Card of the Day - February, 2012 : Daily MTG : Magic: The Gathering

Card of the Day - Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Question Elemental? – Unhinged uncommon. The original version of Question Elemental? was in the never-published Unglued II, where it was called "Jeopardy" after the popular US game show. The art, which showed members of the Weatherlight crew playing the game, can be seen here.

Card of the Day - Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Careful Study – Odyssey common. The mechanic of "drawing cards" has been depicted many different ways on Magic cards, going back to Ancestral Recall's somewhat abstract representation of "remembering what your ancestors knew." The most common version, seen on Careful Study, is that drawing cards represents knowledge.

Card of the Day - Monday, February 27, 2012
Gruesome Discovery – Dark Ascension common. The scene portrayed in the art for Gruesome Discovery is a Innistrad nobleman, whose wife has just found his corpse. The artist has chosen not to depict the horrific violence directly, instead allowing the wife's reaction to convey the horror she feels.

Card of the Day - Friday, February 24, 2012
Trenching Steed – Prophecy common. Trenching Steed is what you get when a farm horse, used for plowing trenches in fields, is put to work fighting the oppressor and jumping trenches of men. This week's Card of the Day theme is "Oscar-nominated movies" and that seems perfectly fitting for Spielberg’s War Horse.

Card of the Day - Thursday, February 23, 2012
Descendant of Kiyomaro – Saviors of Kamigawa uncommon. The "maro" creatures of Saviors of Kamigawa all have related cards, but only Kiyomaro, Masumaro, and Soramaro have descendants. Kagemaro has a clutch and Adamaro has a gaze. Because they're an aura and an instant, they couldn't be named "Descendant of" the related legends.

Card of the Day - Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Crystal Ball – Magic 2011 common. Once core sets started having new cards in them, R&D was able to use the opportunity to present simple and clean implementation of mechanics. And when scry was added to Magic 2011, that let Crystal Ball present a very flavorful version of it.

Card of the Day - Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Goblin Mime – Unhinged common. Goblin Mime was one of five Unhinged cards that had alternate-art promo versions. You can see the other version of the art here, along with the other four cards.

Card of the Day - Monday, February 20, 2012
Jangling Automaton – Weatherlight common. Jangling Automaton is a card that basically exists to dare deckbuilders to find a way to use it. Anthony Alongi accepted this challenge and his readers found ideas past Lure and Tolarian Entrancer. He tells the story here.

Card of the Day - Friday, February 17, 2012
Last Stand – Apocalypse rare. There are only two cards in the history of Magic that have all five mana symbols and mention all five basic land types. One is Last Stand. To see the other, click here. Naked Singularity!

Card of the Day - Thursday, February 16, 2012
Weirding Shaman – Morningtide rare. As the flavor text on Weirding Shaman implies, the goblins on Lorwyn are organized into tribes each ruled by an auntie (like Mad Auntie or Wort, Boggart Auntie). Since the aunties are all shamans, this means that the male goblins are all magicians' nephews. The female ones are magicians' nieces.

Card of the Day - Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Zombie Fanboy – Unhinged uncommon. Matt Cavotta's art for Zombie Fanboy contains references to Drew Tucker's art for all the following cards: Dark Banishing, Decomposition, Dream Fighter, Harmattan Efreet, Hurr Jackal, and Warmth. Here's a guide if you're having trouble spotting them.

Card of the Day - Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Armored Warhorse – Magic 2012 common. Although it didn't appear until Magic 2012, the flavor text on Armored Warhorse implies that it might be the mount for the Northern Paladin from Limited Edition Alpha. There are also references to Sarlena, paladin of the Northern Verge on Celestial Purge, Kite Shield, and Personal Sanctuary.

Card of the Day - Monday, February 13, 2012
Sigil of the Empty Throne – Conflux rare. At the time that Conflux is set, when the five shards of alara begin to merge, the angel Asha has been dead for centuries. But no one replaced her as leader of all the angels of Bant, so her throne remained empty.

Card of the Day - Friday, February 10, 2012
Dawntreader Elk – Dark Ascension common. There are four elk in Magic. All of them were printed with the creature type "elk" except for Gang of Elk, which obviously needed to be included.

Card of the Day - Thursday, February 09, 2012
Prince of Thralls – Shards of Alara mythic rare. Prince of Thralls is mentioned in the rules text of Demon's Herald, which can get it from the library. The demon's distinctive horns are mimicked in the herald's headdress!

Card of the Day - Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Prismatic Wardrobe – Unglued common. The text box for Prismatic Wardrobe contains sections from the backgrounds normally assigned to each individual color. It also has land and artifact sections in there, even though those aren't strictly relevant to what the card does.

Card of the Day - Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Lyzolda, the Blood Witch – Dissension rare. Lyzolda, the Blood Witch is high priestess of the cult of the demon Rakdos. Most Rakdos gatherings involve a lot of sacrificing, which is why Lyzolda also appears in the art of Rakdos Riteknife.

Card of the Day - Monday, February 06, 2012
Mtenda Lion – Mirage common. Through almost the whole playtesting process, Mtenda Lion was unable to block blue creatures, to echo Gibbering Hyenas's inability to block black creatures. It was changed at the last minute because the blue decks of the era didn't play creatures.

Card of the Day - Friday, February 03, 2012

Increasing Vengeance – Dark Ascension rare. From the Dark Ascension FAQ: If the spell Increasing Vengeance copies is modal (that is, it says "Choose one --" or the like), the copies will have the same mode(s). You can't choose different ones. If the spell Increasing Vengeance copies has an X whose value was determined as it was cast (like Earthquake does), the copy has the same value of X.

Card of the Day - Thursday, February 02, 2012
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad – Dark Ascension mythic rare. From the Dark Ascension FAQ: If a creature with undying is destroyed by Sorin, Lord of Innistrad's third ability, the undying ability will trigger, but the creature will already have been returned to the battlefield by Sorin. The undying ability won't do anything when it resolves.

Card of the Day - Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Wolfhunter's Quiver – Dark Ascension uncommon. From the Dark Ascension FAQ: For each of the activated abilities, the equipped creature is the source of the ability and the damage. For example, if the equipped creature is not an artifact, you could activate either ability targeting a creature with protection from artifacts.

Card of the Day - February, 2012

Wednesday, February 01, 2012