To help support the Heroic theme in Theros, each
color got a cheap instant that can target up to
two creatures at once. Oddly enough, the green
one is the only one that doesn't grant a boost
to power or toughness. Instead, it grants an
infiltrator ability. This means that if you're
not using it to trigger Heroic, it's only good
if you can get through unblocked or trample
over-- it won't actually help the creature once
it is blocked like Triton Tactics or Dauntless
Onslaught, and it won't help a creature that
isn't attacking at all-- at least Triton Tactics
can save a creature from Anger of the Gods and
the like. That means Warrior's Lesson is really
only good if you're already in a strong
position-- if you can't punch through any
damage, it's a dead card.
You may try to use the Lesson as a sort of "fake
Lure"-- playing it on the creatures that you
don't really expect to get in there with, to
force your opponent to choose whether or not he
lets you draw cards, or lets the bigger,
stronger creature get through unblocked. But
that too assumes that you have enough attackers
to make your opponent choose what gets through,
which means for the Lesson to be good, you need
to not need the help, or you need Heroic
creatures.
To those of us who play with larger card
pools, a card like this may not read very
impressively compared to favorites like Snake
Umbra or Keen Sense. That might be a little
unfair, though, seeing as there are very few
ways to trigger multiple heroic abilities at one
time. That can be quite relevant, especially in
limited settings. Plus, it involves drawing
cards - judging by what people say, that's just
about the all-time favorite thing of Magic
players, right?
Today's card of the day is Warriors' Lesson
which is a one Green instant that until end of
turn has up to two target creatures you control
allow you to draw a card whenever they deal
combat damage to an opponent. As an option
for Green card draw this isn't bad, particularly
in a token or swarm design where getting two
attackers past any blockers is quite manageable.
In a multicolor deck it works well to trigger
Heroic or alongside Double Strike and should be
very popular in Commander and Multiplayer.
Overall this is a good card in specific builds
and may see competitive play in very different
designs as card draw and support.
In Limited this is a great card with multiple
Heroic targets that also works early to gain
card advantage in a low cost aggressive deck.
It is probably best suited to multicolor builds
as Green's choices for Heroic have high casting
costs. Splashing it in with other solid
cards is worthwhile in Sealed while in Booster
it is a good on color choice around the middle
of a pack or if drafting into two colors.
