The Time For Amonkhet Begins!

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Newsletter
Thursday, March 30th

Amonkhet isn't fully here...but it's obvious something big is on the horizon! The previews are starting to trickle in, and Ross Merriam is already stoked for the return of one of the most popular mechanics of all time! We've also got Chris Lansdell getting a head start on next weekend's Legacy SCG Tour stop in Worcester and Todd Anderson talking about the whys and why nots of Felidar Guardian's controversial Standard legality! Plus, all the Modern Masters, Commander, and Modern content that's fit to print! See you back at StarCityGames.com, at Grand Prix San Antonio, and next weekend for a welcome return to Legacy!

— Danny West, Content Coordinator

Joel Larsson takes down Grand Prix Orlando!

The Joys Of Cycling
By Ross Merriam  

The first thing that jumps out at me: the fact that Archfiend of Ifnir has cycling means it's great in multiples. If you have another means of discarding cards, you can cast both and double up on its ability, and if you don't, you can cycle the extra copies to start killing your opponent's creatures. You can and will play four copies of this card in the decks that want it without much hesitation.

And that's important for a creature that can be a liability against things like Grasp of Darkness and Harnessed Lightning. Losing your five-mana creature to a two-mana removal spell is a huge tempo loss, so having the ability to either wait until you can get some immediate value or cycle the card away if the risk is too great really helps to mitigate those worst-case scenarios.

Once I see that we have a card that is powered for Constructed play, I have to look at how it interacts with the current Standard, and I have to say it looks promising. There are plenty of ways to discard cards in Standard to power its ability, even outside of extra cycling. Key to the City; Noose Constrictor; Sinister Concoction; Oath of Jace; Nahiri, the Harbinger; Geier Reach Sanitarium; and Advanced Stitchwing can all do the job. Many of those options let you get value from your five-drop immediately, which is important.

April 29-30
Standard

May 5-7
AKH Limited

May 20-21
Team Constructed

The Great Death And Taxes Update
By Chris Lansdell  

Have you ever been to Magical Christmas Land? I have. It is a wondrous place, full of Magic and...er, Christmas. And Selfless Squire blowouts.

My attraction to this card is rooted almost entirely in its applications against decks that look to deal a bunch of damage to you in a hurry: Elves, Lands, and even Miracles in some matches can just kill you with one combat step. Not only does Selfless Squire stop that, it also leaves you with a giant creature that will probably be able to attack unblocked. For lethal, in all likelihood. My only regret is that protecting creatures with Mother of Runes doesn't put counters on Selfless Squire.

While the differences are obvious, there are some similarities between Selfless Squire and another four-mana creature: Seht's Tiger. I don't know who Seht was or why he kept a tiger, but it's a card I have often wanted to play and never managed to justify because so few decks rely on damage from sources of one color. It does protect against Tendrils of Agony (which Selfless Squire cannot do), but otherwise the effect is a little too limiting.

Although all the relevant examples in Legacy are single-color ones, the body that Selfless Squire gives us is leagues above a 3/3. There are some minor advantages to be found in the creature type (Human is often what we name on Cavern of Souls) and the mana cost (3W is of course easier to cast). In the event that we cannot win with one swing from the Squire, we can also blink it if necessary to repeat the process next turn. Because that's fair.

Hotfixes For Formats And High Hopes For Amonkhet
By Todd Anderson  

But you know what really bugs me? When you make a mistake, just admit it and rectify it. Don't let it go on as some twisted experiment, hoping everything will be okay. I would have much preferred Felidar Guardian be banned in Standard before it was ever legal, showing that the company has an understanding of what would, or even could, happen. When the best-case scenario is that it isn't good enough to see regular play, the safe bet is to just ban it. Just rip off the Band-Aid!

And when they got a second chance to rectify the mistake, they didn't. Do you really need more data to determine if an arbitrarily large two-card combo on the fourth turn is too powerful for Standard? Do you not understand how frustrating it is to lose a game to something so blatantly unfun/unfair? Get me some chicken noodle soup, because I'm sick of it.