Gavin Verhey spins the wheel in today’s episode of Good Morning Magic, taking a deep dive on three random cards from the Gatherer search engine.
First up was Shimmer Myr, prompting Verhey to touch on the Myr as a whole, then breaking down the card and its powerful ability of granting all of your artifacts flash. While this ability is fun and crazy, it can be dangerous to use often and leads to games slowing down.
Next was Silverglade Pathfinder, an uncommon Spellshaper from the cycle of creatures in Mercadian Masques that allow you to discard cards for a specific spell in Magic history. Verhey goes over the problems and repetitive play patterns the Spellshapers created and talked about the potential of future Spellshapers. The key is making the ability something a player shouldn’t want to do every turn, referencing the problematic Spellshapers like Waterfront Bouncer and Dawnstrider.
Lastly, the wheel landed on one of the most divisive cards in Modern, Blood Moon. The story on Blood Moon is a wild one and a cautionary tale for letting fans of Magic decide what cards go into sets. When making 8th Edition, fans got to vote on cards in head-to-head votes to see which ones made the final cut and Blood Moon defeated Dwarven Miner. Come the creation of Modern and Blood Moon popped back up, shutting down many decks’ entire mana base in a single card. Verhey shows a list of cards that won votes with the big winners (or losers depending on your perspective) being Ensnaring Bridge, Worship, and Birds of Paradise.