Nameshifted ~ An Introduction
Good afternoon ladies and gentleman, I'm Oliver Frith (but you can call me Ollie) and I'm here to welcome you to my first ever article for mtgtwincast.com. Intrigued by the CardsUNeed writer sponsorship contest, I've decided to give this whole article-writing gig a go... and if you're reading this on the internet now, looks like I've succeeded to a certain degree, and below you'll find the result.
For my first article I've decided to deal with a simple (well, simple enough until people flame me about my opinions on certain cards) topic: the 'Planeshifted' timeshifted sub-set that features in Planar Chaos. For those of you who appear to have been shifted out along with Jamuraa for the past month on so, you can find a quick refresher course on the subject of said timeshifts below.
(Those of you who already know what they are, feel free to skip the following few paragraphs, but you may miss sentences including such phrases as "crinkly foil womb", "infamous Squire", "ZOMFG, teh colorpi is ruinedxors", and another heading with a 'shift' reference... And we all know you wouldn't want that really.)
Shifting the Balance ~ A Recap
In Time Spiral, we received a 121-card subset of reprinted 'old-school' MTG cards, nicely done with the correct oracle wording but the old card face, and inserted one per booster, effectively creating a second super-rare card in each pack. (The odds of getting a specific timeshifted card from TS was 1 in 121, while the odds of getting a specific Time Spiral rare was only 1 in 88.)
The criteria for getting into the elite timeshifted club seemed to be wide and varied, allowing the newer generation to experience the joy of cracking such gems as Akroma, Angel of Wrath and Psionic Blast from crinkly foil wombs, alongside a fair portion of utter garbage in the form of Ghost Ship, the infamous Squire, and many others.
Fast forward a few months, to the middle of December, and rumours have begun circulating about new timeshifted cards being featured in Planar Chaos. These cards, people claimed, were older favourites carelessly shifted into new colours by the Magic design team, who appeared to be on holiday somewhere while MaRo was having Magic's equivalent of a mid-life crisis.
Cries of "ZOMFG, teh colorpi (and obviously by extension Magic) is ruinedxors" rang out through the dusty halls of nearly every magic-related forum and internet institution.
But then it happened.
1st January 2007 started out like any other New Years day. Wake up... Sit at home.... Sift through Christmas gifts yet to be examined... Eat the second large meat-based meal in as many weeks.... Go on the computer… Surf the net… And as I hit www.wizards.com/magic the New Year truly began.
As the site loaded, I arched an eyebrow in confusion. A large image of Wrath of God was obscuring the articles I had come online to read... But why? What was its purpose? Was it a test run for Gatherer? A preview for 10th? But as the image faded into darkness and a new card with a new black card frame and white text was revealed, I let out an audible gasp.
Damnation, its name read. And it was Wrath of God in the wrong colour.
And with an effect not unlike the card itself, the naysayers were silenced. Cries of "boring" and "won't touch standard" changed to threads filled with anticipation, all of them ready to see what other new timeshifts (dubbed Planeshifted cards by the Magic community) the release of Planar Chaos would bring.
And they weren't disappointed. Cards revamped with the new frames, new colours and white text included Pestilence in red, Ball Lightning in green, Blastoderm in white, and Humble in blue.
These new Planar Chaos timeshifted cards come in three rarities, that are parallel to the normal three rarities (common, uncommon and rare) but with greatly differing distribution.
Each Planar Chaos booster contains 3 timeshifted commons, and a fourth timeshifted card. Three times out of four, this extra card in a timeshifted uncommon; but in one out of every four packs a timeshifted rare can be found. As you can guess, the timeshifted rares are usually the most powerful and caught after of these bonus cards...
Well, it’s been several weeks now since the pre-releases, so the Planeshifted cards aren't as much of a shock anymore. The initial 'Wow' factor is slowly wearing off (although Damnation is still worthy of a gasp whenever your eye passes over it in a card binder) and it’s time to actually look past the never-before-seen lustre and sort the cream from the chaff.... And that's what I intend to do for the next few minutes of your life.
(Provided you stay and read on, that is).
Shiftwork - Looking at the White
Ah white, colour of the pure, the bold and the brave... What will the intricacies of another plane and another time hold for you?
Well actually, quite a bit. White has found itself in the possession of a nice set of Planeshifted cards, including gems such as Force Spike, Blastoderm and Drop of Honey, glistening among other less interesting pieces... including a colour-shifted Ghost Ship in the form of Malach of the Dawn. Well, at least it's better than Squire...
Calciderm (shifted from Blastoderm)
[Uncommon]
Calciderm offers a nice sized 5/5 untargetable body in white, something that is quite uncommon, but becomes a very rare occurrence when you couple it with the efficient cost of 2WW.
Vanishing means it'll only be sticking around for 4 turns, but that should be all the time a mid-range aggressive deck needs to destroy the opposition.
Limited - In limited, the Calciderm serves as a very aggressive attacker (and potential blocker) for a deck firmly in white, which can be very difficult for that player's opponents to get rid of.
Most common kill is targeted, and the only cards it'll have to regularly deal with that CAN kill it are Smallpox and possibly the occasional Damnation that wipes the field, but then again, no creature can escape their fate when that happens.
Constructed - In constructed, I feel that the Calciderm is borderline. It is already very difficult to optimise Boros Deck Wins, but a few Calciderm may serve as an interesting sideboard choice for the mirror match.
In slower white decks, Calciderm's vanishing means that it won't make too much of an impact, and GW already has a raft of choice beaters at four mana, although Calciderm's untaragability may tempt some players. I personally feel that someone, somewhere will find an optimal use for Calciderm... but it won't be in a current existing archetype.
Malach of the Dawn (shifted from Ghost Ship)
[Uncommon]
An average creature, the Malach provides a 2/4 flying body that can be regenerated for WWW, for the same cost as the aforementioned Calciderm, and I definitely know which I would rather pull in a pack.
Limited - In limited, the Malach can serve as an evasion body in a white deck, and its very likely that you'll be able to regenerate it late game if you're running a fair percentage of white cards. Having said this, was Ghost Ship ever a power card? Use it only if you having nothing better. It's not a bad card, but there are several better choices available for white in sealed (for example, the best common in Time Spiral for the purpose of sealed deck: Castle Raptors.)
Constructed - In constructed the Malach does.... absolutely nothing. And I mean nothing. It's a 2/4 with flight. So what? A Char doesn't care. Any black kill spell doesn't care. And having the chance to regenerate it means leaving three mana open. Not worth the commitment and having to suffer its vulnerability, despite its regenerating delusions of grandeur. So overall, not a good card for constructed, in my opinion.
Mana Tithe (shifted from Force Spike)
[Common]
What's this? A counterspell in white? The colour of mass removal, spot removal, and flyers? Uh-huh. And what's this? It's a decent counterspell? Uh-huh. And... Oh wait, there doesn't seem to be any room left in the deck for it...
Each time I've tried to add Mana Tithe to a deck, I've been met by the above scenario. On paper, it looks like a good card, especially in W / WUx control, but the current optimal builds of the deck just don't really have the slots open to fill with it.
Limited - In limited, people are more likely to hard-cast a spell by tapping out their entire mana base, and being able to counter your opponent's monstrous spell for just W is definitely a good thing. Having said that, it's pretty limited in its uses, and in most sealed decks I'd prefer to run straight removal.
Constructed - In constructed, I never seem to have the four slots open to slap this card into a deck. Counters in white are all well and good, but it seems a bit like a one-trick pony.
I just countered on of your hard cast spells! So what? I'll just play another copy of it next turn, with another land and 1 mana floating. Damn.
In my opinion, Mana Tithe is an average sideboard card to stop hard-cast threats from a fast aggro deck (but then again, Wrath of God is a much better solution) that will only see play in specialised control builds that need an early-game-counter replacement for Spell Snare when it rotates out.
Mesa Enchantress (shifted from Verduran Enchantress)
[Rare]
It is no coincidence that Mesa Enchantress shares part of her name with everyone's favourite Pegasus producing engine: A 0/2 for three, she draws you a card whenever you play an enchantment. Mesa Enchantress is very limited in her applications, but as WotC seem to be pushing enchantment decks (look at Three Dreams, and the Magemarks, alongside Retether for proof) she may yet shine.
Limited - Pants. Only worth looking at because she's a Timeshifted rare for personal collection purposes. If you're playing sealed, don't run her. If you're in the middle of draft, please don't pick her unless you need her to finish a set of Planar Chaos.
Constructed - In Constructed is where she get a little bit more interesting, allowing you to negate the card disadvantage of playing Auras to your creatures, but since Enduring Ideal left the environment oh-so long ago no truly successful, enchantment-heavy decks have been wheeled out into the public eye.
But for casual, you can guarantee that someone, somewhere will find a use for her in conjunction with Coldsnap's Zur the Enchanter, just for laughs.
Mycologist (shifted from Elvish Farmer)
[Uncommon]
It looks like a Thallid... Tastes like it too... BUT it's a breakfast cereal. Well, it's a Human Druid, and that's close enough for the purposes of my analogy.
Thallids are able to support each other well in enough in a themed build, thanks to all of their interactions with the Fungus creature type... But unfortunately, this is key element Mycologist lacks. Couple it with having being shifted out of the right colour for support, and you're staring down the barrel of a delicious toilet-paper substitute.
Limited - Run Mycologist only if you're desperate for an early game creature that can provide some late game chump blockers. Its lack of power is a major strike against it, and its inability to even block-and-survive most of the time (as opposed to the other white Saproling-producer in the set, Pallid Thallid) is the final nail in the coffin.
Constructed - As I've said, if you're going to have some fun with Thallidic effects (Is Thallidic a real word? If it's not, I'm hereby coining it as mine!) then you're not going to want to splash a third (or maybe even fourth, if you're running Black for Deathspore Thallid and Blue for Paradox Haze) colour, and on that note, Mycologist quickly drops out the running, gasping for air.
Porphyry Nodes (shifted from Drop of Honey)
[Rare]
So, what does Porphyry Nodes have going for it? (Other than the ability to be insanely difficult to type quickly). Well, looking at it, quite a damn lot. On each of your turns, it turns the smallest creature on the field into a small pile of mush that's quickly sent to its owner's graveyard.
And it keeps on doing this until there are no creatures left to kill... Intriguing... So, what impact does this nicely-illustrated kill spell have, with its colour-shift to white?
Limited - Bomb. Simple as that. Seriously, being able to kill the smallest creature in play every turn for W is a great advantage, especially if you have a large creature on the table. Sure, it'll eventually get to that fatty, but only in one of two situations: your opponent plays a larger creature or your opponent doesn't play anything while letting the Nodes eat through your field.
In the former situation, the Nodes will simply take out said larger creature in a few turns, and probably themselves as well. This will leave you free to play and swing with the rest of the creatures you've saved in your hand.
In the latter situation, simply take the hits the Node deals to you and swing unopposed with your diminishing army, due to a lack of potential blockers. Even in constructed, I'd be more than willing to sac a creature each turn to deal all of my damage to the head.
Constructed - A very nice card in a colour that already has an impressive creature control suite, the Nodes can act as a slow-acting board wipe for W that can seriously screw with your opponent's tempo. A possible sideboard, or even maindeck, choice for more controlling white builds such as MartyrTron or Snow White, and it's single coloured mana casting cost means it can be easily splashed by W/x/x varients.
Revered Dead (Shifted from Unworthy Dead)
[Common]
A nice simple creature this time, as opposed to the mammoth wordiness of Porpoisery Nodes, or whatever they're called. Revered Dead is a 1/1 for 1W that can regenerate for a single white mana, which is a lot less of a mana investment than Malach of the Dawn's hefty regen requirement...
Limited - Revered Dead won't win many games, but it'll serve you well enough as a chump blocker against non-evasive, non-tramplers... At best it can slow down your opponent's momentum early game. To be perfectly honest, white is the colour of efficient weenies, and Benalish Cavalry, Knight of the Holy Nimbus and Amrou Seekers all deserve much more praise than this guy, as they can actually dish out the damage, rather than tie up one of your mana blocking the same creature turn after turn.
If you want to run a nice regenerating creature, find green, and crack a Mire Boa or two. Trust me, they're even easier to find in sealed and they're far superior.
Constructed - This guy doesn't stand a chance in constructed. Since when did a 1/1 without a decent effect tacked on do anything in a format as varied and deep as the current t2?
Sinew Sliver (Shifted from Muscle Sliver)
[Common]
In the wake of Time Spiral's recent influx of sliver-flavoured fun, comes a welcome reprint of tempest's Muscle Sliver. (For those of you who are interested, 'sliver-flavoured' is a similar taste to the beef you find with mixed vegetables as part of a Chinese takeaway.)
This nasty beastie is 1/1 for 1W, and gives a global pump of +1/+1 to all Slivers, automatically making it far superior to Glory Seeker.
Limited - Great card in limited. Grizzly sized to begin with, if your deck is heavy in slivers it turns them into even more focused killing machines, and don't forget that the Sinew Sliver benefits from their effects in turn.
Constructed - Although slivers have received tons of support so far in the Time Spiral block, they still don't look all that competitive for non-casual t2. Still, I'm sure it's a difficult balancing act for Wizards to get the sliver's power just right, or they risk finally making the slivers a little too powerful for their own good... but I doubt that'll happen any time soon, especially with decks able to run an effective eight copies of WoG in the same format.
Sunlance (Shifted from Strafe)
[Common]
Sunlance is a nifty little damage spell, colourshifted directly from its red ancestor Strafe with only a minor change of criteria, which deals 3 damage to target nonwhite creature. This card is a lot more interesting than most people will realise at first glance, as it one of the only out-of-combat spot removal cards available in white's t2 arsenal: For the bargain cost of W it can ping away most opposing creatures with toughness 3 or less.
Limited - Very good card in limited, where the only creatures it won't be able to remove are the late game fatties and bombs. Use it to clear out potential blockers, pesky flyers, creatures with shadow or creatures that keep using their tap abilities (Prodigal Pyromancer and Icatian Crier spring to mind from the Planar Chaos pre-release) to irritate and annoy.
Constructed - I'm unsure as to what effect, if any, Sunlance will have on standard. I believe it is unlikely that the fast decks utilising both red and white will want to run it, as they prefer their burn to have the ability to target their opponent's dome when no choice morsels are available; but I think there is a chance that some aggressive GW build will adopt Sunlance as a way of clearing out smaller blockers that can stop an aggressive deck winning fast before the victim can build up enough momentum to smash back.
In conclusion, I believe white has gained a fair bit from the new timeshifed cards; including some solid removal in the form of Sunlance and Porphyry Nodes, a possibly interesting counter in the form of Mana Tithe, and a large beater in the form of Calciderm, with the rest of the timeshifted cards acting as either intriguing jank for the johnnies out there, who sit ready to try and break them; or as filler material that you will make you curse every time you slip one out of a booster.
End of the Shift ~ Making My Exit... For Now
Scrolling up to look at the block of text above, I do believe that it is time to call it an evening and sign off for the night. But wait… Where’s the rest of the article? I am just going to leave you hanging after describing just the white cards?
And the answer to the question on everyone’s lips is… NO!
Tune in to the next instalment of Shifting into High Gear, when I'll be giving the blue and black timeshifts a thorough going over; examining the hype surrounding Damnation; and of course, spewing out some more shift puns (let me know on the forums if you ever get tired of them),
Hoping all of your Planar Chaos packs contain foil Extirpates,
~ Ollie Frith
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