I appreciate cards that can answer fliers, especially those that can do it without more mana investment at instant speed. Aerie OuphesĪerie Ouphes is a very elegant design as its own sacrifice outlet. The persist ability makes combat complicated for your opponent here since anything that survives on your field can pick off anything that survived on theirs. Furystoke Giantįurystoke Giant lets you dome your opponent or shoot down a bunch of their creatures if you have a small army that couldn’t do much otherwise. Being two mana more might not always be worth it, though… #1. A huge monster that hits hard, it presumably hits once, dies, and then becomes the Lightning. Thunderblust is a neat take on Ball Lightning. Triggering the ETB ability a second time without a sacrifice outlet means you likely won’t get to attack with the reanimated creature a second time, but you get some nice value. Being able to Postmortem Lunge your opponent’s best dead creatures gives you a bunch of sweet ETBs and even potentially hit them for a bit of damage. Puppeteer Clique is a Commander all-star. Putrid Goblin is almost Constructed playable by virtue of being both a goblin and a zombie with combo potential. Putrid GoblinĪ 2-mana 2/2 is much more interesting. Lingering Tormentor has fear but I don’t know anyone that would fear this. Lingering TormentorĪ 4-mana 2/2 is sad and unimpressive, even for cards from 2008. Especially in the old days of Modern when it showed up as a one-of in Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker toolbox strategies where it could be immediately found with Chord of Calling or Birthing Pod. A favorite of mine to pick early in Cube, this card has also made splashes in Constructed magic. Though the body is a bit small, having two Negates sitting in play is devastating to combo and control strategies. Glen Elendra Archmage is a Cube all-star. The body is very unimpressive for the cost, but this is what rares with cool effects looked like. River Kelpie is a sweet card that gives you more value from your other persist creatures or if you have a recursion engine going on. Once in play the persist ability lets the Shepherd sit as insurance against wrath effects for all the non-persist creatures you might have, or any that already used their persist ability once. It lets you proactively regrow a bunch of things, meaning that you can gain a tremendous amount of value by picking up everything you’ve sacrificed if you have a sacrifice outlet. Twilight Shepherd is good enough to have been reprinted a number of times. There are better things to be doing with your mana than spend seven to kill an enchantment and be left with Storm Crow. Kithkin Spellduster is an overcosted flier with a very Limited sacrifice ability. I’d like to point out that while the rules more vaguely state “ permanent” and not “creature,” all of the cards that actively have the persist ability are creatures so far. “Persist” means “When this permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control with a -1/-1 counter on it.” WotC When a creature with persist dies it comes back with a -1/-1 counter unless it already had one on it.ħ02.79a Persist is a triggered ability. Persist is a mechanic for creatures that lets them come back from the graveyard, just slightly smaller. Glen Elendra Archmage | Illustration by Karl Kopinski Let’s get to the part where I tell you how it works! But a mechanic as enjoyable as persist will definitely show up again.īut I’ve talked enough about my love of the mechanic. It doesn’t show up as much these days since creatures are a lot bigger and decks are a lot faster, not to mention that a number of other cards may have been banned. Abusing the mechanic has been a significant strategy in a number of combo decks over the years where it’s a hallmark of Birthing Pod decks. Giving added value to creatures with ETB abilities is a very popular design space, which is why persist creatures have shown up in Commander and on the kitchen table since it was first printed.Įven more than just providing added value, persist is particularly interesting in the ways it interacts with +1/+1 counters among other effects. The defining mechanic in a multicolor block, persist is featured in all colors and on creatures of all sizes. Persist was introduced in 2008 with Shadowmoor. Kitchen Finks | Illustration by Kev Walker
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