Today's card of the day is Ancestral Vengeance
which is a two mana Black aura that puts a +1/+1
counter on target creature you control and gives
the creature it enchants -1/-1. This is a
solid and easily overlooked card that can change
the dynamics of the battlefield noticeably with
two small adjustments. It can act as
removal or help weaken a creature to be more
easily managed and improves your own creature
slightly. Neither effect is worth the two
mana alone, but combined it makes for a playable
card that could see some appearances in
mono-Black.
In Limited the two Black in the casting cost is
a notable drawback, but the two effects can be a
viable method for overcoming an offensive or
defensive threat. In Sealed it should be
included whenever Black is a primary color of
the build as it can't reliably be splashed or
offer enough to force the color. In
Booster it is a decent middle of the pack pick
after a Black rare or can even be earlier if the
other choices are weak.
Welcome back readers, rumors of my death have
been greatly exaggerated ive returned to give
you the skinny on some sweet cards.
Unfortunately this card is a little bitter( ha
ha) In competitive formats including standard,
modern, legacy, vintage this card is pretty
awful, best case scenario is you pay two black
mana to kill a 1/1 and pump one of your guys,
worse case scenario you shrink something and get
a buff. While it may sound good in theory it
provides no real advantage and the likelihood of
it killing a creature is debatable. You are
better off with a real removal spell. In casual
and multiplayer its slightly better as +1/+1
counters are useful, however in Magics history
there are better +1/+1 counter cards and much
much better removal spells making this really
niche. In limited its also kind of unimpressive
its got a poor chance at killing creatures and
the counter is not worth the downside of having
this in your deck. Overall an underwhelming card
which can provide some value but is quite niche.
It feels unusual to have a card that's mainly
about enhancing your own creature but is also
intended to enchant one you don't control - and
let's be honest, that's really what this card is
for. Giving one creature -1/-1 is,
statistically, not likely to be enough to kill
it a lot of the time, but adding another +1/+1
counter to one of your own creatures may have a
more noticeable impact. Abzan Falconer is a real
thing, especially in draft and sealed, and that
style of deck is all about small, incremental
advantages. As that sort of thing goes, this is
a reasonable if unspectacular card.
