Tishana, Voice of Thunder – MTG Card of the Day

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

Tishana seems very much tailor-made for Commander, so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a Planar Chaos-style alternate timeline somewhere in which she first appeared in a Commander theme deck supplement. For the standards of competitive constructed, especially Standard, seven mana is slow to draw a card for a bunch of creatures you may or may not have, and you can get the Maro-style hand-counting effect for a lot cheaper. But in a format where you are all but guaranteed to cast her more than once, her comes-into-play trigger is absolutely devastating; and in a format where you can play all the best green (and artifact!) mana ramp cards, her cost effectively puts her in green decks’ early midgame. I’d even say her removing your maximum hand size is surprisingly relevant, because it gives you a new reason to consider Jin-Gitaxias or (in the spirit of the upcoming Unstable) Mine, Mine, Mine!.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
EDH/Commander: 4/5

King Of
Hearts

Who doesn’t like drawing cards and stomping with a big creature? Tishana is an amalgam classic Green and Blue abilities. Considering how expensive she is by the time you play her three or more extra cards can turn the game around. Although its not the most broken of combos, in limited I combined her with Overflowing Insight for a devastating end game. She’s too expensive for competitive play, but I think she makes an excellent Commander.

Constructed: 2
Casual: 3
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 2
Commander (EDH): 4

Tishana is an interesting creature, thanks to her enters-the-battlefield trigger and her potential to scale. Obviously, she’s a creature that gets much better if you’re putting her onto a board with some action going on; good thing Merfolk are a tribe that likes to put a lot of small creatures on board, right? She also counts herself on resolution (if she doesn’t immediately eat a kill spell); if you have three other creatures, she’s at least a 4/4 that drew you four additional cards in the process.

Seven mana makes Tishana a harder sell in Standard, but I could see her making it into some fringe decks. If you can keep a couple of creatures on board, she’ll make waves as both a big body and a sufficient draw spell. That sort of role compression is always nice, and she may have a home as a sort of snowball-generator in Merfolk decks.

Constructed: 3
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.75
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander: 4