One of the best blue creatures ever, Ophidian
provides card advantage and good defense to
boot. Ophidian's only weakness is his low power,
so this card combos well with power up
enchantments or, in today's game, with equipment
cards. In control decks, Ophidian provided early
game defense with the ability to draw cards
occasionally. More popular in constructed
formats than limited formats, Ophidian was a
part of some great control decks in its day.
This is an interesting one. If I were to have
reviewed this card five or six years ago, I
would have given it a HUGE rating. But over the
years, this card has becomes less scary and
better cards have slowly come along. It's still
good for card advantage, but Thieving Magpie and
Shadowmage Infiltrator are stealing the good
snake's thunder.
It might be because I wasn't playing when this
card saw its time in the spotlight, but I have
never been a huge fan of Ophidian. It is a
decent enough card, and I guess I can't complain
about the card-draw effect, but it is a small
creature with no evasion ability, meaning the
moment your opponent lands a decent-sized
creature, Ophidian becomes almost irrelevant.
If you need an ability like Ophidian's and you
aren't playing black, then play Thieving Magpie.
If you are playing black, play Shadowmage
Infiltrator. Only in formats where both cards
are unavailable should Ophidian be filling this
role.
For limited play, Ophidian *might* find its way
into my deck, dependant on what other cards I've
pulled in blue. I don't think it is an
auto-inclusion, but I also don't think it should
be eliminated right away, either.
Ah, the animal kingdom classification lesson for
Magic players. How many players would know that
Opidian is the term for a snake without this
card? Well, many new players still may not since
Ophidian is a back in the days card.
Ophidian has a nice ability, but albiet a
difficult one to pull off since it has to be
unblocked to work. Not too many opponent's are
going to be afraid of a 1 power creature, so
unless you get into a match against a
creatureless/creature light deck, it ain't so
good. So for Blue, I suppose it could be a
sideboard card? Still, I don't see Ophidian ever
being ordered from my Website, so I'm going to
assume it's not all that. Now, give Ophidian
evasion, say FLYING, and you may have something
there...oh wait, that would be Thieving Magpie,
wouldn't it. Much better.
