Edge of Eternities has not had it easy, and that’s putting it lightly. Not only did this set have to follow up Magic’s Final Fantasy crossover, but its spoiler season was smothered by Spider-Man reveals too. While this situation is definitely far from ideal, it has left plenty of underrated gems that are just waiting to be discovered.
Perhaps one of the most underrated Edge of Eternities cards of all is Sunset Saboteur. These cheap, overstatted creatures that have disastrous downsides usually don’t end up being playable outside of some gimmicky Commander strategies. This time, however, it appears that this genre of card has caused this card to be overlooked.
MTG Sunset Saboteur
There are a lot of fantastic elements in regards to Sunset Saboteur. A 4/1 with Menace that has a Ward effect is incredible for two mana. The card essentially demands that you use two cards to get rid of it, whether you’re blocking it with two creatures or discarding an extra card to remove it. The downside, however, has scared a lot of players away from Sunset Saboteur.
Granting an opponent’s creature a +1/+1 is extremely scary, and can make it difficult to truly race the opponent with just Sunset Saboteurs. Their clock will consistently get quicker when you swing in with damage. Logically, this might mean that cards like Saboteur will always be perceived as a trap in the beginning, but, in practice, this card has performed way better than expected.
While the card does have some constructed appearances, Sunset Saboteur’s biggest overperformance is actually in Edge of Eternities Draft. According to 17Lands, Sunset Saboteur has a 61% rate in Draft, making it one of the best cards in Edge of Eternities Limited, and the second-best card in black.
This is incredibly shocking. Edge of Eternities Limited is incredibly slow, which makes aggressively statted cards like this quite poor at first glance. The downside for Sunset Saboteur is even worse in Limited as well, since each individual card has a larger impact on the course of the game.
In practice, however, Sunset Saboteur is difficult to profitably block in early turns, giving you a massive tempo advantage to snowball with. He can also shut the door very quickly once you have a clear tempo advantage on board. Saboteur is also very proficient at Stationing larger Spacecraft payoffs, allowing it to serve multiple roles.
As shocking as Sunset Saboteur’s success in Limited has been, the card has seen even more success in constructed formats.
Sunset Saboteur in Constructed
Over in constructed, Sunset Saboteur is appearing across a few different formats, but its biggest successes so far are in Standard. There, the card appears as a flex threat in Dimir Midrange lists. This deck commonly runs a lot of removal, allowing you to put counters on creatures you’ll soon remove anyway. All of the Dimir lists running Saboteur have a more aggressive approach, making Saboteur a lot more difficult to deal with. This can put opponents in awkward spots, potentially forcing them to use spot removal on it, which becomes very expensive thanks to Saboteur’s Ward ability.
Dimir Midrange decks sporting Sunset Saboteur have a few 5-0 League results, and have a top-eight finish in an early Standard MTGO Challenge. This card doesn’t appear to be a very popular choice for the archetype overall, but it does have the results to back it up.
The card is quite synergistic with Cecil, Dark Knight. It can make an opponent winning a race with Saboteur’s +1/+1 counters tricky, since a swing with a flipped Cecil, Redeemed Paladin would be incredibly difficult to deal with.
MTG Sunset Saboteur Beyond Standard
In Pioneer, Sunset Saboteur pulled off a 5-0 league result in a Mono-Black Midrange list; one of the more popular archetypes in the format at the moment. In theory, the card can pressure a lot of slower control and combo opponents, and can serve as a potent roadblock against aggressive matchups. The card currently sees maindeck play, but may end up moving to the sideboard if it proves awkward in the Mono-Red matchup.
Finally, while Sunset Saboteur doesn’t have any impressive Modern results, players are considering it for Modern Zoo decks. As an aggressive threat, Saboteur outperforms a lot of other popular two-drops in the deck by being both more difficult to block and demanding more resources out of the opponent to remove. There are tons of spot removal in Modern, too, making Saboteur’s Ward a bit more impactful.
When to Drop Sunset Saboteur
Sunset Saboteur is making a bigger impression than players expected. It certainly hasn’t broken any competitive formats, but if you see this guy in Draft or Sealed, you should try your best to play him. The card’s early constructed results does suggest that it could be worth experimenting further with, but one particular type of spell might ruin Saboteur’s playability in constructed.
Fire Magic, and other smaller boardwipes, are very popular across formats at the moment, partly thanks to the current popularity of one-toughness creatures. This card’s presence may end up accidentally affecting Sunset Saboteur’s playability rather significantly.
Despite that potential problem, Sunset Saboteur’s results suggest that this is a card to keep an eye on.
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