1: Never Judge a Card by its Picture or Whaddya Mean its Only a Common? Being one of the newer additions to The Den, I suppose that it’s only fitting to you - the reader - that I introduce my background and myself before I prattle on aimlessly for the next while. My callsign, if you will, is Greybow. The name stems from a character in a novel named Sir Lile Greybow, a Knight of the Castle of the Three Suns. The character fights valiantly to preserve the kingdom he serves, but in the end, he voluntarily sacrifices his own life to protect the will-be heir to the kingdom’s throne. If that doesn’t tell you enough about me, I don’t know what will. Onto the ever increasing game itself; Magic: The Gathering. And why do you suppose it’s called that, the Gathering? Because players gather to compete? Because a successful deck will be comprised of various cards, gathered from different sets and places? Perhaps it’s because one must gather their thoughts, wits, and skills about them when playing the game. It’s not just a card game, you know. It’s a lesson in strategic combat. One on one (possibly on one on one more). A dogfight, to put it into aviator terms. And that brings me to my first point...combat. Combat. A term used to describe armed forces in direct opposition, mostly, however also a fitting word to bring up when talking about Magic. To win, one must not only beat one’s opponent, but one must also outthink him. Battles will be won and lost, but no one will remember who played what card or what combo if two turns later that person dies. Don’t simply play cards from your hand solely for the sake of playing them. Think before you act. A phrase I love to use is “Ready, shoot, aim.” Plan ahead, and plan for different contingencies. You never know when your opponent is going to counter a spell, exploit an enchantment, or disenchant an artifact. Construct your deck around contingencies, and not only around one combination or one card. Some cards are, after all, weaker than others. A deck is only as strong as its weakest card. Therefore, competitive players often attempt to eliminate weakness, to both strengthen their deck, and to bolster their resolve, that the pile of recycled paper sitting in front of them is capable of withstanding anything. But the weak don’t have to be branded as such, you know. The weak cards can surprise you in that way, they can occasionally blast your opponent with such an unexpected surprise that it might ensure victory. One of my favorite examples is the Urza’s Legacy card “Radiant’s Judgment.” It lets you destroy any creature with power 4 or greater, and it can be Cycled for 2 mana. Well, if it’s only a common, why keep it in the deck, why not just sideboard it for playing against larger creatures? I’ll tell you why. Because there’s more to that card than meets the eye. Use a Ghitu War Cry to make an opponent’s creature bigger and then Judgment it. When somebody tries to use a Giant Growth, Judgment that creature. And if there’s no practical use to it, cycle it. So the weak cards aren’t always as weak as they seem. Killer combos and clutch game wins are often achieved by using the commons in your arsenal. It just goes to show you, that it’s the little things that win. And that goes for Magic cards, for combat, and for life. Come back for Greybow’s next article: Send in the Clones or Tom, Dick, and “Never Judge a Card by its Picture...”
A bi-weekly column discussing Magic; the game, the reality, and the hype.
Repeat. (All my titles, from now on, will have two names, much like Rocky & Bulwinkle)