Amidst all the flashy rares and legendary creatures revealed for MTG Marvel Super Heroes, I would not be surprised if this innocuous red common passed you by. Hawkeye’s Bow is worth paying attention to, however, because this artifact goes infinite at the drop of a hat.
Hawkeye’s Bow is a very cheap one mana equipment which gives a creature a minor buff and reach. So far, that seems like last-pick draft chaff, but where the card gets more interesting is its next effect.
When a creature equipped with Hawkeye’s Bow is tapped, it deals 1 damage to each opponent. You might think that sounds rife for abuse, and you’d be correct. All you need is a creature that taps to untap a creature, like Seeker of Skybreak or Aphetto Alchemist, and you’ve immediately unlocked infinite damage. Just equip your untapper with Hawkeye’s Bow, tap them targeting themself to ping everyone and immediately untap again, and repeat.
I can see this combo being quite aggravating in Commander. Since Hawkeye’s Bow is so innocuous, you could easily miss its potential if the game is moving fast. The amount of mana involved here is very low, too, so if a player gets a lucky hand they could potentially end the game on turn three.
But what makes this infinite combo even more dastardly is that it works in Pauper. Hawkeye’s Bow and Seeker of Skybreak are both commons, so this four-mana win condition is perfectly legal in that eternal format.
For now that is. To be honest, I think something probably ought to be done about this. And while I’m loath to keep a UB card around while scrapping a card from Magic’s own IP, it arguably does just make more sense to put the Seeker on the MTG banlist than the new equipment. Being able to repeatedly tap and untap yourself seems like it’s only going to have more combo potential as new cards are announced.
Luckily, Wizards of the Coast is well aware of the combo. Gavin Verhey made a video about it, in fact, where he explained why the Pauper powers-that-be are not pre-banning the combo.
Basically, what it boils down to is they want to make sure it’s a serious problem before they act. Verhey points out that it’s a creature based combo, and Pauper has plenty of powerful and efficient creature removal options.
That said, he is wary of the card, saying: “It has all the hallmarks of something that’s going to be a problem.”
“It’s fast, it’s easy to slot into any deck, and it can be pretty resilient with protection,” he adds.
There’s a new banlist announcement coming up on June 30, so WotC will be watching this card like a hawk(eye), to see if it needs to be barred.
Source: Wargamer
