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by Jonathan Evans
Urza's Universe Hey there loyal readers, it's me, Urza! I know, I know, you're mad because I couldn't get a Universe column in last month, but believe me, I was busy! I did make up for it this month, however, with this column, a review of Chron X, and the letters section. So you can't scream at me this month! Nyah nyah! Anyway, I thought I'd try a new approach at the column this month. I thought hard and then harder, and eventually came up with a great idea: A comedy routine! Yes, comedy will get my articles across much better! So here goes... Hey hey hey! I just got back from Dominaria and boy, am I tapped out! (Pause for laughter.) I went to visit my friend on Terisiare, who's an archaeologist studying the Brothers' War. You know, the one between Mishra and Urza. Anyway, he should come over to my house. My brother's ready to kill me! (Pause.) Oh, the things I've done to my brother... he got mad at me because I Fireballed his Shivan Dragon. He was right to get mad, too. I should have Disintegrated it! (Pause.) So, as I was saying, I... huh? What's this? I just got a memo from my Editor-in-Chief.
Oh well. I guess it's time to actually write about Banding... Banding is a special ability on creatures that lets them form into bands, or groups. A band gets special abilities when attacking or blocking, which I will explain later. Now, if you have a creature with Banding, such as a Benalish Hero (1/1 Banding), what can you band it with? Happily, anything you want, even if the other creature doesn't have Banding itself. But say you wanted to band more than two creatures? Then what are the rules? To make this easier, let's think of a creature with Banding as a creature with a rope. When it bands to another creature, it's tying the rope around the new creature. Does the new creature need a rope? Of course not. One rope with tie the two creatures together. Now say you want to band a third creature here. Either the second creature or this new one needs Banding, and therefore a rope, to join, because they need one extra rope to tie it to the existing band, and the first only has one rope. As an example, let's take these four creatures: Benalish Hero, Mesa Pegasus (1/1 Flying, Banding), Pikemen (1/1 First Strike), and Shield Bearer (0/3 Banding). Can all of those band? Yes, and here's why: Count the number of ropes here. Three of the creatures have Banding, and a rope because of it. So the Benalish Hero ties her rope around the Pegasus, the Pegasus ties its rope around the Shield Bearer, while he ties his rope around the Pikemen. Since the Pikemen does not have Banding, you can't put another creature in here. Unless, of course, the creature you wanted to include also had Banding. Get that so far? Good, so now we can go on to what Banding actually does. I'll cover the blocking part of it before attacking. Here we go... Blocking is hard without non-banding creatures. It means that your opponent has found a weakness in your defense, and is attempting to get past it to you. Of course, you can always block a large creature with a couple of yours. When you do this without Banding, what happens? Let's see... Oh no! Your opponent is attacking you with a 4/4! All you have is a 2/2, and two 1/1's. Instead of blocking with just one of your creatures, leaving the 4/4 alive and your one creature dead, you can block with everything. The power of your creatures combines and deals 4 damage to the 4/4, enough to kill it. But the opponent, in this position, chooses where the 4 damage goes. Obviously, he'll deal one to each of the 1/1's, and two to the 2/2, killing all of your creatures. But what happens if you block with a 2/4, and the two 1/1's? Your opponent, at this point, can deal 4 damage to your 2/4, leaving your 1/1's alive and, as always, his 4/4 dead. This all changes with Banding... Let's say that the 1/1's were both Benalish Heroes, and the 2/4 was a Giant Spider (Can block creatures with flying). When you block the 4/4, you pick where the 4 damage goes, and not your opponent! So you could send all 4 to one of the Benalish Heroes, killing it, and no damage to the other one or the 2/4! And, of course, the 4/4 dies. This definitely has advantages. Imagine the possibilities if your opponent attacked with a 10/10, or even bigger, and you blocked with some creatures, all banded, that dealt it the 10 damage needed to kill it. Now what do you do with the 10 damage aimed at your band? Oh, just make sure you have a Drudge Skeletons (1/1, 1 Black mana to regenerate), or some other regenerating creature in the band. Send all 10 damage to it, regenerate, and all of your creatures live, while that big 10/10 is gone! Now that we've covered that, let's go on to attacking: Where the real fun begins. Let's, as always, take an example of what happens without Banding... Well, I'll attack you with my 3/3, 4/4, and 5/5. All you've got is a 6/6. If I keep doing this every turn, you'll kill all of my creatures, once each attack (And if you play smartly, you'll have received 10 damage...). But that 6/6 is still out there, now free to attack me! AAAAH! The way Banding helps this is as follows: A band is blocked as one creature. Think about that. Think about it again. It's one of the best little sentences in the rulebook. Let's look at this situation again... OK, I'll attack you with my 3/3, 4/4, and 5/5, but I'll band them all! Now what are you going to do? You can't block each one individually, and if you block the band, your creature dies! Any choice you make will get you 12 damage a turn, maybe stopped for one turn. How does this work? Think about what you learned about defensive Banding. The same rule of distributing damage by your choice still applies. So, if you, in this example, were to block my band, your 6/6 would get 12 damage. Is that enough to kill it? Well, of course. Anyway, the 6 damage goes to what? I'd be stupid to deal it to one of my creatures, killing it. What the smart thing to do would be to, say, deal 4 damage to the 5/5, and 2 to the 4/4. Therefore, everything in my band lives, your creature dies, and I'm free to do whatever I want the next turn. And of course, if you don't block, you get 12 damage, and then it restarts the next turn. Well, now you know how to use Banding in attacking and blocking. I'll use the rest of the article to clear up some common questions and misunderstandings, along with some tips and cards that can be used with this ability. First of all, banding creatures DOES NOT make them one. For instance, banding a 2/2, a 3/3, and a 10/10 will not give you a 15/15 creature. It will give you a 2/2, a 3/3, and a 10/10 that must be blocked all together. Don't try to make a super-band by banding a First Strike creature with a Flying one to create a Flying, First Strike band. It just doesn't happen. Abilities in a band don't get distributed around to the rest of the group. Don't worry, however, the creatures that had the abilities still keep them, they just take place during combat individually. For example, a 4/4 with Flying, a 3/3 with Trample, and a 2/2 Flying, First Strike all band together to attack. Because there's one creature without flying (The 3/3), this band can't fly in to attack. They could, however, if the 3/3 HAD Flying. Now, once they are blocked, say, by a 5/5, the damage dealing phase is entered, which is where the individual abilities come to life. Like you choosing where the damage goes, in a band, you also choose what gets the damage! This includes who deals damage first... Obviously, the 2/2 First Strike deals its 2 damage first. This leaves the 6/6 with 4 life remaining. Next, deal 4 damage with the 4/4, and it has none left. The good thing in this situation is that the 6/6 doesn't die until the end of combat. Why is this good? Because now, the 3/3, with the now important ability of Trample, can deal it's damage, even when the 6/6 has no life left. Let's see... 3 damage to a creature that needs nothing left to kill it makes... 3 damage going to the player! Great! Now, moving along... there aren't many tips I could give you about Banding, besides the ones I gave in the main part of the article itself. What I CAN give you is a list of some good Banding cards, and cards that affect the ability. Benalish Hero, which I've used throughout the article, is probably the most common Banding card. Because of the ability, it's not too disadvantaged by the 1/1 label it has. Hey, just redirect the damage somewhere else! And you can't go wrong with the casting cost of just one white mana... Another good, small Banding card is Mesa Pegasus, which is the same as a Benalish Hero but with the added ability of Flying, for the added cost of one colorless mana. Still, it's great if you have enough things in your deck to take advantage of Banding. Both this and the Hero are available in 5th Edition. If you can get Ice Ade cards too, there's Kjeldoran Warrior, which is exactly the same as a Benalish Hero. Now, one of the worst things about Banding is how few cards have it. If you've been hoping for a way to get your bigger creatures to band, wait no more! With the Baton of Morale, you can give any creature Banding until end of turn for the measly cost of 2 colorless mana. Plus, it's an artifact, meaning you can use it as many times as you want each turn. This concludes my column this month, but be sure to catch my other writings before you leave, including the letters column and my review of the game "Chron X". (Please see the review for trademark information.)
Urza
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