The Magic: The Gathering set, the Streets of New Capenna, comes with a handful of new mechanics for players to sink their teeth into. One of these mechanics is shield counters. A shield counter is a counter that protects a creature from an instance of damage or destruction, instead forcing the counter to be removed. At their best, shield counters provide an easy way for a card to two-for-one your opponent, forcing them to expend one card to remove the shield counter and another card to finally kill the New Capenna creatures.
At their worst, shield counters can be removed by incidental instances of damage such as a chump blocker or a ping, providing no tangible benefit for the keyword. In other words, shield counters are a high-risk, high-reward mechanic. Thankfully, the Limited format is much less likely to provide consistent answers to shield counters, making them especially good in Draft and Sealed. But enough speculating, let's take a closer look at this mechanic at play.
10 Swooping Protector
Our first card on the list makes for the reliable use of its shield counter thanks to the flash keyword. Swooping Protector is the perfect answer to an opponent's flyer crashing in, allowing you to block the creature at instant speed and likely take it down in Limited thanks to swooper's two power.
However, four mana is a suspiciously expensive amount of mana to leave up, and it's likely Limited players will catch onto when you're trying to cast this card sooner rather than later.
9 Voice Of The Vermin
With all of these 1/1 human tokens running around in the set, it's nice to see a card that can put their frail bodies to use. Unfortunately, Voice of the Vermin is a bit overcosted for this effect at four CMC. It would have been nice to see this card printed at three or even two CMC, but we can't always get what we want.
8 Wingshield Agent
As they say, the best defense is a good offense. Wingshield Agent takes this mantra to heart by providing flying to another creature you control when you attack with it. Thanks to the agent's shield counter, you can often bet on the Wingshield providing flying to another creature in two separate combat steps.
If it's a big enough creature, this might just be enough damage to close out the game. Otherwise, it will likely provide enough pressure to put your opponent on the defensive, which will usually play in your favor.
7 Rhox Pummeler
It's nice to see reliable old trample printed on one of these shield counter cards. In theory, it's probably the best keyword for the shield counter mechanic as even if your opponent chump blocks the counter, they are still going to take some damage.
Six mana may seem like a lot for this rhino, but his ability to smash through a big opposing creature is nothing to sneeze at.
6 Disciplined Duelist
So, we may have misspoken. First strike or, better yet in this case, double strike goes the extra mile with your shield counter as chump blocking no longer deals with the shield. Since your creature deals damage before the opponent's, your shield counter is left unmarred and your creature stays protected.
If its tricolor cost isn't too much trouble in this Limited format, we expect Disciplined Duelist to be a thorn in many players' sides.
5 Rigo, Streetwise Mentor
Remember all those 1/1s running around we just talked about? Here's a much better way to put them to use. Rigo allows you to trade one of these little dudes for a new card every turn. Not only that, but he's also the first shield counter card on the list that doesn't have to attack in order to trigger his effect.
This makes the shield counter infinitely more valuable, as now your opponent is forced to use two instances of removal to remove Rigo versus being able to simply chump block him. The kicker here is that you need a handful of 1/1 creatures in order to make Rigo work, but it doesn't look like that will be too difficult to achieve in this Limited.
4 Boon Of Safety
A one mana instant speed spell that not only counters removal but provides a scry trigger as well sounds like gravy to us. On top of essentially countering removal spells, this card also functions as a perfectly good combat trick to keep your creatures kicking.
Boon of Safety is the real deal as far as Limited is concerned, so be on the lookout for opponents leaving one white mana up. Chances are this card may be good enough to slot into mono-white standard decks too.
3 Titan Of Industry
This titan might not come with first or double strike, but trample services is arguably better when your creature has got seven toughness to keep it safe. This is a bomb that can end games on its own, and you should be playing this card every time you can in Limited.
As far as Constructed is concerned, Titan of Industry will likely find a place in Standard's midrange decks, and may even be an important piece to a new green control shell that emerges. This card provides all of the benefits that playing green has to offer, so what's not to like?
2 Sanctuary Warden
What's better than a shield counter? How about two of them! Not only that, but Sanctuary Warden also comes with the useful ability to remove a counter from another creature or planeswalker and create a 1/1 token as well as draw a card in exchange. On top of that, this is an angel creature-type card, which might just end up looking at all the angels that have recently been printed.
That's a whole lot of value tacked onto a big protected flier that's already going to help you close out the game. This card not only does something when it enters the battlefield, it requires an answer quickly or threatens to run away with the game. That's exactly the kind of value we want out of a six-mana creature.
1 Elspeth Resplendent
Planeswalkers that protect themselves are almost always better than those that can't defend their valuable loyalty counters, and Elspeth Resplendent is no different in this regard. In fact, she's arguably even better at sticking around as the creature she pulls from the deck to protect her also receives a shield counter!
There's no doubt the new Elspeth will be making a splash in standard, and we're excited to see what all this card can do. After all, her -3 loyalty ability says you can pull any nonland permanent from the top seven, so who's to say what kinds of shenanigans Elspeth is about to get up to.
Source: Read Full Article