Shinen of Fear's Chill MTG Card

Shinen of Fear's Chill - Saviors of Kamigawa

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Spirit
Abilities	Channel
Released	2005-06-03
Set symbol
Set name	Saviors of Kamigawa
Set code	SOK
Power	3
Toughness	2
Number	88
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Darrell Riche

Key Takeaways

Gains card advantage through recurring hand utility with its channel ability, ensuring sustained value in gameplay.
Instant speed channeling disrupts opponents, adding flexibility and surprise elements to combat strategies.
Demands card sacrifice and specific mana, potentially causing hand depletion and mana inefficiency in deck-building.

Text of card

Shinen of Fear's Chill can't block. Channel , Discard Shinen of Fear's Chill: Target creature can't block this turn.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Shinen of Fear’s Chill shines when it comes to leveraging your hand. It can return to your hand via its channel ability, providing ongoing value every time you cycle it through, ensuring a sustained card advantage.

Resource Acceleration: While not directly accelerating resources, this card holds a strategic advantage in deck types that capitalize on self-recursion methods. It can repeatedly enable synergisms and combos, effectively accelerating your path to key resources in a roundabout way.

Instant Speed: The channel ability of Shinen of Fear’s Chill operates at instant speed, allowing for a sudden shift in combat dynamics. Utilize it during your opponent’s turn to disrupt their best-laid plans or during your own as a surprise tactic, maintaining the element of speed and flexibility that is critical in many matches.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Shinen of Fear’s Chill necessitates the ditching of another card to unleash its Channel ability. This can deplete your hand swiftly, leaving you with fewer options as the game progresses, especially if you’re relying on this tactic to control the board or undermine your opponent’s strategy.

Specific Mana Cost: The card’s activation is reliant on blue mana, which makes it less flexible for decks that aren’t heavily invested in blue sources. Being a single-color card, it may be a less than ideal pick for multi-colored decks that need versatile mana solutions.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a summoning cost that includes three mana for a 2/2 creature, Shinen of Fear’s Chill may not hold up when compared to other creatures with similar or lower mana costs that provide equal or greater value. This can lead to mana inefficiency, where the card doesn’t quite match up to others that could potentially be more impactful for the same or less investment.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: The Shinen of Fear’s Chill offers flexibility for decks in need of evasive creatures. Its ability to be unblockable by creatures with higher power makes it a consistent source of damage and an excellent carrier of auras and equipment.

Combo Potential: With its “Channel” ability, it can play a pivotal role in decks that capitalize on targeting mechanics. By creating interactions with cards that trigger when abilities are activated or creatures targeted, it can significantly alter the battlefield state to your advantage.

Meta-Relevance: In a gameplay environment where control decks are prevalent, Shinen of Fear’s Chill shines by dodging removal spells that target only creatures with a certain power threshold. Its surprise factor and synergy with instant-speed buffs make it a strategic addition to any collection.

How to beat

The Shinen of Fear’s Chill is a card that can pose a unique challenge on the battlefield. Its ability to give all creatures you control fear for a single black mana whenever it attacks can turn the tides of combat significantly. Fear allows creatures to be blocked only by black or artifact creatures, making Shinen of Fear’s Chill a potential game-changer in Magic: The Gathering decks that lack appropriate blockers.

To effectively counter this card, it is important to have a deck that is versatile and prepared for such abilities. Incorporating cards with reach or that can act as universal blockers can mitigate the threat posed by fear. Additionally, removal spells are highly effective against Shinen of Fear’s Chill. Instant-speed removal allows you to respond to the attack before its ability is activated, while board wipes can reset the battlefield regardless of fear. It’s also strategic to limit your opponent’s creature count, making it harder for them to capitalize on the Shinen’s ability.

Overcoming the Shinen of Fear’s Chill requires thoughtful deck construction and tactical play. With the right strategies and responses, you can defuse the chilling effect it has on the game and maintain control of the battlefield.

Cards like Shinen of Fear's Chill

Shinen of Fear’s Chill adds a niche layer to the suite of creatures with combat trick abilities in Magic: The Gathering. Its kinship can be traced to the likes of Ghostly Wings, which also augments a creature’s abilities – albeit via granting flying rather than intimidate. Unlike Shinen of Fear’s Chill, Ghostly Wings doesn’t grant a static ability but offers the flexibility of discarding a card to return the enchanted creature to its owner’s hand.

Examining Whispering Shade, we see another creature that enhances itself, growing stronger with each swamp you tap. But unlike the selective infiltration Shinen of Fear’s Chill can provide, Whispering Shade demands extensive mana to become a substantial threat. Lastly, looking at Prickly Boggart, it shares the intimidate ability naturally, enabling it to sneak past defenders regularly, but lacks the Shinen’s ability to turn any creature into a lurking menace.

When pitted against its peers, Shinen of Fear’s Chill stands as a unique combat asset that can repeatedly grant intimidate, and with the ability to be played at instant speed, it offers a stealthy advantage that could pivot combat outcomes in a player’s favor. This makes the Shinen a useful card for players looking to craft elusive, hard-to-block creatures on the battlefield.

Cards similar to Shinen of Fear's Chill by color, type and mana cost

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Shinen of Fear's Chill MTG card by a specific set like Saviors of Kamigawa, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Shinen of Fear's Chill and other MTG cards: