Persistent Petitioners – MTG Card Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

I used to make jokes about Advisor tribal, as they seemed like they would make most mundane and, dare I say, boring tribe imaginable. I never expected to actually find it in a Ravnica Allegiance booster. And they’re not actually the most boring tribe imaginable, as they invite a deckbuilding challenge that goes in a somewhat different direction than most other things in recent sets. The Petitioners’ toughness is high enough that they are also decent at defending you against early attacks (especially since you can have twenty or more of them in a deck), and their use of an activated ability means you don’t have to worry about Settle the Wreckage in Standard. They’re unlikely to make waves at the Pro Tour level, but they’re an amusing and surprisingly effective strategy in many other settings.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 3/5

The first time we’ve gotten a Relentless Rats-styled card outside of black…that is, the kind of creature where you can have any number of them. As a note, the rules text for Persistent Petitioners overrides things like the singleton card limitation of Commander/EDH, so you can indeed run as many Persistent Petitioners as you want to run.

So, the idea here is largely for mill. Mill is marginal, mill can blow up in your face, and all that jazz. Where this gets interesting is in multiples, thanks to Persistent Petitioners’ second tap ability: tap four Advisors, mill 12 as soon as it drops. 12 cards is definitely not insignificant, 20% of a standard library in one fell swoop. There are ways to chain together Petitioners to make things crazy (like the infamous Thrumming Stone), and I could see a deck serving as a fringe, albeit hilariously fringe, option in Modern. It’s maybe a bit weak for Standard, as it’s a 1/3 that wins very slowly, but the Petitioners offer an interesting puzzle that might be able to come together effectively.

Constructed: 3
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.25
Multiplayer: 2.5
Commander: 3.5