Home Orb of Insight: Shaman – 6

Let’s show the card right away so that we can get into the nitty-gritty of it.

So what’s so great about this card that I chose to preview it? Let’s start with the top left corner and work our way through the card in every detail.

What’s the first thing you see? It’s named Radiant Frostdew. Is that the first thing you see? Look closer. It seems to be named “tombstoneiconradiantfrostdew” upon closer inspection. And that’s the most important thing about this preview. It reveals a sub-theme of the set. The Tombstone Icon was introduced in the Odyssey block to indicate cards that still had an effect on the game even in the graveyard. Wizards didn’t make much use of the icon, and even left it off of some cards in that block that could have had it. And since then, they’ve dropped it, even for cards that it would help on. Maybe players have gotten smarter, or maybe the graveyard just isn’t looked at as a place where nothing happens anymore. I don’t think any of these reasons is good enough to drop the tombstone icon. It does nothing mechanically or rules-wise, but there are a lot of card elements that exist for reminder purpose only. The power-toughness box indicates that a card is a creature right as you look at it, even before you see the official type of the card in the space between the picture and the text box. In the same way, the tombstone icon doesn’t do anything by itself. It just reminds you that this card has some play left in it when in the ‘yard.

So when you see the icon, keep that in mind for how you’ll play the card; how you may replay the card. The set sub-theme of the tombstone icon is really just that: it isn’t one single thing that all of these cards will do in the graveyard. It’s there to remind you of the card, a nudge from beyond the grave, and what I’ve done with the tombstone icon doesn’t even scratch the surface of the design space open.

But this card is a cool little bugger. She’s a weenie beater that trades and trades and trades. Maybe some kind of new aggro-control archetype can pair her up with counterspells and recur her all day long. There are many ways to use this card, and I’m excited to see what happens with it in both limited and constructed. It’s a solid common, a cheap creature, and a beater in limited, I’m guessing. I’d like to know if this card has the power to draw you into a color in the first few picks.

Now I’m going to discuss the creature type. Today’s completed leaked card is also an elemental, too. Interesting, eh? Well, it was no mistake that the two lined up like that. Elementals represent the heavenly powers of the Wastelands, and are crucial to the place’s meager survival. They’re one of the only sources of magical power available on the plane. I’ll leave you to guess what the other card represents, but I will tell you the story of the radiant frostdew.

You see, humans are at the bottom of the totem pole in the Wastelands. They are ill-suited to it, even more than most of its species. The blazing sun can destroy a human life in a matter of minutes. So humans are nocturnal creatures. They prefer to bundle against the freezing cold rather than die during the horrible day, when they are sheltered in caves and pits. It isn’t just for the temperature that the humans are nightwalkers. The little sustenance on the wastelands is brought by the moon’s gravity that pulls a wake of an ocean that floats across the desert surface. It never sees the sun, which would evaporate it quickly. It hovers close enough to the passing sun to not freeze and close enough from the true night to avoid being evaporated. The moon is the only moderating force in the whole cosmology of the Wastelands. It takes the harsh beams of the sun and gently reflects them. It moderates the cold of night. It brings frosty water and algae on the tide of the lunar ocean. But don’t confuse moderation with concern. The moon, like all of the other heavenly bodies, gives no thought to the people of the Wastelands. And as much as the humans search oracles and signs to find the moon’s path their entire lives, they know that the moon can bring an obliterating flood as easily as a fresh drink.

The heavenly bodies don’t match up to what you’d normally think. The moon is mostly green-white, with a touch of blue. And the sun is a definite red with a serious hint of black. The stars are blue and the emptiness of space is black. The Wastelands aren’t black. The void of the wastelands is one that has no mana at all. At best, you might be able to squeeze some colorless mana out of it. So the radiant frostdew is the power of the dew that sustains human life in the Wastes.

Tune in tomorrow when I get to reveal my favorite card from the set. And go to the boards to discuss what you thought of this article, and what you want to see for the orb of insight!

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