Card Advantage and Virtual Card Advantage

If I think too hard about what I paid for Containment Priest the first time around I will be even more devastated than your Reanimator opponent will be when you flash one in unexpectedly. I guess the Legacy Role Players didn't really hold a candle to the Baneslayer Angels I picked up right after Andre Coimbra's win in 2009 (it was $55 per; who is going to forget $55 per?)

Anyway, Containment Priest is going to be one of the most exciting and important reprints of Core Set 2021.

Opportunistically, the card - and its flash - will give the cagey White mage the opportunity to burgle boatloads of value. And for the long-in-the-tooth scribbling theoretician, it also gives us the opportunity to talk about not one but two important pillars of play.

Card Advantage

Most of you probably have a working idea of how card advantage works in Magic; it has been called the single most important tool in the competitive mage's arcane arsenal. Though he didn't invent card advantage, my preferred definition comes from onetime Dojo Writer of the Year, Eric Taylor:

It's important to think about card advantage as a process. It's a thing you do; a thing that happens.

How can you use Containment Priest to generate card advantage?

Here's a simple and quite plausible example:

The opponent has a single Mayhem Devil in the graveyard; they cast Call of the Death-Dweller targeting it.

Peering into your juicy, juicy hand, you flash out Containment Priest in response. Containment Priest effectively counters the Call of the Death-Dweller, and that Devil will be committing no Mayhem any time soon. It's not a straight counter, though; you get to keep a 2/2. It's a two-for-one (at least!)

But Containment Priest presents not just an opportunity for card advantage; a Containment Priest in play can generate ongoing virtual card advantage.

Virtual Card Advantage

Eric Taylor did in fact come up with this important contribution to the Magic canon. Card advantage is usually about trading cardboard for more cardboard (or, in our Call of the Death-Dweller example, above, nothing for cardboard). Virtual card advantage doesn't generally actually trade cardboard; rather, it can neutralize a card's effectiveness driven by player behavior.

For example, imagine that same opponent had three more copies of Call of the Death-Dweller in hand. So long as your Containment Priest is in play, it's like they were holding three blanks. They technically have those three cards... But they don't have any text.

Containment Priest can be devastating because of its ability to pour on good, old fashioned, and material materiel. Played opportunistically, it can zero a Cauldron Familiar in the short term and neutralize what makes that card exciting for the long term. While small and somewhat vulnerable to removal, Containment Priest is a potential strategy breaker. There is no limit to the number of strategies that the Human Cleric can Contain.

And it's not like there aren't brand new ones, too!

Romancing the 1-Drops

Back in the late 1990s I was on a team with Adrian Sullivan. Adrian even moved out to New York and roomed with some of us in Brooklyn for a few months.

One of the Magic-playing concepts that he had that rubbed off on me was that of Classical versus Romantic play. Classical and Romantic represent a range. The Classical side is about maximizing your minimum gain; the Romantic about maximizing your maximum gain. Imagine raising the floor to reaching for the sky.

What do you think about this one?

Yes, it's "only" a 1/1 creature.

That makes it incredibly vulnerable to... Almost any kind of removal. It might not crack a lot of starting sixties. But to my mind, Speaker of the Heavens is one of the most exciting cards in the set.

There is substantial precedent for 1/1 creatures with lifelink to produce in Standard. Alseid of Life's Bounty and Healer's Hawk are both Staple in at least two archetypes. Speaker of the Heavens lacks Healer's Hawk's natural evasion, but its upside is unbelievable.

All you need is 27 life and you're rocking and rolling. We've already pointed out how many lifelinking creatures get played, and often together. One good hit from an All That Glitters might get you there. You don't need-need to play this card in a creature deck. Over the years there have been all kinds of cantrips that gain life and lands that give you life when they enter the battlefield. Under cover of Teferi? It might not be a great feat to untap with this creature into your main phase.

The point?

Speaker of the Heavens is nigh unbeatable for some decks.

Mono-Green, other Mono-Green, and multiple styles of White Weenie are all popular decks in Standard right now. Not a one of them is particularly good at killing creatures. But this one? It can completely take over the game against a removal-poor deck.

One possible strategy will be to just trade. If you can trade card-for-card with lifelink creatures, you will not only preserve your life total, you can increase it to that magical 27 threshold. At which point? Speaker of the Heavens can be big trouble for future combat steps.

What does this have to do with Classical versus Romantic Magic play? I think you can probably play this card just as a card; maybe alongside other 1/1 lifelink guys for one mana. Maybe it's better than Gingerbrute? But if you can manipulate your matchups... That's another thing entirely;

You can potentially run this card as a sideboard card - again, maybe not strictly in a beatdown dweck - and bring it in against StOmPy or White Weenie opponents. Who can't kill it. Who probably can't beat it.

The Rate of Thieves' Guild Enforcer

What would you pay for a 3/2 deathtouch.

Oh, it also has flash.

What would you pay for that?

I think at two mana it is at least under consideration. Dire Fleet Poisoner had a little more going on, but was only 2/2; it also saw only a little competitive play. But three-two? That's like 50% more damage as a beatdown creature. And deathtouch disincentivizes blocking.

But for one Black? That's a crazy return on mana!

In addition to just a great rate, you're also going to cash in that sweet, sweet card advantage. Any time your opponent comes in with a 1/x type? Snag that before the counter-strike.

You can punch up and kill anything, too; like a Blacklance Paragon.

"But wait," say the naysayers. "Thieves' Guild Enforcer doesn't naturally have deathtouch... Nor is it always 3/2."

Bo-ring!

If it were just a 3/2 creature for , everyone would play it. It would be hella obvious, and even non-creature decks would make the exception so good would be the rate. I think that it's going to be good enough, often enough.

For one, there are decks that just help you out. Any deck with Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, for instance, is going to get you a lot of the way there. Just the game progressing will help put cards into the opponent's graveyard... And of course there is that "Mill two" text.

Even when this card is a 1/1, it won't be all that bad. Largely that will be because you're playing it early and getting your beat on. Having two in play is going to make your "Mill two" triggers better; and that's before you decide to play any other Rogues.

I'm always looking for creatures a threat-poor Control deck can side in against other Control decks. They pull their removal, so any creatures you play have a higher likelihood of survival. Thieves' Guild Enforcer seems like it might be a great card to consider for that purpose. It's super cheap, so it can sneak under permission spells. It's got flash so you can use it to pick a fight on the opponent's turn. Most of all, because Control mirrors are apt to go long, it will be attacking for three deep into the end game.

I can't wait to try it out of the side.

LOVE

MIKE