This card reminds me of Tidebinder Mage from
M14, which could be incredibly annoying to red
or green decks (though at least you could burn
that, unlike Master of Waves). Harbinger of the
Tides is arguably more threatening in a sense,
as the tempo loss can be devastating. The fact
that monstrosity was in a recent set and
encourages attacking makes it even worse. Arbor
Colossus is awesome, but 11 mana is still a lot,
even spread over two turns. The alternate flash
cost feels almost like adding insult to injury,
though I guess the aggressive players can take
comfort from the fact that they're more likely
to have another creature that's larger than 2/2.
Today's card of the day is Harbinger of the
Tides which is a two mana Blue 2/2 that you can
pay two extra mana to cast it at instant speed
and when it enters play you may return an
opposing tapped creature to hand.
This is an excellent effect at two mana with an
attached 2/2 that is only strengthened by the
optional instant speed casting to bounce an
attacking creature and add a blocker. In
mono-Blue or merfolk decks this will be a very
frequent sight across formats and adds an
efficiency in a more aggressive form that isn't
just drawing a card.
In Limited the double Blue is a bit of a
drawback, but it is extremely efficient
otherwise and a strong first pick in Booster as
a low cost stall with no other drawback.
In Sealed this belongs in every Blue build and
adds quite a bit to the pool, though it is not
really appropriate to splash or enough to force
the color.
Bounce spell on a stick. Cool. ability to grant
flash for 2 more. alright. It's standard
playable, it's a cute combat trick, and it's
good with flicker mechanics. Nice stuff. Not
much else to say for this one.
