Bitter Turmoil - Dweller Cycle

Bitter Turmoil has many cycles of cards.  A cycle is a slang reference to a set of cards that have one or more things in common, and usually are 1 for each color.  An example of this in standard would be the Titan Cycle (Inferno, Primeval, Sun, Frost, and Grave).  All cost 6 mana, all are 6/6, all have a enter the battlefield or attacks triggered ablilty, and all have a static ablilty.  Bitter Turmoil has several cycles, including:

- A mythic Hero cycle
- A rare Legendary creature cycle
- An uncommon "Squire" cycle, which are assistants to the heros
- A common weak creature cycle, all which may be discarded for free for a minor effect
- A common dweller cycle, which I will reveal shortly
- And more!

The dweller cycle will be revealed today.  These are all creatures, all artifacts, with differring mana costs.  They have a tap ablilty and a mirrored "put into the graveyard from the battlefield" effect.  They all have more defense than attack.  They are designed to be fair/decent for constructed and great for drafts/sealed.  Check them out and let me know what you think!

Bitter Turmoil - Meet the Walkers!

Kept secret for far to long, the Planeswalkers from the custom set Bitter Turmoil emerge!  They come in all sorts of colors and sizes, and have some really powerful ablities!  There are 6 in total, and here we go:

Mimicking her distant cousin, Chandra, she pings for light damage before she obliterates your opponents boards with her fiery ultimate.  YOUCH!

Pricey, but worth it, Jinx is the best at one thing: Defense.  He will either place tokens to chump block (or trade!) with, or return your opponents biggest threat to their hand while netting you card advantage. His ultimate will clear the way and his elementals will quickly destroy your foe before they can resolve an answer.

Lork has emerged!  With all the new purple counterspells Lork finds a way to sneak your elves onto the battlefield.  Once they hit the board you can use Lork to untap your mana elves and produce extra mana!  Once you have a good setup, use Lork's modded version of Overrun (use your elves' tap ablilties first to take full advantage of it) to win the game.

Ranik seems to have picked up where Garruk left off, but not before adding his own demented twist on his ablities.  Sure, untapping land is great early on, but later in the game you can untap creatures and give them a nasty boost!  Weaken or remove the opposition easily with Ranik, before turning all of your creatures into withering powerhouses to finish the game.

The Dark Angel Sacir has arrived with his army of Angels, Demons, and Tainted Myr to smite everyone and everything else.  He will quickly turn the tables with his first attacks as each one devastates your enemies and benefits yourself.  And soon after, your opponents side of the board will completely disappear, along with their hope.

And for the last one:










































Nah, I think I'll hold off on that.

New Phyrexia Wrap up and New Bitter Turmoil Spoiler!

Hope you guys found my New Phyrexia blogs to be of some use during the prerelease.  Turns out this set is just as awesome in limited as it will be in standard.  Get ready for a whole new world of options!

Back to Bitter Turmoil, I'm wrapping up the set and will be starting the playtesting of it soon.  I'll send invites to some of you on facebook to test out the set soon. 

I plan to spoil a bit more of the set on here next week.  What color do you want to see the most?  Vote in the comment section and the winner gets 3 cards spoiled on the next blog of their chosen color!  The options are:

Red
Blue
Black
White
Green
Purple
Colorless

And heres your spoiler for the week:

New Phyrexia Hot Cards - Bonus: Uncommons and Commons

Mental Misstep - Huge in Legacy, minor in Standard.  Yes, I know theres nearly 100 cards in standard that this hits, but only a handful are run in most decks and even less are worth trading a card for. 

Value: $2.50-$6.50
Cap: $15+ (just depends on how many packs get cracked)

Tezzeret's Gambit - Great card for most aggro decks that run out of steam, plus the proliferate is a great bonus!  Love this card and hope to see it put to good use.

Value: $1~$2
Cap: $2.50

Deceiver Exarch - Notable for the Splinter Twin combo.  Not my kind of gimmick.  But will see play.

Value: $0.25-$1.50
Cap $2

Despise - My vote for best uncommon in NPH.  I think its better than Duress and Inquistion.  Will see play in MBC and splash decks as well.

Value $1-$2
Cap $2.50

Beast Within - Overrated.  Will see play in sideboards tho, and us non-green players need to be ready for it. 

Value $0.25-$1.50
Cap $2

Volt Charge - Great in a mid range Koth deck that helps out Kargan Dragonlord as well.  Great 2 of me thinks.

Value $0.25-0.50
Cap $0.75

With that I must prepare myself for the prerelease.  I hope these are most helpful to you and hope to see you all at the Gamers Haunt this afternoon!

New Phyrexia - Hot Cards, Part 2 of 2

Welcome to the second half of this article.  I'm gonna hit the rest of the rares, then I'll have an extra blog out on the uncommons and commons later.

The Chancellor cycle is a weak one at that, but at least it is interesting.  My favorite would have to be
Chancellor of the Annex.  If white got any type of "good" ramp, I'd consider trying this out.  I love the first ability, especially when I'm playing control, because I want to buy as many turns as possible.  But, overall, it doesnt beat titans, it doesnt have (much) protection, and its not better than Baneslayer, which costs 2 less mana.  But if a White control deck that focuses on the end game were to emerge, I would hands down play at least one.  In my opinion, the rest of the Chancellor cycle is pretty weak.  The black one is for multiplayer, the red one is very 'iffy'.  The green one 'could' be good if you got like all 4 in your opening hand but even still, thats a bad thing too.  Chancellor of the Spires is kinda sweet if a mill deck started up.  I like its body size as it can block most titans and live.  But unless mill comes back in a big way, I'd stay away.

Value: $ 0.50~$1.50 (all chancellors)
Cap: $2+ (if one somehow makes a break through)

Praetor's Grasp - A great card for many decks.  Lets start with MBC.  Whats the worst case?  I cast rampant growth for 3 mana?  But it gets better - I can steal wurmcoil engines?  Sweet!  Or I can exile your (name of a random black hoser)!  Or better yet, I hit a card thats actually in my color!  Now I love this card in that kind of deck.  But I think it really shines in U/B Mill.  Sadistic Sacrament is the only card we have had to deal with people sideboarding eldrazi in against mill, and the 3 black is rough to hit early on in a deck that needs to be mostly blue.  This is a great alternative (so long as they only use one) and might actually make mill viable.  In my opinion there are many different angles to use this card, and it always will range from "ok" to "game winning freaking awesome!"

Value: $2~$5
Cap: $7

Myr Superion - Hopefully we all know how to break this, and where it will show up in the meta.  If not, heres the top 3 - A Grand Architech arifact deck (turn 3), an elf deck (Joraga Treespeaker Turn 2) or a myr deck (Many ways, Semblance Anvil, Palladium Myr, 2 mana myr, a mana myr and a galvanizer, etc).  I think they all sounds gimmicky except in an elf deck.  It should be a 4 of, and be very easy to hit.  If that bumps elfs up a bit, then count on this card being a hot one.

Value - $2-$4
Cap - $8

Karn Liberated - The last big boy mythic I have the pleasure to review.  It's really hard to value this guy, but I'll give you my overall impression.  He is an improved Spine of Ish Sah, a card I use in standard (although usually in a Treasure mage toolbox), and not much else.  His +4 is crazy, but its either shooting blind targeting your opponent, or card disavantage targeting yourself.  His ultimate is a crapshoot; its either game over or just a simple restart.  So it seems tricky, and it is.  So overall I see this as a niche card that will be people trying to force it into standard.  Unless another card comes out that helps it come out sooner or some other kind of support, I see this heading to the causal corner and out of standard.

Value - $15-$25
Cap - $35

Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer - I've talked about this dude, and I've built a deck around him.  I have to say this when he hits, and when he sticks around, he is amazing.  Usually game over actually.  But since the rest of the deck tends to be artifacts, whenever he does hit, all of those Go for the Throats your opponent had been holding seem to start coming out of nowhere.  Maybe liquidmetal coating is in order for this kind of deck.  In any case, the deck that runs him will be a gambit, and will be gimmicky, but it just might be worth the risk.

Value - $2-$3
Cap - $5

Caged Sun
Hex Parasite
Lashwrithe
Birthing Pod
Slag Fiend

These are the rest of the non-bulk rare cards in set, and I think the price is probably right of them all, but I have little debate or interest on them.  Caged Sun for commander, Hex Parasite against Jaces, Lashwrithe is a debateable MBC card, Birthing Pod is a weird card that everyone seems to want to build around, and slag fiend might find a home but I do not care for the design, and that it cant be played until a condition is met.

Should have the uncommons and commons up soon!  thanks for reading!

New Phyrexia - Hot Cards, Part 1 of 2

DISCLAIMER:  I know everyones wanting to know about the newest magic set, New Phyrexia, and I've shared some of my opinions with you personally, but I'm gonna go over some of the Hot Cards of New Phyrexia for everyone to check out.  If you are questioning my creditability then consider that I've been in the business.  Magic is my Hobby.  It's my connection to my friends and a way to meet new ones.  And no one, not even Ben Bleiweiss himself, gets predictions right everytime.  My M11 predictions were a little off, but overall pretty accurate.  In any case, lets get to it.

First, lets get to the five Mythic Prateors.  I think they are pretty close to the value as is.  They will be used casually, and in Commander.  If one is to break through in Standard, it would be
Sheoldred, Whispering One.  Her effects are sweet, and the only real competitor she has would be Grave Titan.  Mono Black Control is going to be a real thing after NPH, and this card will be a 1~2 of, especially if Grave Titan rotates out.  If I were to put an overall value on her, I'd say she will be a $5 to $10, with a $15 cap if she breaks through.

Value: $5-$10
Cap: $15

Sword of War and Peace is next up.  I'll admit, I'm not a fan of its triggered ablities.  But that aside, how good is protection from red and white in our format?  I have no doubts that this card will be at least as good as Sword of Body and Mind, and I'd say it's likely equal in power to Sword of Feast and Famine.

Value: $15-$25
Cap: $30

Puresteel Paladin - Thats one of those Knight Exemplar's, aint it?  My take is it will be part of a equip/quest deck that will be on the same tier as infect or knights.  I love the card, but just dont see enough support to make this tier 2.  If the deck takes off, it will be due to the "Draw a card" part, which will ensure the deck doesnt run out of steam.

Value: $1.50-$3
Cap: $7

Phyrexian Obliterator - I dont want to review this card.  I know I'll eat my words if I do.  It will probably end up being the next Baneslayer Angel (great card, just not the right format for it) in the bargain bin.  But I love it!  I'll admit, 25 bucks is probably pegging it too high.  But it's pretty much a 5/5 unblockable for 4 mana.  And you just cant go wrong there.

Value: $12-25
Cap: $40

Surgical Extraction - Fanastic.  Yup, I'll Duress you turn one.  Ooh, nice Jace 2.0.  Think I'll nab it.  And while I'm at it, lets cast Surgical Extraction for 2 life on the same turn and exile the rest of them.  Nice Jace you got there buddy.  But theres tons of more applications for this card.  Vengevine, Bloodghast, anything in a Pyromancers graveyard.  Cast it after a Life's Finale (I'll get to that one), after a Mind Sludge, after a Doom Blade.  It's great, and gonna be a must have sideboard card in most decks, and a likely main decked card in monoblack.

Value: $7-15
Cap: $18

Life's Finale - I cant express how much I have missed you, Damnation.  It's been too long.  This card does it all, it clears the board, then rids your foes of the rest of their threats that they may have, save if they are hiding it in hand.  Yes, its cost is high, but 6 mana is when the titans hit, so whats the problem?

Value: $2-$4
Cap: $8

Here we go,
Batterskull time.

Ok, so its spoiled right, and worth $5 on Starcitygames.com - so Patrick Chaplin posts hows its so bonkers and within 24 hours it shoots up to $25 bucks.  Yes, I think the price is artifically inflated.  Yes, I think its a great card.  Ok, so its 5 mana for a 4/4 lifelink vigilance.  Thats awesome right there.  But wait, if it dies, I can give make my Gatekeeper here a 6/6 lifelink vigilance for 5 mana?  Sweet!  Oh, it gets better?  At the end of my opponents turn, if I'm out of creatures, I just tap 3 mana, untap for turn, then pay 5 again and get my creature back?  Does anyone remember Eternal Dragon?  It was 7 mana for a 5/5 flying, but it kept coming back!  A must have for control decks imo. 

Value: $10-$20
Cap: $25

Moltensteel Dragon - I'm going to die to this thing.  I just know it.  I'm too reliant on Go for the Throat.  Theres not much else to say, except it will show up in standard, but I'm not sure what combos with it outside of Assault Strobe and Treasure Mage.

Value: $2-$4
Cap: $6

That's all I have time for this morning, should have Part 2 up by early tomorrow.  Thanks for checking it out and I hope it helps at the prerelease tomorrow!  Speaking of which, if you dont have a place to play, check out the Gamers Haunt in Burnsville, they are holding a Prerelease starting at 2pm tomorrow! 

Any comments or debates about my article?  Post em below!