Hate pieces play an extremely important role in Magic: The Gathering. With Magic’s ever-growing card pool, it’s rather common for an off-the-wall strategy to break out that uses extremely bizarre interactions. In these cases, traditional removal spells may not be enough to contain the strategy. Heck, when lands are involved, not even countermagic can help keep things under control.
To combat unique strategies, hate pieces that are just as unique are created to stop them. Thanks to the advent of Badgermole Cub, which seems far too fast to attack from normal angles, players are beginning to pick up an overlooked hate piece to fight against it. Clarion Conqueror has seen some play in Modern and Legacy throughout its short history, but it appears that the Dragon might become extremely popular soon.
Clarion Conqueror MTG
For three mana, Clarion Conqueror offers a 3/3 Flier, which is ok on its own. On top of that, Conqueror stops activated abilities of all creatures, Planeswalkers, and artifacts, which easily shuts down a whole bunch of narrow MTG strategies. The most valuable thing about Clarion Conqueror, however, is the text that’s not included. Unlike other cards that shut down abilities, Clarion Conqueror is also able to stop mana abilities. This allows the Conqueror to stop a whole bunch of shenanigans that other cards can’t.
Up to this point, Clarion Conqueror has mostly appeared in Modern sideboards. Specifically capable of stopping Basking Broodscale Combo, Clarion Conqueror can prevent Eldrazi Scion tokens from sacrificing themselves for mana. The card also stops Blade of the Bloodchief from equipping itself to anything, and Karn, the Great Creator from activating its abilities.
Conqueror has some other uses in Modern, like turning off Goblin Charbelcher and shutting down some more niche decks like Kethis Combo. That said, Conqueror primarily appears when Broodscale decks are a larger part of the metagame. Clarion Conqueror otherwise sees some sideboard Legacy play, capable of stopping popular strategies like Painter Combo and Mystic Forge combo from functioning entirely.
While Clarion Conqueror has been established as a strong hate piece in Modern and Legacy, the card hasn’t seen much Standard play until recently. Badgermole Cub’s explosion onto the Standard scene is certainly the reason for this, as the banworthy Mole lines up really poorly into this Dragon.
The Perfect Badgermole Foil
Badgermole Cub is stirring up a lot of controversy in the MTG community at the moment, thanks to the absurdly fast starts it creates. Doubling the mana that creatures make, when players can run as many as 12 different one-mana dorks, can run away with the game easily. Add in the Earthbent land that Cub makes, and having access to eight mana on turn three is surprisingly easy. This card is primarily popping up in Simic Aggro at the moment, and creating some insane starts alongside Ouroboroid.
Clarion Conqueror, as it turns out, is the perfect answer for this little mole. Not only will Conqueror shut down all of the mana dorks that Badgermole cub amplifies, but it also prevents Earthbended lands from making mana. Considering that Earthbent lands return after dying, this is one of the few ways to truly shut the mechanic down. Suddenly, extremely explosive starts with two Cubs won’t make any mana at all. Heck, if Earthbending catches on in Commander, Clarion Conqueror could see play there, too.
To make things even better, Simic colors struggle with hard removal, which makes Clarion Conqueror even harder to deal with. While Simic is the only meta deck taking advantage of Badgermole Cub outside of the Airbending Combo decks, it’s also seeing play in a lot of rogue strategies at the moment. Thanks to this, Conqueror can catch a lot of strays.
Clarion Conqueror has some applications in other matchups, as well. The card notably shuts down Kaito, Bane of Nightmares in Dimir Midrange, while also serving as a blocker for Deep-Cavern Bat. Similarly, control decks that use Elspeth, Storm Slayer as a win condition may also run into trouble when facing down the Dragon. Due to this, Clarion Conqueror is already being adapted in the sideboard of well-performing white decks in the format, and judging from Simic’s popularity, the sky is the limit for this dragon.
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