It’s 30 degrees outside and all I can think of is writing the second part of my Chronicles preview. I might be excited but not that excited, my baby girl is sleeping so I got an hour or so to fill. I’m still surprised about the amount of cards I found in the 1st part which I think are viable in the Reborn format. In case you’ve missed it click here. Let’s look at the remaining colors in this second part.
Gold
We got 2 different Gold cards, those for which you need 3 colors and those for which you need only 2. There are some nice 3 color heavy hitters but I feel these will be a bit hard to cast in a format without that many mana fixers. Dakkon Blackblade(R) will most often come into play as a 6/6 for 6. Big creatures are pretty hard to get rid of in Reborn and this one keeps growing! Sol’kanar the Swamp King(R) is deadly against anybody playing black. Oh boy would it be fun to cast this one in a game of Reborn. Nobody is splashing Blue for P9 but someone might be for the King of Swamps. If you are playing BRu anyway, why not add Nicol Bolas(R) as well. Just 8 mana for a 7/7 Flyer with an upkeep and crazy ability. Okay, this one might really be impossible to cast but I’m sure there are plenty of people who want to try it. If you can pay the upkeep, why not reanimate it?
Those Golden cards with only 2 colors are just so much easier to cast and Tor Wauki(U) is maybe a little bit expensive in its casting cost, it’s shooting for 2! Nebuchadnezzar(R) is a card I really want to try out. Unfortunately you have to use the ability during your turn but even if it’s not effective it sure sounds like a lot of fun. I doubt anybody sees this one coming and people will be a bit scared when he hits the table. Stangg(R) is probably going to be one of the best Gold cards from Chronicles. He’s fairly easy to cast and gives two 3/4 creatures at the same time. Sure you only have to kill 1 but if you are already ahead this one will be the nail in the coffin. Overall I don’t think all of these cards will be the ones people are after but I do think if you open a good rare in 1 of your 2 Chronicles Boosters you are going to give it a serious thought to play those colors.
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Red
Red, my all-time favorite color! This is going to be great, how hard can it be to pick 6 good cards? Well, actually I think Red is a pretty weak or at least an one-sided color. I mean, Active Volcano(C) is not going to do it in a format where Blue is just one of the five colors. Land’s Edge(R) is not that great either or can somebody pull a stunt and make a deck out of it? I do think Mountain Yeti(C) is going to be a great card. 2RR 3/3 isn’t great but it has an upside against 2 colors which means chances are pretty big at least one of them is getting triggered.
These 3 Goblins however can be huge in this format. 1 mana 1/1’s are great and all 3 have an upside which in this format is not going to be useless. Knowing that we are opening 2 Fallen Empires boosters during the Sealed event and 6 more in the Fallen Empires 25 Years Anniversary boosterdraft in the second event means that Goblins can be a real threat. Goblin Grenade is a real big one! I’m not sure which Chronicles Goblin I would prefer. Goblins of the Flarg(C) has mountainwalk which could be great and while there is at least 1 good Dwarf in the format you can easily play around that. Goblin Artisans(U) is uncommon so we won’t see them that often and the upside is a bit to tricky to be really of use but who knows? Who just doesn’t love Goblin Digging Team(C)? 1/1, no downsides and potentially a wall wrecker? I think I’m going with the Digging Team. What would be your pick?
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White
Oh boy, this got to be the worst color ever. If you’ll ever get to play a Chronicles boosterdraft avoid white! I repeat, avoid white! D’Avenant Archer(C) made the cut. 2W for a 1/2 which can ping attacking or blocking creatures, I guess it will do? Divine Offering(C) is a pretty good card in general and while there will be good Artifacts around, I don’t think there will be a shortage of Disenchants since they are both available in 4th Edition as well as Ice Age. Whoever shows up with Petra Sphinx(R) and is able to guess 1 of his cards right without peaking gets a beer! In a format in which you can’t probably name your 60 cards from the top of your head, try to guess the next card on top of your library. Even funnier to use it as Millstone and ask your opponent to guess what his next card is going to be.
Indestructible Aura(C) could be a nice surprise your opponent isn’t expecting. You can safe your own creature while your opponent’s one still dies, would you consider it? Now Abu Ja’Far(U) unfortunately lacks 1 power to be great, it can kill any “walking” creature so that’s got to be worth something. It’s uncommon because why not? Witch Hunter(U), now we are talking! 2WW for a 1/1 might be a bit much but he can both ping and return opponents creatures to his hand. Yes, I do think Witch Hunter is going to be okay in this format but if this is the best White got I rather not have that Serra Angel in my 4th Edition Starter 😉
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Lands
Let’s wrap it up with looking at all lands Chronicles has to offer. For sure City of Brass(R) is something every deck can use. While everybody would like 1, I doubt there are a lot of people willing to trade this one away. Maybe somebody wants to trade a City of Brass for an Ice Age painland since in case you are fixed on your colors these are slightly better since you can tap them pain free for colorless mana. Safe Haven(R) can do exactly what is says it does, safe creatures from dying. While the format is to limited to really combo this one with for example Ball Lightning, I do think we will see this one in some decks.
Last and useless unless your name is Timmy the Sorcerer, Urza lands! These are all uncommon which is just a big waste of your uncommon slot but for sure we will see many of them, just not in play. These lands are only really useful when you really build a deck around it and can somebody really pull it off in a format like this? Tron is Timmy’s natural go-to brew so my tip to anybody is to trade these away as soon as possible with Timmy because as soon as he has 4 of each you will be stuck with these forever….
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Wrap Up
I actually had quite some fun looking at a complete set which I know since forever but haven’t looked into card by card for ages. In a format like Reborn the commons are by far the most important cards and we probably won’t get to see all the rares in the set but it’s still great to check out what you can expect. My favorite color is probably Green, tainted a lot by that Erhnam Djinn but it still has good commons. Red Commons are good as well but as mentioned pretty one-sided. I feel sorry for anybody that has to play with white due to getting great cards in other sets, you are not going to boost your deck with White Chronicles cards.
While I had fun, I’m not sure I’m going to do this with the other sets. Well, I’m probably going to look into these sets before playing Reborn but writing a complete blog about it might be a little bit to much. Luckily Chronicles is a pretty small set, looking at all 383 cards of Ice Age will take considerable longer. I hope you all enjoyed it, please leave any comments if you think I’ve overlooked a card or in case you just want to leave me a message.
