Immolating Gyre – Jumpstart MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

I don’t think I’ve mentioned W.B. Yeats’ ‘The Second Coming’ since we last reviewed Ulamog; I’ll do it now. Immolating Gyre is perhaps a more direct, or certainly more blatant, expression of the relevant concepts. It is obviously at its most powerful in the blue-red “spellslinger” deck archetype, but I wouldn’t underestimate it in less linear decks or those less obviously built around it. Red is a spell color, after all, and many decks that include red as one of their colors will have a surprisingly high percentage of incidental instants and sorceries to make it relevant. And besides, you can never have too many ways to destroy lots of planeswalkers at once.

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

A potent one-sided board wipe in the “spellslinger” archetype, Immolating Gyre can do a lot of damage with the right set-up and can be worth the six mana investment. It hits planeswalkers and creatures alike, making it good for restabilizing in the face of danger, but the investment is rather high and hard to make use of in Constructed. Still, Commander and more generic multiplayer decks will have plenty of use for this, since it spares what they have while torching the rest.

Constructed: 2
Casual: 3.75
Limited: 3 (requires a lot of set-up, but it can do a lot in a late game setting)
Multiplayer: 4
Commander: 4 

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