Technology – The Alpha Build: Avacyn and the Portal
July 22, 2016
By Rachael
Portal adds in four cards. You might think that’s not a lot, and usually you’d be right. But this ain’t Homelands, and these aren’t bad cards. Not at all.
IN:
Basalt Monolith, Mana Vault, Alabaster Dragon, Gift of Estates, Breath of Life, Blessed Reversal
Last time, we finally learned that we need a lot more mana than we thought. Hitting your land drops every turn is nice, but that doesn’t help keep Avacyn’s limit break online. She requires a lot of power. Basalt Monolith and Mana Vault are just the cards we need to bring back in order to facilitate this.
OUT:
Plains x2, Crusade, Favorable Destiny, Forcefield, Jabari’s Influence
Forcefield is a very powerful card, but in light of recent tech (see Righteous Aura, I want to move away from cards that duplicate Avacyn’s effects. I want to try figuring out what slots in the deck can be used to play threats that can help us close out games. Alabaster Dragon helps with that, but we’re going to be a lot more discerning with the spells we play in order to get more bodies into the deck.
Next time we’re going back into the main line of Magic products with Weatherlight!