MTG Salvation

why did they feel the need to add the ignore this effect if empty handed? Were they afraid people would start chopping their hands off to resolve the ability?lol

Probably the most stylish reanimator card. Almost an inverted Griselbrand.

@ trixter87

Back in the early days rules were really, really unclear. Someone would have totally thought that if a player had no cards, Nicol Bolas wouldn't be able to attack that player. Players back then often got the rules wrong, and if a card couldn't perform an action, it was though that it couldn't be used at all. So in effect what that text is really saying is "Nicol Bolas can attack a player even if that player has no cards in hand." A lot of rules interpretations in 1994 were sketchy at best.

I can confirm this to be true.

Also this card is still a pretty sick EDH general. Grixis are like my favorite EDH colors.

Back in the day, I was really into the Elder Dragons and had a deck with all five of them in it. I thought that was the most powerful strategy possible.
I just didn't understand why my friends didn't cower in terror when I played Chromium and Arcades Sabboth.

Oh God I want that to hit players...

I love Silklash Spider in EDH - there's a lot of competition for that five-cost green slot, but as long as people insist on using legendary dragons and angels as their commander, I'll keep playing him.

Nightwing Shade isn't the most efficient use for Cabal Coffers, but it's probably not the worst either.

There's an old story that Sligh decks of the Invasion era occasionally played Firebrand Ranger even when they didn't have access to green mana, just because it was a 2/1 for two mana. I wasn't playing in tournaments then, so I can't verify it personally, but nothing would surprise me any more!

Firebrand Ranger was certainly played in mono red sligh. Mike Turian (now Hall of Fame) played it to a top 8 finish at worlds in 2001.

SCG article with the list

Quote from SquadronHawk »

Firebrand Ranger was certainly played in mono red sligh. Mike Turian (now Hall of Fame) played it to a top 8 finish at worlds in 2001.

SCG article with the list

Thank you for this! I love that quote from Zvi about "red doesn't need good cards to win".

I actually think that the Diamonds are not bad cards in general. Their problem is that a lot of mono-colored decks can play Mind Stone and just deal with the colorless mana. On the other hand, black cards often reward you for having as much black mana in one place as possible (cf. Bloodhusk Ritualist.

Zvi is so right. Most of the cards in that deck are embarassingly bad, even by the standards of the time, but they work as a cohesive strategy even if they're individually weak.

The problem with the diamonds in general is that if you have light color requirements you'd rather have Mind Stone like you mentioned, and if you have heavy color requirements I think you'd want one of the signets, or maybe one of the talismans. Maybe you're more likely to play it as 2-cost manarock number 5+, or in a mono black EDH deck.

Still, since we're already on theme for early 2000s anecdotes, have a look at this beauty with full playsets of Charcoal, Marble and Sky diamonds.

I believe this card has been on here before. It is a decent mana sink in my opinion