Dark Ascension: How the mythics stack up...

As of posting, there are 10 of 10 mythics spoiled for Dark Ascension.  I'm going to review these mythics and see which ones are over hyped and which ones have potential.

I'd imagine you will feel the same remorse
akin to pulling a Time Reversal when you pull
a Beguiler of Wills.

Beguiler of Wills
Current Price: $2.49
Future Price: $1.50-$2.50

Beguiler of Wills is what we call a bulk mythic, and shes really the worse kind.  She does nothing backbreaking in limited unlike most other bulk mythics, and she will not touch standard.  Sure, casual players and EDH players (well, aren't they really one in the same?) will eat this up, but to those of us that like to actually bust open packs and get some value when we pull a mythic, this one will disappoint.  Final Verdict: Bulk Mythic junk.

Drogskol Reaver

Current Price: $9.99

Future Price: $2-$4

I have no clue why this guy is hyped the way that he is.  He is like a Baneslayer mixed with a worse version of Consecrated Sphinx, for 7 mana and forces you into blue/white.  He seems weaker than a Titan, and when you want a Consecrated Sphinx effect, you'd be better off with the original.  You have to connect to get the cards, and Sphinx just gives them to you on your opponents upkeep.  Sure, you can unburial this, but you aren't speeding things up since this guy should only cost 6 mana at the most. Final Verdict: Some will try to use this at first, and shortly after he will be a thing of the past.  Nice bomb to pull at the prerelease, however.

Falkenrath Aristocrat

Current Price: $8.99

Future Price: $4-$10

Falkenrath Aristocrat is a solid card.  She does not pass the "Gut Shot" test, and depending on the popularity of that card, this card may not see the light of day.  This guy has a lot of potential, including some cool combat tricks, however, the fact that you have to sac humans to get real value is offputting.  You normally aren't going to run many humans in a red/black deck right now, so most of the time you'll just be getting a 4/1 hasted flyer for four.  Still not a bad deal, but not mythic quality.  Final Verdict: Outclassed in almost every way by Olivia.  I like this card, but I still don't see much upwards potential.

Havengul Lich
Current Price: $14.99
Future Price: $4-8

Full of flavor, but might be a little trickier
to pull off then we think.

This is a really cool one.  People are already coming up with combos for it, including the infinite loop with Heartless Summoning and Perilous Myr.  The important things to remember are: 1) You still have to pay the mana costs for the card you are rezzing.  For example, if you pay 1 mana, target Grave Titan, then you'll have to pay another 6 mana, and 2) You still can only cast the creatures as a sorcery.  One of the problems with this card is that it must compete with many other cards that actually do something when they hit the battlefield.  More than likely, you wont have the mana to put his ability to use the turn he hits, so you'll have to wait until the next turn.  Even then, his ability only really shines when you run out of cards in hand and stuff to do, since he will likely strap all of your mana down.  The combo idea is cute, but 3 card combos are not practical in this format since we have limited resources that will search for those pieces.  Final Verdict: Cute card, oozing with flavor.  Has hopes of standard play, but it has its drawbacks.

Huntmaster of the Fells/Ravager of the Fells

Current Price $17.49

Future Price $5-$12

Cards that transform are nice, but a good way to evaluate them is to just assume they never transform.  I mean, 90% of the time they'll either die or they just wont transform.  Let's see what we get at face value.  A 2/2 for 4 mana, and that mana is red and green so that might restrict what decks it can go in.  You get a 2/2 wolf, and you also gain 2 life.  Not bad.  I would expect more from a mythic though. 

Now on the flip side we get no more tokens, but we get a tougher creature in the form of a 4/4, plus we have a mini "Searing Blaze" effect to boot.  Final Verdict: All in all, he's pretty solid, but you usually want more bang for your buck, and this card combines a lack of value with a gamble aspect, and the big jackpot is rather disappointing, especially for a mythic dual color.

Moonveil Dragon

Current Price $2.49

Future Price $1.49

If this card were only rare, would it be a 4/4
for 7 mana?

DAMN BULK MYTHIC DRAGONS STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP ITSTOP IT STOP IT STOP IT  Final Verdict: STOP IT!!!!!!! </QQ

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Current Price: $59.99

Future Price: $20-$40

My first thought was, why white?  I thought back a bit, remembered his name the flavor text on the Zendikar edition of Day of Judgment, remembered the role he played in Rise of the Eldrazi, and the bond that he shared with Nissa.  I shrugged, and decided to just roll with it.  I'm pretty partial to Black/White as a color combo, so maybe I can swallow this a bit better than some of you others. 

But let's talk about the card itself.  I'm going to allude it to the likes of Elspeth, Knight Errant, a solid card in its time, and if Sorin stacks up, then we will have us quite the winner.  Like Elspeth, he costs 4 mana (albeit one of them is black) and starts with 3 loyalty.  While Elspeth had two +1 abilities, Sorin has only 1.  The first one is recognizable: it puts a 1/1 into play.  But Sorin actually goes one step further and gives it lifelink, a nice little bonus.  I'll just write that off as payment for the demand of two colors.  The next abilities of both walkers differ a bit, but they both play the same role: they enhance your creatures.  Elspeth had an additional +1 that gave a creature +3/+3 and flying, until the end of the turn.  Sorin does something really unique.  He puts a stackable emblem that gives a permanent attack bonus to all of your creatures.  Forever.  Emblems cannot be messed with whatsoever.  Now, I dont know if I would pay 4 mana for an effect like that, but I do know that having that option is greatly welcome with all of the 1/1 lifelinkers you'll have in play.  Now for the ultimates, I cant even compare.  Elspeth had a very expensive and usually non-impactive ultimate that I never used.  Sorin, on the other hand, has a game reversing, backbreaking ultimate that will usually spell game for your enemies.  My goal is to steal a Karn, Liberated with this move.  Final Verdict: Sorin no doubt stacks up to be the chase mythic of the set.  He will see play, but his home is undetermined at this point.  The power is there, but will the two enemy colors be an issue? 

Vorapede

Current Price: $7.49

Future Price: $2-4

Undying is a pretty cool ability.  It is like a better version of persist in my opinion.  Instead of a weaker version coming back from the dead this version is stronger than ever.  And they all combo with hex parasite, which steals the counters from them and keeps them alive virtually forever.  They already spoiled an uncommon 2/1 haste with undying for 2 mana.  Green.  So naturally I was excited to see what they cooked up for a mythic with undying.  Instead, we got this fail of a mythic.  I would be ok with this card being an uncommon.  And at rare, I could write it off as a bulk rare.  But no, we seem to have a need to make nearly every mythic for Dark Ascension a failure.  Oh well.  I really have nothing good to say about this.  I just wish that it said haste where it says vigilance.  Final Verdict: I just cant see this beating the 5 drop spots that we currently have, like Garruk, Primal Hunter or Acidic Slime.  I'm sure it will see play as a one of in BirthingPod.dec but that should be the end of it.

Helvault

Current Price: Around $5 on ebay.

Future Price: $2-4

Helvault.  Pretty cool name huh?  But, does it follow the cycle of being a crappy mythic in Dark Ascension?  In short - yes.  It feels akin to Oblivion Stone, in where you can store some of your creatures inside and then wipe the board (which oblivion stone did on its own, with this new card you will have to find a way to wipe the board on your own).  You can also take a other route with it, you can just use it to exile all of your foes creatures.  Over and over again.  The problem with this lies in the fact that it is an artifact.  Artifacts die.  Especially in this format, where we tend to run many maindeck solutions to artifacts.  Green has a plethora, like Bramblecrush, Acidic Slime, and Beast Within, all which can be easily found in maindecks.  Red might not be running Oxidda Scrapmelters and Manic Vandals main deck (which I have personally ran Manics main before) but after sideboard they have these options and so much more (Ancient Grudge, anyone?) I cant help but point out that you would almost always want a Karn, Liberated, or even a Spine of Ish Sah over this card if that is your intentions.

One thing I would like to mention is the wording on this card, which I can't help but think it is an error, but its the way it is, so lets find us some loopholes!  It does indeed state that if it is put into graveyard, then that is when all 'Hel' is unleashed.  But what if it was exiled?  Then, according to the wording, all of those things are pretty much gone forever, for good and bad.  For example, lets say you are putting 'fate counters' on your own creatures, sucking them into the vault.  Later, you'll intend to wipe the board, then somehow destroy the vault yourself and unleash your stored creatures onto the battlefield.  (Lame combo, btw peoples.) So, what if right after you wipe the board, your foe uses Oblivion Ring on Helvault?  Yup, that means all of your stuff is gone.  Forever.  If Oblivion Ring is destroyed later on and Helvault reenters the battlefield, it does not remember what it exiled, since it itself was exiled and now is essentially a fresh copy.  Now, on the flip side, you can use this knowledge to your advantage.  Say, you have exiled your opponents Wurmcoil Engine and Inferno Titan with Helvault.  Now, all they have to do to get their cards back into play and kill you is destroy the Helvault.  But what if you exiled it before they are able to destroy it?  For example, you could do this with your own Oblivion Ring or even -3 with Karn, Liberated.  That would basically exile them forever, according to the wording on this card.  Magical Christmas land aside, this is a difficult process to actually make all of this work and to me it seems like a waste of time.  I just wanted to point out how this card works and that the loopholes might actually be relevant at some point or another, and its important that we know how it actually works, even if we never plan on using it.  Final Verdict: This Oblivion Stone wanna-be does not stack up.  It's two ablities are controversial to each other, giving this card less options than it seems.  It's also easy for your opponent to control how it is used.  Aside from some fringe play in Tezz.dec, this card is going straight to the mythic dump bin.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

Current Price: $7.99

Future Price: $5-10

This guy is pretty nifty.  Lots of flavor and pretty good value.  Sadly, it costs 6, and therefore we must compare it to Grave Titan.  Card by card, Grave Titan is much stronger and almost all of the time, its the card you want.  That's not saying Mikaeus isn't good.  In fact, I think he is one of the better mythics in this set.  He will see value in many ways, from EDH (pick up foil versions of this card ASAP, they will bring a pretty penny) to block, to standard.  That's not to mention when and if Grave Titan doesn't see a reprint in M13, then this guy will be the premier black 6 drop.  I think Mikaeus will be very strong in a couple of niche decks to start with.  He seems amazing in Heartless summoning, where his lord boost counteracts the -1/-1 from Heartless.  Hitting him turn 4 seems good as well.  Very possible to see him in zombies as well, as a bunch of 3/3 undying zombies just seems frightening.  One more deck you might find him in is Black/White tokens, where you make a crap ton of weak tokens that are bulked up with the likes of Intangible Virtue and this guy.  Final Verdict: It's going to take some time and some work, but don't write Mikaeus off yet.  He just might surprise you.

That's all of the Mythics for this set, unless they surprise us and do 11 instead of 10.  If you guys want me to review the rares from this set, leave feedback!  If I write all of this and get nothing back in return, it seems pointless to stay on a schedule and get this content out to you if you can't do your part!