Banner of Kinship – Foundations
Date Reviewed: November 8, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.63
Casual: 4.75
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 4
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
This card is surprisingly dazzling for a Coat of Arms variant. At the simplest level, I wonder when and how they decided that it would be Bloomburrow-themed so soon after that plane’s first apperance. To go a little deeper, I’m surprised it took us this long to see a variant of the common trope of the banner or standard instantly rallying an army any time someone picks it up, even hours later. It’s worth noting that the bonus your chosen type gets is set when your first play the banner, and it can vary greatly depending on what you had on the table at that moment. But crucially, if you can arrange a high number on that first casting, it alleviates a problem many kindred decks have where they get hit by a sweeper and then have to try and catch up with one creature that may not have impressive stats on its own. Though it shares a mana cost with its famous ancestor and that cost is rather slow in both eras’ tournaments, I feel like Banner of Kinship is destined to be just as much of a casual hit. And I’d feel remiss if I didn’t point out how mind-blowing it is that it works with proliferate.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Despite it being an artifact, Banner of Kinship seems far more like a five-mana “go for the kill” button. If you’re playing a deck heavy on one type (say…Goblins) you can add upwards of 20 power and toughness to the board in just one action, in any color. This reminds me a bit of Coat of Arms, albeit “simplified” to keep in with the modern ethos around trying to mitigate and minimize convolutions in combat calculus. (Coat of Arms was infamous for being a pain to keep track of at times.)
If you’re not able to end a game on the spot, this still has some value as a way to thumb the scales in a grind game. As long as you have one creature of the type you’re naming, you’re giving them and all their buddies a potentially future buff; while five mana for +1/+1 is certainly not good, it is better than nothing if you’re desperate. I feel like the main use of this is going to be pushing for lethal in one turn, and this does that quite well if you have your types tidied up.
Constructed: 3.75
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.5 (has some heavier demands in drafting/deck assembly, but you can still make this worth it)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
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