Banding is a great, abstract embodiment white's tactical combat mastery. They kicked banding out of the game, but not before they printed this wonderful artifact that lets any deck splash banding with minimal effort. I would thank Wizards for the foresight, but I know the only foresight they have is entirely accidental...
Fun in a casual rebel deck I have. If all your little rebels can form bands they're not so worthless in the mid-to-late game. Cho-Manno, Revolutionary and Knight of the Holy Nimbus are great in bands because you can stack all the damage onto them. The rebel knights Holy Nimbus, Riftmarked Knight and Outrider en-Kor all have flanking, and the latter has a mini-banding damage redirection ability to combo off Holy Nimbus and Cho-Manno. I'm sure that better things can be done with this card, but at under a buck for a playset it's worth keeping my rebels occupied.
Posted By:
BegleOne
(10/16/2010 9:23:11 PM)
I rated it a 5 to help push the number up. This card turns combat into a potential nightmare for your opponents.
"I'll use my 4/2 and my 1/1 to block your 7/5 trampler, your 7/5 and my 1/1 will die, and I'll take no damage."
Posted By:
LordLamneth
(2/12/2011 4:41:57 PM)
Banding is awesome. It's an old mechanic that has some very illogical components to it, but at its core it is really a winner. The way it outright defeats Trample is alone worth having the ability, to say nothing of how you can gang-block some giant dude, kill it, and wind up only losing a 1/1 token creature, or having something with regeneration take the whole mess. Still, the complex interplay involved make things a little hairy. It really is kind of a headache to figure out sometimes, at least for new people.
The future I see for banding is in the recent (Magic 2010) re-working of the "bands with other" ability. Previously it was this really, really illogical system that required every creature to have the same "bands with other X" ability. Now it's a lot more logical: if you have a creature that has "bands with other X", it can form a band with any number of other creatures with quality "X"; only one creature has to have "bands with other X", attacking or blocking. That's i... (see all)
Posted By:
yyukichigai
(7/20/2011 7:31:54 PM)
Awesome card. Banding got shafted because people didn't know how to use it.
Posted By:
umumwhatshisname
(7/8/2011 12:44:05 PM)
702.20j During the combat damage step, if an attacking creature is being blocked by a creature with banding, or by both a creature with “bands with other ” and another creature, the defending player (rather than the active player) chooses how the attacking creature’s damage is assigned. That player can divide that creature’s combat damage as he or she chooses among any number of creatures blocking it.
702.20k During the combat damage step, if a blocking creature is blocking a creature with banding, or both a creature with “bands with other ” and another creature, the active player (rather than the defending player) chooses how the blocking creature’s damage is assigned. That player can divide that creature’s combat damage as he or she chooses among any number of creatures it’s blocking.
If you can follow the rules, banding is the singularly safest, most efficient mechanic to winning a match.
Posted By:
Psychrates
(2/19/2013 6:39:30 AM)
I think Banding is much better than people give it credit for.
Posted By:
Belz_
(4/19/2010 5:41:47 PM)
This card is so much better than its current ranking. The real strength here is the ability to band more than one creature at a time, and at instant speed. This makes any attack or block a nightmare for your opponent, and it is reasonably costed.
Not amazing, but way above what it's showing now.
3.5/5 at least.
Posted By:
Gaussgoat
(7/15/2010 9:31:33 PM)
This is actually pretty good. Banding is powerful; it's too bad they took it out of the game just because some people found it confusing.
Posted By:
Technetium
(4/30/2013 8:14:35 AM)
The interaction of multiple creatures with flanking and banding is a much cooler then most things goblins could do.
Posted By:
Gilgiga
(10/19/2009 12:44:37 AM)
Banding is a mechanic they should have never dropped
Posted By:
FragNutMK1
(12/17/2009 8:37:26 AM)