by Andrew Hockenbroch

Created on: February 22, 2010

Pestilence is a highly versatile black enchantment which appeared as a part of the original, or Alpha, set of cards and has been reprinted most recently in the 6th edition of the Magic: the Gathering core set. It is not currently legal in standard or extended formats and at four mana it is underpowered to see much use in vintage formats. In casual play, however, the charm of Pestilence continues to shine.

At a glance Pestilence appears to be a board sweeper. When actually used for that purpose it will get the job done, but it will do so awkwardly at best. For the cost to put Pestilence on the battlefield you can now cast Damnation. Damnation does not damage your opponent the way pestilence does, but it does not damage you either and it does not require spending black mana equal to the toughness of the toughest creature on the board. Damnation does not rely on damage or targeting so it still affects creatures with protection from black, but pestilence deals damage so it does not. Furthermore, in spite of being an enchantment once Pestilence has done this job it will leave the battlefield anyway.

Even in this capacity, Pestilence has its advantages over more traditional board sweepers. Do you have tougher creatures than your opponent? Just hold back on that seventh activation and let your Kami of Old Stone keep pinging your opponent. Does your opponent have less life than you? By all means, finish him off with Pestilence. It does not actually go away until the end of the turn after all. Does the opponent keep regenerating his River Boa making your life total match your black and blue deck? Just wait until you have more black mana than he or she does green. You may even be counting on the fact that Pestilence does not harm your White Knight.

Where Pestilence really shines is in combination with other cards. The best way to learn the other combos is to experiment and have the joy of finding them for yourself. Following are just a few basic examples to get the ideas started:

Pestilence + Callous Giant: No matter how many times you activate Pestilence in one turn the amount of damage it does when it resolves is only one each time. If you stack four activations of pestilence the Callous Giant will still prevent each one as it resolves allowing you to sweep the board except for your 4/4 beat stick.

Pestilence + Pariah: Opponent have a creature that is just a little to tough for the amount of black mana you have? You have just a little less life than your opponent

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>