Hello all, and welcome to the first week of the 'Daily Dose of Kaladesh'! What a first weekend of previews we received from PAX West, Wizards of the Coast did an amazing job introducing us to Kaladesh. Kaladesh is a place unlike any we have seen in recent years. We've seen the war-torn world of Zendikar as well as a world of horror that was our Return to Innistrad. Kaladesh is vibrant and full of energy, invention, and technology. In Kaladesh, we have seen that you will feel like an inventor with everything you can create in the world. In Magic Origins we got a sneak peek of what and who appears in Kaladesh, but now we have an expanded view of what it’s all about. With this great new setting, we also get some great new characters. Later in the week I’m going to be looking at some of the new mechanics coming to Kaladesh, but today I’m going to talk about two of those characters, one is a Planeswalker and one is a creature.
First, I’m going to take a look at a new Planeswalker, one who has the power to create, here is Saheeli Rai!
Wowsers! A three mana Izzet Planeswalker! At first glance, you would think that this new Planeswalker would be best suited in an all-Artifact deck, and I’m sure it will, but there is a lot more to Saheeli Rai.
First off, you get to have a starting loyalty of 3 on a three mana Planeswalker, which is a nice place to start. Making Saheeli Rai two colours will limit the number of decks that will be able to play it, but as we often see with multicoloured cards, it ups the power level on the card.
Let’s take a look at each of Saheeli Rai’s abilities.
+1: “Scry 1. Saheeli Rai deals 1 damage to each opponent.”
Scry to me is the one of the most undervalued abilities. Although not as good as straight card advantage, it does allow you to filter through your deck each turn to help you shape the cards that you will be drawing each turn. Meanwhile, you are poking your opponent for one damage each turn, which in an aggressive deck, every damage helps. With Scry to help your draw more burn, this is a nice addition to the current Blue/Red Spells deck in Standard.
-2: “Create a token that’s a copy of target artifact or creature you control, except it’s an artifact in addition to its other types. That token gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.”
This is an interesting ability which is very dependant on what else you have in your deck. If you don’t have anything in play on the first two turns, you won’t be able to use this ability on turn three. If you do though, this can be a very aggressive way to get in some damage. We will have to see what artifacts and creatures become available to use with this that can take serious advantage of getting a cheap clone of a creature or artifact with haste.
-7: “Search your library for up to three artifact cards with different names, put them onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.”
Wow, what an ultimate ability. In most cases, you will have to build your deck with artifacts to take advantage of this, but if you do, this will be a huge advantage for you. We have seen some of the new artifacts that can take advantage of this in Vehicles (which I’ll be talking about tomorrow), but we will have to wait later in the preview season to see what the most powerful artifacts are.
Without a way to protect herself, Saheeli Rai is vulnerable, but its abilities are still quite powerful.
Next I’m going to look at another new character, who also likes to craft, but in a different way, here is Rashmi, Eternities Crafter.
Now this is a card that is brimming with value. Rashmi, Eternities Crafter’s ability has the feel of some other cards that we have seen recently. It is like Matter Reshaper, where it allows you to look at your top card and possibly put it on the battlefield or put it into your hand. What this ability feels like is almost like everyone of your spells having a Mini-Cascade like effect. If the card you reveal cannot be cast, you still get to draw the revealed card, making each spell you play have a two-for-one effect. Another key part to this card is that Rashmi’s ability triggers on all spells and not just on creature or non-creature spells. This will allow you to get value from every spell you play. The next key part of this card is the text, “each turn”. If you combine this card with cards like counterspells or Flash creatures, you will be able to get even more value out this new card.
Thanks for reading the first preview edition for the 'Daily Dose of Kaladesh'. Let me know what you think of the new characters in Kaladesh, as we still have more great new characters to come. Join me tomorrow for more Kaladesh previews as I take a first look at one of the new mechanics in Energy!
