Card in Review - Spy Kit

Sometimes you see an open-ended card designed to be played with... but with no set goal in mind. As we saw previously, Enchanted Evening has a million potential little synergies with anything that even remotely looks at enchantments. Sun Titan's list of demands are pretty modest at "must be a permanent and 3 or less mana." Other times, however, there's a card that will only work with very... particular synergies in mind.

Spy Kit is that latter type of card.

Oh sure, all the cards we look at for Card in Review are under the pretense of being specifically built around, but some of these cards are more open-ended than others. How often do you see "names matter" crop up? Not too often, I'm guessing. But don't be so quick to dismiss the Spy Kit - the combos that it presents are both strong and flat-out cool. It's sort of the Runed Stalactite of card names, allowing all sorts of cards that normally have nothing to do with each other team up thanks to your critter with the Spy Kit.


Echoing Truth, Echoing Courage, Echoing Decay - Suddenly these are good against more than just tokens. Target your creature holding the Spy Kit and you can give every creature in play +2/+2 for an alpha strike, -2/-2 for a cheap Infest, or even a bargain-basement Evacuation. Can't argue with those savings!

Maelstrom Pulse is three mana to flat-out destroy all creatures if Damnation is a little out of your price range. Want something even more decisive? Sever the Bloodline will remove all creature from the game for just four mana (with the option to fire off again later!) Detention Sphere can similarly wipe out all creatures - letting blue/white get in on the fun while allowing for all the creatures to return at a moment's notice.

Winnow - Hey, sometimes you don't want to ice everything that moves. You paid good mana for your creatures, thank you very much, and besides: if everything's dead, that means you've got nobody holding the Spy Kit! Winnow is more selective, taking out any creature of your choice and even replacing itself for a measly two mana.

Eradicate - Or sometimes you want to be even less discriminating. Thought wiping the board was good enough? Try Eradicating a critter holding the Spy Kit and you can remove every last creature that isn't legendary from its controller's library. Now hold on - you need to make sure it's your opponent's creature that's holding the Spy Kit, and that's not exactly a given. While it's possible to Donate some sacrificial lamb to take the fall, it's probably more productive to borrow a creature with Chamber of Manipulation or Mark of Mutiny, equip your temporary minion and then zot it after it goes scampering back home. If you have any volunteers, however, there are a number of creatures who are willing to defect for some benefit: Humble Defector and Starke of Rath are both good candidates to blast after equipping them and using their abilities.

Declaration in Stone - If you're already thinking about getting a Spy into your enemy's ranks, the Declaration is a one-sided Final Judgment for two measly mana. Sure your opponent will probably get a gaggle of clue tokens, but how long do you think that will matter if you have an entire army of creatures and he's got squat?

Evil Twin - Getting a clone who can kill off the creature he copied is nice. Getting a clone that can tap to kill any creature is even nicer! You don't even have to copy one of your opponent's creatures this way, just grab yourself an extra of your own Goblin Sharpshooter and watch its goateed twin clean house.

Bifurcate - Now here's something creative. Target a creature with the Kit and this is four mana to put any creature from your library directly into play. Hellooo turn four It That Betrays! Still more than you're willing to pay? Pony up another creature while you're at it and Mask of the Mimic can do the same for just one mana. If you're more interested in assembling a combo, Pack Hunt can nab any three creatures into your hand for four mana. How does Devoted Druid, Quillspike and Goblin Tunneler sound?

Retraced Image - Why let green do all of the cheating out with creatures? Drop any creature into play for just one blue mana and you'll wonder why anyone ever cared about Dramatic Entrance. Nothing useful in hand? Mitotic Manipulation can grab any creature from the top seven cards of your library, earning the blue player a major discount over the twice-as-expensive Summoning Trap.

Cornered Market - Nobody can cast creatures! Against straightforward aggressive decks, this can leave your opponent helpless as your Spy marches against him without fear of reinforcements. Being legendary, Hope of Ghirapur can still be played even under the lock, letting you cut off your opponent's access to noncreature spells for some time as well. Bazaar of Wonders essentially does the same thing in blue, but with some incidental graveyard hate if you're looking for it.

Remembrance - How would you like a lifetime supply of Eladamri's Calls? If a critter holding the Spy Kit ever dies, you can search your library for any creature and put it in your hand: talk about never fearing removal again. If you limit yourself to equipping green creatures, then the mighty Verdant Succession can actually grab any creature from your deck directly into play every time! Remember, it checks if a green creature's dying, but since you're running identity fraud, you don't have to grab a green creature to be put into play. You'd like to trade in your Sakura-Tribe Elder for a Magmatic Force, wouldn't ya?

Bubbling Cauldron - Need a sacrifice outlet to get Remembrance or Verdant Succession doing their thing? It's hard to beat the returns on the Cauldron, which gets you a 4-point Exsanguinate every time you feed it something holding the Spy Kit. Now imagine you're feeding it a Reassembling Skeleton or  Nether Traitor rather than some newt that stays dead - ouch.