Card of the Day - August, 2009
Posted in Feature
on August 3, 2009
Segovian Leviathan – Legends uncommon. The Planechase plane The Hippodrome (which gives all creatures -5/-0) is located on Segovia, a plane known only for Segovian Leviathan. The idea is that everything on that plane is so small that even the Leviathans are 3/3. And look at those teeny little whales!
Mana Drain – Legends uncommon. Did you know that the little creatures on Mana Drain are whelks? We didn't either, until Time Spiral's Draining Whelk gave us a better look at them!
This card is in Masters Edition 3, available only on Magic Online!
Bazaar of Baghdad – Arabian Nights uncommon. Baghdad is, of course, the central setting for many of the tales of The Arabian Nights. Founded in 762 A.D. by Abu Jafar al-Mansur, the city of Baghdad was originally built on the west bank of the Tigris River and was called Madinat as-Salam (City of Peace).
This card is in Masters Edition 3, available only on Magic Online!
Zodiac Dragon – Portal Three Kingdoms rare. Zodiac Dragon is part of a twelve-card cycle, spread across three colors in Portal Three Kingdoms. It breaks many of the "rules" for cycles: it's not evenly spread across colors (there are three black cards, three red cards, and six green cards) and all the cards except Zodiac Dragon have landwalk.
This card is in Masters Edition 3, available only on Magic Online!
Black Vise – Limited Edition Beta rare. Years ago, Wizards of the Coast used to have costumes for some of its convention-attending employees. Some of those costumes are visible here, but there's one missing: the Stuffy Doll from The Rack and Black Vise (and eventually Stuffy Doll). That costume was retired when one employee almost passed out while wearing it during an especially warm Gen Con.
This card is in Masters Edition 3, available only on Magic Online!
Volcanic Island – Limited Edition Beta rare. One of the most anticipated cards in Beta was Volcanic Island, which had been left out of Alpha. At first, players just assumed that red and blue didn't get a dual land for flavor reasons. They also assumed this was the reason for the lack of Circle of Protection: Black, but were happy to welcome both cards when they made their belated appearance.
This card is in Masters Edition 3, available only on Magic Online!
Balthor the Defiled – Judgment rare. Balthor (in his Balthor the Stout and Balthor the Defiled versions) makes up 50% of the Legendary Dwarves of Magic (non-Changeling/Mistform Ultimus division). The Irini Sengir Reveka, Wizard Savant are from Homelands and weren't even printed with the "Dwarf" creature type!
Alexi, Zephyr Mage – Prophecy rare. Alexi, Zephyr Mage is an ancestor of Future Sight's Linessa, Zephyr Mage. Don't believe us? Look at the staff!
Teferi's Isle – Mirage rare. If you play one Teferi's Isle while another one is phased out, you can get the benefit of always having one in play, since they'll never "see" each other and the Legend Rule won't get rid of them! It's probably easier just to play two Islands, though.
Ixidor, Reality Sculptor – Onslaught rare. Ixidor is best known as the creator of Akroma, Angel of Wrath. But in the alternate reality where Ixidor is aligned with black mana, he's the creator of Akroma, Angel of Fury instead!
Exile – Alliances rare. Traditionally, inability to affect one's own color has been a trademark of black, usually in the form of "Destroy target nonblack creature". But it's occasionally been seen in other colors; see Strafe, Sunlance, or Exile.
Jester's Sombrero – Unglued rare. Each card in Unglued has a bonus word on its rules text line, which can be combined to form a bonus joke. But did you know that the words sometimes tie in to the card on which they appear? Consider Jester's Sombrero, which has flavor text spoken by a small Mexican dog. And the bonus word? "Chihuahuas". Fascinating!
Toymaker – Mercadian Masques uncommon. Toymaker is one of only two cards illustrated by Frank Kelly Freas, legendary science fiction (and Mad Magazine) artist. The other card illustrated by Freas is Tidal Bore, also in Mercadian Masques.
Storm Crow – Classic Sixth Edition common. It's relatively common for one card's name to be a subset of another's. For example, Mons's Goblin Raiders contains Goblin Raiders. If you're ever making a list of cards like this, don't forget that Storm Crow can be found inside Mindstorm Crown!
Pradesh Gypsies – Classic Sixth Edition common. Probably the most interesting thing about Pradesh Gypsies is that it was the first card that Seshiro Ookubo ever used to make one of his amazing 3-D cards. See some images of Ookubo at work from the 2004 Worlds coverage! And if you look carefully, you can see his original Pradesh Gypsies card in there.
Bottle Gnomes – Mirrodin common. The blue liquid inside the Bottle Gnomes is called "lymph", at least in Mirrodin. This arcana speculates that the Tempest version may have involved some sort of Rath-based "proto-lymph".
Spoils of the Vault – Mirrodin rare. This week's Cards of the Day have been a diabolical five-card combo: Start by casting Barren Glory and then immediately exile it with Oblivion Ring. Then, with Lich's Mirror on the battlefield, cast One With Nothing during the previous player's end step and respond with Spoils of the Vault for a card not in your library. When the smoke clears, you'll have Barren Glory on the battlefield, a life total of 20, and no cards in your hand or library!
One With Nothing – Saviors of Kamigawa rare. The art description for One With Nothing reads, in part, "This spell purges all the thoughts from your head -- that's right, *your* head. Represent this however you want."
Lich's Mirror – Shards of Alara mythic rare. Instead of providing our usual piece of trivia for the Card of the Day, we're just going to direct you to this article by Noel deCordova, which contains the coolest Lich's Mirror deck ever.
Oblivion Ring – Shards of Alara common. The flavor text for the Shards of Alara version of Oblivion Ring ("A circle of light and a word of confinement.") is a reference to the Lorwyn Oblivion Ring: "A circle of sugar and a word of forbiddance.". Clearly, no matter what plane you're in, oblivion rings involve circles and words.
Barren Glory – Future Sight rare. The "future-shifted" cards from Future Sight came from possible futures for Magic. But Barren Glory came from the silver-bordered past. It's actually a new version of the Unglued rare The Cheese Stands Alone!
Posted in Feature
on August 3, 2009
Latest Feature Articles
Articles
Articles
Feature Archive
Consult the archives for more articles!
See All
