Greenbelt Rampager - Magic the Gathering

If it doesn't have enough energy, it'll go home.

While I wasn't impressed with Lifecrafter Bestiary's name, I'm less impressed with Greenbelt Rampager. With the former, the words were at least a little more unusual. With the latter, the words sound way too normal.

The main thing I do like about this card is the effect. While it makes less sense from a flavor perspective, the effect is extremely innovative, and it is doing something I haven't seen normally. This card is a big creature for a little mana, meaning it has some sort of drawback. Here when you play it, you have to pay two energy or it fizzles out. What's new though is instead of going to your graveyard, the card goes back to your hand and you gain an energy. Meaning you can technically play this card in a turn for three green mana, which fits with the stats given. I also like how they carefully worded it so that paying the energy isn't optional, meaning you can't repeatedly bounce it back to your hand just to fill up on energy.

The art composition is pretty straightforward, with a big gray elephant tearing apart a pillar in the foreground, but it still does a few neat things. I like how if you look closely at the elephant you can see swirls and markings. This also fits with the design of most of the aether creatures. We also have some contrasting blue on the pillar, though the red on the building behind it feels a bit loud.

VS Lifecrafter's Bestiary: Name -, Text +, Art -

Lifecrafter's Bestiary - Magic the Gathering

"Aethorn, the Aether Horn Pokemon."

All has been revealed. With the spoiler for Aether Revolt complete, I thought I would handpick my first set of reviews from the set (excluding those planeswalkers from early December).

The name Lifecrafter's Bestiary feels a bit ornate, which on one hand fits the flavor of the card but on the other makes it a mouthful of syllables to say. It's the concept of this card though that strikes me as familiar. It's a small pocket device that seems to scan the data of different creatures you encounter. Sorry, but this thing is a Pokedex. Even the way the thing flips open reminds me of a Pokedex. Now don't get me wrong; there's is nothing morally or legally wrong with this, I just find it hilarious.

In order to make this card feel more like a monster index, there are some library manipulation mechanics. So the first effect scrys, like your casually browsing your database, while the second effect adds or calls an entry once you cast a creature. Another thing of note is this card is part of a cycle, similar to Bastion Mastodon's cycle. Each card can go into any deck but has a bonus effect if you have the right color mana. To round this all off, we get a simple, inspirational quote from local legend Oviya Pashiri.

I would say the art is not as good as Bastion Mastodon, but that doesn't stop it from being gorgeous. We have multiple planes at play, with the foreground showing us the device and the subject's hand using it, while the background shows a greenscape and a family of beasts, all slightly blurred to convey distance. We also have different color schemes for both planes, with darker browns, greens, and golds in the foreground compared to the lighter greens, whites and greys in the background. The art is once again extremely intricate. The bestiary resembling a pocket watch that can fold itself out, and I love the detail of the baby beast. Mastodon only wins out in the end because it has a much more detailed background, and the subject feels a lot more impressive than the little device shown here. Still, this art is pretty good.

VS Bastion Mastodon: Name -, Text +, Art -

Bastion Mastodon - Magic the Gathering

Robo-elephants on parade!

I love the concept of this card: a robotic elephant. There are very few creatures that I don't find cool when turned into a robot, so I do enjoy how there's a ton of different species on Kaladesh. The name isn't that interesting, but the repetition of the "ast" in the first and second word strikes my lyrical cord.

The ability is part of another cycle of cards, each one an artifact creature with a colored activated ability that gives it a keyword until end of turn. The idea is you can play them as vanilla creatures (creatures without effects) in any deck, but if you have the right mana you can activate a little bonus. It's much more interesting from a mechanical standpoint than a flavorful one.

I definitely love the art for this card, and how the piece is structured. You first have the contrast between the subject and the background, with the background being whites and lighter colors, while the elephant itself is darker colors. There's also just the contrast of this tranquil palace setting with the mechanical behemoth standing in the middle of it. We also have scaling people to give us a sense of size, and a richly detailed background. While most of the elephant seems to be standing still, the head takes on a bit more of a dramatic pose, with the mouth open and the trunk whipping around.

VS Aether Tradewinds: Name +, Text -, Art +

Aether Tradewinds - Magic the Gathering

There's a man on the wing of the plane!

There is a little story behind this card's name. This card is actually a reprint of a card from Worldwake, but the name was spelled slightly differently. For awhile, Magic the Gathering would spell the word "aether" using that weird symbol that looks like an A and an E smashed together. Once Kaladesh hit the shelves though, they changed the spelling to use standard letters, probably to make things feel a little less awkward. While new cards were printed using this new spelling, this was the first card to be reprinted using the new spelling, helping confirm this was an official change. Other than that, nothing is too interesting about the name, though tradewind is derived from a real world sailing and nautical term.

The effect is simple and symmetrical, which I like. The flavor is easier to grasp too, with both permanents going for a ride together on the wind. The flavor text helps to reinforce the conflict between the consulate and the renegades, showcasing both ideologies. The consulate is careful and rules oriented, while the renegades are reckless and rule-breakers.

I like the intricate design of the airship in the art, the downside of which is I have a hard time telling that is an airship. The background is mostly sky with a hint of city in the left corner. There are also some blue atmospheric effects, showing the ship gathering aether. What amuses me the most though is the small man in the upper right corner, hanging on for dear life.

VS Fumigate: Name -, Text +, Art -

Fumigate - Magic the Gathering

Death from above.

The first thing about Fumigate that impresses me is just the simplicity of it. It's a very simple name, paired with an almost as simple effect. Cards like this are designed to be reprinted. They have a generic enough name that they can be used in any setting, but also a simple yet useful effect that they may want to use again.

One tripping point is the second clause of the effect. I understand how fumigating a general populace would destroy them, but why am I gaining life afterwards? Are we doing something with the corpses? Does the mass killing clear the way for some public works project to repair damages? From a mechanical standpoint, the clause makes more sense, but from a flavor one, I don't quite get it.

I like how the art is split into two, contrasting planes. You have the reds and browns of the gremlins scurrying on the ground at the bottom, then at top you have the blue and white sky, with the distinct multicolored thopter to draw in the eye. I also like how it's staged as a point of view shot from the ground up, and the multiple scaled gremlin figures receding from left to right to create a sense of distance. The art also depicts the moment before the destruction.

Madcap Experiment - Magic the Gathering

"Hope it's not a fox again..."

Compared to Woodweaver's Puzzleknot, Madcap Experiment is a much more normal sounding name. The word that stands out is "madcap", a less used English word meaning rash or reckless. The one benefit of the name is that it perfectly describes the card and its effect. The card is madcap and it is an experiment.

Also unlike Woodweaver's Puzzleknot, the art is much more dynamic. It is trying to capture the explosive aftermath of the experiment, with dirt and debris flying. But instead of showing us the results, it's showing the reaction of the subject. I love this view point, since it keeps with the perspective of the player. The player doesn't know what they are going to get, just like how we can't tell what the experimenter got in the art. I also enjoy how patchwork the experimenter's clothing look. It's another way of capturing that madcap feel. It also gives us some contrasting blues to focus on in the mostly red and gold palette.

Finally we have the text. I love weird effects like this, since they are things card games don't do too often, making this feel special. The extra text space also allows them to get a bit more creative with the effect. The flavor of this card is also a lot stronger than Woodweaver's Puzzleknot. You are performing a reckless experiment, unsure of what will happen. In the end you will get an artifact, but there will also be some negative reactions, and the results may not be what you were hoping for.

Woodweaver's Puzzleknot - Magic the Gathering

How much wood could a woodweaver weave...

So Aether Revolt is on the horizon, and while I could rush out reviews of the preview cards, I prefer waiting a week for the entire set to be revealed instead of me mass speculating. Until then, I am going to turn back and look at the set's big brother, Kaladesh.

First, the name. Woodweaver's Puzzleknot is a better name than, say, Tresspassin'. For one thing their are no weird spelling issues, but also the former uses much more intriguing, yet familiar words. One trick Magic has learned to do is make up its own compound words. In this case we have two: woodweaver and puzzleknot. Our brain recognizes the individual words, but when it sees the two together it raises our curiosity. It makes us stop and think, which also makes us pay attention to the card. There is also a little alliterative appeal with the first word, "woodweaver". As for the second word, this card is part of cycle (a group of cards that share a similar design). There are five Puzzleknots in the set, so the second word identifies it as part of the cycle.

The art is also much better. The colors are bright, contrasting golds and greens. No ugly brown filter here. Then we have the object itself. The entire thing reminds me of one of those wire games where you have to move a rod through the entire track without touching the sides. Can't tell if that's the case with this, but it does include some kind of stylus. I love how intricate the whole thing is, and how the shapes manage to look both artificial and organic. I also love the background, which mimics the pattern, and the clear space that forms a sort of halo around the puzzle, making it stand out. And of course there are the hands. There are two reasons for including hands in the art. One is it works like the scaling birds, that is they give you a sense of the size of the object. Two is they just make the piece more interesting and less like a still life.

But now we get to the mechanics. As I mentioned, this card is part of a cycle. The way the cards worked were you got an enters the battlefield ability, and then you could pay a colored cost and sacrifice the card to repeat that ability. I'm guessing the second ability is meant to be you solving the puzzle, but I'm less certain how the first ability works. I have no idea how this card gives me three energy and three life, though I appreciate the little symmetry within the effect.