Guide to Part I: Ravnica at War – Momir

Event Overview

Duration: May 23 2019 to May 31 2019
Format: Momir (with a slight twist)
Cost: Free
Rewards: Gold and Card Styles for cumulative wins (up to 15) throughout the event duration

The first of the five War of the Spark Chronicles events has begun. These are a series of week long special, free to enter events that highlight the story of War of the Spark. Your incentive to play in these events are for the three Planeswalker cosmetic Glass Card Styles (not actual cards), for winning up to 15 games per event (each awarded at 3, 9 and 15 wins).

The first week’s format is Momir – with a twist. In addition to the default 60 card deck that you are given to play with for the event, one of each Planeswalker in War of the Spark is also shuffled into the deck to make a 96 card deck. This should make games more interesting.

 

What is Momir?

 

Momir is a casual format where each player is given a deck of 60 basic land cards – 12 of each color – and an emblem called Factory of Momir Vig which applies the effects as below:

 

 

The format becomes more fun and random as the number of creatures grow. As MTG Arena is still relatively new, we are limited to the ones in the few sets we have available so far.

 

Guide

 

Momir is a highly random, luck-based format, but it can involve some degree of strategy and playing the odds if you want to have an edge over your opponent. This is especially true in MTG Arena, where the card pool is small (in relative terms), and there are only a few cards that is worth your while. Keep in mind this format has no spells or tricks, so it is all about taking control of the battlefield and combat math.

• Reference: Creatures with Converted Mana Cost (CMC): 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 (none) 12
• Reference: All 36 Available War of the Spark Planeswalkers

 

1. General Strategy and Tips

• Playing first is generally better, because you get to create creatures that are (again, generally) one more CMC powerful than your opponent’s. For this reason also, creatures that generate additional Mana (e.g. Paradise Druid) will give you a huge advantage.
• Be mindful of the Basic Lands you play each turn which may be relevant if you need to use an Activated Ability of a creature that has a Mana cost, and especially this particular event as you may need them for your Planeswalkers (e.g. Kaya, Nissa). More on this below.
• Skip playing 1 CMC creatures and start with 2 CMC – unless you feel like you want to gamble for something like Llanowar Elves but the odds are not in your favor.
• Creatures that draw you extra cards will give you a huge advantage. Since you are essentially losing a card each turn (assuming you are playing a land and discarding a land card to create a creature token). This will matter when you want to start casting 9 or 10 CMC creatures.
• For the high CMC creatures, in previous iterations of the format have revolved around resolving a [c]Zacama, Primal Calamity[/c] which now only has a 33% chance of happening – and the downside is the other two possible creatures are duds. Depending on the board state, I would opt to skip to the final boss of Momir, 10 CMC [c]Impervious Greatwurm[/c], or even cast 8 CMC creatures instead, as there are a lot of good creatures in this category too.

2. Changes in this Event

• In the latest set War of the Spark, the spotlight is on Planeswalkers. For creatures in this set, the highest CMC of creatures is 6. [c]God-Eternal Rhonas[/c] is probably the best addition for its potential to end the game out of nowhere. No other new creatures beyond that, so there is still no big monster to summon after 10 CMC.
• As stated briefly above, there is also a slight variation to the format. We are given one of each Planeswalker card in War of the Spark – 36 of them – included in the deck. That makes it roughly one out of three cards – a starting hand could generally look like 4-5 lands and 2-3 Planeswalkers. That makes the Mana Curve more interesting, rather than just pumping out a creature each turn without issue. Planning out your Basic Land play is also crucial in casting your Planeswalkers, so that may require a bit of luck, too.
• You have the choice – do I use the Planeswalker to make a creature, or do I want to cast it now or save it for later? Also consider that you may not even draw lands every turn, so it may be more difficult getting to more than 7 lands if you’re casting the Planeswalkers instead.
• In previous Momir formats, summoning our best friend [c]Demonlord Belzenlok[/c] at 6 CMC caused you to lose the game by exiling your whole deck. Now that we have some nonland spells (i.e. Planeswalkers) in the deck, the card may be quite powerful as it can draw you potential more than one Planeswalker (22 of the 36 are CMC 4 or greater) and leave behind a powerful flying creature!

 

3. War of the Spark Planeswalkers

 

In addition to the normal rules for Momir, for this event we have to consider the Planeswalkers that will be added to our decks of Basic Lands.

• Uncommon Planeswalkers are mostly situational – from useless (Ashiok) to mediocre (Narset may draw you a Planeswalker, Dovin can stall the board for a bit) to pretty good (Davriel provides card advantage, Jiang Yanggu provides Mana ramping) to excellent (Kaya can unconditionally remove 2 creatures if you manage to cast her). Balance up whether they are better off being discarded or saved for potential future use.
• The Rare Planeswalkers are pretty good – Teferi removes creatures altogether with his minus ability due to creatures being tokens, and Chandra lets you basically draw a card. Although the best one I’d rate out of all is Nissa – if you have saved up some Forests to play, she can ramp you up to the 9 to 10 CMC pretty quickly, especially that lands may be harder to come by.
• Liliana and Nicol Bolas, as expected, are excellent as they can provide a huge card advantage to you and can remove their threats.

That’s about it! The event first and foremost, is meant to be fun so enjoy – I wish everyone the best of luck and hope that you can accumulate your 15 wins in a stress-free manner.