The Spoiling of New Phyrexia: Wrath of Wizards

Due to some amazing investigative journalism the leak of New Phyrexia (NPH) has been tracked to 4 French players including Guillaume Wafo-Tapo and current world champion Guillaume Matignon. A dark day no doubt. by sharing the god book he was given to give him the knowledge he needed to write articles, Matignon betrayed the trust of wizards and was the source of the leak. all players involved have been banned form DCI play for years to come. Matignon suffering the worst of the punishment banned till 2014. A painful punishment for magic addicts no doubt. but perhaps a fitting punishment.

Glistening Oil- Sleeper hit of the set.

Glistening Oil: BB Enchantment- Aura Enchant creature

Enchanted creature has Infect.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a -1/-1 counter on enchanted creature.
When Glistening Oil is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, return Glistening Oil to its owner's hand.

Starcity Games and ChannelFireball are both running this card for between .50cents and a dollar.  And this card is endlessly useful. Lets talk about its applications in monoblack control against a non infect opponent.
Turn Two- your opponent plays a squad hawk. your turn two rolls around and you glistening oil it. assuming you have no blocking creatures you are trading one poison counter for one dead hawk and your removal spell returned to your hand. that alone would make this worth fielding then you start factoring in throwing it on things like goblin guide taking a total of 3 poison wile slowing there attack 2 damage every turn. (wile still netting the gain of the land drawing). so even with out combos this is a strong card. now lets talk about Phyrexian Obliterator and Lashwrithe. assuming you can get a turn four Obliterator out, of an earlier turn flyer like a night hawk. you can then be in a position to two shot them. by swinging the next turn with a now infect creature that will next turn be lashed for +4/+4 to +6/+6 you can really be pulling peoples heads off.

Combos: Hex parasite. by removing the counters from your now infect Obliterator he will retain his 5/5 status as well as be generating pumps for your hex parasite. beyond that any time you have a blocker to defend against there oil'ed creatures who are dying you can simply remove the infect -1/-1s from your creatures and use them again to pump the parasite.

Will this card define the format? probably not. but will this card see major play? you bet it will, get your play set now for 2 dollars.

Batterskull the Unreal

Folk it takes allot to impress me now a days. 5 mana for a Living weapon equipment that comes in a 4/4 Life-link with vigilance starts to come to that line. then add the fact that it has pay 3 return it to your hand to defend itself and/or re-spawn a germ token? Battereskull is fantastic. When I saw it my first thought was how mean a follow up to phyrexia negater this card would be. but then i had a thought that kind of hurt.... what about stoneforge mystic? for one white mana and one colorless mana you will be able to search your deck for a 4/4 Life-link with vigilance, thats nice. but on turn three sneaking him into play for two mana? now that is just wrong. The addition of Batterskull is going to be a format defining addition. It will change the way aggro decks are constructed as his healing is to much to deal with other wise. it will change the way caw-blade (soon to be called caw-skull) will be played. and it will warp the meta at least until stoneforge mystic is distanced from this piece of evil in October.

The Death of a Tyrant. (Jace, The Mind Sculptor)

All tyrants fall. Small bands of rebels unite and become an army organized and designed to down the tyrant. This isn't a revolution in some war torn country. This is Magic: The Gathering. This is the death of Jace and the start of the down fall of Caw-Blade. It had to happen. No king rules for ever, and jace's days are numbered, beware the Ides of May. (Middle of May) With the release of New Phyerixa (NPH) There will be a large number of anti-caw blade answers. From the hex parasite drinking planes walkers counters for +1/+0 for each counter eaten to surgical extraction removing all jaces after the first from your deck. There is a new wind blowing in, no longer will new players be stifled under the crushing presence of a very expensive deck that is very unendurable both to play as and to play against. From Karn to The Hidden One we have new answers for old problems. Caw-Blade on the other hand is left in a bit of a pickle. Only about 4 card slots (one play set) in the main deck are up for grabs in most peoples caw-blade deck. So other then say a one card improvement they are locked into the cards on the list other wise they risk deviating and becoming.....unique. Beyond that, the card considered by most to be the power house of NPH, Karn is mostly a waste in caw-blade. Starting the game over with a bird or a sword in play seems a bit lack luster when held in compression to starting with a myr battle sphere, Gideon Jura, or Blight Steel Colossus(yikes!). Between NPH delivering new answers and the player base looking though the existing type two sets and finding old answers over looked, we are entering the apex of the Jace era and the crux of the new meta of Standard. To all you pathfinders out there finding a new way, the rest of us wish you Good Luck and God Speed.