by Elton Gahr

Created on: November 07, 2009   Last Updated: December 22, 2011

  Being able to put a large creature into play inexpensively is one of the keys to a good magic the gathering deck especially in competitive formats. For this there is almost always some catch or cost, from the need for there to be specific cards in the graveyard to the cost of life every turn and so at what point does the cost of putting that large creature into play early become too much. Shah of Naar Isle is a rare effreet from the Future Sight expansion set of magic the gathering. It costs one red and three colorless to put into play and is a 6/6 trampling creature, but there is a side effect. This creature has an echo of 0. Not much of a side effect, until you read the next part. When you pay the echo on this card your opponent draws up to three cards. What this means is by playing this card you are basically giving your opponent a free ancestral recall and if you knew that the creature would survive this might even be worth the cost, but there is a problem and that problem is that even if the opponent doesn't have creature removal in his hand the odds are good that by drawing three cards he will get that creature removal. He can then use a card such as terror to kill the creature and come out with little or no damage to him, and with a two card net gain. It is of course possible that you may find some reason to want to make an opponent draw, but the odds are very high that even if you can play a card such as underworld dreams the opponent is still going to be very happy. Three life for three cards is hardly a cost. In the end this is an interesting way to play with the idea of echo and it makes me wish that they would bring back more of the keywords for a longer period than this one set, but interesting does not make for a playable card and even in limited it is of almost no value. In fact there is only one place that I can really see this having value and that is in large multiplayer games. This is because in larger games often the best thing you can do is seem beneficial to your opponents as they are then far less likely to kill you.

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