Here is my question:Why? Why bring this card back, and waste a rare slot in 10th when it is clearly so terrible. I mean, come on; Times have changed to the point that a 1/1 for 5 mana is entirely too expensive. Insects aren't even a creature type that has any use or connection with anything else, so that can't even validate it. Many better things could have taken this slot, like the Verudun Enchantress, who was cut from 10th, and she actually has use and purpose. Keep things like this out of the core editions, and actually find things that can have use in standard formats, rather than being a supreme disappointment to someone who opens a booster that may have this in it.
eygji
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(6 votes)
It will be a sad day when this rotates out of standard...
until then, I will continue my quest to win with this card!
BrimandVormay
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(6 votes)
use it in combination with the sharding sphinx and you'll find it's prowess to be quite effective. use it in an artifact deck and the true potential of this card is realized. basically it would allow you to use any extra mana per turn on 1/1 flyers, who can deal 1 damage, block more powerful flyers your opponent controls, or simply adds to your artifact count for affinity and numerical dependent cards like Master of etherium and Broodstar
UnyaroBeeSting
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(7 votes)
The only thing I don't like about this card is that it is not called "Unyaro Hive." Otherwise, let's face it: basically awesome.
SavageBrain89
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(9 votes)
Eygji, BrimandVormay, UnyaroBeeSting, your all complete idiots. This card is bad by every standard imaginable. Paying five for a wimpy 1/1 flyer is never worth it, ever. Considering that the artifact itself costs five and it only produces one token at a time only further worsens it. Quite easily the worst token producer ever made, Oleander, I agree with you all the way on this one.
Rainyday2012
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(9 votes)
Problem one: Costs too much.
Problem two: Ability costs too much.
Problem three: Bees too wimpy.
And why are they artifacts? Who's the madman making mechanical insects? Certainly not me.
YotianSoldier
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(5 votes)
Yup, probably the worst token generator. Ever. Of all Time. I laughed and laughed and laughed when it was re-printed, and still as a rare!
Typicaly, a fair cost for a 1/1 flyer is one colored and one colorless, making it all colorless adds one more, add the ability to field more than 4 copys of it should make it at the very most a 4 costing Bee.
(Yes with Power Creep, that fair cost is high by todays standards, where a 1/1 unblockable costs one blue OR one white)
If it didnt need to tap, it would be worth it. At least then you could funnel hoards of mana into it at a time. Or T and XX colorless mana to make X Bees
Redeemer707
★★★☆☆ (3.3/5.0)(5 votes)
Wtf are you all talking about?! This card is on par with Chimney Imp as being the greatest MTG card ever conceived. Oh, and Rod of Ruin is up there too
MrPink343
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(8 votes)
If Ant Queen is a example of a great token generator, this is an example of an awful, horrendous well beyond unplayable token generator. I assume it was reprinted as a joke.
Yendorian
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(6 votes)
As with a number of "bad" cards, it's not as terrible in Multiplayer. Cheaper/faster token generators like Sacred Mesa or Ant Queen have a tendency to become lightning rods for removal or get you focus-fired as a threat. This card is more likely to slide under the radar, allowing you to build up some chump blockers/reusable pingers. And since multiplayer games are typically longer (and with more turns in the midgame where you have leftover mana), the cost isn't as prohibitive.
That said, I can't think of a time I'd play this in a 1 on 1 duel.
diplopia7
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(5 votes)
Well, at least the picture is cool. Too bad I'll burn the thing if I ever pull it.
makrinikolas
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(3 votes)
way too expensive! maybe if there was not for the tap, but still its very very expensive to cast, and for the token! 5 mana for a 1/1 flyer? no way. i have builted an insect deck, with Ant Queen, Beastmaster, Muraganda petroglyphs, Beackon of creation, Gaeas anthem, unyaro bees, etc and the most expensive creature i put in is living hive, which might be good and everything but its still expensive,and i almost never get the chance to play it. but back to the point! the hive?? ...not a very good card
allmighty_abacus
★★★☆☆ (3.4/5.0)(7 votes)
So lemme get this straight- I have to drop 5 mana to even play the hive in the first place. To get a creature I have to pay an additional 5 mana and tap the hive. So to be able to drop a creature the turn the hive comes into play I'd need 10 mana? ten mana? You know what else has a CMC of 10? Progenitus. Spawnsire of Ulamog. Deep-Sea Kraken. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.. I'd much rather drop a game winner than a chump blocker for 10 freakin mana. Don't even get me started on the alternatives to wasting 5 mana for a 1/1 flier on subsequent turns.
Oh, and in case you really need flying tokens, bitterblossom blows this out of the water. and there's no drawback to that if you drop soul warden or something similar.
A horrible, horrible card, and a terrible choice to reprint it. Even in multiplayer it is completely outclassed.
Laguz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.6/5.0)(4 votes)
The fact that this card wastes a rare slot is so infuriating that a judge might find that robbing WoTC for our money back is a justifiable crime. It gets a .5/5 for making sure that yet another core set is completely unbuyable.
spike_barnett
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.7/5.0)(3 votes)
I would fly into a whole new dimension of ***ed off if this was the rare I pulled from a booster.
Tiggurix
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Cool card, though not exactly phenomenal, as other commenteres have solidly established. I wouldn't mind if I pulled this card from a booster, though I would prefer a Wrath of God, of course.
TDL
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(6 votes)
Hilariously overcosted, as has been stated before. However, the fact that the tokens are artifacts and have flying makes it marginally better. Marginally.
Well, this card is useful for affinity. I'll give it that much. There aren't a lot of cards out there that can pump out artifact tokens. Tokens yes, but the fact that they are artifacts really does help. Yes, the activation cost is way too high, but once I get a Mycosynth Golem or two out my lands are suddenly useless. That's when I can start pumping out wasps. And with Darksteel Forge they're indestructible wasps. It has the potential to be an extremely good card, it's just too damn expensive to run that effectively.
blindthrall
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Just 15 mana and two turns to completely wreck Storm Crow or even Chimney Imp's day? Sign me up.
Hoonster
★★☆☆☆ (2.7/5.0)(3 votes)
Strictly worse than chimney imp . . but really . .
What, you were expecting something practical with this piece of garbage? At least I tried! >.<
MechaKraken
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(5 votes)
Converted Mana Cost = 5
All Artifact Creatures get +1/+1
Whenever an Artifact Creature you control goes to the graveyard, put a +1/+1 Insect Creature Token named Wasp with flying and haste onto the battlefield.
(2/colorless) tap: Put two Artifact Creature tokens named Wasp with flying and haste onto the battlefield.
There, fixed.
sniper_ix
★☆☆☆☆ (1.6/5.0)(4 votes)
Great deck idea:
4x Chimney Imp 4x Storm Crow 4x Razor Boomerang 4x Rod of Ruin 4x The Hive
That's the core of the deck. Now the support cards.
Urza lands...lots of them. Green mana ramp...EVERYWHERE 4x Mana reflection 4x Volteic Key
Kryptnyt
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
5/5. Creature tokens owe everything they have to this card. Though it was overcosted in anticipation that it was a too-powerful ability if it was cheaper, we wouldn't have tokens without it.
Nagoragama
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Probably extremely annoying in limited as a source of unlimited flying blockers/attackers, but I definitely wouldn't play it outside that format.
brunsbr103
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
why is this card so bad? my guess, and i'm pretty sure i heard it somewhere too, is that they were afraid that creature tokens would be too powerful, so they nerfed it. Lets face it, they had no idea what they were doing back then
nope.avi
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
With an unwinding clock and a everflowing chalice on 5 counters you can basically do this for free on every players turn. Theres better stuff to do with the mana. mmh might go in an edh deck cool art
TheHandyman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Still overcosted after all these years...I have take this card OUT of so many decks. Still, this one has good artwork.
Enelysios
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
It takes effort to make a card this bad. for 10 mana you can have the absolute mediocrity of a 1/1 flier. In game terms you can tap yourself out on your fifth turn and nearly do the same on consecutive turns for the slowest flier production you can imagine. I would leave this out of a mono green flier deck, and I am dumb (Crazy?) enough to play mono green fliers.
adrian.malacoda
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
The token has a name. That's how you can tell this card is old, and therefore probably crud (all old cards are either broken or crud).
DoragonShinzui
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The bees! Not the bees!
I'd rather use any card but the bees!
Paolino
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This artwork is really great! I like the flavor of this card a lot! It's just too much on casting cost and activation cost...
YellowWalker
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(3 votes)
The Johnny in me wants to do something with this card, but the almost non-existent Spike in me just gut punches me any time I think about it.
With no other Insects, tapping the hive will get you {4} and two tokens with which to untap. I would throw in Jhoira's Toolbox or Hex Parasite (both insects) which will then give you {6} the first time you tap so you can go infinite immediately.
I can't imagine a time when this card was THE card to have.
Continue
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(2 votes)
How this managed to see seven printings is beyond me...
@adrian.malacoda: Giant Spider. Circle of Protection — any of them. Serra Angel. There are plenty of old cards that fall in between.
Azskar
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I created a Wizards account just to vouch for this card. You are all missing an important detail... it is an Artifact... that produces Artifacts. You also underestimate the power of multiplayer format.
My combo! The Hive 4 Darksteel Citadel + 1 other artifact land. (Using a Prototype Portal/Darksteel Citadel makes you a target, but does make this much easier.) Unwinding clock. And, finally, Grinding Station.
Simply target the person that goes right before you do and multiply the number of people in the game x3. That is the number of cards he will mill every round until something in the combo is removed. However, the best part is that this combo is very, very innocuous and can all be used for Kuldotha Forgemaster, Claw of Gix, and Grinding Station fodder.
Demonic_Math_Tutor
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(1 vote)
You would have thought that they had given up on reprinting this junk long ago. Apparently not.
TheWrathofShane
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Its a bad relic from alpha that found its way into 10th edition somehow.
DataTroll
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
You are all right, of course. This is a terrible, terrible card for a duel. That being said the first wildly successful group deck I ever built was based on this thing. 4x of these, the urza lands, 4x angelic voices, 4x castle, 4x life chisel, and 4x Wrath of god. The rest of the deck was flavor of the moment, but this was the core of it for a couple of years. This would have been when you could still buy "The Dark" at the game shop, whenever the hell that was. A long damn time ago, anyway. So while some of these cards are not great by todays standards, at the time, in a group game when you were likely to have plenty of time to build before things got nasty, it did very well. I have run some variation on this theme ever since, though I have swapped out nearly all the cards for better options at this point. Except the ol' Wrath of god. There are newer versions, but bang for the buck it is tough to beat the original board wiper.
Comments (43)
until then, I will continue my quest to win with this card!
Problem two: Ability costs too much.
Problem three: Bees too wimpy.
And why are they artifacts? Who's the madman making mechanical insects? Certainly not me.
Typicaly, a fair cost for a 1/1 flyer is one colored and one colorless, making it all colorless adds one more, add the ability to field more than 4 copys of it should make it at the very most a 4 costing Bee.
(Yes with Power Creep, that fair cost is high by todays standards, where a 1/1 unblockable costs one blue OR one white)
If it didnt need to tap, it would be worth it. At least then you could funnel hoards of mana into it at a time. Or T and XX colorless mana to make X Bees
That said, I can't think of a time I'd play this in a 1 on 1 duel.
Oh, and in case you really need flying tokens, bitterblossom blows this out of the water. and there's no drawback to that if you drop soul warden or something similar.
A horrible, horrible card, and a terrible choice to reprint it. Even in multiplayer it is completely outclassed.
Filigree Sages plus
Grand Architect plus
Mycosynth Lattice plus
Power Artifact plusplus
Mana Reflection
A second Power Artifact (or March of the Machines + Training Grounds x2/Heartstone x4)
Tap The Hive and 1 mana to make a token, then make the token blue with Grand Architect for U. Tap the token for 4 (can be used as any color because of Mycosynth Lattice) use one to untap The Hive with Filigree Sages, then repeat.
What, you were expecting something practical with this piece of garbage? At least I tried! >.<
All Artifact Creatures get +1/+1
Whenever an Artifact Creature you control goes to the graveyard, put a +1/+1 Insect Creature Token named Wasp with flying and haste onto the battlefield.
(2/colorless) tap: Put two Artifact Creature tokens named Wasp with flying and haste onto the battlefield.
There, fixed.
4x Chimney Imp
4x Storm Crow
4x Razor Boomerang
4x Rod of Ruin
4x The Hive
That's the core of the deck. Now the support cards.
Urza lands...lots of them.
Green mana ramp...EVERYWHERE
4x Mana reflection
4x Volteic Key
Theres better stuff to do with the mana.
mmh might go in an edh deck
cool art
I'd rather use any card but the bees!
I like the flavor of this card a lot!
It's just
With no other Insects, tapping the hive will get you {4} and two tokens with which to untap. I would throw in Jhoira's Toolbox or Hex Parasite (both insects) which will then give you {6} the first time you tap so you can go infinite immediately.
@adrian.malacoda: Giant Spider. Circle of Protection — any of them. Serra Angel. There are plenty of old cards that fall in between.
You are all missing an important detail... it is an Artifact... that produces Artifacts. You also underestimate the power of multiplayer format.
My combo!
The Hive
4 Darksteel Citadel + 1 other artifact land. (Using a Prototype Portal/Darksteel Citadel makes you a target, but does make this much easier.)
Unwinding clock.
And, finally, Grinding Station.
Simply target the person that goes right before you do and multiply the number of people in the game x3. That is the number of cards he will mill every round until something in the combo is removed.
However, the best part is that this combo is very, very innocuous and can all be used for Kuldotha Forgemaster, Claw of Gix, and Grinding Station fodder.
4x of these, the urza lands, 4x angelic voices, 4x castle, 4x life chisel, and 4x Wrath of god. The rest of the deck was flavor of the moment, but this was the core of it for a couple of years.
This would have been when you could still buy "The Dark" at the game shop, whenever the hell that was. A long damn time ago, anyway. So while some of these cards are not great by todays standards, at the time, in a group game when you were likely to have plenty of time to build before things got nasty, it did very well. I have run some variation on this theme ever since, though I have swapped out nearly all the cards for better options at this point. Except the ol' Wrath of god. There are newer versions, but bang for the buck it is tough to beat the original board wiper.