Maybe it's the fact that I started playing Magic
with the Fourth Edition, where Drain Life was a
powerful sorcery that came out of nowhere but
only hit once (although it usually only needed
to connect once), but I've never quite gotten
used to the repeatable or global variants.
That's really what you have to consider the Gray
Merchant, considering how easy it is to make a
black deck where no creature stays in play or in
the graveyard. I suspect that's exactly what a
lot of readers have been waiting for, and there
may well never be a better example than this.
Skull Collector Control just became the most
powerful archetype at a lot of casual tables.
Although I must say, it's nice to see a common
card representing in the Top Ten in an era of
powerful mythics.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
a powerful theros card that has single handedly
made mono black worth the effort. Such a
powerful ability allows you to close out games
and maintain your life total. In standard mono
black devotion has become a powerful strategy
and and a attractive option due to this card. In
other competitive formats this card is a bit
slow but more tools for monoblack exist making
it a possible contender, however the reality is
this creature is slow outside of standard. In
multiplayed and casual play this card is simply
a beast. Combining well with blink strategies
this card hits each opponent and and can easily
provide an obscene amount of life and eliminate
multiple opponents. In limited its a solid card
to draft around and provides a powerful
incentive to go mono colored. Overall a powerful
card that has made single color black decks a
threat to tangle with and has changed the
landscape of standard.
The number three card of the year is Gray
Merchant of Asphodel which is a five mana 2/4
Black zombie that life drains each opponent
equal to your devotion when it enters play. This
is a surprisingly effective card, particularly
in Multiplayer, as even by itself it is a four
life point swing attached to moderately high
toughness creature with a well supported type.
While the mana cost is a little high, and oddly
would be one of the few situations where
additional colored mana symbols instead of
colorless would be beneficial, this is easily
supported in mono-Black and a viable centerpiece
to build a deck around. With cards like Rescue
from the Underworld and Black permanents with
two or more mana symbols this can either
outright win games or cause a very large swing
in life points. Overall this has the potential
to be a serious force in Casual and Multiplayer
formats, but the higher mana cost and heavy
benefit from other creatures in play may keep it
from the higher tiers of competitive settings.
In Limited this is an extremely powerful common
that is easily overlooked and can dominate a
tournament when supported in a mono-Black
design. Multiple copies are possible as it is
likely to be passed by anyone not playing Black
and alongside Rescue from the Underworld or
March of the Returned can shift nearly any game
heavily into your favor.
This can be a first pick in Booster, though a
Black rare or removal will often take priority,
in a smaller pod it can be taken second or even
third in a pack. In Sealed running mono-Black is
more difficult, which weakens this, though
focusing on Black permanents with support from
another color retains the strength and even in a
divided deck this can often trigger for a solid
life drain.
Gray Merchant of Ashphodel is just a lowly
common card from Theros. You may be wondering
how a common made it to number 3 on our Top Ten
list. Answering that question will be hard, but
I will try. First, you should play with Gray
Merchant of Asphodel a few times before you make
a hasty judgment. For me, Gray Merchant of
Asphodel has averaged 4-7 points of life
gain/loss each time that I played it in
Standard. Most players should know that a 14
point swing is a huge game changer. Throwing
Gray Merchant into a group game is almost unfair
because Gray Merchant hits each opponent.
Remember the black mythic dragon named Kokusho
the Evening Star? Well, Gray Merchant of
Asphodel costs less and does damage as soon as
it enters the game and that is always good. Gray
Merchant of Asphodel can easily dominate a
limited event or become a superb finisher in a
casual zombie deck!
I recommended the Gray Merchant on my Top 10
list based off of his strength in Limited, but I
honestly wasn't expecting him to be so high on
the list. Monocolor strategies don't typically
work so well in Limited, but monoblack is
possible in Theros based pretty much entirely on
this guy. If you can grab every last Merchant
you see, enough solid black cards, and some ways
to recur a Merchant like March of the Returned
or Pharika's Mender, you can win based entirely
off of Merchant drain. The other devotion to
black common, Disciple of Phenax, is also worth
running, and this also puts you in a position to
run as much black removal as you can, as removal
is sparse and unreliable in Theros.
I'm honestly not quite sure if Gray Merchant has
the teeth to make it in any other format. It's
five mana for a 2/4 with an ETB ability. Maybe
if you combo'd it with something like Progenitor
Mimic, or were running a Flicker-based deck it
would work, but as it stands it's just not
enough for the more methodically-built decks
outside Limited. Sure, you could slot it pretty
easily into a casual Zombie deck and be happy
with it, but it just won't do what it does in
Limited for you.
