Khans of Tarkir Mechanics

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Happy Sunday MTG peeps,

Wow!  Last night's Magic: the Gathering previews at the PAX Prime Khans of Tarkir party was amazing.  We've got a dozen cards spoiled including Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker and the reprint of Onslaught Fetchlands.  You can check out all the new cards in our previous post here.

We were set to take a breather after mad typing / posting last evening but Bazinga!, we've got MOAR Khans of Tarkir previews on the motheriste today we were not expecting - the mechanics of Khans of Tarkir - let's go !
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The set centers around wedge colors. Each clan features their own mechanic. In addition all clans feature morph.

The Abzan keyword action is Outlast ((cost), Tap.gif: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. Outlast only as a sorcery.). Cards may have an additional ability whenever you activate the outlast ability.

The Jeskai keyword is Prowess: (whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn).

The Sultai keyword is the cost-reduction Delve, introduced in Future Sight: (You may exile any number of cards from your graveyard as you cast this spell. It costs Mana1.gif less to cast for each card exiled this way).

The Mardu ability word Raid and related cards are all based around a very fast, aggressive strategy for winning. Raid gives an advantageous effect if you have attacked with a creature the same turn.  

Each of the five clans uses deception to outmaneuver its rivals. Morph is a returning mechanic that lets you cast spells as face-down creatures, disguising their true identity until you turn them face up such as the above Abzan Guide.  You can cast a creature spell with morph face down whenever you normally could cast that card.  A face-down creature spell is a 2/2 colorless creature spell with no name, no creature types, no abilities, and no mana cost. We are very excited to find out that within some Khans of Tarkir booster pack, you will be able to get this 'overlay' card you can put on top of one of your face-down creatures while it's on the battlefield as a reminder.  This is perfect for us when we game at OMG! Games here in Barrie as a lot of the games we have are 'intense' and we typically forget triggers unless we're caffeinated.

There are a few interesting twists with morph as well.  Icefeather Aven has a triggered effect when it goes face up and Lens of Clarity will allow a sneak-peak at your opponent's face-down card.  Given the good number of morph cards in this set, we'll likely be 'auto-including' a few Lens in our sideboard and will pre-order 'em from MTG Mint Card.  Definitely very excited to tune in to the Khans of Tarkir world building panel at PAX this afternoon, so stay tuned for additional posts.

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