The Shockwaves of the Shattered Rainbow set brought to us 3 unique spell cards which gave us a special way to summon creatures.  Of course Soulswap became an instant favorite and Transmogrify was a close second.  Although Rapid Reincarnation comes in dead last, it’s still a card that should never be overlooked.

 

Rapid Reincarnation 

Cost: 3 

Civilization: Light
Type: Spell

Rules Text:

• Shield trigger (When this spell is put into your hand from your shield zone, you may cast it immediately for no cost.)
  You may destroy one of your creatures. If you do, choose a creature in your hand that costs the same as or less than the number of cards in your mana zone and put it into the battle zone.

At the cost of only 3 mana this puppy can really bring the noise.  As far as the effect, when you cast this spell you get to destroy one of your creatures and summon a free creature from your hand (which costs the same as or less than the amount of mana you have).  Obviously it’s never a good idea to destroy one of our own creatures, which is part of the reason why duelists avoid this card.  In addition, unlike Soulswap and Transmogrify, you would have to summon the new creature from your hand and reduce your hand count.  In other words, by casting this spell you’re using one card and after you summon a creature you’ve used 2 cards.  On top of that you have to destroy one of your creatures.  The other issue is that Soulswap and Transmogrify allow you to target your opponent’s creatures, while Rapid Reincarnation forces you to pick your own.

 

Okay, now that the obvious rebuttals are out of the way we can focus on what makes this card so incredible.  The cool thing is that Rapid Reincarnation somewhat of a combination of Soulswap and Transmogrify.  The transmogrify portion allows you to destroy one of your creatures and activate its death effect (e.g. Mighty Shouter, Propeller Mutant, Kyrstron, Engineer Kippo, etc.).  Just picture destroying Shaman Broccoli and gaining 1 mana to summon an even greater creature from your hand…  The Soulswap portion of this card limits the level of your new creature.  In other words you’re still obligated to summon a creature with a mana cost no greater to the amount of mana in your mana zone.  Finally we have the Rapid Reincarnation portion of this effect, which allows you to summon any type of creature from your hand.  This includes evolution creatures, which is something that the other two spells cannot do!

 

Finally, let’s consider the combo possibilities!  The most obvious one is Pharzi, the Oracle, which is a creature that recently emerged from the new set.  Once you destroy Pharzi with Rapid Reincarnation you get to pull a spell from your graveyard, whether it’s another Rapid Reincarnation or a Holy Awe.  With this method, you’re guaranteed to keep your hand replenished while being able to summon larger creatures for only 3 mana!  There are tons of other combos with Rapid Reincarnation but my favorite of all time is when I use it on Kyrstron Lair Delver.  Here’s what I do:

 

1)       Cast Rapid Reincarnation on Kyrstron and destroy it.

2)       Use Kyrstron’s effect to summon Veliryka Dragon from my hand.

3)       Use Veliryka’s effect to search for Uberdragon Bajula (only 1 or 2 are needed in this type of deck).

4)       Finish Rapid Reincarnation’s effect by evolving Veliryka Dragon into Uberdragon Bajula.

5)       Attack with Uberdragon Bajula and destroy 2 of your opponent’s mana and 3 shields.

 

Just think… All of this was accomplished by tapping only 3 mana.  Of course you just have to make sure that you have at least 7 mana in your mana zone in order to evolve into Bajula.  This is just a little taste of the endless combos you can pull off.  I encourage everyone to test out this card and explore the possibilities!

 

The Good:  A great cheap way to summon large creatures and trigger amazing combos!

 

The Bad:  It cannot be used to destroy the opponent’s creatures.

 

The Ugly:  Topdecking this card is the worst!  You’ll have to hope that your next card is a beefy creature.

 

Constructed Rating: 4.5/5 – A lot of people have underestimated this card and suffered the consequences for it.  Yes, Soulswap and Transmogrify are superior in their own way but they can’t evolve or pull off combos as spectacular as you can with Rapid Reincarnation.  Even a mono-light deck can obtain much needed versatility.  Just think of this card as a way to start a combo while upgrading a weaker creature.

 

Limited Rating: 2.5/5 – Battle zone presence is key in limited and I’m afraid that Rapid Reincarnation will only hamper it.  This card will be entertaining at best but may not help you when the time comes to overwhelm your opponent.

 

 

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