Munda, Ambush Leader - A Magic the Gathering (MTG) Card Review

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Munda, Ambush Leader may not be the Legendary Kor that you want to lead your next Commander deck, but as a sort of Goblin Ringleader for Allies, he does the trick that he was designed to do. A 3 / 4 with Haste for 2WR is already playable, especially in Limited. Add to that his ability to look at the top four cards of your deck isn’t a reveal as it is with Goblin Ringleader, and it’s also not mandatory. You could decide to fail to search any Allies and put all four cards to the bottom if you want to. But it’s not quite as good as the Ringleader, because it doesn’t put those Allies into your hand. Then again, while you’re not exactly drawing cards, it does help you set up for drawing just the Ally you’re going to want. That’s a pretty useful ability in an Aggro deck.

Why isn’t this just Goblin Ringleader, then? Being a Rally ability, you would essentially be allowed to draw up to 4 cards every time you played an Ally; that’s pretty unfair card advantage. If you have Allies you want to dig for and simply don’t care to draw anything but creatures, this ability is just fine. It all depends on how Ally decks are ultimately constructed, but he’s already too slow for Modern Naya Allies as a four-drop, and Standard needs enough CMC 3 or lower Allies for this to be worth using its ability. Whether Munda sees Standard play or not will be dependent on how much gas Allies end up ultimately having.

As a Commander, this isn’t really too great to build around, as you’d be limited to Red and White Allies and Changelings. As a member of the 99 in a five color Ally deck, though, the ability to filter your draws for Allies could prove useful. He’s a balanced creature in any case, and should help to draw you fuel for the Rally fires in Limited. In Standard, it all depends on what you’d want to end up drawing for Allies - and nothing stands out (as yet) to get excited about.

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