MBS Previews 1-18

~
Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

We are trucking along the Magic the Gathering spoiler highway now picking up stray Mirrodin Besieged previews. Some of the new cards will make players smile as it will most certainly pimp the new meta-game, others however will get booted to the curb.

You know we love the casual standard game at our kitchen table within reach of our refrigerated beverage appliance, some of today's cards will not likely see that table at all but perhaps we wouldn't mind them in a sealed pool at our local game store - you help us decide.

Today we'll cover off only the new rare Mirrodin Besieged previews and hope to catch up latter to look at some of the very cool commons and uncommons.

Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, 2
Planeswalker - Tezzeret , Mythic Rare
+1: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal an artifact card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
-1: Target artifact becomes a 5/5 artifact creature.
-4: Target player loses X life and you gain X life, where X is twice the number of artifacts you control.
3

This fella was found lurking on the Mirrodin MiniSite. The bomb here is written on the second line - yep - the new Tezz makes those silly artifact chump blockers into respectable 5/5 munsters - and this is a permanent effect - no 'until end of turn' cr@p here. First ability rocks and let you pull some awesome out and the third ability is rather dependent upon you board position. Expect players at your FNM to start showing up with blue-black artifact builds.

Phyrexian Rebirth, 4
Sorcery, Rare
Destroy all creatures, then put an X/X colorless Horror artifact creature token onto the battlefield, where X is the number of creatures destroyed this way.

Talk about a serious board reset. This card takes Day of Judgement and buckles it into the kiddie seat in the back of the car while Rebirth does a Formula 1 commute to the factory where they bottle kick-butt. We don't care that horror critters are not showing up in white but we do have a concern about the mana cost here - perhaps there will be a home in a ramp deck.

Victory's Herald, 3
Creature-Angel, Rare
Flying
Whenever Victory's Herald attacks, attacking creatures gain first strike and lifelink until end of turn.
4/4

In today's standard environment, this Angel is underwhelming. Mirran players will not benefit with lifegain against an infect deck barring any Felidar Sovereign plays. If you really do like this card and want a foil of it, look no further than the Mirrodin Besieged 'Battle Cries' Intro Pack.

Consecrated Sphinx, 4
Creature - Sphinx, Mythic Rare
Flying
Whenever an opponent draws a card, you may draw two cards.
4/6

This may not find many friends outside of EDH or Commander (whatever they are calling it now). Anywhoos we can't hear the Sphinx right now over how awesome the last two cards were. Anywhoos - failing other synergistic cards, this may not find a firm home in the standard environment even with the very excellent 'may' draw card ability.

Phyrexian Hydra, 3
Creature - Hydra, Rare
Infect (This creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)
If damage would be dealt to Phyrexian Hydra, prevent that damage. Put a -1/-1 counter on Phyrexian Hydra for each 1 damage prevented this way.
7/7

This monster needs to be played in a game where trample is king. Overwhelming Stampede or Garruk's third abilitiy would be just fine. never complain about a 7/7 for 5 mana especially when it has two great abilities. We're already thinking about an unblockable distortion strike to make this epic but we're sure you guys may have a better idea for the Hydra here.

Myr Welder, 3
Artifact Creature - Myr, Rare
Imprint - {T}: Exile target artifact card from a graveyard.
Myr Welder has all activated abilities of all cards exiled with it.
1/4

This is indeed a very interesting card. It sounds cool - just like a Moped but we're not certain how good it will be on the game table. This is only as good as whatever may be in your or an opponent's graveyard. Johnnys everywhere are currently developing strategies to break this in half - expect crazy results like infinite mana with Palladium Myr or massive mills with Grindclock, blow up the board with Lux Cannon, etc. Tell us your evil development for this Myr.

Phyrexian Revoker, 2
Artifact Creature - Horror, Rare
As Phyrexian Revoker enters the battlefield, name a nonland card.
Activated abilities of sources with the chosen name can't be activated.
2/1

If you like Pithing Needle, you will definitely love this card. Plan to use this against your opponent's Planeswalkers (hello Jace TMS), or other random nastiness which can hurt your game. As Trinket Mage will NOT pull him out, you may want to float him out of your deck with the new Tezz and give him a better body next turn.
~

Finally, don't forget to plan your purchases - we suggest you always support your local store (so ya have a place to go when you're skipping class) but if there isn't one in you neck of the woods, get a good on-line retailer whom you can put in your Mirrodin Besieged pre-orders.
~