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!
Gatecrash Preview: Alms Beast
Wait…what?
A nice little blast from the past here. Every set needs to have a creature that looks so bad it might actually be good. Right?
He reminds us a little of Abyssal Persecutor and Desecration Demon.
He has the power/toughness down.
Cost is more prohibitive.
What? no evasion? Oh.
No Trample? Ok…
It gives your opponent life? Ewww..
On the plus side:
Can always attack/block.
You can still win the game when he’s in play.
Can’t be Ultimate Priced. Yay!
So is it any good?
I’m going to say no on this one, unfortunately. In a creature-filled format where you have slightly smaller guys with advantageous abilities, I don’t think this dude can make it out there.
And no, I don’t think splashing Red for Skullcrack is worth it in this case.
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Gatecrash Preview: Skullcrack
Lose the Searing Spear versatility and gain the ‘screw your Thragtusk bonus’
Many people are probably wondering if it will be enough. I mostly see this being played in some kind of American control/aggro or izzet strategy. The obvious reason being Snapcaster Mage.
Ah! the Cracker of Skulls!
Probably not the kind of creature you think of when the term ‘Skullcrack’ is brought up. Maybe more like ‘kicks you in the skull when you’re trying to get back up’. That’s exactly what he’ll end up doing too.
Your opponent fails to gain life off his first Thragtusk? Well, flash this guy in and Skullcrack him again when he cast the next one!
Then he will have failed twice in a row! Kinda like a skater with no protective helmet.
Get it? Skullcrack? Uh….nevermind.
Don’t forget that it will allow your attackers to actually damage creatures that would otherwise have protection versus their colors. Up until now, I’m not entirely sure how relevant it will be. It’s a great bonus nonetheless.
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Gatecrash Preview: Angel Skirmisher
Here’s one from Deutchland!
Kreatur? oh! I get it… Creature!
Here’s the full translation:
“Flying
At the beginning of each combat, choose first strike, vigilance or lifelink.
Creatures you control gain the chosen ability until end of turn.”
Pretty nice ability! n’est-ce pas?
You’ll all note that this includes your opponent’s combat phases as well. It makes this extra nice. You can go like vigilance on your combat and first strike your team when you need to block. Sweet!
Cost is ‘reasonable’ and you can bet that a lot of people are going to be trying this out as a sort of slower Baneslayer Angel in some of the Aggressive and even some of the control strategies.
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Gatecrash Preview: Biovisionary
Where’s Simon Tran when you need him?
Oh nevermind, my eye for Foreign language cards tells me that this is a Japanese card. Guess I’ll have to find a translation:
At the beginning of each end step, if you control four or more creatures named ~, you win the game.
The ~ of course meaning -cardname- which in turn implies Biovisionary.
“Oh the posibilities!” – Every MTG brewmaster, ever
Just how many people are going to go out of their way to make this work?
Populate and Cackling Counterpart seem like a nice enough fit.
You all pretty much knew that ‘populate’ was just short for this card, right?
The other way to ‘tokenize’ (you like that? I just invented it!)….
To-Ken-eyes verb To make a token copy of something. “I tokenized my Emrakul and then I face-palmed!”
…. is Seance
See? you can totally see those token-eyes in the background!
It can probably fit into the whole Mirror-Mad Phantasm mill strategy and then you’d have this and Laboratory Maniac as weird ways to win. Eh….maybe not…for now.
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Gatecrash Preview: Obzedat, Ghost Council
Ghost Council of Orzhova, done right!
We are drawn with directly comparing to the old version almost immediately:
Oh the memories of this staying in my trade binder!
I guess it was a cool card for its time, but I never really liked it personally. Obviously the newer version doesn’t dodge removal as well, but it also doesn’t require a sacrifice which lessens your board presence everytime you activate it.
The life drain aspect is doubled, the 5/5 stat makes it Selesnya Charmable (Oh, I see what they did there!)
It also allows you to always dodge the Sorcery Speed removal. Black/White has always been one of the most popular color combinations, perhaps due to them being the two more contrasting colors in magic.It always seems to draw people in (having light/dark or ‘good’ and ‘evil’ on the same side).
It will definitely be a major player in constructed play. So be sure that your new brews have ways to deal with it!
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Gatecrash Preview: Gruul Keyrune
Aww…can I keep it?
It was pretty obvious that the Gruul Keyrune would be an aggressive one. It’s actually very similar to:
Still seeing play in some Jund decks.
Of course, we have to compare. Instead of going through a point by point. Here’s the summary:
Keyrune makes a creature that doesn’t die to Ultimate Price (this Standard format’s Doom Blade) and it doesn’t enter the battlefield tapped (so you can use it to block in a pinch).
Also, the Gruul Keyrune drawing is soooo cute!
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Gatecrash Preview: Zameck Guildmage
I get this just for playing at the Gatecrash Gameday? Sign me up!
Somewhat reminiscent of the Simic Guildmage of Ravnica block past, this guy is rather nicely designed. He supports a small token sub-theme pretty well with his first ability and can keep the party going with his second one.
The art is kind cool too, Mr. Swanland toned down the spikes a little just this once.
You can also keep ‘evolving’ your other Simic buddies with that second ability so that you never really lose counters. Think of it more as a kicker cost for your creatures that allows you to cantrip. Pretty decent, mostly in limited though.
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Gatecrash Preview: Nightveil Specter
Hypnotic Specter? Not exactly!
So lets dare to compare:
1) This ‘mills’ , Hypnotic Specter discards.
Advantage: Hypnotic Specter
2) Nightveil is a hybrid card and thus has the potential to fit in more decks.
Advantage: Nightveil Specter
3) This new guy has an extra point of toughness making it extra relevant versus those who would try to simply Pillar of Flame away the little guys.
Advantage: Nightveil Specter
4) You might not be able to cast the cards you ‘mill/exile’ unless they are lands. Hyppie doesn’t allow you to play what you make them discard anyhow.
Advantage: Nightveil Specter
Winner: Nightveil Specter ?
Now the reason this is not a clear cut winner is because Hypnotic Specter affects things more directly in its random discard than this ever will. It’s also better or at least was better in Legacy.
The comparison is a tad unfair as Hypnotic Specter is not even a Standard Legal card at the time being. For a comparable cost, it would have to battle it out with Vampire Nighthawk ( a card that is more relevant with what’s on the board)
.In its defense though, the Standard format as of late is increasingly multicolored (Dual lands will do that) so its ability to cast the exiled card might become more relevant. It’s also a nice target with the Cipher mechanic (shocking eh?) as you can double-up on its combat damage trigger.
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Gatecrash Preview: Skarrg Goliath
Berserk on a stick. Well, kind of.
So Gruul got the fatties you ramp for, good for them! Well, it was somewhat expected but I like what they did with the Bloodrush mechanic. It’s like an ‘Evoke/Channel’ mechanic that’s more linear. The creature will always lend it’s regular stats to an existing creature in an effort to inflict maximum damage/end the game faster (or to a lesser extent, allow you to do some combat trick and have your critters live).
Ever have those situations where ‘one more turn/attack step and you had him?’ Well, now you can drop that excuse because you can think of all these creatures as having haste as long as you control at least one other creature. So instead of dropping a 9/9 trampler and waiting for your next combat phase that may or may not come (board sweepers, removal pacifism effect) just ‘Rush’ in!
Another relevant advantage that this mechanic has: it bypasses counterspells. Yeah, remember those nasty things? They still exist in Standard despite the insane amount of Cavern of Souls decks running around. So think before you mindlessly cast this thing on your main phase: “Would it better server its purpose to attack first and see what happens first?”
Chances are that it would.
Brother Of Runes 