Oath of the Gatewatch Preview Day 2!

Hibernum_JC

Hi folks!

Today we’ll be discussing the new batch of Oath cards that are released in the Gatewatch set. Without further ado, here they are!




The Oath cards are specialized support cards for all the colors (except Black, which didn’t get one in Gatewatch, for lore reasons).

Oath of Chandra is very strong and complements fast aggro decks quite well with the ability to deal 2 damage to your opponent every time you cast a creature or support, which you should be doing quite often! Free damage is always good.

Oath of Gideon is also strong, and is particularly cheap! Summoning 4 1/1 Allies when it goes into play is already good, but the Landfall ability makes it even stronger - you’ll get 4 more Allies whenever you Landfall, which will reinforce and trigger Rally 4 more times.

Oath of Jace is a bit more specialized - drawing cards is always good with Blue, and draining mana from your opponent every time you cast a spell or support is always welcome.

Finally, what is most likely the most powerful Oath, Oath of Nissa is very useful. When it is cast, you fetch a card and give it 6 mana, which is great for casting those expensive creatures or spells. What’s more, whenever you match Green gems, you gain 2 extra mana, which is a very strong constant ramp, essentially giving Green +2 on match!

That’s it for today - next Monday I’ll drop by with the last update, showing off some of our new Mythic cards!

Morphis

Nice.
Jace effect is a little underwhelming. Maybe drain 2 instead?
Gideon one is really solid for rally.
Nissa requires a lot of investment but can pay off quickly.
Chandra is ok but red(especially as Chandra deck) has anti sinergy with supports so it depends on shield value.

shteev

This is hilarious. Skysnare Spider and Relic Seeker made more expensive because they're too good.... and now we'll print a 4/4 creature for 5 mana. Ow, My sides!!!!!

fox1342

How many shields do they have?

paralistalon

I don think I'd actually play Jace, Chandra, or Nissa's oaths. They all seem very weak. Jace's is basically a different take on Sphinx's Tutelage that doesn't automatically trigger each turn. Nissa's only pays for itself if you match green 5 times, then you might get upside. Now Gideon's Oath, on the other hand, is bonkers good. It's the most efficient creature in the game without even considering the insane bonuses you get from it in an ally deck, and that you can randomly do it again for free.

Reaganstorme

@Hibernum_JC - I love developers that get involved with the community and are available and accessible enough to discuss the thinking behind decisions!

I used to play a lot of paper MtG, and its been fun to get back into a new (modern) version of it.

I'd love to hear more details around unlocking the new reward cards from Oath of the Gatewatch. Are these reward cards given for completing a challenge during a story battle, effectively replacing one of the existing story rewards? Or are they only received in the upcoming Event? It seems from the preview yesterday that these rewards are going to be spread out, so will we know ahead of time which reward card we will be receiving for completing the challenge, or just the rarity (like the QB reward cards)?

One thing I'd love to see is another way to gain Mana Crystals for players who have already completed all of the story challenges. For example, what if there was some way to "reset" a half chapter of the story and open up all three rewards again? Say 5,000 Mana Runes per battle in a chapter for Origins, 10,000 MR for BFZ chapters, something like that? Gives players another place to invest their rewards from Quick Battles once they have their PWs up to the max, increases the value of Mana Runes from converting duplicate cards and from buying from the store, etc.

madwren

Oath of Gideon is insanely powerful compared to the others.

Morphis

madwren wrote:

Oath of Gideon is insanely powerful compared to the others.

It is insanely powerful in general.
Actually while searching for General gatewatch cards, to get an idea what we can expect I found the original one.

Now it has been a while since I started to think that an effect still not implemented in this game is a way to gain more loyalty.
Anyways I thought that no "non planeswalker" card existed in paper magic that impact the loyalty It and they usually follow the original card design.

But Gideon oath has the following text in paper: "When Oath of Gideon enters the battlefield, put two 1/1 white Kor Ally creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Each planeswalker you control enters the battlefield with an additional loyalty counter on it."

Now the first effect is converted fine...
But the second one? They could have made the first loyalty producing card and would have also fit better the original(not mentioning being less OP).

It could have been a gain X loyalty when cast.
Or gain X loyalty each turn(low amount of course)
Or if they want to use landfall... Easy landfall white: gain X loyalty.
So.... Why not? :O