Happy Monday MTG peeps,
It was a busy weekend for Magic: the Gathering fans. For tournaments, Jon Stern took a standard format Bant Aura build to win Grand Prix Atlantic City, while Ken Yukuhiro went to first place with a Rakdos sealed strategy at Grand Prix: Singapore. We looked at Bant Aura shortly after the prerelease but had dismissed it. We're now having a second look - Essentially this strategy uses inexpensive auras such as Ethereal Armor, Spectral Flight, or Rancor on some key creature spells like Invisible Stalker, Geist of Saint Traft or Silverblade Paladin to land some serious damage. If you are thinking about getting a deck like this off the ground, swing by MTG Mint Card to pick up those extra cards you don't have yet.
Anywhoos, let's get going on today's Gatecrash spoilers and previews from the Mothersite and around the 'net . . .
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Enchantment, Rare
Extort (Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay {WB}. If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life.)
Artifacts and creatures your opponents control enter the battlefield tapped.
Mothersite preview. This will certainly deliver a kick to the tenders of those builds favouring hasty critters and should have an immediate impact on some of today's popular standard format builds. This is also a lovely early drop extort for Orzhov.
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Creature - Demon, Mythic Rare
Flying
Whenever Lord of the Void deals combat damage to a player, exile the top seven cards of that player's library, then put a creature card from among them onto the battlefield under your control.
7/7
Gathering Magic preview. Looks like another card for the EDH / Commander fans - especially if their General is Kaalia of the Vast to sneak this fatty into play without paying it's mana cost.
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Creature - Goblin Soldier, Rare
Haste
Battalion - Whenever Legion Loyalist and at least two other creatures attack, creatures you control gain first strike and trample until end of turn and can't be blocked by tokens this turn.
1/1
Dengeki Online preview. Interesting card here. For standard, we can see that this would be used more as a combat trick or to be saved for an alpha strike with the new Gruul 'bloodrush' tech. The token hate here may push it into some sideboards but we're unsure whether it could make the cut for standard - perhaps this in a Boros battalion build with Frontline Medic.
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Assemble the Legion, 3rwEnchantment, Rare
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a muster counter on Assemble the Legion. Then put a 1/1 red and white Soldier creature token with haste onto the battlefield for each muster counter on Assemble the Legion.
SSGLive preview. This was previewed during the Grand Prix Atlantic City Coverage on Saturday. At five mana, this Boros enchantment appears to be a bit too late for the party and could be easily nerf'd by card such as Thrull Parasite. We're thinking we'll see this in the dollar rare bin unless EDH players want to take a second look at this with a bunch of anthem effects.
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Ooze Flux, 3gEnchantment, Rare
1{G}, Remove one or more +1/+1 counters from among creatures you control: Put an X/X green Ooze creature token onto the battlefield, where X is the number of +1/+1 counters removed this way.
Mothersite preview. Gavony Township, Increasing Savagery, Mikaeus, the Lunarch and Ajani Goldmane can provide some counters to fuel your token creation here and Parallel Lives may double your production rate. This card may be decent in EDH / Commander, but we'll likely not give this a nod for standard.
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Simic Charm, guInstant, Uncommon
Choose one - Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn; permanents you control gain hexproof until end of turn; or return target creature to its owner's hand.
Moxes preview. This is a nice utility card which will likely find a home in several different standard and modern format builds. There is nothing wrong with having a choice between Giant Growth, Hexproof or Unsummon, and we consider two mana OK to have a range of choices here. This can even save one of your own critters from spot removal / board wipes by bouncing it back into the safety of your hand.
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