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: Assemble the Legion

assemblethelegion

 

A better Goblin Assault? Sign me up to the Boros Legion!

At first glance this card may not seem impressive. Then you begin to analyze it: 1 token, 2 tokens, 3 tokens…woah! It does make a LOT of tokens at a decent pace. This is probably the rare you want to open in your Boros Guild pack if you want to win. If you want value, you probably want one of these:

aureliathewarleader

Relentless Assault has never been this sexy!

If you can’t attack profitably , you can probably just wait it out and cast this lovely common:

massiveraid

‘Massive’ is correct

In Standard it will probably be the new Goblin Trenches, a card which was played in a USA Control deck back in the Invasion days of standard. This one does not cause you to sacrifice lands and makes much much more tokens. Supreme Verdict? I’ll just ‘muster’ up some more tokens and swing at you at my next turn bro! Terminus? sure, not much more effective versus this card.

Get them while they are reasonably cheap. The risk is low and the playability in casual also increases its desirability.

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Gatecrash Preview: Adaptive Snapjaw

adaptivesnapjaw

 

Gotta love that quote!

This card gives us a nice little peek at the possibilities of the ‘Evolve’ mechanic. While not being the greatest of commons, it does almost always Evolve your other Simic guild creatures. Its low toughness is actually great as it will also most likely evolve on the following turn when we cast a 3-toughness or greater creature. So basically it’s a 7/3+ for 5 mana that you have to wait a turn for. If you have played limited for some time, you surely realise that it’s a pretty good deal. It grows a creature and possibly keeps growing itself.

A great follow-up to Fathom Mage to be sure. Make Fathom Mage a 2/2 and draw a card off it. That’s probably going to be restricted to being a limited play, but who cares? Try it as an cheap casual deck for fun!

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Gatecrash Preview: Act of Treason

actoftreason

 

It’s M12 all over again!

What can be said of this reprint that has not already been said? You probably want a few when drafting or at your local pre-release. It combos great with cards that allow you to sacrifice creatures afterwards. This causes it to act as both a temporary Control Magic and a removal spell all-in-one.

The art is the main thing I personally hate about the card. I guess they couldn’t reuse the M12 art as it had to be more Ravnica-flavoured. It’s also a cool inexpensive casual and Commander card as well. The steal and sac concept being quite popular in the Commander format.

Who know, maybe we will see this played as a one-of in a Standard sideboard? Maybe some decks will prefer to just need 3 mana over the five required for Zealous Conscripts?

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FNM Promo for January 2013

searing spear fnm

 

Standard’s version of Incinerate is hot

Searing Spear is seeing quite a bit of play in the current Standard format and it was nice of Wizards to make it January’s FNM promo. be sure to play in your local gaming store’s FNM for a chance to win one. We all love the quote and it is quite versatile as well.

FNM_logo

Click the FNM logo above to find an Friday Night Magic Event near you!

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Gatecrash Preview: Experiment One

experiment oneNot too shabby for a one drop

A lot of people are comparing the ‘Evolve’ mechanic to the old ‘Graft’ one that the Simic Guild had last Ravnica Block. I think that Evolve is slightly better though.

The regenerate ability is good if you overcommit and you’ll be able to somewhat rebuild instead of just outright losing everything. it gets better if your Turn 2 is a Strangleroot Geist (that way you get even better post Supreme Verdict recovery).

Supreme Verdict

No fear! well, kind of….

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Gatecrash Preview: Viashino Shanktail

viashino shanktailThe Bloodrush ability has been spotted on some cool cards, this not being one of them

For its regular cost, this card is not really something you would envision playing. Even in limited, you can think of this more like a spell than anything else. Getting that First Strike bonus definitely helps a lot.

The fact that it has a ‘dual role’ is still pretty good in limited. If you are in dire need of a good blockers, then he’s your man. If you wanna push through the final three points of damage, likewise.  However, if there is a common pinger in the format, this card’s value will decrease quite a bit.

Hopefully, the next Bloodrush card preview will be a bit more interesting.

 

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Gatecrash Preview: Tin Street Market

tin street marketThey can’t all be winners!

I guess this is comparable to an overcosted Bazaar of Bahgdad. I guess it ‘guarantees’ you you consistent Looting, although you need to discard first which kind of sucks.

I don’t really think there’s much more to say about this card, really. maybe Chronic Flooding # 5-8. I kid, I kid!

 

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Gatecrash Preview: Hellkite Tyrant

hellkite tyrantHmm…Mycosynth Lattice anyone?

Here comes another menacing dragon! In all seriousness though, how is this going to see play in Standard? Are you going to play ALL the Keyrunes ? Will there be some kind of cute combo with this thing? hmm… doubtful.

Mycosynth Lattice

Will they make a functional reprint of this?

Honestly the first effect on it is pretty decent. It would obviously have been better in Scars of Mirrodin Standard, but maybe we will see some awesome artifacts emerge later on in the Gatecrash spoilers. There’s Illusionist’s Bracers but that doesn’t really help out your dragon at all.

Seems like it will remain in Bulk Mythic territory for a while until some kind of use for it is uncovered. The FOIL version will probably be sought after by Commander enthusiasts and will trade rather well.

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Gatecrash Preview: Hands of Binding

hands of binding

Nice, turns your creature into a Somnophore!

Well, kind of a Somnophore. At last you can target different creatures every time.

This thing is surprisingly great for a common card and lot of people are digging this new ‘Cipher’ mechanic. For those of you that are not 100% clear:

From the WOTC official Gatecrash Mechanics page:

“

As a spell you control with cipher resolves, you may exile it and choose a creature you control. The cipher card is then encoded on that creature, and whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, its controller may copy the encoded card and cast the copy without paying its mana cost. Usually, the creature’s controller will be you, but if another player takes control of your creature (due to something like Act of Treason, for example), it takes the encoded spell with it to its new master.

Some of the finer points:

  • After you copy the encoded spell, it remains encoded on the creature (whether you cast the copy or not).
  • If more than one spell is encoded on a single creature, you can copy any or all of them when that creature deals combat damage to a player. You can cast the copies in any order.
  • The copies created by the triggered ability can’t be encoded on a creature.
  • If you cast a spell with cipher, encode it onto a creature, attack with that creature, and deal damage with that creature, you’ll get to cast that spell twice in one turn.
  • The spell’s instructions are followed in order, so exiling it and encoding it on a creature is the last thing you’ll do while resolving it.

In the case of Call of the Nightwing, that last bullet point means you can encode the spell onto the creature token the spell itself just created.

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You’re basically actively tapping down creatures versus passively with cards like Gideon’s Lawkeeper (which were just a pain in Limited). This like any of the other Cipher spells are great with cards like  Invisible Stalker, but that has been talked about many many times.

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Gatecrash Preview: Gridlock

gidlockNice flavor text!

This card is very similar to :

Gigadrowse

Again, a card of Ravnica block past

For once, not a direct upgrade of a previous card in Gatecrash. The reason being that Gigadrowse makes copies requiring each to be countered separately as opposed to Gridlock.

Realistically though, Gridlock is just way more playable in today’s Standard where most decks are 2-4 colors and don’t always have access to 4-6 blue sources at one time.

This card allows us to trump control matchups for when you essentially want to ‘tap out’ your opponent on his end step. That way you are free to cast whatever you want without getting it countered on your own turn.

In the same way, it can serve as a Tangle on your opponent’s end step. It then allows you to Alpha Strike your opponent for what would be the win, hopefully. Not a central card but defiinitely a great team player.