“Gatecrash” is a first for Magic:
The Gathering – the second “big” set (at 249 cards, as opposed to ~120)
released in a row. Coming off the heels of “Return to Ravnica,” “Gatecrash”
covers the five guilds we didn’t see last time: Boros (R/W – the police
force/military), Gruul (R/G – the hippies? I’m not really sure what the Gruul
do other than break things and complain. But they’re quite good at breaking
things), Orzhov (W/B – the lawyers and the priests), Simic (G/U – the
environmental biologists), and Dimir (U/B – Whatever you want done, for a
price, the information specialists).
Red/White Boros gives us a
straightforward keyword, much like themselves – Battalion. When a creature with
Battalion attacks along with at least two other creatures, it triggers a
special effect. Battalion rewards you for playing lots of mans and turning lots
of mans sideways. Easy to understand, but it seems like the weakest of the new
keyword abilities, both for limited and constructed. That said, I do expect to
see a lot of creatures with Battalion being used, just not necessarily as a
dedicated “Battalion” deck.
Red/Green Gruul provides the
versatile Bloodrush mechanic. Creature cards with Bloodrush may be discarded
from your hand (and a cost paid, of course) for some kind of boost or pump
effect. It seems a little boring at first blush, but it’s actually a very
intriguing mechanic for limited. I think one or two Bloodrush cards will be
constructed-playable, but not overly many.
White/Black Orzhov introduces
Extort, and ability which will be pretty important in a lot of multiplayer
matches in the future. Extort allows you to pay a black or white mana in
addition to the cost of a spell you’re casting to perform a mini drain life – 1
damage from every opponent, and 1 healed to you for each life lost this way.
It’s important to note that Extortion triggers stack, so for each instance of
Extort you control, you’ll be able to suck more and more life away. I can see
extort being a major player in some control decks, too.
The Blue/Green Simic guild has the
most exciting (in my opinion) keyword mechanic, Evolve. Evolve allows a
creature to get a +1/+1 counter every time a creature bigger than it comes into
play under your control. This allows you to work on a perfect curve and end
with a field full of massive guys. Some even have additional abilities that
cost +1/+1 counters, so you can get some additional benefit and keep growing
your guys, too!
Finally, Blue/Black Dimir gets
Cipher, an intriguing mechanic that lets you “encode” spells onto creatures
after you cast them, giving you the ability to trigger those spells again when
that creature hits your opponent. Many Cipher cards appear overcosted right
now, but that’s just because I think the repeatable effects are being
underestimated. It is important to note that if the encode-carrying creature
gets killed, you lose your Cipher spell, too. So I think we’ll see a resurgence
of hexproof! (Hello, Invisible Stalker!)
Some Notable Cards Include:
-
The other half of the Ravnica Dual land
reprints! Fixes all the holes in mana bases we’ve had over the last few months
-
More charms and multicolor, multi-option spells
-
Some big, impressive mythics
Good:
-
The last 5 guilds (and their mana fixing)!
-
Some impressive mythic rares
-
Cipher and Evolve are very intriguing mechanics
Bad:
-
The rares are nowhere near as exciting as RtR’s
-
Bloodrush and Battalion are fairly ho-hum for
constructed
Scully Rating: 9.2 out of 10