All Ye Creatures...Bend the Knee...Return from Exile!

All Ye Creatures...Bend the Knee...Return from Exile!

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. 

     When casting creatures of significant effects or abilities magic players always think of counters or removal spells that can affect the creatures effectiveness in play. This is the reason why so many combinations would rather "cheat" in a massive , expensive creature into play directly from the hand or from the graveyard. There are many cards that are abused this way in Legacy or even in EDH there is the turn one Akroma or Iona that certainly puts a stop to your opponents plans of winning. So what can be more annoying (for an opponent) than letting a pro red and pro black angel bash in for 6 points ofdamage per turn or not being allowed to play a chosen color as in the effect of Iona? Well that is having their creatures cast for free and then have those same creatures smash them in the face before they could even put in 2 lands in play. Yup ,  you read it right. And the creature to do just this is a demon from the void. Enter the Lord of the Void , who comes in at an impressive 7/7 for 4 colorless mana and 3 black mana. Dont mind the 7 mana cost , you are going to cheat him into play any way. So let us continue.The thought of a Summoning trap like effect each turn is enough to make me salivate. 

     Let us say you use the classic 1 swamp , dark ritual , entomb and exhume path. You have this guy on turn one. Assuming that your opponent doesn't have an Unsummon or Path to exile when they drop their lone mana producing land then you are happy to fly to damage land. Lord of the Void will deal 7 damage , exile 7 of your opponents cards from the library and get this...you play one creature from that pile! Imagine the possiblities. Obviously your opponent would pack in monstrous creatures in his or her deck. A Terastodon? A Sheoldred? An Iona? An Akroma? They obviously wouldn't have prepared for you to use it on them on turn three.Regardless of any creature you get even if its a mana producing creature or a creature with comes into play ability you are setting up board dominance on turn 3. And even if your opponents manage to deal with one of the creatures in play you are still ahead in terms of creature count and may add another one if they don't take care of Lord of the void.(expect them to go after this guy first unless they are really really blind  or masochistic)

     In standard, Lord of the Void will see play in Junk Decks , because it can easily be cast with the Black/Green mana combination and be put into play via Unburial rites. I expect this guy to make a showing soon. There are so many decks to defeat. So many creatures to steal. Lord of the void you are changing my view about Standard.