A Zombie lord that does more than just make the tribe bigger. Turning spare mana into another Zombie from the graveyard gives the deck something to do after the first wave has been dealt with.
Which Zombie do you most associate with this card?
One mana in, any colour out, and a card back on the way. It looks almost irrelevant on the battlefield, but that combination of mana fixing and replacing itself has earned it a place in plenty of combo and artifact decks.
Which deck do you associate it with the most?
The darker half of Invasion’s most obvious counterspell pairing. While Absorb buys you three life, Undermine takes three from your opponent, and it found a natural home as a four-of in Nether-Go.
Absorb or Undermine?
The five Primeval Dragons of Invasion, four copies of each in Japanese foil.
Invasion gave us Magic’s first multicolored foils, and it is hard to think of a better cycle to represent them. Crosis, Darigaaz, Dromar, Rith and Treva are a clear echo of the five Elder Dragons from Legends: five legendary three-color Dragons using exactly the same five color combinations, reimagined for a new era of Magic.
Twenty cards together, and still one of my favorite cycles from the Old Frame era.
Which cycle do you prefer: the Elder Dragons from Legends or the Primevals from Invasion?
Treva never made much impact in competitive Magic, but players clearly liked it: in Wizards’ Invasion “godbook” study, it ranked sixth among the set’s favorite cards for gameplay, ahead of Darigaaz and Crosis.
What did you think of Treva when Invasion came out?
Unlike most of the Primeval Dragons, Rith had a real moment in competitive Magic as a top-end threat in Fires. Brian Kibler famously enchanted it with Armadillo Cloak at Pro Tour Chicago 2000, helping cement his nickname, “The Dragonmaster.”
Which Primeval Dragon has the best tournament story?
Barrin wanted his daughter to become a wizard, but Hanna preferred magical objects and joined the Weatherlight as its navigator and engineer. Her ability could hardly fit her better, bringing lost artifacts and enchantments back from the graveyard.
Which member of the Weatherlight crew got the best card?
Not a great card, but one that did see some play as a finisher in Standard decks such as Nether-Go. Connecting once could clear away a whole color of creatures, but getting a six-mana Dragon to that point was the difficult part.
Which of the five Primeval Dragons saw the most serious Constructed play?
The card is far less impressive than the character behind it. Darigaaz helped bring back the other Primeval Dragons during the Phyrexian invasion, then threw himself into a volcano to break their power after realizing what he had unleashed.
Which major Old Frame character was most let down by their card?
One of Invasion’s five Primeval Dragons. Crosis lives up to “the Purger”: connect once, choose the right color, and a large part of your opponent’s hand can disappear.
Which of the five Primeval Dragons is your favorite?
The Coalition brought the peoples of Dominaria together against the Phyrexian invasion, and the card turns that idea into an alternate win condition. Control all five basic land types and a five-color creature, then spend eight mana on a card that is still much better in the story than in a deck.
Have you ever actually won with it?
Every activation can find any legendary card in your deck, from Gaea’s Cradle and Yavimaya Hollow to the exact creature, artifact, or enchantment the game calls for.
What is your favorite Sisay target?
A hard counter that also buys a little time. Three life may not look like much, but in a control deck it can be the difference between stabilizing and dying before the next draw step.
Which format do you associate Absorb with?
A lord that does more than make your Elves bigger. Forestwalk can turn a stalled board into an unblockable attack whenever the opponent controls a Forest.
How often has Forestwalk been the relevant line of text?
In Balancing Tings, this was never just an eight-mana reset. You could exile Anurid Brushhopper before casting it, or follow the destruction with a huge Terravore and take over an empty battlefield.
How did you like to break the symmetry?
Following Reya, here is another Angel from Invasion, but a much stranger one: black, protected from white, and able to return a blue or red creature from your graveyard to your hand.
Where does Crypt Angel rank among Old Frame Angel artworks?
Following Avatar of Woe, here is another classic target from the early days of Reanimator. A legendary Angel with tremendous artwork, and one of my favorite Angels in all of Magic.
What is your favorite Old Frame Angel?
It might be the most repeated question in Commander: “Do you pay the 1?” Every spell becomes a small decision, and enough small decisions eventually turn into a full grip of cards.
Do you pay the 1?
It never stays on the table for long, but it usually does not need to. In artifact prison decks, a few turns of tapping permanents can be enough to make the opponent’s early game collapse.
Few cards make “untap, upkeep” feel this bad.
The card never really lived up to the character. Volrath is far more remembered through Volrath’s Stronghold, but he remains one of the defining villains of the Weatherlight Saga.
Which Volrath card do you like most?