If you're running monstrous cards, you need to
be able to hold the board until you've got the
mana to actually monstrosity them.
("Monstrosity" is a verb now?) This Gorgon is
good at that at that-- five toughness and
deathtouch make her hard to kill and hard to
attack past. Her monstrousness is only 1/+1
bigger, but the real draw here is that you get
to destroy a creature-- any non-Gorgon creature
you want. Seven mana is a bit much to pay for a
kill spell, but for one that doesn't cost a card
and also puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature,
it's decent. Well, mostly it's the Gorgon
herself that is decent. The ability may help in
the late game, but it's hardly the most
monstrous of the Monstrosity cards, and
certainly not a reason your Monstrous Ramp deck
should include black--
unless you're also
running Hythonia the Cruel in it...
It's tempting to compare this card to Hythonia
the Cruel from the other day, but I think it'd
be a mistake to think of this as just a weaker
version of the legendary Gorgon. After all, it's
not hard to imagine that you might sometimes
have a creature or two of your own that you want
to keep around even after your Gorgon becomes
monstrous. And besides, there's no reason you
can't play both if you happen to own them!
Today's card of the day is Keepsake Gorgon
which is a five mana Black
2/5 with Deathtouch and Monstrosity 1 for seven
mana that destroys a target creature an opponent
controls. While technically an efficient card as
a creature with the beneficial combination of
high toughness with Deathtouch and a one time
removal effect it is just too mana intensive and
offensively weak to justify the expense. Black
has no shortage of removal or even creatures
with removal built in and overall this just
won't make the cut in most decks outside of a
Casual gorgon tribal.
In Limited the lack of removal in general
puts this in a much better position and the cost
is far less of a drawback in the slower setting.
The toughness and Deathtouch make attacking into
it or blocking it unlikely which makes it useful
in most situations. Depending on the pack this
is a potential second or third pick for the
efficiency and there is little reason not to
include it in Sealed when running Black as a
primary or secondary color.
Keepsake Gorgon is a creature that is meant for
Limited play, unless a tribal Gorgon deck comes
along in the near future. For me, 12 mana is too
much to pay. Considering all that you get is a
3/6 that destroys a non-gorgon creature. I like
the fact that Gorgons are sticking with the
Deathtouch ability. Wouldn’t it be cool if WOTC
made a blind swordsman that had protection from
Gorgons? Maybe… Anyways, Keepsake Gorgon should
only see play in draft or sealed, unless someone
out there really loves Gorgons and wants to
build a casual deck.
