Moat– Legends MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

Ah, this takes me back. The good old days of slumping over the table while the white deck prevented everything from happening, turn upon turn. I guess not everything was good and old in the good old days, but keep in mind that more people maindecked Disenchant back then. If you didn’t, you would have a very high chance of being locked out of the game and eventually losing to a Serra Angel or Millstone. You can get a taste those games in modern Legacy with the “Parfait” style of deck, or sleeve up a 93/94 deck for the authentic experience (but if money is tight, don’t freak out when you read James’ review!). 

Moat is a curious sort of card: it’s undeniably very powerful and very iconic, but it’s also not essential for any format where it’s legal. I’d be a little cautious about using it in casual settings, where it could easily cross the line from powerful to annoying. (And not just to your opponents, but to you as well – it generates “my opponents can’t win” game states but also “where the heck is my win condition?!” game states.)

Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
EDH/Commander: 4/5

Short, simple, and with a secondhand market price higher than my receding hairline (over $500 at the time I’m writing this), Moat has a simple effect: unless you swoop, you don’t get in. The mana price is a smidge high, but it has the benefit of shutting down a lot of decks in their early onslaught, given that two colors tend to get flying either rarely or never (red and green). It’s not a particularly complicated effect, and while we have gotten a creature version of the same effect, Moat is less killable and also able to pair well with enchantment support, and it’s in a color for which the limitation of needing to fly is more a thing to work around than an insurmountable moat (heh). Not a card most of us will own in the flesh, but it does its job amazingly well, and it’s one that other cards have been trying to copy in the years since.

Constructed: 3.75 (it sees some slight play in Legacy and Vintage, but only in a specific deck type)
Casual: 4.25
Multiplayer: 4.75
Commander: 4.5

Phat
Pack
Magic
YouTube

Hello and welcome back to Pojo’s Card of the Day! In honor of Theros being an Enchantment based block we’re going to take a look at some of the most powerful enchantments that have ever been printed in Magic.

So let’s dig right through time and take a peek at Moat!

I think there’s no other White Enchantment that is iconic as Moat, it can essentially be the Control ‘I Win’ button against aggro decks and it certainly was back when it first landed in play back when Legends was the current set.

The text on it is very simple ‘Creatures without flying can’t attack.’ It’s such a powerful and iconic card that there are frequent homages that have been printed to be more ‘fair’ in a standard environment. However power creep has rendered this amazing card more towards the casual formats where it can exist as a more fair enchantment.

In Commander and Multiplayer this card is less of an ‘I Win’ button and more of a ‘Time Out’ card to try and stop the combat, however chances are that the sheer cost of this card being played in your Commander group will make them stop and take a look at you. And looking at you means painting a target on your face! While Moat isn’t banned in Commander it is one of those high dollar cards that often goes in ‘Flex Decks’ that use Guru Lands or Foiled out Unhinged basic land bases.

I’m super excited for this card to be used in Cube because that’s where the land of unbridled power can go without question. This is going to be a hard card for a ton of decks to deal with and it will probably be a high pick especially if you’re even considering playing Control in a Cube Format, hell it’s almost worth wasting a high pick and hate drafting to keep yourself from playing against it if you’re going into the Aggro decks!

Constructed 5/5 – An amazing card and deserves the merit as one of the best enchantments ever printed.

Limited 5/5 – If you ever get the chance to draft Legends, and you open this, definitely first pickable!

Multiplayer & Commander 5/5 – A virtual ‘Time Out’ to the game that is going to let things hang back for a bit and keep things from attacking you… until they destroy your Moat that is.

Cube 5/5 – One of the ‘I Win’ buttons for a Control Deck (for the most part!) it’s susceptible to removal which is a little more useful in this environment, but definitely a high pick for control decks.

Phat Pack Magic is a channel dedicated to Magic: the Gathering and creating awesome coverage of local events for formats like Cube, rare pack drafts, and now FNM Pioneer videos! Check it out at YouTube.com/PhatPackMagic