MTG Salvation

The card has high variability because of its 0 ability. It's a detain, blink and reset counter, which has lots of applications which players will see (or not) during playtesting. The other two abilities, while value abilities, do not affect the board.

Seeing the card in draft does not pull me into the colors as much as Sorin or Lingering Souls, but that's just me.

Quote from wtwlf123 »

She can kinda protect herself, in that she can {0} herself to reset her loyalty, and keep her off the board during the opponent's next turn (which prevents her from being attacked OR being killed by sorcery-speed removal). The ability can also keep an attacker in exile so it can't attack either you or her. Or kill a token .

Heh, didn't actually think of the constant blink to protect her from creatures good eye. Probably will be relevant occasionally.

Drain 2 life a turn with some loyalty is not the worst ever against agro either.

Quote from steve_man »

My problem is he competition: All 4 Orzhov cards I'm currently playing can slot into ANY deck and excel, can't say the same about Kaya.

Have to agree with this. She's somewhat good next to Vizkopa Guildmage, but so is Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.
I don't think she's going to knock Sorin out of my cube, as good as she is.

I like it in that it's totally different than the Sorins. I play Souls, Vindicate, and Sculler right now because I haven't added the ubiquitous Sorin for acquisition reasons. This might push me away from that. Seems like a pretty unique card, and I like those.

Q: If I (0) on my own Braids, can I skip on sacrificing a permanent? Do I get control on how those triggers stack? Because a one-sided Braids feels like it might be awesome.

If you 0 Braids, there is no way you'll sacrifice from her on your next upkeep. Of course, your opponent won't sac from Braids on *their* upkeep either

Edit: Doubt she'll beat Sorin LOI, and we only use one walker per guild. Nifty design though.

Derp re Braids and Kaya. I want that dream to be real.

Just add Teferi

Quote from steve_man »

I think her 0 ability is pretty flawed compared to other blink effects. It slowly kills you blinking your creatures means you're down a blocker next combat, which leaves both you and Kaya open.

Or you could just blink their best creature?

This is a great PW, but I feel the pain of getting yet ANOTHER good PW at 4 mana. I'm trying to only run one walker per guild (with Izzet being the exception), so I probably won't be playing this one. Sorin 1.0 is just too good to cut.

Maybe I'll boost my cube to 630 in the near future. With all the great cards waiting in the wings I don't feel like it'd be all that hard.

I really like the design. She definitely deserves/needs testing. I can't judge a card like this just from looking at it, but I guess she's quite good. Having 3 abilities that can be activated right away is a good recipe for versatility (if I recall correctly, only JTMS, Chandra Flamecaller, and two Gideons had that so far). The blink to reset her instead has a lot of potential too, in some situations it will play like a +4 (which we've had only on Karn, a 7 mana walker), and the ability itself has many applications too. The 2 mana loss seems very necessary to balance this ability. Without it, it may have actually been to good to print even for a non-tournament set like this. And her -2 is two cards card advantage, which (ideally) can be activated twice before she needs to be reset, so that's very welcome.

Seems like she competes for the 5th, or even the 4th, best orhzov card. Lingering Souls, Sorin LOI and Vindicate are no doubt the top 3. And a lot of cube manager now see Anguished Unmaking as the 4th. But losing 3 life is no ... After that, there's Solemn Visitor. And lastly, in a lower category, there's Grim Nemesis, Magister of Worth, Unburial Rites and Tidehollow Sculler. And I don't think the Ghost Assassin competes with those. So this basicly leaves us with Anguished Unmaking and Solemn Visitor. Are they better than this Blink/CA engine?

I'd add Magister of Worth to that list as well for consideration among the top cards. My group and I like the wrath/finisher combination so much that we run Magister as our 4th in the guild and it will take A LOT to make me cut it. I think card is severely underrated around these parts

I personally wouldn't cut Magister to test Kaya.

Quote from noshadowkick »

I'd add Magister of Worth to that list as well for consideration among the top cards. My group and I like the wrath/finisher combination so much that we run Magister as our 4th in the guild and it will take A LOT to make me cut it. I think card is severely underrated around these parts

I personally wouldn't cut Magister to test Kaya.

I think it's less that and more so that orzhov is insane. It's def not better than vindicate/lingering souls, though I could see an argument for it over Sorin LOI.

I like this card. Wizards definitely flipped normal PW design on its ear with this one (I get a little Ghost Council of Orzhova feel from this, and I fiercely loved that card back in the day). The abilities are good and work well together. The problems are the stacked guild that she's in, and the fact that there are already three good planeswalkers in that guild.

Quote from Salmo »

Quote from noshadowkick »

I'd add Magister of Worth to that list as well for consideration among the top cards. My group and I like the wrath/finisher combination so much that we run Magister as our 4th in the guild and it will take A LOT to make me cut it. I think card is severely underrated around these parts

I personally wouldn't cut Magister to test Kaya.

I think it's less that and more so that orzhov is insane. It's def not better than vindicate/lingering souls, though I could see an argument for it over Sorin LOI.

Agreed completely. Cross over to Multiplayer, and Vizkopa Guildmage enters this list as well.
No way I'd play it ahead of Vizkopa, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Anguished Unmaking or Vindicate. Given my current lifegain/bleeder suite, I'd also put Ayli and Karlov ahead.

I definitely think she is neat but I don't see her being strong enough for cube. Sure you can blink her to protect her but do you really just want to pay 4 mana and 2 life and not affect the board in any way? On turn four that feels REALLY bad. And if they only have one creature in play on turn 4 (assuming its not tnn or anything) do you want to play this or something thats just goong to take ovee thr game? I also saw someone suggest using it if you support the blink deck along with venser. This seems like the best option but I'm still not loving it.

Quote from icculushfb42 »

I definitely think she is neat but I don't see her being strong enough for cube. Sure you can blink her to protect her but do you really just want to pay 4 mana and 2 life and not affect the board in any way? On turn four that feels REALLY bad. And if they only have one creature in play on turn 4 (assuming its not tnn or anything) do you want to play this or something thats just goong to take ovee thr game? I also saw someone suggest using it if you support the blink deck along with venser. This seems like the best option but I'm still not loving it.

Just to be clear, Kaya does affect the board because you can use her first ability on your opponent's creatures. I dunno if you will like the card but you should take a moment to read it more carefully.

Kaya on board. Cast Arcane Savant with Time Walk exiled. (0) Kaya. Get half as many turns as your current life total. Better still: awakened Part the Waterveil and beat to death.

Quote from icculushfb42 »

I definitely think she is neat but I don't see her being strong enough for cube. Sure you can blink her to protect her but do you really just want to pay 4 mana and 2 life and not affect the board in any way? On turn four that feels REALLY bad. And if they only have one creature in play on turn 4 (assuming its not tnn or anything) do you want to play this or something thats just goong to take ovee thr game? I also saw someone suggest using it if you support the blink deck along with venser. This seems like the best option but I'm still not loving it.

If you're referring to playing her and flickering herself to protect her the same turn, yeah, that's not the greatest turn 4 play, but it's just one of many options and only something you'd do in a pinch. I think her most common game plans will be -2, -2 for lots of card advantage and then resetting her, when you have something to protect her; or blinking another one of your creatures for ETB value; or temporarily taking care of an opponents creature (permanently in case of a token).

I think the 2 lifeloss on the 0 ability will prove to be problematic. I will eagerly await testing results though...

Limited testing so far; good but not great. Probably won't permanently replace my #4 Orzhov card.

Can't wait to cast a turn 3 Kaya, Ghost Assassin followed by a turn 4 Thragtusk!

Any more feedback, I like foils and her foil is through the roof. Is she close to good enough?