Over the past week, a plethora of spoilers have been revealed from a multitude of different sets. Some sets, like Modern Horizons 3, have Modern players talking. Meanwhile, MTG Fallout is a nice set for Commander players, providing upgrades to various strategies, such as energy-themed decks. As premier sets, Bloomburrow and Outlaws of Thunder Junction are bound to affect Standard players in a big way.
Well, after a recent group of MTG Arena announcements, it appears we have a spoiler to share affecting yet another unique format. This time, that format is Alchemy. Alchemy is specifically a digital format, which opens the door for strange mechanics to be utilized. Today’s spoiler certainly fits this bill. Before we discuss the best ways to make use of the new spoiler on Arena, it’s worth going over when and where you can find this new card.
Alchemy: Karlov Manor Release
Today, we are specifically going over the first new spoiler of the Alchemy: Karlov Manor set. For those that have kept up with Alchemy, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to see another group of 30 cards arrive on MTG Arena with the newest premier set. In this case, Alchemy: Karlov Manor is going to be officially released on March 5.
These Alchemy cards, while specific to MTG Arena, will be legal in Historic, Brawl, and Timeless in addition to Alchemy. Given that some cards, such as Crucias, Titan of the Waves, end up being powerful enough to make a splash somewhere else, this is important to keep in mind.
Players will be able to first draft these cards in the Alchemy premier draft running from March 5-12. While there’s only one spoiler revealed thus far, it’s a doozy, showcasing a new mechanic to the digital world of MTG.
Read More: Major MTG Errata Announced for Bloomburrow
The Incorporate Mechanic
Guildpact Greenwalker is a powerful card that highlights the Incorporate mechanic. How Incorporate works is that, when you play a card with this ability, it perpetually adds an additional casting cost to another card in your hand. That card in your hand gains any colors in the additional cost to its natural colors, as well as any additional text/abilities mentioned by the initial Incorporate card. This may sound a bit confusing, so let’s use Guildpact Greenwalker as an example.
Guildpact Greenwalker is a three-mana 4/4 that allows you to choose a Creature card in your hand when it enters. If you choose a Creature in your hand, that card now costs an additional two mana to play, one of which must be green. The upside, though, is that the Creature also gets a permanent +4/+4 boost.
Additionally, Guildpact Greenwalker can provide a nice Ward 2 bonus to all of your multicolor Creatures. Notably, this includes non-green monocolored cards that you successfully Incorporated the additional green cost to with Guildpact Greenwalker or otherwise.
Read More: Amazon Unveils $500 MTG Booster Box!?
Maximizing Guildpact Greenwalker
In this sense, Guildpact Greenwalker seems quite strong in an aggressively slanted shell. First of all, as a three-mana 4/4, the card itself is quite beefy. However, if you can combine it with some efficient, Hasty red Creatures, such as Monastery Swiftspear, it’s easy to follow up Guildpact Greenwalker with an enormous attack. Cards like Phoenix Chick that have built-in evasion are perfect, threatening a ton of damage at once.
You could also go a different route and play Guildpact Greenwalker in a deck with lots of mana dorks. Not only can your mana dorks turbo out Guildpact Greenwalker on turn two and help with any future Incorporate costs, but Guildpact Greenwalker can help make sure that any excess mana dorks you may have in hand become much more threatening later in the game.
What makes the Incorporate ability quite powerful is that the effect lasts the rest of the game. Even if Guildpact Greenwalker gets killed, as long as you have enough mana around to pay the Incorporate cost, the reward is certainly there.
Read More: MTG Fallout Spoilers Create Energy Infinite Combos!
Adding Recursive Elements
Importantly, because the +4/+4 buff along with the added mana costs are perpetually gained, these effects are not affected by zone changes. This opens the door for a whole new area of shenanigans. For instance, after casting Guildpact Greenwalker and using the Incorporate ability on a Creature in your hand, you can then discard that Creature with the intention of using a reanimation effect like Helping Hand to bring it back. This lets you bypass the additional mana requirements but still benefit from the buff.
In a similar vein, cards like Cult Conscript in Alchemy or Bloodghast in Historic, Brawl, or Timeless that you can recur at will can be quite powerful. You can even pair Guildpact Greenwalker with Disguise Creatures such as Pyrotechnic Performer as a way to get around the additional mana cost.
In this case, you can Disguise Performer for three mana, flip it up for one mana, and immediately deal 7 damage to the opponent when it’s turned face up thanks to the +4/+4 upgrade! This card has a lot to offer, and this is likely only the first of many cool Incorporate cards to be previewed.
Read More: Hidden MTG Metabreaker Soars to $40 Following Pro Tour Victory