Gideon Blackblade
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Gideon Blackblade

Legendary Planeswalker — Gideon

As long as it's your turn, Gideon Blackblade is a 4/4 Human Soldier creature with indestructible that's still a planeswalker.

Prevent all damage that would be dealt to Gideon Blackblade during your turn.

+1: Up to one other target creature you control gains your choice of vigilance, lifelink, or indestructible until end of turn.

-6: Exile target nonland permanent.

wallisface on [Feedback Wanted] Competitive Gideon

4 months ago

Some thoughts:

  • You’ve labelled this as “Competitive” but there are a bunch of really weak cards here that should be upgraded if that is the case. Namely Devouring Light, and Kabira Takedown  Flip are both really terrible removal spells.

  • Your mana curve is too slow. Aggro creature-based decks want the vast majority of their cards costing 1-2 mana. You’re too heavily weighted towards 3-mana, which is going to lead to some really clumsy plays. Given your current land count, and wanting to play aggressively, i would suggest not running more than 6 cards costing 3 mana.

  • I’m not convinced Gideon Blackblade does anything useful for you here. Likewise Luxior, Giada's Gift seems pointless.

  • This deck really needs a playset of Aether Vial imo.

Max_Hammer on These silly hoomans - Need Help

5 months ago

Well hello there! I had way too much time on my hands, so here’s this. By the way, it’s all ordered best to worst. (:

Pay less to play more.

  • Circle of Dreams Druid is going to drop loads of mana, assuming you can pay the three green.
  • Fallaji Wayfarer is going to give all of your stuff (including your commander) convoke! Not all, but a lot.
  • Hamza, Guardian of Arashin is going to make a lot of your creatures cost a lot less.
  • Herald of War makes all of your humans dirt cheap if he gets counters. But, oh, what’s that? This deck loves making counters for creatures? Perfect.
  • Nissa's Expedition is just Cultivate but it potentially costs a lot less.
  • Gaea's Cradle is perfect if you have a small fortune laying around and you’re in need of mana.
I need more! More!!!

  • Bennie Bracks, Zoologist every time you make a token? So every turn? Alright, sick.
  • Ulvenwald Mysteries lets you investigate the murder of your entire army. A board wipe kills this deck, but this (plus loads of mana) could help bring it back.
  • Season of Growth lets you scry a lot, letting you look for pretty much whatever and just pull it out.
No, you’re not allowed to have that! Because I said so! Exile it! Now!

  • Devouring Light, Conclave Tribunal, Hour of Reckoning are all removal spells but if you’re on a mana budget with a lot of 1/1’s.
  • Elspeth Tirel is a board wipe, if you manage to keep her around for long enough. If that’s not what you need, though, she’s got plenty of utility otherwise.
  • Coordinated Barrage, Kabira Takedown  Flip, and Outflank aren’t super powerful, but can destroy pretty much anything that comes your way. If it’s not hexproofed, shrouded, or indestructible, it will be killed.
  • Devout Chaplain says “The power of Christ compels you! Begone!” but this time it actually works.
  • Sanctuary Lockdown lets you say “Not this combat phase, Satan,” and if you have enough mana, you can do that again and again and again. Plus, if you decide you can’t, then it’s still a big boy.
  • Kamahl's Will will destroy just about anything in sight and can give you extra attacking force, if you can manage a way to keep all of your lands safe.
Gotta keep your stuff safe, yeah?

  • Loxodon Hierarch is going to save your deck (which is very sensitive to board wipes) from a board wipe, judy once. Use wisely.
  • Scapegoat won’t save your tokens, but it will save everyone else, commander included.
  • Kindred Boon can slowly but surely make literally every creature you own indestructible.
  • Ephemeral Shields is extra protection that can easily be pulled out of your back pocket.
  • Basri's Lieutenant isn’t going to save your deck, but it will buy you time or give you a chance next turn at a kill, if the board wiper was low.
Make all of your stuff bigger!

Make more stuff! The theme of these suggestions is Give me more, if you couldn’t have guessed.

Might of the Masses is always fun in a creature deck, one green for a massive “Fuck you” at instant speed is great. Now here’s a bunch of Might of the Masses style cards.

I was looking for cards with the keyword “Human” and a million Gideon cards came up, so here’s all of the Gideon Planeswalkers. None of them are bad, per se, but all Gideon cards are not made equal.

  • Gideon, the Oathsworn just happens to slip and give all of your creatures an absurd number of counters. Not to mention the big body (noticing a pattern yet?) and the one-sided board wipe! He’s got a weird face again, sadly, pass.
  • Gideon, Champion of Justice is a board wipe and a big, bad creature all wrapped into one. 7/10, he can dominate me.
  • Gideon Jura can goad and destroy stuff. Perfect for removal and instigating fights when you know you’ll win. Not to mention the big scary 6/6 lurking beneath. Also a weird face, pass.
  • Gideon of the Trials reads “Fuck your biggest creature, he’s not going to do anything, and also, as long as I’m around, fuck you more.” Nothing crazy, but can definitely make you public enemy #1 for having an effect like that. Pretty normal face, but that ability makes him a dick. 3.4/10
  • Kytheon, Hero of Akros  Flip is just some kid. Ignore him. This is a child, pass.
  • Gideon, Battle-Forged!? Where did you come from? Nothing super interesting here, but for one mana not bad. Weird face, pass.
  • Gideon, Martial Paragon can give buffs to all of your stuff, which is definitely not bad at all, and your opponents are automatically dead if he gets that ten ability off. That said, this Gideon can get it. 10/10.
  • Gideon Blackblade is eh. He’s okay. He can get it, though. 7/10.
  • Gideon, Ally of Zendikar can do some generic Gideon stuff. Make tokens, give buffs, be a 4/4. Eh. 6.7/10.
This is just stuff I couldn’t find a specific panel for, so yeah.

Your deck is pretty spotless, so unless some of these are direct upgrades or you know what you want to take out, then this is all I have for you here.

  • Thraben Doomsayer’s first ability can be easily beaten by other cards, and his second ability is mostly useless, since you’re pretty screwed at 5 HP either way.
  • Heron's Grace Champion Lifelink is cool, but not something you super need. It’d be worth it if it was permanent, but it’s not, so pass.
  • Maja, Bretagard Protector just feels a little expensive for such a lackluster ability, Idunno.

    • TheOfficialCreator on Card Analysis #1 - Dreadhorde …

    5 months ago

    Hello, everyone!

    I thought I would try my hand at creating an article series centering around the beauty of different card designs, as each card truly is unique in its own way, and I wanted to make my appreciation of that into a tangible form so that everyone could experience it.

    A general outline of how this article series will go is this: a basic introduction (similar to what you’re reading now), cost versus effect, the flavor of the card, how the card interacts with its limited environment, cards that are similar to it and a short little blurb on what makes them different, a custom card inspired by the analyzed card and a short explanation of the process used to create it, the legacy of the card, and finally, a conclusion to round it all out.

    That being said, let’s begin!

    The card of today’s analysis is Dreadhorde Invasion, a card I chose to kick off the series with not only because War of the Spark is my favorite set, but also because it will give us a good platform to walk through the steps of this article series.

    Dreadhorde Invasion is an oft-overlooked card that provides its user with a Zombie Army (a mechanic introduced and incredibly localized to War of the Spark, excluding a few exceptions such as Lazotep Chancellor) at the cost of a single life each turn. Obviously this adds up quickly, and the Army that is produced is rather clunky, as it is easier to remove (a la Fading Hope), non-evasive, and rather small even in its beginning stages. For it gives you a 1/1 creature on turn 3. That’s not a great payoff, especially for more advanced formats.

    This is where the second clause comes in. If your Army can make it to six power, then Dreadhorde Invasion rewards you handsomely with an added lifelink, allowing you to gain back all that lost life and quickly breaking symmetry with your life versus your opponents. It’s not incredibly cost-effective (heck, a Forced Adaptation is more cost-effective in general), but it’s very fun to play with and can provide a lot more when juxtaposed with the rest of the game. But we’ll get into that later.

    The flavor of Dreadhorde Invasion is perhaps my favorite part of the card. The Eternals are probably one of the most unique MTG villains (I mean, come on, they’re blue metal zombies that can cross between worlds and steal planeswalker sparks), and definitely one of my personal favorites. The idea of Dreadhorde Invasion is that Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is executing his plan to become Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, invading the plane of Ravnica with his army of Eternals empowered by The Elderspell in order to steal the sparks of the planeswalkers, trapped there by The Immortal Sun and invited there by the Interplanar Beacon. The invasion is eventually quelled by a joint effort by Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Gideon Blackblade, Ugin, the Ineffable, God-Eternal Oketra, and God-Eternal Bontu, with the defeat of Bolas wrapped up in the brilliant card Despark. Dreadhorde Invasion more than anything flavor-wise represents the whole of War of the Spark, perhaps better than any other individual card in the set (except maybe Enter the God-Eternals). And that is why I love it so much; it is a testament to my favorite set of all time.

    As far as Dreadhorde Invasion’s performance in Limited goes, I must say that it has quite an unitive feel to how it operates in multiple deck strategies, similar to how it unites the flavor of the set. It has the keyword amass on it, which is the new ability introduced in the set, and which synergizes well with proliferate. Zombie Armies themselves receive gracious tribal support in the form of Gleaming Overseer, Eternal Skylord, Widespread Brutality, and the like. Beyond this fairly obvious synergy, however, there are many more options for how Dreadhorde Invasion can function in this set. For example, the creation of a creature every turn lends itself very well to sacrifice strategies revolving around Spark Reaper, Ahn-Crop Invader, and Spark Harvest, or even Liliana, Dreadhorde General and God-Eternal Bontu. In addition, the lifelink that can be attained on later turns goes well with Ajani's Pridemate and fits into a subtheme of life gain that the set has.

    Dreadhorde Invasion-style effects are somewhat rare, but there is precedence for their existence. The most obvious example is Bitterblossom, an enchantment well-known for its splashes in Modern and which creates small flying threats every turn at the cost of some life. However, there is also Ophiomancer and Endless Ranks of the Dead, or more recently Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia. The thing that sets Dreadhorde Invasion apart from these other cards is its unique combination of losing life and gaining life alongside its ability to make a token larger versus just creating a new token.

    Here is a custom card that I made that was inspired by Dreadhorde Invasion.

    enter image description here

    The process I went through to design this card went something like this.

    1) Look at Dreadhorde Invasion and think about what the card is wanting you to do. What's the general theme of the card?

    2) Build a general shell around the idea of losing life to gain life, pulling in inspiration from cards like Bloodghast.

    3) Adding a tribal element to make it feel like a Dreadhorde card.

    4) Adding a fitting name. "Vowmage" gives a feel of some kind of sacrifice to fufill an obligation, especially to a being like Bolas.

    5) Adding flavor text that is both quippy and fits the situation. In this case, I chose to show who the Vowmage's vow is to.

    6) Finding some art from DeviantArt that fit the theme. This art is from user Ryushadow, and is the only Eternal art I could find.

    Dreadhorde Invasion, like most of its amass kin, is largely forgotten especially in competitive play where it is not a contending strategy. Zombie Armies are incredibly weak to removal and usually aren’t very cost-effective, so their weakness of being a single lone creature that just gets bigger and can be chump-blocked can’t really be ignored. War of the Spark as a whole is a largely forgotten story arc, and despite its misgivings it’s still a shame. Dreadhorde Invasion does not truly have a legacy, though it was reprinted in the Midnight Hunt commander set as a part of Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver’s commander deck. Hopefully, one day, we will see Amass return in a future set with greater support so that Dreadhorde Invasion may one day be viable.

    Alright, everyone! That is the end of my article for today. Please let me know what worked for you and what didn’t so that I can sculpt this new article series to your feedback!

    Speaking of user feedback, I would like to have every tenth card be voted upon by the community. If you want to submit an idea for what card we will go over, just let me know in your comment. The comment with the highest number of upvotes will have their card in the tenth article of the series.

    Thank you all for the wonderful community we’ve made together! See you soon.

    SufferFromEDHD on The Lion of Jamuraa

    5 months ago

    Always wanted to build one of the spellshapers but never got around to it. They were all kind of lackluster but you made the most out of it. You have built an awesome list.

    I can't help but think flash would add insult to injury after Mageta.

    Deep Gnome Terramancer ramp is crucial and you already have a mini landfall going on.

    Archivist of Oghma and Alms Collector high quality card draw.

    Gerrard's Hourglass Pendant colorless mass recursion with anti extra turns as the cherry on top.

    Flawless Maneuver one sided Wrath.

    Cosmic Intervention neat tech.

    Soul of New Phyrexia great on theme discard fodder.

    Gideon Blackblade seems really strong in this strategy.

    Elspeth, Knight-Errant Planeswalker version of Avacyn, Angel of Hope

    Pearl Medallion continuous mana rock.

    Field of Ruin or Ghost Quarter could be upgraded to Dust Bowl. 21 plains to utilize in the late game.

    hiiii on I'll Just Play During Your Turn

    6 months ago

    Hey! I'm trying to look into interesting 1CMC counterspells you could replace Remand with. Mana Tithe, Spell Pierce, Miscast, Swan Song or An Offer You Can't Refuse could be interesting, tho they all have different drawbacks. If you want to stick to 2CMC, I'd say Dovin's Veto and Counterspell are always good options. The former is noncreatures only, but it is uncounterable, and the latter of course costs so it's harder to cast on multicolor.

    As for other cards, perhaps Lair of the Hydra could interest you. It's very similar to Celestial Colonnade, except you can make it bigger if you've got the means to do so. Sadly it's only, but it can enter untapped if played early. Upsides and downsides.

    Apart from that, I don't see anything I'd personally change in your deck, it seems really solid!

    If you want to add insult to injury you could always play Teferi, Time Raveler. If you're looking for creatures that are harder to get rid of, you could always get Gideon Blackblade. You could also run The Wandering Emperor for flavor points.

    Hope this helped! It's awesome to see an older deck still being worked on 6 years later :D

    Kuzar456 on Dakkon Blackblade Voltron

    7 months ago

    Thank you for your suggestions! Path of Ancestry i feel like the benefit of 10 possible triggers isn't worth it, i think you are right with the deck thinning - i might add the new Plaza of Heroes instead. Kamiz, Obscura Oculus would also be a great addition, i might remove Windfall instead because i felt the last few games with it in hand that it benefited my enemies more than myself... Gideon Blackblade is mostly for flavor in the deck :)

    chivalruse on Dakkon Blackblade Voltron

    7 months ago

    Correction to above post: -1 Gideon Blackblade +1 Kamiz

    golgarigirl on Life Gain Voltron (Trelasarra)

    10 months ago

    I always loved Trelissara's design. Sadly, my lifegain deck is Esper, so she didn't really fit! I don't know if this helps at all, but I think of my deck in terms of lifegain enablers (our Soul Warden and friends that gain us life) and payoffs (things that benefit us when we gain life, like Trudge Garden).

    I would pay special attention to one thing with life gain payoffs: a lot of the cards care about one of 2 things...either 'instance of life gain' (the ones worded 'whenever'...they do not care how much life you gain, just if you do or not), and the ones that care about quantity (the ones worded 'if you gained X or more life).

    You're going to want to sculpt your life gain enablers in the deck around what of those you have, and how much life gain they want you to have in a turn, to make sure they can hit your X.

    I would consider that a little more next time you play, pay attention to what cards want what effects.

    For example, my deck is built entirely around the 'instance of life gain effects', so I seldom need to worry about how much I gain.

    That said, some weak spots I noticed: Benevolent Bodyguard, Ilysian Caryatid, Soulmender, From Beyond, Indomitable Might, Hedgewitch's Mask. These are excellent places to start with upgrades! They're not bad on their own, but we can do better!

    Note on Aetherflux Reservoir: There are some playgroups that playing this will just get you ganged up on. I always caution people about that. If that's fine with you, it's a strong card. I didn't find it could gain enough life to make it worth it in my deck.

    Some possible (not too expensive) upgrades that I enjoy:

    Good in an 'instance of life gain' deck: Linden, the Steadfast Queen, Sunscorch Regent, Suture Priest, Gideon's Company, Twinblade Paladin, Omen of the Sun, Ajani's Pridemate, Oketra's Monument, Regna, the Redeemer

    Good in a 'gain X or more life' deck: Nykthos Paragon, Gideon Blackblade

    Good in both: Dusk / Dawn, Austere Command, Dawn of Hope, Shamanic Revelation

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