I don’t have that much experience with either set and I would rather do this later, when I’m more familiar with it, but on the other hand, my job won’t let me play very much after my summer vacation, so I might as well do his now.
This was a tough one. I haven’t played much lately. I only drafted Kaladesh a handful of times and Aether Revolt once. This means these cards don’t resonate with me very strongly, because I haven’t experienced them very much. Another problem is that I just didn’t like Standard during this period, so its hard to have a positive emotional connection to them. While I’m writing this, this feels more like “the cards I hate the least”, but that’s a bit of an exaggeration.
As Kaladesh spoilers are already in full swing (actually kind of winding down at this point, although we’re still missing quite a few of the story moments as of this writing), it seems like a good chance to look back at Shadows over Innistrad.
I liked Innistrad. I wasn’t really in love with it, but I had fun playing it. I think the balance between the really big eldrazi (that aren’t generally even that big) and the rest was much better than in the previous block, but I couldd have lived without certain bombs that have made Standard very boring. Much of this has to do with the previous block, again, but that’s because much of what Innistrad 2 brought to the table just couldn’t compete with [scryfall]Gideon, Ally of Zendikar[/scryfall], [scryfall]Nissa, Voice of Zendikar[/scryfall] and, of course, [scryfall]Collected Company[/scryfall]. I would’ve wished there was a competitive Vampire deck or something, but it just hasn’t appeared, at least not yet. With [scryfall]Collected Company[/scryfall] and [scryfall]Dromoka’s Command[/scryfall] gone pretty soon, things might change quite a bit.
As always, this isn’t about what’s best, but more about what sparks my imagination in some way or another. Sometimes its a fun card to brew with, sometimes I like the art, sometimes they do something weird, but not very obvious, way too often they’re either black or blue or both. Sometimes (okay, often) I just have fond memories of them.
Previous “winners” include [scryfall]Pain Seer[/scryfall], [scryfall]Bloodsoaked Champion[/scryfall] and [scryfall]Inverter of Truth[/scryfall]. As I said, black is good, but also they work in weird ways, often being pretty weak, if things don’t go your way, but they are the kinds of cards I personally enjoy.
Since we’re still missing the second set and I haven’t been able to play with very many of the cards yet, I can’t really do this list yet, but at the same time, I keep thinking about this. A lot. Way too much, in fact. So, to purge it (or [scryfall]Angelic Purge[/scryfall] it, if you will) from my mind, I’ll just make this list now and just make an updated one when I’m ready for the real list.
That time again… Strange list this time around. There’s a couple of cards I haven’t even played, but I still like very much.