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Fading: Good or Bad?

As you may all know, fading is the newest ability in Magic. Fading is an affect in which permanents come into play with a number of fade counters. You have to remve a fade counter every turn. If you can't then you must sacrifice the permanent.

Although this may sound like a very corny idea, permanents with fading are pretty powerful and can be a game changer if played at the right time. Permanents with fading cost less to play (due to the fact that it goes away in a couple of turns) and some are really powerful. A lot of cards with fading made it's way to the best of the best list on Nemesis.

Parallaxes are considered pretty powerful and can be a game changer. Parallaxes are enchantments with a fading of 5. Parallax Nexus, Tide, and Wave are the only Parallaxes. There are only Parallaxes for blue, black, and white. Parallax Nexus cost 2 and has the ability to remove cards from your hand by removing that many fade counters. So to remove a card, you need to remove a fade counter. With this ability you can remove your opponent's cards from his hand before he could even play them. Parallax Tide removes lands and Parallax Wave removes creatures (a mini-Wrath of God). All these cards slow down your opponent significantly and eventually allowing you to win the game. The only drawback is that once the Parallaxes run out of fade counters you must return all cards back to its owner's control. It may seem like a big drawback but when it's in play, the affects are BIG. Knocking off a couple of lands, creatures, or cards, will deprive him of his resources and give you an edge on the game. Also some of these cards could also save your permanents. Parallax Waves removes creatures, so if your opponent tries to kill your creature, just remove it from the game. Once the Wave goes to the graveyard, it comes back into play under your control again.

Aside from the Parallaxes some creatures with fading are also very powerful. Blastoderm is the best example. It cost 2 but it's a 5/5 and it can't be the target of spells or abilities. It has a fading of 3 so it stays out for 4 turns. Hey with 4 turns it could deal a lot of damage. Let's not forget the fact that green is known for it's speed in mana production so you could easily get it out on the third turn. Another bigger one is the Skyshroud Behemoth. This baby is a 10/10 for 7 mana but it comes into play tapped. It's not as powerful as the Blastoderm (due to it's latness in the game and the fact that it doesn't have any special abilty such as trample) but if played at the right time it could be a game ender.

With all this in mind, I am happy to say that, despite what other people think, fading doesn't suck. Fading acts as a drawback for the cards. And when cards need drawbacks, that means it's usually pretty powerful. Cards with fading are usually very powerful and usually tip the game to your side.