by Elton Gahr

Created on: November 04, 2009

The idea of random effects in magic the gathering make me uncomfortable and the idea of building a deck around that makes me even more uncomfortable and yet it seems that is what wizards of the coast had hoped people would do when they created the clash mechanic and to be fair most of the clash cards are of some value even if you fail to win the random element so it might be possible. Still I want something more and wizards of the coast must have seen that same problem because they created a card that made clashing a bit more valuable.

Rebellion of the Flamekin is an uncommon elemental tribal enchantment from the Lorwyn expansion set of magic the gathering. It costs one red mana and three colorless mana to put into play and reads "Whenever you clash, you may pay one colorless mana. If you do, put a 3/1 red Elemental Shaman creature token onto the battlefield. If you won, that token gains haste until end of turn. (This ability triggers after the clash ends.)"

This alone makes the possibility of building a deck around clashing far more reasonable as putting in a 3/1 creature, with or without haste, for one colorless mana is a very powerful effect and there are enough cards with clash that you can be reasonably certain that you will be able to trigger this at least a couple times during the game.

The biggest problem with this card is the price to put it into play. A converted mana cost of four means that it is not going to have any effect at least until the fifth turn of the game since on the turn that you have it you are unlikely to be able to also cast any cards that have clash. This is not a major problem, but if you do not win that clash it will be the sixth turn before you gain any real value. Having to have a card out for two turns before it does much is always a weakness and I wish that this cost three mana or possibly two and had a higher expense to activate.

It is also worth noting that this card can be trigger by your opponents clash cards as well. This is not something that you can really count on happening much but when it does it is going to be of considerable value to you.

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