Three black creatures and 6 life are a
surprisingly small price to pay. I wouldn't be
too surprised to see someone get this out as
early as turn two or three, at which point
you've gained an incredible advantage as your
opponent is several turns away from having a
creature that can cope with this one, and a 9/9
flying trampler likely won't leave him alive
long enough to get to that point. Of course, if
your opponent just yawns and casts Celestial
Purge, Path to Exile, Plummet, or Unsummon,
well, you've just risked a lot and lost your
wager. Definitely a high-risk/high-reward
scenario, but when those pay out, they're
glorious.
I'll tell you all a secret about myself: I like
a lot of things that some people
find inconvenient and difficult. I'm a guy who
plays as a prestige class like Beastmaster or
Chorister in Dungeons and Dragons. I'm a guy who
plays as Indonesia or Luxembourg in the 2010
FIFA World Cup game on the PS3. I'm a guy who
plays Zendikar fetchlands in a deck without
nonbasic lands with basic land types. And I'm a
guy who plays cards like Demon of Death's Gate
in mono-black decks with Sengir Autocrat,
Breeding Pit, or Grave Titan, puts it into play
occasionally on the second turn or so, and
smiles broadly. Give it a try some time!
Today's card of the day is Demon of Death's
Gate which as a 9/9 with Flying and Trample and
no penalty is a pretty surprising design for
Black. Add in an optional alternate
summoning to get around the nine casting cost
and you have a fairly playable creature that at
worst can be brought back from the graveyard
with relative ease. If the alternate cost
is paid this can hit the battlefield early and
six life is a fair price to pay if it deals that
much damage or more to the opponent.
Tricks like Dark Ritual can get this out as
early as turn one, but even without that it
remains a considerable threat and a nice
addition to Black's army.
For Limited this is a huge bomb that can be a
little difficult to summon with the alternate
condition without Reassembling Skeleton which
becomes a high draft priority if this is your
first pick. There is no other creature in
the set that can stand up to a 9/9 without help
and the Trample will go through any single
blocker. A creature like this is hard to
remove and will easily win games if it hits
play, so even if you're not playing Black this
shouldn't be passed to someone else in Booster.
In Sealed the triple Black in the cost is a
minor concern in a nine cost as by that point in
the game it should be available, the alternate
cost may be possible, or even a discard and Rise
from the Grave combination. In Sealed you
may not have the control over your pool to get
the most out of this card, but if you can manage
a primarily Black deck this should still earn a
spot as not only the biggest creature in the
set, but one with a chance of being played far
earlier than the ninth turn.
