Feb 10th: The giveaway is official closed! Winners will be announced in the next few days!
To celebrate the new MTGSalvation site going well and truly live, we're hosting a Theros giveaway! To participate, just post here in the comment section telling us about your favorite Magic card!
The Rules of the Giveaway
- Each winner will get 6 Theros booster packs.
- We will randomly draw 15 winners from those who participate.
- For legal reasons, we are only able to ship to the following countries: US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany and the UK. If you do not have a delivery address in one of these countries, you will not be able to win the giveaway.
- Each user may only enter once. Multiple posts on the same account will count as one entry. Those caught entering more than once using multiple accounts will be disqualified.
- If you don't name your favorite Magic card, we won't know if you're explicitly entering the giveaway or not, so we won't be able to take your comment as an entry into the giveaway.
- Staff members (moderators, global moderators & administrators) are welcome to post their favourite Magic card, but they won't be entered into the giveaway.
The giveaway will end on the 10th February at 5PM CST, just 7 days from now!
First and foremost, I love blink effects. Something as small as a blink can change the way a lot of things operate, by repeating enter-the-battlefield triggers, rescuing your mind-controlled or perpetually-tapped creature or other permanent, or even just giving something pseudo-vigilance. Or, perhaps in a cube, you can do something nasty like blink a wincon and proceed with a wrath - or even nastier, an Upheaval - and continue onward uncontested. It's a lot of versatility, making Venser's first ability elegant, even though it's incredibly simple.
Venser's second ability is perhaps a bit confusing to a control deck trying to abuse his +2 with the likes of Wall of Omens or Mulldrifter; why would you ever use this ability? I always believed this is because Venser was designed for the BantPod deck when it was standard legal, a midrange monstrosity that abused etb triggers and eventually amassing a huge board. With Venser, you can build up advantages until you can simply overwhelm your opponent; a -1 with "Creatures are unblockable this turn" could just as well read "win the game" in the right deck. I enjoy cube, and find Venser doesn't need to use this ability to be good, but having the option allows him to fit in more decks than many other planeswalkers who don't have as straightforward abilities as "Draw a bunch of Cards". For this reason I think he trumps most other guys outside the Lorwyn 5. Both the +2 and -1 can work together, but they don't need to.
Venser's ultimate is incredibly powerful - a little wonky, to be sure, but powerful. Spells giving you free, colorless exiles is exceptionally good, and cantrips like Preordain suddenly become incredibly valuable. If you have a Batterskull on the table, you're in amazing shape. And this isn't an ultimate that takes forever to get to, either.
Venser is far from the best card, or even best planeswalker in MTG. But, all three of his abilities are potentially powerful, which lead to enjoyable experiences every time I play it. Because Venser's abilities require a little bit of planning, I find that deck construction with him becomes quite interesting; some already good cards gain additional value, some strategies suddenly have an entirely new angle when he hits the field. Being able to think ahead and see real benefits of that planning make playing the card a very rewarding experience.
I would have to say, Sliver Queen. It's the first card back in the days of Stronghold that I came up with a 3 card infinite combo with and have not only close to at least 10 sliver combos in my EDH deck with her, but also a multitude of non-Sliver combos.
Fun stuff and Thank you for the chance to win,
Bedwa_5CG
One of my favorite Standard eras in MtG -- and I've played through a lot -- was Time Spiral/Lorwyn. Though I moved and stopped playing that summer and missed the utter dominance of Faeries, I enjoyed its beginnings. I played that deck with a Rogue twise; it matched up extremely well vs the entire meta coupling Faeries' tempo with tremendous card advantage. Blackguard was the key, because it abused the already-advantageous Latchkey Faerie and Bitterblossom.
I'd also like to give a shout-out to Wydwen, the Biting Gale, for its beautiful artwork and extraordinary power (remember, this was before the damage-on-the-stack rule change). One of the best cards to hardly ever see Standard play, due to the glut of other powerful cards in its colors.