Khan of Tarkir has turned out to be a real game breaking set. Everything about this fall’s new release screams: best set of all time. Khans of
Tarkir has great flavor, tons of intriguing and playable cards that span a multitude of formats, and looks to be one of the great Limited formats of all
time. Way to go Magic!
The results from Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir are a hot topic and analyzing the metagame and the decks is going to be a popular subject in the coming weeks.
While Standard is certainly the biggest subject on people’s minds right now, I think it’s also important to keep in mind that Khans of Tarkir is making its
presence known across all of the formats.
Delve, making its presence known.
The biggest impact cards from Khans of Tarkir (aside from the Onslaught fetchlands) have clearly been the blue delve draw spells, Treasure Cruise and Dig
through Time. In fact, these spells have been so impactful in Eternal and Modern formats that people are really worried that they will ultimately need to
be banned!
Also, speaking of potentially banworthy Khans of Tarkir cards in Modern:
Untap creatures + loot? Um, okay…
The Jeskai Ascendancy deck has also been a hot button topic in Modern because of how fast the deck is able to go off and how consistently it wins early.
The deck has the potential to win on turn 2 which is clearly against the rules that WotC has set up for speed.
Yet I’m not going to be talking about any of these interesting subjects and instead will be talking about an under the radar printing that has impacted one
of my favorite archetypes.
The Blade is the blade.
Ghostfire Blade is a card that appears in Khans of Tarkir (presumably mostly for Limited play) that is an amazing piece of equipment for buffing colorless
morph creatures.
However, it is also really good at pumping colorless artifact creatures…
Anybody know of a competitive artifact creature deck? Let me give you a hint…
Blade in a world of Battlebots!
Ghostfire Blade is a perfect card to help improve a Modern Affinity deck.
I recently tested out my theory, that Ghostfire Blade would be fantastic in Affinity, last week at a 35 player Modern event and went undefeated in matches.
Ghostfire Blade was an amazing addition to my deck and was very key in winning multiple games.
First of all, Ghostfire Blade is cheap to cast which makes it a legitimate way to enable metalcraft for Etched Champion and Mox Opal early in the game, as
well as also cheaply counting toward affinity for Thoughtcast.
The other thing that really makes the Blade great is that it gives the deck something to do with its mana in the middle to late turns of the game. It helps
make cards that are cogs, like Memnite, Signal Pest, and Ornithopter, into better more efficient threats in a pinch.
I also took notice of how good the card was at helping to protect your weakling threats from spells like Electrolyze and Gut Shot. For instance, a 2/4
Ornithopter becomes an extremely quality creature for not a lot of mana. It can’t even be Lightning Bolted out of the sky!
Obviously, Cranial Plating on an Etched Champion is the best case scenario, but they only let us Affinity fans play four copies of that spell, and
Ghostfire Blade is another nice thing to put on that creature.
It was also very apparent to me that Ghostfire Blade was helpful in hard matchups when I played against Faeries and B/W Tokens. Typically, those matchups
are hard because spells like Lingering Souls, Bitterblossom, and Spellstutter Sprite are always trading two, three, and even four for one with my
creatures.
However, once you get the Blade down, this is not nearly as big of a problem anymore. Sure, they can trade two or three tokens for a one toughness flier
wearing the Blade, but that isn’t a great move for them.
Counterintuitive with Blade.
Even Vault Skirge was great with the Ghostfire Blade, despite costing three mana to equip (because it is a black artifact creature, and thus, not
colorless). I was able to beat a token deck because I drew two Blades and made a 5/5 lifelink flier that my opponent needed to trade his whole team for!
Here is my decklist for Ghostfire Blade Affinity that I’ve been toying around with and playing in Michigan.:
Creatures (22)
Lands (17)
Spells (21)
- 4 Cranial Plating
- 2 Thoughtcast
- 4 Springleaf Drum
- 1 Spell Pierce
- 4 Mox Opal
- 4 Galvanic Blast
- 2 Ghostfire Blade
Sideboard
The biggest change that I’ve made to the list is that I am playing Ghostfire Blade in the maindeck instead of Steel Overseer. Both cards accomplish similar
functions, in particular that they help fight against two for one flying creatures from opponents, as well as both help deal damage.
Steel Overseer, while powerful, is really fragile and really slow. It isn’t flexible in the same way that the Blade is. I also like that the Blade can come
into play and immediately join in the attack (which makes it kind of feel like playing a haste, evasion creature.
A Blinkmoth with a Blade.
Once again, not as good as equipping a Cranial Plating, but there is a ton of aggressive synergy between the Nexus and the Ghostfire Blade. It is cheap to
equip (just like Plating) and can help make a very fast clock out of an infect flier.
Also, it is relevant that you can attack with a 3/3 Inkmoth Nexus and pump it with a Blinkmoth Nexus to survive and kill a Restoration Angel, which is
pretty excellent.
One of the other important decisions that I’ve made with my maindeck is that I don’t play Ensoul Artifact.
Great card, but not for me.
Ensoul Artifact is really powerful, but I don’t really like playing with it. While I certainly can’t deny that the card has put up some results and is
powerful, it does a number of things that I really don’t like. Firstly, I don’t like opening myself up to a two for one with a Path to Exile. Secondly, it
takes the spot of a colored spell in the deck which we can only play so many in the 75.
Thoughtcast could be Ensoul Artifact in this deck, but I’m still pretty high on drawing cards.
The sideboard is also set up to be current in the metagame.
I really, really like Wear // Tear now because it is a great answer to Jeskai Ascendancy that is also good in a bunch of other matchups.
The other all-star sideboard card is Thoughtseize, which I board in against most decks. It is good because it allows you to proactively answer whatever
hate cards the opponent is trying to play before he or she gets a chance to cast them. Thoughtseize is one of the best cards legal in Modern, and I’m very
happy to get to play with it.
Grudge is obviously great in the mirror, but it is also good against decks that have powerful artifact threats or interaction cards like Batterskull,
Vedalken Shackles, or Spellskite.
I like this card even more than I did when I was playing it before. It’s pretty excellent against Living End and Pyromancer Ascension decks, but now it
does double duty of being actively great against Jeskai Control because it makes their Treasure Cruises and Dig Through Times impossible to delve!
I have been absolutely loving this card in my sideboard. It is amazing as a free removal spell against Infect and is also fantastic against Pod decks
because it kills their mana accelerants for free. I also bring it in for the mirror match.
Ghostfire Blade may not be the most exciting thing happening in Magic right now, but nonetheless it is new, it is cool, and it is a thing that people ought
to be doing in Modern. That is one of the reasons that Khans might end up being the greatest Magic set of all time, because there is a lot of depth and a
lot of goodies in there for people willing to look for them.
We are only beginning to scratch the surface of all the cool stuff that Khans of Tarkir has to offer.