First of all, if I'm reading this right, you can
cycle it for a Forest OR a Plains, not one of
each, and no you can't pay 4 and cycle it for
both abilities. But even so, big fat expensive
creature with cycling has always been a recipe
for success. Draw it early, you go get yourself
a land out of your deck. Draw it late, drop it
as a 4/5 with reach. Versatility is a valued
quality of cards.
Looking at this card, I feel a little bad for
Esper - despite their mastery of metallurgy, it
never occurred to them that they would ever need
a can of bug spray big enough for this guy. The
days of one landcycling card being able to get
four different lands are long gone; if history
rhymes, as Mark Twain said, this little big guy
is the new Eternal Dragon. Now all we need is a
multicolor version of Astral Slide . . .
-Balding
for just over 5 years
-Playing MTG for just over 10
Pale Recluse
A limited friend. However, not much to say
beyond that. For 6 mana, the creature needs to
do something more than average. The reach aspect
is nice. Often green has problems with the
flyers and there is not much out there that can
get past this fellows 5 toughness. Early on, you
can cycle which is also nice. I hope they print
one of these multi-cyclers that works well in
reanimator. As multiplayer games give you a
little more time, this guy might be more
playable.
It seems like we have a spider or two appear in
every set. So, if you're a fan, here's another
one ..
I find it interesting that this card has three
relevant abilities. One of them is Reach, which
most spiders in the game seem to have. That's
not a huge deal, but it comes with both
Forestcycling and Plainscycling. We don't see
much of either ability lately. This does
increase the chances of Pale Recluse seeing some
play though. Normally, you'd look at a card with
such a high casting cost and toss it aside.
This time though, you're getting some solid mana
fixing along with a 4/5 body. It almost makes
Reach a bonus feature.
