On the last mythic matchup I set yet another duo of mythics from the two sets in this block so far against one another. The battle of Jace, Architect of Thought versus Enter the Infinite was a contest of tournament staple versus EDH limit break, raw efficiency versus bombastic might. And the planeswalker won out, avenging Gideon, Champion of Justice's loss in the first round. Continuing on with the monocolor mythics in the block, the Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash black round pits two very similar cards against one another. Both are fat, flying beaters with devastating triggered abilities that work on combat damage to players. But which one will walk away with the title? Let's find out whether Necropolis Regent or Lord of the Void is superior.
Return to Ravnica: Necropolis Regent
Many of Innistrad block's Vampires fed off combat damage to players, getting a +1/+1 counter every time they landed a successful hit. Necropolis Regent is the final progression of that paradigm, causing each and every one of your creatures to double in size on a player hit. If you were to ask just about any Magic player what kind of ability they thought the supreme Vampire would have, you'd probably get a response close to that. The beautiful thing about this is that it starts your path to victory as soon as it hits the table, since those +1/+1 counters will go on your unblocked and trampling attackers even if it's not swinging. And they'll stick around even if it leaves the battlefield, so the only ways to deal with a Necropolis Regent-led army are mass removal or a hell of a lot of blockers. The funny thing about this trigger is that it might feel at home in just about any combination of colors with the possible exception of blue, but nests comfortably in the black blood-sucking flavor this carries. You'll definitely get a lot out of your six mana with this - it would be worth the cost and then some even if it only put +1/+1 counters on itself. The fact that this is a $1 or less mythic means that a lot of people are underrating its power - there is sufficient mana accel in Standard, as well as sufficient reanimation, to make this a not-insignificant win condition for a suicide-black aggro deck.
Gatecrash: Lord of the Void
It seems to be a truism of Magic design: If your huge mythic black flyer isn't a Vampire, it's bound to be a Demon. The hellish Lord is slightly bigger (7/7 as opposed to 6/5) and more expensive (4BBB instead of 3BBB) than the Regent, but those differences are pretty negligible at the scale that these things are designed at. Its combat damage trigger is a lot subtler, sneakier, and riskier than the Regent's, too, but it has the added bonus of possibly depriving your opponent of their finisher and/or taking it for yourself. Realistically, there's almost guaranteed to be at least one creature card among those top seven cards exiled from your opponent's library if you're playing against about 95% of decks. And there are a lot of enters-the-battlefield triggers on creature cards that you can quite happily abuse with this guy - the Primordial cycle comes to mind. The bottom line is, this is just as game-ending as the Regent, and works only slightly less often, and has a lot of potential for mind games besides. For as similar as these two are, they also play in radically different ways - the Regent is more aggro-focused, while the Lord is more at home as a control finisher.
Flavor: The Regent wields your enemies' blood as an obliterating weapon, while the Lord tears through time and sanity to raise treacherous minions yet unborn. Both feel very epic, but I'm partial to the Lord of the Void's cosmic-horror-story-like ability.
Abilities: This is almost guaranteed to be a tie, since they both share the same evasion ability - flying - and both happen to have a combat damage trigger designed to end games. I'll allow the Regent to edge out the Lord since it brings all of your creatures to the party with its triggered ability.
Overall Appeal: This is a tricky one to determine, since both of these cards definitely appeal to the same sort of players - Timmies and EDH fans who like to play heavily black decks. I would venture to say, however, that Lord of the Void is the winner here since Demons are a more iconic and beloved creature type for mythic black creatures than Vampires are.
Final Victor: Lord of the Void
Want to dispute the outcome or suggest the next pairing? Let me know in the comments!
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