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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Godsend
Image from Wizards.com

Godsend
- Journey into Nyx

Reviewed May 22, 2014

Constructed: 4.15
Casual: 4.40
Limited: 4.80
Multiplayer: 4.10

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale:
1 - Horrible  3 - Average.  5 - Awesome

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Godsend

First of all, its wielder gets +3/+3. Second, the exile ability happens before combat damage is dealt, so not only is the Godsender getting a P/T boost, but the opponent can't even hope to kill it without gang-blocking it, and he has to gang-block so that even after the biggest blocker is exiled, he's still dealing enough damage to kill it. So not only is the poor sap on the other side of the table losing a whole bunch of his creatures, he's also not actually stopping Godsend, he's just killing its wielder. Another 3 mana, and he has to do it AGAIN. Without casting additional copies of whatever got exiled.

When you see this card on the other side of the table, you should panic. You either have an artifact kill spell (and since many of those also kill enchantments, which are rampant in Theros block, you ought to) or you kill the opponent with evasive beats that the Godsender can't block, or you lose to it.

My prediction for 2015: every white deck with creatures in it will NEED Godsend.

Constructed- 5
Casual- 5
Limited- 5
Multiplayer- 5


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Godsend

Technically, Elspeth's new weapon most resembles a sword staff. That was actually a Scandinavian weapon, so it's not very clear why she got hers on Theros. Of course, this is also a game where you can summon dragons and equip a wall with a warhammer, so maybe it doesn't really matter so much.

This card's name is fitting - anything you equip with it becomes basically godlike, and in a much more immediate and less esoteric way than something to do with devotion or enchantments. The fact that the exile trigger happens before combat narrows your opponent's choices greatly and makes high-toughness creatures that are usually good at blocking seem rather mediocre. They can't stop it in combat short of a huge gang-block, but then it also has +3/+3 . . . only a slight improvement, in practice.

The restriction on casting creatures with the same name as exiled cards won't always be relevant, and almost never in limited, but it may make opponents think twice about blocking with a good creature in constructed, and that means more damage to them - basically a win-win.

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 5/5
Multiplayer: 4/5

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Godsend which is a three mana White equipment with an equip cost of three.  The +3/+3 for three is a very solid boost at the cost, and the exile effect is very impressive both immediately as removal and for the ongoing prevention of casting cards with the same name.  As a double White cost out of three this will likely be used in mono-color decks where it can be paired with Vigilance to maximize the opportunities for exiling.  This is powerful enough to see competitive play and will be popular in several formats as a difficult to approach threat that either forces unblocked damage or exiles anything in the way.
 
In Limited the prevention aspect is unlikely to be much of a factor, but the +3/+3 and exile benefits make this an easy first pick in Booster. 
In Sealed the double White makes splashing difficult, so a solid pool in color is needed for about half of the deck.  In either setting this is a dominant card that turns nearly any creature into an endgame threat for the opponent.
 
Constructed: 4.0
Casual: 4.0
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 4.0

Mattedesa

Deck Garage

Godsend
 
An equipment that costs 3 to cast and 3 to equip and adds +3/+3 to a creature would be decent to begin with. But that's only part of what this does. Add on the effect of exiling anything it touches (before damage, by the way), and this card is just sick.
 
Thankfully to those of us who have to sit across the table from one of these, the total of 6 mana that has to be paid before this can do anything means it happens late enough in the game where we can hopefully have an answer for it. If it cost any less, it would be borderline unfair.
 
Putting this on a creature makes a real dilemma for your opponent. Do they block, lose their creature, and never be able to cast that card again, or do they take what's sure to be a sizable chunk of damage? Also, since the exile happens before damage, it's nearly impossible to kill this thing in combat. You'd have to block it with 2 creatures that are both big enough on their own to kill the creature wielding the sword.
 
I can't review this card without telling the story of my first encounter with it. At the pre-release, one of my opponents slapped this on the table. Lucky guy. He then proceeded to equip it to a Sigiled Starfish along with Ordeal of Heliod and Ephara's Enlightenment, for a crazy 5/8 flying, sword-wielding starfish. Take a moment to picture that. Next turn, it became a 7/10...thankfully I topdecked something to kill it before it killed me. The next round, I sat next to the same guy, and he was doing to same nonsense, except this time with a 5/10 flying, sword-wielding Nyx-Fleece Ram - which creates an equally strange mental image. In this case, too, the opponent had something to deal with the creature and the sword ended up sitting there unused most of the game.
 
The moral of that story is that as good as auras and equipment are, you have to have enough creatures to use them efficiently. Godsend is useless if you have nothing to wield it.
 
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 3.5


Michael Sokolowski

How do you kill a god? Well, with a Legendary Artifact - Equipment it would seem.
 
Meet the Godsend sword, which is arguably one of the most powerful pieces of equipment ever printed in Magic.
 
There's a lot to say about what Godsend can do, but first let's look at the pure stats. 3 mana, two of them white, and an equip cost of 3. I'd say that's all pretty reasonable for a +3/+3 boost. I mean people used to pay that cost all the time for Loxodon Warhammer, and that was just +3/+0, although really it was also for the trample and lifelink there. You could theoretically either play this on turn 3 and equip it on turn 4 to something you had cast on the first two turns, or later on you could bust it out by casting and equipping it on turn 6 to something you cast on turn 5 and attacking right away. Of course one of the joys of equipment is they stick around on the battlefield and wait for you to have something to put it on to, so really you could play it whenever you don't have anything better to play.
 
Godsend is powerful. I mean really, REALLY powerful. It does two really amazing things, but one of them has a secret ace up its sleeve that you may or may not realize at first. But let's look at that later. When a creature equipped with Godsend blocks or is blocked by something, that thing is exiled. Well, one of those things, which makes blocking with multiple creatures against Godsend a potential counter, but still a costly one (unless you have lots of little tokens you don't mind throwing away or something). It's important to note that you don't have to wait for combat damage to be dealt. They declare blockers, boom! One of them's gone. They attack, you block? Boom! One of them's gone. No deathtouch for you to worry about, no lifelink, no first strike, nothing. You just killed them so dead they didn't even get to go to the graveyard. And not only that, you killed them so ultra super dead that it can never be cast again. Whatever Godsend kills, it kills for good.
 
Now let me tell you about the extra little secret this card has built into it. You see... that exile effect doesn't require you to target the creature. It just... happens. Take a moment to let that sink in. That means that a creature equipped with Godsend can exile any creature it ends up in front of. ANY. CREATURE. Godsend can exile creatures with hexproof or shroud. Godsend can exile creature with Protection from White or Protection from Artifacts. Godsend can exile creatures with Protection from EVERYTHING. That's right, Godsend can beat Progenitus in a fight. If Godsend and Progenitus go at each other, Progenitus will LOSE and whoever is holding it will walk away unscathed. THAT is the kind of power we're talking about here. (Of course, the creature holding Godsend wouldn't be able to block an attacking Progenitus, but if you attack and Progenitus blocked for some reason, this is what would happen.)
 
How many cards can say that they can beat Progenitus in a fight?
 
Anyway, this is an interesting card. It puts a lot of pressure on your opponent. Like, a ton. They have to decide if they want to take your creature's power +3 damage, or lose a creature 100% forever. And they have to make this decision every turn. Now, that's not to say that you can't win if your facing a Godsend sword. You can still destroy the creature holding it with a kill spell, and an equipment with no creatures on the field is no longer a threat. You can always take the hit to the face and try to draw a kill spell or race your opponent, hoping you can deal more damage per turn than their guy(s). You have options. But it puts you on a clock, and it puts the pressure on you as you're the one who needs to come up with an answer.
 
Should you play this card? If you can fit it into your deck, I'd certainly give it a shot. Obviously 100% for yes in limited. But in constructed, it's a 6 mana investment that requires you to have a creature, and take up to 2 turns casting this thing instead of other threats. In the right deck in can find a home, mostly because you can spread out the cost and it isn't as vulnerable to destruction as auras. The effect is powerful enough that people will try to find ways to use it, especially in casual. This card can and will win you games.
 
Oh, and spoiler alert: I wouldn't want to be in Xenagos's shoes right now when Elspeth gets through with him.
 
Constructed: 3.75
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4


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