Blue does not get good removal. Luckily it does
get good proliferate, so the Anatomist is pretty
decent removal for blue. Keeping a creature
tapped down for a turn, and putting a counter on
it that will inevitably lead to its downfall is
a pretty decent deal, though three mana per
activation does seem a bit steep. To be worth
that much mana to tap down, a creature would
have to be pretty big, and that means it'll take
extra proliferations to kill.
As for using the Anatomist to untap creatures? I
suppose if you've got "must block this turn if
able" abilities, or you really want to get an
extra use out of a tapper and don't care about
the counter.
Vedalken Anatomist is the kind of card that's
going to get underrated quite often, especially
since people may not notice that they can use it
to untap their own creatures, and that it starts
the insane proliferate games fairly early in the
game. At the very least, it solves the Icy
Manipulator "problem" of not dealing with things
permanently (given enough time, anyway), and the
synergy and the combinations make this worth a
second look.
Today's card of the day is Vedalken Anatomist
which is a three mana 1/2 with a tap ability
that costs three and puts a -1/-1 counter on a
target creature. In addition you may tap
or untap that creature which gives it more
versatility than simply killing small creatures
or weakening larger ones as it can shut down big
creatures until they are no longer a threat or
potentially untap your own creatures for
additional use. The cost of tapping and
paying three mana is a bit high for a
Constructed control theme which makes it
unlikely to really make an impact there.
Those factors combined with the counter make it
a bit too much for most combo concepts as well.
In Limited this is a card that can deal with
nearly any threat your opponent has and is one
of the top uncommons in the format. A
first pick in Booster if the rare isn't a bomb
and definitely a second or third pick when seen
in the next packs. For Sealed it may
depend on your Blue pool, but this is worth
playing whenever possible. The difference
between formats really shows with this card as
the slower pace, lack of removal options, and
reliance on a more random assortment of
creatures put the Anatomist in a position to
control the pace of many
games. Used defensively or
offensively it will win games without ever
directly attacking and the biggest drawback of
the mana cost should rarely be an issue.
Welcome to another card of
the day here at Pojo.com. Today we take a look
at Vedalken Anatomist from Mirrodin Besieged.
The Vedalken anatomist costs two generic and one
blue mana. The Vedalken anatomist has a handy
ability that allows you to pay two generic and a
blue, tap it, and then you put a -1/-1 counter
on target creature, you may tap it or untap it.
I mostly view this as a defensive purpose card. The ability
to put a -1/-1 counter on a creature could kill
small attackers. If not, you simply choose to
tap that creature. When used with proliferate,
it could still kill a decent sized creature.
The drawback is the cost associated with this ability. Three mana
is a lot to tap only one creature, or even kill
off a single creature. There are many better
ways that could spend the mana and get much
farther. But, still, in limited play, it may be
an option.
