Cards I missed at the Prereleases

So I was talking to TS about the Prerelease and I realized very quickly that cards I had seen over and over were cards he had pretty much missed and vice versa. I figured I could take a look through the spoiler and find a few of these and talk about how awesome/awful they are. Oh, one quick note. Steve Sadin appears to be just as in love with Tel-Jilad Defiance as I am. So wooo!

First, TS mentioned some golem which I originally thought was Precursor Golem but was actually Golem Artisan. So, which would I rather in my sealed pool? Precursor is more of a put my opponent under pressure card, where Artisan kind of says, "Alpha strike for the win". I think infect decks would clearly rather the Artisan, but aggressive decks that want to kill with damage would prefer the Precursor. Certain cards (cantrips) are a serious blowout against Precursor, but it's such a deal that I think the chance is worth it.

Clone Shell - 5, Artifact Creature, Imprint — When Clone Shell enters the battlefield, look at the top four cards of your library, exile one face down, then put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
When Clone Shell is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, turn the exiled card face up. If it's a creature card, put it onto the battlefield under your control.

I like this, especially at uncommon. I wish is dug a little deeper than four cards. Even five would give you a significantly better chance of a hit. Another nice thing would be to let you get a land, but I suppose that's not flavorful.

Culling Dais - 2, Artifact,
Tap, Sacrifice a creature: Put a charge counter on Culling Dais.
1, Sacrifice Culling Dais: Draw a card for each charge counter on Culling Dais.

Here's a fun one that I wouldn't pay more for, but I think this is costed right and I like playing games with it. Especially because you can proliferate once you've got the first counter. I wish they had brought back Doubling Season for this environment, but I guess it might have been a little(lot) broken.

Strata Scythe - 3, Artifact-Equipment,
Imprint — When Strata Scythe enters the battlefield, search your library for a land card, exile it, then shuffle your library.
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each land on the battlefield with the same name as the exiled card.
Equip 3

I am trying to avoid rares, because one will run into them less, but this is one of the cards TS mentioned. This is obviously such a bomb. Even if you could only imprint a card from hand it would be good, but the flexibility to search makes it out of sight.

Tower of Calamities - 4, Artifact, 8, Tap: Tower of Calamities deals 12 damage to target creature.

Basically, it's an Aladdin's Ring for creatures and just about as playable. Maybe in a metalcraft deck with tons of mana Myrs? I don't know, even then, it just eats a Shatter...

Abuna Acolyte - 1W, Creature-Cat Cleric,
Tap: Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn.
Tap: Prevent the next 2 damage that would be dealt to target artifact creature this turn.

Now that's a Samite Healer with some guts.

Myrsmith - 1W, Creature-Human Artificer,
Whenever you cast an artifact spell, you may pay 1. If you do, put a 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature token onto the battlefield. 2/1

Ok, this seems good because 2/1s for 2 are generally playable as are 1/1 artifact creatures for one. I'll fully confess that I could be wrong about this since x/1s are so vulnerable in the environment.

Twisted Image - U, Instant,
Switch target creature's power and toughness until end of turn.
Draw a card.

As a trick, I don't think power/toughness switching is awesome in the environment (except against white) but cantrips for 1 are pretty much always playable.

Fume Spitter - B, Creature-Horror,
Sacrifice Fume Spitter: Put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.

Festering Goblin holds a special place in my heart. This isn't quite as good, or at least, it wouldn't be without proliferate.

Barrage Ogre - 3RR, Creature-Ogre Warrior, Tap, Sacrifice an artifact: Barrage Ogre deals 2 damage to target creature or player.

I would play this if I was playing red, but it would pull me into red at 2RR. Which it isn't. Boo.

Acid Web Spider - 3GG, Creature-Spider,
Reach
When Acid Web Spider enters the battlefield, you may destroy target Equipment.

Yes, yes, yes. This is the kind of card I love. It's got all kinds of utility in the environment. It eats blue fliers. It eats infect guys. Also, props to creative for not naming this Acidweb Spider. They seem to love the "smash two words together" school of naming and this one is dead on.

Finally, Tangle Angler - 3G, Creature — Horror, Infect
Green: Target creature blocks Tangle Angler this turn if able.

I have nothing to say about this card other than that it appears to be the clear favorite card name amongst casual players. Tangle angler, tangle angler, tangle angler. It is fun to say.