A 5/5 for six mana isn't exactly something to be
feared, and it doesn't start churning out tokens
until turn eight. Honestly, by this point in the
game, you should have already won. If this had
been a fairly small creature, perhaps with
intimidate, then you'd get to make full use out
of the tokens. But if you can regularly swing
with a 5/5 and not lose it, you're either
already winning or your opponent is hiding
behind several Guardians of Meletis. The tokens
would likely help in the second scenario, but
the first is a lot more likely.
It's really too bad that this business with
Inspired didn't use Shadowmoor's untap symbol.
Not only because it adds a dimension to
attacking and tap abilities that you usually
don't find, but because I think more people need
to remember Shadowmoor, partly because it was
the part of the second mythology-inspired block.
(The first, of course, was Champions of Kamigawa.
Remember that?) Still, even as written, Inspired
provides a lot of incentive and reward for
aggressive play. First of all, creatures with
the keyword are generally on or above the
baseline power and toughness for their cost (as
with both today's and yesterday's cards) with no
corresponding cost increase. Second of all, a
lot of the abilities just take over a game if
unchecked. A single 3/3 can do a lot of work
holding off enemies and/or piling in, and when
you get one every single turn for doing the
exact thing you want to do with a 5/5 anyway, it
shouldn't be too hard to take advantage. That's
before you even get into the sort of nonsense
that you can pull off with cards like Glare of
Subdual and Seedborn Muse (do people still play
with those?).
Magic The Gathering Card of The Day: Pheres-
Band Raiders
Welcome back readers todays card of the day
is a powerful centaur warrior. This creature has
a powerful inspired ability and allows you to
populate the board with centaurs at a reasonable
mana cost. In standard this card is super
expensive and not going to see play as it needs
to survive attack and have a mana payment to
gain value. In all other competitive formats
it’s too expensive and slow. In casual and
multiplayer token decks can make use of this
slow consistent token producer, it’s a also a
warrior with a 5/5 body which can be relevant.
In limited it’s a solid creature with a power
inspired trigger that can help you take over the
game. Overall this creature is more suited to
casual and limited environments than
tournaments.
Today's card of the day is Pheres-Band Raiders
which is a six mana 5/5 with Inspired that
allows you to pay three mana whenever it is
untapped to put a 3/3 Green centaur enchantment
token into play. The effect is decent, but a six
mana 5/5 with no combat effects is weak for a
deck using Green and it needs to attack or be
supported with another effect to produce tokens.
The three mana for a 3/3 is quite reasonable,
though it is tied into attacking and a base six
mana creature which requires some acceleration
to get into play early enough to make any
impact. A deck built around this card just won't
compare well to faster and more flexible
options, so overall it is unlikely to see much
play in any Constructed format.
In Limited the six mana with a single Green
for a 5/5 is a very solid card and the Inspired
for token production puts this into first pick
territory for Booster if the rare is weak.
There's no drawback aside from it potentially
being at worst a vanilla 5/5 for six, so it
easily fits into any Sealed deck using Green
unless the mana curve is being kept extremely
low. Support, while nice, isn't absolutely
necessary as a 5/5 should be able to attack more
often than not and excess mana is common later
in the game.
Pheres-Band Raiders is another great Limited
card from Born of the Gods. This creature card
won me a few games at the Pre-Release all by its
lonesome! Pheres-Band Raiders has a decent body
as a 5/5 for six mana and it can easily be
splashed with other colors. It is obviously not
a very fast creature, but Pheres-Band Raiders
can give you creature advantages in the late
game stages. Any creature that can produce 3/3
creatures has a chance to be played in Casual
and Multiplayer. Pheres-Band Raiders will
probably never sniff a Constructed format, but
that is common with about 75% of the cards that
are printed.
