Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Oath of the Gatewatch by Kimberly J. Kreines Oath of the Gatewatch: Mission 5. *** UNDER CONSTRUCTION *** These decklists are incomplete. If you find missing cards, please feel free to add them. Special Rules [ edit | edit source ] Vanquish the Eldrazi You must finally put to rest the Eldrazi titans who have wreaked havoc across Zendikar. They are powerful, but the Gatewatch will come to your aid throughout the fight. The Eldrazi Titans start the duel with 40 life and an emblem "Instead of drawing a card each turn, the Eldrazi Titans put a Wastes onto the battlefield and put a nonland card into their hand." The Gatewatch starts the duel with an emblem "At the beginning of some of your turns, a member of the Gatewatch will join the battle." Tips & Strategies [ edit | edit source ] 1. Use Jace's Ultimate abilty to make the eldrazi take a card from an empty library. This will result in an automatic win. 2. Use Gideon as a decoy. The eldrazi will sometimes focus on taking Gideon down. That will be a good time to start putting powerful spells on the battlefield. 3. Put as many creatures with flying onto the battlefield as you can. Since the eldrazi doesnt have alot of creatures with flying or reach, it will have a hard time defending against those creatures. 4. Balance between your defense and offense. The eldrazi has alot of strong creature with high power. It will play aggressive most of the time and attack you with alot of creatures without thinking about defense. That is a good time to strike the eldrazi with strong creatures, while still taking your weak creatures for defense. Since the eldrazi doesn't have alot of creatures with trample, keeping the weak creatures for defense will give you a massive advantage. 5. This is a very common mistake in Magic games in general, but keep your planeswalker alive. Planeswalkers have game changing abilities, dont kill them after you use the ultimate. All the planeswalkers are essential for your battle against the eldrazi, so keep them safe at ALL COSTS. 6. Use your planeswalkers abilities right. Nissa for example has a very powerful +1, which is essential for your defense. Chandra's +1 is amazing for attacking without losing defenders, and Gideon's +1 is amazing for killing the eldrazi's creatures without harming your own. However, that doesnt mean these are the only abilities that you should use. Chandra's -X for example can make an amazing boardwipe, allowing Gideon to attack safely. Nissa's -2 can make your creatures extra strong after Chandra's boardwipe, and Gideon's -4 will make your creatures get a bit more powerful to withstand the eldrazi's attacks. Magic: The Gathering Set Review - Oath of the Gatewatch. Oath of the Gatewatch is the second set in the Battle for Zendikar block, Wizards of the Coast's return to the much beloved world of Zendikar. Released on January 22, 2016, this set finished the first block in the new Magic: The Gathering block format, in which blocks would consist of two sets, not three, and Standard rotation would happen on a much more frequent basis. To see what we thought of the first half of the Battle for Zendikar block, make sure to check out our review of Battle for Zendikar. Today, TechRaptor will be taking a look back at Oath of the Gatewatch from a competitive standpoint, looking at how well the set performed in the Limited Draft and Sealed formats and looking at what contributions the set made to Standard and the non-rotating formats of Modern, Legacy, and Vintage. We’ll also be looking at Oath of the Gatewatch from a setting viewpoint, seeing how well it carried on the original Zendikar ‘s flavor and themes and also how well it continued the themes found in Battle for Zendikar . Unfortunately for fans of the original Zendikar block, Oath of the Gatewatch again had very little of the charm and flavor of its source material. The set contained seven reprints (Bone Saw, Grasp of Darkness, Mighty Leap, Negate, Netcaster Spider, Strider Harness, Unknown Shores), none of which were from Zendikar or had printings in that set. The choice to pass up Inquisition of Kozilek or other Zendikar -flavor cards for something like Bone Saw baffled many players, especially when three of the cards that were reprinted in this set were reprinted as recently as the Theros block and certainly didn't need to see reprints again so soon. This is especially irksome considering just how Wizards of the Coast concluded Oath of the Gatewatch . The Eldrazi Titans Ulamog and Kozilek —two of the biggest threats in the Magic: The Gathering multiverse—were swiftly disposed of despite giving three of the strongest pre-Mending Planeswalkers trouble in the ancient past, giving the impression that either the Eldrazi are greatly weakened in comparison to their first appearances or the Gatewatch Planeswalkers are much stronger than Ugin, Nahiri, and Sorin were. The lack of Zendikar flavor also extends to two mechanics that made prior appearances in Battle for Zendikar , Landfall and Rally. The former of makes limited appearances on cards in Oath of the Gatewatch and the latter of fails to show up at all, seemingly replaced by the new mechanic Cohort. While the lack of Rally doesn't disappoint me, Landfall only appearing on a few cards does as it was one of the stand-out mechanics of the Zendikar block—if not the defining mechanic. "Kozilek, the Great Distortion" - Artwork by Aleksi Briclot. Speaking of Cohort , Oath of the Gatewatch introduced three new mechanics: Cohort, Support, and Surge, and the set was overall designed around these mechanics and also with Two-Headed Giant Limited gameplay in mind. However, the new focus on this type of gameplay means that playing Oath of the Gatewatch in regular Limited formats isn't as fun as it is playing in Two-Headed Giant, nor does every card work outside of Two-Headed Giant as intended. For example, trying to cast cards for their Surge cost is much more difficult when you don't have a teammate to help you meet the Surge requirements; while this is okay for some cards such as Reckless Bushwacker, it becomes a real problem for others such as Crush of Tentacles. The other big introduction in Oath of the Gatewatch was "Colorless" mana, which had existed previously in Magic: The Gathering but had never been properly codified in what it was or how it was generated until this set. Colorless mana is now represented by the diamond symbol and has its own Basic Land in Wastes (although as per new Draft rules starting with Oath of the Gatewatch , players could only use Wastes that are in their card pool; they aren't provided for players to use during deck construction the way other Basic Lands are). Along with the new Colorless mana symbol and lands were several "Colorless-matters" cards that required being cast with Colorless mana (such as Endbringer and Kozilek's Pathfinder) or benefited from you having Wastes on the battlefield (Walker of the Wastes). Introducing these mechanics only in Oath of the Gatewatch means that they don't have much in the way of support or creative exploration; this, I feel, was a major problem with Oath of the Gatewatch set and the Battle for Zendikar block as a whole. Both sets focused on way too many new mechanics that weren't properly explored or given the opportunity to flourish, and returning mechanics were overlooked and underpowered compared to their original iterations. I think this is a result of the new block format and Wizards of the Coast failing to compensate; in the last Zendikar block, the middle small set ( Worldwake ) was used to follow up on the themes and mechanics from the first large set ( Zendikar ), while the final large set ( Rise of the Eldrazi ) was used to explore new mechanics in their entirety, without being constricted by set size or having to share creative space with other mechanics. Rise of the Eldrazi was also its own Draft set, whereas the Oath of the Gatewatch Draft comprises two Booster Packs of Oath of the Gatewatch and one of Battle for Zendikar . Additionally, shifting the focus from Battle from Zendikar 's "Color-matters" to "Colorless-matters" means that Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch don't mesh well in either Limited format. As a result, the Limited formats suffered from similar issues that plagued Battle for Zendikar: inconsistency. Surprisingly, quite a few cards from Oath of the Gatewatch saw Standard play. Reflector Mage was a major player in Bant Humans (which, as of today, will need to be revised to remain Standard legal), and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet saw usage in a niche Black/Green Sacrifice deck and wide usage in Delirium and Control-based decks. The two "manlands" of this set, Hissing Quagmire and Wandering Fumarole, see consistent play now that the mana fixing fetch lands have rotated out of Standard. The cards of Oath of the Gatewatch slotted quite nicely into the existing four- and five-color decks that had popped up as a result of Battle from Zendikar 's "battle lands," and while no new archetypes came about as a result of these cards, I will gladly take usable cards over Battle from Zendikar 's chaff any day of the week. As far as Oath of the Gatewatch 's contributions to Modern, Legacy, and Vintage go, one only needs to hear the phrase "Eldrazi Winter" to know of the sets impact on these non-rotating formats. The two months where the Eldrazi of Oath of the Gatewatch reigned supreme in tournament play and in Magic: The Gathering Online was a time of great discontent for Wizards of the Coast's playerbase, and even now the impact of Oath of the Gatewatch can still be felt as Bant Eldrazi has become one of the top tier decks of Modern, even without access to the Eye of Ugin tribal land. Outside of the Eldrazi cards, Kalitas is one of the few Oath of the Gatewatch cards that sees consistent, competitive play in Modern, specifically in Jund. "Call the Gatewatch" - Artwork by Yefim Kligerman. Defining cards : There are some very interesting defining cards in this set. While Oath of the Gatewatch carries on the lack of large, monstrous Eldrazi that started in Battle for Zendikar (outside of Kozilek, the Great Distortion and Deceiver of Form), there are some mid- and low-costed Eldrazi with unusual abilities, such as Thought-Knot Seer, or Eldrazi Mimic, Eldrazi Displacer, and Matter Reshaper. Despite being much smaller in power and stature than the Eldrazi from the previous Zendikar block, they felt alien and eldritch, and the abilities they had very much more interesting to play with. I found this set's take on the Eldrazi to be much more enjoyable than the majority of Eldrazi from Battle for Zendikar and a much better representation of the race as a whole. Non-Eldrazi cards were also handled much better than they were in Battle for Zendikar . Jori En, Ruin Diver took a unique approach to Merfolk, as did Mina and Denn, Wildborn for the Elves. Notes on price and print run : Booster Packs have an MSRP of $3.99 and Fat Packs have an MSRP of $39.99; the set has a normal production run so product quantities aren’t restricted. While Oath of the Gatewatch Fat Packs also had full-art "basic land packs" and the second half of the Zendikar Expeditions was found in this set, price gouging by local game stores wasn't as bad as it was with Battle for Zendikar . I can only attribute that to player dissatisfaction with the strength of Battle for Zendikar . Many were wary of buying into Oath of the Gatewatch given the historical trend for second sets in a block to be much weaker than the first set. As Battle for Zendikar was weak to begin with, it was thought that investing in sealed Oath of the Gatewatch product wouldn't be worth the price, not even for the chance to pull one of the Zendikar Expeditions . Notes on the Battle for Zendikar block : The block as a whole was a let down from the high expectations players had after experiencing previous sets that successfully returned to fan-favorite planes (such as Scars of Mirrodin and Return to Ravnica ). I think it's obvious at this point that Wizards of the Coast used players' nostalgia for Zendikar to prop up the messy transition in block formats. It was very disappointing seeing a classic setting being tarnished by subpar mechanics and the superhero-esque origin story of Wizards of the Coast's Avengers -styled Gatewatch. Bottom line : Oath of the Gatewatch was slightly more successful than Battle for Zendikar , but suffered from similar issues with gimmicky mechanics and unsatisfying story plotlines. While Battle for Zendikar made little to no impact on any Magic: The Gathering format it was legal in, Oath of the Gatewatch went the opposite direction in having too much of an impact on Modern, resulting in unpleasant experiences for enfranchised Modern players. Wizards of the Coast's abrupt change from the "Color-matters" theme of Battle for Zendikar to Oath of the Gatewatch 's "Colorless-matters" was jarring and confusing, as was Oath of the Gatewatch 's focus on the Two-Headed Giant format. Overall I felt like Oath of the Gatewatch was very disjointed from Battle from Zendikar, and while many more individual cards saw use beyond Limited than in Battle for Zendikar , the set and mechanics introduced weren't very well supported and it fell flat as a result. The Limited Draft and Sealed Oath of the Gatewatch events were slightly better than Battle for Zendikar but were ultimately just as disappointing, and Standard was largely unchanged from previous archetypes. If you played Modern during Eldrazi Winter, you quite likely didn't enjoy yourself in the slightest. The author of this review participated in Oath of the Gatewatch drafts, Magic: The Gathering pre-release events, Standard format competitions and purchased Oath of the Gatewatch product at his local game store. Magic the Gathering: Oath of the Gatewatch Preview. We’re some​what lat​er in the cy​cle with this pre​view, at time of writ​ing I’m in tran​sit some​where be​tween Cincinnati and Seattle. But dur​ing my US ad​ven​ture I’ve squeezed in time to take a good look at the full spoil​er for Oath of the Gatewatch , have a back and forth with those who man​aged to make the pre-release (I sad​ly did not), and get a good overview of the sec​ond set in Battle for Zendikar block. The flashy Mythics and Expeditions don’t come as a sur​prise in this leak, but that’s not where a set takes shape. The real meat and pota​toes of a set is in the com​mons and un​com​mons that make up the vast ma​jor​i​ty of what peo​ple will open. This is part of what made Wizards over​re​ac​tion to the leaks all the more baf​fling; an over​re​ac​tion that was thank​ful​ly rec​ti​fied. Let’s take a look at the me​chan​ics and changes in the set. Colourless Mana. The big new change in this set is re​al​ly quite neat ac​tu​al​ly. Colourless is now its own sep​a​rate colour with ba​sic lands in the form of Wastes and its own mana sym​bol. For those con​fused, this does not ac​tu​al​ly re​place the ex​ist​ing “gener​ic” mana. In some cas​es, old​er cards like Wasteland have been re​for​mat​ted to in​clude the new colour​less mana sym​bol. Seeing it in a fa​mil​iar set​ting hope​ful​‐ ly helps clear up con​fu​sion about how colour​less mana slots into the ex​ist​ing rules. To re​state; colour​less mana isn’t a new colour so much as it is an of​fi​ci​at​ing and tweak​ing of an ex​ist​ing concept. It’s yet to be seen how heav​i​ly colour​less mana will fea​ture in fu​ture sets, with Mark Rosewater com​ment​ing that the im​ple​men​ta​tion of colour​less mana as part of a cast​ing cost was a spe​cial thing for cards re​lat​ing to Kozilek. Everybody gets Eldrazi! Battle for Zendikar is an Eldrazi heavy block. Despite their icon​ic na​ture, there were only ever 19 Eldrazi print​ed in Rise of the Eldrazi . Oath of the Gatewatrch adds an ad​di​tion​al 41 of them, which brings the to​tal to a stag​ger​ing 102 Eldrazi in this block. Despite most of them be​ing “de​void,” and there​fore colour​less, this still makes a com​bined lim​it​ed en​vi​ron​ment that has plen​ty of op​tions for Eldrazi of every colour — even the first white Eldrazi in the case of Eldrazi Displacer. Most of the Eldrazi in Oath of the Gatewatch have ac​ti​vat​ed abil​i​ties that fea​ture the colour​less mana sym​bol, mean​ing at least one colour​less mana specif​i​cal​ly is need​ed to ac​ti​vate them. The set it​self has plen​ty of ways to pro​duce colour​less mana, as does Battle for Zendikar , so this re​quire​‐ ment shouldn’t be too strict. It’s odd to think about hav​ing to pro​duce colour​less mana, but once you wrap your head around the con​cept it’s re​al​‐ ly not that confusing. The Mechanics of Oath of The Gatewatch. Surge. Surge is prob​a​bly the clos​est we will get to Storm in the Modern, it be​ing a sole​ly blue/red me​chan​ic that makes spells cheap​er and gives ad​di​tion​al ef​fects if you or a team​mate have al​ready cast a spell this turn. “ You may cast a spell for its surge cost if you or a team​mate have cast an​oth​er spell in the same turn. However, the trig​gered abil​i​ty only gives a bonus to your own crea​tures, not to your teammate’s. The cards are both cheap​er and more pow​er​ful if cast for their surge cost. Teammates are all al​lied play​ers in Two-Headed Giant, Emperor, and cer​tain oth​er mul​ti​play​er Magic for​mats. The de​vel​op​ment team bal​anced the me​chan​ic such that the cards could be pow​er​ful in two-player games as well.” Tyrant of Valakut is a red crea​ture with a surge ability: Surge (You may cast this spell for its surge cost if you or a team​mate has cast an​oth​er spell this turn.) Flying When Tyrant of Valakut en​ters the bat​tle​field, if its surge cost was paid, it deals 3 dam​age to tar​get crea​ture or player. Support. “ Support N” means “Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to N tar​get crea​tures.” You may choose few​er tar​gets at will. If a crea​ture (or any oth​er per​ma​nent) has an abil​i​ty that sup​ports, the abil​i​ty can’t tar​get the crea​ture / per​ma​nent itself. This abil​i​ty some​what re​minds me of Bolster from Khans of Tarkir, in that you don’t re​al​ly con​trol where the +1/+1 coun​ters go. Both are also ef​‐ fects that scale and are “N” abil​i​ties. You could look at sup​port as a “wider” Bolster as more crea​tures get a counter but only a sin​gle one. For ex​am​ple, Gladehart Cavalry is a green crea​ture card with support; When Gladehart Cavalry en​ters the bat​tle​field, sup​port 6 . (Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to six oth​er tar​get creatures.) Whenever a crea​ture you con​trol with a +1/+1 counter on it dies, you gain 2 life. Cohort. It’s no se​cret that al​lies work well to​geth​er, and Cohort re​in​forces this prin​ci​ple. Being the Ally abil​i​ty for Oath of the Gatewatch , Cohort re​quires tap​ping down an ally and any ad​di​tion​al ally. These abil​i​ties can vary wild​ly, but they all share the re​quire​ment of tap​ping down two allies. I’m still root​ing for an Allies deck in Standard, or at least for Allies to be bonkers in Limited, but the vari​a​tion in the ef​fects makes it hard to tell if this ef​fect will be use​ful or not. I hope enough of the abil​i​ties are pow​er​ful enough for Cohort to punch through and make an impact. Munda’s Vanguard is a ba​sic ex​am​ple of Cohort. Cohort — , Tap an un​tapped Ally you con​trol: Put a +1/+1 counter on each crea​ture you control. Two Heads Are Better Than One. As you may have read in our re​cent piece by Pory, the for​mat for Oath of the Gatewatch pre-release and game day events is Two-Headed Giant. This means it’s a team-based two vers​es two for​mat. Some parts of the set would seem to have been de​signed with mul​ti​play​er in mind. The Surge me​chan​ic seems tai​lored to this for​mat as it al​lows you to take ad​van​tage of your op​po​nents spells to en​able the abil​i​ty to Surge. The stip​u​la​tion of “you or a team​mate” is a def​i​nite de​sign and for​mat​ting de​ci​sion aimed at multiplayer. Magic the Gathering is a very di​verse game that usu​al​ly suf​fers from a blink​er​ing of fo​cus to​wards a nar​row set of for​mats, so I hope the con​tin​ue this trend in fu​ture. Sealed it​self is a for​mat that I love to play with new​er play​ers as it takes some of the stress out of draft​ing. Being able to in​tro​‐ duce them to for​mats like Two-Headed Giant in that en​vi​ron​ment, and be​ing able to help them as a team​mate is ideal. A Better Zendikar? With most of the set sim​ply car​ry​ing on where Battle for Zendikar left off, there re​al​ly isn’t much else to talk about be​fore my re​view comes out lat​‐ er. Allies are still al​lies, Eldrazi are still try​ing to ruin everyone’s day, and colour​less mana changes how the game looks more than how it functions. From my ini​tial im​pres​sions, the set looks bet​ter than Battle for Zendikar, but that isn’t say​ing much. I’ll have to take some time to ac​tu​al​ly get my hands on some Oath of the Gatewatch, and play a few games to give my full opin​ion — and give the set — a fair shot. As al​ways, my fi​nal judge​‐ ment is re​served for my full set re​view. What re​mains to be seen is how this block will func​tion in a big​ger sense, and how the two halves will mesh to​geth​er. Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch are two halves of a whole. Ratings Scale. 5.0 : Multi-format all-star. (Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Tarmogoyf. Snapcaster Mage.) 4.0 : Format staple. (Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy. Siege Rhino. Remand.) 3.5 : Good in multiple archetypes and formats, but not a staple. (Jace Beleren. Seeker of the Way. Hordeling Outburst.) 3.0 : Archetype staple. (Jace, Architect of Thought. Deathmist Raptor. Dromoka’s Command.) 2.5 : Role-player in some decks, but not quite a staple. (Jace, Memory Adept. Tragic Arrogance. Dragon Fodder.) 2.0 : Niche card. Sideboard or currently unknown archetype. (Jace, the Living Guildpact. Naturalize. Duress.) Bear in mind that many cards fall into this category, although an explanation is obviously important. 1.0 : It has seen play once. (One with Nothing). (I believe it was tech vs. Owling Mine, although fairly suspicious tech at that.) Eldrazi Displacer. Constructed: 2.5. I’m very thankful that this doesn’t protect itself, because it would otherwise be one of the most annoying cards in the format. It’s still surprisingly strong, and is cheap enough that it has a good chance of seeing play. It can trigger ETB effects, save your other creatures from removal, make it so your opponent’s creatures can’t attack or block, and overall be a nuisance. It’s the kind of card that at first blush just seems like a Limited house (which it is), but I can’t help but think there’s a good amount of Constructed potential too. Call the Gatewatch. Constructed: 2.0. I don’t want to call this just unplayable, but I also don’t see myself spending mana to tutor for a card type that’s not generally good when you are behind. Planeswalkers don’t tend to be silver bullets that answer a certain strategy, so the idea of a toolbox seems unrealistic (and undignified— aren’t these the most powerful beings in the multiverse?). Where Call might see play is if there’s some combo deck that needs a specific planeswalker, because past that I don’t see it making a huge Constructed impact. Dazzling Reflection. Constructed: 2.0. There is a combo in Standard that involves making a creature hit for 20 in one turn (Temur Battle Rage + Become Immense), so a Deflecting Palm that’s purely defensive could be of interest. What makes it tough to justify is that Dazzling Reflection says “the next time that creature would deal damage this turn,” and Temur Battle Rage creates two instances of damage. That means you don’t gain 20, you just break even as you gain 10 then take 10. Consider me undazzled by the prospect. General Tazri. Constructed: 2.0. 5 mana for a 3/4 needs to do something spectacular to see Standard play, like come with a second 3/4. Tazri gets another Ally, but puts it into your hand instead of into play, which generally won’t be enough. At least the Overrun ability is easy to activate in Constructed! Immolating Glare. Constructed: 2.5. Ah yes, another entry into the vast catalog of situational white removal spells that UW Control might play. I at least like how cheap this one is, though you have to be very controlling to play a spell limited to killing attackers. Linvala, the Preserver. Constructed: 3.0. Linvala is a funny case. I wrote about her in detail in my preview article, and I think she’s powerful enough to see a lot of play. White-based control decks have a big incentive to play Linvala and few other creatures, but where I think she will really shine is out of the sideboard. She looks quite good against aggro decks and insane in the midrange mirror. She’s a reverse Wingmate Roc, and one of the few cards I can imagine that will let you mount a comeback against the Roc. 6 mana is a lot against something like Atarka Red, so I don’t think she solves that matchup by any means, but against a deck of Siege Rhinos she seems like the perfect trump. Oath of Gideon. Constructed: 2.5. Oath of Gideon is the rare Oath* where I like the planeswalker text more than the main ability. Having all your ‘walkers enter a full loyalty higher is powerful, especially with the namesake of this particular Oath. Getting two 1/1s is by no means irrelevant either, and they can protect your legion of planeswalkers quite well. If there is a Standard Superfriends deck, this looks like the perfect way to enable it. *Technically, they are all rare, and as we know, technically correct is the best kind of correct. Searing Light. Constructed: 2.0. Look, sometimes you need a 1-mana kill spell. Disfigure ended up seeing play in every Constructed format back to Legacy, and even a worse white version could see the light of play. Stone Haven Outfitter. Constructed: 2.5. The textbox here is absurdly powerful, and might be the most powerful text box I’ve ever seen on a 2-drop Kor. A token-based deck with cheap equipment can have some nice turns with Outfitter in play, though you might have to look to older formats to find more powerful equipment. I’m sure that with enough effort, Shuko can turn into Skullclamp… Even though I don’t know exactly where this might go, I do think it has a lot of potential. Stoneforge Acolyte. Constructed: 2.0. I have to give the Stoneforge Mystic throwback a shoutout, and it’s not impossible that the Acolyte could make his own name for himself. In a deck with a lot of Allies and equipment, this is not very much to pay for a solid repeatable effect, and a 1/2 Ally for W could be something the deck is interested in as well. Wall of Resurgence. Constructed: 2.0. I know some people will be tempted by the allure of a 3/3 and an 0/6 as a defensive option, so I just want to warn you: this is how your lands get destroyed. The 3/3 is going to be tapped if you cast this turn 3, and exposing your lands to removal is a way to get locked out of casting expensive spells. That said, a low-curve deck that just wants bodies against aggro could look at this as an option. Top 3 White Cards. For a small set that has fewer colored cards than normal, white didn’t do poorly. Linvala is a very powerful card to have access to, and gives white decks more tools for the creature-based matchups that tend to dominate the Standard landscape. Oath and Displacer both offer interesting build- arounds, which is something white doesn’t tend to get, and it’s cool that a lot of the power of white in this set is somewhere other than a White Weenie deck that ultimately won’t get there. An unjust victory. As I’ve stated previously before, on this blog, I’ve spent quite some time online, playing EDH against the blokes from the Commanderin’ podcast, and I’ve had great fun. Cockatrice and Skype together works really well, and some of the games have been extremely exciting. A couple of nights ago, I was testing a new build that I’m putting together in paper, Prime Speaker Zegana (link to decklist: click!). Opposing me this night was friend-of-the-show Nick playing a Bant Superfriends deck, and Sean “Copain26” Whatson playing a brand new Eldrazi deck featuring the new Kozilek as the general. More OGW-goodness! On paper, our decks were actually quite similar, we both wanted to ramp a lot, cast our generals to get back some cards, and then win through big creatures. Sean was ahead all game, and it didn’t help that I, foolishly, delved away a bunch of lands, even though I had bounced an Oblivion Sower just a turn or two before, meaning he got a whole bunch of lands from recasting it. In the end, however, I won a game I had no business winning by casting a kicked Rite of Replication targeting Sean’s Pathrazer of Ulamog, and I did this at the end of Sean’s turn, through Alchemist’s Refuge. Untapping with five 9/9 Annhiliator 3 creatures that are very difficult to block allowed me to win on the spot. Fair? Not really. EDH-y? Yeah, very. Posted by robinkaas on January 26, 2016. The new toys in OGW. I had the explicit pleasure of playing against both Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim and Mina and Denn, Wildborn. I want to share some of my experiences with the games, since they were in many cases very fun. This was also the first night I’ve played paper EDH with the new mulligan rules. Ayli: Ayli was commanding a black-white goodstuff deck with lots of removal, and lots of other answers to problematic permanents. Initially, I expected the deck to be based around the general’s abilities, and utilize lots of sacrifice good-stuff things. My other opponent in these three-player games was Dakkon Blackblade (Esper Landfall, of all things) In the first game, I was playing Edric, and won the game quite quickly off of a bunch of small dudes and both of my extra turn effects. Ayli was off to a pretty slow start and didn’t get into the game. I was playing Meren the second game, and had troubles playing around his incidental graveyard hate – specifically Stonecloaker. Ironically, Dakkon was reanimating a lot more things than Meren, since Meren was shut down by Ayli. I’m not quite sure who won this game, but I believe Dakkon did after a long and grindy game. In short, I think Ayli has potential to be a very good commander, but needs a deck constructed around especially the first ability in order to function properly. Mina and Denn: We played a couple of four-player games later that evening, when another friend of ours showed up with his new Mina and Denn deck. The first game he opened with land – Exploration – land – Sol Ring. Meanwhile, I, on Edric, had kept a pretty weak opener with no cheap creatures, but lots of control elements and both colours of mana. Our two other opponents, Dakkon and Ezuri1, got better starts than I, but not great ones. Mina and Denn rolled the table with Avenger of Zendikar into ridiculous amounts of landfall triggers followed by a Thunderfoot Baloth making all the plants 16/17 with trample! In the second game, Mina and Denn again played a turn one Exploraiton, but I got a much better start and killed Mina and Denn with an army of flying 6/6’s the same turn as I dropped Beastmaster Ascension, hitting him for his exact life total, 36, in the air. Then the board wiped, and the game got grindy, but I got there in the end. Edric is ridiculous, even more-so than Mina and Denn. Especially the Gruul twins impressed me that evening – it’s neat to have an aggro deck at the table to keep things from stalling too far. What are your experiences with the new Commanders from Oath of the Gatewatch? Leave a comment! Posted by robinkaas on January 25, 2016. New Commander rules. The Commander rules committee (RC) presented three changes to the Commander/EDH format yesterday: The Commander specific “partial Paris” mulligan rule is removed entirely. Rule #4 regarding mana (i.e. if you were to add mana to your mana pool of a colour not in your general’s colour identity, it becomes colourless instead) is removied entirely. is removied entirely. I won’t add much on point three, Prophet of Kruphix is – as the RC explains – one of those cards that tends to warp the game around itself – once a Prophet of Kruphix hits play, the other players are forced to kill it, steal it, copy it, or lose to it. It is by all acounts disgustingly powerful, and the ban is well deserved. As the RC also points out, this is the first card ban in EDH for two years, the ban list is thus growing at a slow pace. Regarding the first point, about changing to the multiplayer variant of the Vancouver mulligan – meaning that you will draw an opening hand of seven cards, mulligan into a new seven if you’re not happy, then six, then five and so on, and scry 1 if you end up with less than seven cards, I’m not sure what to think. Sheldon Menery came back on to Commanderin’ for another interview episode which was released yesterday as well, and in it he explains the process. Apparently, two of the other players in the RC are great with maths, and they constructed a script for computing starting hands. The difference of the number of “unplayable opening hands” was negligible between the partial Paris variant and the Vancouver variant, in a couple of hundred thousand games. On paper, all is well. I recommend that you give the episode a listen, I even get a good answer to my question about the “spirit of the format”. Regarding the second point, I think the change is justified thanks to the new colourless spells in Oath of the Gatewatch. Previously, if you tapped a City of Brass and chose “white” in your Edric, Spymaster of Trest deck, the mana would become colourless instead – a slight upside these days. This rule also meant that Zedruu could lock non-white decks out of playing most of their spells with Celestial Dawn (all the spells are white, but the lands tap for colourless mana instead), thanks to rule #4. Pretty counter-intuitive, and I’m not sad to see this go. The change actually makes Celestial Dawn a pretty good card still – but in Sen Triplets instead of Zedruu. So overall, two good changes, and one that at least streamlines the rules between EDH and other formats. All said and done, good job by the RC, as usual. What do you think of these changes? Leave a comment below! Posted by robinkaas on January 19, 2016. [OGW] Endbringer. The latest spoil that seems confirmed is called Endbringer (funny note: way back when, when I was very into 40k, I had a custom Space Marine chapter called Endbringers) , and I expect it to be an EDH staple: So, a very versatile answer that can deal with both small utility creatures and large threats, and also draw cards! The built-in personal Prophet of Krupix also makes him scale well with the format, and I like the political implications of the middle ability a lot. Overall, I’m very impressed, and I expect to see this in any deck that can produce enough colourless mana to support it. What do you think of Endbringer? Leave a comment! Posted by robinkaas on December 20, 2015. [OGW] Goblin Dark-Dwellers. GatheringMagic.com has a new spoiler up today, link to the post. It has the somewhat awful name of Goblin Dark-Dwellers, but it has a nice unique effect: Very neat, if you ask me, a nice evasive 4/4 for 5 is good on its own, and the effect is gravy on top! In Standard, Kolaghan’s Command and Crackling Doom are both popular and potential targets for Goblin Dark-Dwellers effect. Not sure how to properly use it in the constructed format I care about (EDH), but it’s a format full of blink effects if nothing else. What do you think of Goblin Dark-Dwellers? Leave a comment. Apologies to everyone for posting the spoiler. But I did link to the source! Posted by robinkaas on December 18, 2015. Re: “Why Leaks Hurt” As I’ve written about before, Oath of the Gatewatch was subject to perhaps the single biggest leak since the godbook of New Phyrexia was released online. For those who don’t recall, the “godbook” is a full spoiler sent out to those in need of preview info on sets, i.e. magazines etc., and the then-world champion Guillaume Matignon, who wrote for the french Magic magazine “Lotus Noir” shared his godbook with a friend, who shared it with a friend, who leaked it online. An article on this can be found here on the Mothership. This time around, all of the Mythic Rares from Oath of the Gatewatch were leaked online, in a thread on Reddit, and it has sparked some outcry from the community – some feel robbed of their spoiler season. Others are discussing the mythics, as is. Trick Jarret wrote a response to the leak, commenting on why it’s bad, in an article on the Mothership entitled “Why Leaks Hurt“. He makes a few points, but overall, I’d call the article quite bad. In fact, I wanted to take a few moments and dissect some of the worst things he states in the article, for the sake of fairness. The article, overall, comes across as quite whiny in my book. There is a natural struggle between players and Wizards when it comes to knowing the game’s future. Magic ‘s entire premise is that of constant change, and this tantalizing premise creates a constant tension between our storytelling and players wanting to know what comes next. I agree on this point almost entirely, to be honest, and this lets us define the roles for the two players in this opposition: it is the role of Wizards to keep shit under locks until spoiler season officially begins, and it is the role of the community (the parts that wants to know, that is) to find out stuff beforehand. The ball is, as I see it, entirely in Wizards’ court; in the latest leak someone has taken photographs of actual real, physical cards. This means that someone who shouldn’t have gotten their hands on the cards got their hands on the cards, it’s that simple. Let’s face it – Wizards makes a damn good game, it’s alluring to find stuff out beforehand, and Wizards just can’t blame people for wanting to know stuff about their game. It makes absolutely no sense. As a person who used to run a fan site that would occasionally leak something, I know the lure for content creators. Leaks draw traffic and they give you something new to talk about. But let’s get one thing straight: leaks aren’t journalism. Publishing leaks is purely self-serving, looking out for the good of yourself and your ego. Leaks aren’t journalism because there is no cover-up. There’s no secret exposé about the working conditions of goblins on Ravnica, or the water quality on Zendikar, or the climate change on Mirrodin (though that one might have something). Leaks are all things that the public will find out eventually. There’s no conspiracy being unraveled, just something new revealed through the theft of intellectual property. That’s right, theft. If we didn’t give it to you and say “Show this,” then you are stealing something from Wizards of the Coast and the Magic community. Let’s get another thing straight – leaks are definitely journalism. The fact that this journalism presents content in a different context than was intended by the content creator doesn’t take away the fact that this is journalism, at least as far as journalism goes when it comes to Magic. To make an analogy – if president Obama was to hold a speech in the future, about huge changes in, say, the American welfare system, and New York Times got a hold of a first draft of this jaw-dropping speech – if they report on it, is it not journalism because they didn’t wait to hear the speech from the president himself? Of course it is. Further, the fact that Jarret is trying to call out people reporting on the leaks with a few unsubtle ad homenim-attacks does not make him right in any way. It comes off as petty, honestly. Would you go on your friend’s Facebook page and announce a pregnancy if you found a positive pregnancy test in their bathroom? No, that would make you a terrible human being! Because it’s not your news to give, and when the world gets to know it is up to that person and their significant other. Here, Jarret confuses private information (pregnancy) with information regarding a product from a huge company. If I got hold of a picture of an iPhone 7 and posted that on the internet, would that be as bad as revealing an acquaintance’s pregnancy? Of course not, a company is not a personal friend, and the analogy is absurd. Our policy has and continues to be that we simply don’t discuss leaks. Go read the article from then- Magic Marketing Director Kyle Murray to learn about the problem we were facing even back then, over thirteen years ago. Confirming or disproving a leak may solve the problem in the short term, but it creates a bigger problem in that it can force us to acknowledge each and every rumor. And then when we decide not to comment, it becomes an even bigger deal. This seems like a fair and stable policy and in my opinion. It makes sense and it’s a clear policy. Make no mistake, we take leaks very seriously. We always investigate leaks with our internal teams as well as external partners to figure out where and how the leaks happened. We have and will continue to not just ban leakers from the DCI and cancel their Planeswalker Points accounts, but pursue whatever criminal and civil actions necessary to protect our intellectual property and the Magic community. Right, it’s one thing to be sour about a leak. I understand that, I really do. By profession, I’m a teacher, and I can get salty if a lesson I’ve been working hard on gets ruined by one or more pupils simply refusing to take part, or even disturb the class. In a worst-case scenario, I might’ve spent four or five hours planning. I can’t imagine if months of work gets ruined by leakers. That said, outright threats of expulsion from the competitive side of the community is not the proper way to go. Leaks create an unfair advantage as—because they do not go out over official channels—they are not as widely distributed to less-enfranchised players, thus creating an unfair advantage for some players. I don’t see how this is relevant in this case – what was spoiled was the expeditions and the mythics, which will have some impact on limited play, but not a whole lot compared to the playable commons. The constructed players will easily have their chance to look at the official spoiler before their first constructed event, leak or no leak. So if we can’t design a game that is leak-proof, our only other option is to work hard to prevent leaks. Which we do. We follow rigorous security protocols to ensure assets don’t sneak outside the building. So when you see a leak online, what you are seeing is theft, and we have an obligation to pursue and punish those engaged in that activity. This is a good thing, and it is part of Wizards’ job. Apparently, these security measures failed this time around – and my point is that the blame should probably be placed on Wizards’ security protocol, not on the parts of the community that leaked it, or parts of the community spreading it (like I). Granted, I don’t know what happened in this case, but I hope we’ll find out eventually. In the case of New Phyrexia, it is a clear breach of trust between the company and a single person – until something like this is clearly proven, I have to assume the breach is internal. There’s no reason to believe outside people should have a hold of physical cards this early, and thus, the blame has to be placed on Wizards. The community can’t be blamed for liking content from the company, and a spoiler of this magnitude creates not only traffic for a site, but also prestige and attention, two very human desires. We’re humans, Jarret. Stop being petty about that, and work for a tighter ship instead. It usually works just fine, why didn’t it this time?