Luminous Broodmoth – Ikoria MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

Mothra rises again! And she breaks at least two fundamental rules of Magic: creatures are able to die, and creatures that don’t have flying don’t . . . er, fly. While her ability doesn’t look like a conventional card advantage effect or a conventional Overrun effect, I think it can be seen as an unconventional version of either. After all, it usually means you’ll be getting at least one more attack out of an affected creature, and often a little more damage out of the same creature. When you combine it with creatures that are already hard to kill in the first place, you’ll soon be ahead on resources, too. Ample reason, I think, to chase the bright elusive butterfly.

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

A clear reference to Mothra, Luminous Broodmoth brings forth another of Ikoria‘s innovations: ability counters, which grant the named ability to creatures that have them. In particular, Luminous Broodmoth bequeaths flying counters to creatures that die, but only if they are unable to swoop. There are few ways to strip creatures of in-built flying, though there are more ways to remove counters, which means Luminous Broodmoth has ways to abuse the crap out of its revive effect. But even without those, the moth is an evasive 3/4 body that gives some resilience to board wipes and affords the ability to swoop early and often, a strong white card with the ability for abuse.

Constructed: 4.25
Casual: 4.75
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander: 4.25

Phat
Pack
Magic
YouTube

Hello guys and welcome back to Pojo’s Card of the Day! Today we’re taking a peek at a big ol’ moth that’s shown up in the new set and is already making waves. So let’s dig in and see the flame that surrounds this moth.

At first glance the stats on this creature aren’t too impressive, a flying 3/4 body for 2WW isn’t going to be setting people back in their chairs but this line of text is incredibly important and more than makes up for it’s lackluster body.

Whenever a creature you control without flying dies, return it to the battlefield  under its owner’s control with a flying counter on it.

That is one heck of a brick of text and clearly justifies the mythic rarity on this creature, so where does this guy work?

Well reanimation is a very breakable mechanic and in EDH there’s no shortage of ways to bust this guy. While this pretty moth doesn’t have the legendary creature text that would make it a build around kind of card it slots in just fine working with Solemnity and a sac outlet like Ashnod’s Alter for infinite flickery.

It’s a little early for Paper Standard to see this guy but people are already brewing with it on Arena and I think it can be a very punishing card to slot in as a top end for the Weenie Decks. Getting hit with a Shatter the Sky is painful but being able to land this guy before a Wrath goes off is going to instantly refill your board with your guys and give them flying to boot.

In draft this guy is nuts. Removal is a high premium in regular draft formats and this guy turns all of your team into heavily profitable trade in options which can allow you to outpace your opponent. If this guy lands unchecked with removal from your opponent then you’re going to be hard pressed to lose the game.

Similar to regular draft and standard’s board wipe antics, this guy is one of my top picks for cube. White has a couple of amazing players in the 4 drop spot like Palace Jailer and Hero of Bladehold but I think this guy is strong enough to be able to squeeze into the spot uncontested.

Standard 4/5 – A great top end for the white weenie deck and with an ability that is super abusable.

Limited 5/5 – A super allstar bomberino, definitely worth switching into white if you see this.

Commander 5/5 – Abilities that allow for infinite scenarios are perfect for this format.

Cube 4/5 – I can’t be 100% sure of this card as I have not tested with it yet but I have very eager high hopes.