Pearled Unicorn: Mediocrity at it best.

 

"A Chinese prose writer has observed that the unicorn, because of its own anomaly, will pass unnoticed. Our eyes see what they are accustomed to seeing."- Jorge Luis Borges

Hailing all the way from the original playtest sets, Pearled Unicorn is a creature that was dated when it was printed in the early 90's. I can fill a whole article on the vast number of better options white had for creatures in 94, and even more so in 95. However, in a isolated shell (as all alpha cards should be viewed), Pearled Unicorn isn't bad, just mediocre. In an environment where card availability would be extremely limited, Unicorn is a fine comparison to the other "ogre" creatures in Limited Edition (and is much better than the creature that inspired that moniker).  

So why write about the Unicorn? Well I feel there is something magical about this card. Like many other cards I've talked about over the years, most recently Bird Maiden, some creatures are just memorable, despite their mediocrity, and I find these the most fascinating of all. Its easy to see why good cards are memorable, like Serra, and Serendib. It's easy to see why creatures like Tim and Fallen Angel might be memorable, despite their mediocrity. Yet its the cards that are bad, but not outright terrible, that are memorable that are the most fascinating. 

It's also fascinating because how often unicorns were invoked in 20th century fantasy, yet the base set one is merely a 2/2 despite this. It was even the back of some playtest cards. 

Art: Pearled Unicorn is one of the few cards I will say where printing matters on the art. I personally prefer either the Collector Editions, or Alpha/Beta for the richness in the colors of the card. The black border really helps it stand out on the card over the unlimited one. The other printings of the card are either to light/washed in the color department, like 4th edition and revised, or if you're rich, the Summer one is actually to dark. Certain FBB prints actually turn the unicorn pinkish, instead of the pearl color it's supposed to be. Below I'll give a few examples.

Summer edition

FBB, notice the color

Faded revised

Collectors Edition. Notice the colors

As for the art itself, I love it. A few years ago, in one of my very first posts, I talked about another piece he worked on, Wanderlust, and how much I loved the old storybook look it had. I don't feel this one has that same style, instead its a good arrange of contrasting colors. In the art, we have a unicorn in a meadow galloping and kicking up flowers in a meadow, during what appears to be the golden hour. It's very minimalistic in its approach, with the only bright colors being the Yellow/Orange skyline, and the specks or red coming up from the grass. The Grass is dark shades of green and black, and the unicorn is wjite and black. It makes for a good distinct contrast. Like Wanderlust he also has small details, like the the individual shades of grass, the shadowing on the unicorn, and of course the lines on the horn. None of these are done in an overwhelming detail, just fine enough so you see they are there, and thats all. 

If I had any complaint on the art, its the unicorn seems rather mundane, but I guess that works for the card, and that such a nice piece was put on well, a mundane card.  

Ironically enough, just like Wanderlust, I to also enjoy the 5th edition replacement for this art by David Cherry.

The format is better to.

Playability: This card was outclassed both by White Knight, and arguably Mesa Pegasus in the base set. Number of other better comparable options include Thunder Spirit, and The Pump Knights. Maybe even Kjeldoran Knight. It has one thing that saves it from the dreaded 1, and that is its white. White all the support that color has, it raises it to a 2. Still, I wish it was at least a 2/3 like Regal Unicorn or at 1WW and was a white Hurloon Minotaur. It still would be bad, but it wouldn't be completely outclassed like it is. Score 2/5.

Flavor: Vanilla's are always a hard score for flavor. Vanilla is a poor flavor, so it makes sense. As someone who's been around horses,I can tell you, 2 power makes sense, so naturally it would in toughness as well.

Honestly the best thing with this is the wonderful "Through the looking glass quote" by Louis Carroll. I know MaRo has described these classic literature quotes as "edutainment", but honestly they bring class to the game. I read alot of books I probably wouldn't have because of it. 

The flavor is basic, and boring, but that beautiful quote. I'd honestly give this a solid 2/5.

9/15= 3/5. It's a completely average card, which also means it's boring. It is however very pretty and nice. Exactly the type of pack filler the game needs