Welcome everyone to the Daily Dose of Ravnica Allegiance. This week I’m going to cover each of the five new mechanics coming up in Ravnica Allegiance. Today I’m going to look into the new Orzhov mechanic, Afterlife.
Have you ever thought to yourself, “I wish every creature could be like Doomed Traveller”? Now you can thanks to Afterlife. This new mechanic ensures that all your creatures leave a little something behind for your opponent to deal with when they kill your creature.
Before I get into the new Orzhov mechanic I want to quickly talk about a reprint of an Orzhov card that is sure to see some play in the new upcoming Standard format. Here is Mortify.
Although a popular reprint in Commander sets, we haven’t seen this card in Standard since its first printing back in Guildpact. If Mortify just destroyed a creature at instant speed for three mana, it would already be quite strong. In the current Standard format there aren’t many enchantment targets, but there are some powerful ones you will want to use them against. To start off you have the removal suite of Conclave Tribunal, Seal Away and Ixalan’s Binding. Not only will you destroy their enchantment, but you’ll get a permanent back onto the battlefield as well. Against Boros Aggro, it can hit History of Benalia or Legion’s Landing before it flips. It will also hit Search for Azcanta in certain control decks as well. This will be a very versatile spell that you will want to play every time you draft it.
Let’s now shift focus to the new Afterlife mechanic. First off, is a creature that would fit quite well into its what we expect from creatures with that cost, but it gets an added boost thanks to Afterlife. Here is Imperious Oligarch.
This card shows off the simplicity of the Afterlife mechanic. This is the easiest mechanic to understand of the five new mechanics and is consistent in all its applications by that it always triggers when the creature dies. Take, Imperious Oligarch, you get a 2/1 creature with Vigilance for two mana, which is very similar to other two drop creatures like Vernadi Shieldmate from Guilds of Ravnica. The bonus is in the Afterlife, as it will provide you with one 1/1 Flying Spirit creature when it dies. Afterlife makes it more valuable for you to trade during combat, as you will be left with the advantage of being left with a Spirit token.
The next creature I want to look at reminds me a little bit of a cross between Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Grand Abolisher. Here is Tithe Taker.
This will be a staple creature for white decks to use against control decks. Tithe Taker will make it very hard for them cast their mittful of Instant spells they have in their hand. Here are some of the spells it would hit:
- Seal Away, Chemister’s Insight, Expansion // Explosion, Negate, Opt, Sinister Sabotage, Syncopate, and Spell Pierce
These are just the spells from one deck. Unless they can exile it, it will cost them two removal spells to get of rid it as well thanks to the Afterlife 1 ability on the card. It also can hurt other decks, forcing Mono Red to pay for their end of turn removal of Risk Factor. Golgari Midrange might not be able to cast their Cast Down’s or Vraska’s Contempt’s because of it. Watch out for this card, the Standard metagame will decide whether this card is played in the main deck or if it will come out of the sideboard.
The afterlife mechanic will be an annoyance for your opponent, like using a removal spell on Thorn’s Lieutenant. You don’t want to use a removal spell on it, since you know there will be still be something leftover to deal with. It will also work well with creatures in Standard like Demon of Catastrophes and Plaguecrafter. Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Ravnica Allegiance. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow as I talk about another new mechanic from the Azorius guild.
