Spoiler season is underway for Magic: The Gathering’s next set Edge of Eternities, which means many cardboard owners are theorycrafting around the new cards. One, in particular, feels like it’s already struck a chord: a legendary lobster named Ragost, Deft Gastronaut.
Shown off during the recent Edge of Eternities debut, Ragost is one of the Legendary Creatures in the new set. He’s a Lobster Citizen who’s also a bit of a chef, if his frying pan and tiny sprig of thyme didn’t give it away.
As a Boros (or Red/White) card, he’s got some interesting potential. It all revolves around his main abilities: turning artifacts into Food and, well, eating them. You can opt to either sacrifice artifacts as Food tokens for life, or use them to deal equivalent damage to each opponent. And, if you gained life during a turn, you get to untap Ragost at the end of that end step.
Right away, he’s got some interesting potential as a deck addition. Rocco, Street Chef would appreciate the help around the grill, and Ragost can easily make use of all those Food tokens.
But why not let Ragost be head chef, or rather, commander of his own deck? The Red/White combo isn’t totally uncommon, but rather than pick up equipment or surge token creatures onto the board, Ragost wants to ping foes while staying alive. It’s reminiscent of Arabella, Abandoned Doll, but with an artifact-focused twist.
He goes well with cards from his own set Edge of Eternities, with Weapons Manufacturing sending more damage around the board and Weftstalker Ardent adding more opponent damage. But there are some fun combos to be found in older cards, too. Imagine stealing an opponent’s Sol Ring with Treasure Nabber and then eating it.
With the interesting possibilities here, it’s no surprise that players already seem keen on brewing decks around this chef. Several subreddits saw hundreds of comments where players were coming up with interesting combo potential and theorycrafting synergies, for everything from Hellkite Tyrant and Ichor Wellspring to Chandra, Spark Hunter. I don’t think lobsters count as Vehicles, though.
It also helps that Ragost, Deft Gastronaut is an aesthetically fun card. A mechanically sound commander is nice, but so is a thematically entertaining one, and he seems to check both boxes fairly well. Comparisons to Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama are obvious, and honestly, it’s enough for me to have my own homebrew going in case I pull a Ragost during pre-release. I don’t think he’s going to change up the meta, but he’s definitely going to be a fun addition to my deck lineup on Commander night.
Pre-release for Magic: The Gathering Edge of Eternities gets underway on July 25, with the full set going live on August 1. For those playing digital, Magic: The Gatering Arena gets the space-faring cards and lobster chef on July 29.
Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.
