Invasion of Regatha from March of the Machine
- Card Name: Invasion of Regatha
- Mana Cost: 2R
- Card Type: Battle – Siege
- Rules Text: (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it’s defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.) When Invasion of Regatha enters the battlefield, it deals 4 damage to another target battle or opponent and 1 damage to up to one target creature.
- Defense: 5
- Illustrated by: Daarken
Why is it Important That Invasion of Regatha Does 4?
Well… To be honest, it actually does five damage; not four.
Back in the day you might remember a card called Char that did four damage (to any target, but often the opponent’s face; as Invasion of Regatha generally will)… But Char also did two damage to you. Char ruled all kinds of Standard in its era.
To wit:
Char from Ravnica: City of Guilds
That Invasion of Regatha does five total (one to a creature) is super cool… Not only is it a weird upgrade to a card that would probably see play in Standard as-is, the new Battle’s specific extra point can be tactically useful. For example in today’s game play video you can see I play an Invasion and also take out the opponent’s Thalia, Gurdian of Thraben with one spell.
One toughness? Card advantage!
Is a three-mana-card-that-contextually-costs-four a great Thalia killer? Not strategically, no. But it’s part of the range and when you do have four mana. More importantly, there are few things more satisfying.
But if you think about Invasion of Regatha as a card that does four damage to the opponent, you can start to build a new deck structure.
Brain the Opponent in the Noggin with the 2×4
It would be one thing if there were only one card in the format that did four damage to the opponent’s face. But what about if you have two?
Pairing Invasion of Regatha with old favorite Stoke the Flames gives a Red Deck the chance to approach the format with a more burn-centric game plan. In the past we have mostly explored Red Decks that look for opportunities to land cards like Blazing Crescendo or Ancestral Anger for big damage. The opponent tapped out? Great! Bash ’em for a ton!
But what if the opponent just doesn’t tap out? What if they have a fist full of instant speed point removal after sideboarding? The decks we’ve looked at that are more based on attacking might never get off the ground.
While those kinds of Red Decks can be both effective and fun, they do give the opponent an undesirable capacity for counterplay.
When you can just draw any five deal-fours and kill the opponent to death non-interactively, the rest of your deck simply doesn’t have to work as hard. To be certain you can — and should — still play the aggressive cards that make Red Decks playable in Standard… Your Monastery Swiftspear and Feldon, Ronom Excavator just aren’t as responsible for as much damage. Getting in for two or even four each will slide the opponent into Stage Three’s Inevitability before they know it.
Another point of strategic value: You can literally draw five big burn cards and win. Your opponents can think themselves all clever with Knockout Punch and Parasitic Grasp in hand… And they can just die with those cards in hand. What if you just never give them good targets but instead go Invasion, Stoke, yadda, and yadda? Play With Fire and Lightning Strike will help out, as might an opposing Shivan Reef or Llanowar Wastes.
Again, winning with no creatures at all will not be particularly common; but it’s still part of the range. Thus, part of the incentives that a “deal four”-focused Red Deck brings to the table over, say, a Reckless Impulse beatdown.
Here is a deck played to 5-0 in a recent MTGO event by a player called STORMQROW.
STORMQROW did a number of unusual things (relative to established Red Decks) but I think they mostly make sense here. No Phoenix Chicks! Well Phoenix Chick was probably the card I sided out the most with most of my tournament builds, so that makes sense… Especially since the STORMQROW swing has no big +3/+1 cantrip incentive to connecting opportunistically with a hasty flyer.
No Bloodthirsty Adversary though? That’s a Kill Your Darlings moment. Bloodthirsty Adversary is so powerful! But I can’t say I missed it much in my grinding with this deck so far.
This (and lots of other) 5-0 Standard decks, over at MTGO.com.
Anyway, I hope you like today’s game play. STORMQROW’s gave me killer win rate on the ladder so far; highly recommended.
LOVE
MIKE