Spoiler Highlight: Dauntless Dismantler in Legacy

Greetings, Legacy friends! We're in the Lost Caverns of Ixalan spoiler season, and I would like to discuss a cute card that stood out to me: Dauntless Dismantler!

There is a long tradition of creatures we call "Hatebears" in White. The name Bear (Bear) comes from the primordial Grizzly Bears, the original 2/2 creature for 2 mana.

Basically, any creature with this cost and stats is nicknamed Bear because of that. As for the "Hate" part, that is because there are countless white creatures with abilities that will bring chaos onto your opponent (ironic, coming from the color that promotes order): increasing their spells' mana cost, preventing card draw, adding an extra cost when they attack, preventing cards from going into play if they aren't paid in full, forcing their non-basic lands to go on the board tapped, preventing more than one spell from being summoned per turn, placing extra costs or disrupting card searches in your deck, and many other effects.

As originally most of these little creatures were 2/2 for 2 mana, that's where the Hatebear name came from to refer to these cards, even if they no longer fit these standards: Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, which is possibly the most famous and influential Hatebear, isn't a 2/2! But, semantics aside, what matters is that not only this color has a myriad of these creatures, but some of the most important decks in Legacy are fundamentally based on them: Death & Taxes and Boros/Mono White Initiative use thoroughly not only the aforementioned Thalia but also other fellas such as Spirit of the Labyrinth, Archon of Emeria, Ethersworn Canonist, Sanctum Prelate, Anointed Peacekeeper, Containment Priest, Boromir, Warden of the Tower, and even the colorless extra, Phyrexian Revoker, to list a few.

A new member has now come along to be a part of this true gang of party-poopers, which, even without a Bear's stats, because of its cost, can potentially cause enough headache to be classified as a Hatebear!

For some time now, decks focused on numerous low-cost artifacts have become an important part of Legacy's metagame, which is a consequence of Urza's Saga existing. Decks such as 8-Cast, Painter, and, more recently, Paradox Engine, swarm the board with things such as Lotus Petal, Mox Opal, Chalice of the Void, Seat of the Synod, Great Furnace, among others. When these decks are popular, it is common to see white decks resorting to Null Rod or Kataki, War's Wage to try and contain the colorless wave. The problem is that these cards interact in a non-synergistic way with their own artifacts, such as Aether Vial, Chrome Mox, and Equipment. Well, they have now welcomed a great reinforcement for this battle in the form of this new Ixalan Human Artificer.

The simple presence of this new Bear already delays your opponent's game plan a lot, and they can no longer chain Mox Opals or Mishra's Baubles. Artifacts that come in tapped can no longer Improvise a Kappa Cannoneer. Even Urza's Saga's Tokens can no longer be used defensively. But even though all of that is very useful, if the card stopped there, I wouldn't be talking about it. No, we still have a very relevant second line of text!

One of the most popular cards to fight against boards full of artifacts is Meltdown, the red spell, for two reasons: the first is that, for a cheap cost, they obliterate 0 and 1 cost artifacts - which covers most artifacts we find in the market, and the second is that, as it is a card from an ancient time, they don't have the infamous term, "non-land Artifacts", which we have in cards such as Ratchet Bomb or The Filigree Sylex. No, Meltdown takes down Artifact lands as well as all other victims.

I was very surprised to see that our new friend, Dauntless Dismantler, also doesn't have that restriction! Even though its cost is, in theory, more restrictive than the original spell, both cost only 1 mana to clear 0 cost boards.

"But, Eltinho, you still need to pay 2 mana for the creature!" Yes, and that is a problem that is in part remedied by the card's first ability, considering your opponent won't have access to activated abilities. So, they'll need to expose their Artifacts and risk their destruction - and as Dismantler's cost to do everything is quite low, it isn't unreasonable to imagine activating its ability for 1 mana and playing another on that same turn, once again pushing your opponent against the wall. Its size and cost also make it ideal to be found by Recruiter of the Guard, summoned at burst speed through Aether Vial, and like so catch your opponent off guard.

Death and Taxes

The first deck that should resort to Dismantler's services is the good old Death and Taxes, both in its 60 card version and its 80 card version. It was already common for this deck to have at its disposal in its main deck cards to deal with artifacts, considering how Recruiter of the Guard can tutor the right answer to any problem that comes along, but I believe that more units can fill the Sideboard as an answer to metagames that demand that answer.

Boros / White Initiative

Initiative Decks have frequently resorted to Loran of the Third Path or Null Rod to deal with artifact decks, but both face issues: Loran is slow and doesn't hit full boards, and Rodes makes your Petals and Moxes useless. With Dismantler, at least you'll use the mana from your artifacts before you explode them alongside the opponent's board!

As I mentioned before, Meltdown is a familiar creature in Legacy, and now white decks have access to something similar. Even though I don't believe Dismantler will revolutionize nor extinguish archetypes, it offers an important tool against a significant part of the meta. As an Initiative player, I know 8-Cast is a complicated opponent and I considered using that red spell in the sideboard for a while. The fact that Cavern of Souls can protect it is a positive.

See you next time!