Legion's Initiative
General forum
Posted on April 18, 2013, 5:50 a.m. by ShadowLand
Unless this is a false spoiler, or I am just reading it wrong, this is kind of a useless card. The exact text from the card reads:
Legion's Initiative Enchantment R,W
Red creatures you control get +1/+0
White Creatures you control get +0/+1
R,W - Exile Legion's Initiative: Exile all creatures you control. At the beginning of the next combat, return those cards to the battlefield under their owner's control and those creatures gain haste until end of turn.
Okay. So my question would be, (and I may just have been playing mana abilities wrong this whole time) if I can't activate the mana ability on this during my opponents turn, this card is virtually useless, as haste doesn't help me during my opponents turn. And if I activate it during my turn, the next combat would be on my opponents turn. So am I misunderstanding or is this card not as good as what I thought?
ShadowLand says... #3
Okay, that clears some things up and makes total sense on how you'd use it. It could very well be used like a Moonmist that works on all creatures instead of just werewolves and wolves.
April 18, 2013 6:31 a.m.
Pyrokineticrage says... #4
Its better than moonmist for a 4CMC upkeep you creatures are not on the field except during combat and can even be emergency evacuated out during combat. Makes your field Immune to board wipes, Creature hate, and direct damage to creatures its also damn near impossible to remove since you can just React to someone trying to remove it by activating its ability.
April 18, 2013 6:41 a.m.
Couple of things:
When you activate the ability, Legion's Initiative gets exiled. This means that you can only use it's ability once, as it does not return from exile along with the creatures.
It's ability is an activated ability, not a mana ability. For the longest time I thought that any ability that ~costs~ mana was a mana ability, but I have come to learn that a mana ability is an ability that adds mana to your mana pool, Llanowar Elves for example. It may seem like nitpicking, but as you get into higher levels of play, the distinction becomes more important.
April 18, 2013 6:41 a.m.
ShadowLand says... #6
I follow, also I didn't look closer and realize that the ability was a one time thing. Good points. Also, thanks for clearing that up as well.
April 18, 2013 6:48 a.m.
Pyrokineticrage says... #7
That is a very Important Colon, I read it as a semi-colon and that makes all the difference.
April 18, 2013 6:50 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #8
The ability is an instant, so you can activate it during your opponents turn.
And the next combat phase, would be your own if using it during your pre-combat main-phase.
You can use this, to protect yourself from a field-wipe, circumvent being tapped or detained, give haste to a creature you just played, to mass ghost block.
It has uses, but a simple destroy target enchantment spell is going to bone you, as it forces you to use the ability right there and then, or forever go without.
I'm fond of this card for a flicker deck, you know the type, i play thragtusk, then flik and flick and flick till i win.
April 18, 2013 7:04 a.m.
MagnorCriol says... #9
I'm curious - why did you think you couldn't activate it on your opponent's turn? Even if it WAS a mana ability, there's nothing stopping you from activating it on someone else's turn.
Not trying to call you dumb or anything, it just seems worth bringing that up, to help fix a misconception if it's there.
April 18, 2013 11:01 a.m.
So it comes back into play with the creatures too?? It isnt a one time use??
April 18, 2013 1:25 p.m.
SwiftDeath says... #11
no it is a one time use. it exiles itself as part of the cost to activate the ability. the ability only returns that which was exiled with the ability, not the cost, so the initiative will remain exiled.
April 18, 2013 3:48 p.m.
ShadowLand says... #12
@ MagnorCriol I was just always under the assumption that a permanents' activated abilities could only be activated on your turn as a sorcery. But now that I think about it, there are specific cards that tell you that they can only be activated as a sorcery, which would mean that is not the norm. So you may be right about the dumb thing.
April 18, 2013 5:06 p.m.
MagnorCriol says... #13
@HouseDemir86 - Heh. That's not dumb, just misinformed. But that's why I brought it up - seemed worth making sure you understood that aspect.
You're absolutely correct in your analysis there, incidentally. Abilities can be activated whenever you want to activate them (and can pay for them), unless they specifically say otherwise.
April 18, 2013 5:37 p.m.
ShadowLand says... #14
I'm telling you, I have been playing this game for almost 2 years now and I still learn things that I feel like I should have known the first 10 times I played.
So a Keyrune can become a creature at any time, whether your turn or not as long as you have the mana to make it so, right? Because that would have totally changed the way I played Keyrunes
April 18, 2013 6:14 p.m.
It has good synergy with Gideon, Champion of Justice . You exile all your guys, pop Gideon's ult, and all your dudes come back with haste. Could be pretty brutal. I might have to make a deck around this.
April 19, 2013 2:26 a.m.
ShadowLand says... #18
Dude, that is an excellent observation. A very deckworthy idea
April 19, 2013 3:03 a.m.
Yes Terminus does work as well and is easier to pull off than Gideon's ult but also leaves your opponent with resources to recover with a board wipe or something and you already used your Initiative for the Terminus so unless you can survive a board wipe through other means Gideon's ult would be better. That is, if you can pull it off.
Pyrokineticrage says... #2
You can Activate any Ability at Instant speed. So this card is best used if you block with everything activate it Stripping all the attackers of their damage and then attack on your turn activate it again. It basically makes all of your creatures permanently untargettable as long as you have 2 mana free.. Better than any other protection card i have seen.
April 18, 2013 6:25 a.m.