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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
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Image from Wizards.com |
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Animal
Boneyard
Odyssey Uncommon
Reviewed July 6, 2004
Constructed: 1.6
Casual: 2.4
Limited: 2.2
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
our
Card of the Day Reviews
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Chris
Gerhardt
*
game store owner in CA,
ShuffleAndCut |
Animal Boneyard is one of those cards with the
every popular/ever bad lifegain ability. You
will almost never see lifegain as a basis for a
deck in tournament constructed, although it was a
strong side-note in many control decks that ran
Exalted Angel. Control depends on time as
its ally, and the lifegain from the extremely
strong Exalted Angel creature bought it just
enough to take over the game and accomplish its
dirty deed. But otherwise, lifegain cannot
win you a game....it can only put you out of
reach. If you have 3 billion life, and your
opponent has 20, you still don't "win".
"Infinite" life is always beat by "infinite
damage". There really isn't such a thing as
Infinite life. When using a combo to gain
life, you must declare how many "cycles" you are
using of your combo. Once that is
established, your opponent can use his damage
cycle to declare whatever you said, plus one, and
beat you. So lifegain, as a BASIS for a
deck, isn't solid. You also need to destroy your
opponent in the meantime.
That being said,
lifegain is an extremely fun and rewarding basis
for a Casual style deck. And lifegain in
"infinite" form is even better. Due to the
huge array of sets and cards available,
there are many more ways in Casual to cleverly
kill your opponent while you pull off a crazy
lifegain combo. Below, Chase goes into an
interesting "infinite" lifegain combo...
"Get out
Lightning Greaves and
Daru Spiritualist and get infinite life."
(Target the
Spiritualist (and another creature) with the Lightning Greaves over an
over, until its toughness is huge, then use Boneyard to sac it)
Kind of a fun idea!
In limited, it's not
really a great idea, unless you have a way to gain
huge amounts of it, like Clearwater Goblet.
Just set this to the side, unless you have a
horrible deck and really just need some filler.
Stick to Casual with this one.
Constructed:
1.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 1.5
Current Price:
Animal
Boneyard -
Odyssey - $0.59
Combos
Well With:
Daru
Spiritualist -
Scourge - $0.12
Lightning
Greaves - Mirrodin - $4.57
Riptide
Replicator - Onslaught - $1.93
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Judge
Bill
*Level 2
MTG Judge
*game store employee
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Animal Boneyard
This is a white enchantment that lets you
sacrifice a creature to gain life
equal to its toughness. Great with yesterday's
card, and good as a way to
convert chump blockers into extra life, but the
concept of needing creatures
to sacrifice makes it unplayable in constructed,
and a borderline 23rd card
in limited. I'd probably pass most times in
limited unless I was desperate.
Constructed: 1
Casual: 1.5
Limited: 2 |
Jonathan
Pechon
2 Grand
Prix Top 8's
Multiple Pro Tour
appearances |
Animal Boneyard
The other half of the
combo with Chamber of Manipulation, this was the
card that you only really played when you had the
other half of the combo first. In constructed, if
you got this to happen, that’s not so bad.
Building a competitive deck around this was a bad
idea, on the whole
Building a fun
deck, on the other hand, was no problem. You can
be the guy at the table that says, “Yep, I’ll take
your guy for a bit. If you’re nice, I won’t kill
him.” Another fun combo with Serra Avatar, I
might add. Mediocre to bad for Mental.
Like I said before,
you only really played this when you already had
some number of Chambers to play with it. By
itself, since it really doesn’t serve to do
anything to the board, it’s not going to give you
any substantial results; it only serves to prolong
the inevitable, if you’re in a losing situation.
Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 2.5
Limited: 2.0
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Jeff Zandi
5 Time Pro Tour
Veteran
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Animal Boneyard
Not recognized when it first came out, this card
was actually quite powerful
in limited. While it does have the drawback of
tying up one of your lands,
the life gain potential of this card was quite
remarkable in booster draft
and sealed decks. Once damage is on the stack, and
you have already resigned
yourself to the loss of some creature on your
side, simply tap the land
enchanted with Animal Boneyard and redeem your
creature for some life
points. Additionally, you might WANT a creature of
yours in the graveyard
for some other purpose, and Animal Boneyard is all
to happy to help you with
that task.
CONSTRUCTED: 2.0
CASUAL: 2.0
LIMITED: 3.5 |
Ray
"Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer |
Animal Boneyard
While this card
combo’s well with yesterday’s card of the day,
overall this card is just not good enough to be
worth playing. Life gain in general is not always
worth playing, and while this card gives an extra
ability to each of your creatures, being able to
be sacked in response to damage on the stack, or
being targeted with a lethal spell, the cost of a
card and the requirement of leaving the land
untapped to make it worth playing.
Constructed:
1
Casual:
1
Limited:
1
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DeQuan
Watson
* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX) |
Sacrificing
creatures with this to gain life is neat,
because you never end up with a creature going
to waste. Casual players seem to really enjoy
this card. It's even better if you are trying
to combo it with something that involves some
life gain element to it. If it were to come up
in limited, I would take to gain some life
throughout the game to keep you ahead. You can
combine it with yesterday's card, Chamber of
Manipulation to get some neat effects.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 3
Limited: 2.5
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Jason
Chapman |
Animal Boneyard is
just a subpar card. The ability isn't all that
strong in a color dominated by weenie creatures or
by larger creatures that are run in low numbers as
a win condition. Add to this the fact that Animal
Boneyard is an enchantment and you have a recipe
for a wasted card. Only defensive creature based
decks will find this card worthy of deck space.
Constructed - Never
seen it in a constructed deck and I never expect
to - 1.5
Casual - A stronger
pick for longer games and creature battles but
still not great - 2.5
Limited - Not so
bad since it allows chumps to provide extra
benefit in the late game - 2.5
PEZ - Not at all
worth it with loads of weenies and better life
gain/damage prevention - 1.5 |
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Andy
Van Zandt |
Animal Boneyard
Diamond Valley-esque, and notable as one of few
cards in this block that
will potentially gain you a lot of life in the
long run at no particularly
high extra cost (assuming you only sac creatures
that were scheduled to die
anyways). Becomes much better with a way to steal
your opponent's
creatures, or to pump the toughness consistently
before sac'ing. Not
amazing, but with more potential than first
glance might afford.
constructed 2
casual 3
limited 3 |
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Chase
Secret Squirrel
on the
Pojo.com
Message
Boards |
Where have I seen
this again? In onslaught. Oh yeah,
Starlit Sanctum. Almost the same thing,
except Sanctum is a land and only applies to
Clerics. Both aren’t particularly terrible.
Get out
Lightning Greaves and
Daru Spiritualist and get infinite life.
Other than that, I never thought that this card
was really good by itself. It can be
disenchanted, and takes up the mana from a
land... mana that could be spent winning the
game. It’s just a stall card; life gain has
never been particularly useful. Alright in
casual, pretty pointless in limited.
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 3
Limited: 1.5
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Paul
Hagan |
Animal Boneyard --
Honestly, I am not a huge fan of Animal Boneyard
in any format. When it was in Type II, it
really never made an impact on the metagame, and
I seriously doubt it can make an impact in
Extended or Type I, where the format requires
you to play only the best of the best cards.
When I ran Animal Boneyard in limited decks, it
usually meant I was short on good cards. I can
give it credit for being able to keep you in the
game for a short time while you struggle to find
a bomb card that may be hiding in your limited
deck, but whenever you are being forced to
sacrifice creatures to stay in the game, you are
fighting a losing battle.
The casual environment is where cards like
Animal Boneyard really shine. Think of decks
where you play yesterdays CotD, Chamber of
Manipulation, and Animal Boneyard. "OK, I'll
steal your creature with Chamber of
Manipulation, do whatever with it, and before
the end of the turn, I'll sacrifice it to Animal
Boneyard. Thanks!"
Constructed Rating: 1.5
Limited Rating: 2.0
Casual Rating: 2.0
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w00t |
Animal Boneyard
Constructed - No
deck can real build a competitive deck around
this, or use its ability to gain a few life for
creatures. Doesn't cut it.
Casual - This card
was mentioned yesterday, as it is great to help
out Chamber of Manipulation. It can also be used
just to gain life off of your creatures, soon to
die at the blade of combat. Maybe in a mass
token producing deck, with centaur glades, or
Riptide Replicators, to gain life, when life is
needed more than beef. A few uses, some great,
some not so great.
Limited - Not an
incredibly early pick in OTJ Draft, though
certainly has its uses. In draft, it will
probably pick you up about 8 life each game for
no cost (saccing critters who will die to
combat), plus if really needed, can pick you up
a few more for your precious ones. This ability
CAN be useful but lifegain just isn't the first
thing your looking for in a draft. In sealed,
its a similar situation, but if your UW and have
chamber as well... You better run them!
Constructed - 1.5
Casual - 2.5
Limited - 2.0
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