Pitch card
From MTG Salvation Wiki
|
A pitch card is a card that has an alternate cost of at least removing (or pitching) a card of the pitch card's respective color from the game. Pitch cards tend to appear in cycles, with four cycles of pitch cards having appeared in four different expansions. There is a cycle from Alliances, Mercadian Masques, Betrayers of Kamigawa, and Coldsnap. Time Spiral also featured a pitch card, Snapback.
[edit] Alliances pitch cycle
The five cards that constitute this cycle are:
All five saw some degree of play, but Force of Will is indubitably the most prominent of these, and is probably the most powerful pitch card. Its ability to counter a spell without needing any mana has made it a staple in Eternal formats, where first-turn wins are a reasonable threat. Force of Will and Contagion somewhat break the cycle as they additionally require 1 life to be paid.
[edit] Mercadian Masques pitch cycle
The five cards that constitute this cycle are:
Reverent Mantra and Vine Dryad both saw play while Mercadian Masques was Standard-legal, while Unmask and Misdirection still see some play in Eternal formats.
[edit] Betrayers of Kamigawa pitch cycle
The five cards that constitute this cycle are:
This cycle, aptly dubbed "Shoals" (as derived from their names), are pitch cards that have a dependant variable, X, where X can be mana spent to play the Shoals, hardcasted, or the converted mana cost of the card removed to play it. All cards in the cycle are Arcane Instants, cost XCC and depict a shoal of fish in the artwork
This cycle's cards have seen considerable Standard play, with Disrupting, Shining, Shining Shoal and Sickening Shoals seeing much tournament action. It is also notable that Blazing Shoal allowed players to kill on turn one in Standard (with a Mountain, a Raging Goblin, two Blazing Shoal, and two Myojin of Infinite Rage).
[edit] Coldsnap pitch cycle
The five cards that constitute this cycle are:
The cards that constitute this cycle are dubbed "super pitch cards", due to the alternate cost requiring the removal of two cards, rather than the typical one. A notable point of interest for this cycle is that Allosaurus Rider was the Coldsnap prerelease card.
