Whenever a new spoiler season rolls around, we’re used to seeing classic MTG effects ‘on a stick.’ Elspeth, Storm Slayer is perhaps the latest and greatest variant of this, being Anointed Procession on a Planeswalker. Clearly, Wizards has been playing around with the classic ‘on a stick’ trope in Tarkir: Dragonstorm. In fact, with Windcrag Siege, Wizards flips the script entirely.
Windcrag Siege
Essentially, Windcrag Siege is Isshin, Two Heavens as One on an enchantment. Should you choose the Mardu side of this siege, you’ll get a literally identical ability to Isshin. This card even costs the same as Isshin, which is a pretty compelling rate, even if it doesn’t come with stats attached.
Being unable to attack with Windcrag Siege is easily the biggest downside of it being an enchantment. On the upside, however, Windcrag should be slightly harder to remove than its creature counterpart. As if that slightly increased utility wasn’t enough, Windcrag Siege comes with its Jeskai side, too.
Compared to the Mardu side of this siege, the Jeskai ability is fairly weak. Without any token doubling abilities, this card is just creating one Hasted Goblin with Lifelink per turn. Disappointingly, these extra abilities don’t even last, so, in the long run, it’s just a 1/1 Goblin.
Thankfully, choosing Jeskai on Windcrag Siege should at least accrue a decent amount of value over time. Should you add in some token doublers and Goblin-based buffs, too, then this ability could do real work. Most of the time, however, you’ll only be playing this side once you’ve already got the Mardu option in play.
A Capable Commander Card
For three mana, Windcrag Siege offers some very worthwhile and interesting abilities. Unfortunately, being interesting isn’t enough to cut it in the competitive landscape of MTG. Within most constructed formats, it seems likely that Windcrag is destined for failure. Even in Standard, this card just isn’t that useful.
In MTG right now, attack triggers aren’t the go-to way to accrue value. Sure, these abilities might be repeatable, but they lack instant impact on the board. Unless a creature with an attack ability has Haste, it’ll be near-enough unplayable in a competitive setting. Due to this, basically no Standard decks rely on these triggers, leaving Windcrag Siege without a home.
Unsurprisingly, if this card doesn’t cut it in Standard, it also won’t see play in Pioneer, Modern, and beyond. Thankfully, that doesn’t mean this card is unplayable. Obviously, Windcrag Siege is going to see a lot of use in Commander, especially alongside Isshin, Two Heavens as One. With both these cards in play, you’ll be getting three triggers from each attack ability, which is insanely strong.
While this use case might seem rather narrow, Isshin, Two Heavens as One is one of the most popular Commanders in all of MTG. According to EDHREC, Isshin is currently ranked as the 16th most popular Commander ever. That said, Isshin is only a $2 MTG card, so don’t expect the world from Windcrag, price-wise at least.
To bump up this price a little bit, Windcrag Siege may also see play within Token-based Commander decks. Considering this is an incredibly popular archetype, Windcrag could end up being rather popular. Just don’t expect to see them in many Goblin Typal decks, despite the token it creates. In Commander, Boros Goblin decks are basically non-existent, so that combination is a non-starter.