Red doesn't get a lot of flying outside of
Dragons, so a cheap one that isn't terrible is
worth looking at. The Spitfire is a 1/3 for 2R,
which is respectable, but of course you don't
ever really want its power to be 1, do you? You
want its ability to make it a 4/3, 7/3, or even
10/3, right? Of course! And with Chandra
herself, in any of her incarnations, that's
fairly easy to do. While you ping away at your
opponent, your Spitfire gets bigger and ready to
swing. The trouble comes when you don't draw a
Chandra. Then you have to use your burn spells
to aim at your opponent's dome when you'd rather
use them to kill creatures. Using burn like
Chandra's Outrage, Searing Blaze, or Volcanic
Fallout helps, but you really don't want to have
to rely on spending instants and sorceries to
make the Spitfire do its thing. Red decks are
already prone to running out of cards. But then
again, if you can get through with a 7/3 after
throwing burn directly at the opponent, it won't
matter if you're out of cards when you win, will
it?
While Dave Price and his Sligh decks are
important in Magic's history, they do seem to
have created a perception that red is a color of
small creatures. Experts in the color will tell
you that it is in fact a spell color, as
emphasized by Chandra's Spitfire. While this
creature came out shortly before Kiln Fiend,
which is a more purely powerful card mainly due
to its lower cost, it's not entirely
overshadowed. For one thing, the Spitfire can
fly, and as one of the color with the fewest
flying creatures, anything that can attack from
above or block if necessary is a boon. Second of
all, Kiln Fiend doesn't fit in a deck themed
around Chandra Nalaar!
Today's card of the day is Soul's Fire which is
a three mana Red that has target creature you
control deal damage equal to its power to target
creature or player. Played alongside low cost
high power creatures this is a serious threat
and finisher that can even be used before Fling
for more damage. Red creatures with Haste that
are sacrificed at the end of turn or ones that
power up multiple times are the most likely
companions to a Soul's Fire and Fling theme.
Infect or other targets with noncombat specific
effects like Lifelink are effective as well
which gives this quite a bit of potential across
a variety of designs.
For Limited this being able to destroy
creatures or do direct burn without sacrificing
your creature makes it an excellent second or
third pick in Booster. The single Red also
allows for easy use in Sealed where in color
removal is likely to be lacking. The damage is
valuable in the format, though the probability
of not having ideal targets reduces the
effectiveness somewhat.
Welcome to the Pojo.com card of the day
section. My family and I chose some of our
favorite cards for this week. Today is my
daughter Samantha’s pick, Chandra’s Spitfire.
Chandra’s Spitfire is an uncommon red creature
elemental for two generic and a red, and is a
1/3. Chandra’s Spitfire has flying and whenever
an opponent is dealt non-combat damage,
Chandra’s Spitfire gets +3/+0 until the end of
turn.
My daughter LOVES Chandra’s Spitfire, but also
simply loves Chandra in general. So much so, she
dressed up as Chandra for Halloween, and won a
costume contest. I of course had to build her a
Chandra themed deck, and it focuses on the
Chandra’s Spitfire, simply because of how
amazing it really is. With a bunch of toms on
the board (cards that tap to deal one damage)
the Spitfire quickly becomes a very real threat.
Think of just two Goblin Fireslingers on the
table. They tap and deal one damage to an
opponent, and then in turn, you attack with the
now 7/3 Spitfire. When properly utilized, you
use Goblin Tunneler to first make it unblockable,
and then after the declare blockers, right
before damage is assigned, is when you hammer in
the toms and burn spells for maximum damage! I
mean, two toms, one Shock, and a Soul’s Fire,
going on the stack in reverse written order so
they trigger in written order, would be over
twenty damage! In fact, if the attack were
successful, it would be twenty-five damage, on a
single swing, with one creature, and four mana.
A very interesting scenario since it all could
happen on fourth turn.
My daughter’s thoughts on the Chandra’s Spit
fire. Chandra’s Spitfire is both a beautiful and
awesome card. I beat people with that card all
the time. I love Chandra!
And that is it for today’s card of the day from
my daughter Samantha and I. See you all tomorrow
when we take a look at the card my wife, Saira
picked out!
