Preview Spotlight: The Gearhulk Cycle

With a little over a week until Kaladesh Pre-Release preview season is in full flow. Last week I highlighted the soon to be released Chandra, Torch of Defiance which you can read about here. This week I want to talk about the cycle of cards called Gearhulks. The game designers at Wizards often seed a set with what are known as cycles, a series of cards, often with their own colour identity and feel, intended to highlight the story, flavour, mechanics or strategy within a set. The most common cycles are creatures although these ones aren’t common at all.

The Gearhulks are Mythic rarity and the last cycle of Mythic creatures were the Dragonlords from Dragons of Tarkir but perhaps the most iconic cycle of Mythic creatures are the Titans from Magic 2011 and Magic 2012 which dominated Standard during their time and are still seeing play in other formats such as Modern and Commander, indeed I am known to be partial to the casting of an Inferno Titan in modern. I have a feeling that the new cycle will make a splash on both constructed and casual formats alike when we can get our hands on them.

So ladies and gentlemen let me present to you the Gearhulks of Kaladesh.

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At first glance they are pretty awesome and I think they deliver something to pique the interest of every type of player. Let us look at the basics of the cycle. All five are Artifact Creatures that are constructs, each one has a colour identity, a keyword mechanic and a powerful ‘Enters the Battlefield’ ability all on suitably sizeable bodies for a cost of five or six mana.

Cataclysmic Gearhulk has a casting cost of 3WW, gives a solid 4/5 body and has Vigilance which mirrors the likes of Sylvan Advocate which we have seen has been a format staple in standard. Being good on offence while remaining available to defend is always strong. Five toughness is a strong place to be for a creature as increasingly the conditional removal spells available in standard can handle four toughness creatures at most such as Grasp of Darkness and Flame Lash which is coming in Kaladesh. It is also well positioned against the new iteration of Chandra.

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But the reason this card will see play is the Enter the Battlefield effect. While the effect is similar to that seen on Tragic Arrogance and symmetrically effects all players evenly, the decks that this will shine in will use it as a reset button when they are behind on the board or simply in a control shell where they gain the benefit of vastly reducing their opponent’s permanents in play. Decks looking to benefit from this Gearhulk will build their decks with the effect in mind. Imagine untapping on your fifth turn with Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in play. You play a land, turn Gideon into a creature, and cast the Gearhulk choosing Nissa as your Planeswalker, Gideon as your creature and the Gearhulk as your artifact. Then you still have Nissa to use as you choose that turn and Gideon to attack with.

Torrential Gearhulk is priced at 4UU, comes on a very healthy 5/6 body, in fact that is the second best power and toughness of the cycle, and has Flash. So while it doesn’t have a keyword that helps it win directly in combat, if you cast this during your opponents attack step you are likely going to be able to block and kill a creature. Or perhaps you can ambush a Planeswalker by flashing it in at the end of their turn and attacking their unguarded walker.

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The Enter the Battlefield trigger however is where things start to get really interesting from a play and deck building perspective. One of the format defining creatures of the past few years and a known Modern kingpin is Snapcaster Mage, flashing back spells from the graveyard is no longer new but we normally have to pay for them. More recently we have seen a similar effect on Goblin Dark-dwellers where we have been able to cast the spell for free but Torrential Gearhulk has no limitations on the casting cost of the spell we choose. This is an ability that will likely get better in time as the card pool increases with the later addition of Aether Revolt but each instant that is released is a potential new toy for the Gearhulk to play with. For me the current cards to take advantage of are Grip of Desolation, Scour the Laboratory and Confirm Suspicions. The card may fit well into a self-mill strategy that enables and offers a greater selection of spells in your graveyard.

Noxious Gearhulk has a 4BB casting cost, provides a 5/4 body and benefits from the pseudo evasive ability of Menace. While the stats are perhaps one of the weaker of the cycle, Menace is often underrated and it can be simple to craft the game in such a way as your opponent is either unable to block in which case you are taking big chunks of their life total with each attack or you can negotiate combat in such a way as to trade favourably with your opponents creatures or even simply win combat with the use of pump, bounce or other removal spells. Menace also allows you to threaten Planeswalkers that are creating solitary tokens to defend themselves with.

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This Gearhulk’s Enter the Battlefield ability is no slouch and will help enable profitable attacks with its Menace ability. Being able to kill your opponent’s biggest threat, most annoying blocker or even utility creature that is making the game difficult is not to be sniffed at. The fact that on top of removing such a creature you also gain life equal to its toughness will help stabilise against aggressive decks or just outright swing the game when it picks off an Eldrazi Titan.

Combustible Gearhulk comes at a cost of 4RR and delivers a very impressive 6/6 body with one of the strongest combat keywords available in First Strike. This is the only Gearhulk to mirror the power and toughness of the original Titans and the strongest of the cycle in that respect. First Strike is a fantastic ability on defence that makes many attacks from your opponent too costly to make and when it comes on such a big body it becomes very difficult to block and not expose yourself to being blown out by a simple pump or removal spell.

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Where Combustible Gearhulk is perhaps the most exciting is it’s enter the battlefield ability. Normally anything that gives your opponent a choice is never as good as just having what you want to happen occur. However the danger this ability presents is very real and presents a near impossible choice as well as adding some exciting brinkmanship into the game, a very red mechanic. Does your opponent let you draw three cards, perhaps finding an answer to their game plan or current threat when you are behind, do they let you get even further ahead if you are in control of the game, or do they risk it all and have you add three cards to your graveyard hoping that the combined converted mana cost isn’t enough to kill them outright. In a world where Eldrazi Titans such as Emrakul, the Promised End are real cards the chance they could be dead before you do anything else is very real . Without doubt this will be the Gearhulk that creates the most stories for players on both sides at upcoming Pre-Releases.

Verdurous Gearhulk is the final part of our cycle at a cost of 3GG, with a 4/4 body and the combat keyword of Trample. In itself its base stats make it perhaps the weakest of the cycle and in a straight fight it loses against the white, blue and red versions while trading off against the black version. However it’s enter the battle field ability giving you the choice of distributing four +1/+1 counters as you see fit amongst creatures you control is a highly flexible and powerful ability.

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Sometimes you will just go big and it will be an 8/8 creature in itself for only five mana, with no drawbacks. When I first started playing 8/8 tramplers looked like this, were much harder to cast and cost GGGG each turn to keep it happy. If you are able to cast this on or ahead of curve on the play it will put your opponent under a lot of pressure. Other times you will be able to divide the counters among your creatures in such a way to make spot removal weaker or ineffective against them, perhaps you will just distribute them in such a way to outclass your opponent’s creatures. Later in the game they can come down and bolster an evasive threat to seal the game. The four counters it creates can be viewed as potentially four points of haste damage that it can get in the turn you cast it despite having summoning sickness. This will obviously play well with any +1/+1 counter synergies and will slot into a great many Commander decks I’m sure that can abuse +1/+1 counters in conjunction with card drawing of the likes of Hardened Scales.

Simply put the Gearhulks are a highly powerful and very interesting cycle of cards that I expect to see a considerable amount of play in the coming Standard format. They all seem to be begging to be paired and abused with any form of flicker ability and Eldrazi Displacer is the first card to come to mind and for those of you who have hated playing against Bant Company Decks this past season they certainly make Reflector Mage think twice about targeting them.

I am interested to see what type of shells and brews people fit them into in Standard and other formats and I certainly hope to get lucky enough to find one in any sealed pool I open in the coming weeks. A new age is coming and the Gearhulks just may be our new overlords.

If you have already brewed up a gearhulk focused list for standard or any other format let me know in the comments below.

By Gordon Court
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