This ability should have been playable during any player's upkeep or at least your opponent's upkeep.
Posted By:
iandustrial
(10/5/2009 11:23:51 PM)
It is pretty much useless, but its an important part of the history of Magic, since it were the first creature having an ability that does what shroud does.
Posted By:
Nikeyeia
(5/8/2010 6:52:02 AM)
If you're afraid your opp may buff up one of his critters this could come in handy, other than that, nadda.
Posted By:
FragNutMK1
(2/25/2010 1:17:40 AM)
The last line is what kills this card. Otherwise, it would have been very good for its time.
Posted By:
Radagast
(11/5/2011 10:35:43 AM)
The inclusion of "play this ability only during your upkeep" is the difference between a 1.7 rating and a probable 4.5 rating.
Posted By:
Technetium
(4/30/2013 7:18:22 AM)
When I first re-read him here, I'd forgotten about the last clause, and was wondering why such a good card got one-and-a-half stars. Then I noticed and oh wow. What on earth were they thinking? What could this card possibly be used for? Even if your opponent had instant-speed removal, they could just use it in response to you activating him.
Now I remember why Fallen Empires was considered such a terrible set at the time. It did have a few cool cards and even a few neat concepts (it used token creatures a lot better than they had been previously, and was the first set with actual cost-effective playable token generators), but it had a huge number of cards that just sucked, too, especially in blue.
Posted By:
Aquillion
(5/12/2013 4:55:49 PM)
Wow, I forgot how bad this card was. At the time, I kept trying to look at it from different angles... but no, they thought of everything. Useless.
Posted By:
ZEvilMustache
(11/23/2009 3:23:38 AM)
Uninteresting card, but part of the power balance of the time.
Art is excellent though
Posted By:
bagilis
(9/9/2010 6:05:56 AM)
Wow! Completely useless!
Posted By:
Laguz
(3/9/2010 6:14:04 PM)
Whenever I use this I just completely forgo the last line of text in its ability so I can use it as removal protection.
Posted By:
Test-Subject_217601
(8/29/2010 9:32:10 PM)