Every so often, Wizards of the Coast tosses a
card like this into a set that's clearly set up
to catch the attention of the non-rotating card
pool demographics. Sometimes a little too
clearly. Look at that cost! Look at those stats!
Look at that disruptive ability! Except that
competitive non-rotating card pool players don't
rely on things that say "lol I draw a billion
cards" to quite the extent that Standard players
and short-term design experts seem to think.
Dark Confidant doesn't make you draw. Gifts
Ungiven doesn't make you draw. Fact or Fiction
doesn't make you draw. It seems to affect
certain kinds of casual decks more (better stock
up on Oracle of Mul Daya), and also Sphinx's
Revelation. Although, I kind of feel like
Revelation deserves to get hosed a little, so
that's something to cheer at least.
Today's card of the day is Spirit of the
Labyrinth which is two mana a White 3/1
enchantment creature that prevents each player
from drawing more than one card each turn.
This is a powerful effect in most formats and
can be combined with non-drawing abilities to
gain an even larger advantage over an opponent.
The 3/1 body is solid offensively and combines
well with First Strike, though the toughness
leaves it vulnerable to nearly all forms of
removal. Overall this is a card that may see
play in all formats going as far back as Legacy
and will be a popular choice for decks with
non-drawing plays or with no card draw at all
just to potentially weaken opponents.
In Limited the card draw limitation is less
likely to come up, but a two mana 3/1 is a solid
body and unless you have card draw effects there
is no drawback to including it when playing
White. A mediocre first pick in Booster
for power in the format, though a decent value
choice, though it is an easy inclusion in Sealed
for the low cost and aggressive body.
Spirit of the Labyrinth is a new creature that
I actually like a lot. First off, the artwork is
really cool. Second, it slows down all of the
card draw in the current Standard format. I’m
sure that this Spirit will find a home in many
different formats. I’m talking about Commander,
Casual and Constructed. In the Limited format,
Spirit of the Labyrinth is a decent 3/1 creature
but not very good overall. This brings me to
what I like about this card. Even if your
opponent has no card drawing abilities, Spirit
of the Labyrinth is still an effective 3/1
beater for 2 mana. This means that you can play
3 or 4 of them in a fast deck and not regret it.
Spirit of the Labyrinth is a well-balanced card
that is not too powerful and not very weak. I’m
sure that every player out there will find a
reason to at least have one copy of Spirit of
the Labyrinth!
