Subject: Arguing on the Armor's Behalf Date: Tue, 05 Aug 1997 11:06:36 -0400 From: Bruce Lysik Hey there. I've been a lurker on this list for some time, but something that happened last night made me want to write something. I'm sitting in #mtg on IRC (On EFnet, to be exact), looking for Apprentice games when this guy starts going off on how Empyrial Armor sucks and all decks that use them suck also. Now I don't actually seriously play a deck like this, but this broad statement got me arguing in the armor's favor. Let's take a look at some things: The main statement this guy was using to insult the armor was card advantage. Mainly that if you slapped an armor on a knight or whatever, and it got StP'd or bolted or bounced you've just lost two cards for one, so it sucks. Which is true. There is a chance of losing two cards for one. And we all know that this is traditionally bad. Not to mention that if you don't have a creature to put it on it's dead weight in your hand. But lets look even deeper... Say you Empyrial Armor a knight and hit your opponent at least ONCE for an extra 5 points of damage. Hasn't the card already paid for itself in the fact that it just caused extra damage? Consider it a 5 (or 4, or 6) point white bolt for WW1. Sorta. :) And if it hits any more than that, hey even better. A good player will wait for that right moment to play the Empyrial Armor, to get in at least one hit of extra damage. Abeyance is a good way to play for that 'right moment', by the way. Lately Empyrial Armor has been played in decks containing multiple protection from X critters. Duskrider Falcons, Freewind Falcons, Sea Sprites, White Knights, etc.. So the tactic is to put the armor on the creature that has protection from whatever color you're playing against. I'll extend this deck even farther and say they also play with Sleights or Mind Bends to allow protection from any color you might be going up against. Against mono-color decks this is a /killer/ strategy. Protection from X can completely hose a deck that's not ready for it, especially when the creature is a 6/6 or whatever and getting bigger round by round. Don't you think the chance at completely HOSING a deck you might run into is a good thing? Sure, you can argue that 'Most decks have multiple colors and/or artifacts to deal with creatures' and you're right. But I think the /chance/ of completely hosing a deck is a good thing to have available. And at worse your Sleights of Mind will simply be an anti-anti-creature spell once. At best it will give you an unstoppable creature which will completely destroy your opponent. Not bad, eh? :) So. Before you blindly start dissing something, think a little. There's a lot more to Magic than card advantage. P.S. Don't go sticking 4 Empyrial Armors in any deck now, even the deck I played with that illustrated my points only had 2 of them. -- Bruce Z. Lysik Westfield State College, MA