Card of the Day - December, 2011 | MAGIC: THE GATHERING

By Wizards of the Coast

The Ultimate Nightmare of Wizards of the Coast® Customer Service – Unglued uncommon. The phone number in the flavor text of The Ultimate Nightmare of Wizards of the Coast® Customer Service is no longer accurate. But in the United States and Canada, (800) 324-6496 will work. Outside those countries, use (425) 204-8069 or go to wizards.custhelp.com.

The Iron Guardian Stirs – Archenemy scheme. You know, it's not really all that evil to have a golem standing by in case you're attacked. In a way, most Archenemy players are being ganged up on unfairly! That's "players who are playing the Archenemy," not "anybody playing Archenemy," if you see what we mean.

Heroic Defiance – Planeshift common. This somewhat complicated mechanic appeared on two cards in Invasion (Barrin's Unmaking and Tsabo's Assassin) and made a reappearance in Planeshift on Heroic Defiance.

Bronze Calendar – Unglued uncommon. The art for Bronze Calendar actually shows a bronze colander, which is a reference to the times that artists have misunderstood what they're supposed to draw. Examples include Hyalopterous Lemure and Alchor's Tomb, which was supposed to be a tome.

Karn, Silver Golem – Urza's Saga rare. Before appearing as the Planeswalker Karn Liberated, Karn was a commonplace creature. The other Planeswalkers that first appeared as creatures are Venser and Nicol Bolas.

Zuberi, Golden Feather – Mirage rare. There were actually four non-Zuberi Griffins in Mirage, including a mini-combo involving the sacrifice of Unyaro Griffin, which could be brought back with Mtenda Griffin.

Guma – Urza's Saga uncommon. You can see from the art and flavor text that the Guma likes to hunt at the edge of the water. This makes sense for a creature with protection from blue, since it has nothing to fear from even the toothiest shark.

Assault Zeppelid – Dissension common. In their natural form, Zeppelids are blue-aligned creatures. But the Simic mages have grafted green magic into this one to make it more warlike. You can see the pure blue version on Stratozeppelid.

Mesa Chicken – Unglued common. The art for Mesa Chicken represents Kev Walker's interpretation of the instruction to create a real, yet majestic, chicken.

Devout Harpist – Urza's Legacy common. We can't improve on this comment by tavaritz: This was the 200th Magic card which name started with D if we count the Urza's Legacy cards in alphabetical order. If in collector's number order then it's Defense Grid.

Grizzly Bears – Seventh Edition common. After illustrations by Jeff A. Menges and Una Fricker, Grizzly Bears got an illustration by D. J. Cleland-Hura, which is the art it stuck with for the rest of its stay in the core set. That stay ended in Tenth Edition, since Runeclaw Bear took its place starting in Magic 2010.

Creepy Doll – Innistrad rare. Creepy Doll fact one: The original art was given away at the 2011 San Diego Comic Con. Fact two: The background doll shows up on Kindercatch. Fact three: Mark Rosewater says it's based on a Jonathan Coulton song.

Uktabi Wildcats – Seventh Edition rare. Both Uktabi Wildcats and Nightmare base their toughness directly on something else, as opposed to cards like Lhurgoyf that add one. So the controller of Uktabi Wildcats could sacrifice a Forest to regenerate it but inadvertently reduce its toughness to zero!

Posted in Feature on December 1, 2011

Card of the Day - December, 2011

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