Pointed Discussion

It's not that interesting but I do think it's a decent mechanic. I cannot for the life of me figure out why this mechanic isn't just a color identity thing so the rest of the pie could be used later (shrug)

A 1/4 body is usually dull for 3 mana (Horned Turtle noob days ftw!), but I do have to say that it blends pretty well with the extort mechanic, since one of your main goals is to stall your opponent, a pseudo-wall is better at that job than a "regular" body.
For that I rate this higher than a regular 1/4 3-drop should have.

Oh, TimmyForever, you never change XD

A fun card for a white control deck or a w/b control. Main reason for rating it 3.5 is the Monty Python and the Holy Grail ref in the flavor text.

NONE SHALL PASS! ...for free!

Orzhov. How to clog up the ground and grind the game long beyond what's reasonable.

Defender and extort. This is all.

For those of us who don't like having extra time between matches...

I find the extort mechanic extremely inefficient. Yes, you could spend 3 black and or white mana for 2 damage to opponent and to gain 3 life, however for one red and one white you could use lightning helix and that can target creatures.

Will hold down the fort for many a B/W draft deck.

It's a Human ,it's a Soldier,it's a Defender, it has Extort, he can kill any 1 toughness creature on block. i see a good use of Basilica Guards in many ways. example: you have 3 War Falcon on the battlefield, on your third turn u cast Basilica Guards all 3 of your birds can attack and you got a defender on, turn 4 you cast any cheap spell maybe another War Falcon and you can Extort for extra damage.
I find this card very fun to use and opposed to Guardians of Akrasa with Exalted i think Basilica Guards has far more uses as common card Defender creature mostly because of Extort. Definitely none may pass for free!
5/5 rating from me.

Might seem a bland card, but it's a total workhorse. In combat, it kills 1/1 and bounces 2/2 and 3/3. All while throwing out exhort. It ain't flashy, but this is far from a bad card.

Super powerful in Limited. Just you watch. Orzhov will eat this pre-release.

2/5. I would only use this to round out my mana curve.

Only in an Extort deck will this be any good.

Question about Extort: does casting creatures count as a spell?

Nice limited card. The extort bumps it up from "curve-filler" status. This could also find its way into some defender decks.

YOU! SHALL NOT! PASS!

(for free)

Reminds me of a little variation of the song "Peaches" my friend sometimes sings...

Millions of people, people for me.
Millions of people, people for free!

I have nicknamed these guys 'The Peanut Gallery.' They're the ones who sit back and MST3K your spellcasting decisions.

Likes free spells and phyrexian mana.. oh you want to visit Tormod's Crypt? Pay us. Accorder's Shield. Kind of similar to Lobber Crew for B/W spellcasters.

"for free" is not grammatically correct. Something is either "for nothing" or is "free of charge". "for free" is dumb.

FUN FACT TIME

Extort is a dual ability that appears equally in both black and white, like first strike is dual colored ability that appears equally in both white and red. (see boros recruit, Tundra Wolves, Striking Sliver) In fact there's no reason at all it should say "pay w/b", since only white and black cards have the cost... It should have just been printed as "pay an extra 1,..." Except for one reason:

Mark Rosewater specifically requested the design team to make Extort have the hybrid w/b cost in it so that extort cards could only be used in white AND black EDH decks, not one or the other.

Or, more accurately, he designed it so that the people in charge of the EDH format would remove the ridiculous (in his mind) rule that hybrid cards can't be played in mono colored EDH decks. In Magic Design, Hybrids are cards that can fit into either of the colors it is (for example, Merfolk of the Depths is a card that could be printed at 4GG OR 4UU, without changing or editing anything besides perhaps it's creature types in any way. Gold Cards on the other hand, are cards that give abilities that exist solely because the card is that color (Skyward Eye Prophets gets vigilance because it's white, card draw because it's blue, and land accel, however bad, because it's green. With any one of those colors lacking, they would not have printed skyward eye the way it was).

It's interesting to note that the people who run Elder Dragon Highlander changed the entire rule on color identity just to spite the entire design philosophy behind hybrid costs, and the whole point of extort, while still allowing this card to be run in mono White EDH decks.

"...at night!"