The latest MTG banlist update just dropped, and while the color blue was banned in Brawl, and a hugely impactful card was taken out from Legacy, another potential ban that fans were anticipating did not arrive, leaving a potentially busted combo alive and well in the Legacy format.
That card is The Fantasticar, a brand new Marvel Super Heroes card that has an incredible Storm-ish effect which, with the right opening hand, lets you deal a whopping 16 damage on the very first turn.
If you cast four non-creature spells in a turn, you can turn the Fantasticar into four flying 4/4 constructs with haste, which can swing in immediately for massive damage. In a lower power format, that might not be so easy to pull off, but in Legacy it’s perfectly possible to do this on turn one with the right opening hand.
Fantasticar costs three mana, so you can cast it right away with Dark Ritual.Then, all you need is two zero cost artifacts like Mishra’s Bauble, Lotus Petal, or Mox Opal, and off you go. Or you can simply use Ancient Tomb and one of your artifacts to cast the Fantasticar.
While it doesn’t destroy your opponent on the spot, it does put them in a position that is very hard to come back from. And because you don’t have to have Fantasticar on the board to start stacking up your ‘Storm’ count, it just needs to be on the field to see your fourth non-creature spell, the combo is super flexible and easy to play. It works fantastically in Affinity decks that were already playing a bunch of free artifacts, and in Doomsday decks that are looking to assemble a combo.
in Vintage, where you have fast mana lands like Mishra’s Workshop, it’s even deadlier and more trivial to set up.
While Wizards of the Coast chose not to ban the card on Monday, it was at least on its radar. The June 29 B&R article contains a couple of paragraphs about the card, which don’t amount to much honestly, except that WotC is aware it could be a problem in Vintage, and is prepared to take action.
Since Marvel Super Heroes came out on June 26, we’ve seen Fantasticar decks go 5-0 in a bunch of Vintage and Legacy Leagues, and take first place in a Legacy Challenge. It’s immediately very, very strong, but only time will tell if players can find answers for the Fantasticar decks, or if it’ll just get stronger as the strategy becomes optimized.
While it feels like a risky move leaving it unbanned, WotC does try to avoid jumping the gun in these high-powered formats, and we only have to wait until August for the next B&R update.
Source: Wargamer
