FlowerSunRain
Contributor
I know this is sort of late, but a probably facetious request was made for me to do it, so here it is. Please note this particularly hard for me because I always spell Gray as Grey and I had to fix my spelling about 37 times.
It’s pretty impossible to get me excited about a five mana card. First off, five mana is more than four, which means you can barely run any cards at this casting cost since all the sweet cards cost only four so why would you even want to pay 5? And yet, this way-to-expensive Vampiric Touch with below the curve stats has come along and impressed me more than any other card in a set that is currently holding down over 30 slots in my cube. How did he manage to do it?
First off, Gray Merchant supports everything. Aggro deck needs reach? Gray Merchant does direct damage. Control deck needs to stabilize? Gray Merchant has a big backside and gains life. Durdly decks needs something to recur? Gray Merchant gives you a powerful enter the battlefield to utilize. Need a zombie to bring back your crawlers? He’s got that too. While he’s not really ideal for any generic shell, he’s far from the worst thing you can run in most strategies. But mediocrity by itself doesn't get my seal of approval.
Gray Merchant also creates an entirely new (ok, not completely entirely new , an actually well executed) type of synergistic design space that transcends archetypes. Devotion gives you bonuses to building around permanents in a specific color, rewarding you for building in a specific way. At first it seems counter-intuitive: we aggressively increase fixing , lower mana curves and reduce poisonous design to increase competition for cards, so why in the world would we want cards that seem to push us in the exact opposite direction?
For me, it’s because while pushing in opposite directions may direct each player’s personal incentives in different directions, they are all still competing for the same resources. Cards like this create bold new angles to exploit the draft pool, but only if the player can get the cards to do so from a much more limited pool of choices. Gray Merchant of Asphodel leads players to prioritize black mana symbols, which is both similar to how Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas might lead players to prioritize artifacts, but because it relies on color rather than card type, it plays out in a completely novel way. I love cards that twist the evaluation of other cards and being able to get value out of cards others are willing to pass is an extremely strong quality in a drafter. Cards like Gray Merchant of Asphodel are great for this.
What does supporting devotion get you with Gray Merchant? Oh, just a ton of lifegain and direct damage on a body in a color that can sacrifice it and bring it back to life over and over again. Who wouldn't want that?
Theros is an amazing set and Gray Merchant of Asphodel is its most amazing card. He wins games, supports themes and helps create a theme of his very own, no small feat for a 5 mana black creature. Honorable mentions for best card goes the Nylea, God of the Hunt and The Ordeals.
It’s pretty impossible to get me excited about a five mana card. First off, five mana is more than four, which means you can barely run any cards at this casting cost since all the sweet cards cost only four so why would you even want to pay 5? And yet, this way-to-expensive Vampiric Touch with below the curve stats has come along and impressed me more than any other card in a set that is currently holding down over 30 slots in my cube. How did he manage to do it?
First off, Gray Merchant supports everything. Aggro deck needs reach? Gray Merchant does direct damage. Control deck needs to stabilize? Gray Merchant has a big backside and gains life. Durdly decks needs something to recur? Gray Merchant gives you a powerful enter the battlefield to utilize. Need a zombie to bring back your crawlers? He’s got that too. While he’s not really ideal for any generic shell, he’s far from the worst thing you can run in most strategies. But mediocrity by itself doesn't get my seal of approval.
Gray Merchant also creates an entirely new (ok, not completely entirely new , an actually well executed) type of synergistic design space that transcends archetypes. Devotion gives you bonuses to building around permanents in a specific color, rewarding you for building in a specific way. At first it seems counter-intuitive: we aggressively increase fixing , lower mana curves and reduce poisonous design to increase competition for cards, so why in the world would we want cards that seem to push us in the exact opposite direction?
For me, it’s because while pushing in opposite directions may direct each player’s personal incentives in different directions, they are all still competing for the same resources. Cards like this create bold new angles to exploit the draft pool, but only if the player can get the cards to do so from a much more limited pool of choices. Gray Merchant of Asphodel leads players to prioritize black mana symbols, which is both similar to how Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas might lead players to prioritize artifacts, but because it relies on color rather than card type, it plays out in a completely novel way. I love cards that twist the evaluation of other cards and being able to get value out of cards others are willing to pass is an extremely strong quality in a drafter. Cards like Gray Merchant of Asphodel are great for this.
What does supporting devotion get you with Gray Merchant? Oh, just a ton of lifegain and direct damage on a body in a color that can sacrifice it and bring it back to life over and over again. Who wouldn't want that?
Theros is an amazing set and Gray Merchant of Asphodel is its most amazing card. He wins games, supports themes and helps create a theme of his very own, no small feat for a 5 mana black creature. Honorable mentions for best card goes the Nylea, God of the Hunt and The Ordeals.
