Reviewing Gatecrash Part II: Answers

Hey zoners, welcome back to TGZ's Gatecrash Review, with me Grandpa Growth! In this installment we will be covering answers! Answer are ways to stop your opponents threats, disrupt their game plan, and generally make them feel miserable. Let's get started.

This card is terrible and really not worth talking about on the merits of its playability. What I would like to talk about is this: there are way too many reprints in Gatecrash. This is a functional reprint of Iona's Judgment. I will be talking more about the absurd amount of reprints in a future In General article coming soon.
Cards like Iona's Judgment really shouldn't get printed. The creative department needs to stop making ultra-specific card names that are only useful in the context of a given set. The fllavor of Iona's judgment is LITERALLY and Angelic Edict. Why not just call it angelic edict in the first place. Poor oversight by the creative managers. Some would be quick to point out that having several functionally equivalent card with different names is useful in a singleton format. Which is true, but not when the card is stone unplayable.




It is admittedly a bit loose to call this card an answer, but it is certainly a form of disruption. This is a huge update to Kismet style effects, including a hefty price reduction and additional functionality. Unfortunately it has been a long time since Kismet saw play in any format. The fact that this card doesn't affect lands substantially limits its effectiveness.














B00M. This card is kind of a blow out. As an Evacuation effect it isn't very good, or very reliable, but as a token hoser this card absolutely shines. A one sided wrath that cleans up whole armies of tokens in one go. It also has the potential to net an extra benefit if your opponent has gone in on an Overrun effect or spent resource firebreathing.














This card probably isn't playable, but I wanted to talk about it in order to demonstrate a recent trend in design concepts that is working to somewhat counter the power creep effect. The phrase nonland permanent appears on many cards nowadays, whereas in the past it probably would have just said permanent. This is an obvious downgrade in power and utility because being able tap lands would push this card closer to the timewalk-style effect that things like Ice or Tangle wire can have a a game. This is already much weaker than those two because it is one-shot effect that is negative card advantage and is generally going to be more expensive.

I think it would be quite fair for this to target lands. The cost scales quite fairly, it is cheap early in the game when your opponent doesn't have many resources and usually has trouble spending all his mana every turn anyway. You often see decks drop ETB tapped lands on the first turn or taking less relevant game actions than they do in the last game. This card gets expensive late in the game, the time when your opponents have a lot of mana and are looking to cast more powerful spells, effectively making their mana 'worth' more. Let's also not forget: in order to lock an opponent out completely you would need to have a mana advantage, which is a major competitive dynamic.

Oh boy! I am super excited about this card. Pauper powerhouse seal of approval. I like how these Cipher cards look for Commander. They aren't that powerful, but the accrual of small advantages over several turns can really swing the game in a format where games frequently go long. It is going to be challenging to get the ball rolling on triggering them several times, but even if you can't you still get the (slightly overpriced) effect at least once. I am particularly excited about Hands because it actually makes it easier for you to get in hits with your encoded guys.








Ready for me to reverse my previous argument?! Of course you are. I don't care about functional reprints of silly unplayable cards. I do, however, get very excited about functional reprints of awesome cards. This card will be played a lot and rightly so. It is very powerful and the drawback is at its weakest in Commander where 3/3's are mostly irrelevant and board sweeps happen at regular intervals. I am glad to see that this got printed under another name because I have mono Blue decks that want 3-4 of these.

I was expecting this design (or something similar) to exist in the Simic guild, but I originally thought it would either be multicolor U/G or make the token multicolored, since it is a multicolor themed set after all.






Again I don't think this card is universally playable, nor should it be, but I am a firm believer in the power of cantrips and a cantrip-counter is nothing to sneeze at. This is pretty powerful juding by the extent to which noncreature spells dominate the format. This is also an important counterpart design to Exclude, which is sick in pauper. It is unlikely that this card will be able to replicate the success that Exclude sees, but it is still worth mentioning.

I think it wold have been cool if this had a name that were more evocative of Bone to Ash, to which it is so similar. 'Stone to Dust' or something like that.

I am a pretty big fan of Unified Will. It is very easy to turn on in decks like Momir Vig or Edric. This card is probably a little worse, since it is a soft counter, but not by much. The cool thing is that it sits in almost identical design space, but will be used in very different decks. It isn't going to be easy to make this card better than mana leak, since you will need to be VERY consistent about get a reasonably sized creature in play, something like Thrun maybe. For what it is worth though, I see Mana Leak as a very underplayed card in Commander. People don't really stop tapping out, the best decks and best players use their mana efficiently. These soft counters become very reliable against decks that want to curve out.

Ewwwww....Filthy token hoser is filthy. I never had much symptahy for people who play Rhys or Ghave, but I mean...come on. This is getting out of hand. This is a powerful new tool against popular strategies and common generals. Sadly, there are already a bajillion great ways to shut down token decks that are much less narrow than this is. I recommend E^2 or Deed.











I like this card a lot. I probably won't play it a lot, but that doesn't mean it isn't playABLE. I prefer my removal spells to be reliable, unrestricted, and good both early and late. Although this is a 1 drop, it is rarely going to be able to answer opposing 1 drops. It probably won't even stop any early drops at all which is kind of a bummer. Later in the game it is pretty much going to kill everything. If you can push this over x=6 you are getting a pretty good deal. Sorcery speed is a huge drawback, but this isn't too far off from Dismember. This card makes a great compliment to Innocent blood, which is much better early than it is late.









It is too bad this card is enormously over-costed. I could see this being printed at cmc 1. It sucks that R&D likes to use card rarity as a scaling factor in the power level of card design. It should play some role, but I think it is better make the higher rarities the home for complex cards or just cards that don't play well in limited. This could make a fine common at cmc 2 perhaps. As far as ciphering this goes, you aren't likely to get much out of it. A couple lands maybe, which isn't nothing, but not enough to get excited about. I mean..just look at Hippy. Hippy is kind of a card in Commander. Mental vapors isn't a card in any format ever.









Some internet pundits are excited about this card and the potential interactions it has with planeswalkers. I don't think it has an relevant interactions with the ol' pdubs. You have to tap a creature and pay two life to take off one counter, which is a steep price considering their planeswalker is already netting them a recurring advantage by ticking up. In most cases, this is just going to freeze the 'walker at its current loyalty. Preventing an ultimate from going off is strong in a vacuum, but just read some of the playable planeswalkers +1 abilities...and then add tap your opponents creature and they lose two life. That +1 ability sounds super sick now. As just a 1 drop Extort guy this seems fine, but it is unlikely that Extort is going to turn out to have a huge impact on the Commander format.

Another interesting case for the nonland permanent text. Why does this even have it? Think about the lands that actually accrue counters, who cares if you get the ability to pull them off. Storage lands, vivid lands, depletion lands, Llanowar reborn...these cards just aren't relevant enough to hose. I suspect R&D got scared that someone might try to use this with either Dark Depths or Glacial Chasm and neutered it. I find this disappointing because I thought it had a a cool interaction with cards like Gemstone Mine, Gemstone Caverns, and Hellion Crucible, all of which actually see play.

Jeeeez! When Cipher was first previewedI never expected they would print a Smallpox effect. This card is crazy. It just just as difficult to 'go off' with as the other cipher sorceries, but this card can actualy win you the game if you connect with it multiple time. This is light years ahead of Mental vapors in terms of cost to effect ratio and playability. I look forward to slamming this on an Invisible Stalker and making my opponent sick. Or better yet Ghastlord of fugue.










Echoing lightning blast eh? I am down for this. I would have been super excited if this card were a common, but alas it wasn't meant to be. A token hoser for mono Red is a significant addition to the format though, because they had far fewer of them than pretty much every other color. Red made out like a bandit in this set. I don't think that this card will see play instead of something like Slagstorm, but perhaps in a token heavy metagame where you need 4-6 quality answers this might find its way into some decks.











I like this update for Mob justice. Instant speed is huge and targeting flexibility makes this a strict upgrade. This is going to be a go to burn spell in goblins decks like Krenko.

















This is a strange card. I like it a lot and am surprised, frankly that things like this don't show up more often. I love Provoke and personally think it should be made an evergreen mechanic. This is a an excellent falter effect that does double duty as a removal spell for small creatures and utility guys. Unfortunately, the usefulness of this card is somewhat limited because you typically want to win the turn you cast something like Falter. Race situations are much more rare in Commander than they are in other formats which also cuts into the value of this card.

It is possible I am mis-evaluating this card. It could just be a worse version of Master Warcraft, but  I think that is a stretch.





People occasionally like to gain life. Even in a format where you start with so much of it. It really stinks that this can't burn creatures. Really stinks. I don't think there is really a place for cards like Unstable Footing in Commander.

Sever flavor infraction: In the art you see a Gruul...guy bashing an Azorious Arrester. This card was clearly meant to kill creatures not players. Sloppy.














I am not a big fan of cards like this. If I were going to run this kind of targeted graveyard hate, I want it to cantrip. I think this card is significantly worse than the currently available options for bin hosers. But heck, what do I know?

Also: Sorcery? Come on. How am I supposed to work with this kind of garbage.













Yes!!!! The boom-booms. I like card advantage. I like decks with reach. This is a killer card and really showcases what the Gruul color combination is all about. This is an excellent rarity boost for Branching Bolt, a pet card of mine.

This card is sure to earn a hefty price tag for its usefulness in standard, where x spells are the new black apparently. The ability to kill two guys and a planeswalker is very sexy. This card is well worth the price tag if you just kill one guy and burn them for a few points. Incidental damage isn't as relevant in Commander, but it still adds up. You have to kill your opponent somehow right? This card has a spot as a kill condition in decks like Radha or Rosheen.






I don't like the Gatecrash charms too much for Commander. Envelop is fine, but doesn't see widespread play. Killing little dudes is a sweet flex option for Envelop to have, but there are already plenty of cards to do that already. I like the library manipulation ability the most, but i don't like that it is card-negative. The total package on Dimir charm is pretty strong and covers a wide variety of situations, but I think it is going to fall a bit short. U/B decks certainly want this card, but it just isn't powerful enough to earn a spot in competitive decks.















A swing and a miss. This is a cute removal spell, but it has a wonky targeting restriction and it costs too much. Terminate makes this look silly and terminate isn't exactly broken. I will be experimenting with this one in Pauper cube, but I doubt it will stick around for long. I don't expect this card to have a meaningful impact on any format.














A Mob Justice upgrade and Spitting Earth upgrade in the same set? It's a nostalgia fans dream come true. I like how this effect plays. In EDH it is basically killing everything. Ramp decks love this mechanic and there are more than a few ramp decks in the format. I am glad to see this effect getting moved at least partially into Green where it can do some damage.

I like Gruul charm a whole heck of a lot. Stompy needs Falter effecs, stompy needs answer to control magic effects, and stompy needs answer to flyers. GENIUS! We have an auto include for many R/G beats brews. Sadly this can't really replace Firespout in the above mentioned decks, but this makes a great compliment. Don't leave this card on the sidelines, it is a real player.











I just don't know what to think of this card. It has got potential that is for sure. It seems like it would take a bunch of work to set up though. Protection would be an easy fix, but you can't be preventing the damage. You need straight up Indestructible or to make it huge. Both of those usually require a card investment that is going to be more dangerous than it is worth. This card would be really fun as a 1/2, but I said the same thing about Nin, the Pain Artist and that girl is totally snapped as a 1/1. The bottom line is that you can probably just run this into another creature and blow something up. That should be enough. You don't need to go overboard. It is a tough to use removal spell with a couple damage tacked on as a bonus. That card sounds find to me.







Yes!!!! So much YES. This card just yessed me back to life. This has needed to exist for a while. So far, the game has too few way to deal with planeswalkers for profit. Well how about blowing them all up at once? Sold. The extra flexibility this card offers is just icing. I would play this card if it only had one of these modes. I am crazy about baord sweepers and I think Final judgment is a pretty decent one. Two thumbs up.

This card is a tight package from the creative angle. Sweet art. Evocative and iconic name. Flavor text that doesn't make me want to vomit. Super. Sweet.







KABOOM BABY! This card is crazy. Mystic Snake and Draining Whelk are both fantastic and this is the next star player on an already impressive squad. Not that the universe really needed more filthy U/G cards, but we are certainly getting more than our share. This is one of those special gems that only comes along once every few sets that really makes aggro-control untouchable in fair formats. Why is Delver good? Why is Counterspell good? Jeez...I just don't know.











This is a cute rendition of Pillory of the Sleepless, a card I think is a pretty great design. You combine a Pacifism with life draining. This is the next logical step by giving Arrest the same treatment. I think it is worth noting that the removal spells in RTR and GC are very similar across the board. That will have interesting implications when it comes time to draft all three sets of RTR block together. It minorly disappoints me that this card couldn't be a common because I want it in my Pauper Cube, but I understand why.

I know it would ruin the symmetry a bit, but I think it would have been a bit better flavor-wise and design-wise if this had Extort instead of the upkeep trigger. Or if you could simply have a removal spell with Extort in general.






This is the most niche of the charms in Gatecrash. I can't think of a deck that is really interested in having access to all of these effects, so I guess that means there is no deck that really wants to be playing this all that much. I am having a lot of trouble evaluating this card on its own merits since there is no precedent for it in previous cards. I am minorly interested to see how it is used and if it is really more useful than I am assuming it it.











I usually do not recommend playing cards that feature the punisher mechanic. They rarely work out like you intend for them to. This card really lays on the punishment though. It is reasonable to think that the price for getting their creature back is just too high to come out on top in the end. Unless you stick this on a creature that will imminently end the game then you are probably going to get one or zero relevant cards out of their hand; most likely lands or other situationally dead cards, but they do actually have to pitch to real cards which is sweet. I think this is going to be a solid role player in U/B decks for a long time to come. Pick up a couple copies of this card, it is like to retain some value through playability in Modern and Commander.







This is an ultra-sweet common. I am glad to see the Fight mechanic moving into instant speed territory where it will really shine. This card is going to screw up combat for your opponent. Removing chump blockers and utility creatures are important steps on the road to victory. This card makes creature based deck much more interactive than they used to be, which is a good thing for those decks and they format as a whole.










I rarely play artifact and enchantment removal in my Commander decks. Most people would think that is foolish considering the popularity of these cards in the format. I choose to interact on a more productive axis. This card, and others like it, are just so weak and so narrow. Counter magic is just as good at answering artifacts and this is, but they are usually going to be much more useful. If you want to make better decks, don't include junk cards like this. Be proactive. If you must be reactive, have the best answers available.











HAHA screw you Geist! You have perpetrated your last troll! In all seriousness I really love this card. It has all the right angles. It hosers a much needed segment of cards. It does so in a powerful way that just comes straight over the top. It is cheap and efficient. It also has additional functionality in match ups where dealing with Hexproof guys isn't an issue. This has all the elements of an excellent answer card. Making your squad Unblockable or protecting them from removal is very strong. Expect to see this card played in a variety of formats, in both sideboards and main decks.









Well there you have it. That's the answer cards! As always, thanks for reading. Come back and join me for the final segment of the Gatecrash set review when we talk about Mana and Utility cards.

Pass.