When I was getting ready to write a review
for Gonti here, I went and looked up the rulings
related to him on Gatherer. Apparently, rather
counterintuitively, the part of his
comes-into-play ability that lets you cast the
exiled card is permanent: you can do so even if
he leaves play, which there's a good chance he
will at some point. I'm not a rules expert, so
I'm not sure why that works, but as a
deckbuilder, it's good to know - it opens up
some pretty crazy options based around
flickering him and using your opponent's cards
to win the game. Remember Restoration Angel?
Gonti is, to say the least, brutal. For 4
mana, you get to see part of your opponent's
deck, gaining valuable information, and take one
of their bombs to use against them later
(ideally; even if you just set aside a kill
spell, that's one more weapon for you). You also
get a 2/3 with deathtouch, which is pretty fair
all around.
Gonti may be one of the sleeper cards of the
set. Information attached to a body is a good
thing, and being able to cast their own spell is
even better. Keep in mind that Gonti does not
need to be alive to be able to cast the spell;
once it's exiled, it’s yours to play when you
deem fit. This makes it even crueler with blink
effects or bounce effects, allowing you to amass
a grip of spells they will wish they had.
