Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Charging Up


MTGSalvation spoiled the card and explored the angles. Contagion Clasp is coming in Scars of Mirrodin, and it makes many, many strategies better.

The crazy thing that keeps getting me about the "Proliferate" keyword is it says "You choose any number." In almost all cases, these types of effects have been roughly symmetrical. Deckbuilders would then try their hardest to make the ability as unbalanced as possible…see about any Smokestack deck for evidence.

But Proliferate goes ahead and says: this card benefits you in anyway you want, have no fear of your opponent's cards.

You can go ahead and put a counter on your Parallax Wave, Tide or Nexus. And your opponent won't get another counter on his or her planeswalker.

My current theory for Scars is that there will be a LOT of counters. Both +1/+1 at the hands of Sunburst, and -1/-1 counters at the hands of Infect. No matter your deck, Proliferate is going to be helping you in your counter schemes and denying the same buff to your opponent (who probably also has proliferate abilities).

Which leads me to wonder: will the new cards make these proliferate decisions difficult? In shadowmoor, there were a few creatures who gained benefit from having -1/-1 counters. Perhaps the Phyrexians will gain power from having -1/-1 counters…making it dicy trying to go for the kill and encouraging you to just leave them alone.

Any card that produces more thinking during the typical turn gains my hearty approval. Hopefully it won't just be a booster in people's planeswalker decks.

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