I'll be going to the prerelease tomorrow! Very excited for the new cards, especially playing around delirium and madness. Will update as games progress.

So I've been so busy with my other blog and school that at the time I spend without doing anything, the time I sent just resting, my mind wondered. It occurred to me that I have deviated from the path that I wished to take when I first created xBMTG. I aimed only to post stuff that I encountered and the things that I found funny and interesting. I guess I've become too entangled with all the other MTG blogs that do official giveaways and spoilers and up-to-date news, such that I've forgotten the original theme of the blog: scrap the complexity, just stick to the basics. 

That's why I've decided to only update the blog once a week, or at most once every two weeks, to keep myself and you guys updated on the small stuff, the fun and interesting stuff that follows the basic casual player. I've been thinking about it for some time now, that if I did ever devote myself to doing these current-news things, that I'd need to do some major redesigning and restructuring. But all that just sounds too busy to concern myself with. 

Hence, just sticking to the stuff that's basic and easy. Because hey, after all, this is bmtg.

I'd actually thought Prossh would be able to do some sort of counterattack this time But it turned out that Marath is just too damn fast. 

Both players mulligan down to 6. Marath keeps a Mosswort Bridge (which can Hideaway) and a Rakeclaw Gargantuan. Prossh keeps Fell Shepherd and a Scarland Thrinax. Prossh goes first. The first few turns are just land drops. Marath's first draw was Voyaging Satyr, and first land drop was the Mosswort Brige, which hideaways a Behemoth Sledge ( remember this for later).

By, turn 3, Marath is summoned, just on-curve. Prossh summons a Scarland Thrinax, even though that would just be easily burned by Marath. Figured it'd be better than taking 3 commander damage and still have Marath on the field. By turn 4, instead of sacrificing Marath to the Thrinax, a Spellbreaker Behemoth is summoned instead.

Prossh's next few turns were unpleasant. He was stuck at five lands, so he could not summon Prossh. The Fell Shepherd and Spine of Ish Nah both cost 7, so they weren't useful either. Passing the turn to an ever-growing Marath was dangerous. Dangerous indeed: for if only Prossh was on curve, he could've had a fighting chance. 

By turn 7, Curse of the Forsaken has been cast, and Marath gained 4 life by attacking Prossh last turn with the Spellbreaker Behemoth. Life totals are now 44-28, in favor of Marath. This turn Marath is returned, deals 2 damage to Prossh's Huan Tuo, attacks for 6 and gains 3 life. Marath is gaining life as Prossh is helpless against the onslaught. Curse of the Forsaken's life gain would also become significant, later on.

Before that, on Prossh's turn,  he didn't draw the land he needed, but he did draw something that could tilt the scales to his favor. He drew a Vile Requiem, the only thing within reach that can deal with Marath. Prossh also summons Huan Tuo, but that was destroyed come Marath's next turn. So after that, and after casting Curse of the Forsaken, Prossh sacrifices the Vile and destroys the Spellbreaker Behemoth and Marath. That clears the board a bit, however Marath has enough mana to revive himself beyond Prossh's capacity to kill him.

Now, I should tell that a few turns back a 0/1 Plant Token was summoned from a land (forgot the name), and after Marath is played, the remaining 1 mana is used to make the 0/1 become a 1/2. That token and the elemental spawned by Marath attack for 2, gaining 2 life from the Curse. The next turn brought the Opal Palace to Prossh, making him able to summon his commander, along with the 6 tokens. Unfortunately, all mana was spent, and so a turn was passed almost easily. 

Marath draws an unbelievable card at this point in the game. The Darksteel Mutation that locked Prossh down during the first match. He casts it along with Savage Twister, where x = 1, clearing Prossh's board ( and turning Marath's Plant Token 1/2 to a 1/1), and unfortunately, since the Mutation makes Prossh invulnerable, he is still on the field. With enough mana left, the Hideaway card is cast for free: the Behemoth Sledge is now on the field. 

Prossh casts Goblin Bombardment and Fecundity, sacrificing Prossh and draws a Llanowar Reborn. To answer, the Sledge is equipped to Marath, boosting the token, Marath and the 3/4 plant attacks for 10. A fireball is cast for 5 damage, dealing 15 in total.

Prossh concedes with a 54-2, as summoning on the 11th turn is not an option, and the Spine of Ish Nah will deal with Marath, but the Plant Token is still a 3/4 and can still directly attack.

So I've recently played with my Marath Commander Deck against the Prossh Commander deck ( only a bit  of tweaks and alterations made, not really much that changed the deck), and the latest match was certainly an eyeopener. Not only was I surprised at the result, but the path taken to that result was really, really, amazing. 

Here's what went down.

I should mention first though, that both players muliganed their hands down to six. Marath's hand showed a Krosan Warchief and a Sol Ring, the ring alone enough to keep the hand. Prossh meanwhile drew a Shattergang Brothers and enough lands to get to Prossh one-land each turn, until the sixth. Both were looking good so far. Marath goes first, drops a forest then taps for a sol ring. 

The plays were pretty much normal until the fourth turn. By then Marath has already spent his first three counters for three 1/1's, and a Krosan Warchief was on the field. Prossh on the other hand had Han Tuo on his side and a Sakura Tribe Elder ( quite slow, I know!). Due to some forgotten circumstances, the three 1/1's were wiped from the board.. By the fifth turn, Marath drew Omnath, Locus of Rage, and that's where all hell broke loose.

Thanks to the Sol Ring, Marath summoned Omnath at turn 5, and by Prossh's turn, he summons his commander, along with the six tokens. By the sixth, I was supposed to summon Marath, if I hadn't drawn such a great card: the Conquering Manticore. With Omnath at the field, another land in my hand, and the Conquering Manticore, the path was set. First, play the Mountain, triggering Omnath's landfall, generating a 5/5 Elemental. Next, summon the Manticore, then take control of Prossh. Using Prossh's ability, sacrifice the new 5/5 Elemental, triggering Omnath's Bolt ability and pumping Prossh at the same time! Since all that was on Prossh's field were tokens, Han Tuo and the Tribe Elder, Omnath bolts the opponent to the face, dealing 3 damage. Prossh attacks for 6 damage, dealing 9 damage for the first combat of the match. 9 damage! 

What was more brutal was that Marath had enough mana left to cast Darksteel Mutation on Prossh, turning him into a 0/1 indestructible, rendering him unable to utilize his sacrifice-pump ability. To counter this, he summons the Shattergang Brothers on his turn, and uses that to sac Prossh. Marath sacrifices the Krosan Warchief, raising his mana cost back to 5. 

By turn seven, Marath began the onslaught. I couldn't exactly remember the details but the Omnath-Marath combo was unstoppable. Stand-alone, Marath distributed counters and just kept sending damage to Prossh's face. Omnath generated 5/5's like wildfire. The fun part was, Marath will often generate small tokens, 2/2's or 1/1's, then will either use those to block or burn them with Marath himself, triggering Omnath's Bolt ability, as the tokens created are elementals too. Before he knew it, Prossh was at a dangerous 21 life, while Marath stood firm at 40. Prossh was unable to attack because he was the only one on the field capable of defending his territory. 

As the game went on, Marath kept returning from the Command Zone, but with each return his cost rose up, so he was not able to do the burns and tokens on the same turn. Desperate for defense, Prossh casts a Vile Requiem (hoping to target Marath and or Omnath, or both), then alter a Blood Rites, to be able to use the excess 0/1 tokens. To do that successfully he needed two more turns. First for the mana to be available to sac the tokens to Blood Rites, the second to gather enough counters to take out Marath and Omnath with the Requiem. But alas, this was not to be. 

In those two turns Marath lowered Prossh's life to a very low 12 life, with the threat of 4 5/5 elementals and Omnath itself. By the second turn, Prossh had a very huge problem. Taking out Marath and Omnath would still deal 3 damage due to Omnath's self-triggered Bolt, and that would also make Marath stronger with the next return, and fighting at 6 life would be useless, as Marath could easily burn him to the face. So instead, the Vile Requiem skips Omnath and targets one elemental and Marath instead ( sadly this brings him down to 6) , so now Marath's cost was at 11. 

The Blood Rites could have been triggered twice, but there were no good targets at all, as all creatures on Marath's field had 5 toughness and higher. By my ninth turn, Prossh was basically good as dead. I could cast Marath and wait an additional turn to kill Prossh, or I could cast Xenagos, God of Revels. And that's what I did. Remember the Manticore? Well, that's still alive, and was given a +1/+1 counter by Marath early in the game. By Xenagos, it got boosted to a 12/12. With Prossh in the Command Zone, the tokens couldn't block, and so couldn't the poor Sakura Tribe Elder. 

Marath won 40-0 (Life totals, not number of games).

 Reckless Bushwhacker (2R)
 Creature - Goblin Warrior Ally
 Surge {1R} (You may cast this spell for its surge cost if you or a teammate has cast another spell this turn.)
Haste
When Reckelss Bushwhacker enters the battlefield, if its surge cost was paid, other creatures you control get +1/+0 and gain haste until end of turn.

Deepfoam Skulker (5U)
Creature - Eldrazi
Devoid (This card has no color.)
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.
{3C}: Target creature can't be blocked this turn.

Dread Defiler (6B)
Creature - Eldrazi
Devoid (This card has no color.)
{3C}, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Target opponent loses life equal to the exiled card's power.
It left behind an echoing emptiness more horrible than the grave.

So far, this has got to be my most favorite card in the set. Imagine putting the Dread Defiler in a heavy-beatdown deck, for example with a green-black demons deck? Imagine pairing this with something like Doomgape.

Stone Haven Outfitter (1W)
Creature - Kor Artificer Ally
Equipped creatures you control get +1/+1.
Whenever an equipped creature you control dies, draw a card.
The makers and menders are the first called to battle and the last to leave.

This only hints at an equipment-ally intro deck. I guarantee it. 

For Oath of the Gatewatch, Wizards have made quite the interesting mechanics, including of course, the potentially-controversial, colorless mana.  Here are the following mechanics, starting with the big gun ( in my opinion): the new basic land, and its new mana color ( or, no color? )

Colorless Mana

This symbol means it is colorless mana, a sixth kind of mana ( seventh if you count snow). It is different from generic mana since colorless is a sub-type of generic mana; basically, generic mana, now, can be paid with either red, green, blue, black, white, or colorless mana. This of course goes very well with the 'colorless' theme of the Eldrazi, and the Devoid mechanic introduced in Battle for Zendikar.

The cost {C} can only be paid with colorless mana, so if you build a deck around colorless spells, with a fusion of colored ones, then for example, there would be such a term as " I have a red-colorless deck, or blue-colorless control deck". This addition ripples throughout new and existing cards. For example:

... in this print of Uknown Shores, the first ability adds {C} to the mana pool. You can in turn, use this to pay generic mana costs. The second ability has an additional cost, which is 1 generic mana, which can be payed with any colorless mana or with colorless mana. Another example would be the Sol Ring, which instead of producing 2 generic mana ( which by now sounds awfully ridiculous), which was actually a misinterpretation of the ability, actually produces 2 colorless mana. Which can still be payed for generic mana costs or colorless costs themselves.

Oh and by the way, here is the new land:

Important note: see how it doesn't have a basic land type? Unlike with a forest, which says Basic Land - Forest, Wastes can't be selected when a card instructs you to choose a basic land type. This normally means some number of fetch-effects on both creatures and non-creatures.

So technically, two things happen: first, it will be indicated in the mana cost if it requires generic or colorless mana ( as there is now a new mana symbol), and two, whenever you see the generic mana symbol on an old card's ability ( old meaning pre-oath), e.g. Sol Ring, it means it produces colorless mana, and not generic mana, as it cannot produce all 5 colors at once with just one symbol. If that makes sense.

This makes things somewhat complicated at first, especially for me, as I am a young and intermediate-level planeswalker, only beginning to master the basics. 

Cohort

 Cohort is an ability that needs two allies to work. The cost is always the same: {T}, Tap an untapped Ally you control. The effects vary with each card. Remember, unless the main ally ( the one whose Cohort ability you wish to activate) has ally or has a way to remove summoning sickness, its ability cannot be activated on the same turn you cast it. 

Munda's Vanguard reminds me of the Phalanx Leader from the Theros Block. Imagine if you can trigger this twice or thrice in a turn! Most optimally in some sort of allies-tokens deck.

The next mechanic reminds me of Bolster.

Support

Support boosts creatures while supplying additional effects ( as far as the cards that have been spoiled go). Support N means putting a +1/+1 counter on up to N target creatures. Keyword 'up to', meaning you can choose less than the indicated number, but regardless of the number of targets, each target would still get only one +1/+1 counter on it. Support may also have no targets. On a sorcery (or instant) this can target any creature. But on a creature itself ( or another permanent), support must target other creatures. 

Like this guy:

Looks like we might see a number of cards that benefit from +1/+1 counters. Proliferate might be a thing again. Heck Proliferate might be really good in this format. Bolster-Support-Proliferate decks. Now that I think about it, another good card that has great synergy with Support is the Enduring Scalelord, which gets a +1/+1  counter whenever a   +1/+1 counter is put on a creature: so Support 2 gives the Scalelord 2 counters, and Support 6 gives the Scalelord 6 counters!

The last mechanic for the Oath is:

Surge

Surge is a nice way to get a discount on mana costs, kind of like the opposite of the Kick mechanic introduced long, long ago. Some cards might even have additional effects for being Surged, just like being Kicked.

The reduced mana cost can only be payed if you( or a teammate!) cast another spell this turn, regardless if that spell was countered, resolved, or still in the stack. For example, if you surge the Tyrant, not only do you get a 5/4 flyer for 5, but you also get the ability to bolt a creature or player!

Just a quick thought I got from seeing this card: play Dragonlord Kolaghan first, then the Tyrant. Damage overload if your opponent can't defend against flyers.

Well, that's it. Those are the mechanics for the Oath of the Gatewatch. These might get even more powerful, depending on which cards will be in the set, so stay tuned for that!

Sphinx of the Final Word (5UU)
Creature - Sphinx
Sphinx of the Final Word can't be countered.
Flying, hexproof
Instant and sorcery spells you control can't be countered by spells or abilities.

He answeres questions as readily as he asks them, but his answer is always "no".

Crush of Tentacles (4UU)
Sorcery
Surge {3UU} (You may cast this spell for its surge cost if you or a teammate has cast another spell this turn.)
Return all nonland permanents to their owner's hands. If Crush of Tentacles's surge cost was paid, put an 8/8 blue Octopus creature token onto the battlefield.

ENDBRINGER (5C)
Creature - Eldrazi
Untap Endbringer during each other player's untap step.
{T}: Endbringer deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
{C, T}: Target creature can't attack or block this turn.
{CC, T}: Draw a card.

Kozilek, the Great Distortion (8CC)
Legendary Creature - Eldrazi
When you cast Kozilek, the Great Distortion, if you have fewer than seven cards in hand, draw cards equal to the difference.
Menace
Discard a card with converted mana cost X: Counter target spell with converted mana cost X.

A void as cryptic as reality itself.