"Garruk, Curse Breaker: Why Kill Them When Someone Else Can?"

"Garruk, Curse Breaker: Why Kill Them When Someone Else Can?"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Since I started writing again this month, I've gotten into the habit of analyzing the planeswalkers we're going to be getting in 2027.

I've deliberately avoided many of the current planeswalkers in circulation, mainly because I feel they have already been covered to death at this point. There are only so many ways you can analyze a planeswalker before you start repeating yourself.

Now that I've written about the nine planeswalkers coming in Mystery Booster Commander Edition, I'd like to turn my attention to the last in-universe set of the year, Reality Fracture.

The premise is certainly interesting.

Jace is essentially trying to pull a Hal Jordan—and if you don't know the reference, go read up on Green Lantern. He is attempting to alter reality so that all the terrible things that have happened up to this point simply never existed.

Joining him are planeswalkers who appear in colors opposite to their usual identities.

Opposites, yes.

But as we see later, these opposing colors aren't necessarily foreign to these planeswalkers. In fact, they may represent aspects of their personalities that were already there.

A good example is Garruk.

After being cursed by the Chain Veil, Garruk carried black mana within him. So in Reality Fracture, we get both a green and a black version of Garruk.

Today, I'll be focusing on Garruk, Curse Breaker, a five-mana planeswalker costing three generic mana and two green.

I have several Beast decks that are going to want this planeswalker as support, as well as a redundancy for an existing enchantment I already love: Garruk's Uprising.

Garruk, Curse Breaker's static ability is a significant improvement for this strategy. It simply checks whether a creature with power 4 or greater enters the battlefield under your control, and if it does, you draw a card.

That's a pretty good deal in a Beast deck.

Big creatures are already what you're planning to play, so getting a card every time one of them enters the battlefield can generate a considerable amount of value.

His +2 ability allows you to untap two lands.

That's great for Garruk, especially if those lands are capable of producing more than one mana. Imagine untapping something like Ancient Tomb or Gaea's Cradle.

Now you're not just building loyalty.

You're potentially setting yourself up for an even bigger play on your next turn.

His -3 ability is classic Garruk.

You create a 4/4 Beast token with trample.

A big body that can protect Garruk, attack your opponents, and, thanks to his static ability, immediately draws you a card when it enters the battlefield.

A 4/4 Beast, a card, and a planeswalker that can start generating more mana?

I'll take that.

But then we get to the -6 ability, and this is where Garruk gets a little political.

The ability lets you persuade another player to attack one of your other opponents. When they do, the creatures they control get +2/+2 and trample until end of turn.

You can activate it, point toward another player, and essentially say:

"You know that guy over there? I think you should attack him."

And suddenly their creatures become significantly more dangerous.

If they have a large army, you might even be able to convince them to put the final nail in another player's coffin.

Of course, you could do the deed yourself. Your own creatures can take advantage of the +2/+2 and trample as well.

But where's the fun in that?

I'd much rather have somebody else take out another player for me.

At least when I'm playing with Garruk, Curse Breaker on the battlefield.

I still prefer to bloody my opponents whenever I can.

I'm just perfectly happy to let someone else do it first.

And that's what I find particularly interesting about this version of Garruk. He's still doing the things you'd expect from him—making Beasts, generating mana, and encouraging creatures to smash into each other.

But now there's a little bit of politics involved.

And sometimes, the best way to win a Commander game isn't to kill everyone yourself.

Sometimes, you just need to point Garruk in the right direction and let everybody else do the work.