):I felt pretty goofy when I read the description of Origins' expansion symbol ( ):
"Planeswalker symbol breaking through the horizon."
Never saw the inverse Planeswalker symbol until now. Huh, am I blind or what.
So here are my top ten cards from Magic Origins. I am evaluating this set only for casual (non-competitive) Commander/EDH. This is just my first impressions; I haven't played with these cards yet.
The ordering of the cards is not intended to be absolute, especially my #1 and #2 choices, where I wrestled with the order considerably.
Cyclonic Rift this is not, but it still has its uses, especially if you play big fatties like me (Leviathans!), and want to clear the board.
X=0 kills those pesky little tokens.
This is another card that can clear the board for a big fatty / Voltron general to get through.
Pretty good with a deathtouch creature. Or, oops, a Blightsteel Colossus.
There aren't many cards that recur Enchantments, and even fewer that put them directly onto the field. Not sure how I feel about the animation ability; seems like it could be a drawback sometimes.
I think this should have been Legendary (for flavor); especially considering all the Legendary cards already in this set.
Cost reduction and deck manipulation on the same card always gets my attention. Even though I play creatures and artifacts heavily in my decks, this will have its place.
The "seven or more lands" prevented this from being in my top three. The +1 ability is terrific (Skyward Eye Prophets!).
Nissa draws better than Jace and beats down better than Gideon in this set. And she costs only 3 mana!
I'm a big fan of getting value out of a creature that's getting removed anyway (Homarid Spawning Bed, anyone?). This is absurd card advantage with any reasonable token maker.
... Is she shedding her old head? Cool.
Cataclysm (minus lands), but you choose? That's *really* strong. Has some cool combos such as Grave Betrayal.
I'm sure Zedruu has some "helpful" permanents to lend to you while your good stuff gets sacrificed away.
Why am I ranking this so high for a token effect we see quite often? (Master of the Wild Hunt, Creakwood Liege)
Most "free token" cards are creatures, and they die to Wraths. Repeatedly. This is an enchantment, and is much more likely to survive. And after a Wrath, your 1/1 flying token might get in on someone to draw a card (perhaps even a few turns in a row).
The "control an artifact" restriction is hardly a restriction; I almost always have some dumb mana rock around somewhere.
I'd place this around Bitterblossom in usefulness (costs more mana, but doesn't lose you life). Assemble the Legion is better. (Now there's an absurd card that's not played enough!)
This is a new staple, of course, and will be played in a large number of decks, especially non-green. Its utility can be diminished somewhat in 3-5 color decks if you're not running many basic lands. (I notoriously don't play enough basic lands.)
It being Legendary hardly matters, and is even a boon for Captain Sisay. Since it's a Legendary Sword, I would've liked it to have a name, like "Extor, Sword of the Animist" or something, but that might just be a Game of Thrones / Lord of the Rings influence on me.
I'm aware this card is colorless and is available to more decks (due to color identity) than my #1 choice (which is "narrower"). Again, my ordering isn't absolute here.
I really did like Temur Ascendancy back in Khans, but the color identity kinda killed it. (That is what made all the Ascendancies not too great; you can't really play them in most decks due to colors.)
Elemental Bond will generate a tremendous amount of card advantage, and is only green, so it can be played in more decks. To me, this card seems like it will trigger with a lot of different effects: Lurking Predators, Resurrect effects (undying/persist), Blink effects, casting your general (if 3+ power), you name it. It doesn't say "when you cast" or "non-token", just ETB. So token generators (with anthems) are also a go.
It itself is an enchantment, not a creature, so it will survive Wraths. I like Garruk's Packleader and Soul of the Harvest, but they get killed too easily. Having permanents that hang around is a big factor for me.
Note that this is a "must" draw, not a "may", so you can potentially deck out with this card when using a recurring engine.
And the art is cool. So there.
Origins is a fairly average set for Commander/EDH; maybe a bit better than average, considering it's a core set. There's like a half-dozen really good cards, and not too many garbage rares. There are playable uncommons, which is a shock (the past couple years have had pretty bad uncommons). The commons are (of course) trash, as usual.
I would have liked a decent dual land cycle (either new ones or the filter lands from Shadowmoor block would've been awesome). Dual lands sell sets; I wonder why they didn't put good dual lands in here. I'm guessing to keep the cost of Standard down.
Here are another ten cards that I thought are pretty good, but didn't make my list.
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