Alara Preview 2

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We have 3 more cards previewed today on Wizards.

First off, Jacob Van Lunen in his article 'Show Your True Colors' previewed Arcane Sanctum and Naya Panorama. I would like to think that this was in direct response to my great hesitation expressed in my previous post that this set would be unplayable unless properly supported by appropriate non-basic lands. I was very glad to read Jacob's comment "I can assure you that there are absolutely zero rare lands in the new set" . . . Thank-You Wizards !

Naya Panorama
Land, Common
Tap : Add 1 to your mana pool. 1, Tap, Sacrifice Naya Panorama : Search your library for a basic ountain, Forest, or Plains card and put it into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.


Some thoughts on Alara's tri-basic fetchlands - - I should think that I would have liked this card much better if it one would be able to fetch tri-coloured or even dual lands instead. I also do not really care for the casting cost of one in order to fetch a basic land card either. Personally, I thought the tribal and filter lands from Lorwyn / Morningtide / Shadowmoor are much better. In its defense however, I should think that a savvy player (certainly not a casual player like myself) would be able to employ these Alara fetchlands for some devious deck thinning strategy.


Arcane Sanctum
Land, Uncommon
Arcane Sanctum comes into play tapped. Tap : Add {W}, {U} or {B} to your mana pool


First off . . . Wicked looking land ! This art is fantastic. Secondly, I will need a deck set of Alara tri-coloured lands immediatley . . . I just have not yet decided on a Shard to settle down in yet. I am willing to get past the hang-up of having this card come into play tapped for the benefit of squeezing a three-colour rainbow out of it. I think however that players building an Alara aggro deck may not care for the tempo disruption from the tri-coloured Grixis or Jund lands.

Lastly, Mike Flores, let us have a look at Sprouting Thrinax in his article 'Echinacea, Incorporated'.


Sprouting Thrinax, {B}{R}{G}
Creature - Lizard, Uncommon
When Sprouting Thrinax is put into a graveyard from play, put three 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens into play.
3 / 3


I am a bit undecided on this card. First of all, it would be a sweet drop on turn three but getting that mana combination would be unlikely at best. Still, 3 mana for a 3/3 which includes 3 chump blockers is still not too bad. I can see that players are already contemplating an inclusion in a token deck as well as possible ways to abuse this card.