The Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths set has introduced a whole range of ‘counter’ aside from the usual norm +1/+1, -1/-1 and poison counters that we know. What is interesting here is that some creatures and spells work around on these counters for today’s IKO card feature, we have one artifact creature that simply gains one random counter from the list. Check out Crystalline Giant.

While it is a common 3/3 for 3 mana, every trigger at the beginning of combat that gives it a random counter that has not yet listed gives it a slight advantage against opposing creatures at that turn. If you are lucky, the sequencing counters might get you into a major board advantage.

There was an article by Frank Karsten on how to determine the ‘random’ trigger by Crystalline Giant and the best way is to use a D10 or a ten-sided dice. 

To quote, “There are 10 different counters, so a roll of 1 would grant flying, a roll of 2 would grant the first strike, and so on. You would just follow the printed order of abilities listed on the card. If this leads to a kind of counter that Crystalline Giant already has, then you reroll (and keep rerolling until you succeed).” He also discussed other methods such as using other less or more sided dice and tossing coins which you can read more here. 

That is a wrap for now and until the next blog post.