A bunch of MTG Arena Anthology previews have already been announced. Some of them have been iconic new additions to Historic, while others have felt mostly like filler for Explorer. Well, a bunch of new cards have been previewed, and this trend seems to be continuing. We also have multiple cycles of cards that are each making their way onto Arena for the first time. Three cycles, one for Explorer and two for Historic, have now been spoiled in full. So how do these card cycles stack up? Were these reasonable cycles to choose from to add to Arena?
For Historic, I feel the answer is a resounding yes. As we will see, both cycles are memorable and helpful for gameplay, both in traditional Historic as well as Historic Brawl. For Explorer, however, the cycle previewed thus far feels relatively mediocre, as all five of the cards see minimal play at best in Pioneer. In addition to these three cycles, we also have some excess preview cards spoiled as well to go over. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the first group of MTG Historic cards.
The Titan Cycle
The Titans are a welcome addition to Arena. Primeval Titan was showcased earlier yesterday, but we have since found out that the cycle is being completed. Each Titan is a six-mana Creature with a massive ability that triggers whenever the Titan enters the battlefield or attacks. Primeval Titan is certainly the most iconic and powerful in other formats. The card’s ability to search for synergistic, non-basic Lands has the card banned in EDH and a powerhouse in Modern.
While the other Titans aren’t quite on Primeval Titan’s level, they are all super iconic and bring each color a massive threat especially for Historic Brawl. Sun Titan is great at reanimating small permanents, including Lands.
Inferno Titan
Inferno Titan
{R}: This creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
Whenever this creature enters or attacks, it deals 3 damage divided as you choose among one, two, or three targets.
is capable of killing the opponent in short order by slinging damage at opposing blockers or the opponent themselves.
Grave Titan
Grave Titan
Deathtouch
Whenever this creature enters or attacks, create two 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens.
is an army in a can and played as a solid reanimation target in Legacy for years. Finally,
Frost Titan
Frost Titan
Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter that spell or ability unless its controller pays {2}.
Whenever this creature enters or attacks, tap target permanent. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.
, while likely the weakest of the bunch, can freeze opposing permanents and keep them tapped.
Each of these Titans are excellent win conditions for their respective colors, and their iconic-ness cannot be overstated. Each Titan has appeared in the Magic Online Vintage Cube, and most of them are still elite inclusions. This mix of the cards being respected and powerful makes them a great fit for Historic.
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The Modern Horizons Land Cycle
This cycle of Lands sees a decent amount of play in Modern and should be pretty strong in Historic as well. Each of these cards is a great source of two-color mana fixing that can be cashed in for a card at any point in the game. The downside is that these lands require you to take one damage to use them for mana, which brings up interesting deckbuilding decisions with regards to how many are correct to play.
For example, Modern Burn utilizes a full four copies of
Sunbaked Canyon
Sunbaked Canyon
{T}, Pay 1 life: Add {R} or {W}.
{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this land: Draw a card.
, because the deck is super aggressive, making the damage less meaningful. Also, Modern Burn is all about utilizing all of its resources to deal lethal damage, so the ability to turn a land into a burn spell later in the game is super meaningful. On the flip side, control decks tend to play minimal copies if any of these lands, as the damage adds up very quickly.
These lands are meant to mimic the original version
Horizon Canopy
Horizon Canopy
{T}, Pay 1 life: Add {G} or {W}.
{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this land: Draw a card.
that came out years before. Now we have Sunbaked Canyon, Nurturing Peatland,
Waterlogged Grove
Waterlogged Grove
{T}, Pay 1 life: Add {G} or {U}.
{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this land: Draw a card.
,
Fiery Islet
Fiery Islet
{T}, Pay 1 life: Add {U} or {R}.
{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this land: Draw a card.
, and
Silent Clearing
Silent Clearing
{T}, Pay 1 life: Add {W} or {B}.
{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this land: Draw a card.
added to the mix. This does, of course, mean that some two-color combinations do not have these Lands in their colors. Even for mono-color aggressive decks, though, these cards are a nice addition to Arena, as the ability to turn your Land drop into a card later in the game is super valuable. These lands should see lots of play in traditional Historic and Historic Brawl alike.
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Explorer Battle for Zendikar Lands
Explorer also got a cycle of Lands to add to the format. We already saw
Cinder Glade
Cinder Glade
({T}: Add {R} or {G}.)
This land enters tapped unless you control two or more basic lands.
and
Canopy Vista
Canopy Vista
({T}: Add {G} or {W}.)
This land enters tapped unless you control two or more basic lands.
spoiled, so it’s no surprise that Prairie Stream,
Sunken Hollow
Sunken Hollow
({T}: Add {U} or {B}.)
This land enters tapped unless you control two or more basic lands.
, and
Smoldering Marsh
Smoldering Marsh
({T}: Add {B} or {R}.)
This land enters tapped unless you control two or more basic lands.
will be added as well.
What is perhaps surprising is that this cycle of lands was added to Arena at all. This is because these lands tend to see very little Pioneer play. With Explorer meant largely to shadow Pioneer, these lands weren’t exactly a top priority for Arena players to see.
The one thing these Lands have going for them is that they have the appropriate basic Land types. This means that for cards like
Lay Down Arms
Lay Down Arms
Exile target creature with mana value less than or equal to the number of Plains you control. Its controller gains 3 life.
out of Azorius Control, for example, do work favorably with Prairie Stream. The problem is that, with no Fetchlands on Arena or in Pioneer, the basic Land types aren’t super relevant often enough. Beyond that, these lands tend to enter the battlefield tapped quite frequently given the range of fixing available for multi-color decks. Lands like the Fastlands, such as
Copperline Gorge
Copperline Gorge
This land enters tapped unless you control two or fewer other lands.
{T}: Add {R} or {G}.
or Shocklands, such as
Stomping Ground
Stomping Ground
({T}: Add {R} or {G}.)
As this land enters, you may pay 2 life. If you don't, it enters tapped.
, are simply much more impactful for Pioneer and Explorer than these lands getting added. There were some other additions for Historic and Explorer that were previewed as well, and this trend of better additions going to Historic continues.
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New Additions Beyond Cycles
For Historic, even more iconic and heavily played cards have been previewed as well. For starters, Vendilion Clique is being added. Vendilion Clique was a great tempo play for many years. While the card has lost a bit of its luster in the face of
Brazen Borrower
Brazen Borrower
Flash
Flying
This creature can block only creatures with flying.
, the card is still a cool addition to Arena.
Next, we have Wild Nacatl. Wild Nacatl is a very efficient card on rate. By using Shocklands, it’s quite easy to have Wild Nacatl be a two or even three-power Creature for one mana. This is definitely more difficult to achieve without Fetchlands on Arena, however.
Just like Wild Nacatl, Tribal Flames is a card that has been added to Arena that greatly misses the presence of Fetchlands. Tribal Flames works especially well with the Triomes, like Raugrin Triome, that add three distinct basic Land types for Tribal Flames in one Land drop. It’ll be interesting to see how these cards play out without their Fetchland counterparts.
Lastly for Historic, the card Mortarpod was just recently previewed. Mortarpod was once a decent piece of Equipment that came with a Creature of its own, thanks to the Living Weapon ability. The card may not be quite as impactful as it once was, but it’s a nice card for sacrifice synergies, nonetheless.
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An Explorer Addition
Finally, for Explorer, we have the addition of
Worldspine Wurm
Worldspine Wurm
Trample
When this creature dies, create three 5/5 green Wurm creature tokens with trample.
When Worldspine Wurm is put into a graveyard from anywhere, shuffle it into its owner's library.
. With
Xenagos, God of Revels
Xenagos, God of Revels
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to red and green is less than seven, Xenagos isn't a creature.
At the beginning of combat on your turn, another target creature you control gains haste and gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is that creature's power.
spoiled previously, this card getting previewed is not much of a surprise. With the use of
Indomitable Creativity
Indomitable Creativity
Destroy X target artifacts and/or creatures. For each permanent destroyed this way, its controller reveals cards from the top of their library until an artifact or creature card is revealed and exiles that card. Those players put the exiled cards onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
and two targets, as long as your deck is built correctly, you can put Worldspine Wurm and Xenagos into play and attack with a 30-power Hasty Trampling Wurm for the win.
While this is a neat combo addition to Arena, many Indomitable Creativity lists have forgone this combo in favor of utilizing Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Torrential Gearhulk, which only require one target for Creativity to be effective. There’s still some hope that some much-needed cards like
Treasure Cruise
Treasure Cruise
Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for {1}.)
Draw three cards.
and
Hidden Strings
Hidden Strings
You may tap or untap target permanent, then you may tap or untap another target permanent.
Cipher (Then you may exile this spell card encoded on a creature you control. Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, its controller may cast a copy of the encoded card without paying its mana cost.)
will be added to help the format mimic Pioneer more closely, but we are starting to run out of time.
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