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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Executioner's Swing
Image from Wizards.com

 Executioner's Swing
- Gatecrash

Reviewed April 4, 2013

Constructed: 2.17
Casual: 2.17
Limited: 3.67
Multiplayer: 2.17

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

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Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Executioner's Swing

Dismember taught us that -5/-5 will pretty much kill anything of relevance. This card, however, won't kill anything until it deals damage. Block it, get blocked by it, let it hit you, or what, but it has to deal damage. This means you can't use it to clear away a potential blocker before you swing, and you can't use it to kill a creature before it's caused you any problems and "done its job", but it also means that this can kill creatures with more than 5 toughness, because its target will likely have combat damage on it. It can also kill pingers, and cards like Guttersnipe that have damaging abilities.

I'm almost tempted to combo it with Pit Fight to kill creatures before they get a chance to swing and increase the potential toughness of creatures that can be killed. But really that's a terrible idea, because A) that requires at least three colors of mana, B) it's two cards just to kill one creature [three if you lose the creature that fought with your target] and C) Ultimate Price exists.
Speaking of other cards that exist, Avenging Arrow also exists, and it doesn't care about its target's toughness, or black mana. If you want a kill spell and you're in Orzhov, you've got LOTS of better options than this. Unless you're in Limited, in which case you don't and you need removal.

Constructed- 1.5
Casual- 1.5
Limited- 4
Multiplayer- 1.5

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Executioner's Swing
 
This is a rather interesting design for a card (and unlike Aaron Forsythe, I use "interesting" as a compliment). While it looks narrow, damage is what creatures are for by default, and there are lots of utility creatures that this can take out even if they don't attack, ranging from Anathemancer to Vulshok Sorcerer. In general, though, white and black aren't really lacking for ways to deal with creatures, and most of them are even easier to use than this, meaning that it could be more where you go for extra copies of the effect, rather than the starting point.
 
Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 2/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 2/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Executioner's Swing which is a two mana Black and White instant that gives target creature that dealt damage that turn
-5/-5 until end of turn. This is a decent removal option for a Black/White deck, though the condition is somewhat restrictive by forcing it to be most often used after combat instead of the preferred before combat or end of turn it was played timing. The color combination and drawback keep this to a fairly narrow role, but it certainly has value and is likely to see play in a few decks.

In Limited this is a very powerful removal option for Orzhov and an automatic inclusion for that guild in Sealed and as a common can be available in multiples. In Booster it is a strong second or third pick after a Black, White, or Black and White rare and barring other players first picks in the same guild the chances of multiple copies going around the table is relatively high.

Constructed: 3.0
Casual: 3.0
Limited: 4.0
Multiplayer: 3.0


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