Foundations Set Review - Pauper/Budget
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The Very Foundations of the Format
What do we have to review today? Foundations, a set designed to be the frame of Standard for the next four years by not rotating out of the format until 2029. Is it a good idea? Probably not, but that doesn't matter for us, because this is an EDH review. What exciting new cards are going to show up? Are we going to get some cool commanders, or just a bunch of stuff that's made for Standard? Let's find out!
Multicolored
Fiendish Panda
This is quite an interesting card to start our article off with. Let's start with it's type line. A Demon Bear? I don't think we've seen that before. Heck, I don't even know if we've seen panda before, so the fact that our first one is also a Demon is quite wild. I have to say, Brian Valeza nailed the art for this. I haven't spent much time theorizing about what a demon panda might look like, but I think it's depicted quite accurately in this card's art. Not a bear I'd want to run into.
Unfortunately, the card itself is much less intimidating. Getting bigger every single time that you gain life is strong, and it will create a big creature in no time at all, but that's not even what the Bear would be played for. If it's in a deck, it's there because someone has the intent of using its second ability, which lets you reanimate a creature when the Bear dies. You can absolutely take advantage of it, and you can get quite a bit of value out of this creature, but the competition is just so tight when it comes to reanimating creatures. Unburial Rites can get me any creature I want for just four mana, as soon as I want it. I don't need to gain life, I don't need to sacrifice a creature, and I can flash it back if I want. Unburial Rites just asks for so much less, and while cards like Reanimate and Animate Dead are obviously better than the Bear, even Zombify and Rise Again are better cards to play.
This card also suffers from its archetypes. There are few lifegain decks that want to reanimate big creatures, and there are few reanimator decks that can gain enough life to fuel the Panda. As a result, Fiendish Panda doesn't really have a home anywhere, and the few places that it would belong, it's still not very strong.
There are only four multicolored cards in the set unfortunately, and the rest aren't much to talk about. If your curious, there's an overcosted looter, a fragile version of Deathreap Ritual, and a devil that offers your opponents a good choice and a bad choice. I wonder which option they'll take.
White
Qala, Ajani's Pridemate
Woah, that's quite a strong anthem effect. +X/+0, where X is equal to the number of counters on Qala? Even if we ignore Qala's ability, it's so easy to stack up counters that this card has the potential to come down and make a board lethal just a turn later. Even white, a color that doesn't usually deal with counters, has plenty of ways to make Qala a colossal threat. How about Rosie Cotton of South Lane putting a counter on the Cat for every token you make, which will then be pumped to the skies? That's an absurd combination of cards that will end games in the blink of an eye. But even if you don't have a way to put tokens on Qala, they can do it themselves. Every single time you gain a life, that's +1/+1, and +1/0 for your entire team. You can get the exact same effect as Rosie Cotton with just a Soul Warden, who gains you a life every time a creature enters, and there's five other copies of that card. Point is, you'll never have a problem making stacking Qala up with counters, and once you do that, you'll have a board state and a half.
Hinterland Sanctifier
Oh, speaking of cards that gain you a life every time a creature enters, here's another one. I have to say, I underestimated these cards when I first saw them in decklists. Oh, they just gain you one life? Sure, it's every time a creature enters, but that's still not much overall. Right? Wrong. Just two or three of these cards, played over the course of a game, can keep a player alive entirely on their own, especially since they're always in decks that create a ton of creatures. And of course, when combined with a card that cares about instances of lifegain, as seen above, they're incredible. I won't lie, Hinterland Sanctifier is the worst of them, especially in comparison to the new Guide of Souls, but it's still worth playing. If you want even one copy of Soul Warden, you probably want all of them.
Twinblade Blessing
I know this might seem like an underwhelming card to be talking about, but there's been a surprising number of times when I've wished I could give my commander double strike with an enchantment. Other than this card, the only option is Battle Mastery. Twinblade Geist is too inefficient, while Armament of Nyx and Runes of the Deus only grant double strike to certain types of creatures, so, for the most part, double strike is out of reach to an Auras deck. You could run some Equipment, but those won't have any synergy if the rest of the deck is Auras. What's Tuvasa the Sunlit going to do with a Grappling Hook? Obviously, one more card that has this effect doesn't make it easy to acquire, but it increases your odds by 100%, and that's worth a lot to a deck that really wants double strike.
Blue
Grappling Kraken
Ah Landfall, such an innocent, harmless ability. Not at all. Anyone who's every played against Roil Elemental understands the flashbacks I'm getting right now. "Oh yeah, Roil Elemental looks bad, but they're not gonna be able to play that many lands, are they? They might steal one or two creatures, but then they'll have to pass, and I can untap and remove it." Nope, they'll somehow manage to steal your entire board. I don't know why I ever make the mistake of underestimating Landfall decks. Obviously, Grappling Kraken doesn't steal your creatures, and it isn't quite as nuts as Roil Elemental, but make no mistake, when this thing hits the board, it'll be tapping down every creature on the other side of the board. As far as Landfall payoffs go, it's not the best, but it can certainly put in work.
Refute
It feels pretty weird talking about a Cancel variant. Almost every single set has what is known as a "Set Mechanic Cancel," a card that costs , counters a spell, and does one other tiny thing that makes it on theme with the set. Usually they're not worth playing over Counterspell, and they have an ability that's not much better than scrying once. This one, however, is actually decent. Drawing and discarding is absolutely something I would pay one mana for. Yes, it means you have to leave one more mana open when you pass the turn, but most of the time, when I'm holding Counterspell up, I didn't have much better to be doing anyways. This card's only for the casual player, but I think it a great inclusion in a deck if you pull it in a Foundations booster.
Black
Nazar, the Velvet Fang
You know what other color is really good at gaining life in small increments? Black! Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Bastion of Remembrance, and many, many other cards all do the same thing. Steal a life from an opponent when a creature dies. That'll trigger Nazar every time. Essentially, when every third creature dies, you can draw three cards. It's a bit limited, since you can only do it when Nazar attacks, but drawing three extra cards a turn is quite a bit of card advantage, and this commander makes it extremely easy to set up.
Stab
Okay, can we just take a moment to appreciate Magic cards with just a single syllable as their name. For whatever reason, I find it really funny when the card title is just such a simple statement. When I cast this card, I don't feel like I'm casting something grand, just something that's a matter of fact. Hey man, I don't really appreciate that Birds of Paradise you've got there, so you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to Stab it. Get it out of here. I get the same kick out of the card Damn. It's just so simple. That creature there? Damned. Your board? Damned.
If you also find these cards hilarious, please let me know, because I feel like I'm laughing at nothing right now. Please tell me I'm not alone in this.
Midnight Snack
Ooh, this card's really exciting. Food generation hasn't shown up much in black, other than on cards like Bake into a Pie. Making a Food every turn is pretty strong, especially in exchange for something as simple as attacking. And then there's the second ability, which allows you to turn life gain into damage. Like I've said before, black doesn't slack when it comes to lifegain, but because this card asks you to attack, I think the life should come from a lifelink ability. Whip of Erebos, combined with a big swing, will gain you a ton of life, and then you can double the damage dealt by sacrificing Midnight Snack. Midnight Snack will often find itself winning the game if your opponents don't remove it before you gain a ton of life. Let it sit around, make you some Food, and when the time is right, crack it to wreak havoc on your opponents' life totals.
Red
General Kreat, the Boltbringer
Impact Tremors on a Goblin commander? That card is run in basically every Goblin deck ever, just because they're always spawning enormous mobs. In turn, General Kreat is also going to be run in every Goblin deck from now on, because she's just as good. A bit more fragile yes, but she trades that for the little Goblin she creates whenever you attack. And while 99% of people will simply run her in the 99 of Krenko, Mob Boss decks, I think she's worth considering as the general of her own deck. Can we at least try and get some variation in EDH Goblin decks? Please?
Crackling Cyclops
Plus three!? What the heck? This is prowess on steroids. For just three mana, Crackling Cyclops has the potential to be the scariest thing on the board if you just cast a few more instants and sorceries, and in the deck that wants this card, casting just a few instants and sorceries would be a bad turn. Some decks are capable of casting ten or more spells in a single main phase, and that would make the Cyclops... a 30/4? Dang. The only thing that makes me question this card is some poor experience with Charmbreaker Devils, but that card cost twice as much and felt bad when it returned a card with flashback to your hand. I'm willing to try again with Crackling Cyclops.
Goblin Negotiation
This card is very similar to Hell to Pay, a card that was recently printed in Outlaws of Thunder Junction, which gives rise to the question of whether Goblin tokens or Treasure tokens are better. Obviously, the answer depends on the deck. A deck running Impact Tremors would much prefer the creatures, while a deck that cares about Treasures, artifacts in general, or mana is going to want Hell to Pay. Of course, the question is whether or not the creature decks have the mana to take advantage of an X spell. Is it really worth combining a removal spell and a token spell? Or would the deck be better off playing Abrade and Krenko's Command? Keep in mind that the number of Goblins created is inversely proportional to the size of the creature killed. If something big needs to be taken down, you'll have to spend a lot of mana, and will likely get nothing out of it. Is that something creature decks want? I think only time will tell, but I'm going to place a bet on no.
Green
Quakestrider Ceratops
As Viven Reed describes it, this card is the apex herbivore, but I think that in a game of Magic, "herbivore" is far too peaceful of a term to use. A 12/8 for six mana? Those are stats comparable to Gigantosaurus, which is possible the only playable vanilla creature. Here, you pay one more mana for an extra two power, and I think it's still a good deal. I like to picture the reaction of people who played with Leviathan in 1994 seeing this card. We've come a long way, haven't we.
Welp, that's Foundations, the set that will be defining Standard for the next four years. For that reason, I can see why they kept most of the cards at a lower power level. There's a ton of risk to be had if any of these new cards break Magic's "main" format, so it's understandable that they want to be careful. I'd like to believe in Foundations' ability to fix Standard, but to be honest, I see it doing the opposite.
