Spending mana every turn just to put your
creature's power and toughness where you want
them can get expensive pretty quickly. Sure, if
you swing with this before casting any spells
for the turn, your opponent has to do some
serious thought about what you might do with
that mana. Does he block with a 2/3 and let you
choose whether you're trading or just bouncing
of of each other? Does he let you through and
run the risk that he's taking four? He doesn't
know if you're planning to use that mana to cast
another creature, or just hoping to get in while
you can.
On defense, it's a similar gamble, but you're
less likely to have extra mana at that point--
at least, you shouldn't be leaving mana up just
in case you need to invert your Weird. At a 1/4
for two, its "neutral" form makes a fine blocker
anyway. The fact that you might be able to trade
up with it just sweetens the deal.
This is an odd sort of card at first glance,
both because of the freaky appearance of the guy
in the picture and because it may not
immediately be clear what you're supposed to do
with it. It's got that weird, mana-intensive
ability to turn it from Giant Tortoise
defense-mode into fragile offense mode, but if
you think about it, doesn't that actually help
you out by not having to commit to a win
condition separate from your Giant Tortoise? If
one was being really cynical, one could say that
the most powerful decks in Magic are not even
the uber-control card advantage decks, but the
ones that get a presence on the table early and
Lightning Bolt or Mana Leak (hint: check this
guy's colors) anything threatening. For those
sorts of decks, Frostburn Weird is actually one
of the more cost-effective creatures you could
be playing, from anywhere in Magic.
Today's card of the day is Frostburn Weird
which is a two mana Red or Blue 1/4 that for
each one Red or Blue paid gets +1/-1 until end
of turn. A two mana 1/4 isn't bad,
particularly as a defensive play that can still
deal with low toughness creatures. Working
in Red, Blue, or Red/Blue designs is beneficial
and this would see a little play in Blue and
Izzet decks for that alone. The effect
takes this to the next level as with even one
mana available it can potentially be a 2/3 and
disrupt many early attackers, or the mana can be
used for an instant which both colors generally
have a variety of. As a psychological play
this is a very effective creature and with spare
mana it can even be a threat offensively.
Overall a very playable card, particularly for
Izzet, mono-Blue, or Grixis designs and it will
see slots as a flexible early to mid-game play.
In Limited this is a very useful card for Izzet,
mono-Blue, or mono-Red that can actually win
games if an opponent has a slow opening.
There's no real drawback, aside from being far
less useful in a deck with non-Blue or Red mana
sources, and can safely block nearly anything
played in the beginning of a game. It
works well as a second pick in Booster that
leaves adding the second color as a bit less of
a problematic option and in Sealed when running
Izzet or a primarily Blue or Red build.
