6 Point Strategies - Morningtide Edition

With this weekend's debut of Morningtide, Magic: the Gathering's latest expansion set, I thought it was a good idea to cover some of the new cards here.

Stonybrook Schoolmaster

This is one of the many new merfolk cards that Lorwyn block has introduced. I like this one in particular because it can be so versatile. I mean, who doesn't need a few more tokens? And this one is so easy to activate. You don't pay a mana cost. You just tap it. And you don't have to just tap it. It activates when you attack with it. Or it can activate if you tap it to trigger some other ability. And it will totally short circuit defensive strategies that tap attacking creatures. And it's a common, so it's easy to find.

Grimoire Thief

This is another great tapping merfolk. Except that this one is almost a win condition by itself. You tap it, and your opponent loses 3 cards. And if your opponent plays a spell that you've removed already, you can sacrifice your grimoire thief to counter it. Offense and defense, for 2 mana.

Countryside Crusher

This might be my favorite card in the set. You get a 3/3 for 3 mana, which is a value very hard o come by in red. And it grows. Oh, how it grows. Basically, you play it when you have enough mana on the board, and everytime you draw a land, your crusher grows, and you draw again. It's perfect for making sure that a mana pocket doesn't ruin your endgame. Now, it's true that if someone destroys your land when this is out, you could be in trouble. But if you're afraid of risk, maybe you shouldn't be playing red.

Scarblade Elite

This is another card that can be a real value, provided you can build an assassin deck that doesn't use the graveyard. Unlike many similar black cards, this can destroy any creature of any color or type. And unless you were trying to use the graveyard, the ability doesn't really cost you anything, except for 2 mana.

Heritage Druid

This isn't as flashy as some of the other cards that I'm covering here, but it can be incredibly useful. Basically, this deck turns every elf into a Llanowar Elf, which can give your elf deck unprecedented acceleration, in a color that already had an impressive amount of acceleration.

Door of Destinies

There's not a lot to say about this card, except for WOW. If you put together a theme deck, then every spell that you play in that theme makes all of your creatures much, much bigger. You can overpower an opponent very quickly.