Reach
Call me, Beep me, if you wanna... (CW: Arachnophobia)
Whenever I lose to a flying deck, I always ask myself the same question. Not “Why didn’t I pack fliers?” but “Why didn’t I pack Reach?” This should seem like a simple question with a simple answer “Just play more cards dummy”—and in a way, it is—but Reach is a bit of an oft-overlooked keyword, for how integral it is.
Introduced as a mechanic back in Alpha (and usually tied thematically to spiders), but not keyworded until Future Sight, Reach is the mechanic that does what Giant Spider’s full rules text said back in Alpha. That is, reach allows a creature that lacks flying’s evasion to block creatures with Flying. As a sort of pseudo-Flying, this helps to equal out green’s share of the color pie with regards to fliers as discussed earlier. In fact, outside of Universes Beyond, there are only two spiders in all of magic that lack the keyword Reach (Giant Trapdoor Spider and Root Spider, the former of which deal with fliers in an oblique way as well).
All of the above creatures feature green in some way, and hate on fliers in particular, as decks reliant on reach creatures are wont to do. Deadly Recluse is a classic two-drop, pairing reach with Deathtouch, another potent keyword we’ll cover soon. Silklash Spider is an Onslaught card originally (pre-keywording), that for five mana pairs reach with an activated ability to wipe the board of fliers. Ettercap is a more recent entry, giving a five-mana reach spider extra utility by being attached to an instant Destroy spell for fliers. Broodspinner combines reach and surveil, two defensively minded mechanics, with a sacrifice effect that creates a large number of fliers later in the game. And finally, Twin-Silk Spider gives you two 1/2 spiders with reach for 3 mana.
As implied above, Reach is a defensively-minded mechanic, meant to stall the game out. As such, many Reach creatures bias towards toughness over power, and are usually combined with other defensively-minded keywords like indestructible, deathtouch, etc. It’s usually built to stall out a gameplan for a slower win condition, not necessarily a way to win a game on its own. But still, it’s a worthy inclusion in any green mage’s toolkit, especially if you’re not splashing for fliers.
Next week, we’ll look for some more keywords to interrogate.