Some Days The Sea Is Still As Glass

There are a couple more interesting things out of the new set I wanted to touch on. Both of them are exciting, but I'm not sold that the power level is going to be there.

What I love about Huntmaster of the Fells is, well, a lot, but one of the important things is how it puts the opponent in a tough situation no matter what they do. If they have the removal spell for it, then you got an extra 2/2 token and some life points back, which is enough to either keep applying pressure or pad your life total. If they don't, you get to get up to all kinds of shenanigans with flipping the Huntmaster back and forth. Redcap Gutter-Dweller sort of has the same recipe, where if they are able to remove the creature, you still get the two rats, and if they don't, you start gaining more real card advantage the next turn.

The difference between this and Huntmaster, though, is that Huntmaster is an excellent defensive creature, even when the opponent has a removal spell for the Huntmaster itself. You can't say the same for Gutter-Dweller, the rats just don't amount to anything of value when you're on the back foot. I still haven't found a good Huntmaster clone for Pioneer or Explorer outside of Esika's Chariot. And while Chariot is great, it can't help you do any destructive interaction, it can only add to the board. Gutter-Dweller's card drawing ability is a great way to help find cards you need in matchups where you need specific answers. I think I'd like this more if the rats could block and it was a 2/3 or a 3/2, or maybe even a 2/2, than as it's printed. But the potential is there.

So, I talk a lot in this blog about flexibility. Flexibility is key in this type of deck, because you want your cards to be able to play different roles at different times. A card like Abrupt Decay can take out a creature, or it can take out a planeswalker or enchantment, whatever. It's likely to be good at different applications. Creatures are always fairly flexible, they can attack, block, use abilities, etc. The other form of flexibility that I look for is flexibility in mana cost, and when you can get a card that can be cast at multiple different times on your curve, you're helping yourself out in the long run, so long as that card is strong enough.

The thing about Magic deckbuilding is that you're grappling with the inherent randomness in the rules of the game. The ideal situation is you play a land and cast the most powerful spell you can every turn. But, not only will you not always have the land, you also won't always have a spell that utilizes all that mana. In general, a two mana spell on turn two and a two mana spell on turn three is going to be worse than an opposing two drop on two and three drop on three. The ability for a single card to occupy multiple spots on your curve in your decklist is a huge bonus. When you're playing a deck like this, that's less about its own synergies and more about doing what's needed at a given time, variable mana costs help ensure that your own fail rate is a lot less than the opponent's.

I can't really say for sure that I think Virtue of Persistence is going to be that good, but I love what's going on here. First, we have an effect that is absolutely worth two mana. Sometimes, these cards give you two bad options, but Locthwain Scorn should be effective at taking out any two drop creature, and the fact that it's -3/-3 instead of damage is a big deal, too. Clearly, that's not going to be amazing in every matchup, but it'll be at least serviceable against a lot of the creatures in the format, including Bonecrusher, both Fable chapters, Bloodtithe Harvester, and all the cheap aggro red creatures. The life gain is important as well.

The Virtue itself is not a great card in a matchup where the removal spell doesn't do anything, but not because it isn't powerful. It will be hard to get this through counters, and you won't always have seven mana, of course, but it is a must-answer threat. It doesn't have to be super-economical. The most important reason you can't play huge haymaker cards is because they are too slow against the rest of the format, and will be at their best in the exact matchups where you can expect Locthwain Scorn to be a blank.

I think the most interesting place to play Virtue of Persistence is in the midrange mirrors, where the removal spell will be usable, and the inevitability that Virtue gives you can help in the ultra late game, which would be undecided. It's kind of the best of both worlds, a huge threat that can be used for something else when you don't have the mana, and also a huge threat that can help itself get cast by keeping you alive long enough. In fact, I think this is great against Rakdos specifically. Fable tokens and Bonecrusher Giants need to get removed before they start attacking you, but doing so puts you down cards. Virtue alleviates this in a big way.

It's totally possible that Virtue either isn't good enough as an Adventure, that it's not good enough as an enchantment, or that Jegantha is too important in the format. There are always plenty of ways that new cards can be not good enough. The rate's not that amazing, but the recipe is fantastic. I think it's got potential, and I'm excited to give it a try.

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That's it for this set. The cards I like the best are Mosswood Dreadknight, Restless Cottage, and Virtue of Persistence. I like a lot of the designs here. It's like they took the theme of Throne of Eldraine and then actually tested the cards. The set comes out in a couple weeks, and I'd love to get a stream in trying out some new stuff. Follow me on Twitter for updates on that if you're interested. Thanks for reading.