Waiting for Godot: The Worldwake Metaquake

Hey folks, welcome back! I was initially thinking of using this article to review as many single cards from Worldwake as I could manage, but I’ve changed my mind. You can hear my opinion of every common and uncommon in Worldwake by listening to Limited Resources numbers 17, 18, and 19, so I’m going to use this column to get a view of Zendikar-Worldwake Limited from a bit higher up, but still purely from a common and uncommon perspective.

Last week, I wrote about the concept of small-set analogs: cards that serve a similar function as a card in the large set at the “same” rarity. (Last week’s article will also explain why that word needs quotes.) I also wrote that close analogs are the first thing I look for in a new small set. They are fairly easy to spot and process once you know to be looking for them and have a true understanding of card rarity. Accordingly, I’m going to leave those to you this week.  After all, once you see Groundswell for the first time, you shouldn’t need a Magic writer to tell you to start factoring it in as a possibility where before your read would have been (Primal Bellow) or (Vines of Vastwood).

This week, I’ll take a look at each color for the second thing I look for when assessing a new small set: its key gains, key losses, and game-changers. The key gains and losses are places where the availability or power level of cards in a given aspect of gameplay—e.g., removal, tricks, flyers, beaters, defenders, fatties, weenies, fixing—has shifted dramatically. Game-changers are individual cards that are so powerful, different, or both, that they have a dramatic impact on the environment all on their own.

Collectively, these are the areas that will require the biggest mental overhaul as we adjust to the impending pack-three curve ball. Let’s take it color by color.

White

Biggest Gains: Aggressive Allies

Biggest Losses: Aggressive non-allies and removal

Game-Changers: Ruin Ghost

The addition of Hada Freeblade and Join the Ranks are going to change the ally game dramatically in post-Worldwake limited. The implications of instant-speed, double ally trigger are staggering, as is a one-drop “warrior” ally in the same color. You want a turn-four concession? How about turn-one Hada Freeblade, turn-two (Kazandu Blademaster), turn-three (Umara Raptor), turn-four Join the Ranks? That sequence—two commons and two uncommons—does 22 damage unopposed. I had to take my shoes and socks off to figure out that one!

As excited as I am about the prospect of base-white ally decks in ZZW, I have some concerns for white outside that archetype. There are no real analogs in the set for (Steppe Lynx), (Kor Hookmaster), and (Windborne Charge), and while there are two serviceable common 2/2 flyers in Apex Hawks and Fledgling Griffin (ok, flyer-esque), neither approach the sensational (Kor Skyfisher), whose 3 toughness and “drawback” of reusing enters-the-battlefield permanents will be sorely missed from the third pack. 

On the removal front, the news is even worse. While Refraction Trap is a nice upgrade to (Pitfall Trap), we are losing a pack of (Journey to Nowhere) and replacing it with a pack of Iona’s Judgment. Iona’s Judgment exiles a creature or enchantment for (mana=4)(mana=w) at sorcery speed, and while more flexible and irreversible than (Journey to Nowhere), at three mana more, Iona simply charges too much for her judicial services. Also, (Journey to Nowhere) has the fantastic interaction with bounce spells where you return the journey with the “exile” effect on the stack, permanently exiling the target and effectively upgrading your bounce spell into a (Journey to Nowhere).

Meanwhile, white’s big game-changer is Ruin Ghost. In Zendikar, only (Living Tsunami) and (Frontier Guide) said, “Yes, you get a landfall trigger each turn for the rest of the game as long as I’m around.” Living Tsunami asks for the high price of never being able to increase your land count again without some means beyond your Garfield-given right to play a land once per turn. Frontier Guide requires four mana for the trick, doesn’t do anything relevant on offense, and can’t pull off any fun shenanigans with “enters the battlefield” lands like the tsunami can. It does, however, enable fairly consistent double landfall and instant-speed landfall in a way that the tsunami does not.

Ruin Ghost, meanwhile, is like this amazing hybrid of the guide and the tsunami, taking some of the best features of each. It’s about as relevant on offense as the guide, but also like the guide, it doesn’t ask you to stop developing your mana in exchange for permanent landfall, and it enables double landfall and instant-speed landfall. Like the tsunami, Ruin Ghost can pull of recursive “landspell” shenanigans as it triggers landfall each turn, and also like the tsunami, it does its trick for free.

Wait, for free? Yes. While it costs (mana=w) to activate, if you tap a Plains for (mana=w), then target that tapped Plains with the Ruin Ghost ability, the Plains will blink back into play untapped. Besides interacting with every landfall card in the block and every “enters the battlefield” land in the format, it also does subtle things like filtering mana for (mana=w). Need to get out a (mana=g)(mana=g) spell with a Forest and a Plains? Tap both for mana, blink out the Forest, and tap it for the second green when it comes back. How about two life a turn from (Kabira Crossroads)? How about threatening to blink your Sejiri Steppe into play and grant a creature protection from the color of your choice in response to removal spells? Ruin Ghost is quite the card for this format.

While white has suffered a significant blow with downgraded or missing analogs for (Journey to Nowhere), (Kor Hookmaster), (Steppe Lynx), (Kor Skyfisher) and (Windborne Charge), the addition of some excellent ally cards and the Ruin Ghost still leave me with hope for the color, especially for a paired with blue, whose (Windrider Eel)s and (Umara Raptor)s will benefit nicely from Worldwake’s new white cards.

Blue

Biggest Gains: Card drawing

Biggest losses: Flyers

Game-Changers: Tideforce Elemental, Halimar Excavator, Vapor Snare

Blue has finally picked up a couple of real card-drawing spells at common. Treasure Hunt has been one of the most talked-about cards in the set since it was spoiled, and for good reason. It has fascinating applications in Constructed, and Johnnies and Spikes around the world have been proposing ways to abuse it since it hit the official spoiler last week. In limited, it is mostly just a two-mana spell that replaces itself with, on average, one spell and seven tenths of a land. Given that blue mages have been working with the terrible (Ior Ruin Expedition), I’ll take it happily. Treasure Hunt also combos nicely with the new blue “landspell” Halimar Depths, which allows you to reorder the top three cards of your library when it enters the battlefield. “Spell, land, land” seems like a good order to put them back on top of your library with a Treasure Hunt in hand.

The other common card drawer is Mysteries of the Deep. Instant-speed, net-positive card drawing is a rare thing in Magic these days, but five mana for two cards is hardly an exciting deal, and to get a third card out of it right before you untap, you’ll need instant-speed landfall. In Constructed, fetchlands make this quite doable, but in Limited, your options are, well, you know. Personally, I’ll be happy to get three cards for five mana at sorcery speed, and if I have the Ruin Ghost to go instant on it, fantastic. I just want to never have to play (Ior Ruin Expedition) ever again. Just remember that there are many non-permanent landfall cards like this one in Worldwake, and if you have them in your deck, it is imperative that you hold a land in hand to take maximum advantage of them when you topdeck them.

Blue’s biggest loss comes in the lower density of good flyers. Zendikar has four common flyers I’m happy to play in (Welkin Tern), (Umara Raptor), (Windrider Eel) and (Sky Ruin Drake), plus the excellent (Living Tsunami) at uncommon. Worldwake offers only the Wind Zendikon at common, and a couple of three-powered flyers in Horizon Drake and Voyager Drake at uncommon. While I like all three of these flyers, it’s a significant drop in quality flyer density, which has been the best reason to play blue in triple Zendikar.

The good news is, blue has several game-changers worth mentioning. The Halimar Excavator, discussed last week, makes a viable white-blue ally mill strategy, where before you only had (Hedron Crab) for an occasional lucky mill win that I never recommended running without multiples and maybe an (Archive Trap).  Vapor Snare is a (Mind Control) with the (Living Tsunami) clause, giving blue a two-for-one creature stealer and guaranteed landfall. I expect to be first-picking Vapor Snare in pack three a lot in the months to come.

Tideforce Elemental is a game-changer along the lines of Ruin Ghost (and in fact together they are quite the brainsplitting duo). If Tideforce Elemental were just a simple tapper, it would still have had a noticeable impact on Zendikar limited. The landfall ability combined with the power to untap creatures as well puts it into the game-changer category. The possible interactions are daunting even to consider. Board states involving Tideforce Elemental will be among the most challenging, skill-testing scenarios you will face in ZZW.

I’m concerned about the impact cuts to blue’s Air Force budget will have on its viability in WWZ, but I’m also excited to draw some cards in blue again, and to test drive Vapor Snare and Tideforce Elemental. Maybe I’ll even start drafting (Hedron Crab)s…

Red

Biggest Gains: Artifact hate

Biggest losses: Cheap beaters, burn

Game-Changer: Cunning Sparkmage

Wow, red has taken a big hit in Worldwake. I really had to stretch to find a true gain, but it effectively comes down to one card, the Tuktuk Scrapper. It is nice that red has a good artifact hater in a set with so much quality equipment, but past the game-changer I’ll get to below, that’s about the only nice thing I can say about what has happened to red, easily my most drafted color in Zendikar.

Red’s strengths in Zendikar are a high density of cheap, aggressive creatures, and a high density of playable-to-great burn spells. Outside of the allies-only Akoum Battlesinger, however, Slavering Nulls is the only two-mana creature Worldwake has for red at common or uncommon, and it’s a creature that, without swamps, is a (Goblin Piker). At uncommon. This is a devastating development for aggro red archetypes.

The only worse development is the sorry state of burn in Worldwake. Yes, Searing Blaze it teh new hotness (pun intended), but that’s where it ends. There is literally not another burn spell at common or uncommon in the set (the horrible Rumbling Aftershocks does not qualify). This is coming off Zendikar, which has (Burst Lightning), (Inferno Trap), (Punishing Fire), (Spire Barrage), (Magma Rift), and even creatures like (Torch Slinger) and (Murasa Pyromancer) throwing burn around. Searing Blaze is great, but it cannot be an analog for seven Zendikar spells.

Do you know why Wizards made the quality of red commons and uncommons so poor in Worldwake? Because they made its game-changer so good. I honestly think the Magic Development team felt it would be too imbalanced to give red both analogs to Zendikar’s burn and cheap beats and give it Cunning Sparkmage. This is the same principle by which black was so awful in Shadowmoor Limited: it had (Incremental Blight). Cunning Sparkmage is Worldwake’s Incremental Blight: the uncommon with such blowout potential that the rest of the color had to be nerfed in order for it to exist. The list of common and uncommon creatures that die to Cunning Sparkmage in Zendikar is extremely long—see the pile to the right for just some of the commons from Zendikar that die to an active sparkmage. The full list of creatures at common and uncommon from both sets is much longer. So much so, I didn’t think we would see a pinger in Worldwake. Yet, here he is. With haste, no less, so that you can take out at least one creature with him before your opponent can kill him, or drop him after combat to finish off that blocker clinging to its last point of toughness. 

One-toughness creatures of Zendikar block, you are all on notice! There is a new sheriff in town, and he’s carrying quite a load, because the rest of the red in Worldwake represents a dramatic downgrade from the powerful red of Zendikar.

Black

Biggest Gains: Targeted removal

Biggest Losses: (Vampire Nighthawk), (Marsh Casualties)

Game-Changer: Caustic Crawler (sort of)

Black is funny, it feels like it’s changing to stay the same. It’s losing quite a bit, starting first and foremost with a pack’s worth of the uncommon powerhouses (Vampire Nighthawk) and (Marsh Casualties). It is also losing a pack’s worth of (Crypt Ripper)s for heavy black, and (Giant Scorpion)s and (Heartstabber Mosquito)s for the more controlling black builds. It is gaining a very nice zendikon in Corrupted Zendikon, turning a land into a simple 3/3 for (mana=1)(mana=b) (see last week for a discussion of the inherent drawbacks of zendikons). It will do its best to fill the shoes of (Crypt Ripper) and (Nimana Sell-Sword).

The common targeted removal is getting worse overall. While Tomb Hex is a fantastic, splashable (Disfigure)/(Hideous End) hybrid analog, Brink of Disaster and Dead Reckoning are big steps down, leaving Tomb Hex to carry the common analog load. However, the new uncommon targeted removal is excellent, with (Smother) reprinted, Urge to Feed as a black-intensive (Last Gasp) with major vampire benefits, and Nemesis Trap as a great late-game removal spell against non-white (perhaps this is the analog to (Heartstabber Mosquito) in the end), and a sick blowout spell at any time against white.

Caustic Crawler is not going to be quite the format-warper that Cunning Sparkmage will be, but we will certainly feel its similar impact. It kills most of the same creatures as Cunning Sparkmage (it’s worse against allies because it will have a hard time pinging them with the initial +1/+1 on the stack), but the sparkmage costs three and has haste, while the crawler costs five and only has “haste” if you have a land to play that turn. In fact, he only pings if you have a land to play at all (and is disgusting with (Harrow) mid-combat). You will have the land often enough to make him a powerful card in the format, but not with enough reliability to be at Cunning Sparkmage levels. And thank goodness for that, black is plenty powerful as it is.

Basically, I see black shifting its strengths around a bit, but becoming slightly weaker and less flexible in the process. By starting with (Vampire Nighthawk) and (Marsh Casualties) at uncommon, it had nowhere to go but down, really, but I think black will remain the best color in the format because of the excellent new uncommon removal spells.

Green

Biggest Gains: Allies and acceleration

Biggest Losses: Racing tools and landfall

Game-Changers: Bestial Menace

(Oran-Rief Survivalist) is a fantastic ally, but (Joraga Bard) and (Tajuru Archer) are a bit lacking. Green makes some significant gains in overall ally quality in Worldwake, with the uncommon Vastwood Animist turning spare lands into practically free beef, and the common Graypelt Hunter stepping in as a “warrior” (Wild Elephant) ally that leaves (Joraga Bard) looking even worse than before for four mana. I’m very excited by the prospect of base white-green ally decks in ZZW because of the gains both colors have made in that department with Worldwake, and because of green’s ability to enable ally splashes from additional colors.

In the loss department, green has no landfall beyond the serviceable-but-boring Snapping Creeper. After abusing (Grazing Gladehart), (Baloth Woodcrasher), (Turntimber Basilisk), and (Territorial Baloth) with (Harrow), it will be a shock to have no such tricks in green Worldwake. This is particularly true of the gladehart, which along with (Nissa's Chosen) have been vital to green’s limited ability to compete with the aggressive decks of Zendikar. We’ll see if gaining a (Llanowar Elves) analog in Arbor Elf can accelerate green enough to make up for losing the gladehart and the chosen. I’m also concerned about the dent to monogreen strategies coming with the loss of (Timbermaw Larva) and (Primal Bellow) but Leatherback Baloth will make a nice addition to that archetype, so perhaps it will be a wash.

The biggest game-changer I see in green is the “cone of dudes,” Bestial Menace. Putting six power across three creatures for only five mana and a single card will be a blowout on turn five for a green deck that powered out men on turns one through four and has tricks for the attack on turn six.

Lands & Artifacts

Biggest Gains: Landspells

Biggest Losses: Equipment

Game-Changers: Quicksand (at common!)

There is a new cycle of common “landspells” that enter the battlefield tapped in exchange for a cantrip-level effect, and they will be a solid addition to most decks on color. Khalni Garden puts an 0/1 plant token into play, which will frequently feel like a (Kabira Crossroads) lifegain effect when it chumps an attacker, although the plant can strap on some equipment and swing. The blue land, Halimar Depths, allows you to reorder your top three, which is a nice turn-one draw-smoother, and is great, as mentioned, with Treasure Hunt. Bojuka Bog is unplayable, Smoldering Spires feels like a playable downgrade from (Teetering Peaks), while Sejiri Steppe is like a much more flexible version of Smoldering Spires, and can be abused with Ruin Ghost. I also like Pilgrim's Eye quite a bit as a colorless, flying (Borderland Ranger): much better than (Expedition Map) (unless you are trying to search up (Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle)).

Equipment has fallen off a bit in Worldwake. Zendikar’s (Trusty Machete) is one of the cards you want to open in Zendikar draft, and while Hammer of Ruin tries to fill the void, the extra cost preventing it from being a turn-one play and the lack of a toughness boost make it a big step down. The equipment destruction is going to be randomly good sometimes, but not reliably enough to put it in the machete’s league.

The one-mana cost issue is the important point in all the equipment downgrades in Worldwake. The playable Zendikar equipment, (Trusty Machete), (Adventuring Gear), and (Explorer's Scope) (in that order) all cost (mana=1) to cast. In Limited, where worthwhile turn-one action can be hard to come by, this is part of what makes them playable. No common or uncommon equipment in Worldwake has that cost, and that is a major setback for all of them, as is the lack of a (mana=1) equip cost on any of them. And Razor Boomerang is just embarrassing.

The game-changer is the reprinting of (Quicksand) at common, something I thought had to be a mistake in the spoilers. The wide availability of land-based removal for two-toughness ground attackers in any color will dramatically change Zendikar Limited. (Bladetusk Boar), (Surrakar Marauder), (Turntimber Basilisk), most vampires, and many other format-defining ground pounders are about to sink into the sand. Granted, you aren’t going to want to crack a quicksand on turn two, but with a couple of these in your deck, you won’t live in fear of death-by-intimidate like I do in triple Zendikar, staring at two (Guul Draz Vampire)s or a (Bladetusk Boar) on 12 life running a non-red, non-black deck.

The impact of Quicksand at common will be so profound, I’m really not sure if it will feel like an R&D mistake, or exactly what I was asking for: a card to bring aggro red/black strategies down to earth (literally in this case).

Prerelease Ho!

I’m not sure if this article will reach you all before the prerelease. If it does, have a great time there, and if it doesn’t, I hope you had a great time. Oliver is raring to play! He has jumped onto the parental bed at 7:00 AM every day this past week and asked, “Are you ready for the big tournament on Saturday, Dad?” “You bet I am, Ollie!”

Best alarm clock ever!

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