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.

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?

Card in Review - Assault Suit

Magic is a game of synergies. The most effective decks time and again seem to involve several powerful cards that can roughly replicate what the others do. A control deck might not particularly favour a Dissipate over a Dissolve in the late game, and a dedicated burn deck will take Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Lava Spike all on equal footing. Decks that are too focused on a particular card - most often seen in EDH decks that are helpless without their commander out - are too delicate, and will fall apart if their key card is removed in a way that a more modular deck wouldn't. (I don't mean Modular decks, mind you.)

That said, don't you sometimes just see a card that's so interesting that you want to build around it?

Welcome to Card in Review, a new feature here that, rather than looking at some aspect of the game as a whole, will pick one open-ended card and analyze all sorts of tricks that can be done with it, both general and specific.

What card are we selecting for this first foray into the world of tunnel vision?

Graffito on an Akroan bathroom stall

Thakolides the Mighty

He wore the tighty-whitey

Though he was very fighty

He was killed by a spidey

Creatures Without Flying

This is a non-exhaustive list of creatures that do not have the flying ability.

Whipoorwill cannot fly. It does not have flying.

Petra Sphinx is the answer to that age-old riddle: "What walks on four legs, even though it has giant wings?"

It's not called "Flying Spirit," now is it? Of course not. It cannot fly.



You know why none of these creatures fly?

Because they were hit by Pin to the Earth, which removes flying.

Customized Mages

Waging war on enemy planes can be a tiresome task, especially when you're working all by yourself. And, while each deck you build is different, the mages in charge of your library are always the same: 20 life, seven-card hands, one card drawn per turn. Ho hum. How about a little variety?
In this variant for Magic, you get to add a little flavour to your own abilities. Instead of representing yourself with one mage, you can assemble your own spellcasting team from two to, well, however-many-you-want mages. Each one has his own strengths and weaknesses but, combined, you've got a powerful circle of wizards to represent you.

A Bitter Flavour

Flavour text. That short blurb of text at the bottom of any underfilled textbox that is meant to explain, or amuse, or awe. Some cards are extremely effective at this. Some are remarkably less so. When a new set comes out, naturally everyone is going to be looking at its playability first - what new cards combo with old ones, what are the powercards, overall how does it compare? But after we've done the preliminary perusal of powerful pieces, there's still the scraps to pick over, so to speak. Since a new set is coming out so soon, and Battle for Zendikar already got a more thorough review, why not give a quick look to the flavour text of Oath of the Gatewatch?

It turns out we have surprisingly few categories to pick from.