Oath of the Gatewatch Preview Day 3!

Hibernum_JC

Hey folks!

I’m here with the latest installment of the Gatewatch reveal, and today we’ll be showing off some of our new Mythic cards in the set!



First, Kozilek’s Return. Dealing 2 damage to each of your opponent’s creatures might not seem much, but for 3 mana this is pretty cheap. It’s major strength, however, comes from it’s ability to return to your hand every time you summon an Eldrazi, including tokens (this means that summoning an Eldrazi Scion will return it to your hand!). This works for every instance of the card as well - if you cast it 4 separate times (that came from your Library), it will return 4 copies of the spell to your hand, which you can then unleash for 12 mana for 8 damage to each of your opponent’s creatures. This Mythic is very, very strong with the right deck composition.



Zendikar Resurgent is a an incredibly potent ramp tool for Green. For 14 mana, it gives you +2 mana to each of your colors, giving you a very strong mana gain. You also will draw a card whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, which will replenish your hand quite fast under certain circumstances (Garruk? 4 free card draws every time you use his abilities is quite strong!) It’s shield value is 3, so it’ll be difficult to destroy, and you should gain so much value from it that it should be a very good addition to most of your Green decks.



Crush of Tentacles is Blue’s new killer control spell. While it’s expensive, it will return each creature to it’s owner’s hand (regardless of space - it will destroy creatures if there isn’t enough space). While this in itself has already been done, it also summons 2 8/8 Octopi tokens with Reach and Trample. Nothing beats clearing a board like putting a 16/16 creature on it at the same time! Note that these tokens stack with Kiora’s 3rd ability, so you can use it afterwards for truly horrifying damage.



Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is a new Black Mythic that is thematically interesting. First off, its a Vampire, so it has Lifelink (which is very good with all the “When you gain life” effects). It also has a pretty unique ability - whenever a creature your opponent controls dies, you summon a 2/2 Zombie. This zombie (or any other Zombie, really!) can then get munched on by Kalitas, who gains +2/+2. This might seem a bit strange, but the goal here is to slowly grow your Kalitas, who has Lifelink, to make him an unstoppable Zombie-eating, lifelinking machine!



Linvala, the Preserver is a new White Angel that we are introducing into the set. She is different in that she is meant to be a creature you cast to turn around the game when you are behind - when she comes into the battlefield, she’ll heal you for 10, and since she has both Defender and Flying, she’ll block anything that comes your way. With Regeneration 4, she’ll also gradually heal up every turn, making her difficult to deal with. What also makes her special is if you summon her while your opponent has 3 creatures on the battlefield, she will also summon 2 4/4 Angels to fight by her side, further helping you turn the game around. At 17 mana, she’s pretty cheap and can turn some games around magnificiently.



Finally, Mirrorpool, which is one of the MVP Mythics of this set. At 4 mana, this incredibly cheap Support has an effect that is unmatched anywhere in the game - it will freely reinforce the next creature you cast or make the next spell in your hand free whenever you cast a spell. It’s incredibly versatile and makes every single big creature incredibly dangerous, and every spell cast a menace. It needs to be used smartly, however - since it destroys itself when it activates, reinforcing it is useless and you need to be efficient with your card ordering. A single mistake will cost you the actual effect you want, so use it wisely!

This is it for the Gatewatch reveals! The update should release very shortly, and we’re looking forward to the decks you will build and the challenges you’ll overcome!