A Durdle's Guide to Gatecrash - Black

Welcome back! I hope you’ve all been enjoying the set review so far. There haven’t really been too many cards to make us excited yet, but maybe that will change today as things take a turn for the darker. Yes, it’s time to look at what Gatecrash brings the black mages among us! As a small spoiler, there is at least one card in here that has me close to drooling over the possibilities. Let’s see what we’ve got!

Black

[card]Crypt Ghast[/card]
I have a love for [card]Liliana of the Dark Realms[/card] that some would say borders on unhealthy. [card]Crypt Ghast[/card] may love her even more than I do. The wording on the card makes it even better, since you can tap, say, [card]Watery Grave[/card] for U and still get the additional B from the Ghast. Throw in a [card]Chromatic Lantern[/card] and you can basically cast every X spell in the format for as much as you care to.

That’s obviously a dose of Magical Christmas Lansdell, but I do think [card]Crypt Ghast[/card] is a very powerful card that will bring black decks to the forefront as the format settles down a little. I know I want to play it as much as possible. I had it in a Cube draft this week with the Lantern and was basically playing mono black splashing for [card]Sphinx of the Steel Wind[/card], [card]Cruel Ultimatum[/card] and [card]Nicol Bolas[/card]. Casting them was never an issue. Of course having [card]Necropotence[/card] and [card]Ivory Tower[/card] might have helped there, but I digress. A lot of powerful spells in Standard right now are black: [card]Rakdos’s Return[/card], Obzedat, Mutilate, [card]Olivia Voldaren[/card], [card]Griselbrand[/card], even [card]Duskmantle Seer[/card]. The ability to jack up your mana production has always been vital to black-based control, and with Liliana to smooth your mana and Mutilate being one of the most powerful sweepers in Standard, we might see a resurgence of the archetype.

Oh, did I mention it has Extort as well? Yeah, that’s a thing. As if doubling your mana wasn’t ghastly enough, it also gives you somewhere to dump it all. With the addition of this and some other Orzhov cards, black is definitely well ecrypt to be a major force in Standard.

[card]Devour Flesh[/card]
It’s been a while since there was a two-mana Edict in Standard, and having it back as an instant is certainly a boon. The perfect tool early for the annoying EnBantments decks, [card]Devour Flesh[/card] will obviously lose some value later in the game or against aggro decks. Used in combination with [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], [card]Tribute to Hunger[/card] and/or [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card], clearing the board might get a little easier. The lifegain is likely not a problem when your game-ending threats in these decks are things like [card]Griselbrand[/card] and Obzedat, and in fact it can be a benefit if you need to target yourself at some point.

At the end of the day though the card has its limits, and you need to be aware of those. On the play against an aggro deck it’s fine early but almost dead later, whereas on the draw you will rarely have a good spot to use it.

[card]Illness in the Ranks[/card]
As someone who has built and enjoys playing a Junk Tokens deck for Standard, this card makes me very sad. Like a lot of narrow hosers it’s not as powerful as you think it is at first glance, largely because of the existence of [card]Intangible Virtue[/card]. I am always playing four of those, and if you are siding in four of these then the chances are I have four less threats to worry about. If I draw mine and you draw yours we’re at parity. If I don’t find mine you can keep some of my tokens off the board but I still have other ways to win, and you have a card that didn’t win you the game.

There’s no doubt that this ranks highly on the list of Lingering Souls-killers, but is it really worth bringing in against a deck with no other token-makers? What about someone running Garruk and [card]Thragtusk[/card], do you bring it in there? A lot of those decks run [card]Golgari Charm[/card] in the board anyway, making Illness slightly less than a sick choice against Junk. Nice try, but ultimately too narrow to be a viable sideboard choice.

[card]Killing Glare[/card]
Across the formats, there are 0-power creatures that we can kill for 1 mana – [card]Birds of Paradise[/card], [card]Noble Hierarch[/card], [card]Wall of Roots[/card], [card]Cloudfin Raptor[/card], Doran, [card]Simic Manipulator[/card]. That alone is enough to make the card worth a look, especially in Modern. The later the game goes the more powerful this gets, that’s glaringly obvious. With enough mana you can kill anything you can target, and that sort of flexibility is valuable in a kill spell. It will be interesting to see whether this or [card]Death Wind[/card] is better in the long run in terms of efficiency, though I suspect [card]Death Wind[/card] is just the better card with [card]Boros Charm[/card] and the like being played. Nonetheless a clearly powerful removal spell that warrants consideration.

[card]Lord of the Void[/card]
I wish this had trample. I will be playing this at some point and am thinking up achievements to aim for. As usual, I’ll be accepting ideas for that. I doubt you will ever mill anyone out with the triggered ability, but the times you hit an [card]Angel of Serenity[/card] or other fatty and can lord it over your opponent will make up for the times he gets killed the turn you play him. It’s not like seven mana for a 7/7 flying dude is a bad deal either, right? Just not sure how it fits the storyline of the set. Sometimes you just want a big bad demon I guess…

[card]Ogre Slumlord[/card]
I’m a closet Vorthos, and I have to admit to loving this card. The idea of an ogre who owns a ton of skeety apartments in the back alleys of Ravnica that are infested with rats is just really amusing to me.

Is the card playable though? Well I now have to build a Rat deck. This guy, [card]Ravenous Rats[/card], Pack Rat, [card]Typhoid Rats[/card], maybe even [card]Immortal Servitude[/card]. It’s probably awful but it will be a ton of fun to beat even one person with [card]Pack Rat[/card] in Constructed. Just having one Rat out with the Slumlord will make it hard for your opponent to attack, and each block you make will likely give you another Rat. Not horrible, and definitely on my radar.

[card]Sepulchral Primordial[/card]
[card]Rise from the Grave[/card] is an underrated card in my mind, and a funny sideboard option against Reanimator decks. Getting that spell stapled to a 5/4 intimidate guy could have grave consequences for your opponent, especially if they are trying to fill up their yard. Considering you’ll be playing black anyway, it shouldn’t be too hard to kill something you want to reanimate later.

The main reason I wanted to talk about this puppy though is that it has a hilarious combo with [card]Infinite Reflection[/card]. I don’t think it is particularly good in Constructed, but it IS funny and in EDH will make you public enemy number 1. All the creatures from all the graveyards are now yours AND 5/4 intimidate guys? SEEMS FINE!

[card]Thrull Parasite[/card]
Extort loves cheap spells, as I mentioned in the White review. This is a cheap spell with Extort. What makes me think that it might worm its way into Standard is the tap ability, which can potentially suck the power level right out of a variety of planeswalkers. Control players will be loathe to spend removal on a one-drop 1/1 but some of them will absolutely have to with an active Parasite on the board.

Of course messing with planeswalkers is not the only use for our little buddy. He’d be thrulled to eat some counters from a [card]Geralf’s Messenger[/card] or an opposing [card]Cloudfin Raptor[/card], and he’s not against taking them off [card]Gemstone Mine[/card]s or Vivid lands either. Definitely some potential here for a utility guy who can randomly poke a couple points of life your way while messing with the opposing game plan.

[card]Undercity Informer[/card]
It is a certainty that I will be playing a mill deck this season. One of the interactions I am seriously looking at is [card]Undercity Informer[/card] and [card]Geralf’s Mindcrusher[/card], possibly with some [card]Thrull Parasite[/card] thrown in for good luck. Hardly game-breaking, but fun nonetheless.

The mill-to-a-land mechanic is probably Wizards’ best effort yet at making mill a viable archetype, especially if people keep playing Farseek and add [card]Ranger’s Path[/card] to the mix. With an uncounterable tool like [card]Nephalia Drownyard[/card], a potential game-winner like [card]Mind Grind[/card] and the sheer the Informer may have more than a snowball’s chance of winning me some rounds at an FNM.

[card]Undercity Plague[/card]
Apparently, a lot of people forgot that Smallpox was legal in Standard as recently as September. I say that because it saw virtually no play despite being a proven powerful effect and having a lot of synergy with Innistrad block. I guess the lack of a Flagstones of Trokair-type effect was part of the reason for that. What we have now, though, is a one-sided Smallpox that can happen every turn.

OK, we also have triple the mana cost and we need to be able to keep a creature in play to reuse it. In order for this to be good we’re almost certainly going to have to ramp into it, though I don’t think that will be a problem with Keyrunes and Farseek around. Encoding it on a [card]Dimir Keyrune[/card] might make the spell a bit more expensive but it also all but guarantees you can cast it every turn.

It’s worth pointing out that your opponent has to sacrifice a permanent, not just a creature. Against some decks that won’t be much of a problem, especially if they happen to play [card]Gravecrawler[/card] or token-producing planewalkers. Other decks will be completely hosed by this because it will just take out their land base in a hurry. I will be trying at least a couple of copies of [card]Undercity Plague[/card] at some point, possibly in an attempt to leave my opponent with no permanents.

Thoughts on Black

[card]Crypt Ghast[/card] is by far my favourite card so far. I just know I will try way too hard to make it good and build around it, but what’s the point in having favourites if we can’t play them? [card]Ogre Slumlord[/card] also makes me happy, but that’s more due to the fact that it will let me play [card]Pack Rat[/card] in Constructed. Having a new Edict effect is a real plus too.