi. Just one more similar land would allow a 6 mana Eldrazi to come down on Turn Three under circumstances that would not be terribly difficult to manufacturer, and I would not be at all surprised if we end up seeing several more support land or artifacts show up in order facilitate the summoning of these Colorless goliaths. The bottom line is that Wizards is giving every indication that they want the big guys to have at least narrow Constructed potential without warping Limited around them too much, so expect ample support — but don’t expect to be Annihilating your opponent before Turn Four.

Totem Armor

Totem armor (If enchanted creature would be destroyed, instead remove all damage from it and destroy this Aura.)

Totem armor is the latest in a long line of aura mechanics designed to take the inherent card advantage out of playing with auras. I have to admit that I have something of a soft spot for auras. My first ever magic game end in my winning thanks to a Merfolk of the Pearl Trident enchanted with Holy and Unholy Strength, along with Firebreathing. My first multiplayer win was also aura assisted as I rode a heroically large Rabid Wombat to victory. Despite this personal affinity, even I will not touch most auras when it comes to competitive magic.

Given the above you can surely understand that I really wanted to like this mechanic, so I was more than a little disappointed at the first Totem Armor revealed. After all, a 3/3 with vigilance for five is never going to be Constructed playable, much less one that requires you to have another creature in play for you to hitch it to. The second addition to this class of auras is much more encouraging. Yes, Hyena Umbra still requires a creatures in play, and yes its ability to protect a creature from death is mitigated by its vulnerability to bounce, exile effects, or the plethora of black —X/-X effects but it is cheap and it does grant a combat ability that increasing relevant in Constructed Magic. It certainly does not hurt that White seems to be getting a lot of ways to help its own creatures survive a Day of Judgment lately. Could a GW deck finally live the dream of the one sided Wrath? Maybe not, but I am much more hopeful that this mechanic might at least dip its toes in Constructed waters than I was when the Mammoth was the only member of the cycle.

One more point: note that the “saving” effect, while very similar in execution to regeneration, is not the same. When a creature is saved by its Totem Armor it does not tap, and is not removed from combat. This is a subtle difference which will probably cause a few of my fellow old timers to stub their toes during the live and online release events.

Rebound

Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)

Want to bounce back from the sub par Totem Armor mechanic? Try Rebound! Thank you. I’ll be here all week. Seriously though, can you imagine how amazing Rebound would be in Zendikar drafts? The primary bonus of pump spells like Prey’s Vigilance is their ability to allow your Grizzly Bear to swing past the opposition, big butted or not. If your opponent happens to let you turn your pump into a removal spell along the way then so much the better! Being able to spread a +4/+4 for G over two turns is frequently going to be better than having to take it all at once. Let me say that again: most of the time (at least in Limited) I would rather have this spell than a +4/+4 at instant speed, it is that good.

What other kind of spells will we see rebound on? Hopefully Wizards have stretched their wings on this one and gone outside the “easy” traditional cycles. For instance, how cool would it be to have a Wrath effect with rebound on it? Even at six mana (and certainly at five!) such an effect would be a huge boon to Control players everywhere who could safety tap out without fear of the opponent reloading the board with creatures before the Control player could bring counter-magic and removal to bear again… unless of course the opponent was packing some Totem Auras as well!

MTGO players, and seeing as this is MTGO Academy most of you probably are, we will have to be careful with this mechanic. As with most other “may” mechanics the interface will probably be set up not prompt you that you have a rebounding card ready to go during your upkeep beyond (probably) highlighting the card in your exile window. I know that I have quite often accidentally clicked past an Eternal Dragon recursion or Dredge opportunity. Unfortunately, rebound is only good for one turn, and losing half your spell because of a misclick or mistake is not much more fun than losing the whole thing fun. Keep those “exiled” windows open, and do not over click!

Level Up Mechanic

The Eldrazi are epic, and Rebound and Totem Aura trick are cute, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this set may actually be best remembered for -for better or worse- is the final mechanic I am looking at today: Level Up. “Level Up” is a phrase near and dear to roots of gamerdom, and the hearts of gamers everywhere. Advancing in “levels,” be it character levels in classic RPGs or simply surviving or completing levels in video games, has been a core concept in modern games for at least four decades now. Even within Magic the concept of “Level Up” builds on previous ideas. An incomplete list includes the Planeswalkers, Kamigawa “flip” cards, and most directly Figure of Destiny. The Zenikar vampires who get a bonus when the opponent is “bloodied” and the multikicker (and for that matter all kicker) creatures are all essentially derivatives of the “leveling up” concept. Yet, until now Wizards has not tapped into that visceral phrase so directly.

In many ways I love this mechanic, but it also makes me a little sad. If I may morosely step onto my soapbox for a moment: this change in creatures has been coming for a long time, and it is a natural outgrowth of cantrips, kicker and morphs, and even simple foundational creature abilities like firebreathing and Sengir Vampire‘s ability to grow more powerful after it kill something. Yet, I cannot help but find it ironic that Wizards continues to search for the key to the playable aura while at the same time creating a new class of creatures that pack not just one transformational ability, but several. Essentially outdoing Auras at there own game with little increase in the creature’s base cost. At some point in the future Magic is going to stop being the same game that I started playing and that will be a strange day. This is not to say that “Level Up” is going to be the point when Magic jumps the shark, but it is a reminder that that someday that day is coming – even if Wizards never prints another Level Up creature after this set. Somehow I don’t think that is going to happen though, after all if razors and Planeswalker have taught us one thing it is that four > three.

In the meantime we should enjoy what we have, and what we have are some flat out amazing creatures. The current visual spoiler shows us examples of Common, Rare, and Mythic Level Up cards. This hints at at least one cycle of Level Up cards at each rarity, and I imagine that most of them will be high picks in Limited. After all, the guys we are currently seeing are all well crafted to be playable if unimpressive at “level 0″ (ie. freshly cast) and then scale into more and more powerful and interesting creatures as you dump excess mana into them (though only at sorcery speed ). If the rest of the Level Up representatives are as carefully built as these are then they should make for some interesting skill testers. After all, while it is a no-brainer to invest the mana to bump them up into their next “power level” it is much trickier deciding on when to invest mana in getting them to that crucial point where the next level up will provide a benefit.

All in all Rise of the Eldrazi is already shaping up to be yet another exciting release and we only have a handful of cards available to us so far. What do you think about the direction Wizards is taking the plane of Zendikar? Are there any novels readers out there that can chime in about the major players or events, quests, weapons, or artifacts that me might expect to show up as the hot new piece of equipment or cool new spell? If so I would love to hear about it! Anything to feed the beast of spoiler season.

Best,

Robin