Oath of the Gatewatch Preview Day 1!

Hibernum_JC

Hey folks!

I’m here today to start talking to you fine players about the upcoming expansion which is dropping next week, on June 28th: Oath of the Gatewatch!

First and foremost, we’d like to take the time to thank you. All the feedback we’ve received throughout the previous weeks and months is incredibly appreciated, and even though it’s not always positive, we always strive to make the best game we can within our constraints.

Now that this is out of the way, let’s start talking about Oath of the Gatewatch. We’re taking a slightly different approach with this expansion - we want to get to the next juicy bits of content quicker, so instead of releasing a huge major expansion with around 150 cards, we’re making conscious decision to reduce the new cards for OotG to 53. WIth this, we can focus on having cards that are more interesting and have a more significant impact on the game. We cherry-picked the cards we found to be more interesting and worked around them so make a more interesting set. Also to note that for the Gatewatch set, cards are of Uncommon rarity and up - there are no Commons in the set at all.

We are also not fully releasing the entire set of cards in one go this time around as well. We know it may be an unpopular issue, but I’ll explain the logic behind it. We are putting many of the Gatewatch cards as rewards for various things, and doing so makes it incredibly unappealing for players if they’ve already looted the cards in boosters in contrast to winning them through gameplay. It also makes you feel good if you’ve managed to beat a particularly difficult piece of content and have a trophy piece of sorts to show off your deck in Quick Battle with, and this is something we’ve seen that feels consistently good with players. Regardless, all the cards will be eventually added to the Gatewatch boosters, so there’s no need to worry. Also keep in mind that if there are cards that you DO want in Gatewatch boosters that are currently released, you have better odds of getting those cards when the card pool is smaller.

We’re also doing something a bit different with the Gatewatch boosters. You will not be able to directly buy Gatewatch boosters. You get a free Gatewatch booster when buying a BFZ Big Box, and you’ll get a guaranteed extra Gatewatch card when buying a BFZ Fat Pack. You can also get Gatewatch boosters for playing as rewards, so you’ll be able to get those cards.

Gatewatch boosters always contain a guaranteed Rare card, so you’re sure to get value out of those boosters. Some of the Gatewatch Rares are incredibly powerful, and I’m also showcasing a few here today for you folks!



Gobin Dark-Dwellers is a new card in the line of Goblins that makes Zada decks much more reliable and brings a mechanic Red isn’t used to seeing - returning cast Spells to your hand (and ramping them up in the process!). While it’s a tiny bit expensive at 13, the fact that you can return Spells is incredibly important, as you can order your cards so that you can cast a spell that costs 6 or less, then cast Goblin Dark-Dwellers and cast the spell right again! This is strong both with or without Zada, as it can give you a bit more reach with some spells.



Sylvan Advocate is another card that might look a bit expensive as a 3/4, but considering the amount of gem changers Green has, it’s very easy to have 8 or more Green gems on the battlefield. When that happens, this meek 3/4 becomes a very, very powerful 9/10 for 15, which is unprecedented. Overall it’s very strong, and you can be sure that you will win many games with it.



Deepfathom Sulker is a new Devoid card that has a very significant advantage in card draw - whenever any of your creatures deal combat damage, you will draw a card. This essentially gives you the possibility of drawing 4 cards per turn (counting your basic draw) pretty easily, and works very well with some of the spell pump cards - make a deck full of cheap spells to pump up your Noyan Dar, for example, and you can make sure your hand is always full of cards to cast!



Remorseless Punishment is another of those cards that looks very expensive (and it is! But I hear Pyromancer’s Goggles makes spells pretty cheap…) that is very Black-centric, with a unique function. It both makes your opponent discard cards AND destroys creatures, but if you’re fearing your opponent is already out of cards (or creatures!) you’ll still get a very strong benefit out of it. Dealing a potential 20 damage if your opponent has no creatures and cards in hand is very, very strong, especially for Black, who doesn’t have a lot of direct damage to the face.



Stone Haven Outfitter is another good card for card draw in white. He’s also an Ally, so he has great synergy with Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, and his 2 abilities are very strong - giving +2/+2 and Berserker to all your creatures gives White some very good offensive board control and is sure to turn the tide. Note that his +2/+2 applies to everyone, including himself, so he’s effectively a 6/6.



Finally, Captain’s Claws! This is a particularly exceptional colorless Support that spawns an Ally every time you attack, making it perform very well with Ally decks - getting free constant Ally reinforcements means you’ll trigger Rally very often, and it’s very strong in Ally-specific decks.

This is it for today! Tomorrow I’ll introduce more new cards!