This is a very similar design to Chandra's
Phoenix, but that's okay - Chandra's Phoenix is
such a good card, I don't mind having a second
one at all. It's superficially more fragile than
its predecessor, but there are ways to get
around that with creature lands and
planeswalkers (remember Nissa, Worldwaker?).
Also, if you try and stock your deck with enough
four-power creatures to reliably resurrect the
Phoenix, people may not see him as being as much
of a threat and take way more damage from him
than they should.
Today's card of the day is Flamewake Phoenix
which is a three mana 2/2 Red with Flying,
Haste, attacks each turn if able, and if you
have a creature with power four or greater at
the beginning of combat on your turn you can pay
one Red mana to return it from graveyard to
play. This is another very solid phoenix for Red
and works very well with Purphoros in particular
or with most effects that can raise power, even
temporarily. The forced attacking is a minor
drawback as Haste and evasion combined with the
possibility of returning to play all promote
aggression. Overall this is likely to be a
popular card for Red that can strengthen the
middle to late game and encourages slightly
higher power levels in deck design.
In Limited this is an easy first pick in
Booster even with the double Red as the format
is often driven by large creatures. The effects
all work very well together and it is enough of
a consistent threat in Limited that forcing Red
as the primary color is reasonable if the pool
is otherwise equally balanced.
