Dear Mask of Memory, 

<3

You are such a forgotten Magic card. My friend Hugo always compliments my Cubes. He always says I have a talent of giving old cardboard a home in this world. Making the useless cards relevant again. And he is totally right that that is one of the things I love to do most as a Cube designer. 

You almost won a Pro Tour. Almost. You came in 2nd at Pro Tour Amsterdam 2004, a limited Pro Tour where the top 8 played draft. You have even seen some fringe Modern and Legacy play. In Commander your playrate, according to EDHRec, isn’t bad: 1,5%. Compare that to the classic Umezawa’s Jitte’s playrate, 0,5%, you are actually doing very good. But Commander is a different ball game, a random black common like Black Mage’s Rod beats you there with a playrate of 1,6% and then I am not even talking about Lightning Greaves. 

And then there is Cube. I think Cube is THE place where you shine the brightest and always have done so. Cube is the place where a card like you overperform. You have been in my Peasant Cube since day one and I don’t think you will ever leave that Cube. I imagine it will be the same for many other Peasant Cubes out there. Unfortunately I can’t tell, because CubeCobra doesn’t provide data in the way EDHRec does. 

You were among the first batch of ever printed equipment. The designers have made quite some errors with equipments back in the day, trying to figure out this new type of Magic card they designed. I played Standard at my local FNM when Skullclamp was legal, I played every tournament I could find during Umezwa’s Jitte’s reign. But you, Mask of Memory were perfectly balanced. You provide something unique that not a lot of equipments do, still to this day. And I love those play patterns you offer. In a lower power level Cube environment, the card draw that you offer is absolutely bonkers. And pairing you with a flying, menace or even a shadow creature ensures a lot of triggers. That first trigger is below rate, but with the second trigger you run away with games. And I love it that Cube is your home, where you can shine, for people like my friend Hugo to discover you. 

With love, 

Hanjo