Well met, fellow wizard. Imagine, for a moment, that you could “summon a creature face down so opponent doesn’t know what it is.” The “true casting cost of the creature” is hidden away. Zero abilities, zero characteristics. Everything about its identity is shrouded, impenetrable. It’s a secret to everybody.
Incredibly, a card with this function and level of rules complexity was printed in Alpha. The original Gathering. The very beginning. August ’93. A rarely seen artifact, so cryptic and enigmatic that it was quickly deemed a “mystifier,” never to be printed again after those first few heady months of Magic’s history.
Inscrutable from the start, these twenty-six years hence have only added new wrinkles and heaped more baggage upon this arcane treasure. Here it is, in its current form:
Illusionary Mask {2}
Artifact
{X}: You may choose a creature card in your hand whose mana cost could be paid by some amount of, or all of, the mana you spent on {X}. If you do, you may cast that card face down as a 2/2 creature spell without paying its mana cost. If the creature that spell becomes as it resolves has not been turned face up and would assign or deal damage, be dealt damage, or become tapped, instead it’s turned face up and assigns or deals damage, is dealt damage, or becomes tapped. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
Is it clearer now? No? It’s certainly not for the faint of heart. This isn’t some straightforward bit of tech for sweathogs and grinders. Casuals and dabblers need not apply. The Mask demands careful study, assiduity, and maybe even outright devotion in order to unlock its true potential.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far: Perhaps the best thing one can do with Illusionary Mask in 93/94 is to stifle the upkeep triggers of particularly unruly beasts, or to remove their “this creature can’t attack unless” clauses, at least for a turn. Some candidates here:
Getting a “free” attack with a somewhat under-costed creature like Serendib Djinn, or even just an otherwise reasonably-costed creature like Yawgmoth Demon or Goblin Rock Sled is really the main trick that Mask can play in Old School Magic.
One could also, I suppose, indulge in some chicanery involving creatures of similar casting costs, for example, mixing some creatures that can be killed by Lightning Bolt with others that cannot. Or, further, one could even add some creatures with abilities that create sweet effects when they block or are destroyed:
Sadly, however, none of these modest shenanigans have been compelling enough for Illusionary Mask to see more than fringe play in gimmicky decks, even among the most hardcore of spicers in the Old School world. Preventing both the upkeep cost and “can’t attack unless” rider on Leviathan for a turn should definitely be on every player’s bucket list, but if we’re being honest, there must be greater enticements for devious and deceptive mages to go to all the trouble involved with running lines ’round the tongues of creatures both strange and fantastic.
Fortunately, there’s a warp in the continuum of 93/94 Magic. New spells are coming for those daring (or bored) enough to reach out and grasp them. New tricks. New ambitions. New dreams.
And what dreams may come from our Scrying two years into a possible future for Old School, from the Year of Our Lord 1996?
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Whoa there. Now those are some proper rewards for devotees of the Mask. Lord of Tresserhorn. Phyrexian Dreadnought.
I can see that your wheels are already spinning. Ancient combos shall be remixed and remastered. The Mask will once again see the glory of our kitchen tables, obscuring powerful terrors and putting in serious work. It’s now up to you to delve deeply into its secrets.
The Sentinel 