Hello, my fellow Planeswalkers! I am The MTG Hero, and Reality Fracture is just a little over a week away, so I figured now is the perfect time to talk about some of my favorite standout cards from the new set.
Reality Fracture looks like it could be a meta-defining set, and I am extremely excited to see what it does to the competitive landscape.
Honestly, it is going to be hard for me to play anything else for a while because of how much I love these cards.
Goyf won’t just be good in Pioneer, either. He could be a huge boost to the Gruul Delirium deck, which has been missing something to push it into consistent metagame success. Having a huge early-game threat like Tarmogoyf might be exactly what the deck needs.
Not only can Jace generate a ton of cards if he sticks around, but he also creates tokens, provides removal, and has a game-winning ultimate. Curving The Theorist, Jace Beleren into Elspeth, Stormslayer in a tap-out control deck is insanely powerful and can be extremely difficult to beat if your opponent isn’t putting you under pressure.
Speaking of pressure, aggro decks get an insanely pushed card in Ingris Stingerquill, which basically turns our entire board into Hired Claw.
In a go-wide aggro deck, this card can represent an absolutely ridiculous amount of damage.
I call it pushed because cards with this type of effect are usually four-drops and don’t do much beyond providing haste or a similar combat ability. Ingris Stingerquill costs only three mana and can turn an entire army of tokens into legitimate threats.
Having four toughness is also a huge deal. That means it survives Lightning Strike and , forcing your opponent to use a harder removal spell or invest more resources to get rid of it.
It is obviously powerful in eternal formats, but I think it can slot into a number of different Standard decks as well. Gran-Gran had a cost-reduction effect and was good enough to get banned, although she also came with a powerful looting ability.
The biggest selling point of Geist of Saint Thalia is that it reduces the cost of all noncreature spells.
That means cards like Tablet of Discovery and planeswalkers can hit the battlefield much earlier than they normally would.
I will definitely be testing a few copies in Jeskai and 4c Control.
Seasoned Cryomancer is a powerful new draw creature that could slot directly into Reanimator in some number.
Not only does it allow us to loot cards, but it can also lock down creatures that are pressuring us, giving us more time to find the important cards we need.
And if something goes wrong and we mill it, it still has value. We can exile it from our graveyard to draw additional cards at instant speed.
That kind of flexibility is exactly what makes a card like this interesting in a graveyard-based strategy.
Slingcaster Mage is another interesting one.
I don’t think it is as powerful as Snapcaster Mage, but its effect is difficult to dismiss, especially in Pioneer red decks.
Being a Wizard is a huge bonus because it gives the card access to a lot of the support that already exists for the tribe, including Wizard's Lightning. On top of that, having haste means it can immediately provide value when it enters the battlefield.
It might not replace Snapcaster Mage, but I think there is definitely potential here.
The ability to cast a fight spell and generate three or more Landfall triggers is often more than enough to end a game, especially when you control Mightform Harmonizer or have Sapling Nursery in play.
Landfall decks already have the ability to explode onto the battlefield, and Hexhaven Invigorator gives the archetype another way to turn those triggers into a massive swing.
Speaking of Landfall, Roiling Canopy is another card that immediately caught my attention.
Once you meet its requirements, it triggers every time a Forest enters the battlefield, meaning you can potentially trigger it multiple times in a single turn.
That kind of repeatable value is exactly what Landfall decks want, and I think this card deserves some serious testing.
Three-mana planeswalkers are usually worth paying attention to, and I think Chandra, Chill of Compliance is pretty dang good.
Her first ability is essentially a draw-one effect, while her -X ability gives her some serious potential for tempo plays.
I don’t think she is going to immediately redefine the metagame, but I definitely won’t be sleeping on her during the opening weeks of the format.
Sometimes the cards that look merely “good” during spoiler season end up becoming much more important once players figure out the shells that can take advantage of them.
Karn, Argent Defender is a card that I have been getting sent quite a bit because of how much I have been talking about Izzet Elementals.
And yes, I understand why people are bringing it up.
However, I don’t think Karn is actually the best way to attack Elementals. Personally, I would still rather have Torpor Orb.
The biggest problem is that Karn is a creature, which makes him much easier to remove. Torpor Orb can sit there and shut down a big part of what the Elementals deck is trying to do without being nearly as easy to answer.
Actually, I think there could be some really cool things you can do with him in decks that can tutor for him or reanimate him.
If you can consistently get Karn onto the battlefield when you need him, I think his ceiling gets much higher.
Wrap-Up
Those are some of the cards from Reality Fracture that I am most excited to try.
Obviously, there are a ton of other cards that I could have talked about, and I am sure I am going to change my mind about some of these once we actually get to play with the set.
That is one of my favorite parts of a new set.
You can look at a card and think it is going to be amazing, only to play with it and realize it isn’t quite there. Then there are the cards you don’t think much about that suddenly become staples.
For me, Tarmogoyf is the card I am most excited about. I have been playing Jund-style decks for years, so getting another piece of that strategy into Pioneer is something I have been waiting for.
But I am also really interested in what happens with Landfall, Control, Reanimator, and these new aggressive strategies.
Reality Fracture is almost here, and I have a feeling the first couple of weeks are going to be pretty wild.
And honestly, that is exactly how I like a new set.
Until next time, my fellow Planeswalkers, Hero out!
My name is The MTG Hero. I have played Magic for over 15 years. I am a consistent high Mythic ranked player. Follow me on Twitch and subscribe on YouTube!
