Murders at Karlov Manor cards have now been legal on Magic Online for over 24 hours, and the new set is already starting to make its mark in Modern. Recently, we talked about the presence of Surveil Lands and their effect on decks like Temur
Crashing Footfalls
Crashing Footfalls
Suspend 4—{G} (Rather than cast this card from your hand, pay {G} and exile it with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.)
Create two 4/4 green Rhino creature tokens with trample.
. Today, we are going to focus on a card that got a lot of hype during spoiler season and its role in another well-established archetype.
The card in question is
Leyline of the Guildpact
Leyline of the Guildpact
If this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
Each nonland permanent you control is all colors.
Lands you control are every basic land type in addition to their other types.
and the deck is Domain Zoo. A Domain Zoo decklist with Leyline already went 4-0 in a Magic Online Modern Preliminary event, showing off its prowess. It may seem a bit strange to see Leyline in a deck that was already playing five colors and had little problem assembling the requisite colors of mana. However, Leyline plays an important role in a variety of matchups. Before we discuss exactly what makes Leyline so strong, it’s important to first look at the supporting cast that reward you for playing five colors.
Five-Color Payoffs
The general goal behind this archetype is to assemble all five different basic Land types among your Lands within the first couple turns of the game. This allows you to play a bunch of extremely powerful cards that either become stronger or more efficient depending on the number of basic Land types among Lands you control.
First, let’s go over the cards that become stronger. At the top of the list, we have Territorial Kavu. Kavu does an excellent
Tarmogoyf
Tarmogoyf
Tarmogoyf's power is equal to the number of card types among cards in all graveyards and its toughness is equal to that number plus 1.
impression from the old days as a big, beefy body for only two-mana, so long as you put in the work. Luckily, with the slew of Fetchlands, Shocklands and Triomes in the deck, making Kavu a 5/5 isn’t tough.
Nishoba Brawler
Nishoba Brawler
Trample
Domain — Nishoba Brawler's power is equal to the number of basic land types among lands you control.
is another strong threat, though its three toughness does make it a little more vulnerable to cards like
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to any target.
.
Lastly, we have
Tribal Flames
Tribal Flames
Domain — Tribal Flames deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of basic land types among lands you control.
. In conjunction with large attackers, Tribal Flames threatens to end the game in short order. Even if your opponent stabilizes the board and removes your large threats, a couple copies of Tribal Flames each dealing five damage to the opponent can steal games rather easily.
Now, for the cards that get cheaper for each basic Land type among Lands you control.
Scion of Draco
Scion of Draco
Domain — This spell costs {2} less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control.
Flying
Each creature you control has vigilance if it's white, hexproof if it's blue, lifelink if it's black, first strike if it's red, and trample if it's green.
is an excellent Flying threat that can be cast as early as turn two. It works great in conjunction with your other threats as well, giving Kavu First Strike and Trample, for instance.
Leyline Binding
Leyline Binding
Flash
Domain — This spell costs {1} less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control.
When this enchantment enters, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls until this enchantment leaves the battlefield.
, in a similar manner, can reliably be cast on turn two in this deck, helping to answer any problematic non-Land permanent your opponent could play.
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Leyline of the Guildpact’s Role
Speaking of Leyline Binding and Scion of Draco, the presence of both of these cards help make Leyline of the Guildpact a rather interesting inclusion. In the context of Leyline Binding, if you begin the game with Leyline of the Guildpact in play, you are able to play Leyline Binding on turn one. This isn’t a huge difference in many games but is a great option to have in a format where one-drops like
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Whenever Ragavan deals combat damage to a player, create a Treasure token and exile the top card of that player's library. Until end of turn, you may cast that card.
Dash {1}{R} (You may cast this spell for its dash cost. If you do, it gains haste, and it's returned from the battlefield to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step.)
can singlehandedly take over the game.
Where things really get out of control is when you have access to both Leyline and Scion of Draco. Scion of Draco provides specific benefits to each Creature you control based on their color combinations. Given that Scion of Draco is a colorless Creature, these upgrades typically only affect your other Creatures. However, Leyline’s ability to make all of your non-Land permanents all colors turns Scion of Draco into a one card wrecking machine.
First of all, Scion gains Hexproof in this situation. This alone is devastating, especially in matchups where your opponent can’t remove Leyline. For example, a resolved Scion against Izzet Murktide may end the game in conjunction with Leyline. Outside of an enormous copy of
Murktide Regent
Murktide Regent
Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for {1}.)
Flying
This creature enters with a +1/+1 counter on it for each instant and sorcery card exiled with it.
Whenever an instant or sorcery card leaves your graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
or a timely
Brazen Borrower
Brazen Borrower
Flash
Flying
This creature can block only creatures with flying.
being able to bounce Leyline, Scion will take over the gamer as a 4/4 with Flying, Lifelink, Hexproof, and more.
Even in situations where you don’t have access to Scion or Binding, Leyline still has some uses. Against burn, it allows you to grab basic Lands with your Fetchlands instead of Shocklands or Triomes to both preserve your life total and develop your board in a timely manner. Ironically, you don’t even need to use your Fetch Lands if you don’t want to!
Similarly, you can get basic Lands to help beat
Blood Moon
Blood Moon
Nonbasic lands are Mountains.
. Blood Moon is a very strong card against this archetype, but if you control Leyline and a couple basic Lands, the card is much less problematic.
This is because you will still have access to all colors of mana since your basic Lands will be able to tap for any color with Leyline in play. This decklist utilizes three basic Lands, which is more than normal but helps your Fetchlands reliably find basic Lands in these situations.
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Maintaining an Aggressive Stance
One of the clear downsides to running Leyline, though, is that the card does very little on its own. If you mulligan and don’t have the tools to maximize it, it isn’t the strongest card. Additionally, it is a very poor topdeck. Luckily, this deck does a decent job mitigating these weaknesses. First and foremost, this deck is quite aggressively slanted. This can help make up for the fact that playing Leyline technically puts you down on overall resources in a deck that lacks card advantage to begin with.
Cards like Ragavan and
Wild Nacatl
Wild Nacatl
This creature gets +1/+1 as long as you control a Mountain.
This creature gets +1/+1 as long as you control a Plains.
pressure the opponent almost immediately, pairing nicely with your massive turn two plays. Meanwhile, Territorial Kavu’s ability to rummage cards away when it attacks means that you can discard excess copies of Leyline you may have drawn and convert them into more impactful spells.
Add in a copy or two of Tribal Flames, and your opponent is in for a world of hurt if they can’t remove your threats on curve. This deck even makes use of
Stubborn Denial
Stubborn Denial
Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays {1}.
Ferocious — If you control a creature with power 4 or greater, counter that spell instead.
to help you protect your enormous threats and close the game in an efficient way.
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Strengths and Weaknesses
This strategy has a lot going for it and the presence of Leyline has helped shore up a few popular matchups. If you can assemble the combo of Leyline and Scion against Izzet Murktide or Temur Crashing Footfalls, your opponent will be in for a rough outing. Having a 4/4 with Hexproof, Lifelink, and First Strike matches up quite nicely against 4/4 Rhino tokens, as well as Delirious copies of
Dragon’s Rage Channeler
Dragon’s Rage Channeler
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card into your graveyard.)
Delirium — As long as there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, this creature gets +2/+2, has flying, and attacks each combat if able.
that are now forced to attack.
Still, in games where you don’t resolve Scion, Leyline may not pull its weight. Being able to pitch it to Kavu is nice, but you won’t always have that option. In matchups where your opponent can interact with your threats cheaply, such as against multi-color
Omnath, Locus of Creation
Omnath, Locus of Creation
When Omnath enters, draw a card.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you gain 4 life if this is the first time this ability has resolved this turn. If it's the second time, add {R}{G}{W}{U}. If it's the third time, Omnath deals 4 damage to each opponent and each planeswalker you don't control.
shells, it can be difficult to stick one of your high-power beaters.
That being said, not everyone is playing cards like Leyline Binding or
Solitude
Solitude
Flash
Lifelink
When this creature enters, exile up to one other target creature. That creature's controller gains life equal to its power.
Evoke—Exile a white card from your hand.
to remove your Creatures. Both Scion and Kavu match up perfectly against a lot of damage-based removal like Lightning Bolt. Playing Leyline over additional copies of Stubborn Denial and other flex slots like
Prismatic Ending
Prismatic Ending
Converge — Exile target nonland permanent if its mana value is less than or equal to the number of colors of mana spent to cast this spell.
is a tradeoff, but the upside is certainly there. Only time will tell if Leyline is the real deal here but keep an eye out for this shell if you plan to play Modern in the coming weeks.
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