ASK THE JUDGE 06/03/2005: Feature Friday

My Favorite Soldiers

I had intended on having an article on my favorite Magical Soldiers ready in honor of Memorial Day, but I've been sadly under the weather since just after the prerelease. I brought home a nasty cold (no, Timmy, don't cover up when you sneeze; if you do, you can't deliver your rhinovirus payload), and it's been with me ever since.

The Gatherer reference brings up 249 creatures with the type "Soldier," so there's quite a bit to choose from, especially when you add to that any creature with a military rank. My favorites are a balance between flavor and function, style and substance. Naturally, I'm going to lean toward those that do well in my favorite format, EDH. Others, I like because they're just silly....

...such as Kjeldoran Skycaptain. How can you go wrong with Flying, Banding, and First Strike? Sure, it's a 5-cost 2/2, but look at all the abilities! Banding!!!

Next up on the hit parade is Hidden Guerrillas. Ever since back in the day I've been a fan of the Hidden and Opal dudes, and the Guerillas are at the top of the list. Especially in multiplayer formats, there will always be someone playing Artifacts, and a 5/3 guy for 1 is pretty special. Remember that despite what is written on the card, it triggers when an opponent plays an artifact spell. There's no such thing (any more) as "successfully cast." And you should be glad that the Interrupt window has closed. Note that artifact lands are not spells, so they won't trigger the Guerrillas.

Moving into the officer core, we find the emiently playable Major Teroh. The good Major is nice because the ability removes all black creatures from the game, getting you around nasty untargetability and regeneration issues. Teroh doesn't care what color creatures are until resolution of the ability; if they're black at that time, they're gone.

A Bird Soldier associate of Major Teroh's is Commander Eesha. Protection from Creatures is a great ability in creature-heavy formats like EDH. Having it on a Flying creature is even better, since you can protect yourself from the biggest and fattest (unless they have Trample).

A somewhat bland but eminently useful Soldier is Seasoned Marshal. When it attacks, you can tap a creature. Since the ability triggers before blockers are declared, you can get an annoying blocker out of the way.

I'm a big fan of fantasy literature, such as the works of George RR Martin (woo hoo! The fourth book is done!) and Robert Jordan, so I find Reborn Hero full of interesting flavor. Unfortunately, his ability will only trigger if you have Threshold. Note that if you have seven or more cards in your graveyard when his ability triggers but less than seven when the ability resolves, then you can still play the WW to bring him back.

I'm also a big fan of combat tricks, the more clever the better. General Jarkeld is lots cooler than, say, Giant Growth. It's a card that will likely make your opponents think whenever they either attack or block. It can limit the number of dudes they attack with, or give them a good reason to not block (which is always good for you).

Soltari Guerrillas gives you much opportunity for sabotage. It has Shadow, so it's unlikely to be blocked. If you want to start wiping out your opponent's team instead of your opponent, you can do so, for an activation cost of 0. Be careful, though, if your opponent has damage prevention (like a CoP: Red or somesuch). You activating the Guerrillas' ability and your opponent activating his CoP: Red sets up two replacement effects, both of which want to replace the damage being done to your opponent. Since he's the affected player, he gets to choose which replacement effect applies.

Speaking of replacement effects, we have the Nomads en-Kor and band of brothers, the best being the Spirit, since it flies (or maybe the Shaman en-Kor, if you can combine it with something like Inviolability). You all already know of crazy en-Kor combos with Daru Spiritualist and Starlit Sanctum, but what I like about the en-Kors is the ability to spread the love and mess with the combat math. Or redirect it all to Mogg Maniac.

My favorite soldier is definitely Captain Sisay. She's tough, she runs her own ship, and she orders around the Legendary stuff like nobody's business. I'm happy that she's in my colors, because if she lives a few turns, I can put a good deal of my library into my hand rather quickly, especially when assisted by Minamo, School at Water's Edge.

Those are my favorites; if you have a soldier that you really like, let us know about it and why in the forums. See you next week.

PS-I know I'm a few days late, but I want to take the opportunity to thank the men and women of our Armed Forces, my former comrades in arms, for what they do on a daily basis. Maintaining peace around the globe isn't an easy business. If you see or know someone that serves or has served, let them know that you too appreciate what they do.