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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Pit Fight
Image from Wizards.com

 Pit Fight
- Gatecrash

Reviewed March 21, 2013

Constructed: 3.13
Casual: 3.87
Limited: 4.00
Multiplayer: 3.50

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

Pit Fight

This is a pretty clear example of how a hybrid card's value changes based on what color you look at it from. A red deck looks at this card and sees a waste of a slot-- for the same mana it could have Searing Spear and not risk killing of one of its own creatures. Sure, its creatures tend to have pretty high power (and firebreathing, making Pit Fight an ersatz X spell) but they also have low toughness and few reliable ways to recoup lost card advantage.

A green deck, on the other hand, would love to have this card. Green almost never gets direct damage, and its creatures tend to be plenty big enough to cope with a fight. The fact that it's the creature, not Pit Fight itself, that deals the damage means that Green can exploit its deathtouch capabilities as well. I kind of want to rate this as a 1.5 for red decks and a 4.5 for green, but I think I'm just going to go with the higher score, because the existence of decks in which this card doesn't help doesn't negate the power of this card in decks where it does.

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


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Pit Fight

Now that "fight" is a keyword, it was inevitable that this card would exist sooner or later. Apparently they went for sooner. I'm not sure how often this is a good option as a mono-red card, where you could play something like Searing Spear, but as a mono-green card it often works like Terror. (Note how it interacts with Acidic Slime and other creatures with deathtouch.) I think everyone has a better time when the color pie isn't absolute.

That comment I made about Terror makes me wonder if maybe Desert Twister will return to an expert-level set one day. Start writing strong letters, people.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Pit Fight which is a two mana Red or Green instant that has target creature you control fight another target creature.  This is similar to Prey Upon with the increased speed, mana cost, and being available to Red in addition to Green. The cost is a drawback that is balanced out and then some by this being a potential response to removal or an aggressive combat trick.  There are many uses for a card like this, but only when paired with a creature capable of killing most targets.  Without that this is worse than most Red options and is not helped by the frequent low toughness in Red's aggressive creatures, which leaves this costing two cards to destroy one.  In the right deck this is an effective choice, particularly for Green or predominantly Green Red/Green builds and is likely to see at least some competitive play.
 
For Limited this is a fairly weak source of removal outside of a Simic deck as the number of favorable match ups to fight can be problematic. 
The Evolve keyword and +1/+1 counters in general improve the reliability and efficiency of the fight mechanic.  The other guilds aren't a great fit for this, oddly enough including Gruul, and outside of drafting a sizable number of creatures with solid power and toughness this is too situational to be an early pick.  Weak or not, it is removal and can get some value in some combat steps or as a response, so it shouldn't be overlooked or left out of Sealed without considering what else can accomplish similar results.
 
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 3.5


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