April 15, 1998
The Card of the Day is...
Active Volcano
Legends, Chronicles Common
R Instant
"Destroy target blue permanent or return target island to owner's hand."
Active Volcano is generally considered less effective than Red Elemental Blast/Pyroblast. Even though they share the nasty ability to take out any blue permanent for one mana at the speed of an instant, countering spells is usually more handy than sending islands back to someone's hand. Sure, sending an island back to someone's hand is almost like stalling them for a turn, and can be fairly useful to screw up a key moment when every land would be needed, but I usually only use Active Volcano as a sideboard card in addition to the aforementioned blasts. I ain't dissin' Active Volcano, there are some defensive uses for sure. I've sent soon-to-be-doomed islands back to my hand several times, as well as forced my opponent to discard an extra card at the end of their turn. I've just had a little better luck with the blasts myself. Here are some possible complements to a deck chock full o' Active Volcanos:
- Thoughtlace
Thoughtlace and Active Volcano are a 2 card, 2 mana version of Desert Twister. Take out virtually any permanent in the game by turning something blue with Thoughtlace, then hitting it with an Active Volcano. Really cheap combo!
- Fylamarid
I'm really glad there are now some "goofy" spells that are really good nowadays. Fylamarid is a sneaky one, being able to turn any creature blue for a turn. You can do all kinds of stuff knowing your opponent (and you maybe) will have blue creatures. Using Active Volcano to just outright destroy the critter is a fairly good idea.
- Sea King's Blessing+Bosium Strip
Use Sea King's Blessing to turn a few of your opponent's creature blue for a turn, then whack one with Active Volcano. Bosium Strip is an excellent way to be able to reuse a cheap instant, a cheap instant like Active Volcano perhaps?
- Slight of Mind
Almost just like the first combo mentioned with Thoughtlace, Slight of Mind can be used with Active Volcano to destroy any non-land non-artifact permanent.
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