Cipher and Extort

Two of the new guild keyword abilities in Gatecrash work really well together . No, I’m not talking about battalion and bloodrush, I’m referring to the keywords of two of Esper’s favorite guilds, cipher and extort. Extort triggers off of any spell you cast, not just spells cast from your hand. And once you’ve encoded […]

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Aurelia’s Fury vs. miracles (and suspend cards!).

Every good army needs a good leader, and luckily, the Boros Legion has Aurelia, whose Fury certainly lives up to the tradition of red Mythic Rares with X in their cost being a huge blowout for the opponent. In addition to nuking creatures, has a unique effect if it deals damage to an opponent; that […]

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Geist of Saint Traft and Battalion is NOT a combo.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: This article has been updated as of the prerelease of Magic 2014 on July 13; Please refer to the revisions below. This was briefly explained in the Battalion mechanic blog entry last week, but it’s still a common question, so I’m making it as a bonus entry all to itself! All the triggered […]

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The Gatecrash Guildmage cycle: Part 2

Duskmantle Guildmage’s 1st ability functions the same as Vizkopa Guildmage’s 2nd ability, as far as multiple activations are concerned. Since they set up a delayed trigger, each will resolve individually. Do note that it says Card, so once again, tokens won’t work, and it says from anywhere, not just the library or battlefield. Get inventive! […]

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The Gatecrash Guildmage cycle: Part 1

There are 5 more guildmages in Gatecrash that complete the new Guildmage cycle, some of these guildmages have abilities that ‘stack’ (not in terms of using the stack, because they all do that, but I’m trying to express the fact that their effects are cumulative). Let’s have a look at these abilities. Should be simple […]

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