Raven Mocker. The 2 drop we needed for dark/spirit archetypes.

 Hello everyone, BurnedByKevin here! It’s exciting to be back writing articles as spoiler season has begun, and competitive play is starting for the new year! Today I’m really excited to talk about the new spoiler card thanks to Turmentic, and his awesome lore video on YouTube. I now present to you, Raven Mocker. 

  This is what I have been waiting for. This is what spirit decks, dark decks, or in this case, spirit dark archetypes needed as a 2 drop. An absolute bomb. Let’s dive in! 

 Raven mocker is a 1 dark, 1 spirit cost beastie, with the invisible trait. Having invisible alone makes this card standout already, without reading the rest of the card, but once you realize you can contract Raven Mocker at Instant speed, things are heating up. Raven mocker reads, whenever a page is placed into the limbo or cemetery, place it into the afterlife instead. Once per turn, when a beastie is placed into the afterlife, you may caw to have this beastie GAIN 30 lp. Holy cow. But wait there’s more, this attack deals +15 damage for each beastie in ALL afterlives… Now we really have use of afterlife movement outside of red ghost and ghost train finally!

      Now let’s breakdown why this card is going be a menace. 

1. Raven mocker is going to be a card that gradually gets stronger as the game progresses. The huge LP gain you get when a beastie Is placed into the afterlife is super significant. Even after the first proc we are looking at a 70 lp beastie, that swings for 25 and invisible as a 2 drop. Now let’s do that again about 2 more times and what do we get? 130 lp, swinging for 55 and invisible. If you can build your deck to interact with pages to be sent to the afterlife, which spirit does so easily already, Raven mocker can easily come in consistently swinging for at least 55-70 without really trying. Cards like Familiar, and the spell, Rest in peace, will really shine to help set up a big attack for Raven mocker. Raven mocker itself, sets up to be a beefy lp and an additional engine for the afterlife interaction when your familiars die early or however you decide to move cards to the afterlife, it can be risky to play Raven mocker early, with the chance of being destroyed early game. So, establish that afterlife early, then mid game bring out the Raven Mocker to finish the job!
2. Raven mocker will slow down/shutdown gaasy and dredge archetype decks Due to Its arena affect, whenever a page is placed into the cemetery or limbo, send it to the afterlife instead, Gaasy or anything that relies on cemetery or limbo will hinder. As we know, most flame decks if not all flame decks mid/end game is playing gaasy, then reusing their spells to stabilize and win. If you can get your Raven mocker to be beefy enough to survive flames spell interaction, like explosion or unholy fire, those pages will be sent to the afterlife instead of the cemetery. Those precious recourses for gaasy will not exist. I think a normal play here would be to contract Raven mocker in response to a burning effigie or even an explosion, so when that spell resolves it’s sent to the afterlife and now you can start working on your Raven Mocker engine. Since you can play 3 per spell book, this is going to be huge against decks that rely on the cemetery or limbo, once again gaasy, and even hells gate will be punished. 
3. Spirit archetypes will move up the tier list. Of course, we haven’t seen the rest of native, but with Raven mocker alone, the spirit archetype has received a pretty significant boost. Spirit is pretty disruptive and being able to play alongside direct destroy spells like hateful demise, or death beam, and even death, while raven mocker is out on field, it just makes perfect harmony. Those two aura types are a deadly combo and will be a force to be reckoned with for sure. What are your thoughts on Raven Mocker?? CAST ON!