Comments on: 2011 Core Set Review – Black

By: Joey Pasco

Joey Pasco — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:38:56 +0000

Hey hey hey now, don't generalize about the Royal Assassin thing. It was only HALF of Yo! MTG Taps that said Royal Assassin was a good sideboard card. Oh yeah, and that guy who top 8'd GPDC.

By: Kelly Reid

Kelly Reid — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:35:30 +0000

Not quite; Phylactery is the Greek term for the Hebrew word Tefillin. Those are basically little wooden boxes containing Torah fragments (holy texts basically). It's not the shawl, its strapped to your face/arms by leather straps. Anyway, in "fantasy literature" (that's Wikipedia's verbiage not mine), the phylactery is any object a lich binds its soul to. Note the flavor text on Brittle Effigy, referring to binding someone else's soul to the statue. Fantasy literature is not my strong suit, but I try to stay informed.

By: goldenj

goldenj — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:58:52 +0000

A phylactery is actually the shawl that the Lich is wearing. For religous uses (like in Judaism) often scripture is written into the shawl or holy (lich version unholy) items are attached.

By: mtgveteran

mtgveteran — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 23:20:01 +0000

Well royal assassin was a good sideboard card against mythic until they realized that Linvala is tech.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:28:31 +0000

Nice review. The Lich seems neat in that artifacts are hard to kill as is (so it will probably eat a condemn or path anyway!), but if people do try a 2 for 1 play on it by pulsing a chalice or crystal ball then that is one less answer to a major later (persecutor, grave titan etc)