By:
Virgilio F. De leon Jr.
Since this is the first time I am writing about keyrunes let us just establish what they are. These are artifacts that can be cast for 3 colorless mana. They are essentially mana fixers for the guilds that they are supposed to represent , the Boros Key rune for example produces Red or White mana because that is the guild colors of the Boros Legion. They also have an added bonus of being activated to turn into a creature that has characteristics of the guilds they are aligned with.For example is the Gruul Keyrune who's creature form has trample because that is a classic ability in the Gruul Clan.
Now that we have that out of the way , we can get into the comparisons of the five keyrunes that are appearing into the next Magic:The Gathering expansion, Gate Crash. The guilds that are reintroduced are the Boros , Dimir , Gruul, Orzhov and Simic along with their accompanying Keyrunes.
The Keyrunes will see a lot of play in Limited formats as well as EDH. Who wouldn't want a mana fixer and an extra creature that can evade mass removal (Most of them are still at Sorcery speed) right? Right. So which keyrune appears to be the strongest in this batch? Well it depends on the artifacts use and its synergy with its guild. Let us look at 3 categories. Aggressiveness , Defense and X-factor:Ability.
With 3/2 and 2/3 respectively the Gruul and Simic Keyrunes contain the most offensive power. In standard they can be of most help to aggressive decks as finishers. Trample for the former makes it a great target for the Bloodrush mechanic that the Gruul has been given this time around. Damage can still be maximized even if it is blocked. The Simic Keyrune also has the added feature of being hexproof , saving it from spot removal and allowing you still use it as a mana source the following turn. Mostly this keyrune would be activated to use for the Evolve mechanic. The Simic are a much stronger guild now it and it can use a lot of these creatures for the Evolve that it needs.
Defense:
The 1/1 Soldier with Double strike and 1/4 Thrull with lifelink that the Boros and Orzhov Keyrunes change into are perfect for defense. The 1/1 creatures kills off any pesky 1/1 rush type creature (Ie. Goblins) that tries to deal early damage to you. The very slow Orzhov guild which deals damage mostly via the Extort mechanic needs bodies to block off aggressive creatures in the early game until it has all its pieces in place. This Orzhov keyrune can also evade Merciless Eviction if the player uses it to exile all creatures. So the Thrull gains life and defends well too.
X-Factor:
The Dimir Keyrune has the great distinction of being the only Creature in this mix that can be unblockable. At 2/2 it is a solid hit in the end games especially if there are already several of them in play. Unblockable damage is really a pain in the backside since it is pretty hard to deal with even if you have a massive creature army already on the board. The Dimir have always been sneaky and it even shows in their Keyrune.
So all in all enjoy the keyrunes. Use them wisely. Abuse them wisely.
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