A Durdle's Guide to Gatecrash - Hybrid and Artifacts

Hybrid cards are fun, enigmatic little numbers. Return to Ravnica saw a couple of strong ones that made tournament splashes in [card]Rakdos Cackler[/card] and [card]Nivmagus Elemental[/card], as well as the huge impact that [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card] has had on Modern and Legacy. That they can be easier to cast than gold cards sometimes does weird things with their power level, but my first look at this set made me think they had found a great balance with the hybrid cards that perhaps has not been found previously. We’ve even tacked a couple of artifacts on at the end, to bring our Durdle’s Guide to a close.

Hopefully this series has given you some ideas for FNM decks for the upcoming weeks, ideas that will let you prioritize fun and maybe even unlock some achievements along the way!

Hybrid

[card]Biomass Mutation[/card]
Considering the high power level of Overrun, it might be confusing to some newer players that it never really caught on in constructed. The triple green mana cost and the fact that it was a sorcery were two major reasons for that of course, as well as the fact that you needed to keep a mass of creatures on the board.

[card]Biomass Mutation[/card] solves a couple of those problems, and also scales up with our mana. Your opponent always knew when your attack was an Overrun-fuelled one, allowing them to block and use tricks or removal accordingly. Of course your opponent can still respond to Mutation with removal, but their blocks will still be made without knowing it’s coming (at least the first time) and, in a pinch, you can use it on defense.

One of my achievements is going to involve winning with this card, and possibly another one for casting it with X greater than 10. The lack of trample does hurt the “I win” factor of the card, but the power level of a mass-pumping X spell is still very high.

[card]Boros Reckoner[/card]
Everyone and his dog has already spoken about the infinite life combos with this guy, and yes I reckon that will be an achievement for me to unlock this season. At the time of writing this we have seen the card all over the Pro Tour tables, which is not a surprise to me in the slightest, but nobody seems to be adding the extra card to win the game on the spot: [card]Vizkopa Guildmage[/card]. Through some combination of Reckoner, Boros Charm/Frontline Medic and Azorius Charm/Nearheath Pilgrim/Moment of Heroism/Vault of the Archangel/the Guildmage itself, we turn our infinite life combo into the end of the game. We can even include [card]Exquisite Blood[/card] in this deck to give us another way to win.

The price tag on our Minotaur Wizard friend is a steep one right now, though with any luck it will dip after the Pro Tour furore settles down a bit. Once I acquire my playset however, this deck idea is at the top of my achievement list. So much fun to be had!

[card]Burning-Tree Emissary[/card]
Free spells have notoriously been format-warping over Magic’s history, and to see this printed in two colours that already have fast and powerful creatures is a bit surprising. The genius that is Tomoharu Saito has been showing people decklists starring this guy, and from all reports they are burning up the format. The mana is a bit wonky but chaining a couple of these into a [card]Mayor of Avabruck[/card] on turn 2 after dropping a [card]Champion of the Parish[/card] on turn 1 can get ugly in a hurry, and God forbid you can hold on to that chain until turn 4 with a [card]Champion of Lambholt[/card] on the board.

Generally I try to avoid achievements based entirely on luck of the draw, so chaining four Emissaries together won’t be on the list. Two or more in a chain seems more reasonable and attainable. I also want to reanimate a couple of these into something large, which will probably require [card]Angel of Glory’s Rise[/card] or our next card on the list. This card will shine most in aggro decks, but I think there’s untapped combo potential here too (in Modern with other Shamans maybe?) and I plan to find it.

[card]Immortal Servitude[/card]
Now this card just screams combo. The last card we had that card about what converted mana costs you played was [card]Birthing Pod[/card], and look at all the decks THAT spawned. I have been testing this like crazy with X at 1, 2 and 3 and there’s potential in all of them. I know we have some very potent graveyard hate right now, but the idea that this might be broken just won’t die.

At X=3 we can return Biovisionaries, a ton of fat beaters like [card]Loxodon Smiter[/card], [card]Silverblade Paladin[/card], [card]Boros Reckoner[/card], [card]Champion of Lambholt[/card] (who will get very fat) and [card]Frontline Medic[/card], along with [card]Hellraiser Goblin[/card] to give them all haste. Then we swing for a ton of damage. At X=1 we can choose your favourite sacrifice outlet, play a bunch of 1-drop Humans and sac them all with [card]Champion of the Parish[/card] in play. In Modern we can run this in Martyr to bring back the plethora of one-drops the deck runs. I feel like anything above 3 for X is asking too much, unless we want to ramp into it.

[card]Nightveil Specter[/card]
I love this card. It’s basically an Ophidian with evasion, but one that draws you cards that might be useless. Of course we can minimize the chances of that by diversifying our mana base, either with [card]Chromatic Lantern[/card] or a wide spread of shocks. One of my pet cards, [card]Liliana of the Dark Realms[/card], can help us do that.

I exspecter I will be playing this card (probably too much of it) but I don’t know what achievements I should be looking to get as a result. I love the idea of using my opponent’s spells to beat them, so maybe that should be one of the goals. Any other suggestions would be gleefully accepted.

[card]Rubblebelt Raiders[/card]
I am including the Raiders here because I think they will trick some of our number into building around them. That ability is powerful to be sure, and even if you only control the one creature he still grows himself. He’s just one coloured mana too expensive to be effective, I think.

At four mana he costs the same as a [card]Supreme Verdict[/card]. The hyper aggro decks that can beat you before you cast a Verdict would rather cast Hellrider or [card]Falkenrath Aristocrat[/card] on turn 4, and the midrange decks would rather add two threats at once with [card]Huntmaster of the Fells[/card]. With that said, I can see a place for the Raiders, perhaps in a deck with token-making planeswalkers like the Garruks to keep a steady supply of dudes coming. I might give it a try at some point, but I still think the card is something of a trap.

Artifacts

[card]Dimir Keyrune[/card]
Of the RTR entries in this cycle, only [card]Rakdos Keyrune[/card] saw any play at a high level. All the Keyrunes are immune to sorcery-speed removal if played correctly, but only the Rakdos one was also hard to block profitably while still dealing a healthy chunk of damage.

[card]Dimir Keyrune[/card] is even harder to block. As in impossible. If any cipher spell takes off, this would be an excellent place to encode it. It’s also a decent finisher in hard control decks that keep the board clear and just need to peck away at a life total. I will be hoping to use this Keyrune to unlock a couple of achievements, including dealing all 20 with it and encoding two different spells on to it and connecting with a swing.

[card]Illusionist’s Bracers[/card]
Another card with Johnny written all over it. The list of things we can do with this in Standard alone is quite impressive: [card]Falkenrath Aristocrat[/card], Niv Mizzet, [card]Bloodline Keeper[/card], [card]Thraben Doomsayer[/card], [card]Bloodthrone Vampire[/card], even Pack Rat become even more formidable when equipped. [card]Deathrite Shaman[/card] gets ridiculous, especially when you consider that his first ability is not a mana ability.

All of the cards I mentioned above are on my list for this card. Local player Shawn Ludwig has been working on something similar, with some decent results. His brewing mind is as creative as mine, if not more so, so I will be looking there for some inspiration on this one.

Thoughts on Hybrid cards

I feel like my hunch was correct: the hybrid cards in this set are very strong and full of potential. [card]Boros Reckoner[/card] is the obvious and early frontrunner, but I think it’s only a matter of time until [card]Immortal Servitude[/card] catches on.