By Verdell Shannon

The Scars Of Mirrodin pre-release is right around the corner. So, what’s more exciting than the hotness of the new planeswalkers that come with it? Not much… so let’s discuss.

Let’s start with Koth of the Hammer.

He may be the best mono-red planeswalker printed (beating Chandra Nalaar and Chandra Ablaze).  Around the web he is being called “the red Garruk”. He ramps, makes creatures, and provides a win condition in his ultimate (though an emblem that functionally gives every mountain you control a Barbed Field effect is not as immediate a victory as Overrun). While he isn’t quite as powerful as the Red+ walkers Ajani Vengeant and Sarkhan the Mad, I wouldn’t kick him out of a sealed deck.

The other new walkers spoiled are blue/white and white. The white one is, (no shock here) Elspeth Tirel. Elspeth 2.0 seems strong in a Planar Cleansing as an ultimate that wipes everything but her and tokens from the board. This seems good to me. Her creature ability is moved to a -2. She makes three 1/1 soldiers now, but with Lightning Bolt in the format, I truly am not happy with the switch. Finally, her +2 ability is Conclave Phalanx enters the battlefield ability. If you don’t know the phalanx, that’s okay. It’s basically a watered down (very watered down) Congregate. I don’t hate Elspeth 2.0, but I just wish for more after all of the awesomeness that Elspeth 1.0 brought to standard.

Now, the other new kid planeswalking into standard is Venser, the Sojourner.

He has one of the most powerful immediately useable abilities on any walker:

-1: Creatures are unblockable this turn.

The last time we saw this ability, it was Urza block on an enchantment called Bedlam. It was a red ability (which frankly makes a lot more sense to me). In any creature dominated format, this reads “oops, I win loud and clear”. Venser’s other abilities are pretty good, too! His +2 modified Flicker (Urza’s Destiny rare) as an up is decent/useable. I mean, triggering a Halimar Depths or Kabira Crossroads every turn is solid. His ultimate is slick. R&D put the new term “emblem” to use again. Venser’s let’s you exile a card for each spell you CAST. The spell doesn’t even have to resolve.

Verdell is a on again/off again recluse that still believes Santa Clause and the unicorns will help save the planet. Little does he know that only Ted Turner’s alter ego,”Captain Planet”