It's already been two weeks since Alchemy: Outlaws of Thunder Junction (YOTJ) came out on MTGArena and, starting from the first days, what has most caught the attention and is causing players to discuss is the new heist keyword:
Look at three random nonland cards from target opponent's library. Exile one of them face down. You may cast that card for as long as it remains exiled, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast that spell.
What from the spoilers seemed to be a harmless mechanic for everyone (after all we had already seen something similar with Gonti, Lord of Luxury), turned out to be incredibly powerful once playtested and that's because many of these cards, in addition to heist, have a payoff for this ability, so you can combining all of them together into one heist-themed deck.
But let's have a look at the cards:
Grave Expectations: with a single black mana at instant speed, it's the heist spell with the cheapest mana cost and, despite having no payoff by its own, it's a great engine for the deck. Occasionally it can give you 3 life, against Burn or Convoke, or remove something from the graveyard, adding versatility to the card.
Weave the Nightmare: its design is a bit reminiscent of Flame of Anor, even if the condition for activating 2 effects is not always resolved so early in the turns. It allows us to continue heisting while controlling the game with Dismember and Negate.
Impetuous Lootmonger: despite its being uncommon, it's probably the strongest card with heist and surely it is in the mirror match. Here in fact, stealing the opponent's Lootmonger is crucial, as its treasure creation will allow us to chain together the stolen spells without having too many problems casting them.
This card has not been limited in anything: the treasure enters untapped (not following the line of many OTJ cards such as Magda, the Hoardmaster or Vraska, the Silencer); the ability does not trigger only once each turn; and of course it has heist by its own discarding a card, so it can also work alone. As if this wasn't already enough, it even has first strike, absolutely relevant for stopping the race of Convoke, Burn and Naya Legends!
Triumphant Getaway: speaking of something good vs aggro, Getaway drains 2 life each time you cast an opponent's spell, so as to bring your life points safely out of the enemy reach. Also thanks to heist twice, it's extremely synergistic with Lootmonger which, among other things, can help us cast it, ramping mana or fixing it with treasures.
Flash is once again an extra but relevant ability. Beyond to allowing Control decks to tap out on their turn, it can be cast at the end of your or your opponent's turn, with a treasure made by Crucias, Titan of the Waves or as soon as it has been seeked by the latter.
Grenzo, Crooked Jailer: it's another card has exceeded all expectations! 6 mana for 6/4 may seem like a lot, but he replaces himself when he enters by stealing an opponent's card, while he becomes an overwhelming advantage engine in case he survives until our next turn!
Once each turn allows us to cast an heisted card for free, which should ideally be exploited by casting anything at sorcery speed in our turn and leaving: Triumphant Getaway, removals and counters for the opponent's one. Speaking of counters, while it's true Grenzo can be killed in response to his ETB trigger (therefore before stealing any cards), it's still possible to pay 0 mana to cast an already heisted instant spell. So, for example, if we had previously heisted a Negate, we could tap out and cast Grenzo, countering the opponent's removal in fully Force of Will style!
Grixis Heist
So what does a Heist deck look like? As I said before, this is something very strong and because of this there are many players out there trying the mechanic right now, resulting in lists very similar to this one.
Among the non-heist cards, it's not surprising to see two staples of the format such as Crucias, Titan of the Waves and Rusko, Clockmaker which allow us to have enough mana ramping Grenzo or playing opposing cards. Having a lot of mana, indeed, is important as it'll allow us to develop our game turn after turn and accumulate an increasing advantage. This is mainly what Lórien Revealed is for and it can also be used to draw, once a sufficient amount of mana has been reached, or to tutor Grenzo if discarded with Crucias.
As far as counters go, I think Stern Scolding is in a great shape now that heist is overplayed. With just one mana it's possible to counter the two key pieces namely Lootmonger and Crucias, remaining at the same time extremely effective against the rest of the meta: Convoke, Legends, Orzhov and Mardu.
Further mirrorbreakers can be found in the sideboard where I chose to play Razorlash Transmogrant and Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal. The reason is not only they are both good cards, but mostly because it wouldn't be the end of the world if they were heisted, since once killed they would return to our graveyard or side of the battlefield respectively.
I prefer this kind of solutions to more specific ones such as Vesuvan Mist or Zoyowa's Justice, which yes, are excellent if drawn, but are equally excellent for the opponent if they heist them... especially since they usually have a better chance of finding'em.
Is heist too strong?
But let's now come to the questions everyone is asking: is heist too powerful for Alchemy? Well, there are certainly a lot of points in favor of this mechanic:
– You choose a card from 3 nonland cards. This is huge! With the first heist you will already have a lot of choice, but with the second or third one you will probably have access even to your opponent's hidden techs. Additionally, the fact it's nonland will always guarantee you value and things to play in every stage of the game.
– The chosen card remains face down in exile. Your opponent cannot know what you chose until you play it. They can't even know which are the other 2 cards seen and therefore what information you already have about their deck.
– They can’t interact with the heisted card. This one is much stronger than any other card in your hand because discard spells are useless and there's no reasonable way to get it out of there for the rest of the game.
– It removes the card from the deck. Because of the flavor, heist does not conjure the card but steals it. The opponent may never have access to it again, so in the long run heist turns into many small Cranial Extraction that could deprive the opponent of any win condition.
– It thins the deck. Heist after heist the opponent will end up being deprived of the best things in their deck. As a consequence their draws will be miserable, finding more lands than usual or just cards not particularly relevant.
– There is no counter play good enough. Normally to fight a strategy just need to set up the deck in a certain way, but in this case, since you will play with your opponent's deck, it could end up more hard than usual. For example, they might want to play more counter spells hitting the key pieces with heist, but you might steal them first and use them backwards. Even more so in the mirror, where each one plays with the opponent's deck and it almost seems that whoever has the weakest deck has an advantage.
For all these reasons I believe heist is probably a little too pushed for Alchemy, especially in view of the rotation will take place in a couple of months, risking of monopolize the format even more than it's already doing now.
The worst part though is I think it's unfun for those who suffer it! Being deprived of their own cards and having them played against you, I don't think is fun! Be punished for having built a strong deck, perhaps more than the opponent's one, I don't think is fun, and that's why I would like to see a nerf before the rotation.
Possible nerfs
But how can it be fixed? Here are 3 possible ways to nerf heist:
– Make it hit land cards too. This is the solution I have heard the most but which I like least. Often you need actually a land and therefore in many spots heist would become even stronger than now.
– You may cast that card until the end of your next turn. Giving an expiration means that often you will not be able to play the heisted card and sometimes it will force one play rather than another. Then, if the card is not casted, it returns into the deck.
– Exile a random card instead of 1 in 3. Choosing between 3 cards is too advantageous by always finding a strong answer or something to play, while receiving a single random card would certainly be much less disastrous and more manageable. This is my favorite nerf!
However, from the latest update of the ban list (May 13th), it would seem WoTC doesn't want to take this path currently, defining the format in a "healthy state". We'll see what happens, in the meantime we just have to play at being bandits and choose between these two: rob or be robbed!
