Say hello to U/X control. It'll be your home for the next year.
Trygon_Predator
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(7 votes)
I'd say he goes best in , making Drakes with every counterspell and burn.
Doaj
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
How is his rating so low? He's amazing.
Xilinoc
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(11 votes)
You have no idea how annoying this guy is in DotP 2013.
No idea.
Lord_of_Tresserhorn
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(9 votes)
Drakes generally suck.
Lots of drakes, though...
Arachibutyrophobia
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
we need more good drakes
infernox10
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(5 votes)
Draw-Go gets its win con...
Tzaph
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Apparently he's from Shandalar... odd, considering he looks more like a Zendikar merfolk...
LordOfTheFlies87
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
What a bad-ass.
Cyberium
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
A great win condition for control decks, and also triggers 'whenever a creature comes into play' type of effects.
Glech
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(4 votes)
Fly my pretties, fly!
Slimbokid
★☆☆☆☆ (1.6/5.0)(4 votes)
Love the card... hate that merfolk have legs. I'm sorry wotc, but wtf!@? Merfolk don't have legs... it would totally ruin the plot of the Little Mermaid, and it REALLY ruins the flavor of merfolk in magic. Merfolk with legs just aren't as cool as half fish people. It's like giving a centaur regular legs and a horse tail and saying he's still a centaur. It just ruins it!!
Who ever said merfolk don't make sense in magic because uhhhh they can't walk on land needs to reexamine the game. You can equip a mountain goat with a giant sword, hell... you can equip a Fog Bank with a suit of armor... things in this game don't always have to make sense! Merfolk are cool, SHIPS are cool; blue is missing the obvious naval component to its island based power.
Silver-Paladin
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Whoa there Slimbo. Sure, we can equip swords to goats and boots to worms, but those are limited examples. Merfolk are an entire RACE, showing up in multiple cards. No legs means ALWAYS underwater. What interest do legless folk have in leg-required land? Its just friggin hard to envision, so the art decided to go another direction.
Don't Zendikarian Merfolk have the ability to switch back and forth?
exterion
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(4 votes)
Most merfolks have some way to get by on land, and it has been that way since very early on in magic. Why? Because flavourwise, how else would they be participating in the battle between you and your opponent? How else would they intervene when that ogre comes charging for you, and how else would they be able to attack your opponent?
I remember a daily MTG article on this subject, probably around zendikar block, but I wasn't able to find it. However, it mentions that merfolk have been able to traverse land since at least mercadian masks. Buoyancys flavour text (also referenced in that article) explains it quite well. Granted, I don't think all merfolk have this ability, but it is at the very least a fairly common merfolk trait in the MtG universe.
Sessy
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
I give it a 4.5 for the lack of evasion and the 2 toughness, but other than that it's a perfect legend.
I run it in a U/R control deck as my win-con along with Runchanter's Pike. With him and his invocation I've had 12 Drakes out at once. It's pretty boss.
MoonMistWolf
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
me and my friends went to the prerealse and bought 3 of the intro decks. the ones with Krenko, mob boss Talrand, Sky summoner and Yeva, nature's Hearld and the intro decks coem with 2 boosters each, both me and my friend pulled the legendarys from the deck a Yeva and another Talrand while my other friend didnt get anyhting cool haha
I'm seeing three major routes here: {U}/{R} Counter/Aggro w/ Dragonauts (or a standard replacement such as Delver) either Charmbreaker Devils or Favorable Winds (not both at the same time as the Winds doesn't help the Devils) If you swing Favorable Winds go with Delver, if you go with the Devils...add more combat tricks in place of Delver
I hope this helps build people into some truly unique decks. (Also consider him in a Alara based {W}/{U} Merfolk tokens deck casting and buying back Summon the Schools)
Manite
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Step 1: Cast Talrand, Sky Summoner (keep some counter spells handy, particularly Negate). Step 2: Cast Talrand's Invocation Step 3: Cast Call to Mind, retrieve Talrand's Invocation. Step 4: Cast a second Call to Mind, retrieve the first one. Step 5: Repeat until you're out of mana or you have as many Drake tokens as you want.
Crosserenti
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I did the white blue, using tokens as win. But white and blue are nasty together in general, given that both can heavily control. Silent Departure, Feeling of Dread, so on, with token generation (namely Lingering Souls and Gather the Townsfolk). Flashback makes Talrand extremely powerful with almost any color. Easily one of the more powerful cards of M13
Talas_Merchant
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
Have a white permanent out and abuse View from Above to make cheapish drake tokens. Or use him with Tamiyo, the Moon Sage's ultimate ability, duh. He looks like a superhero, too. Look at those muscules, arrogant pose and outlandish outfit... a poster child for today's magic, this mermaid dude is.
Splizer
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
U/G control would be an alright casual deck with this, I can envision it with Deadly Recluse and Fog Bank holding the line while the rest of the deck counters and accumulates resources and game-winners. And drakes, of course.
RickT
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(3 votes)
Ha, I had a fun time reading the vorthos discussion about merfolk and legs. As its been pointed out, merfolk from some planes have legs or at least the ability to have them. In this case I'd like to point out that Talrand is not just a merfolk, but a blue aligned wizard, so his form could be created.
As a card this is a solid good. Maybe its not stellar, but it would be worth building around. I was thinking of a trying a blue/red flashback deck anyway, which would be a sky full of drakes with this fellow.
CrispusAllen26
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Can anyone tell me if this works with isochron scepter?
This guy with Mentor of the Meek also sounds fun, maybe enough to build Omniscience around for a solid card-draw outlet.
WanderleiSilva
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Will see play in weak formats.
Diachronos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Talrand pairs well with any of the other 4 colors:
Red - Most red decks rely on at least some burn spells, and Standard currently has plenty of great spells to pair with Talrand (Pillar of Flame, Searing Spear, Flames of the Firebrand, Wild Guess...). Not to mention that the pre-con that features him is a {R}{U} deck.
White - There's no color, except for Green, that compares to White for token production and improving. Intangible Virtue is obviously a great boon, and there are also a lot of spells that can give you more flying guys (Midnight Haunting and Lingering Souls are going to give you two 1/1s and a 2/2, all with flying... for 1 mana each!) or protect you (Safe Passage, Cloudshift for creatures)
Black - Kill spells give you removal AND Drakes with him on the field, and there's rarely a time when you wouldn't benefit from a tutor or Sign in Blood.
Green - Pump spells can make him harder to kill in addition to giving you more flyers, plus there's mana ramp opportunities and Parallel Lives that you can benefit from.
N3wtn
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(2 votes)
I get the feeling I'm going to be seeing this guy used as an EDH general a lot. Hell, I'm even mulling it over.
Lyoncet
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Really cool card. I just don't know quite how viable he is for the draw-go finisher role compared to other cards we've seen. (Granted most of them are rotating, but that just makes the archetype worse; it doesn't really make this card better.) He combos well with the instants you'll be running anyways, sure. But draw-go decks also have very low threat density. Their win conditions usually need to give instant or near-instant advantage, like Grave Titan or Consecrated Sphinx, or to be resilient, like Sphinx of Jwar Isle. But this guy doesn't have either of those things. Sure, he's cheaper, but he's very likely to die without giving you anything in return, which isn't helped by the 2 in the back. Yes, he does give great incremental advantage, he's reeeaaalllly slllloooooowwww compared to traditional draw-go standbys, which gives your opponent time to find answers or break out of your lock.
However, if you can afford to wait a few extra turns until you can Unsummon him or Negate their kill spell, well, you just 2-for-1ed them in the sickest way possible. Usually cards that need other cards to perform well aren't that great, but if they're good cards and you'd run them anyways, it's often more than worth it. Just as I predicted Delver of Secrets would prove (spoiler: it did).
Anggul
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I've played a few games with this guy, and I can safely say that he is immense.
Throwing out so many creatures for casting the spells which Blue needs to cast anyway is so useful, and I even tried out Divination a few times with pretty good success. We all know Divination is rubbish, but when it becomes: 3 CMC, 'Draw two cards, spawn a 2/2 flyer' it's suddenly glorious.
j_mindfingerpainter
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
NOOOOO not into the Delver deck!
@ CrispusAllen26: On Isochron Scepter it says "... cast the copy without paying its mana cost." If it says cast, then yes, this triggers and gets you a Drake.
Hunted0Lesser
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Burning Vengeance' new best friend.
Lief098
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
I really like him as a general in EDH. You can pretty much just build a solid mono-blue control deck with lots of card draw and other fun shenanigans, then throw him in as the commander to get some drakes whenever he happens to be on the field.
I've always been told that the best generals in EDH are the ones that greatly improve their deck when they're out, but aren't required to make the deck run. Talrand seems pretty perfect in this respect, at least in my eyes.
v0idsl1m3
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Found a sick combo with this guy and Archaeomancer. Have them both out and cast Cloudshift targeting Archaeomancer. When Archaeomancer's enter the battlefield triggers, target the same Cloudshift...and repeat. Get as many Drakes as you have white mana to spend! It also helps that Cloudshift can save your Talrand from being Murdered, and cloudshifting Archaeomancer otherwise is great for bringing back an important instant or sorcery on the fly.
Mr.happyface
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Am I crazy for creating a EDH deck with this guy?
stompfest
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
so sick in limited with archaeomancer and disentomb. chump block with archaeomancer endlessly and poop out an army of 2/2 flyers in the process.
AncientTimer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Yeah sure! Now even Blue is better than Green in producing creatures. I'm getting sick of continuously changing color pie.
Thanks R&D for an overpowered & totally out of flavor creature.
Happyface1515
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@ancienttimer Yeah maybe but it's supposed to be used with instants and sorceries which blue is supposed to be good at.
Knick_Knack
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I believe he's found the heart of Davy Jones...
Anyway, this guy is a powerhouse. He pulls major weight in my Azami, Lady of Scrolls EDH. Works wonders with phyrexian mana spells as well.
Exclaimer999
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
I've been playing around with his deck in DotP 2013, and MY GOD...
He has so many powerful stuff it's unreal.
First off, he has himself in his deck (No duh.) to start, along with four of Talrand's Invocation, which are pretty badass in his deck. He also starts with Sphinx-Bone Wand, which excels in that deck.
Nothing quite beats being able to turn Time Warp into Time Stretch, charging your wand twice for every spell, playing your Rite Of Replication kicked for only 5 mana the following turn, and other general nonsense.
Imprint Time Warp on there? Infinite turns. Rite? Five mana for five copies of ANY creature EVERY turn. Time Reversal? Now that's just fun to do, not too practical, but really fun.
This guy is awesome. After unlocking his full deck in DotP, I decided to make a deck around his, similar to it (But with stuff like Ancestral Recalls, Brainstorm, and Omnipotence.
Hermeezey
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
As if Delver decks needed another boost. Good job wizards -_-
Anomica
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Every opponents I've played that uses this guy always plays him turn four. That just feels wrong to me... specially since I'm running Kessig Blue with 6 mb'd wipers.. Maybe I'm naive and missing something, but this guy seems to influence many greedy plays..
Drewid
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
legacy casual, with gelectrode sounds like a blast with this guy. just r/b control... my question is the difference between playing and casting spells... if i replicate shattering spree 4 times, do i get 5 babies? same with isochron scepter.. i know the scepter puts the imprinted spell on the stack, but does it count as casting it??
p.s. look out for him in standard with the new goblin that makes instants and sorceries cost 1 less!
Lord_of_Gelectrodes
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Delver is unoriginal. Run it alongside Glectrode in Izzet!
Poperp98
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Drewid Talrand's a beast! He does get the drake off of Isochron Scepter as you are activating an ability which casts the spell. Replicate, however, only puts copies on the stack which does not constitute as casting a spell, thus no drakes.
Morgaledh
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Jeez is this card for real? In BLUE?
Osprey_93
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Yet another overpowered card to run In my Izzet Edh, though an interesting question since worldfire is in my there (my friends don't follow the banlist) if i worldfire talrand does the drakeenter play before or after the wipe?
don_miguel
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
how about put together this guy with lullmage mentor? at least fun i guess
kidcanasta
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Talrand's lack of immediate impact represents him needing to finish his Monster Munch.
saucyninja007
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
This guy is AMAZING in my draw-go deck. Really sweet when you have two of them out at the same time. Oh, you aren't going to give me a creature to counter? Okay, I'll just cast think twice TWICE at the end of your turn, placing two 2/2 flyers onto the battlefield under my control. Oh, it is my turn now? Yeah, I can attack with my two 2/2 flyers now. Just friggin sweet this guy.
LiXinjian
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@saucyninja007: Perhaps you missed the line where it says Talrand is.. wait for it... Legendary?
@Osprey_93 The drake happens when you cast the spell, and so will be on the battlefield before the spell resolves.
abcent1
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
does the drake effect apply when casting copy's of spells??
lilwolf2005
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Played 2013 draft and cracked open my first pack to find him. I figured I would pick him and build around him and went red blue. Good god, what a monster. It's frightening how out of hand he gets, casting a burn spell here and a counter there, and before you know it, drake army. Took 1st by the way.
lopackuub
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@ saucyninja007
you can't have two out, he's legendary...
Justice1337
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I keep reading Talrand as "Tallyrand". It's annoying.
Bufzar
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I didn't notice this till i saw a wallpaper of the art but.
He's holding a coral encrusted heart.
Continue
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This guy is seeing play in Vintage, as is his smaller red counterpart Young Pyromancer.
TheGigiBeast
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Question here: if I use Riku's second ability, will it count for two castrd sorceries/instants so i would put two tokens in play???
MattLynn
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Drake liege needed. Drakes could be a fun tribal aspect, especially considering blue's the typical color for mutants, illusions and similar things like spirits to allow for creativity in such approach. I personally liked Stitched Drake, but could see human/drake and elemental/drake becoming another possible avenue to check out.
car2n
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This could lead to some very quick and boring games.
Comments (66)
No idea.
Lots of drakes, though...
Who ever said merfolk don't make sense in magic because uhhhh they can't walk on land needs to reexamine the game. You can equip a mountain goat with a giant sword, hell... you can equip a Fog Bank with a suit of armor... things in this game don't always have to make sense! Merfolk are cool, SHIPS are cool; blue is missing the obvious naval component to its island based power.
Don't Zendikarian Merfolk have the ability to switch back and forth?
Why? Because flavourwise, how else would they be participating in the battle between you and your opponent? How else would they intervene when that ogre comes charging for you, and how else would they be able to attack your opponent?
I remember a daily MTG article on this subject, probably around zendikar block, but I wasn't able to find it. However, it mentions that merfolk have been able to traverse land since at least mercadian masks. Buoyancys flavour text (also referenced in that article) explains it quite well.
Granted, I don't think all merfolk have this ability, but it is at the very least a fairly common merfolk trait in the MtG universe.
I run it in a U/R control deck as my win-con along with Runchanter's Pike. With him and his invocation I've had 12 Drakes out at once. It's pretty boss.
Gelectrode
Wee Dragonauts
Charmbreaker Devils
Favorable Winds
Intangible Virtue
I'm seeing three major routes here:
{U}/{R} Counter/Aggro
w/ Dragonauts (or a standard replacement such as Delver)
either Charmbreaker Devils or Favorable Winds (not both at the same time as the Winds doesn't help the Devils)
If you swing Favorable Winds go with Delver, if you go with the Devils...add more combat tricks in place of Delver
{W}/{U} Token/Control
w/ Midnight Haunting, Gather the Townsfolk, Intangible Virtue,
{W}/{U} Token/Exalted
w/ Sublime Archangel, Builder's Blessing, Intangible Virtue (as an alt wincon).
I hope this helps build people into some truly unique decks. (Also consider him in a Alara based {W}/{U} Merfolk tokens deck casting and buying back Summon the Schools)
Step 2: Cast Talrand's Invocation
Step 3: Cast Call to Mind, retrieve Talrand's Invocation.
Step 4: Cast a second Call to Mind, retrieve the first one.
Step 5: Repeat until you're out of mana or you have as many Drake tokens as you want.
As a card this is a solid good. Maybe its not stellar, but it would be worth building around. I was thinking of a trying a blue/red flashback deck anyway, which would be a sky full of drakes with this fellow.
Red - Most red decks rely on at least some burn spells, and Standard currently has plenty of great spells to pair with Talrand (Pillar of Flame, Searing Spear, Flames of the Firebrand, Wild Guess...). Not to mention that the pre-con that features him is a {R}{U} deck.
White - There's no color, except for Green, that compares to White for token production and improving. Intangible Virtue is obviously a great boon, and there are also a lot of spells that can give you more flying guys (Midnight Haunting and Lingering Souls are going to give you two 1/1s and a 2/2, all with flying... for 1 mana each!) or protect you (Safe Passage, Cloudshift for creatures)
Black - Kill spells give you removal AND Drakes with him on the field, and there's rarely a time when you wouldn't benefit from a tutor or Sign in Blood.
Green - Pump spells can make him harder to kill in addition to giving you more flyers, plus there's mana ramp opportunities and Parallel Lives that you can benefit from.
Hell, I'm even mulling it over.
However, if you can afford to wait a few extra turns until you can Unsummon him or Negate their kill spell, well, you just 2-for-1ed them in the sickest way possible. Usually cards that need other cards to perform well aren't that great, but if they're good cards and you'd run them anyways, it's often more than worth it. Just as I predicted Delver of Secrets would prove (spoiler: it did).
Throwing out so many creatures for casting the spells which Blue needs to cast anyway is so useful, and I even tried out Divination a few times with pretty good success. We all know Divination is rubbish, but when it becomes: 3 CMC, 'Draw two cards, spawn a 2/2 flyer' it's suddenly glorious.
@ CrispusAllen26: On Isochron Scepter it says "... cast the copy without paying its mana cost." If it says cast, then yes, this triggers and gets you a Drake.
I've always been told that the best generals in EDH are the ones that greatly improve their deck when they're out, but aren't required to make the deck run. Talrand seems pretty perfect in this respect, at least in my eyes.
Have them both out and cast Cloudshift targeting Archaeomancer. When Archaeomancer's enter the battlefield triggers, target the same Cloudshift...and repeat. Get as many Drakes as you have white mana to spend!
It also helps that Cloudshift can save your Talrand from being Murdered, and cloudshifting Archaeomancer otherwise is great for bringing back an important instant or sorcery on the fly.
Thanks R&D for an overpowered & totally out of flavor creature.
Anyway, this guy is a powerhouse. He pulls major weight in my Azami, Lady of Scrolls EDH. Works wonders with phyrexian mana spells as well.
He has so many powerful stuff it's unreal.
First off, he has himself in his deck (No duh.) to start, along with four of Talrand's Invocation, which are pretty badass in his deck. He also starts with Sphinx-Bone Wand, which excels in that deck.
The unlockables make that deck so much better.
He gets a Time Warp fairly early, along with Cast Through Time... and that's when the deck gets crazy.
Nothing quite beats being able to turn Time Warp into Time Stretch, charging your wand twice for every spell, playing your Rite Of Replication kicked for only 5 mana the following turn, and other general nonsense.
Then you get Panoptic Mirror.
Imprint Time Warp on there? Infinite turns. Rite? Five mana for five copies of ANY creature EVERY turn. Time Reversal? Now that's just fun to do, not too practical, but really fun.
This guy is awesome. After unlocking his full deck in DotP, I decided to make a deck around his, similar to it (But with stuff like Ancestral Recalls, Brainstorm, and Omnipotence.
p.s. look out for him in standard with the new goblin that makes instants and sorceries cost 1 less!
Talrand's a beast! He does get the drake off of Isochron Scepter as you are activating an ability which casts the spell. Replicate, however, only puts copies on the stack which does not constitute as casting a spell, thus no drakes.
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Goblin rally
4 goblin electromancer
4 guttersnipe
4 talrand, sky summoner
4 talrand's invocation
4 dynacharge
4 think twice
and lands to fill it out.
amazingly consistent and effective. replace dragon fodder with pillar of flame or brimstone volley to make it standard.
you can't have two out, he's legendary...
He's holding a coral encrusted heart.