by Can Tran

Created on: November 02, 2009   Last Updated: August 08, 2010

"Hostility" is a 6/6 red elemental incarnation printed as a rare for the Magic the Gathering expansion set known as "Lorwyn." While it was originally printed for Lorwyn, it was deemed good enough to be reprinted as a rare for the special set known as "Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra." It would be printed on the side of red planeswalker "Chandra Nalaar." In an aggressive-burn deck, Hostility is a good card to have at your disposal. It is best that you play Hostility in a mono-red deck.

The converted mana cost for Hostility is six. You will need three red mana and three colorless mana to bring Hostility from your hand and onto the battlefield. For what Hostility can do, the casting cost seems to be worth it. However, it is best that you manage to bring Hostility onto the battlefield early in the game. In a shock and burn deck, you can definitely get a lot out of a card like Hostility.

What does Hostility do in the first place?

The first ability of Hostility is Haste. As soon as Hostility enters the battlefield, you can attack with it. It is unaffected by summoning sickness. For any aggressive player, Haste is an awesome ability to have.

The second ability is rather interesting for the most part. Whenever a spell of yours would deal damage to an opponent, you may choose to prevent it. Doing so allows you to put a 3/1 elemental shaman token onto the battlefield with Haste onto the battlefield for each point of damage prevented. In this respect, if you played a spell that deals four points of damage and prevented it, you get to put four 3/1 elemental shaman tokens onto the battlefield. If your opponent is defenseless, you can use them to deal twelve points of combat damage instead of simply four points of damage.

You can simply play a spell such as "Lightning Bolt" and prevent that damage. For only one red mana, you were able to put out three 3/1 red elemental shaman tokens onto the battlefield. If you want to be evil, you can play something like "Fireball" and prevent that damage. However, do not try it with "Banefire" or "Demonfire" due to added stipulations.  Depending on how much you spent on X, you get to put that many 3/1 red elemental shaman tokens.  However, you could use this in conjunction with the instant spell from "Conflux" known as "Comet Storm."  Be sure to use that in a multiplayer game and that all the targets you pick with the spell's multikicker are opponents and not their creatures.  Also, be sure to have enough colorless mana to put into the X casting cost of Comet Storm and its multikicker.  

This ability alone is great. However, you can also add in "Rage Reflection" to give your creatures Double Strike. Imagine those 3/1 tokens with Haste and Double Strike. You can really mess up an opponent. As long as you have a bunch of burn and shock spells, you can prevent the damage and put 3/1 tokens onto the battlefield.

When it is put into the graveyard, you shuffle Hostility back into your library. The only way to get rid of Hostility would be to Exile it. Overall, this is a great card to have if you are playing aggressively. But, this is great if you are playing a shock and burn deck.

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