Welcome back faithful readers like a fine wine and the time between my articles, things only get better with age. This is one super jam packed article catching up on the multiplayer impact of cards in Gatecrash as well as Dragons Maze. Having extensively played with and against cards from the new set the time is right to cast my verdicts on what is supremely powerful at the kitchen table.

Gatecrash Top Ten

#10 Consuming Aberration

In multiplayer games the number of cards in graveyards can pile up quickly on their own, adding in this repeatable mini Mind Funeral effect just enhances the amazingly large body of this card. Combined with buyback spells or a plethora of cheap spells you can quickly mill multiple opponents finally adding an extra oomph to the validity of multiplayer mill strategies.

Combine With: Buyback spells, low converted mana cost spells, Mortivore.

#9 Angellic Skirmisher

An angel that provides a powerful boost to your entire team most certainly cannot be overlooked. Angel is a supported and relevant tribe and a 4/4 flying creature is often big enough to outmuscle others board positions. The wording of each combat allows you to give your entire team vigilance one of the most powerful multiplayer abilities and grant this to your entire team. Then on one of your opponents turn giving your creatures first strike or lifelink provides disincentive to attack you and allows you to dominant combat once again. This card provides combat superiority to the player wielding it.

Combine With: Creatures.

#8 Treasury Thrull

Extort is the single most powerful multiplayer mechanic printed ever. Treasury Thrulls six mana cost lessens the initial impact of the extort part but being able to recur artifacts creatures or enchantments and return them to your hand provides a continuous way for a player to maintain advantage and resources into the late game. In fact this card is designed to win long games and gives players a reasonably costed and relevant body to keep up with your opponents and provide resiliency.

Combine With: Extort Cards, powerful come into play effect creatures, creature or artifact sacrifice engines.

#7 Five Alarm Fire

Repeatable effects are always powerful in multiplayer and five damage is a hefty amount. As a reward for attacking with creatures Five-Alarm Fire provides a repeatable way to deal damage to both creatures and players and can provide incentive to not attack you or to simply finish weakened players off constant damage sources are valuable.

Combines With: Token producers, Double Strike Creatures, Proliferate

#7 Mind Grind

The other card in the set that provides multiplayer mill enthusiast’s a powerful weapon. Being able to force your opponent to Mind Funeral for more than four can often seal the game in one fell swoop. The adjustable nature of this card means it’s relevant throughout the entire game but grows stronger the longer the game drags on and the less lands your opponents have in their deck means it will often be the final nail in the coffin.

Combine With: Copy effects, Mana doublers

#6 High Priest of Penance

The ultimate rattlesnake card that screams do not attack me or else. The fragility of the 1/1 body is in this case an asset as death is certain to come in some form or fashion. Mostly used to deter aggression early game it has tribal applications in cleric decks and can be combined with a number of potent cards to insure its survival and ability to semi Vindicate at will.

Combine With: Darksteel Plate, Pestilence

#5 Clan Defiance

Versatility and sheer power combine to form Clan Defiance a way to deal with multiple problematic creatures and deal damage directly to a player. Choosing one or more as the situation dictates allows it to play the role of a political hammer smashing creatures and players as needed or merely dealing with a single problematic creature.

Combine With: Copy Spell effects, mana producers

#4 Stolen Identity

A repeatable clone effect that can target artifacts as well, this card is a win condition in of itself as it can copy a powerful creature and cipher to that creature continuously pumping out must deal with threats. The ability to copy artifacts provides a great sense of utility as well.

Combine With: Evasive or hexproof creatures populate.

#3 Ogre Slumlord

By far my favorite card on this list it basically ends stalemates and can create a powerful deathtouch army that can in turn kill opponent’s creatures and fuel even more token production. This card allows you to dominate the ground and provide some inevitability for offensive purposes and the deathtouch tokens produced can be effective deterents for opponents as well.

Combine With: Pack Rat, Marrow Gnawer, Relentless Rats, Rats

 

#2 Glaring Spotlight

A card that counters the recent upswing in powerful hexproof creatures and has a cheap mana cost which allows for your army to become untargetable and makes your creatures unblockable so you can finish the game.  This is the ultimate game ender as it grants your creatures the ability to dodge removal and perform an alpha strike undeterred.

Combine with: Trinket Mage, artifact recursion

#1 Primordial Cycle(as represented by the powerful Diluvian)

This cycle has provided commander players and kitchen table player’s powerful creatures with shattering come into play abilities stapled to decently sized bodies. They vary in usefulness but being able to effect each opponent has powerful applications in games with large amounts of players and each one of this bomb rare’s can provide a game ending effect to justify their inclusion in decks.

 

Well that’s it for Gatecrash moving right along.

Dragon’s Maze Top Ten..Amazeing

#10 Ruric Thar

This card completely warps the way people play the game it provides a a powerful incentive to cast creatures and spells death for any combo player looking to cast large amounts of spells a turn. 6/6 for the reasonable price of six mana and the powerful abilities or vigilance and reach make this card powerful both on offense and defense, while having to attack each turn if able may be problematic in some situations the sheer power of this card provides reason enough for its inclusion in creature heavy builds.

Combine With: Creatures, Loxodon Warhammer, Basilisk Collar, Infect granting cards.

#9 Teysa Envoy of Ghost

This card provides immense rattlesnake value for opponents and a nearly unblockable creature with vigilance to dominate combat. Killing each creature that attacks you and providing more creatures for offensive or defensive purposes allows this card to dictate the flow of combat and provide a decent clock for offensive purposes.

Combine With: Equipment, No Mercy, Nettling Imp

#8 Krasis Incubation

This is a better arrest if you’re in these colors. The added mana cost requirements allows you to lockdown a creature of when used on your own creatures you can pump up them up and when the need dictates you can give your opponents counters and attach it to another creature as needed. Versatility and offensive and defensive uses for this card make it a prime contender for decks utilizing simic mana.

Combine With: Kulrath Knight, Hunter of Eyeblights, Fathom Mage

#7 Legion’s Initiative

This Boros Glorious Anthem this card not only provides pumps for color specific creatures but it provides a way to save your army from removal effects such as Wrath of God and also combines quite well with enter the battlefield effects making it quite the powerful enchantment.

Combines with: Multicolored creatures, come into play effects

#6 Varolz, The Scar-Striped

Inevitability the card. It turns all your used creatures into enhancements for your creatures and protects itself and has a solid cheap mana cost to boot. This card is powerful when used in unfair ways or simply recycling creatures and turning them into more power to dominate the board.

Combines With: Death’s Shadow, Phyrexian Dreadnought, Creatures.

#5  Master of Cruelties

This card ends games, well correction it can never end a game but it allows you to circumvent life gain shenagins and provides a powerful body and a powerful effect allowing you to bring a player a breathe away from death. This card also has the relevant creature type of demon and is good on defense as well as First Strike and Deathtouch are tremendously powerful.

Combine With: Seal of Fire

#4 Sire of Insanity

A mind twist on a creature that affects each opponent at the beginning of their end step. This creature obviously if cast early enough shifts the entire game into a top deck war and having a 6/4 creature on the board is quite a threat. This creature warps the game and provides a shattering effect.

#3 Turn and Burn

This card oozes versatility it can be used early to pick off important creatures or to make combat a one sided affair for you and can be utilized later as a way to pick of any creature including indestructible creatures and provides an amazing amount of combat versatility for its mana cost.

Combine With: Itself

#2 Debt To The Deathless

Exsanguinate set a new power level for multiplayer cards and this follows in its footsteps with an increased mana cost but a strictly better effect this card grows stronger the more players are in the game and is capable of single handedly killing opponents and padding your life total to provide you with time to deal with other players. This card sets a new power level for multiplayer drain effects and combined with Extort allows for black and white to be the strongest multiplayer colors.

Combine With: Cabal Coffers, Extort Creatures

 

#1 Ready and Willing

This card is unequivocally the strongest combat trick ever printed. The fuse mechanic allows you to dodge removal and protect your entire team with Ready and Willing allows you to smash through opponents defense and pad your life total and potentially murder their entire team. Useful both offensively and defensively both halves of this card are powerful and when combined make for one of the most powerful combat blowouts ever.

 

Well there it was finally the multiplayer analysis of Gatecrash and Dragons Maze any comments questions or concerns should be addressed to PlatinumFUBU5@hotmail I am always open to constructive feedback.