Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Core Set 2020 where today it’s all about cards you can cast with everyone’s favourite card, an Island. Today I’m going to be talking about three blue creatures that are each looking to impact the game in a different way. One of the creatures has an ability that can instantly win you the game, one has a God-like ability and the other has a unique way of providing major card advantage. If you look at Standard now, you are only going to see one or two Mono-Blue creatures played in any of the top decks (Augur of Bolas and God-Eternal Kefnet). These creatures are looking to change that ratio.
Before I talk about these creatures though, I want to talk to you about a new counterspell from Core Set 2020. Here is Tale’s End.
One of my favourite counterspells from recent sets is Disallow. Tale’s End isn’t quite as powerful as that, but will still make an impact in Standard. Almost all the top decks are currently playing planeswalkers and other Legendary spells which makes putting Tale’s End in your main deck a good choice. Remember that it can stop an activated or triggered ability. Stopping a Wilderness Reclamation from untapping lands could give you one more turn to win the game. Preventing Teferi, Hero of Dominaria from tucking one your cards could save your turns of pain. There would be nothing more satisfying than preventing a dying trigger from God-Eternal Kefnet so it can’t be put back in its owner’s library.
The first blue creature I want to talk about is a thief that just wants you to keep on stealing. Here is Agent of Treachery.
Over the past couple of years, gaining control of permanents has gone from being on Auras to being on spells and creatures like Agent of Treachery. If your opponent wants to get back control of them, they need to bounce the creature back to their hand and cast it again. At 7 mana, stealing any permanent (including lands) is a very reasonable price. Mass Manipulation will steal 1 creature or planeswalker for six mana. Entrancing Melody will steal a creature with converted mana cost 5 or less for 7 mana. Throwing on a 2/3 body on top of that makes it that much better. Being a creature means that you can bring it back from the graveyard with cards like Connive // Concoct to gain even more value with it. Using all of the cards listed above, you can steal many permanents over the course of the game to trigger Agent of Treachery’s second ability and draw three cards during your end step.
Next, is a Sphinx that can win you the game simply by having a lot of cards in your hand. Here is Atemsis, All-Seeing.
You know when they make a creature Legendary, that it has some powerful abilities on it. Speaking of just the base stats, it is a 4/5 Flying creature for six mana, which is average. Its first ability is one that is a little tough to assess. The question you must ask yourself is, “Do I want to attack for four damage every turn or gain card advantage?”. This will of course depend on your game situation, but if you have this in your deck as a potential finisher, how often will you be using it draw cards? If you are behind and in need of some cards to swing the advantage bar, maybe drawing some cards is the way to go. Perhaps though, you want to win the game by its second ability. You will need to attack to trigger it, but if you are crazy enough to have 6 or more cards in your hand with different converted mana costs, you instantly win the game. If I were a betting man, I don’t see this happening very often, but I would be quite happy if it did.
Finally, I want to talk about the blue Cavalier from the cycle of Mythic Elementals in the set. Here is Cavalier of Gales.
I would take this card just as a 5/5 Flying creature for five mana. That is by far the best base stats for any of the 5 Cavalier creatures in the set. The abilities on these Cavalier creatures are simply amazing, but I didn’t think they would throw on a free Brainstorm when it enters the battlefield. This could allow you to get 3 new cards into your hand. If you could find a way to shuffle your deck, you might be able to get rid of 2 cards in your hand that you don’t want. Speaking of shuffling your library, that leads right into Cavalier of Gales’s second ability. This is the only one of the 5 Cavalier creatures that shuffles itself back into its owner’s library when it dies. This gives you additional chances to draw it again soon, especially with the bonus Scry 2 you get when it dies.
Not three, but four strong blue cards to look forward to using in your Standard decks. Will these creatures be the ones that start to see play in Constructed decks in the coming months? Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Core Set 2020. Join me again tomorrow as I preview some of the great new White cards from Core Set 2020!
