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Gatecrash Preview: Aurelia’s Fury

aureliasf ury

 

Orim’s Chant meets Rolling Thunder

Wow! Where to begin?
Instant speed Rolling Thunder? Combo breaking Orim’s Chant?

Peanut butter and chocolate? Check!

peanut butter and chocolate

 

Yummy!

 

This card has rightfully received a lot of hype as soon as it was revealed. It presents the Boros player with a veritable Swiss army knife.

Burn your opponent for the win? Check

Set up an alpha strike on your turn by tapping down his team at the end of his? Check

Mess up an Epic Experiment combo deck (because you know there will be one) ? Check

It’s useful in just about any situation and will probably see a decent amounts of modern play as well, I believe. It can be HUGE in decks featuring Dark Confidant as it only makes you take 2 if flipped and does soooo much more for those decks in return. It doesn’t hit the guys with Hexproof, but there is a nifty little artifact that was recently spoiled that takes care of that little problem:

 

glaringspotlight

 

Looking to deal with Invisible Stalker and Geist of Saint Traft?

Aurelia’s Fury will probably be jammed in every possible deck that can support it, kind of like Bonfire of the Damned was.
Remember how big that was? (note: and is becoming big again)

Also, I expect it to be in high demand in the very near future, what with it being a Mythic and all.

Don’t delay, get your playset today!

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Gatecrash Preview: Arrows of Justice

arrowsofjustice

 

Arrows of Justice

Four damage to something that blocks or attacks? Nice! Take that silly Restoration Angel!

damaged restoOw! 

“I’m hit!” yelled the Restoration Angel as she crashed into the nearby foliage. The noise causes the great mage to wake up from his DREAM!

Yeah, this is the unlikely scenario that will rarely happen. Oh! but of course: It’s great in limited formats.

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Gatecrash Preview: Armored Transport

armoredtransportSwing with Safety

A creature with a buil-in Dolmen Gate . Unfortunately not a great impact if it connects.

In draft/sealed, the Boros decks will probably load up on a few to enable some good ‘Battalion’ runs. It can be funny in some Affinity deck home brews with cards like Cranial Plating equipped. Maybe even in Legacy to get those safe Jitte swings in.

Hmmm….maybe this little guy has more potential than I first thought….

 

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Gatecrash Preview: Angelic Edict

angelicedict

Punished by the Angels!

While you probably want multiples in Gatecrash Pre-releases and Releases, you can maybe squeeze just one into your constructed decks.

There aren’t many ways to get rid of cards like Assemble the Legion in gatecrash limited so this gets the maindeck nod. Also, the number of mythic creature bombs is through the roof. You will need this common solution to those. Unfortunately it does nothign against this guy:

obzFear the Council!

This card is just a pain to play against in Limited You better hope to have Rapid Hybridization or Grisly Spectacle.

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Gatecrash Preview: Alpha Authority

alphaauthority

 

Watch out! Alpha coming through!

A great way to protect your big guy in Drafts and Pre-releases but I can’t see it doing much else in other formats. Maybe some peeps will try it in casual decks with a Trample creature.

Combos really well with Madcap Skills in Limited.

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Gatecrash Preview: Agorophobia

agoraphobia

 

Scared of large crowds? You aren’t alone.

Great little pick in Limited! Drop it on an opposing creature and basically render any of its involvement in combat useless, almost.

See, if your opponent choose to chump block with the enchanted creature: simply bounce Agorophobia back to your hand. His creature will die and you will have a fresh Agorophobia to antagonize another opposing creature with. As I mentioned before with cards that bounce back to your hand, the ‘Extort’ mechanic loves them.

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Gatecrash Preview: Aetherize

aetherizeEvacuation for a Standard situation

This is one heck of an exciting card to be sure. You probably would think its applications are rather straightforward, but let me assure you they are not.

You see there is still a point AFTER you have dealt combat damage with your creatures that they are still considered attacking. I mentioned this a while back in my Maverick article. The trick was with Maze of Ith which gave your creatures pseudo-vigilance (usually to a Knight of the Reliquary)

What does this have to do with Aetherize? Well, you see…if you play a lot of  ‘enter the battlefield’ trigger creatures much like everyone does in the current Standard metagame, you might want to do this. You can get insane value off of your Thragtusk, since you get a 3/3 then recast to gain 5 life afterwards. Or it can just be a great way to play around cards like Supreme Verdict as well (by returning not all creatures, but the ones that you can recast for value while retaining a good threat and forcing the Supreme Verdict).

Gain even more value with Snapcaster Mage too! Any whacky scenarios you can conjure up are sure to be reasonably good.

 

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Gatecrash Preview: Aerial Maneuver

aerialmaneuver

 

Great white combat trick

This card has many applications all of which are strictly relegated to the realm of Limited magic. The one I think is most relevant is to give you a great defence against a card like Aurelia, the Warleader.

Next!

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Gatecrash Preview: Blind Obedience

blindobedience

Cancel Haste and maybe a small amount of Life Drain

A great great card in a lot of formats, except maybe in limited where you would probably just prefer another blocker. It makes other cards like Ball Lightning or its Boros brother Spark Trooper rather bad. The extort makes it really interesting as most Extort abilities are attached to creatures. Basically, it gives you time to react to the Standard dominating haste creatures in the RB Aggro deck:

Falkenrath Aristocrat

Thundermaw Hellkite

Hellrider

all great creatures but somewhat less so when you can actually slow them down enough to drop an Oblivion Ring or Detention Sphere on them. I honestly believe there is very little missing for an Standard Enchantress-style deck right now. That thing would be something akin to Argothian Enchantress or Enchantress’s Presence.

enchantress's presence

argothian enchantress

Ah! my lovelies!

Perhaps the greater application is in the said Enchantress deck in Legacy. You make slow down Goblins and in some Death and Taxes /Maverick decks you get some free swings in versus insane roadblocks like Progenitus. If you have something like a Meekstone, you can ‘Stasis‘ almost all opposing creatures as well.

The possibilities are pretty nice, especially in the enchantress deck where you can use this in multiples as an alternative win condition instead of Words of War and Sigil of Empty Throne. It gets pretty crazy if you play any kind of enchantment that can bounce itself back to your hand such as:

shimmering wings

there are others as well…

Basically, you can redraw every time you cast this off of your enchantresses as well as drain for 1 life with your white mana (multiple white if you have a Serra’s Sanctum in play.)

Whatever your deck ideas, I’m sure this card has a great home in them.