Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Dominaria, where I'll be analyzing cards from the upcoming Magic set!
Today, I'll be concluding my discussion on Dominaria’s new Saga cards with Chapter III.
The four Sagas that I’ll be talking about today all have an ability that can really change the course of game. In fact, so much so that you rarely see these abilities written on Magic cards. This includes one ability that we’ve never seen on a Magic card before, and another that we haven’t seen since Planar Chaos.
How you play these Sagas will determine whether you're able to use these overpowered abilities to your advantage, or just have them waste away. With Sagas, you must think about what you want to do the turns before you play them, when you play them, and what you will do after you play them. This is what makes them such an interesting new card type to analyze.
Have you ever had the pesky problem of your opponent dropping tons of tokens on the battlefield and trying to go wide against you? Here comes The First Eruption to save the day.
When it comes to abilities, this Saga has some of the more unique ones I've seen. In Chapter I, you can deal one damage to each non-flying creature. This can be used to clear out some pesky tokens, or after combat to finish off some larger creatures. Be careful though, it hits your creatures as well.
Its Chapter II ability seems quite different than the other two. This ability allows you to ramp into some larger spells with two free red mana at the start of your precombat main phase. It doesn’t synergize much with the other two abilities, besides letting you ramp into a large creature that won't die from its next ability. Speaking of, in Chapter III you have the option to sacrifice a Mountain and deal three damage to each creature. I do like the fact that this ability can be skipped if it doesn’t suit how the battlefield currently lines up.
I could see this Saga being used in a Dinosaur deck to trigger Enrage abilities with Chapter I, and to cast a larger Dinosaur during Chapter II.
Next up, we go from fire to ice with a new Saga that has tempo written all over it. Here is Time of Ice:
This Saga is all about shutting down your opponents’ creatures for two turns until you can get to Chapter III for its ultimate payoff.
In Chapters I and II, you can tap down an opponents’ creature for one to two turns, depending on the current Chapter. This gives you a chance to get in some attacks without having to worry about any pesky blockers. Then, in Chapter III, you gain a large tempo advantage by having all those tapped creatures returned to your opponents’ hand.
Between Chapter II and III, it will be hard for your opponent to attack you since if they do, their creatures will just get returned to their hand during your turn. This acts as a one-turn buffer when it comes to getting attacked, if they even have any remaining untapped creatures.
The next Saga I want to look at will allow you to bring back something powerful from a graveyard onto the battlefield, but maybe not a creature. Here is The Eldest Reborn:
The Eldest Reborn is one of the Sagas that intrigues me the most.
In Chapter I, you get an ability that can remove your opponent's only threat if played at the correct time. If you can play other removal spells on turns two to four, you might be able to get their last creature or Planeswalker with this ability. Being able to hit Planeswalkers as well as creatures is a nice bonus.
In Chapter II, you get the nice free bonus ability of making your opponents discard a card. What makes it harder for your opponent to choose is knowing what's coming next. Then in Chapter III, you can take any creature OR Planeswalker card from a graveyard and put in straight onto the battlefield.
Never has there been an ability that allows you to take a Planeswalker from a graveyard and put it straight into play before. Not only will you have your choice of the cards you made them lose during Chapters I and II, but you can also choose anything else that happens to be in either graveyard. Imagine tossing a Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh in the graveyard on the previous turn. There is some patience and work to be done with this card, but it could have a large reward in the end.
Finally, I have here a Saga card that has an ability like I mentioned above. One that hasn’t been seen on a Magic card since Planar Chaos. Here is Fall of the Thran:
In Chapter I, you win the game.
This is a possibility that we will see coming to fruition with this card soon. Destroy… all… lands. We haven’t seen these words written on a Magic card since Boom // Bust.
Unlike most other Sagas, you don’t have to wait a couple of turns to for its main ability to go off. As soon as you cast Fall of the Thran, say goodbye to everyone’s lands. The ideal place to play this card would be when ahead on the battlefield. This will prevent your opponent from getting back into the game and you can win the game during the next couple of turns. In Chapter II and III, each player will be able to get back two lands per turn. But because of when the ability triggers, you will get that opportunity before your opponent. I can see this Saga being played to shutdown any comeback hopes your opponent might have.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get my hands on these new Saga cards. There are some powerful abilities on them. Which one is your favourite?
Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Dominaria. Tomorrow I’ll be continuing my journey into Dominaria by talking about another new mechanic. What will it be? Join me tomorrow to continue the adventure!
