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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Maze of Ith
Image from Wizards.com

Maze of Ith
- From the Vault: Realms

Reviewed August 27, 2012

Constructed: 4.13
Casual: 4.13
Limited: 4.50
Multiplayer: 4.50

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Maze of Ith

Hideous brain-like art aside, this was a classic in its day. Tap a single land to pretty much tell a creature that no, it doesn't get to attack you after all. No mana required, so it can go in any deck, and all it costs you is your land drop-- not tapping for mana means you could set yourself back a turn by dropping this over another land, but it held creatures back so effectively it would always slow your opponent down more than you.

Years later, Wizards would release Mystifying Maze, a card obviously inspired by Maze of Ith, that cost four mana to activate. That says a lot about how good they think Maze of Ith would be by today's standards. I think the real secret to the Maze's power is that it activates after your opponent declares attackers, instead of before like Thundersong Trumpeter or Blinding Mage has to. That means that you don't have to guess what your opponent was planning to attack you with, and in multiplayer you don't have to guess which one was going to attack you. You can wait and see what your opponent does and react accordingly.

Constructed- 4
Casual- 4
Limited- 4.5
Multiplayer- 4.5

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Maze of Ith
 
It's surprising how many reusable anti-creature measures have gone on lands over the years. From the Vault: Realms has no less than three (!) of them. Maze of Ith was the original, and after all these years it's still probably the strongest. Yes, you have to count it as a spell, which is annoying. Yes, it's the last card in the world you want to see when you really need to get your Serra Angel down so she can block. But it tells pretty much any creature that it should just stay home and not bother - even the confusing and arguably overpowered protection from [color] is no good here, and isn't that why Umezawa's Jitte got banned in Modern? I wonder they'll make a functional reprint (with a name related to minotaurs) if they ever do an ancient Greek block.
 
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Maze of Ith which is a land that taps to untap and prevent the damage dealt by and to a target attacking creature.  The exact nature of this preventing damage without removing from combat is particularly problematic for Exalted themes and any situation where a majority of the threat comes from a single attacker. 
The issue with this is that in the formats it is legal in speed and tempo are crucial, so using a land drop on something without mana may outweigh the potential lockdown effect.  Despite that it is an excellent effect in the extended family of Oblivion Ring or Pacifism that can change targets every turn if needed at an effective cost of one mana (by not tapping for one.)
 
For the few Limited settings where this would be legal it is an incredibly efficient card that can drastically hinder any opponent and force them to play an entirely different offense in many cases. In The Dark set a relatively large number of potential removal exists and may be played, but other than that small drawback this can readily be played in any deck.  An easy second or third pick in Booster, where it can possibly be first without a major rare, and an automatic inclusion for any Sealed build.
 
In Multiplayer this is a difficult to remove card that will potentially make nearly any other opponent a more viable target while simply costing one land drop.  The impact is drastic and the potential for political benefit, especially with any player being attacked on the turn before your own should not be underestimated.
 
Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 5.0
Multiplayer: 5.0

John
Shultis
Phoenix
Gaming

Welcome back to the Pojo.com card of the day section. We begin our week looking at Maze of Ith, which is coming out this Friday in the From the Vault Realms boxed set. Maze of Ith is a land that says tap: untap target attacking creature. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to and dealt by that creature this turn.

The Maze of Ith is an amazing card in that it could either stop a large creature an opponent has from causing some severe damage, but on the flip sided it can also save one of your creatures from an unfortunate death at the hands of combat trickery.

I never really played with Maze of Ith, but I know a lot of people in the past talked a lot about it. There are plenty of ways that you can exploit the card, but mostly, it’s just a save card in my opinion. I am glad to see that it was brought back for the FTV series though. Be sure to pick yours up this week!

Limited: n/a
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5


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