"Devotion" was a good name for this mechanic,
because you have to be devoted to it to make it
much of any good. The God cards are at least all
strong enough that they're worth playing even
when you can't build up enough devotion, but
this I have doubts about. It's a 2/4 Zombie and
a bit of life drain for five mana. Not a
terrible card to have, but five mana? For a 2/4
with no on-board abilities? Plus a one-time life
drain of unreliable strength? I'm not sold. This
is, after all, sharing a Standard format with
Ravnica, and mono-black decks just aren't done.
People play black, of course, but mostly for
kill spells. The best black permanents I can
think of are Obzedat,, Erebos and her Whip, and
Reaper of the Wilds. The only deck with any
devotion to black would be a dedicated Erebos
deck, which would have some fun bringing back
the Gray Merchant with a Whip of Erebos, but
rolls over to Blood Baron of Vizkopa (another
solid black creature). Sure, the Gray Merchant
provides two black mana symbols of its own, so
you're always draining for at least two, but
it's still not worth five mana. Even Orzhov
extort, the one deck I can think of that would
want this, has better options available to it.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
quite powerful and looks to almost single
handedly bring back standard mono black decks.
This guy is one of the prime incentives to build
mono black devotion providing substantial chunk
of life and allows you to stabilize and combined
with the plethora of other powerful black cards
I foresee this guy becoming a player although
possibly fringe. In modern and eternal formats
this card is pretty slow and doesent pack enough
oomph and requires too much dedication to mono
color to I think realistically see play. In
casual and multiplayer this hits each opponent
and can accumulate you a lot of life and take
multiple people out of the game. In limited its
an amazing common and is quite powerful. Overall
a card with some applications in standard and
elsewhere and a power mono black card.
Today's card of the day is Gray Merchant of
Asphodel which is a five mana 2/4 Black zombie
that life drains each opponent equal to your
devotion when it enters play. This is a
surprisingly effective card, particularly in
Multiplayer, as even by itself it is a four life
point swing attached to moderately high
toughness creature with a well supported type.
While the mana cost is a little high, and oddly
would be one of the few situations where
additional colored mana symbols instead of
colorless would be beneficial, this is easily
supported in mono-Black and a viable centerpiece
to build a deck around. With cards like Rescue
from the Underworld and Black permanents with
two or more mana symbols this can either
outright win games or cause a very large swing
in life points. Overall this has the potential
to be a serious force in Casual and Multiplayer
formats, but the higher mana cost and heavy
benefit from other creatures in play may keep it
from the higher tiers of competitive settings.
In Limited this is an extremely powerful
common that is easily overlooked and can
dominate a tournament when supported in a
mono-Black design. Multiple copies are possible
as it is likely to be passed by anyone not
playing Black and alongside Rescue from the
Underworld or March of the Returned can shift
nearly any game heavily into your favor. This
can be a first pick in Booster, though a Black
rare or removal will often take priority, in a
smaller pod it can be taken second or even third
in a pack. In Sealed running mono-Black is more
difficult, which weakens this, though focusing
on Black permanents with support from another
color retains the strength and even in a divided
deck this can often trigger for a solid life
drain.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel is a card that I have
been looking at for a few weeks now. I’ve been
debating on putting this zombie in one of my
Standard decks. Gray Merchant of Asphodel has a
lot of potential in every format. Think of this
creature as a zombie Master of Waves for life
loss & gain. Not to mention that it hits each
opponent in Multiplayer. This creature is a
great finisher for Casual zombie players. In
Limited play Gray Merchant of Asphodel can be a
serious bomb if you have multiple copies. Five
mana might be a bit steep, but if it was any
cheaper it wouldn’t be a common. Overall this
card has the power to swing the game in your
favor no matter what format you are playing! It
is too bad that this creature’s name is so
forgettable.
