by Can Tran

Created on: October 31, 2009

"Ashling the Pilgrim" is a 1/1 red legendary elemental shaman printed as a rare for the Magic the Gathering expansion set known as "Lorwyn." It is an interesting card for the most part. If you want to get the most out of Ashling the Pilgrim, you may want to go ahead and put this in a red shock and burn deck due to its useful ability. When used with the right cards, you can get a lot out of Ashling the Pilgrim.

The converted mana cost for Ashling the Pilgrim is two. You will need one red mana and one colorless mana to bring Ashling the Pilgrim from your hand and onto the battlefield. For what Ashling the Pilgrim can do, the casting cost is well worth it. If you can get Ashling the Pilgrim onto the battlefield early enough, you should have some sort of advantage for the first few turns. Keep in mind that Ashling the Pilgrim is a legendary creature and is subject to the "legendary rule." Should there be at least two cards on the battlefield named Ashling the Pilgrim at the same time, they both get sent to the graveyard.

What does Ashling the Pilgrim do?

By paying one red mana and one colorless mana, you can put a +1/+1 counter on Ashling the Pilgrim. If you do this three times, you remove all of the +1/+1 counters from Ashling the Pilgrim. It ends up dealing three points of damage to each creature and player. However, this does end up getting sent to the graveyard afterward due to dealing three points of damage to each creature.

If you combine red and black, you can get a lot of play from Ashling the Pilgrim. For red, you may want to add this card from "Urza's Destiny" called "Repercussion." However, that is risky as you would end up dealing damage to yourself in the process. Under Repercussion, you can attack your opponent's creatures. In turn, Repercussion does that much damage to the creatures' controllers.

With black, you can use "Wound Reflection" and "Volrath's Stronghold." Wound Reflection will double the points of life lost. You can use Volrath's Stronghold and put it back on the top of your library. In this respect, you can use these combinations of cards to deal sizable damage to your opponents.

Overall, Ashling the Pilgrim is a pretty decent card if you have the right combination of cards. Should you be able to find a good combination of cards, this is pretty impressive. For any shock and burn deck, Ashling the Pilgrim is a must have card.

Learn more about this author, Can Tran.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.