Postby Thrillho » Thu Apr 11, 2013 2:56 pm
I like Blood Scrivener because anything with passing resemblance to Dark Confidant, a Zombie creature type, and a Wizard to boot has my vote. A situational Phyrexian Arena that triggers WHENEVER you have no cards in hand and draw a card at least ensures you're less likely to be out of gas playing a linear aggressive strategy and it's a two-drop to boot. It may not be powerful enough or may be too conditional to see serious play, but anything that gives me an excuse to sleeve up Zombies at least to test with has my vote.
The Ancient just seems bad to me. A 5-mana 7/5 doesn't play to the strengths of Gruul decks in Standard and the expense of the mana ramp effect makes it unweildy for combos (and makes it more likely your opponent is going to reap the rewards of double mana before you). It combos immediately with Wolf Run, but so does playing a strong control deck and then resolving any creature with an active Wolf Run.
nBreaking and ... whatever's going on in panel two ... may be interesting depending on how cascading into a fuse spell works. I don't know if this is already apparent or if it's something that needs to be covered by the Prerelease rules insert or some rules book addition, but it's a non-zero effect that may actually do something maybe possibly.
I like Turn and Burn because the extra mana you put into "Agony Warp" destroys the creature instead of giving it x/-3, except in the case of +1/+1 counters (essentially the card is terrible against a lot of creatures in Standard right now).
Sire just seems bad. It's a 6 mana 6/4, meaning it can't win in a fight if double blocked and barring sick topdecks and no sick topdecks from your opponent, you have no way to interact with a better board than yours. Couple this with the myriad graveyard effects of Standard in colors that aren't the most positive at interacting with them and also... seriously, it's a 6 drop, your opponent is either down to 1-
2 cards or sandbagging Revelation and congrats you paid 6 mana for a Duress that allows them to still cast the Revelation and gain life and possibly draw into an answer for your guy.
Today's early previews excited me a lot more than I expected to be by them, but nothing is absolutely wild about these previews.