The full spoiler for Kaladesh has been released, bringing with it several exciting final spoilers, including the Red Gearhulk, Dovin Baan, and many others. On top of that, we had an exciting announcement about the Masterpiece series, an ongoing set of Zendikar Expeditions-style foil mythic rares, beginning with Kaladesh Inventions in Kaladesh.
Combustible Gearhulk
Finishing out the Gearhulks cycle is the Red offering, Combustible Gearhulk. Offering a powerful 6/6 first strike body for just six mana, this Gearhulk provides the best stats of any bar the Green one. On top of that, Combustible Gearhulk has a Browbeat-style ability that gives your opponent the choice between taking damage to the face or allowing you to draw three cards. However, there are some key differences between this and Browbeat, which has long been derided as a poor card due to its punisher mechanic. Most importantly, you end up with a 6/6 first strike no matter what your opponent chooses, while Browbeat can allow an opponent with a healthy life total to simply take the damage and leave you down a card. Additionally, the opponent does not get to see how much damage they will be taking before they take it; in a deck set up with a number of high-mana cards, this can often deal quite a bit more than Browbeat does. Finally, if your opponent chooses to take the damage, the cards are placed into the graveyard, fueling reanimation strategies. This is particularly key in Legacy, where Reanimator decks already run high-mana cards they want to end up in the graveyard. It can also be key in Commmander, where the Gearhulk plays extremely nicely with cards like Daretti, Scrap Savant, Feldon of the Third Path, and Goblin Welder.
Dovin Baan
There was a fourth planeswalker revealed this past week as well, Dovin Baan. This Vedalken Kaladesh native is the first planeswalker since Venser, the Sojourner was killed in the Scars of Mirrodin block. Dovin is a master of order, and his abilities reflect that. His +1 can completely nullify many opposing creatures, weakening them to the point where they cannot profitably attack or block and preventing them from using abilities. His -1 is straight card advantage, both drawing a card and putting you up on life. And his -7 creates a one-sided Static Orb, locking down your opponent's board and putting them in a position that will be difficult to recover from. At four mana, and especially being blue, he has some eternal format potential.
Aggressive Artifacts
Kaladesh has a number of powerful aggressive creatures for artifact decks.
Toolcraft Exemplar follows in the vein of cards like Court Homunculus and Ardent Recruit. One artifact turns him into a staggering one mana 3/2, and three artifacts gives him first strike on top of that. Pair the exemplar with some vehicles or equipment in standard, or cheap artifact creatures and artifact lands in older formats, and he becomes unparalleled in power for a one drop.
Similarly, Inventor's Apprentice heralds back to Kird Ape, earning it the nickname "Nerd Ape". Becoming a 2/3 with just one other artifact in play, this aggressive body pairs extremely well with Toolcraft Exemplar for artifact-based aggro decks.
There's a few powerful artifact creatures to pair with these as well. Scrapheap Scrounger takes the aggressive, recursive Despoiler of Souls, and improves it in multiple ways. It gains extra toughness, a completely colorless mana cost, an artifact typing, a less-colored reanimation cost, and fewer creatures exiled to return it. This makes it a powerful, recursive, aggressive threat for artifact aggro decks.
On the other side of the coin, Bomat Courier is a colorless, artifact Raging Goblin that adds to a stockpile of cards every time it swings. When your resources are exhausted, the Courier can be sacrificed to refill your hand from this stockpile. This means it's a powerful tool for aggressive decks that quickly empty their hand.
The entire spoiler is currently available in Our Kaladesh Spoiler, and can be discussed in Our New Card Discussion Forum.
Masterpieces and Inventions
Wizards has announced a new gimmick moving forward: all sets will contain a Zendikar Expeditions-style set of reprints. These cards will have custom frames and show up exclusively at foil, at the rate of approximately one per four boxes. They are not Standard legal (except for those that are printings of cards already in Standard) and mostly represent reprints of powerful older cards, fitting the theme of the set. In the case of Kaladesh, this is Kaladesh Inventions, a collection of artifact cards. This includes the complete Gearhulk cycle, Chrome Mox, Mox Opal, Mana Crypt, Crucible of Worlds, and many others. A complete set of these cards is available in our Kaladesh Inventions Spoiler. There are thirty cards in Kaladesh and another twenty-four in Aether Revolt.
And with that, the Kaladesh spoiler season wraps up. Join us at the end of October for our next spoiler season for Commander 2016!
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Posted Sep 23, 2016