"Dack Fayden: Stealing Victory"

"Dack Fayden: Stealing Victory"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

The moment I saw Dack Faden , I suddenly blurted out Dack Faden in the 28th and a half....century! Boy am I old. I am remembering Daffy duck for crying out loud. I started laughing for a minute or so because I just had to get that out of my system. I have not read the Magic comics yet and have no back story about Dack Faden but what I do have is an interest in is his Planeswalker incarnation.

All I know is that the guy is a thief and he loves stealing artifacts among other things. He also comes out in the Conspiracy set that makes him unavailable to the Standard players. As an EDH player I am happy to welcome him into my Izzet deck. At 3 mana Dack gives you an amazing advantage the moment he lands on the battlefield. 

Let us look at his +1 ability. Target player draws two cards,then discards 2 cards. As the controlling player who is playing Izzet colors(Blue/Red) this first Planeswalker ability allows you to filter your deck. Consider it as drawing care when you haven't got Jace Beleren yet. Consider also that these guys could play with each other and net you tons of cards in no time. As support Dack Fayden with this one ability would fit right into a Grixis deck that abuses the graveyard. The discard effect is a bit more controlled than the one the much maligned Tibalt has because you decide which ones would need to go to the graveyard. Hint: Choose the Largest creature possible!

Another Grixis deck with a different build that features Nekusar could also abuse a player and may bring about their nasty end with a well timed draw , as if suffering through all the pain caused by Nekusar/Teferi's Puzzlebox/Underworld Dreams/Howling Mine is not enough , your opponents also need to survive targetted card drawing! Yup , we have so much use for you Dack Faden.

And now we move to another Planeswalker ability that has a lot of people who love artifacts shaking in thier Lightning Greaves.Since Mirrodin and Scars of Mirrodin , the game of magic has been literred with tons of artifact cards that have just been begging to be used in an EDH setting and true enough there are lot of staples that have won games again and again. With Dack Faden you could now choose to steal that artifact and make that win condition your own. About to get beatdown by Blightsteel Colossus? Time to steal it. Memnarch beginning to annoy you by stealing your lands? Well Steal that too and start stealing other peoples stuff too. Yup. One stealing begets another stealing.Thanks Dack!

And now on to the ultimate ability of our Master Thief. You get an emblem(I wonder what it looks like) that says "whenever you cast a spell that one or more permanents, gain control of those permanents. Playing with blue and red you have spells that directly target creatures. For red you have burn spells that you could use to target the Bigger creatures without killing them. If an indestructible creature is threatening you at the point like Avacyn or Tajic. Well, a single Lightning Bolt would change their mind about you.They would join your ranks! Hexproof creatures would remain the bane here but then again things might already be too late when you are stealing permanents left and right. Imagine a shock imprinted on an Isochron Scepter , how many creatures would that steal right? or Aura cards latching on to opponents creatures and spiriting them away. And now that Journey Into Nyx cards have joined the pool of possible cards to use Polymorphous rush has suddenly gotten me excited. I mean not only do you target the meanest creature on the playing field , making one of your own creatures(or if you have more mana more creatures into a copy of that creature, thanks Strive mechanic) a replica of that awesome critter.In addition you also gain control of that creature you targeted netting you two big awesome creatures. Be careful with Legendary cards since one of them would blow up and just leave you with one creature. Creatures like Blightsteel Colossus makes me excited and now even if I am playing Blue/Red I can now own one.Heck , I'd own two!And since there aren't any known removal for emblems I could keep on acquiring things until I have everything on the board( insert maniacal laughter here).

Yup , Dack Fayden is welcome to planeswalk in my neck of the woods any time. So keep on playing. Keep on Acquiring.