First of all, its wielder gets +3/+3. Second,
the exile ability happens before combat damage
is dealt, so not only is the Godsender getting a
P/T boost, but the opponent can't even hope to
kill it without gang-blocking it, and he has to
gang-block so that even after the biggest
blocker is exiled, he's still dealing enough
damage to kill it. So not only is the poor sap
on the other side of the table losing a whole
bunch of his creatures, he's also not actually
stopping Godsend, he's just killing its wielder.
Another 3 mana, and he has to do it AGAIN.
Without casting additional copies of whatever
got exiled.
When you see this card on the other side of the
table, you should panic. You either have an
artifact kill spell (and since many of those
also kill enchantments, which are rampant in
Theros block, you ought to) or you kill the
opponent with evasive beats that the Godsender
can't block, or you lose to it.
My prediction
for 2015: every white deck with creatures in it
will NEED Godsend.
Technically, Elspeth's new weapon most
resembles a sword staff. That was actually a
Scandinavian weapon, so it's not very clear why
she got hers on Theros. Of course, this is also
a game where you can summon dragons and equip a
wall with a warhammer, so maybe it doesn't
really matter so much.
This card's name is fitting - anything you
equip with it becomes basically godlike, and in
a much more immediate and less esoteric way than
something to do with devotion or enchantments.
The fact that the exile trigger happens before
combat narrows your opponent's choices greatly
and makes high-toughness creatures that are
usually good at blocking seem rather mediocre.
They can't stop it in combat short of a huge
gang-block, but then it also has +3/+3 . . .
only a slight improvement, in practice.
The restriction on casting creatures with the
same name as exiled cards won't always be
relevant, and almost never in limited, but it
may make opponents think twice about blocking
with a good creature in constructed, and that
means more damage to them - basically a win-win.
Today's card of the day is Godsend which is a
three mana White equipment with an equip cost of
three. The +3/+3 for three is a very solid
boost at the cost, and the exile effect is very
impressive both immediately as removal and for
the ongoing prevention of casting cards with the
same name. As a double White cost out of
three this will likely be used in mono-color
decks where it can be paired with Vigilance to
maximize the opportunities for exiling.
This is powerful enough to see competitive play
and will be popular in several formats as a
difficult to approach threat that either forces
unblocked damage or exiles anything in the way.
In Limited the prevention aspect is unlikely to
be much of a factor, but the +3/+3 and exile
benefits make this an easy first pick in
Booster.
In Sealed the double White makes splashing
difficult, so a solid pool in color is needed
for about half of the deck. In either
setting this is a dominant card that turns
nearly any creature into an endgame threat for
the opponent.
An equipment that costs 3 to cast and 3 to equip
and adds +3/+3 to a creature would be decent to
begin with. But that's only part of what this
does. Add on the effect of exiling anything it
touches (before damage, by the way), and this
card is just sick.
Thankfully to those of us who have to sit across
the table from one of these, the total of 6 mana
that has to be paid before this can do anything
means it happens late enough in the game where
we can hopefully have an answer for it. If it
cost any less, it would be borderline unfair.
Putting this on a creature makes a real dilemma
for your opponent. Do they block, lose their
creature, and never be able to cast that card
again, or do they take what's sure to be a
sizable chunk of damage? Also, since the exile
happens before damage, it's nearly impossible to
kill this thing in combat. You'd have to block
it with 2 creatures that are both big enough on
their own to kill the creature wielding the
sword.
I can't review this card without telling the
story of my first encounter with it. At the
pre-release, one of my opponents slapped this on
the table. Lucky guy. He then proceeded to equip
it to a Sigiled Starfish along with Ordeal of
Heliod and Ephara's Enlightenment, for a crazy
5/8 flying, sword-wielding starfish. Take a
moment to picture that. Next turn, it became a
7/10...thankfully I topdecked something to kill
it before it killed me. The next round, I sat
next to the same guy, and he was doing to same
nonsense, except this time with a 5/10 flying,
sword-wielding Nyx-Fleece Ram - which creates an
equally strange mental image. In this case, too,
the opponent had something to deal with the
creature and the sword ended up sitting there
unused most of the game.
The moral of that story is that as good as auras
and equipment are, you have to have enough
creatures to use them efficiently. Godsend is
useless if you have nothing to wield it.
How do you kill a god? Well, with a Legendary
Artifact - Equipment it would seem.
Meet the Godsend sword, which is arguably one of
the most powerful pieces of equipment ever
printed in Magic.
There's a lot to say about what Godsend can do,
but first let's look at the pure stats. 3
mana, two of them white, and an equip cost of 3.
I'd say that's all pretty reasonable for a +3/+3
boost. I mean people used to pay that cost all
the time for Loxodon Warhammer, and that was
just +3/+0, although really it was also for the
trample and lifelink there. You could
theoretically either play this on turn 3 and
equip it on turn 4 to something you had cast on
the first two turns, or later on you could bust
it out by casting and equipping it on turn 6 to
something you cast on turn 5 and attacking right
away. Of course one of the joys of equipment is
they stick around on the battlefield and wait
for you to have something to put it on to, so
really you could play it whenever you don't have
anything better to play.
Godsend is powerful. I mean really, REALLY
powerful. It does two really amazing things, but
one of them has a secret ace up its sleeve that
you may or may not realize at first. But let's
look at that later. When a creature equipped
with Godsend blocks or is blocked by something,
that thing is exiled. Well, one of those
things, which makes blocking with multiple
creatures against Godsend a potential counter,
but still a costly one (unless you have lots of
little tokens you don't mind throwing away or
something). It's important to note that you
don't have to wait for combat damage to be
dealt. They declare blockers, boom! One of
them's gone. They attack, you block? Boom! One
of them's gone. No deathtouch for you to worry
about, no lifelink, no first strike, nothing.
You just killed them so dead they didn't even
get to go to the graveyard. And not only that,
you killed them so ultra super dead that it can
never be cast again. Whatever Godsend kills, it
kills for good.
Now let me tell you about the extra little
secret this card has built into it. You see...
that exile effect doesn't require you to target
the creature. It just... happens. Take a moment
to let that sink in. That means that a creature
equipped with Godsend can exile any creature
it ends up in front of. ANY. CREATURE. Godsend
can exile creatures with hexproof or shroud.
Godsend can exile creature with Protection from
White or Protection from Artifacts. Godsend can
exile creatures with Protection from EVERYTHING.
That's right, Godsend can beat Progenitus
in a fight. If Godsend and Progenitus go at each
other, Progenitus will LOSE and whoever is
holding it will walk away unscathed. THAT is the
kind of power we're talking about here. (Of
course, the creature holding Godsend wouldn't be
able to block an attacking Progenitus, but if
you attack and Progenitus blocked for some
reason, this is what would happen.)
How many cards can say that they can beat
Progenitus in a fight?
Anyway, this is an interesting card. It puts a
lot of pressure on your opponent. Like, a ton.
They have to decide if they want to take your
creature's power +3 damage, or lose a creature
100% forever. And they have to make this
decision every turn. Now, that's not to say that
you can't win if your facing a Godsend sword.
You can still destroy the creature holding it
with a kill spell, and an equipment with no
creatures on the field is no longer a threat.
You can always take the hit to the face and try
to draw a kill spell or race your opponent,
hoping you can deal more damage per turn than
their guy(s). You have options. But it puts you
on a clock, and it puts the pressure on you as
you're the one who needs to come up with an
answer.
Should you play this card? If you can fit it
into your deck, I'd certainly give it a shot.
Obviously 100% for yes in limited. But in
constructed, it's a 6 mana investment that
requires you to have a creature, and take up to
2 turns casting this thing instead of other
threats. In the right deck in can find a home,
mostly because you can spread out the cost and
it isn't as vulnerable to destruction as auras.
The effect is powerful enough that people
will try to find ways to use it, especially in
casual. This card can and will win you games.
Oh, and spoiler alert: I wouldn't want to be in
Xenagos's shoes right now when Elspeth gets
through with him.
