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That’s right- Celixia has officially been released. For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the set’s assembly and revisions, this article will bring you up to date on some of the expansion’s themes and mechanics. For those of you who have been keeping up with the set, this will be a brief primer for what to expect while playing with these cards. Celixia has four main mechanics or themes: Ambush, Reclaim, Chaos, and Orbs. We’ll be breaking these down 2 at a time. Today, we take a look at Ambush and Orbs. [EDITOR'S NOTE: CELIXIA is a fictional set of Magic: the Gathering cards by John Streetz. It is no way a real set of Magic cards. Please see the legal statements at the bottom of any page.]
Mechanic #1 - Ambush Ambush (cost): (Whenever one or more creatures attack you, if this card is in your hand, you may play it as an instant for it's Ambush cost. If you do, return it to your hand at end of combat.)
While the Green and White seem to be the best at this mechanic, Red adds its own little flavor to the idea, as seen on Mountaintop Alegus. He’s a 4/1 for 2RR, ambush for 3RR, and the ability “whenever this comes into play, destroy target artifact.” So Shatter may be more cost effective in destroying artifacts, but it can’t block anything for you. Alegus fits both bills. Red also gets some fun combat tricks via the ambush mechanic. Zynthdel Stealthblade is a good example. 2/1 for 2R isn’t all that good in itself, but throw in two more abilities, and you’ve got one heck of a creature. First, Ambush RR. Second, sacrifice it to deal 2 damage to target creature or player. Thanks to Sakura-Tribe Elder, most players now know how to stack damage then use the sacrifice ability. In my opinion, the best use of this card is to step in front of 1 creature, shoot something else. If you kill the second creature, you have removed two cards from combat for RR and 1 card from your hand. Overall, the Ambush mechanic is very fun. Your opponent thinks his creatures will get through scott-free, then you slap down a blocker out of nowhere. Green, White, Red, and Artifacts are the places you will find ambush, so be ready for it if your opponent is playing one of those color combinations, namely Green-White. Below is a quick deck designed by Lionden_56 using the ambush mechanic.
This deck usues a lot of combat tricks to win. First, all your creatures have ambush, so they can show up as surprise blockers. Second, Natural Exchange lets you put an ambush creature into play, have it block, then sac it to get a different creature permanantly into play. Keeping ground lets you turn your chump blockers into card drawing engines. This deck is pretty aggro, but always make sure you have a combat trick up your sleeve.
Orbs become the second type of artifact with a subtype. They have a plethora of abilities, which makes them some of the most flexible cards in Celixia. Their abilites range from mana to card drawing to lock down effects. Celixia also has cards that interact with orbs in play, such as Orb devourer. Its an extremely undercosted big beater (a 7/7 for 3RG) but you have to sacrifice an orb every turn or sac it. While Celixia doesn’t have that many orbs, orbs can have a big influence on the game. Below is a quick deck designed by Lionden_56 using Orbs.
Pretty straightforward. Get as much mana as possible, get out as many orbs as possible to get a big Zerst, or orbling generator with Devourer. Use the orbs' abilities to get out of jams.
That’s all for the first half of the breakdown. Next time, We’ll get into blue and black’s revenge for not getting any Ambush cards, and we’ll see how the set gets “chaotic.” It’ll be fun; you won’t want to miss it. You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here. Most Popular
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Green
and White mages rejoice! While this mechanic is definitely not just limited to
White or Green, those two colors are generally the best with combat tricks.
Krilian Syphon is the poster boy for a great Green/White combat trick. He’s a
2/3 for GW, and ambushes for GW. The ability to take down 2/2’s for only 2 mana
makes the Syphon one of the best combat tricks in the set. His ability isn’t too
shabby either. Green also has ways of making the ambush even more painful,
namely in the form of Rapid Aggression. This green instant says, “Target
creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. If that creature came into play this
turn, it gets an additional +2/+2 until end of turn.” This means you little
Syphon turns into a 7/8 creature for the whopping cost of 1GGW. Not bad. 
Combat
Trickery. 
While
not technically a mechanic, Orbs are one of the main themes for the artifacts in
Celixia. Streetz defines them like this: 
Circular
Madness.