by Can Tran

Created on: November 07, 2009

"Akroma's Memorial" is a colorless legendary artifact printed as a rare for the Magic the Gathering expansion set known as "Future Sight." From the looks of this card, it seems to be an artifact built for offense. This also seems to have defensive measures as well for the most part. Depending on what deck you plan on building, Akroma's Memorial seems to be a useful card for the most part.

The converted mana cost for Akroma's Memorial is seven. You will need seven mana of any color to play Akroma's Memorial from your hand and onto the battlefield. For what Akroma's Memorial can do, the mana cost seems to be worth it. Nowadays, it is pretty easy to bring out high mana cost cards in a matter of a few turns. Since this is a legendary card, it is subject to the "legendary rule." If there are two cards on the battlefield named Akroma's Memorial at the same time, they both get sent to the graveyard. Also, Akroma's Memorial is an artifact. It means Akroma's Memorial is susceptible to anything and everything that affects artifacts.

What does Akroma's Memorial do in the first place?

Once Akroma's Memorial enters the battlefield, your creatures are blessed with all sorts of abilities. They are blessed with the following abilities: Flying, Vigilance, Trample, Haste, First Strike, Protection from Black, and Protection from Red. If you have a bunch of creatures on the battlefield, you can use them to go to town on your opponents.

With Flying, opponents can only block your creatures if they have creatures with Flying or Reach. If they do not, then your opponents are taking combat damage. Should a bunch of creatures with Flying come at them, they have no choice but to take the combat damage.

With Vigilance, they do not need to tap in order to attack. In this respect, they can attack and defend at the same time.

Trample enables you to deal combat damage to your opponents if they do manage to block. If they manage to block, they are still going to take combat damage. Because of the Trample ability, it is great to be aggressive against opponents.

Haste allows you to attack with creatures the moment they enter the battlefield. They are unaffected by summoning sickness. First Strike allows your creatures to deal damage first if they are blocking or blocked. If the other creature dies, it does not get to deal damage back.

Protection from Red and Black ensures that they are protected from red sources. In this respect, you can have a bunch of creatures on the battlefield and play "Magus of the Abyss." Since your creatures would have Protection from Black, they cannot be targeted by Magus of the Abyss. This makes Akroma's Memorial a good card to have in an anti-red and anti-black deck.

Overall, Akroma's Memorial is an interesting card. With some mana acceleration, you can get Akroma's Memorial onto the battlefield early enough. In that case, your creatures should be well protected.

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