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Cavern Harpy - Traps, Tricks and Pitfalls

I have been reading up a great deal on Planeshift since the first
pre-release spoiler hit the 'Net, and it would appear that this set offers a
bunch of cool tricks, not the least of which is Gating, of course.  Now,
forgive me if I see this as "bounce", but that's just me and the way I see
it.  It's still a cool mechanic.

After playing with the gating creatures I have found my fav's.  Cavern Harpy
is the #1 gating creature in my estimation, with Fleetfoot Panther close on
the Harpy's heels.  Both of these offer extraordinary possibilities during
game play, which of course have been covered by others to one extent or
another.  I plan to share with you some of my thoughts on Cavern Harpy,
leaving Fleetfoot Panther for another article.

On with the Harpy!!

This little card is just amazing, IMHO.  I have used it to wreck a single
opponent with Ravenous Rats, I have used it with Marsh Crocodile to wreck
groups of opponents in multiplayer.  It's truly sick how well this card
combos with cards having CIP effects, albeit B or U cards.

Cavern Harpy - UB
2/1 - Flying
Flying. When Cavern Harpy comes into play, return a blue or black creature
you control to its owner's hand. <Pay 1 life>: Return Cavern Harpy to its
owner's hand.

Marsh Crocodile - 2UB
4/4
When Marsh Crocodile comes into play, return a blue or black creature you
control to its owner's hand. When Marsh Crocodile comes into play, each
player discards a card from his or her hand.

Ravenous Rats - 1B
1/1
When Ravenous Rats comes into play, target opponent discards a card from his
or her hand.

Ok, these are a couple of the more obvious combos with Cavern Harpy.  The
only drawback is using the Harpy too much and killing yourself.  So let's
see if we can figure out a way to overcome that small problem.

Let's think Battlemage.  We have our choice of two Battlemages to use with
the Harpy, those being Stormscape and Nightscape Battlemage.  With the dual
kickers these are naturals for gating.  And, since the Nightscape Battlemage
can bounce two creatures with it's 2U kicker, you can really get mean and
nasty.

Nightscape Battlemage - 2B
2/2
Kicker <2U> and/or <2R>. When Nightscape Battlemage comes into play, if you
paid the <2U> kicker cost, return up to two target nonblack creatures to
their owners' hands. When Nightscape Battlemage comes into play, if you paid
the <2R> kicker cost, destroy target land.

We have decided that the Nightscape Battlemage is our current focus, but we
won't forget the Stormscape Battlemage.  With the Nightscape Battlemage we
can bounce two target creature's back to their owner's hands.  So, how do we
make this work in our favor?  How about Angel of Mercy?  How about
Stormscape Battlemage with W kicker?

Angel of Mercy - 4W
3/3 - Flying
When Angel of Mercy comes into play, you gain 3 life.

It might be mid-game or even late-game before this combo comes about, unless
you use Eladamri's Call or something similar.  Anyway, once the Angel is in
play, it's time for the Nightscape Battlemage to do it's trick.  Pay the 2U
kicker (and the 2R if you like) and target the Angel of Mercy and one of
your opponents creatures.  You get the Angel back to cast again (and gain 3
more life), and your opponents game is slowed or stalled.  Enter the Harpy!!
Play out the Harpy, bounce Nightscape Battlemage back to your hand, block
with the Harpy (if the need arises), pay 1 life to bounce the Harpy and
start all over again, with a net gain of 2 life!  It's not Armadillo Cloak,
but nothing difficult is, right?  As an aside, if you were paying the 2R
kicker on the Battlemage, then your opponent will also be shy a few needed
lands.  Not bad at all.

Moving right along, we come to the Stormscape Battlemage.  What wondrous
deviltry can we conjure up now?  More destruction to your opponent, more
life-gain for you, that's what!

Stormscape Battlemage - 2U
2/2
Kicker <W> and/or <2B>. When Stormscape Battlemage comes into play, if you
paid the <W> kicker cost, you gain 3 life. When Stormscape Battlemage comes
into play, if you paid the <2B> kicker cost, destroy target nonblack
creature. That creature can't be regenerated.

See a theme developing here?  It becomes apparent that the Harpy's so called
drawback can, in fact, be turned into quite the bonus, if applied properly.
I think the two Battlemages discussed here are the best of the bunch, but
I'm kind of fond of B/U anyway, so...

These aren't the only neat tricks that Cavern Harpy let's you pull off.  I
have used Carvern Harpy, along with a Sawtooth Loon and a Hunting Drake, to
simply control the board while mowing through my library to get the right
cards at the right time, attacking with all three creatures each turn, then
pay 1 life to get the Harpy back, play it out and bounce the Loon, then play
the Loon out and Bounce the Drake, and then play the Drake out again (all
untapped), sending an opponents G or R creature to top of their library, and
have all three of my creatures ready to defend me again.   You gotta love
that, heh heh.

Hunting Drake - 4U
2/2 - Flying
When hunting Drake comes into play, put target red or green creature on top
of it's owner's library.

Sawtooth Loon - 2WU
2/2 - Flying
Flying.  When Sawtooth Loon comes into play, return a white or blue creature
you control to its owner's hand.  When Sawtooth Loon comes into play, draw
two cards, then put two cards from your hand on the bottom of your library.

So,  you can see there are many nifty tricks centered around Cavern Harpy,
those listed above being but a few possibilities.  It would seem the Harpy
will work best in a B/U deck, possibly B/U/w if you like the Sawtooth Loon
or Angel of Mercy, or maybe you just want to pay the white kicker on
Stormscape Battlemage.  I am currently using Cavern Harpy in a B/U deck I
call The Disruptor, which can be found in the Strategy section on Pojo.com.
This decklist uses Ravenous Rats and Cloudskates for the Harpy to Bounce,
along with Marsh Crocodiles to help bounce the Harpy back without losing one
life each time.  This all powers a discard engine along with Recoil and
Probe to quickly get your opponent in top-deck mode.  Take a look at the
deck and see what you think.  I played the deck to a 2 - 2 finish in
10-player Type II tourney this past weekend, not bad considering Fires and
Counter Rebels were everywhere.  I beat Fires handily, as well as a U/W
control variant, but Counter Rebels wrecked me and the second match fell to
a rouge G/W deck.  I'm still working on the Rebels match-up.

Cantata