Kind of obvious he was made to compliment Blaze of Glory at the time. Much better creature than it's contemporary Thicket Basilisk, and a better ability than Deathtouch, since damage isn't a factor, AND the creatures dying can't regenerate. All for W. That's a lot of power rapped up in that little guy. 4/5
Posted By:
BonniePrinceCharlie
(4/12/2011 3:44:47 PM)
Hey, Wizards: why couldn't he stay a Leper? Why'd you have to change his type to merely Human? How am I supposed to make my biblically acurate deck now? It's not like he's suddenly cured of...
Hold on. Wizards of the Coast can perform miracles! Now, I'm not saying there's a Dan Brown sort of thing going on here, but have you ever seen Mark Rosewater and God in the same room at the same time?
Posted By:
DoctorKenneth
(12/9/2009 3:46:58 PM)
My guess is that they got the idea of Loyal Sentry from this guy. It makes perfect sense. I remember as a kid my one of my buddies always used this card and when he got it out we would always be mad because it always eventually killed my Jungle Wurms off!! haha the good old days.
PS. This card has great flavor and is a cool old school card from the early days.
Posted By:
EvilCleavage
(12/10/2010 12:05:51 PM)
I like how he was a "Leper".
It was like he would infect the other guy but was so weak that he would die too.
As said, he is very good with lure. I guess Echo Circlet might be a little bit useful as well... Otherwise it's a 1 mana kill.
Wish I was around to play Arabian Nights.
3.5/5
Posted By:
Fert12334
(2/8/2011 11:08:21 AM)
Heh, I remember the endless speculation at school that he was named after the characters Abu and Jafar from the Disney Aladdin movie, which came out a year before Arabian Nights.
As for the creature himself, I don't have much more to add to what others have said. Flavourful, and does his role well - the question is how often, realistically, do you need a creature which performs that role? In my opinion he's better thought of as a cheap but highly situational white kill spell, or at least a deterrent against attacking, in a vaguely similar vein to something like Spirit Link.
Posted By:
stygimoloch
(11/21/2009 4:01:46 AM)
It has a weak body only siting at 0/1. But I have to say it can really be usefull even later in the game as a blocker, even takes down creatures with first strike when it's defending.
Posted By:
Silverware
(12/4/2009 2:37:39 AM)
Why add in another color for Lure?
Just toss him a Valor Made Real when you get swarmed.
....And I realize already that Lure makes it so that all creatures that can block will die, and this can only take out attacking creatures...but throw in an Incite War if you wanna go that route.
Posted By:
Kurhan
(12/19/2009 12:42:38 AM)
Ha Ha! No one dares to get near the mighty Abu Ja'far! Nice concept but I have never seen it played. It's just another Lure combo.
Posted By:
Opant1
(3/28/2009 8:51:26 PM)
Equip or Enchant to give it some power and have fun!
Posted By:
Weretarrasque
(7/23/2009 7:13:44 PM)
This card is also the cheapest card available for that combo...it's really the only use for the card...
Posted By:
Guest57443454
(7/1/2009 8:42:11 PM)