"Curse of the Swine: It's a Piggy Party "

"Curse of the Swine: It's a Piggy Party "

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

"Ambaboy" is a tagalog slang that roughly translated means "That is so messed up." It literally means "The Pig". Baboy means pig in the language. Then again you are not reading this for a language lesson but the card I am going to talk about today really is fitting of the term "Ambaboy".

Curse of the Swine was designed to invoke the imagery of Circe turning Sailors into Swine. Imagine an EDH game battlefield full of monsters ranging from 4/4 to 11/11 ready to push you to the underworld on the next turn. You draw this card. You refuse to smile. You cast the card for 2 Blue Mana and X , targeting and exiling every Darksteel or Blightsteel Colossus that your opponents have. In exchange for removing all of that power from their side you give them a 2/2 Green Boar for all their troubles of casting it or cheating it into play. It does not seem like a fair exchange but a 2/2 creature is much easier to deal with than dying to an 11/11 Infect monster. 

"Awww...Such a cute little 2/2 piggy..."

In an environment that always needs removal this will be a big asset for any blue deck. However there are certain weaknesses inherent in the card as well.

#1 This card does not solve the trouble with Hexproof creatures. Well there is a reason why blue EDH decks have Evacuation , Cyclonic Rift and Wash Out.

#2 It is not an instant.Sorcery Speed is good but Haste creatures would still deal damage when they come in.You have to for your own turn to you exile unless you already have a Leyline of Anticipation in your deck that makes this card more awesome.

#3 Reducing creatures to 2/2 Boars does not mean that you will not lose the game. If you are already at a low life total the effectivity of Curse of Swine is diminished. Giving 5 2/2 Boars to an opponent still means 10 points of damage that could kill you. 

"I smell lechon..."

As a defense card Curse of the Swine is awesome. Combine it with a Pyroclasm  , Roiling Tremblor

or Volcanic Fallout when you are running an Izzet deck and you are all set. When you opponents are finally out of creatures after sweeping them again and again then you could finally appreciate how "Ambaboy" this card really is.