Pointed Discussion

Simply... awesome.

Wish they'd reprinted the regular Akroma, but this is cool.

Spectacular art, but far inferior to original Akroma. Morph and can't be countered have a negative interaction, if you play it as a morph it can be countered, if you hard cast it you don't get to utilize the surprise of morph. White gives her some protection from removal, but blue only helps her evade flying blockers and bounce, and she is at the mercy of black removal and red burn.

The lack of Haste and First Strike might seem odd to some on a red creature like this, but you have to know something about the set it was originally printed in, Planar Chaos. In this set, the color pie is completely mixed up, by design. The universe is coming apart, and everything is in flux. In this set, haste is a green ability and first strike is a black ability.

This Akroma is from an alternate reality where red mana means something different than what it means in the reality we know of.

I wish they reprinted BOTH Akromas. :P

This is going to sound silly, but I find her to be superior to the original.

The reason why is the number of ways that Wizards effectively gave original Akroma's abilities onto other creatures. Sword of Vengeance gives anything trample, haste, vigilance, and first strike. This one only has trample, so the amount of redundancy is worth equipping onto her if you have the mana for it (even if you can't equip it directly, giving her haste isn't that much of a problem. With 1 red mana, you can play Burst of Speed to let her swing that turn, or have Anger in your graveyard, or have Urabrask the Hidden out as well), and even boosts from having a (semi-)permanent +2/0 as well so even after the opportunity for her to swing immediately passes, there's still some benefit. There's also the memorial which grants ALL of her abilities to everything, effectively making her no more different than a 6/6 you already have, and possibly even inferior if that creature has other abilities, while this one gets almost DOUBLE the amount. Flying, haste, vigilance, trample, first strike, pro black, red, white, and blue, fire breathing, and can either come in as a surprise or can't be countered whatsoever. There's also Geosurge which adds just enough mana to get her out entirely on turn 5, possibly even earlier than that if you have the right cards. If you can get the Sword on her for free, then you have an 8/6 Flier that runs over stuff, hits first, and can block around turn 5. If not, throw a pair of Lightning Greaves on her so she can swing the moment she shows up, then equip the sword onto her after that for a similar experience.

The short story is, Fury is a better combo-piece than Wrath, while Wrath is a better stand-alone creature. At least to me anyway.

My favorite color combination to play is WRU.. then my buddy started playing this..

the morph seems so...superfluous

"HAH! I have this and Akroma's Memorial out! It is a flying, first strike, trample, vigilance, haste, firebreathing, pro red, white, blue and black gamewinner! Yeah!"
"Plummet."
"...you're kind of a dick at this point aren't you."

Morph is one of the best parts of this card. I play it morphed on turn three, and target it with a flickerwisp or glimmerpoint stag on turn four to flip it. This is a great card to have in a braid of fire deck too.

The most shocking part of this card is that it doesn't have haste. were I working on this card, I would campaign for haste over "can't be countered" or fire breathing.

I want to put it in a deck with Akroma, Angel of Wrath, just for the joy of having two legendary cards of the same gal out at once without the legend rule kicking in.

RED AKROMA, WHY YOU NO HAS HASTE?

Kinda funny how each Akroma has protection against the other.

The artwork is amazing, but the card itself is pretty lacking. It seems as if they just heaped abilities onto her without really weighing how well those abilities worked together. Morph in place of Haste is a failure of design, to say the least.

My favorite part of this card is that the feathers on her wings look more like a hawks' than the standard plain white, I think it looks great.

"Can't be countered" and Morph can never be useful together. I feel like one of those should have been dropped in favor of a different ability.

I don't buy the 'Haste is not Red in Planar Chaos' argument. I think they didn't put it here because they wanted her to look different from Wrath.
Problem: Haste is WAY off color for White in anything BUT PC. I think that Akroma of Wrath was literally an excercise in counting the current perennial keyword abilities, and then slapping a mana cost onto it that sounded right at the time.

What would a Flying, First Strike, Haste, Trample, Vigilance, Double Strike, Lifelink, Deathtouch, Hexproof, protection from (something) creature cost, do you think?

even at a 1/1, that sounds like it should probably cost more than 9 mana... >.> I don't buy the 'Haste is not Red in Planar Chaos' argument. I think they didn't put it here because they wanted her to look different from Wrath.

On the flip side, I don't know why you are complaining about Morph and can't be countered on the same card. each are very good. can't be countered rewards you for hardcasting, and morph is riskier but faster. they are opposites, and opposites actually go quite well together for adding functionality-
what you people seem to want, however, is an all-upside card that doesn't require any real decisions to be made. If Morph and uncounterable had the interaction you wish, then there would be very little point to her converted mana cost, and in fact all you did was design an undercosted overpowered super-bomb.

We need more cards that put stuff like uncounterable and morph on the same card. it's healthy to be forced to think and actually make a decision that matters once in a while.

Or, I guess if you get bored you can just give this Sword of Feast and Famine with Akroma's Memorial out and have friggin done with it. But at least you need 3 different cards to do that, not just one.

After playing with this card again I realized something. Akroma, Angel of Fury is Titan level powerful.You can player her early with morph then when you could normally play a titan you just morph her face up and hit for 6 maybe more if she has some equipment or enchantments on her. Granted Akroma, Angel of Wrath is better for reanimate. But aside from that you put them in a deck of their respectful colors red Akroma is going to be hitting first most of the time. If you don't manage to get her early game, just hard caster her with out worrying about silly things like counterspell.

And that is why for me personally, Akroma, Angel of Fury is one of my favorite Creatures of all time. Not because she is super sexy, not because when I play her I imagine a tornado of fire spiraling out of the sky only to clear a moment later as people look up in awe at the sight of her. Or even because when I finally do attack with her it isn't for 6, but closer to 14 points of damage. Or even the fact that I can have all 4 copies of her on the field at once because of morph... Wait.. Those are the exact reasons she is one of my favorites! ;D

Works wonders with cards like Turn to Mist, Otherwordly Journey or Astral Slide. Play it face down, and if an opponent tries to Doom Blade it, then counter with one of those cards, and presto, you've got a 6/6 beatstick ready to roll out.

If you want haste on her, morph her and then use Astral Slide to blink her on your opponents turn, keeping the morph safe from control spells as well, and when she comes back at the end of their turn, she goes through upkeep, loses sum sickness and can swing.

@tantallum99

Not if she is your General in Commander.

It's weird. While this is attacking, it's better than the other Akroma because this has firebreathing and trample, so it can do damage to its opponent. But then the other Akroma attacks directly at you with Vigilance. So, depending on your mana, this could be better or worse in different situations.

This card work great in a / commander deck (Nin, the Pain Artist perhaps) with lots of other Morph cards. Willbender, Voidmage Apprentice and others all make it very difficult for your opponent to know what to do and what to target. Then, the morph is good because you can get her out earlier, and also make a guessing game out of who you just played.

I go back and forth about the superfluousness of Morph to be honest.

Flying, Trample, First Strike, Vigilance, Haste, Double Protection (Wrath)
Flying, Trample, Firebreathing, Uncounterability, Morph , Double Protection (Fury)

While the Morph allows for Fury to hit the battlefield up to two turns sooner than Wrath, seemingly more than making up for the Haste two turns later, the fact remains that all of Wrath's abilities function together seamlessly and two of Fury's never can - you are always implicitly choosing but one of Morph / Uncounterability. That being said, the (risky) option of going Morph is nifty and I'd be lying if I said I didn't love this card.

This version got shafted out of haste, first strike, and vigilance. And its in red. This creature does not need nor want morph... Why would I want my akroma to die to shock or runeclaw bear?

Way to drop the ball on this version, its rated way less for a good reason.

In the alternate universe seen in the Planar Chaos set, Akroma is a red-aligned avatar of vengeance. In this timeline, Ixidor descended into an even deeper state of madness and evil, vowing to wipe the entire Cabal out rather than focusing solely on Phage.

Does her Morph ability circumvent her Commander cost? That is to say, could I put her into play from the Commander Zone for her Morph cost of {3} without paying the additional {2}-per-casting?

This, and Torchling, were great idea, but from a design standpoint... they're all over the place... and while both are powerful creatures in their own right, they also both fall waaay short of the originals. ijs

morph and can't be countered, makes her versatile, if you are against a counter deck, well just wait and cast her normally. If not, you have the OPTION of bring her earlier with morph.
Also, morph can be powerfull (and this card already is), i mean you can cast her morphed, and the same turn attach some equip or aura, like Claws of Valakut or stuff with hexproof if you're afraid of removal, then the next turn (turn 6 or possibly earlier) you flip her and enters the game "haste like" equiped, angry, and swinging hard... very hard.

I still can't believe this has no haste....

I dunno, I just can't really see why it doesn't have it. Maybe it's just me not noticing the morph or taking it seriously. I dunno.

Strictly hotter than Akroma, Angel of Wrath. If you know what I mean...

Guys! I finally get the reason this has Morph!

Ixidor was the person who originally created Akroma. But he was also the creator of Morph creatures! In this timeline, the Akroma he created is not only a rage filled, off colored angel, but more heavily tied into Ixidor's paradigm!

Blows Shivan Dragon out of the water! Why compare them, Akroma cmc 8 and ol shivan at cmc 6? Well...she morphs for 6. Firebreathing with pro blue and white...combines my favorite protection in red (like Goblin Piledriver pro blue, and Goblin Wizard with pro white). Isn't that what Shivan Dragon needed originally was trample, anyways?
Sword of Feast and Famine makes her a bruiser, nearly impossible to kill. Swiftfoot Boots (or Champion's Helm) and Batterskull are a nice choice, also.

No rest. No mercy. No matter WHAT ARE YOU DOING PLAYING AKROMA FACE DOWN ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND.

@Darthparallax

With the exception of suspend and 1 or 2 black cards haste was green in planar chaos.
That said haste is red everywhere else with a few green, black and blue exceptions with white only getting it on akroma and suspend creatures.
So I think you're right about them wanting a bigger contrast.

I can totally see an 8 or 9 mana 5 colored creature getting those abilities. Say:
Powercreep Elemental 4WUBRG
Legendary Creature-Elemental
Flying, Haste, Trample, Vigilance, Double Strike, Lifelink, Deathtouch, Hexproof, Protection from Planeswalkers

If Powercreep Elemental would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, reveal Powercreep Elemental and shuffle it into its owner's library instead
3/3

it'd probably not get first strike, since that's redundant with double strike, and it might lose an ability for landwalk or flash.

It'd almost certainly get the anti-reanimation text and/or phage/ myojin treatment.

Even with all those abilities a 1/1 would look anemic and a 5/5 or bigger might be too good, but a 3/3 with those abilities seems doable at a reasonable cost.

Oh and I suppose I'll add the obligatory, "I grant Wizards of the Coast, Hasbro Inc and all their subsidiaries full right to the above intellectual property without need for compensation"

Though that's probably already in the terms and service for this website.

Now if this ever gets printed you have someone outside wizards to blame =P


P.S. is there reasoning behind the ordering of keywords for cards with more than one?

It's not always alphabetical, though it almost is on greater morphling and
Cairn Wanderer.

Possibly it follows the order in which they're listed in the Comprehensive rules.

@FeralSymphony: They did, in Time Spiral, the set just before it.

"Lol Flicker." -Every mtgo player ever

Akroma, Angel of Wrath in Time Spiral, Akroma, Angel of Fury in Planar Chaos, Akroma's Memorial in Future Sight.