MTG Salvation

Quote from RabidVacin »

The 2/12/18 random card of the day is Reviving Melody. If you have any comments, combos or a decklist involving this card, feel free to share.

In the right deck - or, y'know, Theros block - this is a double Regrowth for the cost of Recollect. That's pretty good.

Also, it's a portrayal of Orpheus and Eurydice, and we would all do well to remember stories like that. (I've gotten blank stares when I point out that the Rebecca Guay Path to Exile is Tristan and Isolde.)

I really like Copperhorn Scout, I guess largely for its art, but I never quite figured out what I think its best deck is. Obviously it resets all your creatures with tap abilities whenever it attacks, hence lots of mana with Priest of Titania or lots of damage with Cunning Sparkmage, but a 1/1 for one mana is pretty fragile.

All of the Lorwyn commands are very good cards. Primal provides a lot of midgame value for green creature decks - I prefer running it over something like Green Sun's Zenith because it can do more than one thing if you need to.

I've always been confused why the first ability is "Target player gains 7 life", but I suppose it adds utility in multiplayer settings.

Stuffy Doll interaction maybe?

This guy also reminds me a little of Working Stiff and Goblin Mime from Unhinged, because I was looking through my Un-cards the other day now that the third Un-set has officially been announced. It's funny that we have actual Grizzly Bears in red and black now. (Frazzled Editor is still like the best Grizzly Bears ever, though!)

Defender of the Order is way too defensive for my personal tastes, but I think it'd be good with Doran as you suggested.

Mentor of the Meek gets pretty crazy with Elspeth Tirel. It sounds like a good way to make yourself public enemy number one in multiplayer.

Four toughness is not something to laugh at in Old School formats - most damage decks will have to go to an X spell to get it off the table. Who's going to feel good about using a Psionic Blast on a Giant Tortoise?

Was that really Tempest of Light's original flavor text? I have no recollection of ever reading it. I feel like I would have remembered its using the word "planet" rather than "plane".

Did you notice that both Shatter and Floral Spuzzem put the card at the center of the action, not its controller? Foreshadowing the way we refer to Gideon and Liliana as "he" or "she" on some of their cards?

Perhaps not, but it's still cool.

Quote from JohnnyDegenerate »

Quote from Arborea »

Counterspell's original art just screams old-school Dungeons and Dragons to me. It's very much the style of illustrations you see in the old Mystara campaign setting manuals.

Yeah, I agree. I miss the old styling of MTG cards. It's not that I dislike the digital photorealistic style that has been dominating MTG since Alara, but there's been a lack of that high fantasy feeling.

Especially when they had D&D artists working on the card arts, like DiTerlizzi and Ron Spencer.

I agree on everything you said. I especially like that older sets had a large range of art styles - it helped make each card feel like a unique person, place, or thing.

Counterspell's original art just screams old-school Dungeons and Dragons to me. It's very much the style of illustrations you see in the old Mystara campaign setting manuals.

I'm not sure there is anything left to add about the Autumn Willow. Mysterious, magnificent, tragic, and beloved.

(Shroud isn't a bad ability to have either.)

It's a lot faster than it looks, when you consider that Jhoira of the Ghitu and Paradox Haze were in the same block with it.

Also, I still like "unblockable" better than "can't be blocked". "Unblockable" sounds more threatening, somehow.

I recently got complete sets of Portal and Portal Second Age, and Armored Pegasus is an all-around win for me. Mythological reference, great art, solid stats even if it's not spectacular in big formats - and a little joke in its flavor text. Where has all the humor gone in recent sets? Why are Gideon and the other young planeswalkers so cereal all the time?

I know Urza's Saga is known as Combo Winter for entirely different and more degenerate interactions, but I always remember it for Sigil of Sleep plus Thornwind Faeries.

It was restricted in Vintage for six years, too.

When you consider the evolution of card-drawing cards over time, it soon becomes apparent that the effect can be very slow and expensive but still be playable.

Call of the Herd is still solid, but not spectacular - it's still two creatures for one card, but there may be things with a more immediate impact. It's not the worst thing to cascade into with something like Bloodbraid Elf.

The Hunted creatures are still among my favorite build-around cards, even after all this time! Now that Ratchet Bomb is even more widely available thanks to the core sets, I'm sure they're enjoying a resurgence in casual metagames somewhere (they never went away for me, personally).