Basri Ket – Core Set 2021 MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

Basri Ket is a white soldier who does the most white soldier-ish things possible. But sometimes that’s just what you need. His +1 seems like a pretty incremental thing (or, depending on your perspective, a way to meet the number of uses of “+1/+1 counter”), but you’ll notice that it scales very well as the game goes on and creatures get stronger. Maybe your opponent threw down a blocker with high power, and the ability renders such creatures unable to ever kill the attacker. His other abilities can quickly multiply and create swarms upon swarms, causing serious problems for any removal-based strategy. I’d say he’s definitely one to watch in 1v1 formats, and he can even work in multiplayer when used at the right time (ie. you’ve successfully kept some things on the table).

It has nothing to do with his abilities, but somebody on a different site said they feel he looks like Prince, and now I can’t un-see it.

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

The death of a certain valorous slab of meat left a mono-white hole to be filled, and our newest planeswalker, Basri Ket from Amonkhet, will do nicely. He’s different enough from Gideon’s mechanical space while still feeling white, and his first card is a fairly auspicious start.

Basri’s shtick is turning creatures sideways and empowering them in exotic and unusual ways. His +1 makes one creature able to smash with impunity (with a permanent buff and temporary indestructibility), and his -2 turns an army of attackers into twice as many attackers. Both of these play well with the general trend of white going wide, but this also presents a small issue: Basri is awful into an empty board, as his abilities only work if you have creatures to use them on. His ultimate continues the pain train in a gratuitous way, and it’s certainly a game-ender if you have enough time to get it off.

So, Basri Ket is a strong planeswalker if you’re at parity or slightly ahead, as being able to buff a single creature and multiply an army are solid ways to push an advantage. Coming in for three mana ain’t bad, either. He’s an awful topdeck if you have nothing else, but I suppose that’s the price to pay for a three-mana planeswalker.

Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 3
Commander: 3.25