Alesha, Who Laughs At Fate – Foundations
Date Reviewed: December 17, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 4.38
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Alesha’s original card is a fun aggressive reanimator card that I feel was never quite appreciated as much as it should have been. For a long time, many Magic players were (or are) stuck in a mindset that reanimator is exclusively a combo deck, and doing the motions to gain value or make aggro decks more resilient is somehow wasteful. I obviously disagree, not least since those uses of reanimator push games forward on a small scale and result in interesting strategies on a larger scale, and Alesha’s new card is a good reminder of this fact. I think it has some potential, honestly: she has abilities that fuel each other and she interacts very well with anything that increases power and/or anything which encourages attacking. (So over half of red cards and nearly half of black, in the latter case!)
And on top of all that, this card makes me excited for the upcoming Tarkir set, so it automatically serves at least one purpose!
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
omg woman
The Tarkir block stories introduced us to Alesha, a character whose story became one of the most well-liked pieces of Magic fiction. Leader of what was the Mardu, a clan usupred by the draconic majesty of Kloaghan, this Alesha has some fun parallels to her first outing, paying a nice homage to the original whoile still being interesting in her own right.
The Mardu were aggressive, and Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate certainly fits the bill First strike means she hits quite hard )and grows bigger with each swing), but the real fun is the raid trigger. Note that she herself does not need to have attacked…any attacker will do, and it lets you revive a creature, and the revival range is tied to Alesha’s power. This can be quite nasty in a game of attrition; Mardu has a fair few low-power creatures that are keen on coming back, and this plays very well with buffs. The revive also isn’t the sole threat, as first strike makes her a formidable combatant.
I do not know if Alesha will cut it in Constructed…my guess is “probably not”, though she could well have a home because of her raid ability giving pretty reliable value if played around. Her low toughness early is the main obstacle, but that ability is certainly eye-catching, and Alesha will find plenty of ways to laugh at fate if you let her.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.75 (if not removed, she well can run away with a game, and first strike makes it deceptively tricky to remove her)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
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