I haven't been playing for quite as long as my
co-contributors. I was first introduced to Magic
in high school by a friend of mine, who gave me
the Odyssey "Trounce-O-Matic" preconstructed
deck as a birthday gift, then offered to teach
me the game over several afternoons at her
house. Years later, she abandoned the game, but
she and Magic have both stayed with me ever
since. And that original deck stayed with me for
quite some years as well. Long after Odyssey had
rotated out of Standard, after Eighth Edition
modernized the card frames, after I graduated
high school and found a new circle of Magic
players at college who would become my friends
over infinite mana loops and responses to
responses to responses, after the cardboard
"Trounce-O-Matic" box was weathered almost to
destruction and had to be wrapped in duct tape,
I still played a tweaked form of that deck, and
to this day it informs my approach to the game.
Blue and green is still my favorite color pair.
I still love granting flying or evasion to
massive creatures, and I still love creatures
that can start small and be played early, but
can be enlarged or otherwise upgraded to retain
their relevance in the late game. And despite my
contempt for lockdown control, I still love
cheap cantrip spells like Predict or Opt that
let you fish through the top of your deck and
pick the card you want-- this is likely why I
enjoy Scry so much!
Despite my nostalgia, I must acknowledge that
the years have most certainly not been kind to
Stone-Tongue Basilisk, who was once the
headliner of my deck and the thing that struck
fear into my opponents. As much as I admit that
the M10 Rules Changes were beneficial to the
game at large, they effectively ripped out
Stone-Tongue's teeth. The institution of
deathtouch was controversial, mainly because
there had been many versions of "basilisk's
gaze" or "kills-on-contact" abilities over the
years, and their decision to standardize the
ability into a keyword led to the creation of an
ability that no existing creature actually had.
But it was the "order the blockers" rule that
cast the final stone at the Stone-Tongued one.
Before M10, this guy could kill as many
creatures as he had power by assigning one
damage to each blocker and letting his ability
kill them after combat. Now, you can't do that
unless you have deathtouch, so the Basilisk's
once-feared attack will kill at most one
creature more than its power would otherwise let
it. I once comboed this with a simple Muscle
Burst to kill off large swaths of my opponents'
field. Now you'd need a card like Withstand
Death or Serpent Skin just to kill one or two
creatures and live to do it again next turn.
Never mind the fact that at 4GGG, far better
options now exist.
The Lure effect is still as useful as ever,
drawing away creatures from the attackers you
actually want to push through. But the Basilisk
needs Threshold to do that, and is so expensive
that your opponent will no doubt have enough
power to block and kill the Basilisk, making
this a one-time trick that Taunting Elf and
several others throughout the years can do much
better. It hurts to rate this one as low as I
know I have to, and I'll always cherish the time
I had with Stone-Tongue, but that time is over,
and it isn't coming back.
Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it. Of course, since Magic's
past is full of memorable characters, inspiring
settings, fantastic creatures, and awesome
events, repeating it might not be such a bad
thing. In 2008, Wizards of the Coast announced,
via Mark Rosewater and others, an emphasis on
acquisition - literally trying to get lots and
lots of new customers. Unfortunately this has,
at times, come at the expense of acknowledgment
and celebration of Magic's history, and of
things targeted at long-time players. Perhaps
we'll see this week that Magic's history is
about more than a "muddled" color pie (Aaron
Forsythe's words, not mine) and the Power Nine.
I remember Stone-Tongue Basilisk fondly. The
first time I saw one was on Wizards of the
Coast's website, shortly after Odyssey came out
- it was a rare in a theme deck called "Troune-O-Matic".
That alone was pretty eye-catching. Add in the
obvious reference to the old-school combo of
Lure plus Thicket Basilisk or Venom, all on one
card so that you can just cast him and go to
town, and what's not to like about him? And
while it's the case that your opponent's
creatures may all be dead or irrelevant by the
time he comes online, that's not always a given
- remember our discussion last week about
control decks hiding behind walls, or my
frustration with Doubling Season decks?
Later on, of course, I learned that a lot of
the players whose decks were showcased on
Wizards of the Coast's website didn't care about
"cool" or about the way people like me played. I
studied those decks, I learned what tournament
decks were like, I jumped into Standard around
2005, became a regular at an FNM scene, and came
to regret it very much; but that's a story for
another time.
Speaking of Doubling Season, note this guy's
"old-school" or "unfixed" version of deathtouch.
Considering how they had to revise the rules
about deathtouch for M10 and then immediately
after, and how new deathtouch creatures can't
smash through vast herds of Saprolings while
enchanted with Gaseous Form, and how they still
have to put reminder text for it even in sets
like Theros, maybe they should have left well
enough alone.
Today's card of the day is Stone-Tongue
Basilisk which is a seven mana Green 4/5 from
Odyssey that destroys creatures at the end of
combat after it deals combat damage to them and
with Threshold all creatures able to block it
must do so. This is a card that has not aged
well as current rulings require it to deal
lethal damage to one creature before assigning
any damage to a second creature, which works
differently than Deathtouch as each point of
damage would be lethal. With that change, the
relatively low power and toughness for the mana
cost, and requiring Threshold for the Lure
effect this just doesn't have much to offer any
decks being constructed currently.
In a Limited setting this has decent
toughness and aggressive effects that can clear
a path for an alpha strike or open up options
for later turns. The mana cost is high, but
manageable in the format, and can still justify
a first pick in Booster in a weak pack or after
already choosing Green as there are many strong
uncommons to choose from. For Booster it depends
on your pool, but Green is very powerful in the
set and this can be the top end of the mana
curve. The triple Green in the cost does prevent
splashing and requires at least half of the deck
to be Green to reliably cast.
Stone-Tongue Basilisk is a card that was
obviously given a high mana cost because the
makers of the card thought that it was a
powerful card. As it turns out, Stone-Tongue
Basilisk is only powerful if you are playing a
casual group game and nobody is paying
attention. Let’s be real, nobody wants a 4/5 for
seven mana. The only situation where I would
want this card would be in a Limited event and
even then it is a stretch. By the time that you
play Stone-Tongue Basilisk you should have
Threshhold, but it is probably too late.
