1.3 - Insert Foot In Mouth Explained by Ming the Merciless. Dark Ritual costs one black mana to cast, and gives you three black mana in return. This card is very powerful because it can let you cast a lot of high-cost spells very early in a game, before you have many lands on the board. But because of that power, it is now no longer part of the Standard card set, the list of cards that are acceptible in tournament play. Before it dissappeared, however, it was possible to use Ritual as Mr. Budde does in today's comic, to cast large scary black creatures on the first turn. Speaking of which... The Phyrexian Scuta is a black creature, a 3/3 for four mana. Not too impressive, but not too shabby either. That alone makes the Scuta a decent card, but there's a catch. The catch is that he has something called a 'kicker' cost. This means that when he comes into play, his caster can choose to pay the kicker cost (in addition to the four-mana casting cost), which causes a special ability which is written on the card. Phyrexian Scuta's kicker cost is paying 3 life (i.e. you lose three life if you choose to play the kicker cost). The trade-off is that instead of coming into play as a measly 3/3, he gets two +1/+1 counters, which makes him a 5/5. For four mana, this is an INCREDIBLE deal. Until the loss of Dark Ritual from Standard, it was possible to get this beast in play on the first turn. There is very little that an opponent can do to stop a 5/5 that comes out so early in a game. In other words, Phyrexian Scuta is an EXTREMELY powerful card, end of story. Make sense now? Go back to this comic. Legal Stuff Magic: The Gathering and all related trademarks and products mentioned belong to Wizards of the Coast. Any other trademarks and products mentioned are the property of the companies that produce them. Any card art is copyrighted by the artists and Wizards of the Coast. The use of these trademarks, products, and cards should not be construed as a challenge to those rights. All other content is © Copyright 2002 Burnham/Dominguez/Wacker/Yarrow. Contact Us Art: Bryan Yarrow (aftershock@tenchiclub.com) Scripts: Cal Wacker (reverend16@excite.com) Cooking: Andrew "Mingy" Dominguez (andominguez@fordham.edu) Website: Ted Burnham (tburnham@abacus.bates.edu) Come chat in the FlopJocks IRC Channel at irc.netfrag.com #flopjocks