Aaron's Random Card Comment of the Day #10, 10/8/10
Lord of the Pit is one of those transcendent Magic cards that has spawned an entire category of followers; his legion of gigantic black rares that eat your own creatures includes Ebon Praetor, Doomgape, Devouring Strossus, Minion of Leshrac, and the most recent update, Xathrid Demon.
Cards like Lord of the Pit—and other genre-spawning icons like Juzám Djinn, Ball Lightning, and Masticore—hit some kind of note with players (and designers) that just feels right for Magic, they have some unique quality that people latch on to and generally have good memories of, and thusly are worth trying to imitate time and again, even if they aren’t the most powerful cards in the game. Lord of the Pit (and Demonic Hordes) defined Demons as... (see all)
Posted By:
Aaron_Forsythe
(10/8/2010 1:40:58 PM)
5/5 for flavor and nostalgia.
Posted By:
themlsna
(1/14/2011 3:33:02 PM)
After all these years, still one of the biggest fliers in the game, AND it tramples. The casting cost is just about right for what it can do, and the upkeep has been made quite manageable with all the token generators out there. Still, a 7 CMC is kind of high for competitive play.
Posted By:
Eppek_the_Goblin
(1/28/2009 7:50:00 AM)
It's still a beast in casual play. I run a black/white deck with three LoP and a few things that can prevent the upkeep damage if necessary, like Circle of Protection: Black. Just for grins I've also got Samite Ministration with which I can gain 7 life instead of taking 7 damage for one turn. And of course some oldschool black mana acceleration.
Now, on the rulings - I've always played it with the Circle of Protection and just paid 1 instead of sacking a creature. I guess I can only do this if I do not have any creatures?
Posted By:
jfre81
(5/9/2011 9:44:08 PM)
Aaron_Forsythe said : "Mark Tedin is the one illustrator that has been working on Magic cards more or less continually since the very first set through today." (emphasis mine)
Rob Alexander might be somewhat hurt by that, Aaron. Granted, he has 54 cards less than Tedin, but as far as I can see, he did at least one card in every early set except Antiquities and in every block except Mirage, so he definitely fits that descrption too, I think.
Posted By:
MadMageQc
(10/11/2010 7:38:58 AM)
What is that symbol in the background..?
Posted By:
RafiqTheMiststalker
(5/8/2010 7:10:44 AM)
@ Aaron:
After I have commented other replies from "Random Card Comment", I want to repeat myself here once.
The Lord of the Pit is an icon, a symbol... that's true. But his real status was always ignored due to the fact that black is the color of creature sacrifice, but was never ever the color of creature hordes (production).
Therefore the god of evil was combined with white protection or green token mechanic & mana acceleration. Only rarely, it was combined with Thrulls, the underwhelming Breeding Pit or Sengir Autocrat. The ever-present Swords to Plowshares was also a big problem.
But what I really liked in your post:
Lord of the Pit (and Demonic Hordes) defined Demons as having a downside attached to an undercosted threatening body, and that blueprint has served us well over the years for making fun, flavorful cards; even though most players would rather not have drawbacks on their cards at a... (see all)
Posted By:
Cheza
(6/4/2011 6:54:01 AM)
Suicide black! :)
Posted By:
Thomas_204
(10/13/2011 10:46:01 PM)
This is the card that made me want to start playing this game. First, I just love saying "Lord of the Pit." Then there's the artwork... nothing like it, man. As far as the suicide aspect, dying to this thing because I wasn't able to control it was so flavorful that it was almost ok. I mean, I started playing D&D/AD&D back in 81, so I got that if you summoned a demon and screwed around with it, you'd die. No cacodemon spells here. And when I didn't die, but used my summoned fiend to crush my opponent? All was right with the world.
This card isn't about what is better and what is worse. This card is about, well, this card. And it has to be a 5/5, because this is Magic, and it's a Lord of the Pit.
Posted By:
Morgaledh
(9/7/2012 10:23:39 PM)
Oh man. Cheza, you are quite possibly the most condescending and self-righteous Magic player on all of Gatherer. I really can't believe some of the stuff you've written in response to Aaron, and I'm glad he probably doesn't check his old comments for feedback because he'd most likely be pretty offended at the tone of some of your posts - well, more likely he would simply laugh and forget about it. In any case, may a Lord of the Pit await you outside your door and whip your disrespectful and arrogant heiny into submission with a Gorgon Flail. Disgusting.
Also, you suck at design and display only a marginal understanding of the tenets of Magic. All of your ideas might fit in Time Spiral, where they were deliberately breaking form, but otherwise, good job on doing an incredibly bad job at trying to 'fix' the game.
Posted By:
Goatllama
(11/7/2012 2:20:57 PM)