Ruin of Seffala – Nostalgia and Artifacts

One of the themes is this set has been nostalgia: trying to make a set from the bits and pieces of memories from the early days of Magic when I was in middle school. I previously introduced walls as being a nostalgic item for me, but now here are a few Seffala-flavored takes on specific cards I remember.

Some of my favorite cards, if only for nostalgic reasons.

Hunger is a black take on the blue card Thirst from Mirage. However, instead of having an Upkeep cost like Thirst, Hunger requires the creature's controller to pay 2 life to untap the creature. Perhaps for a few turns, this may not be a big deal, but soon enough the opponent will have to let that creature remain tapped.

Enveloping Grass is a play on Elephant Grass from Visions. It's similar, though it only knocks out one creature at a time, and doesn't have Cumulative Upkeep or the black-hosing aspect.

Vermivorous Plant is a take on Carnivorous Plant from Fourth Edition. Carnivorous plant itself is just a vanilla 4/5, but it is the earliest memory I have of purposefully buying an individual card, rather than a pack, so it is vivid in my memory. Of course, one's memory plays tricks sometimes, since my memory is of it being a 6/3 or a 3/6. With Vermivorous plant, for the sake of not having yet another vanilla creature, I made it useful with black's Parasite theme, and works as a nice Voltron target.

Vile Growth is a take on Wild Growth from all the way back in Alpha, though I probably knew it myself from Fourth Edition. I liked the idea of turning the card into a Parasite, but is otherwise quite similar. Also, like Homesick Herbalist is helpful to Simic, Vile Growth is helpful to Golgari.

My memories of artifacts from back in the day were that they were rare and powerful. The first time I saw one, I was amazed that it was colorless. I believe a friend must have shown me an artifact like Glasses of Urza or Ankh of Mishra, because my memory of artifacts is that they were small objects with what felt like simple but wild abilities. These are my takes on trying to capture the feeling I had back then upon looking at my first artifact. As such, each of these are rare, and these are all of the artifacts in the set, apart from the one bear as previously shown.

Drover's Broomstick and Crown of Horns are fairly simple equipments, as far as they go. Mortar and Pestle is the name of the card I swore I saw for the first time, or something like it (though I cannot say what the real card was I first viewed). Being a fan of modal spells and abilities, I like that you can use this as ramp or as -1/-1 counter hate, which is certainly useful for all colors but green (since green can do both of those things already).

Strange Cocktail is a fun one, because its abilities change based on what colors you are playing. You are limited in its effect to what your colors are already capable of, but its versatility still means it like goes in every deck.

Porcelain Icon is another card that pushes closer to the style of what I used to believe an artifact was and did. I also like the versatility of this card: you can give a -1/-1 counter to every creature on an opponent's board (punishing go-wide strategies), or you can bulk up and remove a big threat (supposing there are a few more creatures on the opponent's board that you don't care about).