Wizards of the Coast had just released the latest expansion to their highly addictive trading card game, Magic: The Gathering.  Magic 2013 Core Set was released on July 13th and is available at your local game and hobby store.
A full listing of what is contained within the set has been provided by Wizards on the website.  

I’m a human player through and through.  Human decks are fun to play, simple in concept, and elegant in execution.  Quickly play as many human cards as fast as you can, overwhelm your opponent, and win as fast as possible.  An aggro deck at heart, humans are fast and furious and a blast to play.

White human decks are my specialty so I’ve spent some time reviewing the new white spells and cards to help boost my current human deck.  Let’s take a look at a few of the cards that stood out to me and will be put into my deck now that the expansion is out.  That is, assuming I can get my hands on these cards.

Anjani, Caller of the Pride

This is one of the new planeswalkers to come out with M2013 .  He is a 1 colorless 2 white mana coast and his abilities are incredible:

+1 – Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature
-3 – Target creature gains flying and double strike until end of turn.
-8 – Put X 2/2 white Cat creature tokens onto the battlefield, where X is your life total.

I can already imagine using the +1 on an already stacked with counters Champion of the Parish to add yet another +1/+1 counter, or paying the -3 and giving it flying and double strike until end of turn.  You can take a relatively harmless 3/3 creature and it now becomes a formidable 3/3 flyer with double strike until end of turn.  The -8 ability can almost be considered game winning. Even in a late game match where you may be low on life putting out, for example, 5 2/2 white Cat tokens when you have 2 Honor of the Pure and 2 Intangible Virtue  you are looking now at 5 4/4 creatures with Vigilance.  Your opponent will have a very tough time dealing with and recovering from that.

Attended Knight

This is an interesting card and one I will be experimenting with for sure.  It is a 2 colorless 1 white mana cost so it’s not the fastest human card I’ve seen but it does haves some nice abilities.  First strike is always nice to have but the second ability is what caught my eye. When Attended Knight enters the battlefield, put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the battlefield.

This card begs to be used with spells such as Cloudshift, and Restoration Angel. Having the ability to “bounce” this card in and out of the battlefield will be a great way to pump out several 1/1 white soldier creature tokens.

Knight of Glory

I’m not quite sure what to make of this card yet as far as putting him in a humans deck but he is worth mentioning and experimenting with when this set is released.  Knight of Glory has two abilities: protection from black and Exalted.  Exalted is a mechanic that has returned in M2013 after not seeing play for several years.  Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.  At first glance this is counter intuitive in a humans deck as you usually want to attack with multiple creatures.  However, I can see a scenario where you have 4 of these creatures out and then attack with a lone Champion of the Parish that has 4 counters on it. You would then be attacking with an 8/8 creature!  That thought leaves a very nice taste in my mouth.  I will definitely be putting 4 of these in my deck and play testing possible scenarios.

Odric, Master Tactician

This is an expensive cost coming in at 2 colorless and 2 white mana cost.  This is as high of a casting cost card I would put in a humans deck.  But, he is definitely worth taking a look at and experimenting with.  His first strike ability as a ¾ creature is definitely nice. However, it’s his second ability that makes him worth having in your deck: whenever Odric, Master Tactician and at least three other creatures attack, you choose which creatures block this combat and how those creatures block.  That is a very powerful and useful ability.  Remember, with a humans deck you want to produce as many creatures as you can and attack as soon as you can to fit the aggro deck mold. Having the ability to control what your opponent can block can work both ways.  You can intentionally have them block with weaker creatures in effect killing them or you can have them not block at all and come in full force doing maximum damage.  This is a very powerful card and may be replacing other 4 drops such as Hero of Bladehold in standard play.

There you have it, a look at four of the new M2013 white human cards that caught my eye.  Crafting any Magic the Gathering deck is part strategy, part personal preference and personality, but should always be 100% fun.  I’m looking forward to experimenting with these cards as well as other cards in the new set and crafting the next iteration of my humans deck.  What cards have caught your eye?  What are you looking forward to adding into your deck?  Leave a note in the comments below and let me know your thoughts.