I suspect that the appeal here lies in your own
imagination. You imagine what it would be like
to actually jump through all these hoops, and
swing for the win with your Island Fish with the
funny name, and you imagine it'll feel really
good because of all the work you had to do to
pull it off. But the truth is, you can do
better. Okay, you couldn't in monoblue, in the
days of Fourth Edition. Blue was kind of all
about massive creatures that weren't worth the
effort back then, when it wasn't about absurdly
undercosted counterspells and living on their
opponent's end step. I guess you need to win
with something when you've countered every last
spell in your opponent's deck, right? Still,
these were mainly printed in order to
demonstrate how much better Green is than Blue
at getting huge creatures. It's only upside is
being a 6/8 for seven and having a funny name,
and then its entire text box is nothing but one
downside after another. If you find yourself the
owner of a copy of Island Fish Jasconius, and
you have a casual table where the decks are slow
enough that you might pull this off, I'd say
shuffle it up and cast it once, just so you can
say you've done it, and then take it down to the
card shop and see what they'll give you for it.
This guy is a reminder that what some of
Wizards' people now refer to as "trope-based
design" and basing cards on specific stories is
actually as old as Magic itself. Jasconius is a
reference to a story from the Arabian Nights
just as some of Theros' cards are references to
Greek myths, but he's even more explicit about
it. Frankly, I kind of like it that way. It's
like a TCG version of the Hyborian Age mythos
(seriously - take any Conan novel and look up
the country names). And in the days of Arabian
Nights, nobody pretended that trope-based design
was deep enough to fill three gigantic sets.
I also like how they didn't pretend that the
fantasy mythoses that the game was based on were
anything other than what they were - efreets and
djinns are difficult to control and might turn
on the summoner, faeries are defenders and
champions of nature (ie. green), and fish the
size of islands are slow and have to stay in the
water. I appreciate that sort of authenticity,
even when it doesn't make for powerful gameplay.
Technically you could accelerate into Jasconius
against another blue deck and go on the offense,
but it's probably easier to use Dandan or
Serendib Efreet (both of whom were from the same
set, by the way . . . awkward). Maybe a Fish
theme deck? A voyages of Sinbad theme deck? I
haven't tried either myself, but maybe somebody
will think of something.
Island Fish Jasconius… … I know that this is
supposed to be nostalgic while celebrating the
1st rares that we pulled, but I hate this card!
Not because it is obviously a bad card , but
because I kept getting them!! Nothing irks me
more than pulling the same crappy rare! Maybe
back in the day, Island Fish Jasconius was not
as crappy as it looks now. Yes it was! This
island fish has more drawbacks than a product
painted in China! It can’t attack unless they
control an island. It doesn’t un-tap unless you
pay 3 blue mana. Oh, and it is a 6/8 for seven
mana. That is at least better than our Basilisk
friend from yesterday. Listen, I really want to
grade this card with all 1’s but I won’t because
I actually like the artwork.
Magic The Gathering Card of The Day: Island
Fish Jasconious
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
quite interesting and completely unplayable in
every format ever. Having an impressive body and
artwork doesn’t mitigate the fact this creature
is all downsides. Doesn’t untap unless you
invest triple blue mana. It can’t attack someone
unless they control an island, finally if you
ever do not control an island you lose your big
guy. This card has been severely outclassed in
every way by almost any creature printed in
recent memory as well as several older creatures
as well. Its unplayable in every constructed
format and I would shy away from it in casual as
well there exists too many better cards to
bother with one that has so many downsides. In
limited depending on the draft format it could
be a solid body and a good defender. Overall a
card severely outclassed and looking back its
just pretty bad and requires too much effort and
things to go right.
Today's card of the day is Island Fish
Jasconius which is a seven mana Blue 6/8 that
doesn't untap during your untap step, can untap
for three Blue mana at the beginning of your
upkeep, can't attack unless your opponent
controls an island, and is sacrificed if you
control no islands. This is a very bad
card that requires support to even attack in
addition to needing a decent supply of mana to
attack more than once. The lack of evasion
or beneficial combat effects are a major
drawback as any token can just block it to make
the effort used of minimal worth. There
are many better creatures that can be played for
this or lower mana cost and there is no serious
reason for any deck to include this card.
In a Limited setting this would require a fairly
heavy dedication to Blue and is at least a
somewhat decent blocker with an ability to
attack. In a weak Sealed pool or an
aggressive Blue build with no other choice for
the top of the mana curve it is playable, though
not very impressive. It is very likely
that there would be a better choice in a pack
that would make Jasconius a poor first pick,
though if already in Blue it can be an on color
choice. In Fourth Edition only three
creatures have enough base power to destroy this
in combat, while the number decreases to two in
Revised and none can in Arabian Nights.
The chances of playing a Limited in these
formats is slim these days, especially Arabian
Nights, but the high power and toughness adds
some value when there is little that can oppose
it.
There's a Kickstarter that is about to end
for power and toughness counters that are really
quite nice. The creator has already
produced other PennyGems and is now branching
out into accessories that would be useful for us
Magic players. Here's the link if you want
to check it out:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/276266606/magical-pennygems
