And we are back to some MtG coverage. I know some of you will skip this post altogether, while others will be lapping this up. As they say you can’t please everyone all the time. Although it would make a nice change to please some of you.

With the next MtG set Ravnica Allegiance just three weeks or so away, spoiler season in full swing, it’s time to decide which guild I’m going to be for the upcoming pre-release event, and look at some of the spoiled cards.

A quick disclaimer.

“This isn’t a comprehensive look at the spoiled cards. It’s a look at cards that caught my eye at the time of starting the post (a week ago now).

I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming these cards will win tournaments, if they look like they are fun to play and do a thing then I’ll be happy.

A lot of the time when I’m evaluating cards I’m thinking whether they will fit into an existing deck, or go into one of the deck ideas I have. Sometimes they may even spark the idea for a deck.“

I have to say there have been some sweet cards shown so far. But I saw one that spoke to me and my horrors from the deep commander deck.

What a great card that will be. In Commander X can potentially be a big number. If this hits mid to late game, it’s a game changer. Handful of cards, life top up, and a big bad on the board. Plus the art is pretty cool.

With the horrors from the deep deck being a Simic deck, Allegiance will give me a tonne of new cards to consider for it.

I don’t think I do much, if anything with +1/+1 counters in the deck, or activated abilities. I’ll have to check that one. So at the moment Biomancer’s Familiar is a border line utility card for me. But it does combo off with the other two cards I’ve included with it below.

Simic Ascendancy, gives me a mana sink that makes my big creatures scarier, plus an alternate win condition. Zegana, comes in as a 4/4 but can quickly join the big creature squad with it’s adapt 4. And has that synergy with Simic Ascendancy.

Aeromunculus will not see play in my Commander deck, but I can see it being of use in a standard deck. I do think that these cards so far have potential for a Simic Standard deck.

Now Growth Spiral is just what the doctor ordered for my deck, card draw and ramp. Perfect. I like the split card. Removal and dig for a creature. The costs aren’t too bad. I’d prefer not giving an opponent a 3/3 body to hit me with next turn. But if it’s a choice between that and a much bigger dude I’ll take the 3/3 option every day.

These next cards will go in other decks. For instance Lavinia will certainly be welcome in my death and taxes deck. That deck is all about frustrating the other players and punishing them for playing the game. I can’t see how Mass Manipulation is anything but a Commander card. It’d be a funny card to play, but is it a great card? I don’t think so. 6 CMC to gain control of a single creature, 8 CMC for two, 10 for CMC for three. It’s an expensive card to play. I’d play it for that shit and giggles, it could be a game winner. Stealing a Planeswalker just before it ultimates and doing the ultimate yourself would be hilarious.

Wilderness Reclamation will definitely have a home in my big green stompy deck. But I can see it in the horrors from the deep, my elf deck, basically anything that splashes green.

Smothering Tithe and Verity Circle are so going into the death and taxes deck. I really love Smothering Tithe. It’s going to give so much ramp in Commander. By the time things get back to you, you could be 3 treasure tokens better off. So you are able to play big cards ahead of the curve.

Sphinx of Foresight I like the scry ability. Potential creature for the death and taxes. But I think in Standard this can be a powerful card too. That opening hand ability to sort your first 3 card draws isn’t to be sneezed at.

All the art from the spoilers I have seen has been awesome so far. I particularly like the rakdos stuff that’s been coming out.

When it came to choosing a guild for Allegiance, and especially the pre-release event, it was hard. I really do like a couple of the new mechanics, and the cards in one or two of the other guilds.

But it was the lure of going after cards for the horrors of deep deck, and trying to increase my chances of getting that Hydroid Krasis that finally swung it for me to chose Simic as my guild. I also like the idea of playing around with +1/+1 counters in Standard.