With the prerelease bearing down on us just this Saturday, it\u2019s time to kick off the Gatecrash week! This week I\u2019ll be covering all 5 of the new mechanics, just like we did with RtR. Today we\u2019ll be doing Battalion, followed by Evolve tomorrow, Extort on Wednesday, Bloodrush on Thursday, and Cipher finishing things up on Friday leading us into the prerelease.<\/p>\n
So first up is the Boros Legion, and their Battalion mechanic. Boros is a very action-oriented guild, sort of a hotheaded counterpart to the Azorius. They don\u2019t wait around for justice to happen, they bring it with them! Their Battalion mechanic shows off their tendency to fight, and fight in groups. Whenever a creature with Battalion and at least 2 other creatures are declared as attackers, the ability will trigger. So say you attack your opponent with three Boros Elite<\/a>. All three of them will trigger, and each one will get +2\/+2. Or say you attack with a Boros Elite, a Hellrider<\/a>, and a Frontline Medic<\/a>. Elite and Medic both trigger, so you\u2019ll have 3 indestructible creatures attacking, one of which just got a +2\/+2 boost. It also works very well in 2HG; since Battalion cares about the one guy \u2018and at least two other creatures\u2019 attacking, you don\u2019t need to control all of the attackers. So feel free to swing with your lone Firemane Avenger<\/a> if your buddy\u2019s got a pair of Scuttleshark<\/a>s, because your Avenger will still trigger as long as he\u2019s swinging with his Fishcrabs.<\/p>\n Now, for those of you who want to OPPOSE the Boros Legion, you\u2019ll need to know how to stop Battalion. Here\u2019s the thing: once it triggers, you don\u2019t. Once they swing with their creatures, it\u2019s too late. You can\u2019t stop the trigger from resolving by blowing up the source (though you can stop it from being as useful, such as destroying a creature BEFORE Frontline Medic makes it indestructible, or destroying the Elite with a burn spell BEFORE the trigger makes it too big). You also can\u2019t off one of his creatures to \u2018turn off\u2019 Battalion; it doesn\u2019t have an intervening-if! That said, your opponent also can\u2019t just blitz ahead and not give you a chance to respond. If your opponent jumps straight to swinging without giving you a chance to respond to him moving into combat, ask him to back up. Magic isn\u2019t a game of reflexes, remember!<\/p>\n