"Vraska,Scheming Gorgon:Showing her deadly face again"

"Vraska,Scheming Gorgon:Showing her deadly face again"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

We all knew that Vraska was a baddie in this tale of Ixalan , that no matter what she feels for Jace she is still an agent of Bolas aka Lord Nicholas in this story. And it was only a matter of time before Vraska showed this side again and she did not disappoint.

As part of the planeswalker decks that come out in Rivals of Ixalan I am predicting that a lot of EDH players would welcome this new version of Vraska. So let us check out our mono black gorgon captain and why she might change things up in your token strategies.

So for 6 mana you get a planeswalker with 5 loyalty counters. Her first ability is a +2 which gives all of your creatures +1/0 until end of turn . much like Sorin's ability but without the life link, this means that before you plop her down with her enormous cost you must have played enough creatures to benefit from this first ability. If you have been been attacking constantly then putting her down might even end the life of your opponent.

Vraska seems like herself now with her gorgon touch and a -3 Loyalty 2nd skill that destroys a target creature. Not quite as strong as the original -3 destroy target non land permanent but hey you have to deal with what you are given.

However it is her last ability that is sure to make your opponents think of getting his or her creature sweeper from the library. My friend Janry runs a mean Hapatra , Vizier of Poisons deck. He can easily produce a lot of snakes , really fast. Now imagine using this skill with all those tokens in play. -10 Until end of turn creatures you control gain death touch and when they are able to damage an opponent that player loses the game.

So. She turns everyone into her assassins. In my opinion this is a better version from the Vraska of old but it still depends on how many creatures you have in play and their evasive abilities such as flying , unblockable , shadow or Land walk. If your critters have these evasiveness then it looks more and more like a win for you.

Now I have to prepare because the next EDH game I might be up to my neck in sneks and all of them have lethal sting.