I don't have anything specific to write about this time around, but I am enjoying a nice warm fire and apple cider after a hard day's slaving and toiling away at the office.  The goal of this article is simply to talk about what's on my mind.  Let me just light this here pipe... OK, much better.  Now then, gather ye round kids...

First of all, we have a new set coming out (you heard it here first!... or not) and this is a great chance to pimp out my cube.  I didn't mention in my last article, that I am trying to foil out/black border as much of my pauper cube as I can.  The irony isn't lost on me, I realize it kind of defeats the purpose of it being pauper.  My one rule is the foils must be in English, since lots of people use my cube, many of which many not be familiar with the older cards.  Now Star City Games has been kind enough to have foils available for pre-order, so I jetted over their and pre-ordered the foils that are going to go in the cube... here's my list of possibles so far.  Note these won't all make the cube, but they are possibles.

  • Aether Tradewinds
  • Arbor Elf
  • Beastial Menace
  • Bojuka Bog
  • Calcite Snapper
  • Cunning Sparkmage
  • Dread Statuary
  • Everflowing Chalice
  • Explore
  • Groundswell
  • Halimar Depths
  • Kor Firewalker
  • Khalni Garden
  • Leatherback Behemoth
  • Loam Lion
  • Mysteries of the Deep
  • Pilgrim's Eye
  • Sejiri Merfolk
  • Sejiri Steppe
  • Tideforce Elemental
  • Treasure Hunt
  • Urge to Feed

As far as this set is concerned, I echo the sentiments of many others in that this is a pretty blah set.  The truth is, most of the rares seem fairly unimpressive with Celestial Cannonade and Creeping Tar Pits being the exceptions.  Who knows, Lavaclaw Reaches looks like it good be very powerful in an aggressive strategy, if your tempo won't be hurt too bad by a CIPT land.

The only rares/mythics, I'm going out of my way for are Jace and Abyssal Persecutor.  I think the former is absolutely absurd and will be the chase card of the set.  I predict his value will only go up from here.  In fact, yours truly snagged a Chinese playset off eBay for quite a good price.  That and the foils for my cube will constitute the total of my purchases for Worldwake cards.  No boxes this time around, as I will pick up the commons and uncommons I need through drafting.

Speaking of the devil, draft is awesome, but I decided I'm going to save the walkthroughs for after Worldwake comes out, since Zendikar at this point is fairly old.  As far as how the format will shape up, it doesn't look like the format is going to slow down THAT much (maybe a little), but it still promises to be quite fun.

Back on the subject of Worldwake as a set, the bulk of the all stars in Worldwake are going to be the commons and uncommons, which isn't a bad thing, it just makes purchasing boxes a fairly poor prospect.

It's no secret among my friends that I don't like Standard very much since control is tough to play right now, especially at a random place like FNM where you can face everything in the book, many of those things your answer specific Grixis Control deck might not be able to handle.

Fortunately, blue gets some nice gifts from the newest set, including Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Halimar Depths, Treasure Hunt and Calcite Snapper (love the art on that guy by the way).  Combined with the synergy many of these cards have with the fetch lands, it appears control may get the boost it finally needs to really shine in this format.  I, for one, am quite excited and look to see what blue concoction is brewed up.

This weekend is quite exciting for me, as it is for many of you I am sure, since it is prerelease time.  I'll be at the Seattle prerelease on Saturday donning the judge hat.  In fact, I'll be taking my judge test this weekend, so wish me luck.  I'm for sure going to take some time boning up on my penalty guidelines, since I'm a little soft in that area.

The next day will see G Pelly playing in a store prerelease, so that will be my first crack at the new cards.  Then later that day, it's WWE's Royal Rumble.  Yeah, I'm a closet wrestling fan and the RR is the one pay per view I look forward to each year, in fact that and Wrestlemania are the only ones I bother watching.  As for the Rumble, there's something exciting about 30 men in the ring at the same time grappling and... yeah, it seems we're about out of time.  The fire's dying down and I'm too lazy to but another log on.
Join me next time as I embark on a weekend of release events at various stores.  Also, you should totally check out the stillhadthese.com stuff in the store.  I am 100%  rocking the trucker hat, maybe more if I save my alcohol money and stay sober for a couple weeks (not likely).