10.  The World Tree

The fact that this isn’t a legendary land definitely feels wrong given that it’s based on Ygradisil, one of the most famous legendary trees in all of human mythology! But whatever your feelings about the flavour implications, there’s no denying the power level here. Obviously, that explosive activated ability is the most eye-catching part of the card. Yes it’s very expensive to resolve at 10 mana, but in a deck that includes a sufficient number of gods (let alone a God tribal deck) this should win you the game on the spot. 

 

9. Rise of the Dread Marn

 

8. Glorious Protector

 

7. Dream Devourer

 

6. Tyvar Kell

 

4. Ravenform

In the last couple of sets, Wizards have been tinkering around the edges of the limitations of the colour pie. This will always be hotly debated of course because so much of the character and balance of Magic comes from the distinct personalities and limitations of each of the five colours. With that said, we think Wizards have done a decent job at ensuring that where cards break the normal restrictions of the colour pie, they come with a flavourful drawback. In Zendikar Rising for example we saw Feed the Swarm, which allows a black player to trade life for the ability to destroy an enchantment. Destroying enchantments is very un-black, but trading life for power is about the most black thing imaginable. 

Ravenform continues that approach by offering blue the ability to permanently remove an artifact or creature, at the cost of giving the opponent a 1/1 bird token. Permanent, targeted artifact removal in blue, especially strapped flexibly to creature removal, looks set to be goldust in EDH decks that don’t have access to colours that can fill this gap in blue’s repertoire. The drawback is pretty tiny (“sorry I exiled your Panharmonicon, but hey at least you get a 1/1 bird!), but it does fit nicely into blue’s tradition of transmuting threats, in the same vein as cards like Pongify. Will the community accept this continued tinkering with the traditional limitations of the colours? Maybe, maybe not, but one thing is for sure: every blue EDH player will want a copy of Ravenform. 

 

2. Tibalt's Trickery

Tibalt continues to dominate our top three, with another of his cards taking second spot. Tibalt’s Trickery is probably the most discussed card in the set, being the first unconditional red counter spell ever printed. Red has had cards that counter specifically blue spells before, but never a hard counter to any spell. 

 Of course, this being red, such an out-of-character ability has to come with a pretty serious and flavorful cost. Hence the total chaos that ensues when you cast this spell, something that’s a classic feature of red decks. Essentially, when you cast this card, you will give your opponents ammunition for their graveyard strategies by milling them for one, two or three at random, but much more importantly they will always get to cast a random spell from their library for free. Clearly, this has the potential to go very wrong! You could counter a Doom Blade and end up giving your opponent an Ulamog. But generally speaking, when used well, we think Tibalt’s Trickery will do the job you’ll want it to do. It will counter a worst-case scenario spell, perhaps a wrath effect that would be terrible for you, and will give your opponent what will very likely be a much worse replacement at random. 

It’s pure card disadvantage, and certainly risky, but it’s a tool that will give a huge suite of decks that run red but no blue access to countermagic, and with it crucial protection for their strategies. Not to mention that if you really want to, you can counter your own spell and rip something far more powerful from the top of your deck. There are already Modern brews trying to make use of that aspect of the card designed to give it the maximum chance of finding a Polukrinos or some similar horror. The bottom line is, this card is powerful, flexible and, because of the randomness and risk it introduces, guaranteed to be great fun to play in any format.  

 

1.   Mystic Reflection

Mystic reflection has two main uses. Firstly, you can cast it with your own small insignificant creatures on the stack, ideally a bunch of small tokens from something like an Elspeth ticking up. You target the scariest nonlegendary creature on the board, and then when Mystic Reflection resolves and the tokens enter, they will all enter as Craterhoof Behemoths, or whatever other nonsense you targeted. 

 

 This type of usage will make Mystic Reflection a key component in any token deck running blue, with the potential to transform the game in your favour. But its power doesn’t end there. This card can act as a one mana soft counterspell when foretold, allowing you to hold up a single blue mana when you expect a powerful threat to enter the battlefield. When that creature is on the stack, you can target the weakest mana dork or token on the board and have that Kozilek enter as a squirrel token. Hilarious to pull off, and most certainly powerful enough to swing a game. It even acts as a rare workaround in blue for creatures that cannot be countered (example). 

 The applications are endless, and the card looks incredibly fun to use and build around. Pick up a copy for your blue decks and enjoy!