by Elton Gahr

Created on: November 03, 2009   Last Updated: February 12, 2012

One of the reasons that I enjoy playing black is that in many ways, it is the most flavorful of all the colors in magic the gathering. This is easy to understand because it is far easier to put evil on a card that only has a few lines than to put on good and the other colors while all having their own flavor are just not a clear. More important in actual play though, the ability for black to kill things, including its own cards is actually quite valuable.

Marsh flitter is an uncommon faerie rogue that costs one black and three colorless to put into play and is a 1/1 flying creature. As it comes into play, you put two black goblin rogue creatures into play with it. The flavor for this appears to be that if you look at the art of the card that the small fairy is entertaining the goblins and they chase her through the swamp.

The real flavor though is in the second ability which helps to explain why this particular fairy is black. This requires you to sacrifice a Goblin and makes Marsh Flitter a 3/3 creature until end of turn. It also makes my mind work as I imagine this small fairy leading one of the goblins into a trap, killing the creature and then gorging herself on it. This is certainly a black style and one that is quite enjoyable.

The use of this card though requires some thought beyond simply imagining the evil fairy. You must decide how best to play this through different situations. The shortest term gain is naturally to sacrifice a goblin the first time you attack with the fairy getting the two extra damage in quickly. And if your opponent has a strong ground defense this might be reasonable, but assuming your opponent has no creatures the better solution is to attack with all three. You'll still do your three damage but without losing anything.

Another likely scenario is that your opponent has one creature. In this situation, assuming it is not a large flying creature the solution is to attack with all three again recognizing that there is no timing clause on sacrificing the goblin. So you simply wait to see which goblin is going to be blocked and sacrifice that to the fairy before he is killed. In this way, you get the extra one damage from the goblin who makes it though, and while one damage may not seem like much in a tight game it can be important.

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