Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Preview Card #2
Screeching Harpy Rewards You
Phage the Untouchable. Myojin of Cleansing Fire. Furnace Dragon. What do they all have in common?
They’re all expensive. They’re all strong. They have a game changing effect. And they reward you for hard-casting the creature. Well, Phage lets you live, which is a reward on its own. So the theme for these cards is that you are supposed to hardcast them. All the cards have a bonus regarding “If you played this from your hand.” You can just wait until late game, or have some sort of mana acceleration to get them out earlier.
So that’s pretty hard. Phage has converted mana cost 7 with a major black requirement, and even with a 4/4 it’s a game-changing creature if left unchecked. You can’t tutor her straight into play, or revive her from the dead; you have to hardcast it with 7 mana. And that’s the trick. Nothing fancy – just a pretty large requirement of mana. And supposedly, that’s supposed to be the hard part.
Sure, with the other two creatures, you can somehow get them into play otherwise – they just won’t have their bonus effect. But for Phage – is it really hard to cast her? She is a lategame creature, but eventually you’ll have seven mana, and then you can bring her out with no problems.
So hardcasting the creature is the hard part, or at least, that’s what these cards want you to think.
But how’bout the other way around? Couldn’t it be just as hard, the other way around? Would you use this?
Ahh, how refreshing. Instead of playing it straight from your hand, this card rewards you for bringing it out another way! Sure, you can hard cast it – because it’s supposed to be easy to do – but it won’t be as pleasing as if you brought it out in a special way. If you hard cast it, it’s comparable to the Screeching Harpy – a tad worse though for most cases.
So you might be looking at it as if it’s a 5/4 Flying Trample for 4 mana; that’s definitely not it! If you want the 5/4 Flying Trample Regenerate, you’re probably looking at some different mana cost, in addition to a card disadvantage. You would probably use a card (like Chord of Calling) to get it into play without paying for it.
You might be in luck if you already have such a combo engine, with Elvish Piper or some other way of getting it out without losing a card. If you are reviving it from your graveyard, you may consider it a bonus – perhaps you needed a flying regenerating wall in the first place – now you just get a bigger one. So it definitely works if you can revive it straight back to play from the graveyard.
So without the bonus, it’s an okay flyer – maybe it’ll be among the great flyers in Unknown, who knows – nobody knows, right? But with the stat bonus, it’s a formidable foe that refuses to die. You just have to find a combo that works with it.
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Phage the Untouchable. Myojin of Cleansing Fire. Furnace Dragon. What do they all have in common? They’re all expensive. They’re all strong. They have a game changing effect. And they reward you for hard-casting the creature. Well, Phage lets you live, which is a reward on its own. So the theme for these cards is that you are supposed to hardcast them. All the cards have a bonus regarding “If you played this from your hand.” You can just wait until late game, or have some sort of mana acceleration to get them out earlier. So that’s pretty hard. Phage has converted mana cost 7 with a major black requirement, and even with a 4/4 it’s a game-changing creature if left unchecked. You can’t tutor her straight into play, or revive her from the dead; you have to hardcast it with 7 mana. And that’s the trick. Nothing fancy – just a pretty large requirement of mana. And supposedly, that’s supposed to be the hard part. Sure, with the other two creatures, you can somehow get them into play otherwise – they just won’t have their bonus effect. But for Phage – is it really hard to cast her? She is a lategame creature, but eventually you’ll have seven mana, and then you can bring her out with no problems. So hardcasting the creature is the hard part, or at least, that’s what these cards want you to think. But how’bout the other way around? Couldn’t it be just as hard, the other way around? Would you use this? | |
Ahh, how refreshing. Instead of playing it straight from your hand, this card rewards you for bringing it out another way! Sure, you can hard cast it – because it’s supposed to be easy to do – but it won’t be as pleasing as if you brought it out in a special way. If you hard cast it, it’s comparable to the Screeching Harpy – a tad worse though for most cases.
So you might be looking at it as if it’s a 5/4 Flying Trample for 4 mana; that’s definitely not it! If you want the 5/4 Flying Trample Regenerate, you’re probably looking at some different mana cost, in addition to a card disadvantage. You would probably use a card (like Chord of Calling) to get it into play without paying for it.
You might be in luck if you already have such a combo engine, with Elvish Piper or some other way of getting it out without losing a card. If you are reviving it from your graveyard, you may consider it a bonus – perhaps you needed a flying regenerating wall in the first place – now you just get a bigger one. So it definitely works if you can revive it straight back to play from the graveyard.
So without the bonus, it’s an okay flyer – maybe it’ll be among the great flyers in Unknown, who knows – nobody knows, right? But with the stat bonus, it’s a formidable foe that refuses to die. You just have to find a combo that works with it.