Pawn of Ulamog
We all know you'd probably prefer if your
creatures not be put into your graveyard, but we
still must acknowledge that they likely will be
with or without our blessing. Pawn of Ulamog is
a decent way to cash in on that unpleasant
reality, consoling you for each loss with an
Eldrazi Spawn token, which can be used either to
block next turn what killed its progenitor, or
be sacrificed itself for mana to cast a more
significant threat. Given that most of your
nontoken creatures will likely be more
impressive than a 0/1 that can be sacrificed for
one colorless mana, and that Pawn of Ulamog
itself is little more impressive as a 2/2 for
1BB, this is useful only to keep one's number of
creatures from dwindling, if one has an effect
of the sort "creatures you control get +X/+X",
if one expects one's opponents to play
board-sweeping effects, or if one has some means
of continually sacrificing and reanimating a
creature.
The Magic design trope of gaining something when
a creature dies has appeared in various places
over the years, mainly in black and green. Pawn
of Ulamog is a typically black take on it (note
Butvher of Malakir), with an almost green twist
of having the tokens help you cast other spells.
Even if you don't need them for that, you can
never have too many Eldrazi Spawn. Just ask
Minions' Murmurs, or maybe Biorhythm. Overall,
an interesting card with some fun applications.
Magic The Gathering Card of The Day: Pawn of
Ulamog
Welcome back readers today we have an
interesting black vampire from Rise of The
Eldrazi, Pawn of Ulamog. For a second I skipped
over non token creature and though meh not bad
then I came to my senses and realized the card
is not all its cracked up to me. In standard,
extended and eternal this card wont see much
play, I don't think it justifies its inclusion
into a deck. So for every creature you control
that gets nuked by a spell or chumps blocks you
get a chump blocker or a free mana boost. An
interesting concept but I don't see it taking
off, way too many powerful vampires as is right
now. In casual and multiplayer this card has
potential with sacrifice effects and combo
shenanigans, it will see some uses there. In
limited its a creature and it replaces itself
and others you lose decent if not too exciting.
Overall this card has some interesting
applications but I don't think it will see much
play.
Today's card of the day is Pawn of Ulamog which
is a 2/2 Vampire Shaman for three mana that
already benefits from the wealth of recent
vampire support in addition to providing tokens
for Eldrazi or sacrifice targets.
Bloodthrone Vampire, Blade of the Bloodchief,
Butcher of Malakir, Quest for the Gravelord, or
the older Grave Pact being some obvious examples
of cards that work well with this. A
potentially devastating series of three card
combination options exist, but like all such
arrangements it does benefit from support and a
lack of disruption. Even without any
additional cards this does give two creatures,
barring removal that avoid the graveyard
entirely, and is well worth playing in the right
deck builds.
For Limited the support for Eldrazi Spawn tokens
and general benefits of getting a token or mana
for each non-token creature sent to the
graveyard make this an excellent uncommon to
pick up. If running Black as the primary
color this is a great pick early in Booster
draft or in Sealed. The double Black is
worth noting, but it still can retain
effectiveness played on the fourth or later
turns.
