Welcome to another edition of the Daily Dose of Oath of the Gatewatch. Today we will be talking about some of the important dates for this set and some of the cards associated with them! Let’s talk about the prerelease events being held at your local gaming store. Prerelease events will be coming to a store near you the weekend of January 16th and 17th. Here is what you will be getting in your prerelease kits:
- 4 Oath of the Gatewatch Booster Packs
- 2 Battle for Zendikar Booster Packs
- 1 Premium Foil Promo Card, that could be any rare or mythic in the set
- 1 Spindown Life Counter
One thing that local gaming stores will be doing is focusing on 2-Headed Giant events for this prerelease, as most stores should have at least 1 if not more. The big reason for this is that Oath of the Gatewatch has cards that will be teamwork focused such as the new card, Crush of Tentacles.
As you can see Crush of Tentacles is similar to spells we have seen before in that it will return all nonland permanents to their owners’ hands. Where this differs, is in the new ability called Surge. You are able to pay for the card with its Surge casing cost, if you have cast another spell this turn or (queue the teamwork horn), your teammate has cast another spell this turn. Surge is great, as you not only get an extra bonus when casting it for its Surge cost (an 8/8 Octopus in this case), you also are able to cast it for a cheaper casting cost. Needless to say, this new Surge ability will make Two-Headed Giant events a little more exciting.
So has the information so far from Oath of the Gatewatch got you excited enough to go out and pre-order a booster box of the new set. Not convinced yet are you? How about if I show you the Buy-A-Box promo offered by your local stores for the first few customers who pre-order a booster box. Let’s check out Goblin Dark-Dwellers.
Wait a second here, is this a Red Snapcaster Mage? Well, yes and no, but either way you should be excited. First off, it doesn’t have Flash, so you will casting this free spell from your graveyard on your turn only. Next, is that its mana cost is 5, so you aren’t able to play it on turn 3 to recast Fiery Impulse.
That being said, this is still a great card design. Not having to target the spell you are looking to cast from your graveyard will help protect it from graveyard hate. (I’m looking at you Shadows over Innistrad) Giving it Menace will get it some evasion when it hits the battlefield to help you get some extra damage in. Lastly, is that even though it is limited to 3 casting cost or less, they didn’t limit the color to red when it comes to which instant or sorcery you can be chosen.
I can see this being played in Dark Jeskai in Standard right now to get back such spells as Kolaghan’s Command, Jeskai Charm, and Crackling Doom.
Now that you’ve pre-ordered a box of Oath of the Gatewatch, it’s now time on January 22nd to go out and play the new Standard format or Draft at your local FNM. On top of playing with the new set, you will get a premium foil Launch promo of Endbringer!
Now this Eldrazi is going to be fun to play! Look at all of its abilities folks. First off, you get a 5/5 for 6 mana, but where it shines is that it untaps during each other player’s untap step. This means you are able to use any combination of two of its 3 main abilities during each cycle of player’s turns. If you need to get in some extra damage, but aren’t able to attack, why not ping your opponent for two. You can also attack with it, and then during your opponents turn, you can draw a card, or stop one of their creatures from attacking. The options are limitless! (Well okay, 16, but that’s still a lot of options!)
Whether, this cards sees Constructed play, only time will tell, as colorless mana is needed to both cast and activate most of its abilities.
Well thanks again for reading another edition of the Daily Dose of Oath of the Gatewatch and I looking forward to seeing you next time as we see some more exciting Oath of the Gatewatch previews!
