Spike Weaver – Exodus MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

There’s a reason that they don’t frequently print Fog effects on creatures any more – they are, in a strange way, more exploitable than the ones that come as instants. If you cast Fog, it resolves and then is done, but if you have Spike Weaver, you can return it to your hand with Stampeding Wildebeests, or return it from your graveyard to your hand when it runs out of counters, or even use abilities like proliferate to delay that eventuality. It’s tough from a tournament point of view, because the Weaver is only legal in formats with a lot of combo decks, but in more casual settings, that kind of thing can end people’s whole career when they’re not prepared.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 3/5

On-demand Fog is a pretty cool little bit of tech, as is the ability to graft counters onto your other creatures from it. Spike Weaver is a creature that shines if you have the ability to replenish its counters somehow; it’s not part of an infinite loop with Heliod, Sun-Crowned or Archangel of Thune is (like its partner in crime, Spike Feeder, is), but it still offers a bit to the enterprising deck builder. If nothing else, being able to Fog thrice can buy you enough time out of a disadvantageous board state.

The downside is that Spike Weaver is a “fair” creature that offers sadly little on its own to correct a bad board state; it’s a four-mana 3/3 that shines defensively. It still has a lot to offer a deck, but it’s hard to outright win a game with the little Spike.

Also, fun bit of trivia: the Spike creature type consists of 11 creatures, most of them from the Tempest block, with a theme of coming in with +1/+1 counters and using those counters for nefarious purposes. There are two Spike creatures legal in Modern: Spike Tiller, printed in Time Spiral, and the infamous Spike Feeder, reprinted as a Timeshifted card in the same set.

Constructed: 2.25 (does too little in Legacy)
Casual: 4
Limited: 3
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander: 3.75