Paranoid Parish-Blade MTG Card

Paranoid Parish-Blade - Shadows over Innistrad

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Creature — Human Soldier
Abilities	Delirium
Released	2016-04-08
Set symbol
Set name	Shadows over Innistrad
Set code	SOI
Power	3
Toughness	2
Number	33
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Matt Stewart

Key Takeaways

Gains card advantage by transforming, potentially offering a free creature without hand loss.
Its instant speed transformation enables flexible strategic responses to opponents’ moves.
White mana requirement and discard condition for transformation may limit versatility.

Text of card

Delirium — Paranoid Parish-Blade gets +1/+0 and has first strike as long as there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard.

The mind is perfectly capable of creating its own monsters.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Paranoid Parish-Blade shines in delivering card advantage by transforming itself under the right conditions, thus potentially offering you an additional creature without losing a card from your hand.

Resource Acceleration: While Paranoid Parish-Blade does not directly accelerate resources, it can tip the scales in combat through its stat boosts, indirectly saving resources usually spent on other spells to achieve a similar effect.

Instant Speed: The innate ability to transform at instant speed when a Spirits or another spell is played gives Paranoid Parish-Blade flexibility, allowing you to make strategic plays in response to your opponent’s actions.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Paranoid Parish-Blade’s transforming ability mandates a discard which can be detrimental during hand depletion. This hampers players who are managing a shrinking hand size, often leading to a tough decision between keeping crucial cards or activating the creature’s transformation.

Specific Mana Cost: Paranoid Parish-Blade necessitates white mana, making it a less flexible choice for multicolored decks that may struggle to produce the necessary mana consistently. This can be particularly challenging in formats where mana fixing is less accessible.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana cost that is significant when balanced against its base stats, Paranoid Parish-Blade might lag behind when compared to other creatures in its mana range. Although its potential upside post-transformation is notable, initial investment can be steep, requiring careful deck construction and strategy to maximize its value.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Paranoid Parish-Blade offers adaptability to various deck themes, showcasing its strength both in offensive and defensive scenarios. Its transform ability makes it a fitting choice for decks that play around with the day and night mechanic.

Combo Potential: As a human soldier, this card has synergy with other human-centric or soldier strategies, easily slotting into tribal decks. When flipped, its potential to become a more powerful creature under certain conditions can be leveraged in numerous combo setups.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta that favors aggro or tempo decks, Paranoid Parish-Blade can serve as a crucial defensive creature on one side and flip to become an aggressive threat on the other. This duality keeps it relevant across a wide array of matchups and shifting metas.

How to beat

The Paranoid Parish-Blade adds an intricate layer of strategy to player defenses in Magic: The Gathering. As a creature card, its strength lies in its potential to transform into a formidable adversary upon encountering a delirium condition, where one gets to unlock its true potential. This potent transformation can make the Parish-Blade a challenge to deal with during gameplay.

To effectively counter this dynamic card, concentrate on managing your opponent’s graveyard. Preventing them from accumulating the diverse card types required to trigger delirium is crucial. Cards like Tormod’s Crypt can blast away their graveyard contents, derailing their strategy. In addition to graveyard control, having readily available removal spells that can deal with creatures regardless of their size – like Path to Exile or Murderous Rider – can prove invaluable.

It’s also advantageous to prioritize threats aptly and recognize when it’s essential to deploy your removal resources. By staying ahead in card economy and cleverly manipulating combat dynamics, you can diminish the impact the Paranoid Parish-Blade has on the game, maintaining control and eventually overtaking your opponent.

Cards like Paranoid Parish-Blade

Paranoid Parish-Blade is an intriguing card in MTG that offers both offensive and defensive capabilities. Like its counterpart, Dauntless Cathar, Paranoid Parish-Blade provides a creature that can become quite formidable under the right circumstances. While Dauntless Cathar trades some power for an ability to exert influence beyond the graveyard by creating a token after death, Paranoid Parish-Blade’s strength lies in potentially becoming a stronger attacker or blocker when delirium is achieved. It shines by evolving as the game progresses and various card types fill the graveyard.

Analogous to the Parish-Blade is Thraben Foulbloods, which also benefits from delirium, growing into a larger threat. However, Thraben Foulbloods requires being on the battlefield to reap the rewards of its power boost, whereas Paranoid Parish-Blade’s benefits are built in, provided the conditions are met. Moorland Drifter is another card that gets buffs with delirium, gaining flying—a significant tactical advantage. While it doesn’t get the power boost of the Paranoid Parish-Blade, evasion can be a key factor in many matchups.

Assessing these comparisons, Paranoid Parish-Blade offers a blend of strategic depth and adaptability, securing its place as a solid choice for players seeking to leverage their graveyard for both offensive and defensive gains.

Cards similar to Paranoid Parish-Blade by color, type and mana cost

Pianna, Nomad Captain - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Paranoid Parish-Blade MTG card by a specific set like Shadows over Innistrad, 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 Paranoid Parish-Blade and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Paranoid Parish-Blade has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Restricted
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Pioneer	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Paranoid Parish-Blade card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2016-04-08	Because you consider only the characteristics of a double-faced card’s front face while it’s not on the battlefield, the types of its back face won’t be counted for delirium.
2016-04-08	In some rare cases, you can have a token or a copy of a spell in your graveyard at the moment that an object’s delirium ability counts the card types among cards in your graveyard, before that token or copy ceases to exist. Because tokens and copies of spells are not cards, even if they are copies of cards, their types will never be counted.
2016-04-08	Losing or gaining first strike after first-strike damage has been dealt won’t cause Paranoid Parish-Blade to deal combat damage twice or to not deal combat damage.
2016-04-08	The card types in Magic are artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, sorcery, and tribal (a card type that appears on some older cards). Supertypes (such as legendary and basic) and subtypes (such as Human and Equipment) are not counted.
2016-04-08	The number of card types matters, not the number of cards. For example, Wicker Witch (an artifact creature) along with Catalog (an instant) and Chaplain’s Blessing (a sorcery) will enable delirium.