Welcome back to the Mana Box

Take a dive into the history of Magic cards!

Card from the Box*

*the ManaBox

Magic: the Gathering has around about 30,000 unique cards in its database. Many of those cards are bad. Most of them are fine. A few of them are good. And then there is the rare card that perfectly fills the niche in your beloved janky combo. In this series, I will click the “Random Card” button on ManaBox, and we will hope to find such a card, come with me on our journey through 30 years of Magic history...

This card is from Invasion, which released in October 2000. This Noble* Cat had to wait eight months to see Shrek in theatres. The denizens of Dominaria had known about Phyrexians for six years**, but this time a portal had opened to their plane. Finally, the Phyrexians could invade Dominaria.

 

You might think: “gosh, this card doesn’t seem very good. And it’s a rare?!? I bet it never saw any play at all.” And if you thought that, you’d be wrong! It top-8’ed a Standard tournament once, at the German Nationals in 2001! The Red Zone deck came in second place.

 And it top-8’ed Limited during Pro Tour Barcelona in 2001.

It even got to watch Shrek when it got back to the US after its Big Euro Trip.

I bet you feel silly now. It saw some constructed play, once.

 

Imagine, if you will, facing down this Cat on the field, your opponent has up exactly four mana: do you block with your silly little 3/3 that only has regular strike?

It will die regardless, but maybe the cat will remain unscathed. May not, though, maybe your opponent is bluffing, and they’ve left open just enough mana to cast a spell in the second main phase (at the time it would’ve been called the “Post combat main phase” but we’ve moved on from that silliness). What an agonising decision you’ve got to make. In the end, you don’t block and then your opponent slams down a Flametongue Kavu and kills your 3/3 anyway! That would be terrible.

Anyway.

The art is classic Old Magic art, and Matt Cavotta has painted a fair few classic arts. If you think the creepy Jace-y Fact or Fiction art is a fantastic representation of what the card actually does, thank Matt Cavotta. If you appreciate the art of Jaya Ballard, thank Matt Cavotta. If you you find Yavimya Elder comforting for more than just his ability to ramp you and replace himself, thank Matt Cavotta.

He is a truly fantastic artist with incredible range.

As far as the flavour of this card goes, it’s... fine. It’s a wild cat fighting against  weird mechanical invaders. It only has first strike sometimes, because cats can only have a small burst of incredible speed before they get tired. They don’t have enough stamina to just have first strike all the time.

 

*Even though it is called Noble Panther, its creature type has not been erratad to “Noble,” much to the consternation of anyone trying to build a Noble kindred deck.

** Phyrxians first appeared all the way back in Antiquities, in 1994. They are Magic’s oldest villain.