gatecrash preview

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Gatecrash Preview: Elusive Krasis

elusive kras

 

Woah! what?

Here we have yet another ‘Evolve’ creature. This one will surely be on the list of infinite casual decks for some time to come. A high toughness unblockable dude can survive things like Rolling Temblor and company. He is not Invisible Stalker by any means, but then again what is?

The Fish Mutant creature type is interesting. This might give people hope for that much ‘hyped’ Green Blue Sea Creature-ish planeswalker they have been talking about. She’s in the Duels of the Planeswalkers game:

File:Kiora Atua.jpg

Kiroa Atua

Rancor is already great on its own but seems rather great on this little guy. The only thing that may be bad is that the ‘Evolve’ mechanic forces a player to spam the field with increasingly bigger creatures and making them more vulnerable to a Supreme Verdict-style board clearer. Usually though just as a 4/6 (2 triggers + Rancor) should be enough to finish games rather quickly.

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Gatecrash Preview: Skyknight Legionnaire

skyknightI think I’ve seen you before…

The card has not aged well

A lot of players are surely happy to see it back. It actually saw a small amount of play early one when Boros was popular. It’s definitely a decent creature and can be played the turn after a Firemane Avenger and still be efficient via the ‘Battalion’ mechanic.

You will probably be picking these relatively early in drafts as well since Boros will probably be an awesome limited weenie deck with minimal bombs or Rares required to win.

Will we see any other ‘Blasts from the Past’ in Gatecrash?

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Gatecrash Preview: Alms Beast

alms beastWait…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!

question marks

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.

skullcrack

And no, I don’t think splashing Red for Skullcrack is worth it in this case.

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Gatecrash Preview: Obzedat, Ghost Council

obz

Ghost Council of Orzhova, done right!

We are drawn with directly comparing to the old version almost immediately:

Ghost Council of Orzhova

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

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:

Treetop Village

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!