Pointed Discussion

Use with Ashnod's Transmogrant for some handy survival. I'm sure there are other cards that would work, but not I can think of.

It's pretty solid, and if you are playing with some zombie tokens or something, it is nice and brutal, as it ought to be.

It's a decent card. What with all the token generators/decks in use right now, however, it's not very useful.

Have to agree with BorosRecruit about the tokens, but in case youre playing someone who isnt playing with them, he makes for a great combo with Charnelhoard Wurm and Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper because you can trigger Sek'Kuar's ability with the magus, get a grave bourne token, and then take back your creature with the wurm. id recommend just recycling one cheap creature like a goblin or any 1/1.

I give/gave it 1/2 star rating...
Like Elysiume said it combos with Ashnod's Transmogrant for decent removal but otherwise it's a junk rare... Should have been made an umcommon-- but even as that I think it'd still suck; I mean who wants/wanted to really pull THIS as their rare??! Or anything other than maybe a common, cause who cares what they pull for those lol.

i think this is a good card fools. its just more combo-y than most. hell just use a nuisance engine, or anything that makes tokens (or the guy who can keep making festering goblins to make sure no one else does!)

It targets, so all you gotta do is give him shroud and sit pretty. No fancy hoops to jump through. I would use some small board sweepers like pyroclasm to prevent them from just sacking saprolings.

this is an excellent card in a multiplayer game

stack it with

1 grave pact

2 deathgreeter

3 creakwood

4 avatar of woe

with grave pact every turn you sacrifice 1 they sacrifice 2 (do the math)

@Elysiume you could also use that one licid, Transmogrifying Licid.

Yeah, you could turn him into an artifact using the licid or the transogrant. You could also use Neurok Stealthsuit or Whispersilk Cloak to give him shroud- that way even your opponent probably won't be able to kill him.

@ AbyssalManZero

The card this is based off is a rare. This card was made of a fifteen card, five color cycle across the Time Spiral Block, the first set based off of Artifact cards, the second on Lands, and the final (which this is a part of) off of Enchantments. Each card that the Magi were based on, were game changing when they came out. Not enough to be rated mythic status, I reckon, but they were enough to allow players of early Magic to completely change the way the game was played, and is to this day for those who play with older cards. You may not be able to appreciate the flavor of these cards, but they are creature replicas of some very, very, very powerful permanents back in the day. They were given appropriate mana costs, power and toughness, and their abilities harken back to those days when The Abyss dominated in black control. Look up the price of the card itself: 50 USD and that's at the low end. Yes, the creature's not quite the same, but it's an excellent trip down memory lane for those who know the game and how it was and can still be played. It has to be rare; even as it's not as effective as its enchantment rendition, it still packs enough control ability to dominate games to this day.

Go learn your history of the game before you make such comments. If you still don't understand, I suggest games like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. Have a nice day.

SO MUCH FUN!!!

Honestly, in Multiplayer, getting a Whispersilk Cloak on this guy and setting a Necrotic Plague loose can do a lot of damage.

Cool artwork good sense of movement to it.

All you need with this is a Liquimetal Coating.
Choose one of your creatures for the target of this effect, then respond to it by turning it into an artifact. Illegal target, ability is countered, you're good to go.

His flavor is amazing (and I don't mean that he's a Magi of the older card).
Look at that flavor text.
He is constantly threatened by his own ability,
But he pushes onward, hoping the player that summoned him has something to appease the Abyss till the next turn, so it doesn't suck him up.
I'm diggin' it.

@ Artscrafter:

Liquimetal Coating is a good idea. Now, all you need is a token engine, a sacrifice outlet, and a Disciple of the Vault and you can turn that artifact dude into life-loss for your enemy :)

you don't even need to know the history of the game to see how good this sucker is. Every turn, he kills something. He hits them first, and then he hits one of your guys. He's like a slow Black Wrath of God, and even effects, even played completely straight, are easy to manipulate just by timing! This is another 'even' card, like Wrath of God, except:

a) you're running Black, not White, which means the Graveyard is your b*tch. Break this however you want- there's a way in pretty much every block that has black cards in it. Liliana Vess is a particularly lazy and yet still effective way to do it. There are much, much worse things you can do to your opponent. Make. them. scream.

b) even if you're just running it in a multicolor deck with the intention of 'playing it straight', like a Black Balance, you still have an effect worthy of a whole separate enchantment card on top of a 4/3 stick. If that stick does anything before it dies, you're very good.

c) all in all, this is one of the best cards for its mana cost I think I've ever seen. Other Time Spiral cards, by comparison, seemed to think it was funny to cost things like you actually owned Moxen and Sol Ring and Lotuses.

Compare to Fleshbag Marauder, an EDH staple in black. If you're willing to pay 1 extra mana, wait until the opponent's upkeep, and learn to live with not killing indestructible/shroud, you get the same effect for the rest of the game, at your option.

This is one of my favorites of the cycle, since it can do something its parent enchantment can't - get rid of itself. Thus, you could play this in a creature-heavy deck, say one with tokens or indestructibility subthemes, and have no fear of it going sour on you. My opponent stole my indestructible/destroyed my token source? No prob, I'll just let my Magus go instead of my Sheoldred, Whispering One. The Abyss in an aggressive deck could be manipulated against you far more easily.

Run with Angelic Overseer to surprise and destroy your opponent.

Phylactery Lich. Have fun. Now you can have as many other creatures on the battlefield as you want. Just hit the lich with the destroy every time.

Like the The Abyss, but you can decided when to stop kill off your creatures.

Lightning Greaves, Bitterblossom, Awakening Zone, so many ways to get this guy to the level of the original card with just a little bit of work, and I like that, like Bob, the body gives you a way to turn the ability off easily when it stops becoming beneficial.

THE LE REDDIT MEME ARMY LEEJUN LOVES THIS CARD! 5 STARS IF YOU AGREE LOL XD!

After a closer inspection, I noticed his cowl and the shadows behind the cowl make up the screaming spirit in the original The Abyss.

It's fun to find the referenced card in their newer counterpart.

Anyway, despite all of your thoughts to turn him into an artifact, you could always simply make him indestructible via Darksteel Plate, Shield of Kaldra or Indestructibility. You could still be targeting him, but he just doesn't die.

Nearly every card in Time Spiral block was a throwback to at least one previously printed card.

This card references The Abyss and is part of the "Magus" super cycle of rare creatures. The Future Sight part of the cycle focuses on powerful enchantments, even matching the mana cost; the others are Magus of the Future, Magus of the Moat, Magus of the Moon, and Magus of the Vineyard.

The Time Spiral part of the cycle focuses on powerful artifacts: Magus of the Candelabra, Magus of the Disk, Magus of the Mirror, Magus of the Jar, and Magus of the Scroll. The Planar Chaos cycle focuses on powerful lands: Magus of the Bazaar, Magus of the Coffers, Magus of the Tabernacle, Magus of the Arena, and Magus of the Library.

@infernox: Damn. Took the words right out of my mouth...

Kev Walker's badass artwork really blends perfectly with the flavor text and his ability,
which threatens to eventually devour him as well.

I just wish he couldn't be sent there with little effort by red mages in an instant.

Liquimetal Coating + this seems like a really fun combination.