Pointed Discussion

One-drop totem armor! How could a Johnny player not love this?

I think I like it!

Kinda weird to see a tiny human stick out of a giant jelly-thing

CRAB BATTLE!

I would guess Horseshoe Crab was the insperation for this card.

Training Grounds won't work, the aura has the ability not the creature attached to it.

Compare it to pemmin's aura: that's what a johnny enchantment is supposed to look like.

And why is it 3 to untap? Would it otherwise have been far too powerful? The crabs just take one mana to untap. What a letdown.

At least the art is nice, but sadly thats the only good thing about this card.

oh hey look, infinite mana combo with any creature that can tap to add 1 blue + 3 other. Harabaz Druid, for instance. or a manland with something like trace of abundance on it.

Give your creatures crabs! No, wait....

I passed by this card at first but the more i look at it the more i like it

Can you imagine how broken this would be if it were green? You could make infinite mana so fast with old cards... Priest of Titania.

I predict this to be a sleeper in this block. Combine with Training Grounds and Splinter Twin for shenanigans!

EDIT: Oh, you're right, Vedalken_Arbiter. Darn, and I thought we'd see U-untap enchanted creature... Still a good card because of Totem Armor ^^

This + Arcanis + Training Grouds = 3 cards for U

FEAR THE CRAB!!!

ATTACK THIS UMBRA'S WEAKPOINT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE!

To whoever designed this card: Horseshoe Crab untapped for one blue mana! ONE! His converted mana cost was three! How could you screw this up so bad is beyond me.

Switch the costs. This stinks of a Wizards foul-up like Mindless Null.

>>> And why is it 3 to untap? Would it otherwise have been far too powerful? The crabs just take one mana to untap. What a letdown.<<<
Because you can enchant a mana generating card with this aura. Anything less than 3 mana cost could easily produce infinite mana.

@ this card:
It"s a pity that the interaction possibilities in this set are rather negligible.

thought 1: ooh, training grounds would make this work!
thought 2: ooh, training grounds only effects creatures' abilities, not enchantments' abilities...

Come on people! Stop whining! You can see that this aura is meant to be used with certain creatures with powerful tap effects right? I agree, on most creatures this aura is not worth using, but with cards like Arcanis the Omnipotent this card is amazing! The best example I can think of right now is Kamahl, Pit Fighter. Kamahl is powerful, but frail, and this aura perfectly enhances his strengths and suppresses his weakness. Imagine this situation: You've just begun your turn with a Kamahl, Pit Fighter on the board enchanted with a Crab Umbra, while your opponent's got Grizzly Bears and Wild Griffin on his side of the table. You skip your main phase since you've got no cards in your hand at the moment, and go on straight to the combat phase. Before you declare attackers you tap Kamahl and kill his Griffin, and then you pay (2)(U) to activate the Umbra's ability and untap Kamahl. You then proceed to tap Kamahl once again and kill his Bears, and then you activate the Umbra for the second time, untap Kamahl, and finally proceed to go on to swing for 6 with Kamahl on your opponent. So in the end you paid (4)(U)(U) to gain board advantage and seriously damage your opponent, all while Kamahl was hidden safely behind the Umbra's Totem Armor. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Once again, I wouldn't bother to use this umbra with the vast majority of creatures out there, but with a rare few it will work wonders! I would also like to know what other creatures you guys know off that would work well with this enchantment. All I can think of right now are Arcanis the Omnipotent, Kamahl, Pit Fighter, Elvish Piper and Lightning Crafter. Any suggestions?

By the way, to all people reading this and not in the knowing, Horseshoe Crab is actually not a crab. They are not even crustaceans. The horseshoe crab species are actually from a completely separate class of arthropods, and have remained biologically unchanged for millions of years. Check out this site to learn much more: http://horseshoecrab.org/

Personally I can't wait to add in a Steel Overseer and This to my Artifact Deck Sure it will be decently hard to do... I guess seeing as most of that deck is but the pay off of the two comboing will be spectacular especially with an already massive Master of Etherium the Crab Umbra + Steel Overseer combo will definately be a great combo for anyone wanting to run a blue Artifact deck or just Artifact Decks in general.

There's a lot to think about with a card like this besides just its Limited/Standard application.

For example consider something like Merieke Ri Berit. With a card like Crab Umbra attached to her (although there are better options) is extremely powerful. If they let something like that go for just a 1-mana untap cost it would be borderline broken. And as someone already mentioned, the same is true for creatures that produce mana. If they made it too cheap it would be quite easy to begin an infinite-mana generation loop in various formats.

Arcanis loves crabs.

Turn Dormant Gomazoa into a JellyCrab, or is it CrabFish?

Not one of the better umbras.

Hilarious art!

The cost kills it, but, as Allric mentioned, it works very well with Steel Overseer. Overseers tend to die as soon as they hit the field(for obvious reasons), but with Crab Umbra, they become hard to kill and much, much more powerful.

That's right, mannakamp.

YOU CAN'T FIGHT THE WORLDWAKE POWER!!!!!!!

Oh, and Hugemannatee, nice Legend of Zelda reference.

land_comment, um what dose this card have to do with worldwake?

The guy wearing the umbra looks like he's from Kamigawa.

With Threshold and Krosan Restorer you have infinite tap/untap.
With Argothian Elder (or the above-mentionned Krosan Restorer plus Threshold) and lands that can produce 2 mana (say, Simic Growth Chamber) you have infinite mana.
There are probably millions way to do that better, but blue has good tools to protect a combo, dig for it and fill the graveyard fast ; so that could do something.

Combine with Mirran Spy and Leyline of Singularity to make a Rare Endangered Crab Spy.

@Nucleon: I approve.

WOW!!! from all the rulings this card has received it looks like some people didn't like this card too much hehe
profane you and your precious doomblade sir, profane you all the way to the underworld

to make an infinate mana combo, and you happen to have these cards, heres how
Tezzeret, agent of bolas.
Candelabra of Tawnos.
and this card.
use Tezzeret to make the candelabra a 5/5 artifact creature, slap this on it and there you go.

I like this card. Its more fair then untap for . Its ment to be abused but not in a monstrous way.

Very versatile. Gives your combo piece a little bit of resistance to removal, and lets you play tapping shenanigans. Is it super powerful? Not on its own, but it does let you have a little fun in a high-mana environment.