While I was playing Stoneforge Mystic Junk at the 5K, I noticed something about the deck. Can you spot the trend?
The answer is in the extended entry.
That's right, the key power cards in this deck are all women.
One of the things that's always pleased me about Wizards Creative is their policy of valuing women. I'll repeat here something I've cited before from the Magic style guide:
Feel free to paint beautiful women, as long as they're shown kicking ass. No damsels in distress. No ridiculously exaggerated breasts. No nudity.
This being said with the explicit understanding that their demographic is teenage boys. I love them for that. Why not show kickass women instead of, well, the random cover copy off of two thirds of Marvel's "year of the woman" line?
So, here's the tally:
Women
Noble Hierarch
Stoneforge Mystic
Knight of the Reliquary
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Emeria Angel
Men
Borderland Ranger
Kor Firewalker
Hard to say
Qasali Pridemage
Wolfbriar Elemental
Thornling
Stirring Wildwood
You may, like many people I've run into, not have realized that the Knight is a woman. Indeed, she is:
This is the kind of thing I notice when I'm surveying my board, trying to figure out how to win against Rafiq and an exalted, double-striking Rhox War Monk.