This is the first in what I hope to be a series of articles about card synergy in Magic: the Gathering. The idea is not to give away an entire deck or strategy, but simply to talk about certain card interactions with the goal of inspiring a little creativity. In the interest of honesty, I feel it’s important to disclose that many of these ideas are not mine, and have been pulled from other decklists and articles.
The first card synergy is mostly an example to show everyone what I have in mind. It’s not very complicated, and is a driving force in the 10th edition theme deck Cho-Manno’s Resolve. Here you go:
Pariah (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=135248) and Cho-Manno, Revolutionary (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=130554)
Easy, huh? Put them together, and you can’t be damaged. Nothing to it.
This one’s a little more complicated. Reality Acid (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=125880) and Boomerang (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=129494) Reality Acid by itself isn’t a very useful card. You put it on something, and it dies three turns later. Big deal. But, if you put it on something you want dead, and then return Reality Acid to your hand, then you kill something, and keep your card.
This is a creature-killer that gives a little punch to a red-black burn deck:
Prodigal Pyromancer (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=134752) and Witch’s Mist (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=132222) Tap the Pyromancer to damage a creature, then use the Mist to kill it. Use these two together to take down the largest creatures for a minimum of fuss.
This is a risky 3-card grouping that a White Weenie deck might use to even the board in a drawn out game: Wrath of God, (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=129808) Armageddon, (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=233) and Patrician’s Scorn. (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=136213) Wrath of God clears all of the creatures, and Armageddon destroys all of the land. Since you’ve played a White spell already, you can play Patrician’s Scorn for free. If you are playing a deck of small creatures, you can COMPLETELY clear the board and start again. With a little luck, you can complete the kill before your opponents can recover.
Here’s a tricky pair of cards that can make doing damage to opponents a lot easier, while restricting their ability to do, well, anything: Manabarbs (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=130367) and Circle of Affliction (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=126803) Manabarbs has long been a staple of lockdown-style decks. Any time an opponent taps a land for mana, they take damage. Which is fine, but it does the same thing to you. So, traditionally, you lay down Manabarbs when you’re ahead, to prevent any resurgence. Circle of Affliction, however, is the modern descendant of the older Circle of Protection cards. In this one, you tap for 1 mana, and you gain 1 life, and an opponent loses 1 life. So what happens if you put them together? Well, you can set the Circle to Red, and tap a land. You take one damage. You then use your mana to pay for the Circle’s ability. You recover your one life, and target opponent loses one life. So, you can now tap a land to do damage to an opponent. Enjoy.
About Me
- Dixman2000
- My love of gaming goes back as far as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are of playing the Atari system that my parents had bought. The Nintendo soon followed, and a real turning point was in 1990, when Nintendo Power sent out copies of Dragon Warrior. I’d never played Final Fantasy, so this was my first encounter with a role-playing game. It blew my mind. Later, I became involved with Table Top and Pen and Paper games, as well as Magic: the Gathering. Gaming has always been my favorite way to spend my free time. With the variety of games on the market, I can find a game to suit my mood. Now that I have a job and wife, I don’t have as much game time as I once did, but I still make time. But no more 28-hour gaming binges, or games that restrict progress saving. A factor that really defines me as a gamer is my focus. When I find something that interests me, I immerse myself until I know it backwards and forwards. This causes awkward moments sometimes (I won a mechanics argument the first time I played D&D), but I think it’s an asset, both for me and my readers. Because anything that I care enough to write about, I care enough to learn about. See you on the forums.
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