by Elton Gahr

Created on: November 02, 2009

One of the major flavor aspects of red that has been its affinity for the short term gain. This has always been at least partially true with cards such as ball lightning and creatures with high power but low toughness but in recent years it has also added mana boosting cards and considerably more creatures that appear for a single turn and then die.

One of the cards that fits well into this strategy is the card heat shimmer. This is a rare sorcery from the Lorwyn expansion set of magic the gathering. It costs one red and two colorless to play and it reads "Put a token that's a copy of target creature onto the battlefield. That token has haste and 'At the beginning of the end step, exile this permanent.'"

It is worth noting that at three mana this is the same converted mana cost as ball lightning which I suspect is not a coincidence as the general idea of this is the same as ball lightning. Find a creature of some size or value, probably one your opponent already can't block and cast a copy of this, since they can not block the first creature they will be unable to block the second and you can get through for extra damage.

This is not the only value of this card. As it put a copy of the creature into play it will also give you all the come into play effects. This means that if you copy a creature that typically costs considerably more mana because it has a powerful come into play effect you can get it far far less. Also of value would be any creature that lets you draw a card when it comes into play, though these tend to be smaller creatures of some less value in the attacking.

Also of importance is that it can trigger leave play effects, though not effects that require it to go to the graveyard. This is still most of the effects though and it is well worth considering. This could be especially useful for creatures that give you something both when they come into play and leave play. Such as some of the legendary dragon spirits which could be extremely powerful with this card.

If you have the right creatures already in your deck this is certainly a card worth considering. Hase it always useful and often more so on creatures that do not normally have it and the use are as limitless as the creatures it can copy.

Learn more about this author, Elton Gahr.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.