Black and red can kill creatures, but not
enchantments. Green can kill enchantments, but
not creatures, unless combat damage counts.
White can do both. Blue struggles with both, but
with bounce and countermagic blue can cope with
both. Playing Asceticism pretty much requires
your opponent to destroy the enchantment if they
ever hope to answer your creatures again, which
is clearly most effective against black and red.
White and blue are slowed down, as they each
have about equal difficulty with creatures and
enchantments, while green probably ignores it
and tries to trample through. But even green has
difficulty when your blockers can all
regenerate, so really there's no player who
doesn't find this a nuisance... except maybe the
one that has no need to try and kill creatures
at all, and I've never met that player.
Harkening back to the power of Troll Ascetic,
Asceticism asks players everywhere a simple
question: would you pay a little more mana to
have (potentially) as many Troll Ascetics as you
have creatures in your deck? Those who remember
how good Troll Ascetic itself was in
equipment-based decks, aggressive green decks,
defensive green decks, and pretty much any deck
that could cast it, will probably say "yes."
Those who don't . . . well, this card gives you
a taste of that timeless quality.
Welcome back readers today's card of the day is
an interesting one from Scars of Mirrodin that
can transform all your creatures into Troll
Asctetics. Five mana is a sizable portion of
mana to commit for an enchantment that gives all
your creatures troll shroud. Asceticism also
forces you to leave mana open if you want to
regenerate your creatures. In standard this card
has not made a large impact overall and as of
now it doesn't help any current archetypes. In
extended and eternal I doubt this card will see
play with the amount of powerful cards available
and the fact this ties up your mana. In casual
and multiplayer this card is powerful, making
your creatures resistant to targeted removal is
great and regeneration helps on both offense and
defense a decent one of in elder dragon
highlander. In limited its great with creatures
with Infect, it requires a heavy commitment to
green but greatly assists your creatures and
helps fight removal. Overall a flavorful and
interesting card with more casual implications
than constructed.
Today's card of the day is Asceticism which is
a five mana enchantment for Green that gives all
of you creatures the abilities of Troll Ascetic.
Both are quite useful, especially on larger
creatures, and this is quite a powerful card in
a mana acceleration design. Many styles of
deck rely on single target removal to control an
opponent's field and this shuts them down and
offers regeneration at a cost for combat or
non-targeted burn. A solid card in the
right deck and worth trying for a different
style if nothing else.
For Limited this is a card no opponent wants to
see across the table as it can be extremely
difficult to deal with aside from -1/-1 counters
against the Regeneration option. A good
first choice in Booster and easily played in a
Green deck for Sealed designs.
Today’s Card of the
Day is Asceticism from Scars of Mirrodin. This
card is definitely one of my favorite cards from
the set. Two green mana and 3 generic mana gets
you an enchantment that can regenerate your
creatures and protect them from your opponents
spells, while safely letting you target them
yourself. While a good ability, it could be
better with some protection for itself. And with
the recent sets having so many was of popping
enchantments and artifacts, at most, it may just
take one for the team.
In limited and constructed formats, as well as standard, this
card is very good. The ability to protect your
creatures and regenerate them in the event
something should kill them is great.
But again, this card shines in multiplayer, but especially in
vintage formats. Combo this with an
Indestructibility, and you could be set for a
long time. Having to spend two destroy
enchantment spells could be much to come up with
right away. And the protection it offers is
especially good against cards from older sets,
where there were more ways to handle creatures
than you could shake a stick at. Using
Privileged Position with this could help out
even further.
