Slag Fiend from New Phyrexia - A Magic the Gathering (MTG) Card Review

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

 Slag Fiend has a really cool concept. For one mana, he can be quite a large creature. The trouble is, he’s really only good later in the game. For a one mana creature, this is a bit bizarre.  Admittedly, he’s not a bad card.  When New Phyrexia was being drafted, this was a pretty strong pick. Notice that his power and toughness consider all graveyards.  He could be a big body in a format full of cheap artifacts that were played in every deck. It seems that his original design was to counter all of the artifact-heavy decks of the day.
 
Unfortunately, outside of draft and Scars of Mirrodin block Limited formats, Slag Fiend  really never found a permanent home. There were some decks in the New Phyrexia era that used him as part of a bigger strategy built around the sorcery Scrapyard Salvo. Today, he's just a bulk rare that doesn't really fit into any larger strategies. But because of his raw power, you never know if he'll pop up again some day!

---