Your Top 8 War of the Spark Questions… Answered!
So many questions. Like… What do decks even look like in this brave new world of War of the Spark [Standard]? Pro Tour Champion (and Hall of Famer) + the lovable Michael J. Flores discuss the Top 8.
- Is Planewide Celebration just a Draw 16?
- How good is Narset, Parter of Veils from War of the Spark?
- “Is Flux Channeler just Monastery Mentor?”
- Is Narset’s Reversal the sweetest thing ever against Nexus of Fate?
- How many copies of The Elderspell will each of us have in our first Nicol Bolas, Dragon God decks?
- How do we feel about Knight of Autumn for our Selesnya card with Niv-Mizzet, Reborn?
- What is green bringing to the table that white doesn’t already have?
- Will Mike have the ONLY Army?
Let’s go!
Is Planewide Celebration just a Draw 16?
Planewide Celebration
5GG
Sorcery
Choose four. You may choose the same mode more than once.
- Create a 2/2 Citizen creature token that’s all colors.
- Return a permanent card from your graveyard to your hand.
- Proliferate.
- Gain 4 life.
It might not look like a “draw sixteen” on its face; but choosing to gain four life four times is a heck of a combo with Lich’s Mastery.
Lich’s Mastery may be getting even more of a bump with War of the Spark, as Bond of Flourishing makes of a bananas redundancy to Revitalize that might just.. Revitalize the archetype. Abzan Mastery anyone?
How good is Narset, Parter of Veils from War of the Spark?
Pretty good.
Narset’s card drawing ability might be stronger [on a three mana Planeswalker] than Jace Beleren; plus she puts tremendous pressure on opponents who want to cast things like Chemister’s Insight or other card draw.
Not for nothing, but she also punishes the poor manascrewed opponent looking to cycle out of a weak hand [albeit maybe not in the current Standard].
Completely unwitting splash damage victim? The beatdown player running Rix Maadi Reveler. Sorry 🙁
“Is Flux Channeler just Monastery Mentor?”
Michael certainly doesn’t think so.
His general argument is something like this:
- It doesn’t get big itself.
- It doesn’t make material; though it does make existing material bigger.
Patrick thinks this card might have a home, regardless.
Is Narset’s Reversal the sweetest thing ever against Nexus of Fate?
The new Fork + Remand certainly looks sweet, and sweet for this purpose. But…
Not if they already have 14 lands in play.
Not if they already have a Wilderness Reclamation.
But otherwise? Pretty sweet.
How many copies of The Elderspell will each of us have in our first Nicol Bolas, Dragon God decks?
Patrick: One
MichaelJ: Three
How do we feel about Knight of Autumn for our Selesnya card with Niv-Mizzet, Reborn?
- Boros: Deafening Clairon. Down.
- Orzhov: Mortify or Oath of Kaya. Sounds great.
- Golgari: Death Sprout? Might actually help us cast this thing!
- Selesnya: Knight of Autumn? Okay maybe we just skip Selesnya?
- Gruul: Um, we have to be able to do better than Knight of Autumn, right?
- …
Okay, okay. Maybe we don’t have to draw ten cards. Or even nine. Eight is a nice number too, isn’t it?
For further discussion: Modern
Wait until you hear Patrick’s suggestion for Simic!
What is green bringing to the table that white doesn’t already have?
Ahem. How about the ability to exile exactly one card?
Take that, Disenchant.
Will Mike have the ONLY Army?
Mike will not have the only Army. He might be stuck as the only one with an 11/11 Army being brickwalled by a 2/2 Army, though.
Patrick argues that Amass is actually a drawback, not a feature. His argument is that you’d rather have three 1/1 creatures for three mana (like a Hordeling Outburst) than a single 3/3 for three mana… But then again he is talking to the only person (aka Gnarled Mass fan) on earth where this might be a dense argument.
Hot take: Is Lazotep Reaver better than Dreadhorde Invasion?
Woah.
Shots fired, am I right? It’s “Amass Nekrataal” versus “Amass Man-o’-War” (or “plus” in Mike’s universe) and more, so much more, in the cast itself:
