What can be
said about the best mana accelerator of all time
that hasn't already been said. Banned in all
formats except restricted in type 1, it has
never and never will see reprint again.
I won't bore you with a worthless limited
review, but in Type 1, if you can afford to get
one, it goes in every deck, no matter what,
without question. It's mana speed is
unparalleled and can lock down an opponent
before they ever get to play their first card.
This card
is the reason that any card with the word
"Lotus" in its name, rules text, or even
flavor text must add mana of any color to
your mana pool. This is the reason the
"four of" rule was established. This is
also the reason that Vintage isn't more
popular: you can't be competitive without
cards like this. But of course, as powerful
as it is, its power has been eclipsed in
Magic lore by its price tag.
Is it really that powerful? Yes. Imagine
Dark Ritual, for any color you want, for
free. What would you do with four mana on
Turn One?
That said, I won't ever recommend this in my
Deck Garage. Why not? Well, it's powerful
as sin, but there's only two formats you can
use it in: Vintage and Casual. If you're
playing casually, you don't need Black
Lotus. And if you're playing Vintage, you
don't need my help. I don't play Vintage,
so I don't know how to fix Vintage decks.
And I haven't been playing long enough to
see it in action myself, so my only
experience with this card is that it sort of
has become the winning lottery ticket of
Magic. It's the impossible dream.
Constructed- 5
Casual- 5
Limited-
3.5 (But if you open it in a draft, pick it
anyway. You know why.)
Aethereal
Tuesday - Black
Lotus
To celebrate 1,500 card reviews, we're reviewing
Black Lotus.
What can't be said about this card? It's broken,
amazing, wrong, overpowered, everything you can
think of.
Okay, so it's not the most broken card in the
game (that honor goes to Contract from Below or
Yawgmoth's Will), but it sure is up there. 3
free mana, no questions asked (barring something
like Trinisphere or Sphere of Resistance). The
power and rarity of this card are why it
regularly fetches hundreds to even thousands of
dollars on the secondary market, depending on
the condition and edition of the card.
Oh, and you know that saying, "often imitated,
never duplicated"? That certainly applies to
this card.
Constructed - 5
Casual - 5
Limited - 5
David Fanany
Player since
1995
Black Lotus
I never owned a Black Lotus. Until I played in a
Highlander tournament in January (it was awful -
they were still stuck in Combo Winter), I had
never even seen one. That might seem odd for
someone of my "venerable" age, but it was before
even my time; I started playing with a Fourth
Edition starter set, and Magic had never been
really popular in that area before that.
Combined with the relatively small print runs of
the Limited and Unlimited Editions, fortune was
stacked against me when it came to owning the
most powerful (non-ante) card in Magic. All we
had was a legend about a first-turn win that was
possible with the Fourth Edition cards Channel
and Fireball, combined with a mysterious
artifact named Black Lotus (we weren't even sure
at the time what set it was from!).
Most people, of course, started playing even
later than I did, and so Black Lotus remains the
ultimate chase rare, the holy grail of Magic,
and, in spite of it being restricted, one of the
cards that powers the Vintage format and makes
it what it is. It is the best accelerant in the
game and possibly the best mana producer of any
type in the game. It is one of a few cards whose
appearance and even name immediately conjure
images of Magic: the Gathering, and will always
have a place in Magic's folklore, no matter
where the game's wild ride through the
multiverse goes.
Constructed: 5/5
Casual: 5/5
Limited: 5/5
The Missing
Linc
-Balding
for just over 5 years
-Playing MTG for just over 10
I think last
time I looked up the price of this baby is was
in the $2,000.00 range. I think that means I
will never own one. As much as I love the game,
I don't think I could ever rationalize that kind
of spending to get a first round play that could
wow so many. There is not much I can say on
this one except, if you own one...please use
it. Remember, Magic is about having fun!
