Magic: the Gathering Articles

This category will try to bring you new content as it pertains to the card game of Magic: the Gathering. Decklists will be provided for various formats such as EDH, Standard and Legacy.

Happy Reading!

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Gatecrash Preview: Cinder Elemental

cinderelementalWe’ve met before, no?

old cinder

Yeah, I remember now …

Just kidding! It’s not exactly  creature you would remember much unless you did some Mercadian Masques block limited events. It was even better back then since combat damage went on the stack and stuff.

You 100% want this in any red draft/sealed deck as it splashes well and doubles as a removal/potential win condition. If you are playing Red/White/Black, attack with Treasury Thrull and get this guy back to keep Blazing your opponent or his creatures. Not ‘blazingly fast’ though, more like ‘blazingly slow’ but it’s fine, we’re in a limited format.

He can obviously just chump a creature then tap, shoot and kill another one. Not bad at all for a little uncommon!

 

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Gatecrash Preview: Cartel Aristocrat

cartelaristocrat

Not quite Falkenrath Aristocrat eh?

Nice something that looks like a vampire but isn’t. It’s definitely a great sacrifice outlet that can potentially become unblockable or dodge a removal by pushing someone in the way of it. (Love the quote) Stats are fine for the cost too. You can sacrifice a ‘enters’ the battlefield creature to it and use Treasury Thrull to get it back and repeat.

It does have a slim chance of seeing Standard play. I was thinking that since it’s a human it can fit into a deck featuring Ravenous Demon. Once you have nothing substantial to sacrifice to the demon, you can cast this guy and sac the demon and not fall victim to its disgusting drawback. Ouch!

ravenous demon 1 ravenous demon 2

Stranger things HAVE happened!

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Gatecrash Preview: Call of the Nightwing

callofthenightwing (1)A one card combo? Neat!

A nice little token generator that potentially keeps on generating tokens!

Since the Cipher ability resolves after the spell itself resolves, you will have the 1/1 token with flying in play and can legally Cipher onto it. How cool is that? It’s a common play in limited for sure and most probably some will attempt it in Standard.

Dimir Keyrune and Invisible Stalker say Hi! as well.

invisible stalker

 

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Gatecrash Preview: Burning-Tree Emissary

burningtreeemissaryCombo?

Quite an interesting creature in aggressive decks as it can be a free 2/2 creature. Sometimes you can chain one into another into another. It’s more probable in Limited due to the 40 card deck size versus 60 in constructed.

burningtreeemissary>burningtreeemissary >burningtreeemissary

Combo!

I’m not convinced this thing will be good enough in Constructed but people will try, that’s for sure! I like it personally because in older formats you can play it on turn to into something like Umezawa’s Jitte which is great.

If you bring a bunch back from your graveyard via something like Living Death you get a mana refund which is kinda cool.

 

 

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Gatecrash Preview: Boros Reckoner

borosreckoner

Oh My! Spitemare has Evolved!

This is a pretty big deal if there ever was on in Gatecrash. A 3/3 creature for 3 in either Red or White with nothing but bonuses is really pushing the curve. Sure, it’s all colored mana and no colorless, but it’s well worth it. If you do some quick math, you will notice that this minotaur can take down things like Primeval Titan and Wurmcoil Engine (or both its tokens). These creatures are not in Standard at the moment, but they are in Modern. There just happens to be one obscure Modern format deck that will be trying to fit this guy in:

jeanhugues (3-1)
Modern Daily #4776257 on 12/29/2012

Main Deck
60 cards

3 Scrying Sheets
21 Snow-Covered Mountain
24 lands

3 Magus of the Moon
4 Spellskite
3 Thundermaw Hellkite
10 creatures

2 Batterskull
4 Blood Moon
2 Dismember
2 Flame Javelin
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Pyroclasm
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Skred
26 other spells

Sideboard
4 Mindbreak Trap
2 Slagstorm
4 Torpor Orb
4 Vandalblast
1 Wurmcoil Engine
15 sideboard cards

Yup! right at home! I had suggested Boggart Ram-Gang as a 3-power creature for 3 that would be good versus bigger creatures as well since it would effectively shrink them down with Wither. It was tested with less than good results, but I think Reckoner is a four-of in this build. The overall Moon color-screw package will remain as well as giving you the opportunity for hitting a potentially lethal Skred late game.

skredCome on Boros Reckoner, take one for the team!

For Legacy or casual decks, there’s always:

didgeridoo

Blast from a forgotten past

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Gatecrash Preview: Boros Keyrune

boroskeyrune

Cute, but good enough?

Ah! another keyrune. While a little more costly than the original Ravnica Signets, they do give mana on their own and also animate into creatures when needed.

This one basically becomes a Boros Swiftblade. Sure it’s cool and all, but how often do you see this being good? if you do have an equipment to slap onto this, keep in mind it will cost you 2 to ‘creaturize’ this and 2 or more to equip. Not very efficient methinks.

Alternatively….

callofthenightwing

Cipher? of course!

From the Gatecrash FAQ:

“702.97c The card with cipher remains encoded on the chosen creature as long as the card with cipher remains exiled and the creature remains on the battlefield. The card remains encoded on that object even if it changes controller or stops being a creature, as long as it remains on the battlefield.”

Nice! So we can Cipher things onto it. What would the advantage be? Well, over the other keyrunes, I’d say that this one woudl cause Ciphere to trigger twice. That’s double peanut butter and chocolate awesome!

peanut butter and chocolate + peanut butter and chocolate

Double Yummy!

The color combination might be off though, since it might be 4 color. But if we go with blue/white/red we have a few ciphers to work with:

handsofbinding lastthoughts stolenidentity

Which seems cooler to you? 

Obviously Stolen Identit  right?

stolenidentity

Did you catch it?

That’s right! you’re not only cloning a creature, you’re cloning Mana! That’s some kind of weird ramp, no? I think it’s rather funny. An ‘Explosive Vegetation‘ each time you double strike. Of course you can just copy a better creature but this gets you infinite more style points.

The other 2 are fine as well. One is like a ‘double Frost Titan‘ and the other a better Thieving Magpie. Either way, it’s probably something to think about. Otherwise, you are just looking at hitting for two damage on an post-Supreme Verdict battlefield.

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Gatecrash Preview: Dual Lands

sacredfoundry godlessshrine waterygrave

breedingpool stompingground

Yeap! they’re back as well!

Some are nicer than the old ones and some are not.

sacred old godless old watery old

 

breeding old stomping old

 

The ‘originals’

I guess the big difference is also the flavor text. You can still play the old duals in order to confuse your opponent if they randomly catch a peek of your hand. I sometimes do that with the old Ghost Quarter from Dissension. People stop me and ask if it’s Standard legal. Goes to show how much the card sees play eh?

You should probably snatch these up early if you want to build your Gatecrash Standard decks as they are probably the Number One card in demand at the set’s release. If you are going to purchase boxes, I believe the ratio is more or less 3 per booster box. Let us know how many you pulled in your box by commenting below!

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Gatecrash Preview: the Guildgates

borosguildgate orzhovguildgate dimirguildgate

 

gruul guildgate simicguildgate

 

Yay! Manafixing to the rescue!

I know most of you guys think these are usually relegated to Drafts, Sealed and Pauper decks. The RB aggro deck ran 4 Rakdos Guildgates, so we might see one of these played in Constructed as well. Usually they will act as the third dual land behind the M13/Innistrad duals and of course, the Ravnica duals.

You pretty much always play these on the early turns due to the fact that they come into play tapped, unless you want to mess with your opponent by implying that you’re ‘Color short’ in some cases. The artwork on these is pretty cool and I vastly prefer them to the original Ravnica block common lands. They are pretty much a straight port of the Invasion uncommon ‘dual land’ cycle with a rarity downgrade.

Oh! and you get one guaranteed in your guild pack for when you do pre-releases. Might want to keep that in mind.

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Gatecrash Preview: Boros Charm

boroscharm

Wait, what?

Wow! this is one charm I think everyone can get behind. All three modes are sooooo good in constructed!
1) 4 damage to target player? for two mana? Yes please. How insane is that? I think even regular mono-red decks will splash white via Sacred Foundry and Clifftop Retreat to go out of their way in order to play this burn.

2) Permanents you control are indestructible until end of turn? Take that Supreme Verdict! I think Terminus will have to be the solution now, hands down.

Note: it will however not save your planeswalkers from dying to unblocked attackers.
Bonus: Play it in commander with something like obliterate and watch your opponents cry!

3) Double strike? Double Cleave? Slap that on an unblocked creature and double your damage output. It can be pretty insane with any creature ability that triggers via combat damage or a creature that has something Ciphered on it as well.

flame rift rootborn defenses EN MTGHOP Cards V3.indd

Which mode will you choose?

All 3 modes make you want to run 4 maindeck in any Boros deck and quite possibly Naya decks. It keeps the aggro going at all times. In Commander, I would again consider this in my Gisela deck. I can tutor it up with Sunforger and effectively ‘Negate‘ a Wrath of God -style effect. I probably won’t be choosing the other two options much.

Well, the 4 damage ability usually makes quick work of a few early planeswalkers.

Burn spells are generally half as effective in Commander due to the fact that players start at 40 life. In this context, red decks are generally disadvantaged and also less popular. Aside from burn damage, Chaos Warp is probably on of the few red spells to deal with planeswalkers. Including this in your 100-card deck will give you some unexpected range.

In those Magical Christmas land situations, you can always cast this targeting your Gisela and bring your opponent 1 damage short of losing to Commander damage. We can always dream right?

Sweet dreams!