There is a very high hurdle for new spells to become eternal-playable. In Legacy, they generally have to be 3 mana or less, because the format is quick and there’s a severe lack of fast mana. In Classic/Vintage, there’s a bit more room for higher costs on account of the abundant artifact mana, as well as Mishra’s Workshop and Mana Drain. But with over ten thousand cards to choose from, most spells wind up being worse versions of something already available. The power level has been raised substantially with regard to creatures in recent years, but for even modern creatures to be eternal-playable they must either beat Tarmogoyf in raw efficiency or do something of great impact in the eternal environment.
Although Magic‘s creators have stated that they generally do not design with Legacy and Vintage in mind, they have been quite good in recent years at tossing a few cards per set to the eternal community. Journey into Nyx features a large number of enchantment creatures, and the design team seems to have decided the best way to create them was to take abilities that have worked well on global enchantments in the past and staple them onto creatures. This is an excellent recipe for making an eternal-playable creature, provided it has a reasonable casting cost. I talked at length about Spirit of the Labyrinth a couple months back, and while nothing in Journey into Nyx strikes me as being quite that powerful, there are definitely some great new options here. So let’s dive into the set and see what new cards could have an impact in eternal formats.
There is a long history of this kind of effect being Vintage-playable, which is largely due to the quirky rules text of Oath of Druids. Because the card has to target an opponent, preventing yourself from being targeted has been one way to shut the card down. Storm decks also need to target you for a lethal Tendrils of Agony. Giving yourself shroud or hexproof shuts off multiple combo decks, which is the benchmark for playability in a good hate-card.
For many years, Ivory Mask was your best option. True Believer in Onslaught provided the same effect on legs for Vintage’s aggro decks. Both of these cards came at a cost, however, because they prevented you from targeting yourself with Ancestral Recall. Innistrad saw the printing of Witchbane Orb, mostly a strict upgrade on Ivory Mask, and for obvious reasons it was immediately embraced by Workshop players.
Now we have Aegis of the Gods, as an easier-to cast True Believer. The difference between costing 1W and costing WW is enormous in Vintage, because Aegis can easily be played on Turn 1 from a white mana source plus any color Mox. Add in the upgrade from shroud to hexproof, and this seems like a no-brainer. The card’s only downside is having one fewer point of toughness than its predecessor. Both creatures die to Massacre and Lightning Bolt, so the difference won’t typically matter. Legacy does contain a few popular spells that give creatures -1/-1, on account of True-Name Nemesis. But Legacy players prefer other answers to Storm combo since they don’t have Oath decks to worry about. This is a Classic/Vintage card first and foremost, and in that format I think it is a strict upgrade.
Getting a Pyrostatic Pillar stapled to a 2/2 body certainly grabbed our attention during spoiler season. The mana cost is slightly tougher, but if you get even one swing with this, it could easily make the difference. A Storm player will have to take 2 damage to remove this with Echoing Truth, and I’m sure we’ve all seen games where 2 life was the difference between a successful Ad Nauseum and a failing one. Putting aside its hate-bear qualifications, the card may just be good enough against the field for maindeck inclusion in Legacy aggro decks. In a format filled with cheap spells, just about everything except Force of Will is going to trigger this. With the insane reach available in Legacy burn spells, this forces an opponent into the danger zone very quickly if he keeps playing his game as usual, and it’s very hard to play around a card that triggers off nearly every spell in your deck. Stoneforge Mystic vial-ing in a Batterskull could play around it, but if you’re tapping Mountains you should have ample ways of getting rid of her before she gets active.
The big problem is that Show and Tell decks often need only one or two spells to put the game away with a lifelinking 7-power flier. That deck’s continued popularity is a definite strike against Eidolon’s relevance. In a dedicated burn or Sligh deck, you need to plan on getting at least 4 damage out of any 2-mana spell for it to be worthwhile, with Flame Rift as the baseline example of damage/cost efficiency.
The developers of Magic have stated in the past that they didn’t like City of Brass on account of the damage trigger adding unwarranted complexity to the game, and resulting in occasional life total scoring errors. They appear to be satisfied with making it an upfront life payment instead.
In most cases, this is the same card as City of Brass, but there are a few corner cases where one is superior to the other. A City of Brass tapped down by Rishadan Port or Tangle Wire would cause one point of damage, whereas Mana Confluence would not. On the other hand, you could actually use City of Brass while at 1 life, provided you could gain life or win the game before the trigger resolved. For example, if you added a red mana to the pool with City, you could cast a lethal Lightning Bolt with the trigger on the stack.
In most cases the cards are completely interchangeable, so the real question is whether eternal combo decks want or need more pentacolor lands. Right now, in addition to City, Gemstone Mine has been the preferred choice. Players have been known to exhaust their Mines from time to time, but I think Mine is still preferable to playing another set of lands that damage you. I’m typically the guy sitting across from the combo player, and any help they give me in lowering their life total is appreciated.
My hunch is that this may replace City of Brass in some Legacy decks, because Rishadan Port‘s renewed popularity in that format makes Mana Confluence a very slight upgrade.
I haven’t seen anybody talking about this outside of Standard. I concede this is a bit of a reach, but I nevertheless think this has a non-zero chance of seeing Legacy play. Being the best black 3-mana creature used to really mean something in Legacy, thanks to Dark Ritual. This presents the same clock as Phyrexian Negator did in its heyday, but is much safer to maindeck, and the ability to fly over True-Name Nemesis is quite nice. The opponent doesn’t even get their first card until your upkeep. It’s a steep drawback, but not a crippling one. Because you are giving them cards, it is likely better paired with land destruction than with black’s traditional hand-disruption suite, but thankfully black is adept at both of those roles. It doesn’t have an obvious home at the moment — neither Suicide Black nor its spinoff-deck Eva Green has made a Top 8 since the real Eva Green still had a notable acting career — but it’s a very good body at a historically-powerful spot on black’s curve. I think it has a chance to shine if the metagame gave it an opening.
In Merfolk, this is competing with Cursecatcher. Merfolk is not very popular in competitive Legacy right now, but the deck is always hanging around ready for a comeback. Of all the aggro-control decks, it has by far the most stable mana base. Merfolk players have never been truly enthusiastic about Cursecatcher’s role as the leadoff hitter. Much of that discontent is a matter of perception — when Cursecatcher is doing real work in a match, you often don’t see it. (Hall of Famer Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa recently noted this about the similar Judge’s Familiar.)
Legacy is a format with many powerful and cheap instants and sorceries, and Cursecatcher might well be underappreciated. Still, it is a total dud sometimes, and I can imagine some players wanting to try Dakra Mystic instead. Because you choose whether the cards or drawn or milled, you can easily get an asymmetrical effect from this card.
This is a free and repeatable tutor effect, and as such I think it merits a look. The ability seems tailor-made for older formats with their heavily concentrated mana curves. The obvious problem is that you don’t actually get to tutor until two upkeeps after you cast it. That’s probably too late. It also has the drawback that it won’t tutor for lands, Moxen or Black Lotus. It’s a powerful effect, and it’s blue, so despite some innate clunky-ness, I wouldn’t be surprised to see somebody give it a shot.
I’m not a huge fan of this card in light of the other alternatives available. The other options are Rule of Law at the same 2W cost, and Ethersworn Canonist at a mana cheaper. Canonist also features an additional point of power. Hall of Famer Luis Scott-Vargas likes Eidolon over Canonist on account of the four points of toughness that puts it out of Lightning Bolt range. I’ve never had a Canonist Bolted, because the decks it comes in against don’t play Bolt. Both Canonist and Eidolon get hit by blue combo decks’ Echoing Truth and by Elves’ Abrupt Decay and the occasional Qasali Pridemage or Krosan Grip. Eidolon does live through Massacre, which some combo decks have played in the past year to fight Death and Taxes. But in most matchups where I want this effect, I’ll take Canonist’s cheaper cost and extra point of power every day.
We also have a new draft-centric set coming out this summer called Conspiracy. Though the set is paper only, some cards from it will be included in Vintage Masters. We’re still very early in spoiler season, but two intriguing cards have been spoiled already.
Classic/Vintage seems the most likely home for Dack, as the -2 ability will nearly always have targets. Dack certainly makes it quite dangerous to run out any part of your Vault-Key combo early. Originally I thought this would be a weak answer to Blightsteel Colossus because the card often has haste from Dragon’s Breath in the so-called “GG Oath” variants. However, MTGO Academy’s A.J./PlanetWalls pointed out on Twitter that you often have at least two Spirit tokens to soak up enough poison to survive a turn, so you can send the stolen BSC charging back at its maker.
While the -2 is the flashiest part of this card, the +1 is amazing on such a cheap ‘walker. It could be powerful in any blue-based Vintage/Classic deck, but I think the coolest application for this is in a Goblin Welder deck. The +1 lets you dig through your library and dump artifacts into the yard. You can use then the -2 to steal your opponent’s artifacts, and you can even weld away the stolen artifact to reanimate one in your own yard. Pretty sneaky, Sis!
Although this is intended for multiplayer use, in a duel you can always just vote “condemnation” and be assured to wipe the board of everything but your 4/4 flier. There are likely to be some board states where this will be a better reanimation target than Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. Unfortunately, this is a one-shot deal, as opposed to the Praetor’s static effect permanently crippling your opponent’s attempts to get back in the game.
The eternal community got a surprising amount of interesting cards from Journey into Nyx, despite it being a small set. I’m looking forward to seeing what other eternal playables might come in Conspiracy, though the online community will have to hope any good ones make the cut for Vintage Masters.
If you think I missed any important cards, or have a cool idea with one of the cards I discussed, or you think that I’m crazy and Master of the Feast sucks and I’m stupid for mentioning it, feel free to chime in down below in the comments!