Dark Ascension! What are the new big cards?

Dark Ascension..........

Holy cow, new set for this awesome Innistrad block, and it's just as flavorful and fun looking as the first set.  Wizards has completely outdone themselves with this block so far, and this set is no different.  As such, these are the cards I hope to bust open at the release this weekend..........

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad:

The newest of the planeswalkers! Sorin's new form is one of the best planeswalkers to come out, I feel his power level is almost on par with Elspeth, Knight Errant.  In a control deck, his stream of 1/1 vampires help keep him alive until he can pop his ultimate and wreck the opponent, or if the opponent has no good targets for said ultimate, he can just use his second ability and make his 1/1's into an army that can kill the opponent in quick fashion.  In aggro, I can see him used as a finisher with stacked emblems to make quick work of the opponent.  Ultimately, I feel Sorin is best suited for aggro-control decks, as they can use all the abilities to great effectiveness.  Sorin, along with another card on this list will cause the rise of a new archetype in Standard, Tokens!  Whether it will be straight Black/White or if it will be White/another color with a black splash is still up for question, but Sorin is too powerful to not be included in such a list.

Speaking of tokens.......

Lingering Souls

This is said token generator from above that will put tokens into forefront of Standard.  It's closest analogies to previous cards would be Spectral Procession and Midnight Haunting.  Spectral Procession and Lingering Souls are at a similar power level in my eyes, however Lingering Souls is almost a strict upgrade to Midnight Haunting.  The flashback for two extra tokens more than makes up for the sorcery speed.  This and Sorin makes tokens a strong archetype, as there are already some very good token makers, along with some good support cards within Dark Ascension.

Faithless Looting

Onto something less token oriented, and more straight up advantage....... Faithless Looting is one of the best cards within the new set, as it's power level is very, very strong.  In standard and block, this card boost every deck that includes red with an awesome card draw/selection spell.  It's very strong with all the cards that go well in the graveyard, specifically flashback, and it's early game card advantage is a huge plus. Looking to the older formats, the card just gets even better.  It is an auto include in Dredge in legacy, and has potential to help out just about any red deck that needs some card advantage.

Gravecrawler and Geralf's Messanger

I lumped these two bad boys together as they are the reasons why a mono black deck can exist in standard now.  Between these two, Liliana of the Veil, Lashwrithe, and Phyrexian Obliterator, the deck is actually viable.  While I don't believe the deck will ever be tier one without some more help, it will be around nonetheless.  Gravecrawler is quite synergistic, and very, very hard to deal with in a zombie based deck, while Geralf's Messanger is a very good mirrored version of Kitchen Finks.  They both do well what the mono black deck will want to do, kill the opponent as quickly as possible.

Evolving Wilds

I never thought I'd be so happy to see this card reprinted, but this little gem will allow the enemy color decks to have enough fixing to function well for standard.  The format had enough allied color fixers to make allied pair decks work well, but there just wasn't enough to allow enemy pairs to function without getting color screwed half the time.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Why hello new awesome 2 drop for Humans.  In standard this card is an easy inclusion to the Humans deck, where she'll fit curve while letting the deck setup to kill the opponent quickly, without much fear of removal.  She'll be a great fit for some eternal hatebears decks as well, as the Thorn of Amethyst effect will do much to stymie the shenanigans of Vintage, and be a thorn in many Legacy decks as well.

Tragic Slip

Well now we come to the best removal card of the set.  As a 1 mana kill a 1 toughness creature, it is solid for the current standard format, and the morbid on the card makes this little guy turn into kill anything that can be targeted, including indestructible.  I see this card complementing well in the black removal suite with Doom Blade, Dismember, Go for the Throat, Geth's Verdict, Tribute to Hunger, and Black Sun's Zenith.  

In no particular order, this is a collection of the most powerful cards I see from the set.  There are a few others that I feel are good but not quite on par with the collection I have here.  In any case, I plan to go to the release event this weekend and it should be quite fun!