The Pyre
The fire sparked to life, but there was no warmth. Cold, blue flames licked at the pyre, casting dancing shadows on the unnatural stone outcroppings. The fire spit and sputtered, but there was no sound. A thick, gray smoke funneled through the stones like a chimney, but there was no smell. There was no life here, only death.
The man rubbed his hands before the blaze, an instinct from a time long forgotten. He felt nothing. The others stood stiff and silent, as if frozen, staring at the unearthly flames with dead eyes. The flames climbed higher as they watched, blanketing the bodies in a blue hue. They were not burnt, but consumed, and with a brilliant flash that lit they heavens, they were gone. With that, the man turned, took up his axe, and stalked from the fire. No one is truly gone until they are forgotten. And no one is forgotten while the battle hymns sing.
His path was clear, so he did not hesitate. As he walked, his boots sunk into the fresh snow, leaving a trail of footprints that emanated an eerie blue glow. He never looked back; he knew the other's would follow. They were all dead, but the war wasn't over, it was just getting started.
The Winter War,
Mythgard's second expansion, The Winter War, is nearing release and I have a spoiler to share! Today's card is a common, blue enchantment that might be easy to overlook, but holds hidden power. Only three other cards have a similar effect and they all belong in another colour. This card does it better, cheaper, and with more cards to support it. Let's take a look at our new card, Arctic Pyre:
Arctic Pyre
As you can see, the enchantment creates a minion, an effect previously only seen on the yellow enchantments Fertile Campus. Serpent Den, and Goliath's Web. What makes Arctic Pyre stand out is that it's Frozen Dreng trades with many minions of a similar cost, especially if Arctic Pyre has been forged.
Where Arctic Pyre really shines is with Rainbow's End. Aggressive blue decks can up their enchantment count to try and generate some free draws, while also increasing their access to minions.
Some control decks already rely on the manaless drawing power of Rainbow by play upwards of twenty enchantments. They can now push this even further, or at the very least increase the quality of their enchantments. The shortcoming of this strategy was always the ability to contest the board early, but Frozen Dreng helps to shore that weakness.
Blue is also the colour of Singing Stone, Earthslide, and Storm Seer making a heavy blue enchantment deck an enticing possibility.
Ramp with Rainbow
The last, often-overlooked importance of Rainbow's End is the ability to replace enchantments to recover mana. There are all kinds of cool tricks that can be done with this, but one of the most powerful is the ability to play cards ahead of curve. Often times you are giving up some long-term value for an immediate gain, but in the case of Arctic Pyre, you've already gotten a Dreng out of it. I'm sure we are going to see some plays like this: Turn 1: Play Singing Stone
Turn 2: Play Arctic Pyre Turn 3: Cairnhenge replaces Arctic Pyre Play Bragi, Kara, or Svinn
Your thoughts?
There are lots of opportunities for Arctic Pyre to shine and I'm excited to see what player's come up with. My first thought upon seeing an enchantment that generated Ephemeral minions was immediately Root of the World. What are you going to burn with your Arctic Pyres?
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