The Bird is the Word!

Some cards are ok in Standard Spellfire, but become awesome in the Antigonish variant (like the Headless Horseman). Other cards are great in Standard, but utterly useless in TAV (like Tithian and Gorynych). Then there are cards that are so phenomenally incredible that they transcend formats and are universally primo. Remnis (4th Edition, 481/500) is one of these cards.

The only downside to the "dirty bird" is that he's a bit hard to get into play. One or more flyers totalling 16 levels or more must be sacrificied for him to appear. Once that's done, however, Remnis will increase your chances of victory substantially. His power? Once per turn, at the end, he can fly into the discard pile, remove one non-champion card, and return that card to his controller's hand.

While this is a great power and has a multitude of possible uses, in reality the card should just say "go get your Wish spell back once per turn". I've used this guy for years, and 9 times out of 10 it's the Wish I'll go for.

Wish, do other things, Remnis gets Wish. Rinse and repeat.

Wish got countered? No problem - try again next turn. Wish worked? Great - it goes to the discard pile, where Remnis retrieves it so you can use it again next turn (or, since Wish can be cast at any time, again this turn!).

Remnis rivals Istus and Gib Drawsemaj as the greatest, most powerful, and just plain nastiest avatar ever printed. Once on the board, he attracts your opponent's champion-killing cards like a magnet. If he dies, use Silver Hands and BAM! the "dirty bird" is back.  

Paired with a Wish, an Abyssal Gateway, a Mindkiller, an Estate Transference, a Disintegrate, etc, etc, etc...Remnis is a beast.

And if you're the one who slaps him down first - you'll probably be doing the bird dance. Just don't ever, EVER attack or defend with him.

P.S. How does Remnis remain so calm with that giant tidal wave about to hit him? :)

Next Time: The best sticker-set card for TAV is....?