It's been a great weekend of previews of Masters Edition 3 for the mtgo community. What could be better than myMTGO.com having it's own? (You tell me)

I don't usually have the patience to read the first words in the preview so I'll spare you the agony.

Blood Lust is originally from Legends and has been reprinted in 4th ed and 5th ed and I've played with it and against it in Shandalaar (the very old Magic game for the PC).
Back then, you'd start with a crappy deck and Blood Lust was about one of the few ways to sneak in damage for the win but it usually made creatures trade (because it's not Giant Growth)

Blood Lust has 2 basic functions:

1) It gives you 4 damage for 2 mana if you have a creature out.
2) It drops the toughness of a creature by at most 4 but usually the creature ends up a X/1. (Unless the creature has a toughness of 6)

All this happened in a time where small red creatures had nothing much but drawbacks.  Now we timeshift into the present day where we have Mogg Fanatic, Grim Lavamancer, Lava Dart, Fireslinger (!!!), Seal of Fire and many more cards to make Blood Lust work better. Admittedly, the thought of it messing up because it needs creatures is not really appealling but it is one of the few spells in Magic that give you 4 damage for 2 mana, the other being Flame Rift which deals 4 to each player. The industry standard for 4 point burn spells is 3 mana as seen from Char, Flame Javelin or Flames of the Blood Hand.  (A good one I'm waiting for is Rhystic Lightning from Prophecy...)

If you scour the internet, Blood Lust has always been a cheap way for a new player to form a successfull "burn deck" and usually, the prefered count for Blood Lust in a 60 card deck is 2 (because it needs creatures to work).

Of course, if you play Singleton 100, you'd only need one. =) 4 points for 2 damage is wicked no matter how you look at it. You'd almost only compare this with Reckless Charge which can't be sneaky because your opponent can give you his Llanowar Elves instead of taking all that damage.

As the title suggested, there are 2 preview cards.
 

Here is #2:

Black Vise had been restricted for quite some time in Vintage because it was known to be really powerful.  I've been a victim of this card in the times of Shandalaar. (It gets annoying especially when your life carries over in dungeons)  Basically on the draw, it deals you 3 damage on turn 1. If you drop a land and have no plays, it deals 3 damage on turn 2 again. This continues until you start playing spells and drop your hand count to 4 or less. By that time, one would usually have taken 6 damage (for 1 mana). The fun doesn't stop there. With Black Vise out, most people start to play their spells out fast in order to avoid taking damage and you can easily take advantage of the situation (like not having your creatures fall to burn spells by holding them up and letting them throw burn spells at you early).

Traditionally, it's been a great enemy for the great Necropotence. In Classic, Necropotence has been restricted so Black Vise might not be able to do too much against the format... but it can still make life tough for Ad Nauseum decks just by hanging around.

And of course, if there are decks trying to hold counter magic up and waiting for you to cast spell... You'd be more than happy not to cast spells and let their hands clog up for damage. I don't know... Standstill?

It is a 1 mana artifact so you could Trinket Mage it out if you felt like it and you can throw it to Shrapnel Blast too. =))

I don't know about you but surely, I'd want to be casting Upheaval into Blackvise... *GRIN*

Also check out ClassicQuarter.com and their preview card.

Also check out PureMTGO.com and their preview card.