Mark Nestico
12/31/2012 10:28:00 AM
“'Tis the season to get schwasted on eggnog, meat products, presents, and spoilers!

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FALALALALA LALA LA LA”

It's a real song.

I hope your holiday season was every bit as awesome as mine was, and if it wasn't, perhaps reading this and basking in the warm glow of my everlasting adoration and affection will comfort you.

The last few weeks have been very quiet on the Magic forefront. Tournaments have been at a minimum except for GP: Indianapolis. Ben Stark was able to take down my good buddy and fellow Pittsburgh Steeler fan Chris Fennell. In what was possibly the most stacked Top 8 of the season, and certainly of all time, Ben S was able to parlay his absurd amount of limited skill against an opponent close to his equal in the finals to take home the trophy. I would look no further than this event in order to learn and study up to increase my limited abilities. It was truly a clinic.

Aside from that epic event, however, I don't think there is much else to report on. Maybe I should talk about my cat Bynx some more...

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JUST KIDDING SPOILERS!

Today, I'd like to talk about all of the mechanics that have been spoiled, because not only are they going to give us a peek into what to expect, but they offer us some awesome concepts to start wrapping our minds around.


Cipher: Ladies and Gentlemen - Get your Matrix jokes revved up! Cipher reads as followed:

Betray The One by -

GOTCHA!

You may exile this spell card encoded on a creature you control. Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, its controller may cast a copy of the encoded card without paying its mana cost.

I've heard a few grumblings from the internet community that the card with this featured ability, Whispering Madness, is terrible. My reply to them is always the same:

“Sure. You may not like the card. But have you read Cipher?”

As an addition to Whispering Madness, it's easy to overlook the absurdly powerful effect that we're being granted. The last five words of Cipher are what make it so scary: “without paying its mana cost.” As time passes by, Magic players from days of old can tell you that the word “free” essentially means “busted” no matter how you spin it. The free spells of Urza's Block are some of the most powerful ever created. Affinity, a mechanic that people scoffed at when it was printed, turned out to be one of the most game-breaking mechanics we've ever seen. Cascade let you spin the wheel of luck, and regardless of what it landed on, 90% of the time it was bad news bears for your opponent.

Cipher is terrifying because it gives you a focused effect, and focused effects can be scary. Whispering Madness doesn't frighten me too much, but Deny Reality wasn't really too horrifying. Broodstar wasn't what gave people heart attacks when it came to Affinity. Treachery wasn't the EDH juggernaut 12 years ago. Time Spiral, Frogmite/Myr Enforcer, Bloodbraid Elf...those are the cards that broke the mechanics.

Imagine something that seems innocuous, but then add in a card like Invisible Stalker. All of a sudden, a good card with Cipher becomes an effect every single turn, effectively changing the Stalker into a threat that puts the game away quickly, efficiently, and doing so in a completely non-interactive way that breaks the Cipher mechanic in half. That's just the tip if the Iceberg. Even something as silly as:

1B
Target opponent discards a card.
Cipher

Imagine getting hit every turn and having to discard a card. Imagine this in multiples! It's a card that would otherwise probably never see play, but given hexproof's existence, especially in the UB color combination, you have a card that can lock you out of games as early as turn 4! All I gave you was a terrible and underpowered example. If it's one thing that Wizards has taught me, it's that when they use the words “without paying its mana cost,” they never get it right!


Bloodrush: Winner of the “Sweetest Mechanic Name Ever” Award goes to...

(Insert Cost) Discard (This Card): Target attacking creature gets (added benefit).

The child in me loves this mechanic. Without a doubt, this card has 'value' written all over it. Rubblehulk, while doing his best impersonation of a backwards Terravore, showcases an ability that only gets better as the game goes on.

1GR, discard Rubblehulk: Target attacking creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of lands you control.

The keyword here is “attacking,” since Gruul is all about attacking and maximizing damage. As the game goes longer, bloodrush could give you awesome amounts of incremental advantage. Since Rubblehulk's theme is power/toughness equal to lands, it stands to reason his bloodrush ability correlates with that wording. Newly spoiled Zhur-Taa Swine lets your discard it for 1GR to give an attacking creature +5/+4, attached to a 5/4 body for 3RG!

This mechanic screams to be utilized in a GR Aggro based deck. I can imagine the effect this has in a Naya build or Aggro Jund list. It completely breaks parity by always giving you a powerful effect that can allow you to blow open the doors of anything resembling a mirror match or to punch through the final points of damage.

If we are playing and are both sitting on an equal number of creatures, lands, and cards in hand, but I have the spell with bloodrush in my hand, am I going to be afraid to attack?

Now you have to go through the gamut of “does he have it” or “is he bluffing.” If you have an alpha strike on the table and I turn all of my guys sideways, the burden of 'the read' is put completely on your shoulders. Remember, bloodrush seems to be like cycling. It can't be countered! It's either “he has it or he doesn't.” You make the appropriate blocks, and then the combat step gets altered and placed WAY in my favor by bloodrushing the right guy. All of a sudden your alpha strike is out of the question, I've made no non-profitable trades, and you're on your backfoot! Even against control decks, this turns 1 single creature into a huge threat. If you're able to put your opponent to low life, their lack of a Wrath may mean “double bloodrush my Avacyn's Pilgrim, kill you.”

This is just standard! Think about the utility these creatures and cards add to limited. Turning clunky creatures into huge burn spells is going to win people a lot of games. Overall, I think this is a tremendous mechanic that fits right into Gruul.


Extort: THE IRON PRICE.

Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay W/B. If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life.

I don't think they could have been a better Orzhov mechanic if they tried to. In multiples, cards with extort are going to slowly kill your opponent by giving every single spell you cast the ability to 'Blood Artist' whoever you're playing for the low, low price of one white or black mana.

At first glance, it's so easy to overlook a simple life loss. After all, it's only 1 life per spell, right? Right?

As a quick exercise, how many games have you lost when you were able to get your opponent to 1-3 life? How many of those games would you have won if you were able to pay 1 extra mana per spell you cast to Flame Jab them? Go on. Do the math. I'll wait.

Do you see how powerful something so small can be? Recently spoiled Basilica Guard, a 1/4 for 2W with Extort, can illustrate how insane this mechanic can be.

Shields up? Check.

Extort card in play? Check.

Spells in hand? Check.

Time to go to work, boys.

Mana efficiency is often a difficult concept for newer players to grasp. The basics of it are:

1- Use what available mana you have to do the most, while essentially milking the best things you can do for the cost.
2- Always utilizing the proper cards in your hand.
3- Land drops are very, very important, no matter what deck you're playing.

It's the difference between having three mana available on turn three and flashing back the Think Twice in your graveyard or casting the one that's in your hand. You're using all of your mana efficiently, barring the circumstances when you're trying to hit something like a Terminus on turn three or something.

High Mid Low

Terminus

$9.99

$3.49

$2.16

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Now, with Extort, we're given awesome mana efficiency! Our lands will no longer have to remained untapped when we could do something like “Ultimate Price your creature, also paying a White to drain you for one. I'll gain one.” Not only did you just kill off their guy, but you used your leftover resource that would have otherwise gone unused to nail down a two point life swing. Not bad, huh?

For limited, this mechanic seems like a linchpin to build around. Multiple Basilica Guards mean tons of defense and tons of Extort triggers to keep the draining going and your life total high. When more cards are spoiled, I think what you're looking at is an incredible archetype in Gatecrash limited.


Evolve: Or die.

Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if that creature has greater power or toughness than this creature, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.

What we have here is a mechanic that showcases the power of a curve. Tempo is one of the most important aspects of all of Magic, and Evolve rewards you for believing in that philosophy.

While not being flashy, the Simic mechanic does what the Simic does best: grows out of control as quickly as possible. In standard, it will see play if we're given better costed Evolve creatures, since so far Simic's Fathom Mage seems a little expensive for the effect it gives you.

In limited? Oh geez. Oh geez.

Oh geez.

For those of you that weren't around for Graft, it was an ability that let you move your +1/+1 counters off of a creature with graft to build a bigger, stronger creature that has just entered the battlefield. What that meant was good creatures became better creatures, and the little ones with Graft were able to help you power out a more powerful army.

Evolve takes this a step further. Now, instead of worrying about moving around counters and losing creatures, we're able to just make our entire squad huge. Something as cute as recently spoiled Cloudfin Raptor, a 0/1 for a single blue with Evolve, can become a large threat over just a few turns if you build with your curve in mind. Turn 2 it becomes a 1/2 flier. Turn 3 it's a 2/3 flier. Hypothetically on turn 4 it could be a 3/4, and the sky is the limit if you have anything bigger! Would you pay 4 mana for a 3/4 in limited with no drawbacks? Of course you would! Now you can get that AND multiple other bodies that could be growing, too! If Extort is a strong limited mechanic, I think Evolve is by far the cat's pajamas that we're given to draft with.

And now, we saved the best for last!

BATTALION!

err...

Best for las...why didn't I do Cipher last?


Battalion: When you ain't scared of no Terminus or Supreme Verdict...or anything, really.

Whenever (Insert Card Name) and at least two other creatures attack, (insert added benefit here).

This is the mechanic that leaves me the most lacking.

Yes, Firemane Avenger is the bee's knees in limited. In a format most decided by turning guys sideways, Battalion will surely shine due to the added value of doing what you were going to do anyways - attack to kill.

In Standard, though...I'm at a crossroads with it. Using the Avenger as an example, I think the effect of Lightning Helix every turn is too absurd to not at least look into. In certain aggro matchups, you are given supremacy by way of killing their blockers, dealing direct damage, and gaining life.

Against everything else, though? It seems underwhelming. Rakdos will likely be on route to killing you by the time you can attack on turn five with Firemane Avenger, and in MAGICAL CHRISTMAS LAND (aka my last two weeks) when you play this card in Naya and can churn it out on turn three after a Smiter and Pilgrim, you're still looking at a turn four attack with the hopes that Battalion will happen. In a format with tons of removal, both targeted and mass, it seems like a struggle to get this card online. Hellrider, a card people are drawing parallels with, is so good because it comes into play, it attacks, it triggers, and in multiples in kills you by turn five. The Avenger lacks a key component: haste. Unless there is a Lightning Mauler aiding in the process, it just seems like this mechanic can't do enough unless you're putting everything to the table. Spray and pray isn't the most reliable tactic in Magic, and unless we see stronger cards spoiled with this mechanic, I wouldn't put many of my eggs in this basket. Hell, even the recently shown Boros Elite, a 1/1 for W with Battalion shows off the glaring weakness of only getting +2/+2 if it attacks with 2 other creatures. It's just not enough for what we are committing to.

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There you have it! After a bevy of mechanics have been laid before you, I hope you've gained a deeper understanding of them.

I, for one, could not be more pleased with all of them. I think aside from the looming fear I have of Cipher, they all maintain a certain strength that will make playing with all of them interesting for the next standard season when Gatecrash finally joins the fold.

Except for Battalion. LOLBATTALION.

In closing, though, I'd like to wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year. 2013 is shaping up to be one of the best years for all walks of Magic. With Modern Masters, Gatecrash, the drunken horrorshow that will be GP: Las Vegas, and tons of other awesome events, I look forward to ushering in a year of good times, great tournaments, and even better friends with all of you.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for making 2012 the year that you let me into your Magic author rotation. I can only hope 2013 will be a truly magnificent year for all of us.

Cheers, friends.
-Mark