This guy is perfectly efficient for his cost-- a
3/3 for three mana. He's also nearly impossible
to attack or block around-- any combat
engagement is likely to result in it killing two
of its opponent's creatures-- one with combat
damage and one with its first ability. The
ability to gain first strike at will means that
you can't even be guaranteed to kill the
Reckoner without a sufficiently large creature,
and 3/3 is just large enough to be the biggest
thing on the board a good percentage of the
time. The fact that the first strike has to be
activated almost makes it even worse for
opponents, since there'll always be that
temptation to try a block and hope they have
better plans for that one mana, or at least
force them to spend the mana and hope you're
keeping them off of doing something else in
their hand. He can be bounced and dealt with
through non-damage means, sure, but for many
decks damage is the primary way to deal with
creatures. If you block a Reckoner, you're
handing its controller a burn spell and letting
him choose what to point it at, and that's going
to make it hard to keep up any sort of board
presence.
Boros Reckoner happened to be my vote for the
number one card of 2013, and as you can see he
is our overall number one as well. While his
prevalence in Standard - and his secondary
market price - has fallen from its all-time
high, it's not that long ago that he was
everywhere, and the impact has already been
significant. Combat is such a fundamental of
Magic that it's easy to think you know
everything about it, and everything has been
done. That's until something comes along that
changes it, even if only for a Standard season
or part of one. The Reckoner's combination of
low cost (almost half that of the new Ghost
Council) and devastating abilities affected the
way people played both aggro and control decks
after Gatecrash came out, and he can even be
used in a combo (by giving him both lifelink and
indestructible). That alone puts his impact, at
least in Standard, on par with cards we talk
about in hushed whispers, like Arcbound Ravager
and Dark Confidant. While Boros Reckoner is
nowhere near as game-breaking as either of those
creatures, and his impact on larger formats is
unlikely to be quite as high, he proves that the
fundamentals of Magic still matter, and is
deservedly our number one card of 2013.
The number one card of the year is Boros
Reckoner which is a three mana Red or White 3/3
that deals damage to target creature or player
whenever it receives damage and for one Red or
White gains First Strike until end of turn. In
Red/White or a mono of either of those colors
this is an efficient and effective card that can
easily force two for one trades, combo with mass
damage, or be a general threat to an opponent's
battlefield arrangement. The two effects don't
often mesh well, but offer flexibility for
different situations. Overall this is a very
strong card in the right build, as it is not
suited to decks with much in other colors, and
will be a popular card for quite some time.
In Limited this is excellent for Boros as a
three mana 3/3 alone, add in the effects and you
have an easy first pick and automatic inclusion
for Sealed. Orzhov and Gruul lose a bit of the
value by needing three of the same mana sources
in play to cast this, but hate drafting it is
probably a good idea. The impact this can have
on an opponent's offensive or defensive choices
can be major and whether taking damage to deal
damage or using First Strike this is a serious
threat for the cost.
The #1 card of 2013 is Boros Reckoner!! Raise
your hand if you won a match just because of
Boros Reckoner. Both of my hands are up in the
air! Raise your hand if you’ve used Boros
Reckoner to gain Infinite life in a match. Both
of my hands are down. I dislike infinite combos!
As much as I like Boros Reckoner, I’ve been
destroyed by it many times. This minotaur has
been responsible for 13, 26, 52, and even
infinite damage. There are so many ways to
manipulate this minotaur but using it to slow
down agro is as easy as tapping 3 mana. Some
people are probably miffed by this card being
picked as the best card of 2013. Those people
are probably unaware of how much Boros Reckoner
changed Magic the Gathering.
