Opener of the Gate

Once upon a time (when this card was initially released), the main (only?) use for this was to reduce the cost to play the core set Yog.

Since then, a few more cards have been introduced that reference the Spell subtype (mostly for recursion and to lower the cost to play them).

However, there's little synergy otherwise with Monsters. Most of the Monsters in the Yog faction aren't that great.

Perhaps after the Shub box has come out, you could create a good Monster/Spell deck using Shub and Yog...

I like to use this one with Chant of Thoth or cheap Monster resurrection. Shadow Sorceress and Carl Stanford can also collaborate with Opener to get back Monsters from the discard.

There are plenty of decent Yog monsters now, I think, and any deck that tries to push a Gug theme will especially benefit from Openers with their preferred recursion combos.

There is some interesting synergy with the new Wilbur Whateley and Magical Theorist to reduce the costs of monsters, and also with new Carl, Ttka Halot, Chant, and Shadow Sorceress to get monsters back. I think Elder Things would be most worth reducing, but there's also Many-Angled Thing and Cannibal Ghast (for free). Reduced and recurring Basilisk might be fun...

I briefly wondered if there could be a way to play off-faction Monsters with Opener of the Gate and Yog-Sothoth, Lord of Time and Space, but Yog-Sothoth specifies Spell events, while I presume the Monsters would be considered Spell characters.

Another awesome Card idea that just fails due to very specific wording and lack of combos that are viable. I have been trying for MONTHS to make even a fun deck with this that is viable to no avail. Every new box that comes out I revisit it though. It's such a cool unique mechanic =/

It's a cool card that bends things in an unusual way, but it's a bit limited as there aren't yet enough cards that combo with it.  The cards that say "Spell Event" certainly don't help but it's one of those things that you *want* it to work so you keep looking.  Sort of like Magnus Stiles.

Abusing this with ST cards such as Carl, T'tka Halot, and Magical Theorist are what jumped out at me.

The problem is, if you aren't able to maximise on his ability, then 2 skill and a single arcane isn't much to shout about.