First cards from Dominaria!

Hold on to your dice, Steemit! We’re about to take an in depth look at Magic: The Gathering’s most recent Standard expansion, Dominaria! I’ve been anxious for this set’s release because I was wildly disappointed with Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan. Personally, I thought dinosaurs and pirates were lame as fuck. A few must have cards from both expansions, such as The Immortal Sun, Rekindling Phoenix and Mastermind’s Acquisition, but overall, I thought that were both duds.

Enter Dominaria, just released this past Friday. This set taps in to one of the earliest legacies of the MTG lore. There are tie ins with Nicol Bolas and Liliana and a stage being set for familiar planeswalkers like Karn and Teferi. Legendary creatures in every booster back, and the introduction of Legendary Sorceries and Sagas. A few great reprints for spice. Such a great set. I wanted to take a look at some of my favorites pulled from the first three booster boxes opened by myself, @vermillionfox and @tarotbyfergus. 

Main Eventers

Firstly, we have to look at the likenesses on the box. Teferi is returning in Dominaria as a blue and white planeswalker. @tarotbyfergus seemed disappointed in this as an unsatisfactory color combination. I’ve always done well with blue and white decks, and as a Commander or general in BRAWL format, I’m already think of the great cards that would play nice with Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, such as Aven Wind Guide from Amonkhet. With Knight tokens, Anointed Procession and Oath of Teferi, there are some great combos.  
Karn, Scion of Urza is the prized card in Dominaria. Less powerful than his previous planeswalker printing, Karn Liberated, but only figuring out his full capabilities now in this new Standard set, we’ve yet to know his full potential. @tarotbyfergus has already inquired if silver counters make those cards artifacts. If so, that could play nicely with countless artifacts in Standard, or fodder for Tezzeret the Schemer. Also, Karn is colorless and fits in to any deck, including possibilities for BRAWL.

Planewalker

What else do we have? Jaya Ballard is a new planeswalker in Dominaria. New to me at least. She’s probably been a character in vintage play. She has some Chandra, Torch of Defiance attributes with her +1, including add three red mana to be used in casting instant or sorceries. That’ll be handy as my Angrath, the Flame-Chained BRAWL deck is close to 1/3 of each.

Reprints

Gilded Lotus gets reprinting in Dominaria which is awesome, and one of my favorite cards in this set. I’ve come to love Gilded Lotus as a mana rock while playing Commander and Modern, and having it legal in Standard and BRAWL now is going to create some waves. I’m immediately thinking of my favorites that play well, like Padeem, Consul of Innovation and all the great artifacts from blue spells from Aether Revolt and Kaladesh. 

Demonlord Belzenlok seems like a contender in black. A Legendary creatures for 6 is totally doable, especially in BRAWL. 6/6 with flying and trample and a nasty cascade style enter the battlefield ability. I haven’t had a chance to cast or play with him yet, but currently, my black and red BRAWL deck is the most fun I’m having, and he fits in there nicely.

Legendary Sorceries

Lastly, we have to take a look at the Legendary Sorceries. There are a few opened within our @caffetto group. These spells can only be cast if you control a planeswalker or Legendary creature. @tarotbyfergus has already played Karn’s Temporal Sundering and I can confirm, it does suck to be on the receiving end of. Urza’s Ruinous Blast can clear the board state of anything except Legendary creatures […that could have an impact in Modern and Commander], and Yawgmoth’s Vile Offering allows you to return not only your creatures and planeswalkers to the battlefield, but those in the graveyards of your opponents. Very powerful!

That’s the initial review of Dominaria, so far. Monday night, the @caffetto group will be playing a Dominaria draft and streaming it live here on @dlive. Tune in for that if you’d like. Thanks for reading. I post daily. For more gaming, photography, art and the stories behind the work, follow me here @kommienezuspadt!