While I do like charms for their versatility,
they're not always the most surprising cards,
especially now that Mark Rosewater is on
basically every design team and there are fewer
color pie surprises than there used to be. I
suppose someone is going to argue that the third
mode is not always guaranteed to have targets,
but the power of the first two more than make up
for it. Khans of Tarkir brings a lot of
super-powerful multicolored creatures to the
table, and a card that is both an answer to them
and helps you find your own when needed is
shockingly powerful.
Today's card of the day is Abzan Charm which is
a three mana White, Black, and Green instant
with three choices of effect. The first
effect of exiling target creature with power
three or greater is very useful and reasonable
for three mana. The second effect of draw
two cards and lose two life is Sign in Blood for
three mana instead of two, so is a solid
situational option. The final effect
allows you to put two +1/+1 counters on one or
two target creatures which again is useful
sometimes, but likely less often than the other
choices. Overall this is a card with three
strong effects and it will see play in Commander
and other decks where the three colors are used.
In Limited if running the three colors all three
effects are excellent to have available and this
is an easy early pick in Booster after starting
with some or all of the Abzan colors. For
Sealed it of course depends on the pool, but
splashing a third color in to fit this in is
well worth it for the value and versatility of
the effects. Just adding
+2/+2 to an evasive threat can be a major play
in the format and the
choice of effect can be difficult if not forced
into using it as a top end removal option.
Like all the charms of this set, the Abzan
variety has three useful abilities. All three of
the abilities would be marginal to play on their
own, but given the choice of three, you can
always find one that is useful.
Exiling a big creature is probably the most
relevant. There are going to be a lot of fatties
running around, and three mana to exile one -
where Sultai graveyard shenanigans can't reach
it - is excellent.
Drawing two cards and losing two life is very
much like the popular Sign in Blood. It costs
one more mana, but that's the price for
flexibility. This is not the most powerful
ability, but it is the one that is least likely
to be dead in your hand.
Putting 2 +1/+1 counters on creatures is clearly
the weakest of the abilities. Sure, there will
be times when that will make a difference -
whether to pump a creature out of burn range or
to put those extra points of damage into combat
- but I doubt that will be what you want to
spend your three mana on very often.
