Alpine Moon – MTG Core Set 2019 Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

Traditionally, every month’s full moon had a name, aside from “the full moon in July”. This month’s, for example, was variously called the buck moon because this is the time of year when deer get their new antlers, or the hay moon because of that particular midsummer harvest. I expect we might one day have at least twelve different moon cards in Magic – you can argue that it has taken a long time given how significant the moon is to life on Earth, but maybe we’ll assign them in the same way.

Alpine Moon is much too narrow to be anything but a sideboard card, but it’s pretty good at doing that. Note that you actually only need one to turn off the Urzatron, as the various pieces check whether you control the correct types, and it makes the chosen name lose all its types. In reality, though, there are plenty of other targets in larger formats, not all as unfair as the infamous multi-mana producers. It can also save your day when you’re facing something as “simple” as Creeping Tar Pit.

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 1/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 3/5

Yesterday, I mentioned that Magic 2019 was a set full of sideboard cards. Alpine Moon is very clearly one of those, a powerful and efficient piece of potential hate. A number of decks in Modern and Legacy rely on slightly unfair lands with powerful effects or absurd mana generation, and Alpine Moon does a solid job of crippling them. It doesn’t shut them down completely, as it gives them the ability still to make mana of any color. But it’s one mana to cripple cards like the Tron lands and Gaea’s Cradle, and that makes it more than worthy of inclusion in decks. It’s likely not relevant enough for Standard, but Modern and Legacy players may well have a home for it.

Also keep in mind that it’s one-sided, so you don’t screw yourself over in the mirror match.

Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 2.75
Limited: 1
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander: 3