Shadowmoor and Eventide will always hold a special place in my heart. They are the sets that were new when I made my first real foray into the world of Magic: the Gathering. My first ever draft in Magic netted me Augury Adept and Godhead of Awe. My next draft was right after Eventide released. In that draft I happened to pick two pretty darn good rares: Necroskitter and Figure of Destiny.

As someone who played a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh, Figure of Destiny was a monster… er, creature… that immediately got my attention. It only cost a single mana to play, and you could use either red or white mana. Already new to the world of paying mana to cast spells, hybrid mana was this really amazing thing to me. I didn’t know this wasn’t a regular thing. But, right away, I could tell this card could be played in a variety of decks.

Kithkins were a really good tribe in Magic back then. So, Figure of Destiny was a big deal. You’d pump mana into him and he’d get bigger. I actually got him leveled up a couple of times during the draft. I ended up not even playing my Necroskitter, although I thought he was cool, too.

In my early days of Magic, aggro was my thing. Elves and Goblins were among my favorite decks to play. I didn’t really get into competitive play at that point, and actually went back to Yu-Gi-Oh until the Magic 2010 Core Set was released. I ended up selling my Figure of Destiny to the game store for a few dollars.

Had I kept playing, this Red/Green Aggro deck or something like it would have been my jam in Standard in ‘08:

LANDS

• 4x Fire-Lit Thicket
• 3x Grove of the Burnwillows
• 4x Karplusan Forest
• 8x Mountain
• 3x Mutavault

CREATURES

• 4x Figure of Destiny
• 4x Kavu Predator
• 4x Keldon Marauders
• 4x Mogg Fanatic
• 4x Tarmogoyf

INSTANTS/SORCERIES

• 3x Flame Javelin
• 4x Incinerate
• 4x Rift Bolt
• 3x Shard Volley
• 4x Tarfire

SIDEBOARD

• 3x Dragon’s Claw
• 3x Firespout
• 3x Krosan Grip
• 4x Magus of the Moon
• 2x Unwilling Recruit

Yes, Goyf was still in Standard. But, yeah, Figure of Destiny was really, really good. It was still seeing play in Extended 3 to 4 years later in top decks. It could have been a sign that Magic was the game I should’ve spent thousands of bucks on instead of Yu-Gi-Oh!

Again, hindsight is 20/20. Still, I was right that Figure of Destiny was an awesome card. And, he still sees play in 1V1 Commander decks in 2017… as well as your occasional Saffron Olive Against the Odds brew.