Welcome back everyone! I'm sure a lot of you have seen the recent list of KMCs released by Wizards of the Coast and I'm pretty excited myself! I'm not as close to all of them as I would like to be, however, I have a little more time to attend a few of these events; probably 2-4 events. Stay tuned to my YouTube channel and Twitter for further information! Today's card is a popular card from the first sets and it played a big role in the Cobalt Control deck. Let's take a look at Blinder Beetle.

Name: Blinder Beetle
Civilization: Light
Type: Creature
Race: Enforcer
Level: 3
Power: 1000
Flavor Text: At the dawn of the Light civilization, blinder beetles emerged from the sun.
Rarity: Common/Promo
Set Number: P3 l Y1PRM
Abilities:
Strobe Pulse- When this creature enters the battle zone, tap target enemy creature.

Blinder Beetle is pretty simplistic: Summon and tap a creature. It just so happens to be an Enforcer from the Light civilization with a measly 1000 power. Before we had cards like Spark Cage that tap a creature and draw you a card for the same cost or Piercing Judgment which bounces and then taps a creature, we had this creature that gave us a tap ability. At the time it was pretty good but now it generally has to be used in combination with other cards if at all.

A great combo is to play a turn 2 Aqua Strider followed by a turn 3 Blinder Beetle. This will allow your Aqua Strider to take down any of those early plays your opponent may be placing in the battle zone and isn't attacking with (birds or bugs for example). Now though we have alternatives to playing this card including a Blocker with 2000 more power for just one more level.

One of the best utilities of this card is when it's combined with Cobalt, the Storm Knight. If you have enough mana to pull it off, you can actually play the beetle to tap down a creature with 6000 or less and then evolve your creature into Cobalt, allowing you to take down that creature successfully all while giving yourself an extra shield in the process.

Overall the card is still viable in the right deck, specifically ones that utilize Enforcers and their Evolutions, however, that's never stopped someone from throwing it in with Dracothane! Outside of that though there are just a lot of better options out there.

Ratings:

Constructed: 2.50/5.00 (An underpowered creature with an okay effect. There are just better options out there.)
Limited: 3.75/5.00 (Not that great in terms of power, however, it can throw off an opponent's early strategy when used with other creatures.)