Dear Mulldrifter, 

<3

For me you should have been the benchmark of what a 5 mana creature in Magic should have been. You are peak Magic design for me, a perfect Magic card. These days I look at Quantum Riddler and it makes me sad how big the power creep has been. I think the only thing you still have up on Quantum Riddler is that you’ve won multiple Pro Tours and that you have been a Pauper staple since you’ve been printed. But other than that, time has caught up with you. 

Even the playpatterns. Back in 2008, playing Dutch National Qualifiers with my UW Reivilark deck, one of the best lines was to evoke you Mulldrifter and then use a Momentary Blink to keep you around and draw a lot of cards. A couple of weeks ago I was watching Koen de Vos cast Quantum Riddler for its warp cast and casting Daydream targeting it, keeping it around and drawing a whole bunch of cards. The same interaction for 2 mana less and a whole lot more power and toughness, how times have changed. 

What hasn’t changed is the way Cube designers talk about you. Cube designers always talk about ‘Baneslayers’and ‘Mulldrifters’ as certain types of cards. Because they could explain what they mean, or they could use the textbook example. Both you and Baneslayer are textbook examples for concepts Cube designers think about. And there are enough lower power level, or rarity restricted, or time/nostalgia based Cubes where the designers get to offer you to their drafters. I love it that in Cube time hasn’t caught up with you and I hope it never will. Whether as an actual game piece, or just a textbook example. 

With love, 

Hanjo