We've all seen the head-shaking. We've all heard
the dismissals and even outright insults ("Not
as good as Wilt-Leaf Liege," "2/2 may as well be
0/0 in modern Magic," etc). But many of us have
also attacked for 24 damage with this guy on the
table, as there coincidentally happen to be a
couple of creatures who are three colors and can
be played for only green and white mana in the
same set as him. New Alara forever, is what I
say.
-Balding
for just over 5 years
-Playing MTG for just over 10
Knight of New Alara
If you went to the release tourney's out there,
this was your reward. I wish that just one more
ability was tacked on to this guy. However,
without it, I can't see this card seeing a lot
of play. Yeah he situationally pumps up your
dudes. However, there are not many decks I know
of that really use a multicolored creature base.
Yet, we have yet to see what Reborn will do to
shake things up. My verdict is a little shaky on
this one as of now. In the right deck, with a
couple solid early round plays and hits, this
could really shake things up on 4th turn (or
third turn with some ramp).
Welcome back readers today we will be looking at
a brave and valiant knight that is Knight of New
Alara. A human knight with a converted mana cost
of 4 and requiring a green and a white mana.
With a 2/2 body for 4 mana you would expect this
knight to have an impressive effect, in reality
the effect is only moderately useful. The knight
grants each other multicolored creature you
control +1/+1 for each of its colors. In a
heavily multicolored deck, Knight of New Alara
provides a permanent Giant Growth or better to
your creatures, in most decks the knight would
result in only a Glorious Anthem, in most any
decks that could use the pump you have lord
creatures as well as a multitude of other pump
effects including cards like Glorious Anthem.
With a susceptibility to most commonly played
burn spells and only a limited reward for
playing green and white, the decks that could
successfully run and have a purpose for Knight
of New Alara is some style of Bant deck, even
then there are more powerful cards available.
Including Chameleon Colossus and in other gold
cards the newly reprinted Meddling Mage as well
as Jenera, Asura of War. The availability of
solid green/white cards and the abundance of
solid spells available especially for Bant in
constructed standard means this card may not
find a home until rotation. The thought of
giving my Kitchen Finks +2/+2 is appealing, but
I doubt Knight of New Alara will be played
except in creature heavy green/white builds
possibly focusing an Overrun type tactic. In
Extended, Vintage, and Legacy Knight of New
Alara doesn’t come close enough to impacting the
already established archetypes to even be viewed
as a reliable threat. Casual is a different
story pile on some Shield Of The Oversoul and
Oversoul of Dusk with Kitchen Finks and cards
like Watchwolf and Loxdon Hierarch could provide
a fun and competitive casual build capable of
turning out threats. In limited Knight of New
Alara can provide a much needed boost to your
multicolor creatures, if you have a well
established mana base and a plethora of multi
colored creatures it could make a decent
addition although not worth dedicating yourself
to green/white or picking up to early.
