Gatecrash EDH Set Review Part 3: Gruul

Today we look at Stompy McStompers aka the Gruul Clans. Gruul has always ranked pretty low for me, not my least favorite guild, but near enough. This time out, they did get a few rather exciting cards, though.

Bloodrush is yet another combat focused mechanic that is unlikely to play well in EDH. In EDH, pump spells tend to look more like Titanic Ultimatum and less like Giant Growth.

This particular card is Limited Fodder. I don't even like it for 60-card.

I plan on trying this out in Stonebrow. That deck has tons of trample, but not much double strike. Casting it as a creatures seems fine, but the Bloodrush cost is a bit high. Overall this doesn't seem all that great to me, but it might fill a hole in a few decks.

This is a Giant Growth effect worthy of EDH, at least as far as scale goes. That said it seems a touch too costly to be desirable. Most decks would rather have Titanic Ultimatum or Overwhelming Stampede to pump their whole team.

This could actually be an interesting combat trick in multiplayer EDH. If timed correctly this can be a two-for-one for a single Green mana. The trick here is that you don't have to use it on YOUR attacking creature. Wait for two of your opponents to get into combat with each other and if you see a big guy blocking a little guy, hit the little guy with this and voila! 2-for-1!

Not a lot of green decks want an effect this subtle, but a few will.

This is at least better and more interesting than the original Borborygmos. He'll be replacing the original in my Stonebrow deck. As a general, he seems mediocre. His interesting and powerful abilities are tempered by a very high CMC. All in all I'm not that impressed and I doubt he'll become a massive hit with the EDH crowd, but he's all but guaranteed to see a bit of play.

This is one badass spell. You should basically always be able to get at least two modes to work for you, and frankly I think getting all three to go off is going to happen more often than not. Incredible spot removal, and potential card advantage, all rolled into one versatile package. Gruul decks should love this card.

A +1 that is pseudo-card-draw, a -2 that is pretty good removal, and an Ultimate that is like an Akroma's Memorial on bath salts? For 3 mana? Sign me up.


He's not going to be great in decks that don't run a TON of creatures, but most R/G decks do not skimp on that front.

I really hope this guy sees no constructed play, so he'll be cheap to acquire, but that doesn't seem likely to me.

Cool reprint, but a bit overcosted. I'd rather have Mwonvuli Acid-Moss.

Blargh! The one Bloodrush guy I'm seriously considering. A 4/4 Trampler for four seems okay in a Stonebrow deck, no? And the pump effect, while fleeting, is cheap enough to be compelling. If I'm being honest, though, this is more of a Limited card than an EDH card.

This seams like reasonable removal, especially in EDH. What green deck doesn't ramp? By the time your enemies are casting Consecrated Sphinxes and other bombs, you should easily have enough lands to effectively make this a Terminate.
Jund decks will scoff, surely, as they can run Terminate itself, and a whole host of superiour black-based removal. Naya decks will scoff because, well, Swords and Path.

But straight Gruul or URG decks should all be pretty happy to run this if they are needing to bolster their spot removal packages.

Weak ass charm is weak. It will undoubtedly find it's way into some decks, but I expect it will consistently disappoint and underwhelm.

Should have been Mythic and cost 6, but oh well. It's a very cool card and should see plenty of action. Mayael decks in particular should have a good time with this.Very playable, as long as you've got lots of big dudes.

This is pretty bad in token decks, obviously, yet I dream of having this guy out and then casting Hornet Queen. Good times.

Big vanilla beater with no evasion. Skip it.

Unreliable tutor that gives you 33% chance of getting what you want? Not sure why you'd play this in green, when you have many reliable ways to get what you want 100% of the time. If it at least put the other two guys in the graveyard I'd see it having potential as a sort of Intuition for RG, but it's not anywhere near playable as-is.

Meh. Not terrible but not great either. The mass-trample is cheap and useful, but the other ability is pretty iffy.

 Another evasion-less fatty. Yawn.

Sweet art, though.

I'd likely have written this off, but Uvenwald Tracker has been exceeding my expectations as of late, and so the Fight mechanic has become something I pay much closer attention too. That said, Prey Upon is virtually identical... EDIT: So, apparently Prey Upon is a Sorcery. 1-for-1 removal needs to be Instant speed to be playable, so I'd definitely recommend this over Prey Upon unless, of course you're in Mono-Green. I'm still not over-the-moon for this as you might sometimes 2-for-1 yourself if you need to trade a creature and this for an opponent's guy. But it isn't entirely without merit.

Yawn. This is either going to be part of some infinite mana or Storm combo, or it won't be used at all.

Love the art. Hate the card.

Gatecrash EDH Set Review, Part 2: Boros

Following on the heels of the Orzhov, we have the Boros Legion. Boros is designed to be the most aggressive of the guilds, even moreso than Rakdos or Gruul. As such, the guild centers mainly on having lots of little guys that are cheap but efficient, and right at home in the Red Zone. EDH is not a format that lends itself to “weenie” strategies. But that doesn’t mean it won’t work if you try. I’ve had a lot of success with my R/W build that focuses on small guys with Doublestrike or other relevant combat bonuses that help them compete with the much larger creatures common to most EDH decks.

In light of this, I had high hopes for Boros in this set, and while they do have some spicy options, there aren’t nearly as many playables as I’d hoped. The small creatures are mostly below the threshold of playability for me, and there was little or no Doublestrike to be found. Oh well. Let’s see what the guild DOES have to offer:

This is the sort of thing I was talking about above. Seems solid for a dedicated White Weenie or Boros Weenie deck, but by the time you have 2 other guys to attack along side this guys, you'll be attacking into 5/5's and 6/6's. Great for 60-card, terrible in EDH.

 I'm torn on this one. It has a really compelling Battalion effect, but you usually want mass Indestructible on your opponent's turn when he goes to Wrath the board away. That said it lets the super aggressive R/W or Mono-W deck attack with his little guys without fear of blockers wrecking it's army. Running this guy into an Swords or Path, though, will be devestating. Also, not sure how relevant the anti-X-spell tech will be.

It will probably see play here and there, but won't be a staple of the format.

I read this as "Firstest Striker" at first, which I though was amusing. As with the White uncommon, this is too weak for EDH but seems cool for Limited or 60-card.

Very cool but seems mostly useless in EDH. Anti-token tech is useful, but this particular bit of tech seems unwieldy and unreliable.

Very fun, and will do scary things if left unchecked. It's a bit slow-rolling and I can't tell if that helps it or hurts it. If threat assessment is dodgy this could snowball and by the time the table realizes they should have killed it, it's too late. Or, it might rightly be seen as something to deal with ASAP and it will be 5 mana for a 1/1 token. I plan to try it out in a couple decks, so we'll see how it goes.

No sooner did I profess my undying love and devotion to Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, when this sultry temptress comes along to make me forget my honor. I'm not 100% sure but I really think Aurelia is my new R/W general. Sorry, Gisela.

I hope it doesn't need saying, but this chick is scary good in EDH, as a general or one of the 99. VERY playable.

Well, the Boros got the best charm in the cycle, hands down, AND it's an absurdly amazing new addition to Sunforger packages all across the format. Every deck with Sunforger should have this. Period.

In case you are missing it, it says "permanents you control are indestructible this turn". Permanents. Instant speed. Two mana. WTF?

Duh, obvious bomb is obvious. But, it's also hella cool in a way most obvious bombs are not. Omniscience? Boring. This? Awesome. It's versatile in a way that rewards the skilled player most for using it correctly, but it's powerful enough that a weaker player can still make it do swingy things without too much effort. This should be highly playable in EDH, but for a while at least, it's high price will likely see most EDH players trading it to Standard players. If it fails to take off in competitive play, though, it will find and eager, loving foster family in the EDH crowd.

More of a 60-card bomb, but could easily do good work in EDH, in the right decks. Lightning Helix doesn't really kill much in EDH, but sticking a Basilisk Collar on this bird might be fun enough to try.

Meh. Limited fodder.

I'm not the biggest fan of this, but it could see a fair amount of play in EDH. It is removal on a stick, so someone is bound to make good use of it. None of my decks particularly want this, especially at the 6-drop slot. 6 mana is pretty much the most overcrowded CMC for playable EDH critters, so the competition will likely be too fierce for this to hit it big.

I love Doublestrike, and my R/W deck has Doublestrike as it's main theme, yet I still don't think I would consider this playable. It's basically this guy vs. Hound of Griselbrand, and obviously the two-headed mutt wins.

 Meh. Ball Lightning variants are pretty  bad in EDH.

They got the best charm, but a rather mediocre Guildmage. I am sorely disappointed the word 'doublestrike' appears nowhere on this card. Both abilities are on-theme for my Rith deck, though neither seem powerful enough to be worth running. Oh well.

I guess to make up for the weak guildmage, they decided to give the Boros a second "guildmage". LOL. Won't be playing this one either.

Okay, I'll bite. I've played Spitemare in a few decks and found it useful most of the time. For my aggro R/W deck, this seems a MUCH better fit. I'm not 100% sure I need this guy, but I will try to find room. I don't expect to see this become a staple or anything, but it's not terrible.

It's not worth running iffy removal like this, when both colors have access to far more reliable options. Also, "Arrows of Justice"? Really? What is this, Sailor Moon?

Gatecrash EDH Set Review, Part 1: Orzhov

Well, folks, it's been awfully quiet around here the last few months, and I wish it weren't so. Alas, demands of real life continue to make free time a precious luxury which I must carefully spend, lest I run out of it.

That said, there is no way in hell I would let a new set slip by without doing a set review, so I break my silence at least for as long as it takes to complete this review of Gatecrash, the hotly anticipated follow up to last year's Return to Ravnica.

Folks, I was a big fan of the last set, but overall, I think Gatecrash is set to blow it out of the water - at least for some people. Guildpact seems largely aimed at a different audience than RtR was. Return to Ravnica certainly brought a lot of new toys to the casual and EDH crowd, but overall I felt the set would have been far more thrilling and satisfying to me were I a more competitive player. Whether Limited was your stock and trade or one of the constructed formats - Modern or Standard - I think RtR was aimed more at you, the tournament-oriented player.

Don't get me wrong, I found a lot to love in RtR, but I truly think I would have found much more still if I were able to Draft as much as I'd like to, or if I were a Standard player at even the FNM level. Gatecrash, on the other hand, seems to have far more casual appeal, more EDH-worthy stuff, and basically it just feels more "Timmy" where RtR felt more "Spike".

As an aside, "Johnny" seems to have gotten the short end of the stick yet again. I feel for the clever, creative and original deck builders out there. The "Johnny" cards these days tend to be stuff like Omniscience or Enter the Infinite - basically, they take very little creativity or cleverness to win with these cards. I feel like Wizards has bought to much into the stereotype of the Johnny player, assuming that all Johnny wants is to win with some big combo. But really, what Johnny really wants is to solve a puzzle - to figure out how to win with a big combo. It's missing the point entirely if there is no puzzle. The stupidest, most unoriginal, creatively-bankrupt player in Magic's history should have no trouble figuring out how to win with cards like Omniscience.Sure, you have to live long enough to cast the spell, yeah, but that's not good enough. If the only puzzle Johnny has to solve to win is "How do I get 10 mana to cast this?", he is not going to be satisfied one whit - not if he's a true Johnny.

Johnny wants, above all else, to kill you with cards you never see coming. To kill you with cards you had written off as unplayable jank. To win in a way that is uniquely his own. Shit like Enter the Infinite ain't going to cut it. There's probably a better selection of Johnny-ish stuff if you're solely focused on 60-card, but for the EDH-oriented Johnnies, there is not a whole lot to get excited about.

Anyway, that is more preamble than I intended, and more soapbox-y too. On with the show!

Up first is the might Orzhov Syndicate. Orzhov is my favorite guild, both in flavor and in gameplay. I love a good W/B deck, and so I indulge my personal bias today, and let my favorite take the lead.

Unfortunately none of the common Extort cards looks to be the slightest bit worthy of the average EDH deck. As one of the few uncommons I don't think this fares much better. Without the life payment cost, the activated ability might be amusing as anti-Planeswalker tech, but as-is it just seems bad.

Phenomenal. This is extremely playable. Obviously you want to have enough Swamps for it to really matter, but it should prove valuable in almost any two-color deck, especially ones running Urborg (most are). But really, you only need to be getting 2 or 3 extra mana for it to have a significant impact. The Extort ability is just gravy - he gives you extra mana, AND something to do with the spare change! I expect to see this guy quite a bit.

Awesome art, but a weak creature nonetheless. I wouldn't even play this for the Extort, even in a Lifegain-dedicated deck. It's a shame so few of the Extort cards are worth playing - it would have been a cool sub-theme in most W/B decks, but while there are a few great ones, the rest are so bad, they're not worth running even to push the Extort theme.

On the other hand, this one is absolutely playable, even without the Extort. I've seen the "hurt them" half of Urabrask be relevant - decisive, even - in countless EDH games. This will be good if your playing something like W/U prison, or if you are just playing a midrange W/B deck that needs a bit of help fighting faster aggro decks. I definitely see this getting a fair amount of play in EDH, though it's not an auto-include in every White deck, not at all. But the number of decks in which this could be a role-player is many indeed.

Reaction to this card seems to be puzzlingly positive. It has it's detractors, sure, but I really expected this one to be widely reviled. There was a time when a vanilla 6/6 for 4 mana with a wonky drawback might have proved interesting and compelling, but we are so used to getting 5/5's for 4 with all-upside abilities to boot that it no longer feels like a bargain. EDH in particular has little reason to resort to this - there are TONS of choices that are similarly-powered, yet are not near so likely to backfire on you.

I will admit that this does have some interesting political implications in multiplayer, but not ones that I personally feel are worth exploring.

 Meh. Art is fraking awesome, though.

 This is a very cool, flavorful design. I appreciate the idea and the aesthetics of it, but I don't think it's playable. Relying on a very, VERY fragile 1/1 to keep this around might be worth the risk if the reward were greater, but as the reward for successfully keeping a 1/1 in play is a boring old 5/5 Flyer, that just doesn't cut the mustard. But it's still so awesome in concept that I'm sure it'll see play here and there. Some EDH metagames are more forgiving of such creatures.

There was a time when -4/-4 or 4 damage was the minimum number for playable removal. I think today that number is 5, but it might even be 6. The only problem is, W/B is the absolute best color pair at killing things, especially creatures. For EDH purposes there are at least a dozen cards I'd play before this one became a consideration.

Sweet crackers, now THIS is a removal spell. The name is cool, the are is AMAZING and the effect... well it is both versatile and definitive. It proclaims "I want all this shit dead, and I want it to STAY dead." Also as the first card to bear the text "exile all planeswalkers" or anything even similar to that, it definitely has a "wow" factor. This should flat-out replace Austere Command in decks that can run it.

I plan to play this card a lot, and I expect it will be used against me with alarming frequency as well.

Meh. I know I was just griping above about cards not being Johnny enough, and being too easy, too obvious. The thing is, I want my "jump through hoops" cards to be win conditions or at least something more than a boring utility effect. In a format where I'm allowed to play Vindicate or even Mortify, why would I want this?

 It's in the wrong colors for the whole Aura thing to be super exciting. The problem is, that's the best mode. The removal is too draw-backy to be worthwhile in these colors, and the EXTREMELY narrow Unearth is just a dealbreaker. Possibly the worst Charm in the cycle, at least for EDH.

Pretty darn good. Not enough to make me retire Vish Kal as the general of my W/B deck, but the new GhoCo should easily find its way into the 99. Seems likely to spawn some new decks, because mechanically this is pretty wide-open. Unlike most W/B generals he doesn't push you directly into one particular archetype. W/B Tokens is no longer the only viable archetype! Yay!

 Uh, yes please? It's no Sun Titan, but he'll do in a pinch. Very cool, very playable. It will die a lot though. 4/4 is still pretty darn fragile in EDH. Stick a Sword on him, though, and he'll start to look like Sun Titan on steroids.

Faith's Fetters meets Pillory of the Sleepless? I'd consider this more seriously if it said "permanent" instead of "creature". As is, this won't see play outside of dedicated "bleeder" decks, if any such decks exist.

Would have been far more interesting with Extort instead of the current life loss wording.

I might play this for 3 mana. That would be too overpowered for competitive play, I'd imagine, but that is still what it would take for me to rate this "playable" in EDH.

This seems really good to me. I might just be biased because both abilities are on-theme and relevant to my own W/B deck, but that second ability only costing 3 mana just seems nutty to me. I will be very happy to play this, and I should think I won't be the only one...

Cute, but doesn't strike me as all that good, really. There are plenty of Auras that have higher impact than this, that rarely get played. Overall it feels like a mediocre Steel of the Godhead.

This should go without saying, but this is a BOMB. It requires a significant investment of mana, but it IS in the same colors as Coffers/Urborg and the new Crypt Ghast. At the very least, it's a vastly more interesting and exciting way to spend a ton of Cabal Coffers mana than Exsanguinate ever was. This is the one card in the Orzhov repertoire likely to see even more play than Merciless Eviction. A wonderful finishing move for the Orzhov deck.













Overall I'm quite excited by the Orzhov Syndicate here. They got one of the worst Charms, the guild mechanic Extort is woefully unplayable, save the Rares with the keyword, and the spot removal is weak. That said, they did get some very playable cards at Rare, the new Guild Leader should help to open up new avenues of deck building in the W/B colors, and their new Guildmage is one of the best. Then there's the 1-2 punch of Meciless Eviction and Immortal Servitude. Not terrible by any means.