We’re back! Alchemy: Duskmourn is arriving shortly - and Gladiator is one of the best places on Arena to really put these cards through their paces. Come take a look - we have two very different cards that I, for one, am very excited to see what nonsense people will attempt with these new toys.
First up - skeleton motorbike. Let’s all take a moment to simply regard this skeleton motorbike. Got that? Great. It’s also a 2/2 for 2 with haste with a potential to grow significantly larger and a built-in recursion ability, only gated behind the paltry cost of Crew 1. While Rakdos decks have faded slightly from their height of popularity, “recursive beater that also wants creatures to die” feels like something worth trying out.
One last thought that I can’t get out of my head with the Soul Shredder - this feels like a card that might be tutored directly to the graveyard, perhaps with Goblin Engineer. Once it’s there, it will start growing almost immediately, and the Engineer happens to provide part of the payment to bring it back. It also then serves as an uncounterable sacrifice outlet that lives in the graveyard, and while I haven’t puzzled out the full use for that yet, it feels like something that I’d like to see investigated.
Welcome the Darkness is a card that immediately presented me a puzzle to evaluate. XB to draw X cards and create an X/X flier is a good place to start, but we follow that up with a pair of interesting “downsides” (assuming you’re putting reasonable amounts of mana into this card). In particular, “Your life total becomes X” feels like it essentially locks you into casting this card as late as possible - perhaps at instant speed, immediately before you would lose the game. A controlling deck tapping out for X=6 or so could then try to stabilize at 6 life, aided by a fresh hand of cards and a large flier.
Then we remembered that Gladiator is the only format on Scryfall where the card Channel is legal. Yes, being legal in a singleton format is functionally equivalent to being restricted in a 60/4 format - let us have this win. Looking at Welcome the Darkness again while putting unreasonable amounts of mana towards X paints an entirely different picture. We’re now making a game-ending flying threat and drawing enough cards to continue a combo turn, all while immediately refunding all the life that was just spent to Channel. Even under this lens, though, we have a very interesting puzzle - right now, casting Channel in Gladiator usually means a Storm line that involves Aetherflux Reservoir as a way to both generate more life to spend on mana, and eventually a win condition. “You can’t gain life for the rest of the game” means that any deck wanting to use Welcome the Darkness as part of a Channel line will have to pivot, potentially mid-game, into an alternate winning line. Channelstorm combo brewers - I’d really love to know what you think you can do with this.
Once again, the most sincere of thank-yous to Wizards of the Coast and the Arena team in particular - we wouldn’t be playing this format without the game you’ve built.