Pointed Discussion

It gets vigilance if you have a gate, huh? Hmmm. I am a pro so I will find all kinds of ways to abuse this ability. Being a soldier makes him even better and quite possibly constructed playable.

Here we have one of the crappy filler commons. With vigilance, it's borderline playable in limited. Everywhere else it's unplayable.

The flavourtext is more playable than this card.

Why would anyone want to jump through hoops to play a card that isn't even that much better when the additional requirements are met? A 2/5 with vigilance for 3W is just about on cost, but needing a Gateland, while not particularly hard to achieve, is still a silly and unnecessary requirement on an already subpar card.

Expected him to be 2/4. This isn't an unplayable card.

Seems like one of those 'win more' cards.

Really, REALLY reminds me of that 5-cost 2/5 with soulbound vigilance, Spectral Gateguards
In fact, this is the closest thing to that: It doesn't have normal vigilance, it has situational vigilance.

Not too bad, but definitely never seeing constructed play.

I want to see them go somewhere with these situational gate cards. I want "gate decks" to be viable, please.

Why the Dimir flavor text in a RTR card? I must say though, more low CMC giants is a good thing in my opinion. I want to see a giant for R.

Edit: I have been drafting RTR and this guy ends up in almost all of my decks, great to enchant or give trample and power boosts

He has Dimir flavour text because that guild still exists. It's not like Dimir, Orzhov, Simic, Gruul and Boros have no part in this block. Ravnica still has ten guilds, and I like cards that remind us of that. I'd also be glad to see references to these first five in Gatecrash.

Not bad in limited and even better if you control a gate.

2/5 for 4 is...undesirable, if functional. 2/5 vigilance for 4 is better, but still not much of a presence. Limited fodder, but functional limited fodder.

Dodges Mizzium Mortars at least, 5 lifegain with Trostani in the field, just a shame the power is low. Suits kitchen table decks perhaps.

He's got magical stats, an efficient cost, and a bonus ability if you're playing with gates, I don't see what's not to like here. I love that he doesn't require gates to be effective, especially considering that even if you're using gates, you're not guaranteed to have one by turn 4.

As TowerDefender said, that 5 toughness allows him to survive Mizzium Mortars, one of the harshest removal cards in Standard right now. On the other hand, he's also got 2 power, which is enough to take out bears and the occasional top-heavy First Striker.

Heck, you don't even need the gates to give him Vigilance, Hold the Gates does it automatically and buffs your whole lineup when the gates do arrive. Curves nicely, too.

*Pulls the gate from its hinges*
"Oh, nothing, Tommy. It's tip-top. It's just I'm not sure about the colour."

Honestly this is just about right at 4cmc for a common. So many versions of Pillarfield Ox over the years (why hello there Great Hart), and they honestly are boring and subpar. +1 toughness alone is a nice start, vigilance on top of that and you have a nicely updated defensive card. No it's not super pushed, but it certainly deserves better than a 2.