Hey, Gigadrowse is kind of back! Only you can't
target lands anymore, and you tap one fewer
permanent for the same mana. The upside is that
you could only spend blue mana on Gigadrowse,
where Gridlock's "XU" cost will take any mana as
long as one of it is blue. In a
multicolor-themed block, that's a pretty good
upside. And even though Gigadrowse was part of a
multicolor-themed block too, its intense color
requirements didn't stop it from being the
lynchpin in many decks, not all of them monoblue.
I see good things here.
So, Gridlock brings the most-used mode of
Cryptic Command, but demands that you pay extra
to scale it up? Well, that may not be a terrible
thing in the bigger picture - Cryptic Command is
really, really, really powerful, a fact which is
one of two things keeping that entire cycle out
of the core set (the second being the word
"fear" on Profane Command, in case you were
curious). It's not always easy to justify such
an expenditure of mana in constructed, although
I wouldn't entirely rule it out either.
Regardless, don't ever feel bad about picking
this highly in draft.
Today's card of the day is Gridlock which is a
Blue and X instant that taps X target non-land
permanents. This is a card that will
primarily be used to tap down all or most of an
opponent's creatures before an attack, either
their potential alpha strike, or your own. In
that scenario it can save or win the game
barring outside influences, though the save
would only be temporary. Defensively this
is nowhere near the power level of Aetherize and
only costs less when used on one or two
creatures. The same is true when comparing
this against Blustersquall either offensively or
defensively as for anything over two creatures
it would cost the same plus gets around Hexproof
and Shroud. Offensively it is decent
effect for an aggressive Blue deck not based on
evasion or otherwise preventing blockers which
is kind of an odd design. Overall this
isn't a bad card, just not one that has enough
power or a real role to make a big impact
particularly with similar choices available.
In Limited this can help stall a turn or open up
an attack for non-evasive creatures, far more
likely in the format, and casting it for just
two or three mana is both likely and effective.
An easy inclusion as a flexible choice in any
Sealed deck with Blue and a reasonable early
pick in Booster.
