Just How Good is Soulfire Grand Master?

Tweet by SaffronOlive // Dec 31, 2014

fate reforged finance

Instead of writing about the origins of a bunch of the recently spoiled Fate Reforged cards (an article I still plan to finish before the end of the FRF spoiler season), I wanted to do an in-depth break down of what I expect to be one of, if not the single most important cards in Fate Reforged Soulfire Grand Master . Let's start by talking about everyone favorite rarity: Mythic.

Mythic Creatures with Low-Converted Mana Cost

We have been living in the era of the mythic rarity for about six years now, which means more than 300 mythics have been printed in Standard-legal sets. Would you like to take a guess at how many are creatures with a converted mana cost of two?

That's right, Soulfire Grand Master is only the seventh mythic creature printed with such a low CMC (eighth if you count the only mythic one-drop, Dragonmaster Outcast. If you look over this list, a couple things jump off the page almost immediately. First, Wizards doesn't print two-CMC mythic creatures very often, and they've printed them even less since the end of Zendikar block. Before Voice of Resurgence made its appearance in Dragon's Maze, you would have to go back nearly three full blocks to Lighthouse Chronologish and Kargan Dragonlord in Rise of the Eldrazi to find one. Only the disappointing Sage of Hours has been printed post-Voice of Resurgence. Second, in the rare instance when a two-CMC mythic does see print, it's usually pushed for constructed playability. As a general rule, casual mythics are usually expensive, either being gigantic Timmy creatures like Liege of the Tangle or spells with huge effects like Praetor's Council. Competitive mythics on the other hand, are generally cheap and efficient, while still having a large impact on the game. If you expand the CMC requirement out to three or less (to get a slightly larger sample), you'll end up with twenty cards. Check out the following chart which show just how playable these low CMC mythic creatures tend to be.

So, considering just Soulfire Grand Master 's mana cost and rarity, odds are he is going to see a decent amount of Standard play.

So What are Soulfire's Origins?

Earlier I said that Soulfire Grand Master defies historical comparisons, and I stand by this. His text box contains not one, but two very unique effects. Because of this, I admit my historical comparisons will not be perfect. This said, I think we can still learn a lot about Soulfire Grand Master 's by at least trying to find some similar cards from the past.

As a 2/2 Lifelink for 1W, the first card that comes to mind is Seeker of the Way

Instant and Sorcery Spells You Control Have Lifelink

Soulfire Grand Master 's first ability is where determining origins gets very interesting, as giving all your spells lifelink is not something we've seen before. While this may be a stretch, here's the first card that came to my mind when I read Soulfire Grand Master

Sphinx's Revelation was initially written off as a harder-to-cast Blue Sun's Zenith . After all, as Spikes, we have it drilled into our heads that lifegain is a joke, and not worth the price of a card. While this is true, the dominance of Sphinx's Revelation taught a lot of players that although lifegain by itself is a joke, incidental lifegain, especially attached to an effect you already want, is not just good, but can be great. Control decks didn't play Sphinx's Revelation because they wanted to gain x life, they played it because they wanted to draw x cards. But it soon became apparent that the lifegain was often the final nail the coffin for an opponent, putting the game out of the reach of burn spells or an already-on-board planeswalker. Similarly, competitive players will not be jamming Soulfire Grand Master for the lifegain; they will be playing it because his body is fine on its own, and because his late-game ability is strong. But I would wager that the oft under-estimated incidental lifegain will be a dagger more times than not.

Think about the Jeskai mirror for a minute. If one player is gaining four life every time they cast a Stoke the Flames and two life every time they cast a Magma Jet , how do they lose? The answer is they don't, at least not very easily or often. In any deck with burn, Soulfire Grand Master is almost impossible to race and represents a must-kill threat. Admittedly, the one place this ability isn't great is against control, but thankfully for Soulfire Grand Master , control isn't a major part of the current metagame. Plus, as we are about to see, his second ability has some serious potential against slower decks.

The Next Time You Cast an Instant or Sorcery From Your Hand This Turn, Return it As it Resolves ...

Although I know this is likely a horrible comparison, the first card I thought of when reading Soulfire Grand Master's second ability was Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. Specifically, her soul-crushing ultimate.

Even without locking your opponent out of the game, once you get to a reasonable amount of mana, his second ability is pretty close to "Pay 2UU (or 2RR or 2UR): Draw a non-land card." The ability to generate card advantage keeps Soulfire Grand Master relevant throughout the game (where many other low-CMC creatures fail), and make him a reasonable option against control as well as aggro.

Soulfire Grand Master - In Sum

What made Voice of Resurgence great was its ability to be all things against all decks. It was great against aggro because barring an untimely Pillar of Flame , it was at least two chump blockers. It was great against control because it made counterspells (or playing anything at instant speed) a losing proposition and left an ever-growing token behind after a Supreme Verdict

What About His Price?

Small set competitive mythics are generally in a good place financially, although two things make Fate Reforged cards a slightly worse investment than cards from other small sets. First, instead of being drafted for three months (and potentially overshadowed by summer releases), Fate Reforged will be drafted for six months (with both Khans of Tarkir and then with Dragons of Tarkir.) Second, the announcement of fetches in the basic land slot should mean that Fate Reforged is sold and opened more than a typical small set. While the actually number of fetches in a Fate Reforged box will be negligible, the typical Magic player doesn't do the math or calculate the expected value of cracking a pack. They just think, "hey, opening a fetch land would be cool," and go for it.

If Jeskai and Mardu players ignore Soulfire Grand Master , the card will likely initially drop from its current pre-order price of $20, and this might actually be the best thing that could happen for our us financial types. Soulfire Grand Master is too powerful and efficient to not see play in Standard and if it doesn't see play immediately, it's a good bet to spike at the end of next summer leading towards rotation. If Soulfire Grandmaster doesn't see heavy play this winter and falls into the $10-or-under range while everyone is going ga-ga for Modern Masters 2015 this summer, it seems like a slam-dunk pickup given the track record of low-CMC mythics in Standard and the obvious power of the card.

That's all for today, I'll be back soon with more spoiler coverage. You can keep up with my ramblings in the meantime on my blog , if you're so inclined. As always, leave your thoughts in the comments, or give me a shout on Twitter @SaffronOlive.