Reviewing Gatecrash Part III

Hello, welcome back to The General Zone's review of Gatecrash. Hosted by me! Your old Grandpa Growth. In this final installment we will be talking about utility cards and mana. Many cards fall into this broad category, but an explanation of why is very important. These are the nuts and bolts of your deck. They add functionality and make your deck run smoothly. They never make you win, but without them you would always lose. Let's get to the cards then!

So this is real. It is a thing. I have mixed feelings on this card. For the purpose of this article not going on for an infinite amount of time, I am not going to discuss the applications of this card with infinite mana or with Omniscience. I realize that those are the two ways this is most likely to be cast and the two things people are most excited to use it with, but if you have infinite resources winning should be trivial. There are certainly easier ways to do it than this.

I think it has a fair cost. In non-combo decks casting this isn't a guaranteed win. They sure ought to win, but without infinite mana they will only be able to use so many of those cards. Disruption is key here. Think of it like a tutor. You can choose to counter the tutor or what they get with it. If you are in a position where you can stop the BEST thing your opponent could possibly do, then you are going to win regardless of this nonsense. At best, this card is 'fun' and is something that should probably exist within the game. At worst, this card is broken and gets banned. Either way I will not be playing with it. I will also not likely be playing against it. My regular opponents have wised up. They are too smart to try shenanigans like this.

I expect to see some of this card in decks with an unblockable or Hexproof theme. Non-interactive aggro decks can't expect to get away with this. Aggro-control decks already have options that outclass this. This card is not good. It is as bad or worse than Curiosity. This doesn't even let you go off with Niv-Mizzet.

This card would be crazy as an instant that cost....less. Drawing a card from nowhere is worth between 2-6 mana by precedent. Drawing a card as part of the effect of another card is worth 2-3 mana.







This card is interesting I will give it that. It can fix Green in Edric decks. It can act as a second copy of Urborg to pump your Coffers. It can make Valakut playable in multicolor decks, which is actually pretty important. It remains to be seen what kinds of decks actually want this card on its face. The only knock against this card is that Commander is typically unforgiving to 1 drops. With 40 life and the ability to get big on every resource a 1 drop just has to do so much more than it does in Standard or Legacy.

Imagine if this were an Enchantment. Doesn't die to Wrath? OP.




I am not a fan of the U/W or Bant blink decks. I think they are just too cute. People seem to play them though, so I am sure this card will get a shot at least. I seriously doubt this is better than something like Conjurer's Closet or Momentary Blink. It really bothers me that you can't blink the creature that this is one without interrupting the Cipher. How many good creatures with ETB effects am I supposed to have laying around? It is unlikely your opponent will let you get away with this in any competitive game.








Hah. Bad card is bad.

















This on the other hand I like a lot. It is a great top deck late in the game. It can turn your really dorky creatures into huge threats. You don't have to get much more value out of it in order for the effect to be worth the price. Creatures getting dug out of graveyards in Commander tend to be pretty scary. This gets shut down by every single graveyard hate card I can think of, but that shouldn't stop it from creating some exciting game states.










 This card is very good. It is a powerful sacrifice outlet and an excellent graveyard enabler. I am not the biggest of self-mill strategies, but this is a step in a great direction. I expect this card to see a good amount of play. It also fits into the Black token/sacrifice decks; an archetype that I feel is underplayed.

Dag yo. This card is a bit pushed. To me, this tastes like crow. I am always saying that putting lands into play is worth more than the body attached to mana dorks. Well, if the mana guy taps for 2-3 or more and also gets to attack for significant amounts of damage later in the game then....well...then mana dorks are good. Or at least this one is. I know a whole boatload of decks that are going to be running this. For us history buffs: I was wondering when they would give another go at a Rofellos style effect. I like what they came up with. This card is fair. If it gets out of hand, it is really your opponents fault. Wrath still makes this card look real silly, but, oh well. I am usually the guy with the Wrath.





Sometimes I think that R&D forgets that the act of playing a card, or even including it in your deck at all, is a cost in and of itself. This is a big part of the problem with investichanments. It costs you mana and a card? Well then it should do something. Creatures inherently have long term value: they can attack and KILL your opponent in favorable board states. Enchantments really aren't that much harder to kill, but are often much more expensive for no reason.

With regards to this card in particular: What the hell are you doing? You are already way behind just by playing this, but each time you activate it, you somehow get further and further behind. This is a true gem of design. It is a card that actually makes you worse off by doing what it is supposed to do. It has NEGATIVE VALUE.

Pretty excited about the applications of this card in Pauper EDH. The options for Green recursion are expanding nicely and have been growing consistently for the last couple years, helping to add diversity and balance to a fantastic format. Notably, this card is an instant. Which is very sweet.

My love for Merfolk Looter is well documented. I think it is in the top 25 for best card EVER in limited. It is one of my personal favorite cards. It extremely elegant and well designed.

This card. IS CRAZY. It has a significantly increased cost, including double color requirement, but let's look at what you get for the price. A superior body, which is capable of blocking nearly all 1 and 2 drop creatures. A buffer against graveyard hate and hand disruption. A steady stream of card advantage later in the game at an affordable cost.

I am absolutely in love with this design. I wish there were versions of it at all rarities. Perhaps a rare, with a 1/4 body, and free activation of the second ability? Perhaps a mythic legendary version? This card will be all over the place once it catches on. As with any looting effect, kill it as soon a possible or get crushed eventually.

Uhhh...Traumatize you? GG.
















Mind Grind is kind of moving in the wrong direction if you ask me. It is an insanely powerful mill effect and a way to stroke your opponent out with arbitrary amounts of mana. There is a big problem with this card though...

R&D likes to make things scale appropriately for multiplayer by allowing them to affect all opponents at once. An elegant strategy that I think is very fitting. However, the graveyard is such a resource in Commander that giving every OTHER player access to it is dangerous and something you should probably avoid.






I erroneously left this card out of my threats review, but it is just as well. It is really more of a utility card. In color mirrors, this thing is just ridiculous. If you ever flip a counter spell, your opponent is going to feel miserable. In any matchup you can just steal their lands. This happened to me at the prerelease. I would rate this behind Cutpurse, Blizzard Man, Finkel, but that is already pretty good company.

On a separate note. I have been toying with the idea of a tribal themed Commander deck for a while now. My tribe of choice? I spect, you already know.






ERMAGHERD ITS CREATURES UNCAST!!!!!!!!! Some people on the internet are super excited about this. It is certainly powerful. It is a great tool in the stompy decks I have mentioned in the previous segments of this review. Randomness is kind of lame, but you should always be getting what you want with this. It is no Gift Ungiven, but it is not bad.










I have been eagerly awaiting my chance to weigh in on one of the most popular, most hyped spoilers since Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Are you ready? I know I am jaded and cynical and a huge critic, but come on. Even Grandpa has to like this card, right?

Right. This card is crazy. Doming them for 4 is super-irrelevant in Commander, but the other two modes are super effective. Counter Wrath? Hah. No, how bout we just blow up your stuff? K cool. Giving your general Double Strike ALWAYS cuts one turn off your clock, which is ridiculous. It is unfortunate that this card is really only good on the offensive, but hey, you are playing Boros. You know what you were getting into.



So wait, Momir Vig just got a dozen new U/G creatures? Crap. One of the best tier 2 decks just got like a hundred times better. The best part? Most of these cards are terrible or downright unplayable in decks that aren't Momir. Seems fair right? He gets 10 more Demonic tutor dudes and everyone else gets...nothing. That sounds like megalomaniacal villianry if I have ever heard it.

In all seriousness, Momir was one of the best sources of incremental card advantage before Gatecrash. Now it is vastly improved in no small part because of excellent cards like this. This is playable in many different decks, I for one will be trying it in Maelstrom Wanderer, but we all know where this belongs.



I like this already. I am not a big fan of anthem effects, but this is swaying me in the right direction. It pumps guys for way more than 1, the bonus sticks around after Biomancer is dead, and this card can attack and block on its own. I am not sure exactly where this card fits in the metagame, but it is powerful and has two of the most common and most usable creature types in the game. It won't take long for this to find a good home.










Unlike the last two cards, I am not terribly excited about this. I expect it will not be generating much value for the person who casts it. I think this is worse than Mind's Desire by a good bit. Even if you hit really big off of this, how far ahead are you really? Your opponent could just counter the spell you flip anyway.

This is probably too underpowered to see play in any competitive deck, but I expect it will be a favorite in casual lists. I like the synergy between these two effects. I just wish it cost 1 less.













So, for those of you who weren't already aware, Vesuva is ABSOLUTELY nuts and should be played in every single Commander deck, no exceptions. I am convinced this card is just as good and should likewise be ubiquitous. Let's compare: Vesuva copies automatically, for free, but can be Stifled for a net loss. Stage can be Stifled, but you can just try again next turn. Both fix colors effectively and allow you to double up on effective spell lands like Maze of Ith, Stage however also taps for colorless, so it isn't completely dead if you can't afford to activate it (or if you have no good targets). Vesuva ETB tapped. Stage does not. Vesuva is locked in once you make your choice, although that is not such a huge problem. Stage lets you reset it when a better option presents itself and to help protect it from being legend ruled.

Basically, what I am saying is this. Buy/trade/steal as many copies of this card as you possibly can. You will need a bunch and the value of this card is NOT going down.


The final card of the review. I didn't exactly save the best for last, but this is quite a spicy one. This card is crazy powerful. Rings of Brighthearth sees plenty of play. The fact that only a couple of cards have ever been printed with the capability of copying activated abilities should clue you in to the fact that they can get out of hand pretty fast. This is the perfect kind of card for Commander and interacts beautifully with some of the most popular cards in the format. This card is a home run in my book and is a design that I have been patiently awaiting for a while.


I have been in an ongoing debate about the viability of Arcum Dagsson as a general for tier 1 competitive play. After months of playtesting the deck against the tier 1 generals and playing with the deck casually, I came to the conclusion that it was strong, but simply not tier 1. This card has the potential to change that dramatically. The first Arcum activation typically gets either Winter Orb or something like Myr Turbine. After that though it takes time to set up a win condition. With the bracers on Arcum you can set up a kill in one turn. Bracers is also fetchable by Arcum, which is pretty filthy.

Well zoners, the time has come to put a stop to all this nonsense. I hope you have enjoyed the review as much as I did. Props to those of you who stayed strong through all of my ranting and raving. If you are anything like me, Gatecrash is going to be one of your favorites. I haven't been this excited for a set in a long time. Till next time children, this is your old Grandpa Growth signing off.

Pass, pass, pass the turn.