Let's talk Magic | Why I'm excited about M19

The most recent set of Magic cards, M19, a fresh edition of the newly-resurrected Core Set, has just had its pre-release weekend and will be fully released next weekend. This means that we’ll be getting a draft weekend which I will definitely be attending.

So let’s get into why I’m so excited about getting to play and collect M19.

Tribal is coming back in a big-bad way

What’s a tribe, you ask?

Tribal mechanics have always been a big part of how Magic works. When we say “tribe” we are talking about a group of identically-typed creatures.

Basically whenever a card refers to some sort of creature type such as - human, knight, zombie, artifact, dragon etc - it is referring to that “tribe” of creatures.

One of the main reasons for why tribal mechanics are cool is that they are quite easy to understand, which is a great thing for beginners.

After all, a Core Set is meant to be a great jumping-on place for beginners, as well as offering more advanced cards to experienced players, so going with the tribal theme is a great idea for this latest Core Set.

Another reason why tribal mechanics are great is that they allow for some very interesting and cool combos, interactions and synergies to take place, especially in the hands of more advanced players, while at the same time introducing new players to the main driving mechanic behind playing Magic - creating card combinations that lead to very positive results for you.

So let’s take it color by color and I’ll spotlight the tribes and main color themes for this Core Set, as well as showcase some of the more interesting and valuable cards, along the way.

WHITE - Cats, Knights and Token creation

White generally is represented by the Human creature type, as well as its related types such as Soldier or Knight, in this case. White is also generally known to generate a lot of cheap tokens, which you can then either buff with lords or spell effects and swing with a lot of units. This approach makes it hard to block effectively.

In this Core Set, White also cas a bunch of Cat creature types - most likely to work well thematically with Ajani - being a rather powerful White planeswalker, not to mention an important part of the story overall.

Add to these the planeswalker card, the life gain and pretty solid removal that White is sporting, and it seems to be a very promising and potentially super-powerful color to draft.

BLUE - Artifacts and Clones

Blue has always been a spell- and effects-heavy colour, it is associated with control spells after all. As such, tribal mechanics tend to be a bit less powerful when it comes to blue however, it seems that for this Core Set, the designer decided to join Blue with Artifacts in a big-bad way.

There are six cards, out of a total of forty-two, that mention artifacts directly in their effects text, and Blue’s planeswalker - Tezzeret, Artifice Master is a very much meant to work in an artifact deck.

Now as far as the Clones are concerned - or cards that create copy effects - there are only two of these, but make no mistake about it, clone or copy effects are some very powerful effects.

And these two effects are even more powerful because they don’t disappear when they’re targeted by a spell or ability, or take any amount of damage. They become full-fledged copies of your most powerful creatures, and that makes the effect incredibly powerful.

Combined with the whopping five removal spells and a bunch of card-draw, Blue is going to be a very tricky deck to play against. But very satisfying if you get it right.

BLACK - ZOMBIES!!! And lifesteal

Black is associated with corruption, undeath and the complete lack of respect for life. As such, M19 brings not only a solid number of Zombie-named cards, but a bunch of other graveyard effects meant to support Zombie decks and of course, Liliana, Untouched by Death.

You’ll notice how ALL of her abilities contain the keyword “zombie”, right?

As for the actual zombies, there’s quite a bunch of cards to choose from, some of them I covered in my previous article about Open House Events, but they including a zombie token generator, a zombie and skeleton lord and a zombie with menace, to name a couple more of the really powerful ones.

I am extra-excited about M19 due to the fact that Zombies and graveyard mechanics seem to be an actual valid possibility, which is something I love, being a mostly Black mage and whatnot.

RED - Goblins and Dragons

Red is quite justly associated with aggressiveness, overwhelming power, speed and a general lack of patience or common sense.

Dragons and Goblins tends to encompass all of those traits quite well, and I think that’s why the developers chose to focus Red’s cards around these two tribes for M19.

Goblins tend to be small, numerous and foolhardy, and there’s definitely quite a lot of that going on in M19, but we also get a Goblin lord in Goblin Thrashmaster.

Moving onto Dragons now, Red has always had more than its fair share of dragons however, in M19, the strongest of dragons are actually multicolored, and I’ll talk about them when I get to multicolor cards.

It is worth mentioning that Red’s planeswalker for M19 is Sarkhan, Fireblood who is very much a Dragon-centric planeswalker.

Not to mention Nicol Bolas, the biggest, baddest dragon there is, but more about him a bit later in the article.

GREEN - ELVES!

Elves are quite possibly the most iconic of tribes, there is. Sure, zombies and vampires are cool, and goblins have an equally long history that elves do, but there’s just something special about elves.

It’s most likely linked to the history of the race and its strong association with the modern fantasy genre, but they have always been strongly associated with Green and nature, regrowth and dense forests.

Green’s planeswalker for M19 is a newly introduced one, Vivien Reid, who interestingly enough, doesn’t feature any sort of elf-focused ability, but does still seem to bring a solid amount of value to any sort of creature deck she’s in.

Green might not be as alluring - for me - as it was in Dominaria, but it is still a very solid drafting choice.

MULTICOLORED

Let’s begin talking about the multicolored cards by addressing the ancient dragon planeswalker in the room.

This set’s only flip-card, Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, has to be said, is a pretty difficult card to cast, first of all, and then second of all, even harder to flip - in a Sealed environment at least. But if you do manage to flip it, it is OBSCENELY powerful, allowing you to basically end a late-stage game right there and then thanks to its ability of inflicting 10 damage from the get-go.

There’s really nothing I can say about it that it doesn’t say with its ability texts, except that Blue’s Mistcaller is specifically designed to postpone him flipping for at least one turn.

Then there’s the multicolored dragons.

Holy hell, are these things powerful. Some more than others, some in formats that aren’t Sealed, but these are some extremely powerful dragons.

The rest of the multicolored cards are powerful in their own right, and you’ll have to consider each of them on a case-by-case basis, but if you do choose one, then consider them as guideposts to which colours you should be drafting.

ARTIFACTS

As I mentioned previously, artifacts seem to be Blue’s domain in this core set however, they will still function for any other colour and there are a bunch that you need to keep an eye out for.

Amulet of Safekeeping

A solid way of playing around with some control decks, because it will basically increase the costs of any sort of effect that affects the player - so things like card discard effects of pure damage ones.

The second ability isn’t a bad thing either, especially against blue and white.

Crucible of Worlds

You might not see a lot of use for this one now, especially if you’re a beginner, but you’ll want this one for the sheer market value it has. It is a pretty expensive artifact, even when you consider that it’s been going down in price.

Desecrated Tomb

This one would work great with a Black deck focused on getting things back from the graveyard.

Diamond Mare

There’s been so much to talk about, I haven’t even gotten to the weird and interesting fact that each colour has it’s own Horse card in M19

Well Diamond Mare is a cheap artifact creature that will work great in any sort of deck you draft, allowing you to prolong your life with - almost - every card you play.

Fountain of Renewal

A 1 mana artifact that gives you 1 life each time you begin a turn. It literally pays for itself during the first turn it activates, nuff said.

Millstone

A classic card and a classic effect, this can help you deal with a lot of problems before they are problems to begin with, unless you’re fighting a deck that actually WANTS cards in its graveyard ;)

LANDS

Dual lands seem to be ubiquitous in M19, it appears that most boosters will contain one, so don’t jump for them in a draft, they’ll surely be amongst the last picks.

The only really useful special land that the core set has to offer is none other than the pretty classic, Reliquary Tower.

Especially good for a Blue player, but you never know.

Phew, that was a LONG-ass article, with a bunch of pictures and quick analysis. I hope it helps any and all beginners looking to get into M19 as their first Magic set.

In case you’re not a beginner, let me know in the comments what you think about my analysis and which cards you think might become the standouts of this set and why.

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