Single card discussion : Portcullis

[Kotch]

Portcullis          4
Artifact
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, if there are two or more other creatures on the battlefield, exile that creature. Return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control when Portcullis leaves the battlefield.

(Fortress)

as a potential card in Aggro-Shop sideboards, especially vs Dredge, Oath and Mirror match-ups, and why not vs Fish decks.


Pros :
Its mana cost fits well in Shop decks.
Very good synergy with Mishra's Factory.
Vs Dredge : Narcomoeba, Bridge tokens, Bloodghast and Ichorid would be EXILED.
Vs Oath : if Oath of Druids is on the board and thanks to Orchard's tokens, creatures wouldn't even come into play.
Vs Fish : it could freeze the board with something like Golem and Noble Hierarch.
Vs Mirror : it could avoid your opponent to cast his Trike, Dup or other Golem.

Cons :
You need to get at least 1 creature in play to limit Dredge's development, and 2 vs Oath.
It's definitely NOT a solution vs creatures that are already on board.
vs Aggro, you have to deal with Swords to Plowshares, or you will be self-locked! which is pretty risky. But you can avoid it thanks to Chalice of the Void at 1 and Mishra's Factory, at least in your lucky days...

Anyway, it seems for me to be very good vs Dredge and Oath. But I am now far away from tournament tables to have a good advice on it, that's why I would appreciate the advices of TMD community.


The question is :
In Aggro-Shop builds, wouldn't this card be better than other graveyard-hate cards vs Ichorid? Giving a nice bonus vs Oath which is a tough match-up?

Thanks for your comments and sorry for my poor english

[serracollector]

The problem is with the increase of stax use due to Lodestone, your still facing eot Hurkyll's/Rebuild/Grudge/Claim etc etc.  Against fish they just cast their creatures anyways, let them all be exiled, then EOT just destroy or bounce it, and bam, they got an army.  Also, correct me if I am wrong, but since the creature hits battle field first, they could still cast a quasali, and sac it to destroy port before it "gets exiled" right?  Sorry, but I don't see this card as very viable.  It may have a spot in SB against oath, since 1 creature + a 1 toke or a Factory at least slows them down.  But overall, in the current meta, don't think so.  Tangle Wire or Smokestack do the same job without any requirements, and are better at it.

[madmanmike25]

If the exiling was "instead of" and not a trigger then this card would be good.  As it stands now, Terrastodon is just going to blow it up.

But thanks for keeping your eyes open, there needs to be some reasonable card to help deal with huge creatures that are cheated into play.

[Kotch]

Right, then Portcullis is not that good vs Terrastrodon-Oath... and quite ineffective vs Fish. But what about the Dredge matchup? Wouldn't you prefer this card over any other, as an Aggro Shop player?

[Cyberpunker]

Right, then Portcullis is not that good vs Terrastrodon-Oath... and quite ineffective vs Fish. But what about the Dredge matchup? Wouldn't you prefer this card over any other, as an Aggro Shop player?

Its still better than nothing if its Elephant Oath. There is a chance they won't Oath of up the Elephant and you can stall them for a few turns to race.

[TheBrassMan]

It might actually be *worse* than nothing against Elephant Oath.  With Portcullis and two dudes out, when Terastodon comes into play, the two triggers are going to go on the stack in APNAP (active player, nonactive player) order.  This means what happens is:

1. Terastodon enters the battlefield.
2. Portcullis removes Terastodon.
3. Oath player destroys up to 3 permanents, one of those 3 permanents will be Portcullis, both players will get Elephants accordingly
4. Portcullis dies, Terastodon comes back, and kills up to 3 more things.

It does buy one turn if they get a non-Terastodon first, but the next turn they'll get that Iona/other card back anyway, and the Terastodon will work twice.

In general though, it's interesting enough, though I dont know if it's better or worse than Ensnaring Bridge, which serves a similar function

[Grand Inquisitor]

can stall them for a few turns to race

A few is three to nine.  Also, for 4 mana you get Chalice @2, for 5 mana you get Eon Hub, which are better.

Outside the box thinking is good, it just didn't work here.

[Cyberpunker]

can stall them for a few turns to race

A few is three to nine.  Also, for 4 mana you get Chalice @2, for 5 mana you get Eon Hub, which are better.

Outside the box thinking is good, it just didn't work here.

True, the max it can stall is 2 turns if they Oath up Iona, then their Tinker Robot.

[madmanmike25]

It might actually be *worse* than nothing against Elephant Oath.

Good example, and funny as hell.

Kotch, I would still prefer Relics over this card in the Dredge matchup.  Powder Keg in the sb is also pretty useful for killing zombie tokens, 1-2 cc creatures and on the draw it can pop off moxen.

For Oath things are pretty grim for the shop player.  I used Jesters Caps last weekend and simply saw 4 creatures.  Duplicant?  Well he takes away 1, but you still have creature advantage so Oath is going to trigger again.  And to be honest, if you see Terrastodon you are going to be hard pressed to get 6+mana(Sphere effects) to cast that Dupe.  Eon Hub stops my most common way for dealing with Oath: Smoke and Tangles.  Seems viable though in the sense that you hope to see one or the other.  E. Bridge has the same problem as Portcullis in that it will turn into a 3/3 Elephant.  A really narrow Oath card is Spawning Pit.  That however does nothing against Tinker or Time Vault.

Portcullis may be an exceptionally narrow way of dealing with Tinker if you are playing Shop Aggro.  But in that case you better hope you have 2 creatures AND that those 2 creatures are Lodestones so you actually have a clock.  If ETW saw more play maybe...