Is this spell a way to kill other players'
creatures, or a way to buff your own? It's a way
to kill other players' creatures. On your own
creature, it's terrible. First of all, you're
Dimir. True, sometimes even Dimir gets caught in
topdeck mode, but for the most part we can
assume that you've got at least three or four
cards in hand. If you don't this is hardly worth
casting anyway. So you're basically casting
Nameless Inversion, Occasionally, very
occasionally, people would play Nameless
Inversion as a means of getting an extra three
damage through, But that only really happened
because Lorwyn block had Treefolk, who needed a
good +X/-X effect because they were all 1/5's or
what have you. The Dimir don't really have
creatures like that-- most of Dimir's creatures
are relatively small and have evasion. That
means they're unlikely to survive this spell,
and unlikely to need it to take down something
that blocked them.
So how does it hold up as a removal spell? It's
competing with Ultimate Price, Devour Flesh, and
Far//Away. It can pick a target, even a
multicolored target, but needing both blue and
black restricts who can use it. And so far House
Dimir has not produced a solid deck yet. If
something black and blue all over does arise in
the metagame, Warped Physique will surely find a
place in it, but until then, I doubt people are
going to give up on their Ultimate Prices.
It's tempting to look at a card like this and
say "Well, if I'm in blue and black, I should
always have enough cards in hand to kill
anything I want with Warped Physique."
Unfortunately, if you're in blue and black, your
opponents most likely know that a good way to
fight you is to run you out of cards, either by
forcing you to use them or by attacking your
hand directly, and so there will almost
certainly be times when this doesn't do what you
want it to. Nonetheless, it definitely acts like
a half-blue Terror when it's in your opening
hand, and that's just about enough for me to
give it an endorsement accompanied by an
encouragement to be careful about relying on it.
I almost want to see this as part of a combo
deck. It could do something like Mox Lotus into
a Slime Molding with a value of X greater than
the number of atoms in the universe, and win
with this and Distortion Strike. I'm not sure if
that would be hilarious or ridiculous.
Today's card of the day is Warped Physique
which is a two mana Blue and Black that gives
target creature +X/-X equal to the number of
cards in your hand. Working as removal or
pump it is versatile and somewhat adjustable if
you manage the cards in your hand. The
multicolor nature and reliance on the hand size
will keep this spell from seeing widespread use,
but in a Blue/Black deck with card draw or
discard options it should be a popular choice.
In Limited this is a solid option both for
removal and as a potential combat power up.
Even with one card in hand there are multiple
benefits and it should be included in Sealed
builds and drafted as removal in Booster as
increasing the power simply requires stockpiling
a few cards.
Welcome back to the Pojo.com card of the day
section. Today we are looking at Warped Physique
from Dragon's Maze. Warped Physique is an
uncommon blue and black instant that costs one
blue and one black mana. Warped Physique says
target creature gets +X/-X until the end of
turn, where X is the number of cards in your
hand.
Warped Physique is not all that bad for a two
cast instant. It can easily be a good quick
removal spell, or even serve to pump one of your
creatures if the math is in your favor.
The hard part is knowing when to use it, and on
what targets. But, so us usually the case with
most pump/kill spells. You never want to waste a
good one.
