December 19, 1997

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The Card of the Day is...

Heroism

Fallen Empires Uncommon
2W Enchantment

"0: Sacrifice a white creature to have attacking red creatures deal no damage during combat this turn. The attacking player may pay 2R for an attacking creature to have it deal damage as normal."

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A brief rundown of the card:

People don't make fun of Tabernacle of Pendrell Vale, Pendrell Mists, Mudslide, or other similar effects that cause an opponent to pay lots of extra mana every turn to maintain their creatures (or at least do anything offensive with them), so why is Heroism knocked on so much? With just a little help you can adjust Heroism to your needs--it can be anything from a mana-muncher for your opponent, to a mass destruction creature slayer. Here are some of the best excuses to use Heroism in your deck:

• Slight of Mind/Mind Bend
  If you don't have many means of producing white creatures to sacrifice to Heroism, try changing "white creature" to "whatever-color-I-do-own creature" with Slight of Mind or Mind Bend. Much more importantly though, you can change "red creatures" to "whatever-color-my-opponent-has creatures". This is quite nasty--imagine your opponent having to pay 2R to make their Sengir Vampire deal damage in an all black deck. I bet they'd have a hard time doing that. Hmmm, maybe Heroism isn't that bad afterall. A 2 card combo (and a creature every turn) to completely shut down an entire color of creatures--not bad.
• Celestial Dawn
  The Slight/Mind Bend combo works everytime your opponent isn't playing red. But what if they are and have tons of extra mana around? Not a problem with Celestial Dawn--it makes all mana symbols on all of your cards white. Pity for your opponent that they would have to pay an extra 2W to make their red creatures attack. Hehehehe.
• Manabarbs+Nettling Imp
  Force an opponent's creature to attack with Nettling Imp once you have an appropriatly Slighted Heroism in play. Your opponet will have to pay 2R to make this creature deal damage as normal. If they don't, I hope you'd have some high powered creature in play to kill the attacker (who won't be punching back). If your opponent does pay the 2R to allow the creature to duke it out, it'll cost them 3 damage from Manabarbs.
• Balance
  Need a way to whittle your army down to nothing, while getting something out of it for a big Balance? Heroism can work for you.
• Sacred Mesa/Kjeldoran Home Guard/Kjeldoran Outpost...
  There are so many great white token creature generaters out there, you shouldn't have a problem finding one to fit your deck (but you might have a problem finding the cards themselves!--$$$)

E-mail me with comments, complaints, suggestions, or combos. I can't put every suggestion or combo up, but I will probably try to if I like it.