And so, Khans of Trokir Week on Pojo.com begins!
If you haven't seen anything about the new set
yet and we're your first source, then thank you
for your loyalty! Also this is a pretty good
card to serve as the first one you see of the
new set.
First, you'll notice that it taps for G, R, or
U. An odd combination that might get you
wondering. Well, as the Mystic implies, Khans of
Trokir does indeed have a theme of "enemy color
combinations", which makes it a multicolor set.
Second, you'll notice Morph is back! We've seen
Morph twice before, and both times it's helped
create some pretty tricky game states where you
can never be sure just what's currently
attacking you. The second time we saw it, it was
almost completely localized in Blue. Rattleclaw
Mystic is green, but it produces blue mana.
Could this mean that this time around, Morph is
a green, red, and blue mechanic? I'll spoil it
for you: no. There are Morph cards in all five
colors in this set.
Third, you see that strange mark behind the
rules text that looks like a claw mark? What is
that? I'll tell you; it's a watermark. You see,
the titular "Khans" of Trokir are the leaders of
five different clans. Each clan is represented
by a different watermark, and a different color
combination, much like the guilds of Ravnica or
the Shards of Alara. Rattleclaw Mystic is part
of the "Temur" clan. We'll be seeing the other
clans over the course of the week.
But as for the card itself, this could be an
interesting piece of any Temur deck. It's a
solid mana accelerator that can also act as a
face-down 2/2, thus bluffing itself to be just
about anything. A big part of Morph environments
is the dramatic tension between the giant
fearsome win conditions that lurk under the 2/2,
the measures you need to go through to deal with
them before they show their true colors, and the
smaller or otherwise nonthreatening creatures
that you use to trick the enemy into wasting
their resources fighting their own paranoia.
There's also the fact that this is a mana
acclerant and color fixer that can be played
face down and then turned face-up for colorless
mana, making it a solid color fixer for a
three-color deck.
Today's card of the day is Rattleclaw Mystic
which is a two mana Green
2/1 that can tap for Red, Green, or Blue mana
plus it can Morph for two mana and when it is
turned face up it adds one of each to your mana
pool. The Morph to make it a 2/2 for three mana
or spending an additional two to get the mana
effect is a situational benefit as mana fixing,
though the regular tap effect will be used far
more often.
Overall this is a solid source of acceleration
for Green/Red, Green/Blue, or Red/Green/Blue
builds that will see play across formats with
Commander builds likely to include it in many
decks.
In Limited this is an early game form of
acceleration attached to a decent 2/1 body that
has no drawbacks to including when using Green.
The added benefit when running Red or Blue in
addition to Green makes this one of the top
support choices if using two or all three of
those colors. An easy inclusion in Sealed and a
worthwhile second or third pick in Booster.
At first glance, I thought of this only as a
mana fixer for the new color intensive new
wedges. After a better look, I saw that not only
is it a great fixer, but it's a very potent
accelerator as well. Play him morphed when you
get to three mana. Next turn, he only takes two
to flip over, and produces a gain of 1
immediately. Then, tap him for his mana ability,
and assuming you hit your mana drop this turn,
you have accellerated into a potent, multicolor
six-drop - of which there are many in this set.
Time will only tell if there are enough
playable morph creatures to make this confusing
at all to opponents, but even if it doesn't,
this can ramp your power level up in a big
hurry. Just for giggles, throw in an Elvish
Mystic turn 1, Generator Servant turn 2, this
guy morphed turn 3, flip him turn 4, and play a
hasty 9 drop on turn 4! Are there any good 9
drops?
I've always felt that Druid of the Anima, from
way back in Shards of Alara, is an underrated
card. Yeah, she obviously isn't part of the "god
tier" occupied by Birds of Paradise and Noble
Hierarch, thanks to the fact that one extra mana
in a cost doesn't always translate to one more
turn. But she still gets you to four mana on
turn three, and is on-color and on-theme with
some of the strongest multicolored creatures
we've ever seen. And that's something you can
also say about Rattleclaw Mystic. If some of the
Temur clan's creatures with very specific mana
costs have any chance of hitting the field in
Standard, it will probably have a lot to do with
this guy. Add this to the fact that his morph
ability actually nets you one more mana than it
cost to flip him, and you have the makings of a
very interesting card.
