Oath of the Gatewatch "Twisted Reality" Intro Pack Review - Magic the Gathering (MTG)

by  R.A. Rowell; Co-Owner of Intent-sive Nature & the Brand Shamans network

The Twisted Reality Intro Pack for Oath of the Gatewatch features Deepfathom Skulker as the cover card, leading a mono-Blue Eldrazi deck. This deck is the perfect introduction to the new colorless casting cost requirements. As its "boss" creature, the Skulker can make one of your creatures unable to be blocked for only 3 generic mana and 1 colorless. What is that diamond symbol mean exactly? Read on to find out.

Also in the deck is the very useful creature, Endless One, who has an X casting cost. The more mana that you pump into him, the bigger he gets, meaning he only gets better as the game goes along.


Let's take a look at the deck list and see how effective this intro pack's game plan really is.

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Deck List

Creatures (29)

1     Endless One     
1     Prophet of Distortion
2     Salvage Drone     
3     Blinding Drone
3     Mist Intruder
1     Tide Drifter
3     Cultivator Drone     
2     Eldrazi Skyspawner     
1     Ruination Guide     
2     Gravity Negator     
2     Murk Strider     
1     Thought Harvester     
2     Kozilek's Channeler     
2     Walker of the Wastes     
1     Deepfathom Skulker     
1     Kozilek's Pathfinder     
1     Bane of Bala Ged     

Spells (5)

2     Spatial Contortion     
1     Titan's Presence     
1     Adverse Conditions     
1     Scour from Existence     

Lands (26)

1     Blighted Cataract         
1     Evolving Wilds         
14     Island         
10     Wastes    

Having 10 copies of what is Magic's 6th basic land is really where most of the value is in the deck. Wastes is a colorless basic land that allows you to cast and use the abilities of creatures that require purely colorless mana. That is what the diamond symbol means: pure colorless mana.

This is the major rule change that came with Oath of the Gatewatch: generic mana and colorless mana are no longer the same thing. You can still use any color mana to pay for generic costs (those without a diamond). But Wastes and other colorless mana producers are the only way to pay for these "diamond" costs.

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This deck runs 29 creatures and none is better suited to this deck than Walker of the Wastes. Since you have 10 in the deck, this 5 mana trampling Eldrazi can become an extremely powerful threat in the late game. With other big threats like Bane of Bala Ged and the Deepfathom Skulker, not only can you hit for major damage, but draw cards in the process.

The creatures range from the one mana Prophet of Distortion (who can draw you a card for 3 and a colorless) up to Kozilek's Pathfinder (a 5/5 that has an ability to prevent a creature from blocking it that turn.) In between, the creatures have various useful abilities, most of which require the colorless mana from Wastes and other sources such as Eldrazi Scion tokens and Kozilek's Channeler

There are very few non-creature spells in the deck. Two copies of Spatial Contortion double as a pump spell for your larger creature and a removal spell for your opponent's smaller creatures. Titan's Presence is an excellent removal spell in this deck since every one of your creatures is either colorless or has Devoid (which makes it colorless.) Adverse Conditions stops two of your opponent's creatures for a turn, giving you a chance for a final strike. Scour from Existence is 7 mana, but it can exile any permanent, which is quite useful.

Potential Additions

This deck is a pretty good start for an Eldrazi ramp deck. There are a couple of directions you could go with it. You could focus on staying Mono-Blue, or add in Green and/or Black to diversify what you can play in the deck.

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The most obvious potential additions to the deck would be Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Kozilek, the Great Distortion. Kozilek is particularly good in this deck, since the colorless mana abounds in this deck. The new Kozilek refills your hand, so timing is critical when you play him. Having menace (making it unable to be blocked by only one creature) is obviously good at making him a top-end threat. Additionally, being able to counter spells by discarding cards with converted mana cost X helps make the deck a lot more resilient.

You can also max out with four copies of Endless One to make the deck more aggressive. By adding black you can use Wasteland Strangler to deal with opponent's creatures, further improving your board presence.

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Reality Smasher is an upgrade over Walker of the Wastes. While it doesn't gain power from Wastes, it has Trample and Haste. It's also very tricky to remove due to the fact your opponent must discard a card to resolve a spell that targets it.

But the best card of all for this deck is Matter Reshaper. It's only 3 mana (2C) and when it dies, you reveal the top card of your library. If it's a permanent with a converted mana cost of 3 or less (including lands) you put it directly onto the battlefield. It could even be another Matter Reshaper. If not, you still add that card to your hand. A creature that always replaces itself with another card is super strong!

Thought-Knot Seer is another creature you could consider. It allows you to steal the best nonland card from your opponent's hand and exiles it. Once the Seer leaves the battlefield, target opponent gets to draw a card. Notably, in multiplayer games, you can choose a different opponent from the one you originally targeted. In any case, it's a strong card if you want to go more of a control route with the deck.

Overall, this is one of the better Intro Packs released in recent memory. The 10 Wastes alone account for a good chunk of the deck's value, not to mention you get the two packs of Oath of the Gatewatch along with it. Of all the Oath of the Gatewatch Intro Packs, this would be my pick of the five.