I was very surprised when the rest of the Pojo
crew told me that we'd never reviewed this card
before. It absolutely begs to be built around,
and five mana often ends up being a ridiculously
low price for the number of abilities it gets
when you do. Even one or two relevant creatures
in a graveyard make this guy very efficient.
It's also a much more friendly way to introduce
graveyard strategies to a casual metagame than
something like Unburial Rites.
In spite of that, I've always been a little
puzzled as to why Lorwyn's changelings look like
modern folklore's gray aliens, and not more like
the sort of Celtic faerie creatures their name
might imply. It doesn't take away from their
gameplay abilities, of course!
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
a powerful changeling with an awesome graveyard
related ability. Cairn Wandered is a five mana
4/4 which are not the most efficient stats but
the upside is its all creature types and can
gain a plethora of keyworded abilities. In
competitive formats five mana is too high for
the effect, the upside is that with a little
graveyard manipulation you can make quite the
formidable creature, the downside is once
again the mana cost and most decks want to be
doing something more efficient. In casual and
multiplayer it can fit into a large variety of
decks being every creature types greatly
benefits it and being able to sculpt your
graveyard to make a powerful efficient evasive
creature is great. In limited it relies on other
creatures but even having a few in your deck can
turn this card into a powerhouse. Overall a
powerful limited card with some casual
applications.
Today's card of the day is Cairn Wanderer which
is a five mana Black 4/4 with Changeling and can
gain a variety of effects from creatures in the
graveyard. This is a bit high cost and
graveyard dependent for most formats, but in
Commander or Multiplayer it has a great deal of
potential with even minimal support. Cards
like Vampire Nighthawk and Gurmag Swiftwing each
have three effects to fuel the Wanderer and are
aggressive options to play before it hits the
field. In addition there are cards
that can offer high end protection and of course
the opposing graveyards can add benefits as
well. Overall this is a strong middle or
late game threat that is often overlooked even
though it can easily be included in existing
Commander and Multiplayer designs.
Rounding out the week, we've got a neat little
tech card for reanimator decks. Got an Akroma in
the grave but just don't have the life for that
reanimate? drop this black equivalent. Note that
the ability checks all graveyards, so with a
little tinkering, you can have the keyword
equivalent of a Tarmogoyf. A hasty, double
striking, deathtouchy, lifelinking, trampling,
shrouded, and vigilant 4/4 is pretty hard to
beat short of a boardwipe.
