Leyline of Resonance looks insidious. We recently saw just how powerful Leylines can be with Leyline of the Guildpact had from Murders at Karlov Manor. The two-card combo between itself and Scion of Draco truly shook the Modern metagame. Now, we have another Leyline effect that is absolutely absurd in aggressive strategies.
This time, Leyline of Resonance cares about targeting your own creatures with spells. Prowess and combat tricks are powerful everywhere right now thanks to recent additions like Slickshot Show-Off and Heartfire Hero. Aggressive cards have a ton of power, so much so that there will be a turn-two Standard Death combo once Duskmourn releases in September.
24 Damage on Turn 2
- Mana Value: 2RR
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Enchantment
- MTG Sets: Duskmourn
- Card Text: If Leyline of Resonance is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield. Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets only a single creature you control, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
Leyline of Resonance copying instants and sorceries that target your creatures is incredibly scary. Suddenly, cards like Giant Growth give +6/+6 instead of +3/+3 for just one mana. This sort of potential can easily allow for a turn-two death combo in the Standard format. If this weren’t bad enough, thanks to another uncommon coming out in Duskmourn, you can do the entire combo by just using red mana.
The combo leverages something that we’ve been seeing in both Standard and Pioneer recently: Heartfire Hero combined with Callous Sell-Sword. Heartfire Hero is easy to make huge, and Callous Sell-Sword’s Adventure can fling Heartfire Hero at the opponent. Heartfire Hero also deals damage equal to its power on death for double damage. You can even triple up on damage if you get an attack in first.
Turn Inside Out is a new Duskmourn uncommon that grants your creature three power. Should it die, you also get to Manifest Dread. Combined with Leyline of Resonance, your Heartfire Hero will get six power. This will also trigger its Valiant effect, giving it an additional +1/+1 counter. That means, on turn two, you’re swinging in for eight damage.
Now, Callous Sell-Sword gets to Fling Heartfire Hero for eight damage with its Adventure spell. That will also trigger Heartfire Hero’s death trigger, dealing another eight damage. Voila, you’ve dealt 24 damage on turn two.
Obviously, this terrifying combo can be stopped with a piece of removal. All your opponent needs is a well-timed Cut Down or Disfigure to kill your Heartfire Hero in response to the Turn Inside Out. The power of this spot, though, is that you can hold your spells for the moment your opponent slips up. In a deck tailored to make this work, you can also run protection spells like Snakeskin Veil to give your Hero Hexproof. Considering how strong the new rare Dual Land cycle is, Gruul Prowess should be very viable.
Beyond Standard
Leyline of Resonance could even see play past the Standard format. Besides the card’s obvious Commander appeal for certain strategies, Prowess decks exist in Pioneer and Modern as well. These decks run fewer spells that target your own creatures, however. Notably, the Heartfire Hero Sell-Sword deck is also a thing in the Pioneer format, so there’s definitely room for experimentation with Leyline of Resonance there.
Modern, on the other hand, may not see much Leyline of Resonation. Most of the spells in the Prowess deck in that format do not target your own creatures. There could, of course, be some restructuring to the deck, but it would make the strategy a lot more fragile to removal.
Either way, players are likely to be way more conscious of Leyline of Resonance after the mess that Leyline of the Guildpact made back in Murders at Karlov Manor. It will be interesting to see what kind of change this card ends up creating.
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