It's funny how time alters your perceptions of a
Magic card - when Wargate was new, I read it as
an enhanced version of Chord of Calling, but now
I see it as an odd oblique reference to Alara
Reborn's cascade mechanic. You pay some amount
of mana, large or small, and you get a card
that's a set amount cheaper. You have more
control over it than with cascade, of course,
and the ability to summon Elspeth Tirel or
Ghostly Prison on demand is very, very hard to
top, and even harder for opponents to respond
to.
Today's card of the day is Wargate which is a
Green, White, and Blue plus X sorcery that puts
a permanent card with casting cost of X or less
into play. This is a very powerful card
for a Bant deck in Commander, but the three
colors added to the mana cost reduces options in
other formats somewhat. Getting any
non-basic land into play for three shouldn't be
overlooked. As a tutor that puts the card
directly into play the added mana cost does not
slow down tempo when mana is already available.
Overall a card with a small number of builds
able to use it, but is both flexible and
effective when a deck is designed around it.
In Limited this can search for most cards that
would be wanted as a topdeck and is a great card
for a Bant or five color deck to have in Sealed.
One color can of course be splashed to help
manage the color needs and the flexibility is a
major benefit. For Booster this can be a
strong part of a deck, but locking into three
colors as a first pick is fairly risky and
without shard lands to support it may not work
as effectively as a more direct threat.
It's a neat pick, but i'd stick with genesis
wave, or chord of calling. Sure, you can cast
planeswalkers or an oblivion ring from your
library, but genesis wave potentially gives you
more and chord is an instant. this is neat, but
I don't see it being used on anything overly
useful, especially in bant colors.
