by Elton Gahr

Created on: October 24, 2009

The hypnotic specter has always been one of the most powerful cards in black's arsenal. A three casting cost creature with flying that can cause an opponent to discard a card at random whenever it deals damage. This is because once it begins to hit the opponent there is a good chance that it will be able to not only continue but to whittle down their hand and every turn.

Oona's Blackguard is not as powerful as hypnotic specter, but it has more potential in some ways. A uncommon Faerie Rouge from the morningtide expansion set of magic the gathering. It is a 1/1 creature with two abilities that make it a must have for any rouge deck. The first of these simply gives all +1/+1 counter when they come into play. Not the most major of all upgrades but it works well with the second ability.

This ability reads "Whenever a creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card."

It is of course worth noting that it does not matter if the creatures that has the +1/+1 counter came from Oona's Blackguard or if it is a rogue so if you have other creatures with a +1/+1 counter it could make oona's Blackguard powerful from the moment it hits the board. The other point that weakens it some from the hypnotic specter is that the card is not at random, but this is far less important when you have multiples.

Perhaps the most useful way to use this would be with bitterblossom. With it your bitterblossom would put into play 2/2 flying faerie rouges that cause an opponent to discard when they do damage to them every turn, and effect the other rouges as well. In a deck with a high number of counters or rouges this could be a card that turns the tide.

The greatest weakness of this is the weakness of all creatures. It can be killed easily, but unless your opponent kills it immediately the +1/+1 counters will remain allowing it do do some damage even after it has been killed and sometimes having a creature that an opponent has no choice but to kill is almost as valuable as a creature which the opponent can't kill since it makes it far more likely that the next creature which you put into play will not be killed.

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