Monday, December 24, 2012

Gatecrash Spoilers

With Gatecrash around the corner, we already have seven new cards revealed, plus we know that the other five shock lands will be reprinted and we also know that the Charm cycle and Guildgate cycle will be returning in this set. MTG Salvation also has the names of the Guildmages (which will also be a returning cycle). So let's begin!

Spoiled Cards

First, we have the Enter the Infinite. This card let's you draw your entire library, keepit until your next turn, before you have to discard.

This is perfect for a self-mill deck including Laboratory Maniac (Innistrad) so you play this, then play all four from your hand the next turn when you draw the card you put back as the one card in your library.

Next we have Hellkite Tyrand. This looks to be an awesome card since you can gain control of artifacts from your opponent with it when you deal combat damage to them, and on top of that, if you control 20 artifacts, you win the game. I don't know how much it will be used in Standard format play since the Scars of Mirrodin block is now out, but it might be more for Extended or Modern format. This is probably a snap judgment given that I don't know what a majority of the cards in this set are, nor what comes in Dragon's Maze or any of the M14 and block after...
The third revealed card is one of our guild leaders, Aurelia, the Warleader. It appears the Boros guild is going to have something probably to do with double strike as their keyword since Aurelia allows for two combat phases, one after the other, in which you can untap and attack with your creatures again. For a converted mana cost of 6 with 2 and double red and double white, for a creature with flying, vigilance, and haste plus a 3/4 with this ability, it's great, but more of a late game card. Hopefully there will be more cards for Boros that will help hold off opponents. Although I could see some possibilities that could happen with a Naya (Red, Green, White for those that don't know) deck...

Our fourth card is a second guild leader, Borborygmos Enraged. This costs 8 mana! 4 plus double Red and double Green. He's also a 7/6 trampler and when you deal combat damage with him, you reveal the top three cards of your library and put all land cards revealed into your hand and the rest into your graveyard. At 8 mana, I don't think you'll need too much more land, so it's a nce touch to be able to discard a land card and have him deal three damage to target creature or player.
Next, we have one of the two planeswalkers from the set as our fifth previewed card. Meet Domri Rade, a red/green planeswalker (1RG specificly). His first ability is to let you look at the top card of your library and if it is a creature, you reveal it and put it into your hand. Other cards go back on top of your library. While it doesn't say that, when you look instead of draw, it typically goes back unless there is an ability or purpose for you to keep the card. The second ability just lets you have two creatures fight each other. I believe there is a green card from Innistrad or Dark Ascension that does something similar to that ability. The third ability gives an emblem that allows all your creatures to have double strike, trample, hexproof, and haste.

Domri seems like a planeswalker specific for a particular deck... I don't see much of a combo between this and any card right now, but there are stll many more cards to be revealed. There could be an interesting RUG mill deck with Borborygmos Enraged and Domri Rade... I'll have to experiment...

Second to last, we have Simic Fluxmage and we learn of the Simic keyword... Evolve is the name and adding +1/+1 counters is the game. When you play a creature with a greater power OR toughness than Simic Fluxmage, Simic Fluxmage gets a +1/+1 counter. So this works with any card with Evolve. And Simic Fluxmage has the ability of moving a +1/+1 counter from itself to another target creature. This is looking good. I could see some interesting combos with this and perhaps Blessings of Nature (green Avacyn Restored miracle card) in a deck... Maybe a good amount of defender creatures as well (Doorkeeper and Axebane Guardian from RTR, for example). This is looking good...
Fathom Mage, the seventh and last spoiler so far, is a great combination of blue and green all bundled into a nice rare. First of all, we have the keyword Evolve sitting on this nice 1/1 creature. This shouldn't be hard to drop a creature with greater power or toughness, that's for sure. So the adding +1/+1 is the green ability (think Blessings of Nature as mentioned with Simic Fluxmage), while drawing a card each time a counter is placed handles the blue aspect. Simic is so far looking to be a pretty good guild...


Shocklands

  • Stomping Ground - Gruul
  • Watery Grave - Dimir
  • Breeding Pool - Simic
  • Godless Shrine - Orzhov
  • Sacred Foundry - Boros

Guildgates, Charms, & Keyrunes

  • Gruul Guildgate, Gruul Charm, Gruul Keyrune
  • Dimir Guildgate, Dimir Charm, Dimir Keyrune
  • Simic Guildgate, Simic Charm, Simic Keyrune
  • Orzhov Guildgate, Orzhov Charm, Orzhov Keyrune
  • Boros Guildgate, Boros Charm, Boros Keyrune

Guildmages

  • Skargg Guildmage (Gruul)
  • Duskmantle Guildmage (Dimir)
  • Zameck Guildmage (Simic)
  • Vizkopa Guildmage (Orzhov)
  • Sunhome Guildmage (Boros)

Other Information

So we already know 32 of the 249 cards. Well, we at least know the names, yet we know what 17 of them do (the seven previews, the guildgates, and the shock lands). The only other thing we know is that there is a Gideon planeswalker, and will probably be a new one (Sorin, Elspeth, Sarkhan, and Tezzeret, four of the non-original five planeswalkers have two versions each already, so a new Gideon isn't a foreign idea).

Either Gideon will be white only, or he'll be a White/Red planeswalker (given the promo image of him with Aurelia, the guild master of the Boros guild, but Jace wasn't a Blue/Red planeswalker when he was with Niv-Mizzet). I'm thinking the latter, so we'll just have to see.


Dragon's Maze will probably have Ral Zarek as a Blue/Red planeswalker as the one for that set since he has appeared in other MTG media and his picture is one of the ones used to promoting Dragon's Maze.

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