Welcome all to the Daily Dose of Dominaria! Today I’m going to be talking about some more of the amazing new cards coming out in Dominaria.
Last week I talked about some of the cards revolving around the new historic mechanic in Dominaria. Well it seems that one article is not enough, as there are plenty more cards with this mechanic. Here’s a recap of what a historic card is.
“(Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic.)”
As you've no doubt seen from all the previews so far, many cards in Dominaria fall into that card pool. It's important to remember that every pack of Dominaria has a guaranteed Legendary creature in it. That means there's a guaranteed historic card in every pack. And that's not even including the 11 or more Sagas, or the 18 or more artifacts that are in the set!
Historic cards will be everywhere, so it makes sense to play cards in your deck that gain value from casting and having them.
Before I go into some cards in Dominaria that revolve around historic cards, I want to talk about a sweet reprint that happens to be a historic card. Here is Icy Manipulator from Dominaria and the version of the card that I’ll be suiting up for Standard.
Icy Manipulator can be a powerful artifact if you can get it on to the battlefield. When it comes to creatures, you can tap them down for combat, or stop a tap ability from being used. You can also use it to shut down artifacts with tap abilities by tapping it during your opponent’s upkeep. This means they won't be able to use that ability during their main phase, or during your entire turn. Finally, you can use it tap down a land.
This Rishadan Port type ability is great if you're playing a control deck and you want to shut down your opponent from having a certain colour of mana to use. You can also tap one of their lands during your turn so that they can't cast any instants to react on your turn. Most times, you want to be playing this when you have five or more lands on the battlefield, allowing you to use it on the same turn that you cast it.
The first card using the historic mechanic I want to talk about today is a sorcery that will help you get a powerful card you need to win the game. Here is Board the Weatherlight:
We've seen a lot of green cards with a similar effect. Usually those allow you to search the top of your library to find a land or creature. Board the Weatherlight allows you to put any historic card in your hand, which can be a large range of cards. Currently the only Legendary Land you can grab from it is Inventors’ Fair. You will be able to get any Saga, Artifact, or legendary card. This includes the new Legendary sorceries as well.
I wish it were a one casting cost spell that let you to search through less cards, maybe three or four. For now it is a card you can cycle to choose from the top of your library. If your deck is full of historic cards, you could even have your choice of two or three cards to choose from.
One of the most powerful things you can do in Magic is surprise your opponent with an unexpected move. This next card allows you to surprise your opponent all game long. Here is Raff Capashen, Ship’s Mage.
How would you like to cast all your spells during either turn? Raff Capashen, Ship’s Mage lets you do just that.
Adding Flash to your entire deck is a game changer, if your deck is full of historic cards that is. Imagine playing a Saga like Fall of the Thran during your opponent’s upkeep and destroying all the lands on the battlefield. How about casting a Karn, Scion of Urza during your opponent's end step? This card lets you play those cards and still have all your mana to cast something during your turn. Always having your mana available means that you can react to whatever your opponent does during their turn, like playing counterspells or removal if needed. I believe this card is being undervalued now, but like all these cards you need to have the right deck built to take advantage of it.
Lastly, I want to talk about a new Vehicle in Dominaria. I like the fact that even after Kaladesh, WotC is still finding ways to include Vehicles when they make sense. You don’t need to have a Vehicle theme to have Vehicles play a part in the story, and Dominaria looks like it has a great Vehicle in Weatherlight:
It’s convenient that the ability on the Weatherlight is the same as the card Board the Weatherlight. The advantage is that you get a 4/5 Flying vehicle to attack with as well. If you can connect every turn, not only will there be a small clock on your opponent, but you'll also gain card advantage every time you connect. Having a crew cost of three is reasonable and shouldn’t be too hard to achieve.
Weatherlight also dodges any sweepers or sorcery speed removal your opponent may have, making it harder to kill. Wouldn’t Weatherlight be nice if it had Flash thanks to Raff Capashen, Ship’s Mage? Conveniently Raff Capashen, Ship’s Mage has three power, allowing it to crew it as well. Weatherlight will be one of those cards that your opponent has to deal with, or quickly fall behind.
As you can see, loading your deck with historic cards is going to be worthwhile once Dominaria comes out. It’s a nice mechanic in the way that it almost turns hundreds of cards from other sets into historic cards without them having to change any of those existing cards.
Thank you all very much for reading the Daily Dose of Dominaria today. Join me again tomorrow as I talk about a few flying creatures that will make an appearance in Dominaria, including some Angels and Djinns.
