At first glance, it looks like Bone Splinters--
sack a creature to kill a creature. But then you
read down a little more and you see the life
loss clause. Since this clause will always count
the sacrificed creature and the destroyed
creature, the player who loses a creature to
Flesh Allergy will always lose at least 2 life.
Now it looks more like Hideous End, except that
costs one less mana, doesn't require a creature
sacrifice, and is an instant. So for Flesh
Allergy to be worth playing, you have to ramp up
the associated life loss, and that means the
bodies have to hit the floor. Well, black does
like to sacrifice creatures. Maybe some sort of
combo that involves a lot of creature sacrifice?
Pop a Demon's Herald the same turn you play
this? Or maybe you can orchestrate a
particularly cacophonous combat phase? Attack
into blockers and tempt your opponent to trade?
Heck, if your deck produces enough tokens, you
might make this your out-of-nowhere win
condition. If not, well, then just play Hideous
End.
Like many of Phyrexia's best weapons, Flesh
Allergy capitalizes on your opponents' and
your own creatures' deaths, without prejudice.
In Mirrodin, Shatter may be Terror, but this
card is sometimes even better. It's decent as a
prelude to combat, and it can be downright
game-ending as a postscript. Try it with
Bloodthrone Vampire!
Today's card of the day is Flesh Allergy which
is a four mana removal that also costs a
sacrifice of one of your creatures. As a
sorcery speed with nothing else this would be a
pretty bad card, but the loss of life clause can
have some benefit in a sacrifice themed deck and
played as a finisher. Overall it takes a
fairly dedicated mono-Black deck to make this
work and a deck like that can win tournaments,
so it can see some play. Better removal
and loss of life choices exist, but as a card
that combines both it is somewhat useful even if
it isn't the best example of efficiency.
In Limited this is not the best removal choice
as it requires a sacrifice costing you a two for
one and is unlikely to inflict much loss of life
to an opponent in the format. It is one of
the few cards that can take out any
non-Indestructible threat which does give it
some value, but splashing it is unlikely with
the double Black in the mana cost. In
Sealed this can be played if you are running
Black, have expendable creatures, and find
yourself light on removal. For Booster
draft this is a tough choice and can be picked
up in a weak pack if Black seems to be your
primary color, but should not be considered a
great choice unless your other cards are well
suited to supporting it.
