Swarmyard – Time Spiral Remastered
Date Reviewed: April 2, 2021
Ratings:
Constructed: 2.00
Casual: 4.38
Limited: 2.00
Multiplayer: 3.00
Commander [EDH]: 3.75
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
David
Fanany
Player
since
1995
Swarmyard is a callback to Arabian Nights‘ Elephant Graveyard, and though I’ve never been quite sure why an elephant graveyard allows you to regenerate elephants, Swarmyard is an interesting iteration on the concept. Think about decks with spiders effectively putting up walls against flying creatures, or squirrels generating vast numbers out of nowhere; or just about Ant Queen. Most countermeasures against such things rely on being able to destroy them, and even being able to save just one at a time can throw a wrench in an opponent’s plans. It’s also pretty good with changelings, but that’s almost a given at this point; and if you find some way to change one of the types it lists to Sliver, prepare to have everyone at the table attacking you for a few weeks!
Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 2/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander: 3/5
Free regeneration for one of four specific types of creature? Sounds legit. Unfortunately, Swarmyard has always been a very limited card in its applications, since the four tribes it supports tend to be fairly minor in the grand scheme of things. Lorwyn did have changelings as an additional tribe, but they were never a dominant force on the level of things like Faeries. That said, this is a casual star, thanks to how fun tribe-based decks can be and how absolutely obnoxious a free spot of regeneration can be against them.
(It’s also amusing how Squirrel is one of the four supported types of this card, considering there was nearly a 20-year gap between Standard appearances for the tribe, but that seems minor.)
Constructed: 2 (Modern does have cards that bypass regeneration shields easily, and so while this isn’t bad, it’s never had great targets and tends to get mitigated rather readily)
Casual: 4.75 (an entrenched, Swarmyard-protected creature is extremely hard to remove)
Limited: 2 (there were 12 targets in all of Time Spiral block for this card, and Remastered isn’t much better that way)
Multiplayer: 3
Commander: 4.5 (a near-instant include for decks built around one of those tribes)
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