by Elton Gahr

Created on: October 16, 2009

One of the main reasons that people run two and three color decks is because no one color is able to do everything they want. And while this is true, there are also advantages to single color decks and the color best suited to this is black as it has the power to do almost anything so long as you are willing to sacrifice or pay to get it. Because of this ability the need to pay multiple black mana is less problematic than in other colors and black creatures that cost two or three black mana are more likely to reach main deck.

Gatekeeper of Malakir is a uncommon black vampire warrior from the Zendikar expansion set of magic the gathering that costs two black mana. In addition to being a vampire, which is more important in this set than any in the past he has a kicker ability. This kicker costs one black mana, and if you pay it you can force a player to sacrifice a creature.

Although this will be easiest to play in a straight black deck the fact that this is a low cost spell, and that the kicker is optional means that this will easily fit into two color decks so long as black is not a true minority and it will see play in a great many decks. For black it hardly matters what creature the opponent sacrifices because the odds are good that even in a limited format they have other spells that will kill creatures as well. It is also valuable that it is quick because many of the vampires in Zendikar have powers that come on line when your opponent hits ten life. If you can slip through with this even twice it makes it far easier for you to get your opponent to that all important ten life.

In limited this is a card that you should not only draft but draft as many copies as you can. A hand full of these is a nearly guaranteed victory as they are a reasonable creature, good creature removal and card advantage all wrapped into one nice package.

It is nice to see kicker back in the format. It is such a simple mechanic that it seems odd to me that it hasn't become a more central part of the game and it is cards like this that prove just how simple and how good it can be.

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