Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Dominaria! Today marks the beginning of the second week of preview season, and my focus now shifts to another main part of Dominaria, Legendary creatures.
All this week, I’ll be going over some of the new Legendary creatures from each colour. How important are Legendary creatures in Dominaria, you ask? Important enough that there will be one guaranteed Legendary creature in each pack of Dominaria. Why are there so many Legendary creatures going around? Because so many of the terms and mechanics from the set revolve around Legendary creatures.
The new term historic includes any Saga, Legendary creature, or Planeswalker. Legendary sorceries, which I talked about last week, can be cast if you have a Legendary creature on the battlefield. There are also plenty of cards that involve searching for and targeting Legendary creatures.
Now that we can see how prominent these Legendary creatures will be, let’s see what new white Legendary creatures are on the horizon. The first one that I'll be talking about today involves the new Dominaria term historic. Here is Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle.
This new Legendary creature is full of potential. Being able to trigger its ability by casting a historic spell won’t be that difficult. There are tons of artifacts that you can use, and the new Saga History of Benalia would be a good fit in the deck. Casting this on turn four, then playing a Mox Amber will also trigger its ability. You even have one mana you can use to cast another cheap artifact or something else to trigger its ability again.
Here are some of the current legendary creatures with casting cost three or less in Standard that would fit well in a deck with this card. These creatures can not only trigger Teshar's ability, but be brought back with that ability as well.
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Bontu the Glorified
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Captain Lannery Storm
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Hope of Ghirapur
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Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons
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Kambal, Consul of Allocation
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Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
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Kefnet the Mindful
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Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle
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Pia Nalaar
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Rhonas the Indomitable
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Rishkar, Peema Renegade
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The next legendary creature I’ll be looking at can allow you to get your life total down to four very quickly, even if just for an instant. Here is Evra, Halycon Witness:
This creature is an intriguing one. At first glance, it's not often that you would want your life total to become four, but there’s more to this card than that. Remember the key word, exchange. If you attack with Evra, Halycon Witness and you are at 12 life, you can exchange your life total of 12 for its power. Yes, your life total becomes four, but your creature is now a 12/4 with lifelink. If you can hit your opponent with it, your life total immediately jumps up to 16, while Evra, Halycon Witness remains a 12/4 creature. You can repeat this the following turn. Your life total becomes 12, the creature becomes a 16/4, and if you attack for damage you now have 28 life. You can see how this can get out of control quickly.
The next legendary creature reminds me of a certain card from earlier core sets called Baneslayer Angel. Here is Lyra Dawnbringer and its counterpart Baneslayer Angel.
Let’s compare the two of them. Both are 5/5 creatures with flying, first strike, and lifelink. Did I mention they both cost only five mana to cast?
Baneslayer Angel has protection from demons and from dragons, while Lyra Dawnbringer gives your other Angels +1/+1 and lifelink. Both of those extra abilities have their advantages, but neither will come into play that often. Lyra Dawnbringer is Legendary, while Baneslayer Angel is not. This means you can have multiple Baneslayer Angels on the battlefield at once, but being legendary in Dominaria has its advantages as well. All I know is that I hope I open a Lyra Dawnbringer during my first prerelease.
Finally, I want to talk about a Legendary creature with an ability similar to one last seen in Origins. Here is Baird, Steward of Argive:
Having an ability like the ones you see on Norn’s Annex or Sphere of Safety, but on a creature is interesting. It turns this creature into a little bit of a lighting rod. Your opponent won’t want to keep paying mana to attack with their creatures, so don’t expect Baird, Steward of Argive to live very long. It doesn’t have a very impressive body at 2/4 with vigilance, but four toughness when you are attacking and blocking can come in handy.
The last thing I want to look at is what white Legendary creatures are currently in Standard, so that you can gauge which ones you might use in a historic or Legendary white deck:
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Djeru, With Eyes Open
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Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle
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Oketra the True
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Sram, Senior Edificer
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Zetalpa, Primal Dawn
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None of these are currently played much in Standard, but we could start seeing them more often depending on how powerful historic and legendary creatures become.
Thanks for reading another edition of the Daily Dose of Dominaria. Join me again tomorrow, when I'll be talking about what Legendary creatures we will find in blue.
