Colour pie got you down? Sure, we all have our favourite colours in Magic, but they all have their shortcomings. Green can't flat-out destroy creatures, black can't remove artifacts, red is helpless against enchantments... or perhaps not. There is now a way for red to get at any enchantment that displeases it, as well as any other type of permanent, including creatures and planeswalkers, without needing to fling so much as a single point of damage. Sounds ridiculous? You would do well to remember that it's not only red cards that can be played in a mono-red deck: artifacts can always come along for the ride as well.
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Time Vault
I like seeing the collections of people who stopped playing at some point, particularly if their cards are all of the pre-8th Edition frame. Their collections are like a snapshot trapped in time, of decks that didn't use newer, stronger versions of cards not because they didn't want to, but because they didn't exist. In 2001, nobody missed not having Tarmogoyf or Planeswalker cards (ugh) because they didn't know to miss them.
Viashino Sandswimmer is a card that I've never used and don't own. I don't know anyone who has used or owned it. If I've physically seen the card, I can't recall having done so. I know what it does and would recognize it immediately, but in terms of it being a physical object, it might as well not exist to me.
But for someone out there, it was one of their precious few, 117-odd cards. It was perhaps one of three rares they owned. Maybe it was their first rare. Maybe it was their only rare. They played it in their red deck (which splashed green just because they didn't have enough red cards for a full deck) and it was one of their flagship creatures. Isn't that a weird and wonderful thought? For nearly any card that isn't named Wood Elemental, someone out there made it work for them.
Have you used Spined Fluke? You probably haven't, have you? Maybe you don't even own one. But it was the MVP of a messy-yet-effective four-colour deck I had once. Five power and cheap regeneration for three mana, what's not to like? It ate many a blocker, quickly making up for any card disadvantage you might foolishly assume it would have.
Everyone's Magic collection has a little story - no, is a little story - and there's nothing like a quaint little time capsule to remind one of that fact.
Viashino Sandswimmer is a card that I've never used and don't own. I don't know anyone who has used or owned it. If I've physically seen the card, I can't recall having done so. I know what it does and would recognize it immediately, but in terms of it being a physical object, it might as well not exist to me.
But for someone out there, it was one of their precious few, 117-odd cards. It was perhaps one of three rares they owned. Maybe it was their first rare. Maybe it was their only rare. They played it in their red deck (which splashed green just because they didn't have enough red cards for a full deck) and it was one of their flagship creatures. Isn't that a weird and wonderful thought? For nearly any card that isn't named Wood Elemental, someone out there made it work for them.
Have you used Spined Fluke? You probably haven't, have you? Maybe you don't even own one. But it was the MVP of a messy-yet-effective four-colour deck I had once. Five power and cheap regeneration for three mana, what's not to like? It ate many a blocker, quickly making up for any card disadvantage you might foolishly assume it would have.
Everyone's Magic collection has a little story - no, is a little story - and there's nothing like a quaint little time capsule to remind one of that fact.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
The Eternal Ski Jump
A peculiar interaction occurred to me, engendered by the unique qualities of Assault Suit as discussed last week. We've all seen creatures with activated abilities that last until end of turn, and we've all seen activated abilities that can be activated only once per turn. The humble Goblin Ski Patrol, however, is rather unique on a couple accounts.
As its oracle wording can attest, when you activate the Ski Patrol's ability, it gets +2/+0 and flying... forever. Not until the end of the turn, not until your next turn, until the goddamn sun goes out. Much like the permanent Riding the Dilu Horse, nothing short of leaving play undoes the bonus: because of course, why should it matter? You're sacrificing the Goblin at the end of the turn anyway. And just to ensure you don't try to double up by pumping four (or more) mana into him, you can only activate the ability once. But again, real estate for card text is precious, so there's no point making the addendum that this can only happen once per turn - you can only activate the ability once per game, period. Overall, the card gets the desired effect: he can go off a ski jump for one glorious attack before getting crushed to death by impact.
...unless he has the proper safety gear, that is. As you'll recall from the last article, if you activate the Goblin Ski Patrol and he has an Assault Suit equipped, he's not going anywhere at the end of the turn. At this point you can proceed to do whatever other tricks your want with the Suit, because for the rest of eternity you have a 3/1 flying Goblin, perpetually caught in the most radical ski jump ever. There's no card, counter or other marker to denote that he has the boost: ya just gotta remember. How often do you see that in the game, hmm?
As its oracle wording can attest, when you activate the Ski Patrol's ability, it gets +2/+0 and flying... forever. Not until the end of the turn, not until your next turn, until the goddamn sun goes out. Much like the permanent Riding the Dilu Horse, nothing short of leaving play undoes the bonus: because of course, why should it matter? You're sacrificing the Goblin at the end of the turn anyway. And just to ensure you don't try to double up by pumping four (or more) mana into him, you can only activate the ability once. But again, real estate for card text is precious, so there's no point making the addendum that this can only happen once per turn - you can only activate the ability once per game, period. Overall, the card gets the desired effect: he can go off a ski jump for one glorious attack before getting crushed to death by impact.
...unless he has the proper safety gear, that is. As you'll recall from the last article, if you activate the Goblin Ski Patrol and he has an Assault Suit equipped, he's not going anywhere at the end of the turn. At this point you can proceed to do whatever other tricks your want with the Suit, because for the rest of eternity you have a 3/1 flying Goblin, perpetually caught in the most radical ski jump ever. There's no card, counter or other marker to denote that he has the boost: ya just gotta remember. How often do you see that in the game, hmm?
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