This is one of the few Morph cards in KTK block
that you actually want to play face-up... the
first time. If it dies face-down, after all, it
dies an ignominious and lonely death, but if it
gets a chance to show its true plumage before
dying, it rises from the ashes in a brand new
eggshell. Appropriately enough, it's cheaper to
hardcast than to unmorph, but for every death,
you have to unmorph it again if you want to keep
it coming back.
Plus, if you play it face-up, it's a four-power
flyer for four mana. That's a solid win-con
right there before we even get into morphing and
resurrecting.
This is a very interesting card. It should be
basically unkillable, but for the fact that
exile effects and stealing Auras are in
basically every set these days. (You know, you
never had that problem when your opponent only
had access to up to four Swords to Plowshares or
up to four Control Magic. Just saying.) Of
course, if they don't have one, they're in for a
long night of knowing what your morph creature
is but hoping you block with it or they can draw
a Lightning Strike, and being on the wrong end
of a hard-to-stop attrition effect. There's
almost nothing that thrills me more than a red
card capable of playing the long game, and
Ashcloud Phoenix is no exception.
Today's card of the day is Ashcloud Phoenix
which is a four mana Red 4/1 with Flying, Morph
for six mana, when it dies return it to the
battlefield face down, and when it is turned
face up it deals two damage to each player.
This is decent as a four mana 4/1 with evasion
that becomes a 2/2 if it dies, but the high cost
for flipping it face up again along with the
damage to all players is too situational for it
to be a major benefit. The extremely low
toughness for the mana cost is another drawback
and this is unlikely to see much play despite
not being a terrible card as it just doesn't
offer enough.
In Limited this gains quite a bit of value as an
evader with higher offense that is difficult to
permanently deal with. A solid first pick
in Booster, even if the Morph aspect is rarely
used, and well worth including in any Sealed
deck that is at least half Red.
Creatures that can come back from the graveyard
are always interesting. They are resilient
threast that an opponent must deal with over and
over again. While it's pretty mana intensive to
turn the Phoenix back into a 4/1 flying creature
after it dies, later in the game it shouldn't be
too much of a problem. Even coming back as a 2/2
morph creature is helpful. Even when you first
play it, a 4/1 flying creature for 4 mana is a
threat that must be answered. If your opponent
has no way to block or kill it, they are on a
quick clock. If they do have a blocker, the
Phoenix is likely to be big enough to take the
blocker down with it before it comes back again!
It's not an auto-include in any red deck, as you
want to at least have the threat of being able
to flip it over multiple times, but if your deck
can produce the mana, Ashcloud can be a real
nuisance to your opponent.
