Everflowing Chalice > Abyssal Persecutor

by Bill Stark | posted at 2010-01-21 03:35:00
tagged: MTG, Magic, Magic the Gathering, Worldwake, Prerelease, Spoiler, Preview, Bill Stark, Mike Flores, Abyssal Persecutor, WWK, Everflowing Chalice

Earlier this week TheStarkingtonPost.com brought you news of Abyssal Persecutor. The Twitterverse was positively abuzz about the shiny new 6/6 with the big time rules text. Here's a reminder of what the card is:

It's certainly a flashy card, and a 6/6 body with evasion on a four-mana body is above par. But with prices on the card already pushing $20, they hype seems a bit misplaced. After all, 2BB creatures with solid stats have frequently been disappointments in the past. Two recent examples include Grinning Demon and Plague Sliver. Both had surprisingly large stats (6/6 for 2BB and 5/5 for 2BB, respectively). Both saw minimal tournament play despite their stats. Is Abyssal Persecutor going to be the exception? $20/a piece is an expensive proposition to figure it out.

Instead, Mike Flores got one of the most unassumingly powerful cards we've seen so far to preview for this week's "Top Decks" on DailyMTG.com:

(Read Mike's spoiler on DailyMTG.com here.)

I'll grant that this card isn't overly exciting at first glance. A functional Signet for colorless mana? BORING. But Everflowing Chalice is positively full of opportunity. When I built Skred Red for States a few seasons ago, Mind Stone was a key element of the deck. The reason was that you needed to accelerate yourself to 5 mana in order to cast cards like Stuffy Doll. As a bonus, your "Signet" could be cashed in at a later date for a free card giving your high mana count some functionality when you had essentially infinite mana. You could save it to pop a Molten Disaster or other X-spell, or you could cash it in for a resource in the short term.

Everflowing Chalice is in a similar boat. Play it early to accelerate your mana to five (for, say, Siege-Gang Commander or Chandra Nalaar), or cast it in the late game for a monstrous boost in your mana the following turn. What could you possibly cast with that mana? Any spell with an "X" in its casting cost for starters.

My advice is this: no two-mana artifact that could so painlessly accelerate you has ever failed to see play be they Medallions, Talismans, Signets, Mind Stones, Fellwar Stones, Diamonds, or other. Meanwhile, numerous fatties for four mana with calmer drawbacks than Abyssal Persecutor have failed to see any play at all. Accordingly, keep an eye out on Everflowing Chalice to be a sleeper hit from Worldwake, and if someone will pony up $20 for your Abyssal Persecutor, ship and sign up for another Sealed flight.

What do you think? Will Everflowing Chalice see more play than Abyssal Persecutor? Share your opinion using the forum link below.

Discuss this article in our forums.

Follow us @starkpo.

Email the author.

Become a fan.