The Cave: Morningtide shining brightly?

Hello everyone and welcome to the cave. I have returned with more tidbits about the latest in the world of Magic, so now so let’s go ahead and get started. As we all know, the Morningtide pre-release was held last Saturday and Sunday (January 19 and 20). I for one went to the Saturday release at the St. Vincent Church Community Center in Fort Lauderdale. Although drafting was the most fun I had all day, I will not be writing about the pre-release today simply because I did horrible and I further do not wish to talk about it. I did however love the new cards that came out in this set.

The Morningtide format is something that people haven't seen in a while because it goes back to focusing on the actual class of the creatures, otherwise known as their subtypes. Let me say this now because later on it will be known anyways,*ahem* ROGUES ARE GOING TO BE CRAZY! With that said, be prepared for some more annoying Faerie decks going around with the new prowl system in play. Trust me I would have loved to play them but I didn't get enough to build around the class. I did play against them and they were annoying but enjoyable to lose against; it’s just funny to lose to a creature that disrupts your deck (Earwig Squad) or one that makes all your creatures discard engines (Oona's Blackguard). And of course putting them into play cheaply is no problem with the prowl effect, and Oona’s pumping +1/+1 counters are a great advantage as well.

Alongside these nasty rogues are other class types that need to be discussed so let’s talk about them shall we: the soldier class is pretty interesting due to its high focus on the Kithkins. I will admit that they are alright in limited but until someone creates a really good mono-white or a two colored soldier deck, you won't see many in the standard scene. The shamans and the wizards are again ok, but I think you have to consider them only in limited play. However the race that got a good chunk of control was the Merfolk, which can make them scary enough. Cards like Grimoire Thief and Ink Dissolver will make any draft cry for help when the opponent lays them down. But if the most favorite class of mine is the rogues that are coming up, the second would have to be the warrior class. Due to the fact that I first started out with a green-red hybrid that turned out pretty well in the standard scene, I think the new warriors with fit right into any similar deck come standard season. Warriors give off that certain thing that I love the most and that that is Aggro. There are a lot of warriors in Morningtide and that is something that helps to build around them. In both Lorwyn and Morningtide there are about 58 warriors, not including the shape shifting changelings and the token generators in both sets.

With classes in mind it would be wise to look at all aspects during this next couple of weeks. After the actual release of the new expansion, the cards will be tournament legal the day after; a custom that Wizards decided to change for the first time ever. My view on this is great because it will show others how well people can create decks within a shorter time frame. Play testing is important and the better magic players will show what they got with new improved decks or just putting in new additions to decks that are already good. I absolutely look forward to drafting the set locally because it’s fun and exciting; hopefully Shadowmoor will add more improvement to this mini-block set. Until then, see you all next time in the cave.