This one's a real tear in the eye for red decks
everywhere. Granted, green likes to attack more
and has fewer flyers, but green can kill
enchantments. Red can't. Unless the red deck has
a lot of burn spells or a Dragon, it basically
just lost.
Of course, Moat slows down everyone, but green
and white can kill it, and blue has good flyers
(and counterspells). Black can't kill it, but a
black flyer isn't as rare. Essentially, it's
practically CoP: Red.
Constructed- 3
Casual- 2
Limited- Legends limited? I wasn't around back
then.
Aethereal
Monday - Moat
A classic card used to stop your opponent from
aggro-ing you to death. It hasn't been reprinted
since it first appeared in Legends and for good
reason: it's incredibly cheap for the effect you
get. There's a reason why the later versions of
this, like Teferi's Moat and the new Magus of
the Moat either cost more or are easier to deal
with. It doesn't really have much of a place in
Constructed right now, because it's only legal
in two formats, and it's not that useful in
either one right now.
If you ever get to play Legends limited, you
take this if you have a bunch of fliers.
Constructed - 2.5
Casual - 4
Limited - 3
David Fanany
Player since
1995
Moat
An early example of what Mark Rosewater has
taken to calling "top-down design," Moat is one
of those cards where you really have to play
against it to appreciate it. It's kind of like
Wrath of God. Against your entire deck. That
doesn't go away. Of course, the disadvantage is
that it doesn't go away - a well-timed Kami of
Ancient Law leaves you open to a massive attack.
It's still an incredible card, though. I don't
think it's a coincidence that Sligh wasn't a
popular tournament deck until Moat wasn't around
any more.
I was almost tempted to give this a low rating
for casual play because it shuts off whole
decks, but I don't believe that the point of
casual play is bad decks or bad cards. It's
about whatever's fun, and what's more fun than
pretending to sit in your gleaming white castle
and watch the barbarian hordes swarming at the
edge of the moat, waving their unwashed fists in
frustration?
In limited play, I guess you'd have to be
careful since there are oddly few creatures with
flying in Legends. But Azure Drake goes well
with this, as does Gabriel Angelfire, Pixie
Queen, Thunder Spirit, and Gravity Sphere (those
are rare, though). Also, you know where to draft
Legends? And didn't invite me?
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Arcane
Moat
Welcome to Round-Table week on Pojo. All the
COTDs this week are based on the interviews at
the GenCon round table discussion last weekend
(they can be found here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/bd294
). Enjoy!
Constructed: Legends is a long way out of the
constructed formats most players are familiar
with, but is still legal in both Vintage and
Legacy. Its power though is going to be a bit
lax in those formats. Yes of course there are
the attacking decks like Threshold and Goblins,
but a four mana enchantment seems to me unlikely
to see play very early on. Interesting to note
though that there isn’t that much enchantment
removal floating around in a lot of the decks I
looked at, most instead going to have to rely on
force of will and daze to try and keep it off
the field in the first place.
Casual/Multi: If you have a deck that needs time
to set up than this can be quite good to stall
out the game in your favor. Turn 3 or 4 to get
this into play isn’t that bad with more players
drawing attention; though be prepared to get
that attention soon after getting this into play
as those with ground forces give you the evil
eye as they have to sit back at home. The bonus
is that the players with Angels, Dragons and air
superiority protect you and leave you to kill
last after they’ve wiped out every other player
that can’t fight back. Combine with Mystic
Decree from Homelands to make sure nothing is
attacking at all.
Limited: It’s a Legends card. On the off chance
that it might be in the Master’s collection that
is coming to Magic Online later next month I’ll
say that’s it’s a pretty solid pick if you can
pick up a collection of good fliers (which white
is usually known for) and keep your opponent
from attacking you.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 3
Limited: 3.5
Necro
nomikron
MTG Rules Advisor
Moat:
Well, as there are no limited formats where this
is used in anymore, unless you're rich, I'll
leave off the limited comments. If you don't see
any comments on limited from me for any cards
this week, that is why.
As this is only legal in the eternal formats,
this card is rather weak. It stops goblins,
threshold, etc, but, at 4 mana, is it even worth
it? In the more casual formats, it's somewhat
better, so long as there aren't degenerate decks
running around.
Constructed: 2.5/5
Casual: 3/5
PsychoAnime
#1
Magic Noob in Canada since 2002
Moat (2WW)
Enchantment
Creatures without flying can't attack.
What with white and its hosers? But I think this
is a bit slow for
constructed play. The decks that attack are
rather fast, and the ones
that don't attack are fast too. This can't
really be main decked as a
card that does not do anything in game one just
doesn't cut it. There's
better sideboard material out there to counter
creatures.
In casual, this thing is so annoying but
effective. This could seal the
game if for some reason no one has anything to
kill this or you directly.
I don't have any experience with limited with
this card so I'll just
give it an average rating, although I would
think this would be pretty
good just because it's such a good hoser.
