Sisters of the Flame

 

Witches and Warlocks, men and women in the shadows making dark deals with evil, and seeking forbidden knowledge for their own purpose. 

The word witch or wicca is over a thousand years old, coming from the Old English "wicce", and was originally a masculine, and could be applied to both genders. It differentiated from a wizard or a sorcerer by the means in which the magic was formed, as a wizard would use tools and formulas, a witch would generate magick from within oneself or from another otherworldly presence. 

The concept of witches and sorcerers have persisted throughout written history in some form or another, whether it be advanced civilizations (even into the modern times), or stone age hunter and gatherers, they all seem to fear and revere some evil person lurking in the dark.

The Dark's Sisters of a Flame represent a coven of witches, playing on many contemporary pop cultures sources of the time. I had wrote an article early in this blog about 90's Goth culture and its influence on Magic: the Gathering, as well as Wizards partnership at the time with White Wolf Games. Naturally there is an overabundance of this is The Dark, which I would describe as Magic's experiment in horror. It would make sense for this set to have several cards representing witches and other assorted practitioners of these arts, one of whom is our coven here. 

Playability: At 2/2 for three, she meets the bear minimum of an ogre, which is the rating of playability in limited. Sure she has an ability, to add red, which makes one of the few three drop mana dorks. Sure its two red to cast, but in reality that isn't that hard to do. In reality, she suffers, even when having a unique effect in her colors. A mono-red deck will either want to hit hard and fast, in which case, her ability is almost pointless and she lags behind her competitors. Big Red could use her, but would rather just run artifacts to ramp into. A multicolored deck would rather ramp with an elf or Mana Bird, than play this considerably less splash able creature. In reality, they don't have a home to run it. 2/5

I wonder if this was a goth in Seattle as well.

Art: Sisters of the Flame looks as if it came from an old music video. The minimalism and contrasting colors make a certain photogenic look to the piece. The characters herself, looks rather witchy, with what can be assumed to be wearing a black cloak, and a simple necklace of an idol. Hair, which is either faded black or grey, shines an almost unnatural blue in the moonlight. Her body is illuminated by a fire, and the smoke is clearly behind her. The best part about this art is how cold it feels. It reminds me of those late autumn nights without a cloud in the sky, sitting at a fire deep in the woods. She however stands, simply staring at the player. It's an art piece that shows so much, but also so little, thanks to creative coloring and amazing atmosphere. 5/5.

Flavor: So a coven of witches (since the name is plural) is a 2/2. Makes sense. They burn their enemies to give you red mana. I like it. Sure the flavor might be a little boring, but not everything can be as exciting as a Shivan Dragon. I think all things considering, it works ok. It's just boring. Like that 8th nutter butter. 3/5.

10/15= three out of 5. Sure the card is boring as hell. Its mediocre as can be, doesn't have a home in any deck, but that art. Who can deny how good that looks! It sells the card.