I love mono red in multiplayer. Much like blue, it’s a color that just shouldn’t work. The shortsightedness of red is about impulsive actions and not thinking about consequences. If I wanted to care about consequences, I wouldn’t include a bunch of self-destruct buttons.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Act of Treason

Hey, a reprint! A fun card with the likes of Bazaar Trader.

Cinder Elemental

Another reprint! Originally from Mercadian Masques, Cinder Elemental is a nice blend of creature and utility, but it is beyond slow. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, gatecrash, magic: the gathering, red, review

Green is a great multiplayer color. Massive creatures and powerful spells make for a terrifying opponent. Add in mana acceleration and a few of the newest Gatecrash cards, and you’ve got a wrecking ball that will destroy your opponents.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Alpha Authority

When it comes to auras, the easiest question to ask is: will Uril want this? In this case, nope, he doesn’t want it. As an aura, it’s okay but most of the time, you want to cast auras on creatures who already are hexproof.

Burst of Strength

A neat little combat trick, Burst of Strength probably doesn’t do enough to warrant inclusion in a deck unless you have a lot of plans for that +1/+1 counter. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, gatecrash, green, magic: the gathering, review

Blue is a weird color. In constructed Magic, Blue is easily the most powerful color. In duels, it makes sense. The color is about control but here’s the catch: the best blue mage can’t control a whole table. So when looking at Blue, it’s about looking at it as a support color often for multiplayer and not as a core color. Or maybe it is just because all these cards look terrible in comparison to the rest of this set’s offerings.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Ætherize

Mass bouncing is fun and ripe for abusing, and as a political card I love the options this presents. But at the end of the day, this will just result in a single player turning against you and maybe one player will be in your debt. But it does a lot more than a simple Fog…

Agoraphobia

This feels like a blue Cage of Hands and I like that. The combination with evolve is neat. I wouldn’t call this a must-use, but the multiple use applications make this a very interesting cog. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, blue, gatecrash, magic: the gathering, review

These guildless reviews are out of order! Normally Blue follows White in the color wheel – but not in Gatecrash! There’s a new color wheel: WBUGR! Now let’s look at some removal and kill things.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Balustrade Spy

Milling is getting far more interesting with Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash. The grind mechanic is fascinating and holds the perfect balance of suspense and utter uselessness. Plus this spy is a vampire with flying, so abuse the entering the battlefield trigger!

Contaminated Ground

I want to make a Contaminated Ground, Psychic Venom, Mana Short, Copy Enchantment Deck. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, black, gatecrash, magic: the gathering, review

With the guilds out of the way, it is time to turn to the guildless of Ravnica. These mono-colored cards have no affiliation beyond basic lands.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Aerial Maneuver

What is with these reviews starting with a whimper? As a combat trick, I wouldn’t play this outside of limited.

Angelic Edict

While expensive, I love the utility of this card. Exiling a creature or enchantment for 5 mana is expensive and the sorcery speed slows it down a lot too, but at the end of the day, this is unconditional removal. It isn’t a great card, but in slower formats it does okay. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, gatecrash, magic: the gathering, review, white

One of my favorite cards in Magic is Boros: Lightning Helix. I love Lightning Bolt and Armadillo Cloak was one of my favorite spells too. So when it comes to Magic, I feel right at home in the aggressive style of Boros.

Weenie decks are difficult in multiplayer formats. The traditional system of applying pressure and keeping it on doesn’t exactly work when you’re facing off against 60 or 80 points of life. And RDW faces the same issue. You might burn out one player and maybe half of another before getting crushed into the ground.

Amazingly, Boros manages to avoid both of these pitfalls.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

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Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Boros Elite

I love when I say things and then immediately get proven wrong. Boros Elite is an interesting variant of the Savannah Lions archetype in white weenie. But weenies aren’t always the best. As far as batalion goes, it’s a nice mechanic that encourages attacking – which is a great way to break stalemates. Sadly, you can’t do crazy tricks but putting creatures onto the battlefield tapped and attacking …usually.

Daring Skyjek

It doesn’t seem that long ago that I found Blade of the Sixth Pride to be interesting, and for an aggressive deck, this is a fine two-drop. The biggest issue is it doesn’t do enough late game. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, aurelia, boros, gatecrash, magic: the gathering, red, review, white

There is a side of me that loves a great blue-white control deck or a black-blue behemoth that wins by taking control of the entire battlefield – and the stack. I’ll even dabble in red-black when I want pure chaos to take over.

But at my core, I’m a green-ally player at heart. My favorite deck is now referred to as Naya, but it was built long before that name was a thing. If I called it anything, it would be Thornscape (though those cards got removed a long time ago). But there is something about the Gruul Clans that makes me smile while smashing.

Gruul’s new mechanic, Bloodrush, allows you to turn creatures into pump spells on the offense and has a little touch that is great for multiplayer. It is target attacking creature – any attacking creature. This little change makes combat much more interesting for red and green since they can’t smash every turn.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Scorchwalker

Not the most exciting card in the bunch, being a 5/1 for 4 is pretty standard. The bloodrush addition is interesting because it gives mono-red some new pump options besides Brute Force. I’m most interesting in this for mono-red infect, but any aggressive red deck could use this… but that doesn’t make it good.

Skinbrand Goblin

This is much closer to what I want! The ability to be a small body or a cheap pump spell is exactly what red wants. And it is a goblin, so it will be right at home in tribal decks. Skinbrand is awesome, and when it comes to commons, this is the kind of utility I like to see. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, borborygmos, gatecrash, green, gruul, magic: the gathering, red, review

At the end of Dissension, the Simic Combine was all but destroyed. Since then though, a new leader has risen and reevaluated the guild’s focus into something… more. Or maybe they are just trying to combine the weirdest assortment of creature types possible. It’s hard to tell when the guild is almost as crazy as Izzet. Almost.

In multiplayer formats, blue and green is one of those color combinations that sounds like it can do anything. Green gives access to big creatures and fast mana, while blue adds in control, card advantage and evasion. And when you combine the two colors, weird things happen – like Crab Fish, Lizard Drakes and something called a Krasis. Anyone know what a Krasis is? Because I don’t think a mutated fish is a muddling of water a wine.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Clinging Anemones

I’m a sucker for awful creature types, and find jellyfish to be hilarious. I don’t find 4 mana walls to be that hilarious. The big difference between power and toughness means he’ll evolve easily, but that doesn’t stop the fact that this is a 1/4 defender for 4.

Cloudfin Raptor

I have no idea if this card is good. The aggro-player in me says no, but the combo player loves the idea of having a card that makes so many tokens. This is a perfect little engine piece in kitchen table 60, but in Commander, it doesn’t do enough. But bird mutants are kind of awesome. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, blue, gatecrash, green, magic: the gathering, review, simic, zegana

Dimir isn’t real, right? Or is it? Either way, it introduces something new.

The House of Dimir in Gatecrash introduces two main concepts to Magic: Grinding and Cipher. Grinding is the new milling X lands ability that seems to be specially made for casual mill decks and gives multiplayer millers some impressive spells.

But more exciting is the ability Cipher. Turning sorceries into Auras in a way, Cipher allows you to cast the same spell again and again off combat triggers. And yes, it casts the spell which allows for some great abuse.

Gatecrash Casual & Commander Review
Orzhov Syndicate | House of Dimir | Simic Combine | Gruul Clans | Boros Legion
White | Black | Blue | Green | Red | Other

Return to Ravnica Casual & Commander Reviews
Azorious Senate  | Izzet League | Cult of Rakdos | Golgari Swarm | Selesnya Conclave
White | Blue | Red | Black | Green | Gold, Artifact & Lands

Hands of Binding

Cipher Detain? Oh I hope that becomes a thing when Dragon’s Maze happens! Hands of Binding is a neat little trick, but the value really comes from Cipher. Encouraging attacking is nice, but getting essentially auras that can’t be two-for-one’d is much better. As far as an ability, this isn’t great but could be awesome for limited.

Last Thoughts

How much would you pay to turn a creature into an Ophidian? For older players, I see the allure of this card being much greater. But the casting cost is just painful. 3U for a Curiosity that can’t be Disenchanted? That feels expensive. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: arena, black, blue, dimir, gatecrash, lazav, magic: the gathering, review