Magic: The Gathering Card Review: White and Blue Praetors

Along with the introduction of the name New Phyrexia, the new and final set of the second Mirrodin block has also been revealed to run a Phyrexian leader of every color, otherwise known as a Praetor. These Praetors range from 5 to 10 mana, but mostly around 7 mana. Today I will be reviewing the White and Blue Praetors specifically.

The White Praetor, also known as Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, is one of the two femininely formed Praetors. Her ability is a lot like Massacre Worm's, but more more intense. Not only does she permanently give your opponent's creatures -2/-2, she grants yours +2/+2. She gives the player controlling her a power increase of +4 over your opponents creatures, a huge advantage. She herself has a pretty solid body, a 4/7 equipped with vigilance. This makes her difficult to be killed by red, although at 7 mana red may have a resourceful way of dealing with her. She is however, a little too expensive for a lot of decks, and she is susceptible to many forms of removal, such as black removal (both Doom Blade and Go for the Throat), blue removal (No one wants to have to play her again, and wont likely have the mana to resist a leak), and white removal such as Oblivion Ring and Journey to Nowhere.

The Blue Praetor, also known as Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, is the king of card advantage. Like all the other Praetors, he has two abilities, one that helps yourself, and one that hurts your opponent. He lets you draw Seven Cards at the end of each of your turns, granting you major card advantage, while forcing your opponent's maximum hand size down to zero, forcing them to have an empty hand on your turns, and the start of theirs. The blue Praetor is a tad expensive, at the cost of 10 mana, to make him really worth playing without cheating him out. He isn't very competitively viable due to this, but he will certainly give your opponent a scare when he hits the field.

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