Hey,

Mirrodin Besieged has been made public for around a week now so players can immerse themselves in the new set. I'm sure you're wondering what's good and what's not in the new set, so I'm doing this list.

Right now this is just going on my initial thoughts and experience, so don't be surprised if a not-named card appears to dominate.  Also note that I want to represent each color in this one.  That means there'll be one and only one card from each color plus artifacts.

Here we go, in no particular order:

Thrun, the Last Troll [Green]




You've seen Troll Ascetic, now meet his upgrade. Bearing the namesake troll-shroud (only able to be targeted only by its controller) and regeneration, Thrun has the same base capabilities as the Ascetic.

Of course, since Thrun is mythic, legendary, and costs one more mana, he needs some sort of extra oomph to justify those endowments.

Sporting a 4/4 body is standard for high-end green cards -- see Ravenous Baloth, Obstinate Baloth, etc. The uncounterability makes this card huge, making it unable to be answered by Mana Leak and other counters.  With shroud and regeneration in effect, the easiest way to take this card out is through forcing the sacrifice of it through edict-style effects like Gatekeeper of Malakir.  Boardwide power/toughness reduction also work as well as infect.

While this card does cost 4 mana, you don't want to drop it on turn 4. Boardwide effects like Day of Judgment will still hit it, so you need to keep that mana up for regen.

In short, it is a great finisher for green decks.

Leonin Relic-Warder [White]

Leonin Relic-Warder is great for taking out opposing artifacts and enchantments.  Sure, the removed card will come back if the Warder gets removed, but if not, then the problem card is taken out momentarily.  And at an efficient 2/2 for 2 mana, the Warder can swing to chip away at an opponent's health.

It's perfect in white weenie decks for stopping opposing enchantments and artifacts while maintaining the field presence to attack.

Go for the Throat [Black]




Go for the Throat breaks a rule on black removal that has been around since the days of Terror.  Black had no way of dealing with other black creatures besides power/toughness reduction and board clearing.

Terror works by "scaring the life out of a creature", and since classic black creatures had no life (think skeletons and zombies), Terror would not work on black creatures.

Go for the Throat changes the flavor of Terror by not working on artifact creatures instead of not working on black creatures.  This is great since there are more relevant black creatures than artifact creatures.

GftT is a great removal card and I believe will replace Doom Blade in most formats.

Steel Sabotage [Blue]
Blue doesn't need any more good cards.  It's considered the dominant color in Standard just because of Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

Steel Sabotage is a simple, niche card that's good at what it does.  Like its predecessor Annul, Steel Sabotage can counter any artifact spell for just one mana.  However, Sabotage forgoes being able to counter enchantment spells for a bounce effect.

Considering that there are very few dominant enchantments (Survival of the Fittest and Bitterblossom are two off the top of my head), the loss of the ability is not bad.  There are just more threatening artifacts (see Smokestack, equipment, and Blightsteel Colossus).

Slagstorm [Red]

The downside of many red board-clearing spells is the limit of dealing damage to non-flying creatures.  While it's flavorful (red deals with earth, mountains, etc.), it doesn't help the player staring down flying creatures.

Slagstorm gives a fair conversion of three mana for three damage to each creature.  Even in matchups where the damage to creatures won't matter, Slagstorm can be used to deal 3 damage to each player.

Sphere of the Suns [Artifact]


There hasn't been a colored mana artifact since the days of Time Spiral block where Coalition Relic was the go-to source of mana.  I'm glad there's finally an artifact like that back in Standard.

Sphere of the Suns throws back to the classic rainbow-mana fixer Gemstone Mine.  Entering into the battlefield with three counters on it, Sphere is able to produce a mana of any color by tapping it and removing a charge counter.  Unlike Gemstone Mine, the artifact remains on the field even if the counters are expended, so it's available for sacrifice and for metalcraft count.

Otherwise, there's not many tricks you can do with it besides proliferate.  Having it enter the battlefield tapped is the only downside.
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There you have it.  These are my thoughts on the top Mirrodin Besieged cards of each color.  Do you agree? Do you disagree?  I encourage you to drop a comment below or on Twitter @shadowsketched.

Catch you guys around,
~sketch