In the earliest days of Magic: The Gathering, players were using blue's powerful card-drawing abilities to augment the face-smashing potential of another color. Game swinging spells such as Ancestral Recall could quickly turn the tide. The hand-refilling power of Timetwister was not to be underestimated, even if the opponent also got to draw cards.

The power level of Ancestral and cards like it was such that R&D had to be wisely reluctant to print anything similar. Power levels have been toned down, as many players can tell since we haven't had to ban any cards in quite a while.

Not since all the way back in Odyssey Block have players been able to put together a "reload-and-fire" aggressive strategy that combines cheap card drawing with some sort of threat.

Enter Beastly Speculation.

Continuing the "tribal" theme started in Onslaught, Beastly Speculation works with a creature type. The player with beasts in his deck can go and find up to three more. Players with no beasts in their decks will find that the card does very little for them.

For prepared deckbuilders, an interesting and subtle game results: Should the player cast the beasts, knowing that they might be killed if they're put on the table? The nerve-wracking effect that this has for the player who has put the extra cards in his hand makes for fascinating play. As the player with the extra cards is put under tremendous pressure, opportunities for interesting decision-making result.

Beastly Speculation opens up a whole new world for the Onslaught Block metagame, and the Standard metagame as well. As we playtested with Beastly Speculation, we found that an incredibly diverse environment arose, with no less than four different blue/green decks dominating our play.

Many of you may want to go find a forgotten card called Ravenous Baloth after the upcoming Scourge Prerelease Tournaments . . .

Tomorrow: We take a look at Dorkstone and Bizzarotog.

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!

In the earliest days of Magic: The Gathering, players were using blue's powerful card-drawing abilities to augment the face-smashing potential of another color. Game swinging spells such as Ancestral Recall could quickly turn the tide. The hand-refilling power of Timetwister was not to be underestimated, even if the opponent also got to draw cards.

The power level of Ancestral and cards like it was such that R&D had to be wisely reluctant to print anything similar. Power levels have been toned down, as many players can tell since we haven't had to ban any cards in quite a while.

Not since all the way back in Odyssey Block have players been able to put together a "reload-and-fire" aggressive strategy that combines cheap card drawing with some sort of threat.

Enter Beastly Speculation.

Continuing the "tribal" theme started in Onslaught, Beastly Speculation works with a creature type. The player with beasts in his deck can go and find up to three more. Players with no beasts in their decks will find that the card does very little for them.

For prepared deckbuilders, an interesting and subtle game results: Should the player cast the beasts, knowing that they might be killed if they're put on the table? The nerve-wracking effect that this has for the player who has put the extra cards in his hand makes for fascinating play. As the player with the extra cards is put under tremendous pressure, opportunities for interesting decision-making result.

Beastly Speculation opens up a whole new world for the Onslaught Block metagame, and the Standard metagame as well. As we playtested with Beastly Speculation, we found that an incredibly diverse environment arose, with no less than four different blue/green decks dominating our play.

Many of you may want to go find a forgotten card called Ravenous Baloth after the upcoming Scourge Prerelease Tournaments . . .

Tomorrow: We take a look at Dorkstone and Bizzarotog.

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!