Peace of Mind – MTG Card Review – Throwback Thursday COTD

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

As the years go by, I appreciate cards that let you discard cards more and more. Just the other day, I was using Nahiri the Harbinger and I kept using her +2 loyalty ability well beyond the point where I could have activated her ultimate, just because I had more lands than I needed and I wanted to see more of the deck before the game ended. Peace of Mind does not have the most stellar payoff for that discard – although it is certainly worth noting that you can use extra cards for it when you have things you don’t need, without having to dedicate space to weaker effects like Healing Salve – but it has a good deal of combo potential. I mean, it’s in the same color as Breath of Life, not to mention a lot of the best reanimation targets like Blazing Archon, Ashen Rider, and Reya Dawnbringer. You know, I might try mono-white for my next reanimator deck . . .

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 2/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 3/5

King Of
Hearts

Discarding a card for 3 life is pretty terrible even in a life gain deck. Peace of Mind works best as a combo piece. The only problem is that Hellbent and Madness style abilities are associated with Red and Black, the opposite of White. I can’t think of any other white card that cares about discarding. There are no white cycling triggers in Amonkhet and “Wilt-Leaf Liege” abilities specify it has to be your opponent targeting you. It is a stretch but I suppose it could help Barren Glory I guess. So if you want to run Peace of Mind, you’ll have to add one or two more colors, probably Blue or Black. In Eldritch Moon Limited you can combo Peace of Mind with Lone Rider for an easy transformation. The potential is cute but the lack of discard support in White really makes this card pointless, and that’s a piece of my mind.

Constructed: 2
Casual: 3
Limited: 3
Multiplayer: 1
Commander (EDH): 2

Peace of Mind is a card that has to have the support to make it play well; its surprise return in the Shadows over Innistrad block made sense, with the surfeit of madness cards and graveyard tricks going on. It also worked well with Amonkhet, since a lot of the cycling payoff cards also work well from just normal discarding. Gaining 3 life for your discard outlet is also nice, even if you have to pay mana to use it. It’s a nifty bit player whose utility is contingent on the format it is a part of, but it’s still potentially useful in the right shell.

Constructed: 3
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 2.5
Commander: 3.5