Bloodthirst

An anynomous poster on MTGSalvation put these two cards up as M12 spoilers. While there are questions regarding the cards' legitimacy, eyes far better than mine seem to think they might be early playtest cards. Which would explain why they each look like 2 cards glued together.

I'm not interested so much in the Solider, even though I absolutely love tapping down other people's creatures.

I am instead interested in the Dragon because it shows off how Bloodthirst might come back in a core set.

Up until now, Bloodthirst has mostly been the domain of the Gruul clan in Ravnica.

But then we had a set come along, Future Sight, filthy with one-off mechanics and such. And of course Bloodthirst was one of these mechanics as seen in Bogardan Lancer.

I love the mechanic because it favors the bold. Crazy plays should be rewarded, and if you can smash your opponent with a Lighting Bolt and then put down a Scab Clan Mauler, more power to you.

Of course Red has it really easy with spells like Lightning Bolt. Green usually has to sneak some creatures in to get the Bloodthirst bonus (except for Hornet Sting!) while Red has all kinds of direct damage. The New Phyrexia set has even given us Gut Shot…1 damage for the cost of no mana and only 2 life.

If I had a Bloodthirst deck right now, you can bet Gut Shot would be going in it. Along with Death Spark, another cheap way to zap your opponent for little bits of damage (this time, over and over again!)

Looking at the picture again, I also find the angle it was taken very odd. This is the kind of viewing angle at which David Copperfield might make the Statue of Liberty or a couple of elephants disappear. So I personally remain skeptical. But wouldn't it be cool to have some more bloodthirst cards!