I'm almost positive that I've reviewed Manabarbs
before. Probably in Tenth Edition. Has anything
changed about it now? Well, its flavor text,
attributed to Kamahl, Pit Fighter, is now
evidence of "that time they printed legendary
creatures in the Core Set", but other than that,
no. It's still a great aggro tool to put
pressure on an opponent and then make sure they
can't dig their way out by casting spells. Aggro
decks aren't interested in expensive spells, and
hit hard and fast, so in a Kuldotha Red build,
or anything involving Goblin Guide, this would
be a great way to guarantee your opponent can't
steal victory from you with a topdecked Day of
Judgment-- if he casts it, he takes another
four, which would likely put him in burn range.
But then, it's also a "win more" card. It's only
good if you've got the board advantage and can
afford to stop casting spells for a while and
beat down. if you're up against another aggro
deck, or for whatever reason don't have the
better board, you don't want to cast Manabarbs.
Like Kamahl, I am fond of double-edged swords -
that is, double-edged swords in the Magic sense,
which can cut you but cut your opponent better.
Judging by the contents of recent sets, we're a
risk-averse set of gamers right now, but I think
we'd do better to make ourselves over as a
reward-hungry set: one that is willing to
sacrifice creatures if they get to attack with
awesome flying demons, or take a couple of
points of damage if they can get the colors of
mana they need every turn, or in the case of
Manabarbs, take a few more points of damage in
return for a card that basically says "the next
time your opponent does anything, they lose the
game." Because that's what the card text
basically says when you land it against
mono-blue control, or Big Red, or Kiora Atua's
deck, and lots of others besides. If that's not
worth taking a few points of damage, nothing is.
Also, have you ever played this card with
Tamanoa from Coldsnap?
Welcome back readers today’s card of the day is
Manabarbs a classic red card that punishes
players for doing something they have to do to
stay in the game, tap lands for mana. If you can
get this card out with an aggressive start such
as goblin cards or a similar threat you can
punish more slow and controlling players. In
standard I can definitely see this as a
sideboard card for red decks it can help seal
the deal and provides an extra source of damage.
Not much to say it punishes player’s whose decks
need to tap a lot of land and if you’re playing
red most times you can burn them out of tap less
land. In extended it could see the same amount
of play fulfilling the same purpose and in the
newly christened modern format it serves the
same purpose as standard but faces steep
competition. In eternal some games are over
before this can hit the board making it not
quite as potent. In casual and multiplayer I
want to combine this with the new M12 card
Personal Sanctuary for griefing otherwise
it makes people attack you due to the us versus
him mentality it presents unless part of a sweet
lockdown combo I might stay away from this card
in multiplayer due to politics. In limited I
don’t know how to accurately gauge it but I will
say its good against decks that love to tap out
or control builds. Overall a classic magic card
that will continue to see moderate play
everywhere.
Today's card of the day is Manabarbs which is a
four mana Red enchantment that deals a damage to
a player whenever they tap a land for mana.
This is generally used as part of a deck that
negates the drawback of your own lands dealing
damage when you tap them. Either by
creatures like elves or myr as mana sources or
White protection to prevent the damage.
Either strategy is viable for keeping your
opponent from playing much without risking quite
a bit of damage. The issues are in
situations where your opponent is not forced to
tap for mana or when they disrupt your field in
any way. The concept is quite vulnerable
and a major target in Multiplayer, so it isn't
likely to be a big factor in competitive play.
For Limited using this when you have the
advantage has the potential to lock down the
game and can be played as a topdeck to burn your
opponent for anything they try to cast
afterwards. It isn't always something you
want to play when you are very low on life or
have a full hand, so the timing is critical.
As a first pick in Booster it is somewhat
strange as it depends on your opponent taking
action as opposed to more aggressive choices
like removal or a creature. It works for
the psychology and sheer damage output it may
inflict when used correctly and as such should
not be underestimated. In Sealed it works
well in multicolor decks as it requires only one
Red mana and in both formats low cost cards are
best as support when using it.
