Earlier today, we saw Leyline of Sanctity spoiled for Magic: The Gathering‘s Core Set 2020. Based off of that, it would be pretty understandable to assume we were getting a reprint of several older Leylines into MTG Arena Standard. However, Wizards of the Coast has surprised us with an all-new one: Leyline of Combustion.
Leyline of Combustion
Right off the bat, this Leyline blows the old red ones (Leyline of Punishment, Leyline of Lightning) out of the water. In Standard on MTG Arena, this is an easy include in Mono-Red sideboards against control strategies that like to target you with hand disruption or target your creatures/planeswalkers with removal. Honestly, any aggressive creature deck could find value in this card to punish their opponent for interacting with their board. Aristocrats could also be a solid deck to slot this into. It’s always important to remove their Cruel Celebrants, and you would take damage to even target one with Leyline out.
In Modern, there are a number of interesting interactions:
- Against Storm, a resolved Leyline of Combustion can kill the Storm player if they target you with enough Grapeshot copies to kill you.
- Aggressive creature decks such as Goblins, Zoo, or Phoenix may find value in this card against Burn or Control, where they’re racing to finish first
- The Burn mirror just got very interesting since, if both players resolve Leyline of Combustion, there will be a ton of damage being thrown around.
Conclusion
Overall, Wizards of the Coast totally nailed the new red Leyline. It has a lot more uses than the old ones and will almost certainly be a big player in the coming Standard metagame on MTG Arena. Daily Esports is here to keep you up to date on all things MTG, so check out our news page! More Core Set 2020 spoilers are on the way, so be sure to keep tuned!
Published: Jun 17, 2019 09:16 pm