Welcome to the frog edition of the Daily Dose of Shadows Over Innistrad! I’ll be talking about frogs today. Okay, not only about frogs, but one legendary frog. As spoiler season wraps up, we have been sent more treats and still have over 100+ cards still to be spoiled from the upcoming set. Before we hear about those cards, I’m going to have a look at a couple of the recently previewed cards.
Since Magic Origins came out, Wizards of the Coast has made an effort to have strong story lines involved with their sets and not just print a set of cards to be used. This has been amplified with Shadows Over Innistrad, from the lore stories to the marketing around the set. One story centres around the card I’m going to be talking about. Here is The Gitrog Monster:
That’s right folks, a Legendary Frog Horror! To start off you get a 6/6 Deathtouch creature for five mana. That’s some solid stats to begin with. Then we take a turn for the worse by having to sacrifice a land during each upkeep just to keep it alive. The good news is that you should have five lands by that point, so it will live for quite a while.
Along with Mina and Denn, Wildborn, we have another creature in The Gitrog Monster that allows you to play multiple lands during your turns. A good ability, but by the time you cast it, chances are you won’t have two lands in your hand at any time, so not the best ability.
That last line though, wow! Each time one of your lands get milled, discarded, or destroyed you get to draw a card. So that includes during your upkeep when you have to sacrifice a land to keep The Gitrog Monster alive.
Now say you don’t have a great creature to play on the battlefield and your opponent does, or you have a creature you wish you had more of. That is where Altered Ego comes into play.
Throughout the history of magic, most cards that allow you to copy a creature, like Clone have cost four mana. Some like Phantasmal Image have cost less, but at a price. Altered Ego allows you to go in the opposite direction by spending more mana to get a reward, in this case, a certain number of +1/+1 counters. This is a card that screams late game, but is also great at four mana if there is a creature that is too hard to deal with, you can just make a copy of your own. If you have the powerhouse on the battlefield, you can just make another and sit in a dominating position.
This is a great card that probably won’t see much constructed play, but will be great in Limited for sure.
The last card I’m going to look at is a card that produces a 4/4 Angel every time you attack with it, and cost 1 generic, 1 blue, and 1 white mana. No, it’s not a Geist of Saint Traft reprint, but close. Here is Invocation of Saint Traft:
They key for this card to be successful will be to find a creature to put it on that won’t die on its first attack or will be easily killed by spells. Placing it on a cheap creature with Skulk like Furtive Homonculus. I have a feeling that this card will often be a two-for-one when removal is involved, but even getting in one hit and dealing four damage with an Angel could be worth it. Often that will be enough to swing the battle in your favour.
Thanks for reading a fun-filled Frogilicious edition of the Daily Dose of Shadows Over Innistrad. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, so why don’t you join me and find out!
