Yet some more sweet goodness was spoiled, including the last of the Gods…so let’s see what we find today!
Master of the Feast- Whoa! Now, here we have something pretty crazy that I haven’t seen in a while. This is a 5/5 flying Demon for 1 colourless and 2 black. Yup, you heard me, 3 mana for 5/5 flier. I’m sorry…but that’s huge! Yes, there is a drawback, but this casting cost reminds me of Juzam Djinn in that you get a ridiculously overpowered creature for cheap. Now, with any creature that is overpowered to such a degree, there is a drawback and it is that during your upkeep each opponent draws a card. Now, let’s be honest, if you see this card in a draft it is a first pick bomb, no questions asked. However, will this see play in Constructed? At this point, I don’t think so, but you may see some Mono-Black decks experiment with it instead of Desecration Demon because it doesn’t get tapped down, and Master of the Feast still contributes 2 to your devotion. Now, once rotation comes in the Fall I can see this card getting played to restore some of the loss of the giant demon from Return to Ravnica, but I think right now it is on the outside looking in. I’m still not crazy about the drawback because that extra card could be exactly what my opponent needed, but it’s a trade off I may be prepared to make to get a 5/5 flier on Turn 3. So, for being a first pick in Draft and having some serious potential in Constructed I figure this gets a A.
Pharika, God of Affliction- I thought that 1 God for 3 mana was good, here’s yet ANOTHER one! Pharika is a 5/5 indestructible Legendary Enchantment Creature God with the same devotion mechanic we have come to expect. Her ability is that for a black and a green you can exile a creature card from target players graveyard and put a 1/1 snake token with death touch under the control of the owner of the card exiled. Notice that she doesn’t need to tapand can do it and instant speed in order to churn through a graveyard and could exile all the creatures in very short order. A super aggressively costed God, she will likely see play and will totally result in ridiculous graveyard shenanigans. With B/G “dredge” starting to pop up all over the place place, this just might be the tool it needed to take control and push it into a very serious contender. Like with any of the Gods, she’s awesome in Draft…and could be really cool in Constructed. So, for yet another awesome God, she’s getting an A.
Prophetic Flamespeaker- Another Mythic rare is spoiled and it is super interesting. A 3 mana (1 colourless and 2 red) for 1/3 with double strike and trample. Whenever Prophetic Flamespeaker deals damage to an opponent exile your top card of your deck, you may cast that card this turn. I think this is super fun and very interesting for the fact that it can generate extra card advantage for a red deck that usually struggles to draw cards. The issue I have is that it is a 1/3 and in order to get it to the point where it can likely deal damage to reap the benefit of the ability, I’ll need to at least bestow or enchant something on it because a 1/3 isn’t getting there (even with Double Strike and Trample) in most situations. That extra set up cost makes it a hard sell to Constructed games, but it would be pretty useful in draft where you may find yourself bestowing more frequently. I think that this is fun card, very interesting and could be useful in draft, but the set up is too high for Constructed, so I feel like this is a B even if it is a Mythic Rare.
Twinflame- Here we have a something that could be wild if you are playing a creature heavy deck. A 2 mana (1 red, 1 colourless) sorcery that says you may make put a token that is a copy of one of your creatures. The token gains haste and is sacrificed at the beginning of your end step. That could give you an extra attacker to rush your opponent, and if the creature you are attacking with is a real menace, then you have twice the firepower coming. What makes this potentially back breaking is the strive ability where for each additional 3 mana (2 colourless and a red) you may choose another target creature. So, this could totally allow you to flood the board and overwhelm an opponent and just crush them with tokens that essentially double up your board state. This will absolutely see draft play because creatures play a very prominent role there, and I would love to see a Constructed deck emerge that could utilize it. I doubt it will see constructed, in no small part to fact that it also takes some heavy set up in order to pull it off, but I can dream. I feel like this is a C+ because in the right draft deck it could be pretty powerful, but may end up drawing dead more often than not.
