Purity from Lorwyn - A Magic the Gathering (MTG) Card Review

by Phoenix Desertsong

The Lorwyn set of Magic the Gathering had many strange and unusual creatures to put into your deck. While not one that saw much Constructed play in its day,  Purity is quite an interesting card. My favorite parts of the card, actually, are its artwork and concept. The whole idea of an Elemental Elk Incarnation with wings is just super epic to me.

As a card, though, Purity is okay. Being a 6/6 flyer for 6 mana is certainly playable, but requiring 3 white as part of its casting cost limits its play-ability a bit, except in Commander where mana-fixing is much less of a problem that in a regular 60-card deck Constructed format.

Its abilities are kind of cool. As with the other Incarnations in Lorwyn, such as Guile (which is another one of my favorite Lorwyn creatures), whenever it would be put into a graveyard, it is shuffled back into its owner's deck instead. This includes being discarded from the top of the deck, as well, so mill strategies will be unable to finish the job with this card in your deck.

Also, Purity's other ability prevents you from spells or abilities dealing damage to you, allowing you to gain that much life instead. However, remember that damage is not the same as loss of life. Spells and Abilities that cause you to lose life but don't explicitly say damage are not helped by Purity's ability.

Purity is a bit of a situational card, best used in Commander play-groups where direct damage dealing is common. The Elemental Incarnation does see some play in Horde of Notions Elemental Tribal decks in particular. Otherwise, it's just a flavorful card that is outclassed by a lot of other things that would take its card slot in your deck.

Updated 3/1/2019

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