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Pojo's Magic The Gathering Card of the Day
Daily Since November 2001!


Image from Wizards.com

Blight Mamba
Scars of Mirrodin

Reviewed October 13, 2010

Constructed: 3.50
Casual: 3.87
Limited: 4.13
Multiplayer: 3.87

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

Blight Mamba

I keep looking at this and comparing it to River Boa. Remember, defeating an opponent means dealing 20 damage, but only 10 poison counters. As such, you have to look at infect and almost think of it as you would double strike. But of course it only works like that if it hits the player. If it's blocked, it acts like wither instead. That's where the regeneration comes in-- Blight Mamba can tangle with a creature, leave a -1/-1 counter on it, and regenerate. Even if your deck doesn't care about poisoning the enemy, it makes a very convincing blocker, especially in the color best known for creature pump.

Constructed- 3.5
Casual- 3.5
Limited- 3.75
Multiplayer- 3.75

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Blight Mamba
 
Coming so soon after River Boa returned for the Zendikar block, the comparisons were perhaps inevitable. Or perhaps I just like River Boa way too much. Both cards' prospects for constructed are usually partly determined by what other decks are around. For example, at the height of River Boa's popularity, the only decks that could get rid of it were Sligh (with Incinerate) and later Rebels (if they had Mageta the Lion). Blight Mamba's regeneration, its strongest feature, gets weaker if there are a lot of decks around that make use of the creatures we've reviewed this week. If that doesn't end up happening, I could see it having a great run in Standard - no-one wants to be blocked by it, no-one wants to block it, and even fewer people want to not block it.
 
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Blight Mamba which is a two mana 1/1 with Infect and a two mana Regenerate option allowing it to take full advantage of Infect as a blocker if mana is available.  For a Green deck that shouldn't be a big problem, but in a Green/Black Infect build there may not be enough acceleration to spare for Blight Mamba's regeneration cost.  Depending on your design this snake can stall quite well with just some lands, myrs, or elves kept in reserve.  Offensively it can swing like any Infect creature to put the pressure on with poison counters and the cost is right at just two mana.
 
In Limited a two mana 1/1 with Infect is pretty much the standard curve, but adding in the option for Regenerate makes this a much higher pick than many other similar creatures.  Being able to stall out your opponent and weaken their creatures for a low cost is a big advantage and they may not have many options to remove this common from your battlefield.  Having more than one can really make things difficult for any player, so drafting several in Booster or opening a few in Sealed makes for a good day.  Easily worth including every copy in a Green deck in Sealed and aggressively drafted in Booster after bombs or solid removal.
 
For Multiplayer just having the mana untapped should be enough of a deterrent to encourage an opponent to look for easier prey and unlike walls with Defender or other true stalls it can still be used offensively at any stage which allows flexibility.
 
Constructed: 4.0
Casual: 4.0
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 4.5


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