CML
Contributor
Lovers of Ice Age (there are two of us) know that the set known for such limpid powerhouses as Chromatic Armor, Ice Cauldron, and Balduvian Shaman also produced tasteless and convoluted effects like Pyroclasm and Anarchy, to say nothing of Demonic Consultation and Necropotence.
"TL;DR."
These days I skip a good two-thirds of SCG's content -- to be fair to Mike Flores, this number wouldn't drop by that much, were he to disappear -- but I always read certain authors, and one of them is Carsten Kotter. In his excellent article on underplayed Legacy cards (http://www.starcitygames.com/article/26717_Ten-To-Play.html), he discusses this card:
"Restrictive covenants? Easy enough, we're still a Highlander format ..."
Carsten writes:
I have a question for you: at what mana cost does Plague Wind become playable in Legacy? I can't give you an exact answer, but I'd posit that three mana at instant speed should be good enough—and that's exactly what Fire Covenant is in the right type of deck. This card is ideal for Deathrite Shaman / Dark Confidant mirrors as long as you're aggressive enough to negate the life loss and is an incredible tool in any deck that combines aggression with a desire to sweep the opponent's board.
Now, I didn't rediscover this card; the German designers of the BURG deck (RUG Delver splashing Deathrite Shaman) did, and boy did they uncover a monster. If you haven't seen the beating Elves or Goblins takes when a Delver deck fires this off, you won't believe it, and the card also deals favorably with almost everything else in the format that isn't cheated in or called Tarmogoyf (and it's even an out to that big guy in a pinch).
As long as your (semi-) aggressive-minded deck can cough up 1BR, this card should be in your sideboard. Therefore it should fit well into most Young Pyromancer brews at the very least, and maybe we're lucky and there's a way to make Boros Reckoner into an actual Legacy card so that we can play with the oldest combo of them all again (Channel / Fireball).
Seems like a skill-intensive, sweet card -- remember that the life payment is part of the cost.
What do y'all think?
"TL;DR."
These days I skip a good two-thirds of SCG's content -- to be fair to Mike Flores, this number wouldn't drop by that much, were he to disappear -- but I always read certain authors, and one of them is Carsten Kotter. In his excellent article on underplayed Legacy cards (http://www.starcitygames.com/article/26717_Ten-To-Play.html), he discusses this card:
"Restrictive covenants? Easy enough, we're still a Highlander format ..."
Carsten writes:
I have a question for you: at what mana cost does Plague Wind become playable in Legacy? I can't give you an exact answer, but I'd posit that three mana at instant speed should be good enough—and that's exactly what Fire Covenant is in the right type of deck. This card is ideal for Deathrite Shaman / Dark Confidant mirrors as long as you're aggressive enough to negate the life loss and is an incredible tool in any deck that combines aggression with a desire to sweep the opponent's board.
Now, I didn't rediscover this card; the German designers of the BURG deck (RUG Delver splashing Deathrite Shaman) did, and boy did they uncover a monster. If you haven't seen the beating Elves or Goblins takes when a Delver deck fires this off, you won't believe it, and the card also deals favorably with almost everything else in the format that isn't cheated in or called Tarmogoyf (and it's even an out to that big guy in a pinch).
As long as your (semi-) aggressive-minded deck can cough up 1BR, this card should be in your sideboard. Therefore it should fit well into most Young Pyromancer brews at the very least, and maybe we're lucky and there's a way to make Boros Reckoner into an actual Legacy card so that we can play with the oldest combo of them all again (Channel / Fireball).
Seems like a skill-intensive, sweet card -- remember that the life payment is part of the cost.
What do y'all think?
