Sewers Under Kasprah – Green Burst & White Backup

Huzzah, more Burst, and more fun stuff to talk about!

Click to embiggen

Shortsighted Cyclops and Dismantlers do some basic green things with the Burst. Gremlin Wayfinder has basically no downside to the Burst, since you sacrifice one land to get two (apart from them both going into your hand instead of one on the battlefield). Fungal Armor is really fun to me, providing a duplicate token copy of itself when you Burst. However, the token copy must enchant a second creature; you can't have it enchant the first. (I think there's probably a better way to phrase it.) Ruinbred Ogre is the common Burst payoff.

Moldy Giant is again your basic green effect, as well as Healer Giant, though the eight life is pretty big. Knotmother is the first instance of the frog token, and you can work on going wide with it. New Passageways is a rare Burst payoff, allowing you to find more lands to fuel more Bursts. Leader Basilisk is the first mythic I've shown, which lets you put another creature directly into play. Which, if you like, can be another Burstable creature, and you could sacrifice yet another land for another effect, such as dropping Knotmother. You've just put 10 power on the board for five mana! (...plus two land sacs).

These common Backup cards are mostly simple, though Inspiriting Call is tricky, and I'd have to aska judge on the rules for it. Do you have to cast it on your begin combat step to activate the Backup? I would think so, because if you cast it during your attack step, the timing for the Backup trigger has already gone by.

Watchful Cleric I find to be particularly interesting, giving other creatures Backup while it's in play. It does not have Backup natively, so you might want to choose to give Watchful Cleric itself Backup. Standing Sniffer is an uncommon Backup payoff. Note something interesting here. Suppose at the beginning of combat Standing Sniffer is untapped, making it a 5/5. You attack with it and something else with Backup. Standing Sniffer becomes tapped, making it a 3/3. Then the Backup trigger goes on the stack. While it's on the stack, Standing Sniffer is vulnerable to be bolted. Watch out!

Relief Sergeant is another uncommon Backup payoff, and, in fact, I considered Backup to be a token-making mechanic initially, such as simply saying as reminder text "When this creature attacks, create a 1/1 soldier creature token". In this case, Relief Sergeant gets the token tapped an attacking, for some solid aggression (however, the token cannot become untapped via Backup in this combat, since the Backup triggers have all already occurred). Elephant Barricade is a rare Backup payoff, though you could potentially just drop it and never attack with it.