Unique Cards to look out for

     So, I think people are starting to see the kind of Unique cards that are good in the current meta and the values are starting to settle down a bit. However, I think its worth taking a look at categories of Unique cards that haven’t yet really picked up much value and are currently not that useable in competitive decks. Whilst I cannot guarantee they will get better; I think its worth looking at some of them.

Number of Permanents

     I’m not talking about number of landmarks, which is something that is a condition on a number of Unique cards (1 for Bravos, Muna, Lyra and Yzmir – 2 for Ordis and Axiom) but instead the number of Permanents or playing a permanent. With the introduction of Gear as a sub type of permanent I feel these kinds of unique cards that only look at permanents rather than Landmarks will get significantly better. Landmarks are restricted to two, but you can play gear out all the time, so this will make Sierra decks better.

Sacrifice a Mana Orb

     This one is a real punt on my behalf and perhaps is a long-term thing. At present there is very little value in sacrificing a mana orb, but there are lots of Unique cards around that can give you benefit in doing so. I’m wondering if there is something coming down the line that can mitigate against that massive disadvantage to sacrificing a mana orb. Perhaps a new hero that guards and saves the land? Perhaps a Landmark that helps? Who knows, but it could form an entirely new architype. I wouldn’t bet you house on these ones, but sometimes you can get a big effect on some of these cards and could at least in the near future be used in fun decks.

When the Going gets Tough …

     Another type of Unique card I see a bit (particularly in Bravos and Muna) are Unique cards that give your other cards Tough x. Currently I see that this is largely trinket text in the current environment, making the opponent maybe pay 1 more for their crucial spell if they really have to. However, if there are better control options around (particularly ones with can target multiple characters) then this ability will get stronger. I still don’t think it will be very strong, but it will at least feel better if it is tacked onto something that is already reasonable. 

Mana Ramp

     Now I know some of these cards are already reasonably popular on the marketplace, but so far Atsadi decks have for the most part ‘underperformed’ quite a lot. I have looked at 3 cost Aja’s for this, but there are some other characters (non Jinns) that have mana ramps tacked on and indeed some have double ramp and even 4 x ramp. These usually sell for quite a bit but to date haven’t been that successful yet. I can only see them improving Atsadi’s lot in the future, so these ones might be a good long-term bet. 

After You Support

     Cards that do not normally have After You on them as a support ability could form the basis of a good option for Akesha decks going forward. This would be especially good on low cost cards such as Ordis Trooper which could be utilised from reserve to really make the control architype stack up once it has a few more tools. Those extra options to After You could encourage the opponent to overextend and then play the ‘new super control card’. 

Discard Target Permanent

     Another consequence of the introduction of the new permanent type, gear, is that there will potentially be a lot more permanents around in the game. Therefore, with more permanents in game you will want more ‘incidental’ ways of dealing with them. Your removal will be more stretched (between characters and permanents) so have that extra way of removing them will be more valuable. 

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling ….

     There’s already a number of ways of rolling dice, but with Nevenka that can help even the odds a bit. With more support in future sets this could get even better. An average die roll will give you All-in! (3 Mana) which is not bad, but with more odds affecting cards this could get even better with future sets. Having this roll a die, gain x boosts as a -> ability may be a top unique in the future.

So, anything else that you think could get better?