Prerelease Tactics: Betrayers of Kamigawa Edition

A full season of Magic play has come and gone since Wizards of the Coast introduced its players to the world of Kamigawa, where the spirits of the world make war upon the mortals of the land.

We went through the story behind the world of Kamigawa a good bit last time, so let’s get down to the cards and the new mechanics.

Much like in Champions of Kamigawa, Betraysers of Kamigawa reveals an new mechanic that is integrated tightly into a particular creature type. Magic: The Gathering now has Ninja, and they all predictably have the Ninjutsu ability. Unlike Bushido, this ability is a little tricky. The ability is only usable when the Ninja creature card in question is in a player’s hand. During the attack phase, after blockers have been declared, the attacker can use a Ninjutsu ability on one of the cards in their hand to replace an unblocked attacking creature they control with a Ninja creature. The Ninja is put into play both attacking (unblocked) and tapped. This is especially significant because every Ninja creature also has a sabateour ability, or an ability that triggers when combat damage is dealt to an opponent. We’ll get to look at some of them later, but let’s just say for now that Ninjutsu is a very potent ability and that it’s no longer safe to allow small creatures to pass by unblocked.

Players of the Betrayers set will also encounter the Offering ability. Only appearing on a small cycle of cards, the Offering ability allows the person casting the creature spell in question with Offering to sacrifice a creature of a particular type and use the mana cost of that creature to reduce the cost of playing the Offering creature. If you get into the deep mechanics of the game, this is a fairly significant change in the process of playing spells, but for most of us, it means mostly that we can get a big, fat creature in a hurry if we’re willing to pay the price.

Although it hasn’t been keyworded, the Genju cycle of Enchant Land spells is also of note. These spells allow their controller to pay mana to transform the enchanted land into a Spirit creature until end of turn as the spirit of the world itself turns on those living on it. If the enchanted land is destroyed, the enchantment is returned to its owner’s hand, preventing card disadvantage. The art on these is really quite impressive, and it will be interesting to see how it all works out.

Mechanics that were introduced in Champions are being modified in the new card set as well, including Splice onto Arcane mechanics and the Hero flip creatures, but the changes for these are explained well on their cards, and don’t bear much examination from a rules perspective.

Let’s get to the cards. I heavily recommend opening a second browser to the spoiler on www.mtgnews.com, as the vast bulk of my information is coming from there (the rest coming from www.magicthegathering.com) and I won’t be specifying the cards myself. We’ll go over all the Betrayers of Kamigawa commons. I noticed that last time I failed to explain the Tiers I was using to rank the cards, so I’ll do that now:

Tier 1 - Meant to signify the highest rating. A common with this rating should pull you strongly toward using a particular color when deciding how to build a deck with your Sealed card supply.

Tier 2 - A solid card that is useful in many situations, but simply not a good argument alone to go into a particular color. May still be very effective.

Tier 3 - Not good cards. Hard to justify playing in most or all circumstances.

White Commons:

• Day of Destiny - Tier 2 - I thought about this for a while, and I don’t remember seeing very many decks that didn’t have at least 2-3 Legends. I’d watch your Legend count as you build your deck, but if you have a fairly solid number of Legends in your deck, and especially if you can run Time of Need, this is a good card. Be aware, though, that it will end up as dead weight in your hand during some matches.
• Heart of Light - Tier 2 - It isn’t playable as an instant, and creatures affected by this Enchantment can still attack and block, which may cause problems with Ninja running all over the battlefield. On the other hand, a Frostweilder with this cast on it is fairly useless. Find a creature the opponent is using with a disadvantage and take it out of commision to let the fun begin.
• Hundred-Talon Strike - Tier 1 - It’s hard to overestimate how much the card No-Dachi impacted some of the Champions Prerelease games. The combination of an increase in power along with the granting of first strike is hard to beat. Hundred-Talon Strike doesn’t stick around like the No-Dachi to generate a long-term affect, but it is an instant, which means you can bring out first strike unexpectedly, which makes up for the fact that it isn’t a permanent somewhat. Also, it’s Splice onto Arcane ability can help it stick around longer for zero mana. If you’re considering white at all, use this.
• Kami of False Hope - Tier 2 - If I recall correctly, Fog was still a good ability. This spell doesn’t have the surprise advantage that Fog did, but it also comes with along with power and toughness, which sometimes is all that you need from a card.
• Terashi’s Grasp - Tier 1 - Since Wizards took Disenchant out of the rotation of the Nth Edition sets, there has been a general outcry from some players about the lack of good enchantment and artifact removal in white. I think it can stop now, at least until 9th Edition Releases. For one more colorless mana than the classic spell, Terahi’s Grasp also boosts your life total. Given the quality and number of enchantments and artifacts in the block I can’t think of a reason not to run this at the Prerelease if you can fit white cards into your deck.

Blue Commons:

• Floodbringer - Tier 3 - This Moonfolk isn’t useless. I can imagine tying up an opponent’s land on the turn before a win during the upkeep step by returning half of yours to your hand, keeping the game locked up. A good Moonfolk engine could put the Floodbringer to even better use than that. The number of things that would have to go wrong about my Sealed card supply for a Prerelease to get me to run the Floodbringer boggles the mind though.
• Minamo’s Meddling - Tier 1 - A casting cost of 2UU for a hard counterspell is fairly run-of-the-mill these days. Not all counterspells can be Hinder. This one also adds on a significant threat to those who like to splice onto arcane spells, and there is a lot of splicing going on these days.
• Mistblade Shinobi - Tier 2 - I like the Ninjas of the set a lot. That said, it will be difficult for them to make it into Tier 1 due to the number of things that have to be going right for you to make good use of them. I just can’t commend them to any blue deck the way I can more general use spells. I definitely wouldn’t run more than 2-3 of them anyway, as Ninja depend on surprise, and they should be counted more as instants than creatures when you do your creature balancing. The Mistblade Shinobi in particular will prove its worth by setting back enemy defenses significantly, increasing your chances of getting a different Ninja into the red zone on the turn following. (Since the opponent will likely recast the creature you returned to their hand and hopefully won’t be able to play a second one.)
• Ninja of the Deep Hours - Tier 2 - When considering whether to use Ninjutsu, it’s also important to consider whether the Ninja’s power and effect are worth losing that of the creature you’re swapping out. Two damage and a card is hard to beat, though, so I expect to be doing a lot of Ninjutsu with this guy later on.
• Phantom Wings - Tier 1 - As good as flying is in Prerelease games, giving flying to something that normally wouldn’t have it tends to be even better, if you can avoid the potential for card disadvantage. Phantom Wings dodges the inherent danger in using Creature Enchantments by helping to ensure the survivability of your creature against a wide array of conditions. Again, don’t run it instead of a sufficient creature count, but it’s an excellent way to finish up your deck.
• Ribbons of the Reikai - Tier 2 - I’ve tried playing with cards like this before, particuarly with Airborne Aid. The problem with them is that you have to consider the high cost of the spell combined with its sorcery nature and the fact that you might not be able to get the particular creature type into play. I had trouble using the aforementioned Bird card in a dedicated Bird deck to good effect, and the problem only gets worse in a Sealed Deck. You absolutely have to get above three spirits in play or be splicing onto this spell to avoid making one wish that they were using Counsel of the Soratami instead, and that’s not a good record to brag about. Drawing cards is still good though, keeping it above Tier 3.
• Shimmering Glasskite - Tier 1 - The Keeneye Aven has been one of my favorite solid blue flyers for some time now. The Shimmering Glasskite makes improvements on the Keeneye overall, losing the cycling flexibility in return for greater resilience to removal. Much like the Plated Slagwurm, it can also be the target of your own equipment and creature enchantments, if you put the work into getting past its shield first. A cheaply attached Equipment card would work well here when the opponent is tapped out.
• Teardrop Kami - Tier 2 - I didn’t like the Wandering Ones in the Champions expansion, but Teardrop Kami fits the bill for a 1-cost creature. It synergizes nicely with the rest of the set, allowing an attacker to come back for defense, preventing an enemy assault, or allowing a tap ability such as that of Nezumi Shortfang to be used a second time while making itself available for soulshift effects.
• Veil of Secrecy - Tier 1 - This card has a large number of things going for it. Making a creature (Ninjas anyone) unblockable even for just one turn is a powerful effect in Sealed tournaments, helping to break through any resistance the enemy has put up. Veil of Secrecy can also be used to protect your creatures from enemy removal effects, and in addition to those considerations, its Splice cost can be used as an advantage with careful play.

Black Commons:

• Bile Urchin - Tier 3 - Of all the 1-cost sacrificable common Spirits in the set, this is the one I wouldn’t play. Taking one life from a player is one of the worst effects you could achieve for losing a creature. At best, this card chump-blocks a Samurai and then goes down with a little extra damage. What a lot of people don’t think about much is that the one life lost on your opponent doesn’t matter if they still have more than one life and you’re not winning the rest of the game because you had such a lame-duck card in your deck. There has to be something better to do with your Sealed card supply.
• Horobi’s Whisper - Tier 2 - Creature destruction is a classically powerful effect at Prerelease games, and it should never be passed up easily unless it’s not playable. Horobi’s Whisper doesn’t cross the threshhold into unplayability, but with a Sealed card supply it’s suffering in a number of ways. Double black is a moderately tough mana requirement in a deck that we can expect will be 2-3 colors instead of 1-2, and you’re not guaranteed to have four cards to remove from your graveyard when you need to splice this card. On the other hand, it’s still repeatable removal. It’s good, but not an automatic inclusion.
• Okiba-Gang Shinobi - Tier 2 - This card is tricky. It synergizes nicely with other rats in the set, including the dreaded Nezumi Shortfang and Nezumi Graverobber cards. Like other Ninja cards, it still needs a little help to get going though. In addition to that, its discard ability will sometimes prove useless when the opponent has emptied their hand. If that is the case and you’re still hitting them for 3 combat damage, though, you’ve likely won the match.
• Psychic Spear - Tier 2 - I’m a fan of discard spells that allow you the selection of the card to be discarded. At the Prerelease, you’re practically guaranteed to find a spirit or arcane spell in their hand early on, and during any time in the match if you know they’ve been splicing something annoying. (Like Horobi’s Whisper maybe?) At the time of this writing, however, www.mtgnews.com hasn’t published the card’s mana cost, and so I can’t give my full approval.
• Stir the Grave - Tier 1 - How often do you find full reanimation effects in the common slot? Probably about as often as you find reanimation effects that can’t bring back a Dragon Tyrant for less than 11 mana. Some of the best play strategies in Prerelease games involve determining in the first game what a player’s best card is or waiting for one of their key cards to appear before using removal spells to take care of the opponent’s best threat, since the important threats in their deck are limited in number. Being able to return one of those threats for a second go-around, or an important blocker in a tight race is a really good thing, and since you aren’t cheating on their casting cost (maybe!) In the first place, you can probably pull this off.
• Takenuma Bleeder - Tier 2 - If you can get a Demon or two in your deck, use him. If not...I still might use him, actually. The only time you’ll lose a life to his disadvantage is when he’s proving his value as a combat creature, and he’ll usually do enough for you that losing a life isn’t that bad. You may have better creatures for the slots, though.

Red Commons:

• Akki Blizzard-Herder - Tier 3 - I suppose it’s possible that you might be able to put together a land destruction deck in Betrayers. Stone Rain and Befoul are both still waiting in the wings, after all. This card hurts whoever has the least land, though, and that will be you half the time unless your deck is very good at killing their land. Red is kind of like that, though. Tier 3 due to the sheer improbability of this being a really good idea at the Prerelease.
• Blademane Baku - Tier 2 - Creatures like this one don’t typically last too long. Either they attack and are blocked (who wouldn’t be blocking a creature whose damage can expand like this?) or are killed quickly by cheap removal effects. On the other hand, if you can get a ki counter or two on the creature, it will be almost guaranteed to trade with the opponent, and it just might convince them to stop attacking with their Moss Kami given enough ki counters.
• Crack the Earth - Tier 3 - This card suffers the same fate as Misguided Rage from Scourge. Allowing the opponent to choose what they lose from all their permanents usually means you don’t end up hurting them in the slightest. It is another way to try to force early land destruction, however, and red is kind of like that.
• Frost Ogre - Tier 2 - The Champions block was notorious for having lots of creatures that could easily get up to the 3s in power and toughness (Samurai mostly) but also for not being able to go much higher than that. Kumano, Master Yamabushi was nearly unstoppable for this reason, and it is also the reason I have mentioned the Moss Kami so frequently. You can’t easily pass up a creature that can compete in that category without a good reason.
• Frostling - Tier 2 - The Frostling’s one damage to a creature is much more useful than the Bile Urchin’s one life loss to a player. This guy can kill Isamaru, Hound of Konda on a good day. Worth playing in the right deck.
• Kumano’s Blessing - Tier 3 - There are some situations in this block’s environment that removing a creature from the game rather than sending it to the graveyard is of primary importance, especially if you’re trying to deal with one of the dragon legends. However, if you’re in red, chances are good you’ll also have a Frostweilder or something similar available to you. We’re also looking at a creature enchantment here that won’t help you in the average case.
• Sowing Salt - Tier 3 - There’s a solid chance that you won’t see a nonbasic land through the entire tournament. Don’t run this maindeck.
• Torrent of Stone - Tier 1 - Dealing four damage to a creature is a good, solid effect. If this didn’t have the splice I’d probably still consider running it. Extremely good for splicing in the late game or in a crunch position as well. Red hasn’t ever really cared much about their mountains, anyway.

Green Commons:

• Child of Thorns - Tier 2 - Not quite as good as some of the other sacrificable 1/1s but still definitely playable. The ability to meddle with combat math is always appreciated. Here’s a bonus trick Child of Thorns is good at. Attack with a large creature base including Child of Thorns. Chances are good that Child of Thorns won’t be blocked. Play your Ninjutsu ability and while that is on the stack, sacrifice Child of Thorns to win a combat you would lose elsewhere, both brining your Ninja into play unblocked as well as winning you the ground battle somewhere else on the field. Even if the Child of Thorns is blocked, you can still use it to strengthen another attacker.
• Harbringiner of Spring - Tier 2 - This reminds me a lot of some of my protection from arifacts creatures I was running during the Darksteel Prerelease—Tel-Jilad Outrider is the best example. The Outrider helped me fend off a swarm of artifact creatures on more than one occaision then. Non-Spirit creatures are roughly as common here as artifact creatures were there, so that makes this playable. The extra mana on the casting cost isn’t worth a reduction in power and the Soulshift ability, however, so don’t expect any glowing praise.
• Matsu-Tribe Sniper - Tier 2 - I’d at least keep this guy handy in the sideboard. He could easily keep one of the dragon legends tied up for a long time. If the opponent isn’t running fliers, however, I can think of a very large number of green cards that would fill the slot much better.
• Petalmane Baku - Tier 3 - It’s not an effective combat creature, and if building up a mana pool is what you’re after, green can do much better than this. It’ll be interesting for Spiritcraft decks later on, though.
• Roar of Jukai - Tier 2 - I made this one Tier 1 on first impression, especially due to the forgettable splice cost. (If you haven’t heard me say it enough yet, winning creature battles in a Prerlease game is your main concern. Don’t worry about their life total much.) It’s better here than in many places since the presence of Ninja will make an opponent eager to block as much as possible if you’re playing black or blue, and one use of this card could devastate their entire position. Far too often, however, you’ll find yourself on the defensive or only with one creature that’s being block, robbing the card of its consistency. Incidentally, this is one of the few effects in the block that can strengthen Humble Budoka.
• Uproot - Tier 2 - My instincts say this card should be three mana instead of four. Either way, though, you’re getting card neutrality at the same time that you’re slowing down your opponent. Plow Under is a tournament worthy card, so this may be decent at a Prerelease. However, it doesn’t help much in the middle of a creature battle and it’s slow for a tempo card. Hard to call between Tier 2 and Tier 3, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt.

The End?:
It appears that the Betrayers of Kamigawa are pretty good at not betraying each other. The rumor site I have been relying on still has very incomplete information, to the point that I can’t complete my review of the commons. I’ll continue to watch the rumors site and post information about any additional commons that reveal themselves as the day goes on, but the Prerelease is tomorrow, and the full article can’t wait anymore.

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Written by Prometheus on January 21st, 2005