It's probably worth consideration simply because
it grants vigilance with or without Gates. It
also bears a faint resemblance to cards like
Honor of the Pure and Intangible Virtue, cards
which not only see tournament play, but have
defined an archetype in Modern. The fact that it
affects all your creatures seems like an
advantage over those cards, but the big failure
here is that it doesn't grant a power boost.
Power is what wins you the game. Toughness just
helps you not lose it quite so fast. Vigilance
and a toughness boost does make it easier for
you to attack more often without fear of retort
or blockers left open, but it's still up tot he
player to use that leverage.
Hold the Gates
Do you guys remember Earth Servant, from M11? To
this day, there are whole decks that can't deal
with, let alone attack past, a six-mana creature
with ten toughness. Ever wondered what you could
do if you could somehow turn every creature you
had into an Earth Servant? Maybe that one was
just me. Regardless, if your aim is to never
lose a creature in combat, Hold the Gates may
well be the card for you. Giving an entire army
vigilance is no joke, and even if you're only
getting one additional point of toughness per
creature, that can make a difference some of the
time. When you actually build around this card,
it can get pretty insane (may I recommend
Guardian of the Gateless?).
Welcome back readers continuing our gate themed
Gatecrash week today we have Hold The Gates an
interesting way to provide a toughness boost
alongside granting your team vigilance. In
standard and all other constructed formats I
don’t think this card does enough and most decks
will not run a large enough amount of gates to
power this card up and the effect just isn’t
worth it when you could be simply playing
efficient creatures and spells. In casual and
multiplayer I could see a gate based theme deck
emerging with the dragons maze and cards like
Crackling Perimeter providing a win condition.
This card however turns players in another
direction making it about pumping your creatures
and providing huge bodies to block with,
vigilance is one of the most important abilities
and multiplayer so I could see this card seeing
a small amount of play. In limited if your gate
heavy this card is fine and granting vigilance
is not the worst effect in the world a playable
but overall unexciting card that may not fit
into every deck. Overall a card that wont touch
constructed but may see some limited and kitchen
table love.
Today's card of the day is Hold the Gates which
is a three mana White enchantment that gives
creatures you control Vigilance and +0/+1 for
each Gate you control. The cost to get
Vigilance on all of your creatures isn't
terrible, but not many decks will have an
interest in devoting the space for this.
Alongside Lifelink, Indestructible, and other
effects as a theme this can be a solid addition,
particularly in Multiplayer, and the bonus from
having Gates is at least a little something
extra if actually running them. Overall a
playable card, just not one that is likely to be
popular in competitive formats.
For Limited this is a decent partner to an
aggressive deck to shore up the defensive side
without sacrificing the pressure on an opponent
of constant attacks. The +0/+1 is
beneficial if playing Gates, but the Vigilance
alone is worth giving this a slot in any Sealed
with White mana. If considering three
colors Hold the Gates will work particularly
well with the +1/+1 counters of Simic or the
Unblockable options in Dimir. For Booster
this can be a fairly early pick for the
advantage of widespread Vigilance or just to
prevent someone else from using it against you.
