{"id":899,"date":"2017-11-18T17:58:41","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T17:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/playerexperience\/?p=899"},"modified":"2017-11-18T17:58:41","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T17:58:41","slug":"card-of-the-month-hostage-taker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/playerexperience\/2017\/11\/18\/card-of-the-month-hostage-taker\/","title":{"rendered":"Card of the Month – Hostage Taker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Written<\/a>

Written by Francesco Scialpi Level 2, Italy<\/p><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n

Have we met before?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s simply natural to compare this new card with<\/span> Spell Queller<\/a><\/span> which, by the way, \u00a0is now rotating out of Standard. Actually, there\u2019s a huge difference between them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spell Queller<\/span>, a white and blue creature, is very similar to a counter and therefore it is a tempo-oriented choice \u2013 we would love to see it in our hand as soon as possible, but it is far less useful in mid and late game.<\/span> Hostage Taker<\/a><\/span> trades white for black, it costs one more mana and it is a control-oriented choice that shines in late game. First of all,<\/span> Hostage Taker<\/span> exiles a permanent, not a spell; then, the more mana we have, the better this card is, since \u00a0we have the chance to immediately play the permanent we \u201cstole\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

As you probably know,<\/span> Hostage Taker<\/span> immediately received an <\/span>errata corrige<\/span><\/i>: its ability now targets “<\/span>another<\/b> target creature or artifact”. That means<\/span> Hostage Taker<\/span> can\u2019t target itself: otherwise, we could cast this creature and target it with its own triggered ability, forcing it to leave and immediately re-enter the battlefield: then we would be able to repeat this process as many times as desired.<\/span><\/p>\n

A loop is infinite only if neither player can make a different choice, in order to break it: the game would be a draw, but this is not the case. We could \u201cblink\u201d it <\/span>n <\/span><\/i>times and then choose a different target. Meanwhile, we may have gained <\/span>n <\/span><\/i>lifes with<\/span> Soul Warden<\/a><\/span>, \u00a0or dealt two times <\/span>n <\/span><\/i>damage with<\/span> Pandemonium<\/a><\/span>, and so on \u2013 and we get to choose how big <\/span>n <\/span><\/i>is. Too much for a single card, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s nice even without nearly-infinite combos.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s examine what happens when a<\/span> Hostage Taker<\/span> enters the battlefield and we choose a target. We can have various outcomes:<\/span><\/p>\n

1)<\/b> While the ability is still on the stack, our opponent destroys the<\/span> Hostage Taker<\/a><\/span>. Its ability will resolve, but it won\u2019t do anything at all.<\/span> The <\/span>Hostage Taker<\/span> left the battlefield even before the permanent was exiled, so it won\u2019t be exiled at all, not even for a moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

2)<\/b> The ability resolves and the target is exiled. While in the exile zone, the card is face-up and can be seen by every player: so if we target a face-down permanent (for example a morphed or manifested card) we would immediately discover its identity.<\/span><\/p>\n

After that, the active player gets priority. This way, if he or she is the <\/span>Hostage Taker<\/span>\u2019s controller, he can cast right now the exiled card, before our opponent has the chance to get rid of the<\/span> Hostage Taker<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

If, for any reason, the<\/span> Hostage Taker<\/span> entered the battlefield under the non-active player\u2019s control, it\u2019s still the active player who gets priority after the ability resolves: this means that he or she may destroy the creature before his opponent is able to cast the exiled card.<\/span><\/p>\n

Either way, if we want to cast the exiled card, we still need to consider the appropriate timing: we can cast a creature (or an artifact) without flash only during our main phase and only if the stack is empty.<\/span><\/p>\n