Five With Flores

302 words on hot Alara Reborn common Qasali Pridemage.

Aesthetics:
The first thing you notice is that there is no “u” in “Qasali”. Does that make Qasali Pridemage Arabic? Just putting it out there.

Qasali Pridemage is a quality two-drop.

Interesting that our boy Billy Moreno just won a PTQ for Pro Tour Honolulu. Because at the last Pro Tour Honolulu he struck a virtual Top 8 with a Zoo deck that played two different two-drops that are at least superficially comparable to Qasali Pridemage:

• Watchwolf, and
• Kami of Ancient Law

Why a Watchwolf?
The price is right — GW — for similar functionality. Watchwolf was something special when it first came out; less so today with Wild Nacatl and a string of other great creatures; on offense, Qasali Pridemage can be pretty 3/3 himself.

Why a Kami of Ancient Law?
It’s pretty obvious, right? In fact Qasali Pridemage is even more versatile although the additional mana cost is a little steep.

Where can I see this fitting in?
Really only one or two kinds of decks… small creature beatdown decks or Zoo decks, possibly with Exalted sub-themes, main deck or in the sideboard. Qasali Pridemage is harder to play and less forgiving under pressure than Kami of Ancient Law (or Ronom Unicorn); those cards were played in a fairly narrow band of decks (Boros and Zoo), with Kami of Ancient Law seeing some Orzhov play largely due to Tallowisp sub-themes only. Despite its [Watch]wolfish leanings, I don’t see Qasali Pridemage being a lot more popular across a lot more different kinds of decks.

Snap Judgment Rating: Role player; probably typically a two-of sideboard card.

LOVE
MIKE

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