Review: Red in Magic 2013

I'm really excited for this post. I personally identify with Red the most (being Red/Blue) and it's also been one of my favorite colors to play in the past.





I had no idea that Arms Dealer was a reprint. A large part of this is because I didn't buy a whole lot of Mercadian Masques because there weren't a whole lot of worthwhile cards in it. Equally important is the fact that the new art is orders of magnitude better than anything in Masques. Take a look at the original art:

There's nothing interesting about it. It looks like a skinny, green person with pointy ears and... I guess those are bombs? They look like vegetables to me. Now look at the new art:

That is clearly nonhuman, an indication of the shift in art design somewhere around Kamigawa where the nonhuman races started being pushed as less human. I love this new default design for goblins, with their giant heads and stubby limbs. And the overall flavor of this version is much better. You can clearly see what weapons he's selling, which are fairly normal - further emphasizing the goblin trend of accidentally killing themselves while fighting enemies. Love the flavor here. Not much to say about the design - it works.

On the subject of Goblins, Goblin Battle Jester. What is going on with this card? Normally I wouldn't approve of seemingly random flavor, but here it works. The primary reason for this is the established flavor of goblins doing things in seemingly nonsensical ways that shouldn't work. Of course, I think I would avoid this Goblin in battle - he reminds me of the Joker.

So, Krenko, Mob Boss. I'm predisposed to like him more than the rest of the legends simply because I love goblin decks. However, I'll try to set that aside and look at how well designed he is. Thankfully, he's wonderful. His ability perfectly fits the traditional goblin tactic of having as many goblins as possible, and combos nicely with his signature spell, Krenko's Command, by virtue of the fact that having more goblins means getting more. His flavor is also a homerun, with his flavor text giving a lot of insight into his personality and the state of Ravnica - someone independent of the guilds that Azorius can't do much about? That's very telling. Five stars for Krenko.

I feel like there's a lot more dragons in this set than normal. There are certainly more as-fan, which means you're more likely to pull one than average. Oddly, it almost feels like the represent different stages in a dragon's life. Dragon Hatchling is clearly a newborn, though I miss the flavor of it being a danger to itself that a previous newborn dragon had - not sure which card it was. Furnace Whelp is a juvenile - it has strength without the firebreathing and can easily kill the vast majority of humanoids, but still needs to avoid bigger threats. Thundermaw Hellkite is clearly a dragon in its prime - powerful, fast and with a nasty attitude. Finally, Slumbering Dragon is ancient. Slow to rouse, but it is extraordinarily powerful when it finally decides to fight - it is at least an 8/8 when it starts being able to attack and block. Of the group, I think Slumbering Dragon has the best flavor, but Thundermaw Hellkite is perhaps the most interesting design - if this hits the table, you are most likely winning this turn.

Mark of Mutiny is perhaps the most interesting Act of Aggression variant I've seen. The fact that the creature gets a +1/+1 counter leads to interesting decisions, which is always a good thing. It isn't difficult to imagine what you can do with this card - sacrifice effects come to mind immediately - but it gets you thinking, which is the important part.

I don't have much to say about Rummaging Goblin except that I'm glad they're giving Red looting. It fits with the color pie and gives Red some card filtering it desperately needs.

It's pretty easy to explain why I love Worldfire: every incarnation of the Goblin deck I used to run had Jokulhaups as a last ditch game restarter, which I could generally take advantage of faster than my opponent, running a much faster deck. I'm dying to make a new Goblin deck just so I can put this in it.

Best Flavor: Krenko, Mob Boss. It was the glimpse into the current state of Ravnica that really clinched this one for me.
Best Design: Mark of Mutiny. It surprises me how much I like the design of this card. The learning moments it makes are important, particularly understanding that it's okay to give your opponent a small bonus if it helps you more and learning how to negate that bonus.
Best Overall: Krenko, Mob Boss. Are you surprised? I love goblins, this works well with established goblin strategies, and has great flavor.