Card Talk 16

Arni Metalbrow card art

Today is the sixteenth post in my Card Talk series.

Reminder how Card Talk works:

• I go to Scryfall and select 'Random Card'
• I present and blog about the card. I could discuss any aspect: the art, abilities, cost, set, impact on the game, and so on. Stream of consciousness.

Card Talk is a fun, uncurated way to look at Magic's cards, mechanics, history, art, sets, and so on. And of course it exposes some of my own preferences, biases, and memories of the game. 

Today's card is . . .

Farsight Mask

Hmmmm . . . Farsight Mask. An uncommon artifact from Mirrodin.

This card intrigues me; I don't recall seeing it before. It is still inexpensive, leading me to believe it isn't that powerful. Still, it seems good: whenever you take damage, you draw a card. And it is not limited to once per turn, either, so if (say) three creatures and one spell damage you on a given turn, you would draw four cards. That seems pretty tight (if you survive the damage, of course).

I suspect the two things that limit this card's utility are 1) cost (5 is pretty  high) and 2) the 'untapped' caveat. The latter seems strange to me, as nothing on the card itself requires tapping to use it. So it could only be tapped by another spell or ability. Looking across the Mirrodin set, there are a number of cards that tap other permanents, so this is one of those limitations that make more sense when you view the context in which it was printed.

Mirrodin was released in 2003. It was the second set (and first expansion) with the updated card frame. (I explore the history of card frames in this post.) Artifact frames got perhaps the biggest makeover.

The Mirrodin block (Mirrodin, Darksteel, Fifth Dawn) focused on artifacts; an astonishing 142 appeared in this first set; 46% of the overall card count. It also introduced a new subtype: equipment. Equipment is (effectively) creature enchantments that stay on the battlefield if the equipped creature is destroyed. You pay the equip cost (as a sorcery only) to equip it to another creature. Consider Bonesplitter, below, as an example.

I remember Mirrodin for two reasons:

1) I graduated college, started work full-time, and got back into Magic that year.

2) The Myr creature type. There were 13 in Mirrodin and many have followed since. I like the little guys.