gatecrash previews

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Gatecrash Preview: Biomass Mutation

biomassmutation

Wow! Instant and playable in Blue OR Green?

Really big merfolk is what I see in this card. Assemble a horde of little green or blue guys and just watch them explode! Like those old commercials for the little sponge creatures that grow with added water and you keep as pets (80’s represent).

The Instant on this card is what makes it awesome. As opposed to Overrun, this is an actual combat trick. Probably more in limited where you attack with a bunch of your little guys to seemingly just poke a tiny bit of damage through. Your opponent will either block your little guys or let them through, either way it’s a losing proposition if you have this in hand with a decent amount of mana on the battlefield.

overrun

These creatures look somewaht smaller than the ones on Biomass Mutation, no?

Think of the insane possibilities with Elf decks packing Elvish Archdruid or Priest of Titania. Make a ton of mana with your one elf then swing in with the rest of your army. In Commander, where matches usually last really long, this can be a great finisher with even only 3 creatures in play. It also does wonders with creatures like Needle Specter or Cold-Eyed Selkie which get you a better benefit when they grow.

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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: High Priest of Penance

high priest of penance‘Vindicate‘ on a stick. 

Ah! when the original version was spoiled (in Italian, I believe) some people thought it was a enters the battlefield ability. You can obviously see how ridiculous this is given its mana cost. I mean Vindicate costs 3 mana and you don’t get a creature out of it to boot. The final translated version is even worse than anticipated, requiring it to have taken damage versus just going to the graveyard.

Obviously some people will try to abuse it by pumping its toughness and pinging it with something like Izzet Staticaster. It obviously makes a good blocker, albeit comparable to Loyal Sentry.

Loyal Sentry

Remember this guy? yeah, me either…

It may just end up being a nice little ‘unblockable’ creature. Perhaps some kind of decent aura from this sent can aid it. Probably an Orzhov-themed one.

Its uses in EDH alongside something like Sun Titan may be rather interesting to explore. What amount of play will this card realistically see in the new Standard format? Probably a decent amount at the start when everyone is busy brewing and a lot less when more decks become established.

 

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Gatecrash Preview: Crypt Ghast

crypt ghast

 

Nirkana Revenant Jr?

It seems like we have seen many of these new Gatecrash cards before in some for or another, doesn’t it? This guy in my opinion is a tad better than its predecessor. He actually accelerates you early on as opposed to turn 6 where it would be less relevant.

Additionally, we get the rather nice Extort ability slapped onto it. Plus it almost always pays for its own Extort which is pretty sweet. The art could have been nicer though, but I’m just being picky there.

Crypt Ghast might be used in some kind of control deck to cast some Mutilates and Liliana of the Dark Realms. Plus you can even get some extra value off of the Liliana Ultimate:

lili ulti

Seems a tad unnecessary eh?

So you get 6 mana each time you tap a swamp for mana. What to do? Too bad Extort can’t be paid more than once per spell (that would bascially be a free Drain Life with every spell). Instead we have previously previewed card Gateway Shade:

gateway shade

Still not very appealing as it’s lacking some form of evasion, but I’m sure a worthy monoblack mana sink will surface. Just stay tuned…

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Gatecrash Preview: Duskmantle Guildmage

duskmantle guildmageI guess this is the reason Jace, Memory Adept is selling out

So here we are with a nice little guildmage. As soon as it was spoiled, people saw the combo with Jace, Memory Adept and Mindcrank. He is also a nice little card in limited but obviously less combo-licious. ‘Grizzly Bears’ almost always make the cut in most limited decks when possible.

The first ability can be used with removal that can kill multiple targets or discard more than one card like Rakdos’ Return. That’s probably not going to be the goal with this card however. It’s pretty cool to see people so excited for a guildmage preview card as I don’t believe that ever happened in the Return to Ravnica previews.

Will the combo make Rest in Peace a must have sideboard card? or maybe Witchbane Orb? Perhaps…

 

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Gatecrash Preview: Skullcrack

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.

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: Biovisionary

bio japanese

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.

Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

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

Séance

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: Skarrg Goliath

skaarg 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.

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Gatecrash Preview: Clan Defiance

clan defianceYet another Blaze/Fireball variant?

Continuing with more recenr Gatecrash previews, we have this bad boy! It seems like the lovechild of Blaze and Branching Bolt. A nice complement to the massive amounts of ramping Gruul players will be doing. It’s probably a great time to preorder these as well, because they feel a little undercosted at around 3$. A great game-ender if there was one and this one doesn’t require you to ‘miracle it to get maximum value out of it.

Pick yours up quickly, before everyone catches one!