Sometimes, a card has a singular purpose. The hope is that it will do that purpose well, and in a beneficial way to you. There is a reason, after all, that some of the classic core set spells (Lightning Bolt, Giant Growth, Counterspell, Disenchant, Terror) have lasted in some form as long as they have. They do their job, and they do it well.

In other cases, many cards simply don’t work when you widen the scope beyond its intended use. Their focus – and potency – gets diluted. Delver of Secrets is a fantastic card in a duel; in Commander it’s quite the opposite. Similarly, something like Palliation Accord is great when staring down a table full of enemies, but it’s probably not something you’d use against just one. Taking a card out of its preferred arena will degrade its effectiveness.

Of course, there are also those cards that go in the other direction, finding new levels of versatility when they’re used outside of their original purpose. In Commander, such cards are always deserving of a little praise.

Today we have: Flurry of Wings

Name: Flurry of Wings

Edition: Alara Reborn

Rarity: Uncommon

Focus: Creature Generating

Highlights: Flurry of Wings is not a highly complicated card. It makes flying tokens equal to the number of attacking creatures, and more often than not, it’s used defensively. (It’s good to remember that in the Shards of Alara block, there were only two cards that had fog effects. In Alara Reborn, this was the closest option to do the same thing.) If an opponent decided to come barreling at you, this Bant-aligned card set up a host of temporary blockers even if you had no other creatures. Trample aside, it was a short reprieve from certain death with distinctive Alara flavor.

Alternatively, it did have the ability for generating more creatures if you were on the offense. Attacking with a handful of creatures and then casting Flurry of Wings at the very least set up blockers for inevitable retaliation. That, or it generated a “win-more” scenario, where you’re pressing an advantage while you’re already ahead. This use was just as viable, but it was seen less since it showed up in the exalted-themed shard.

In multiplayer games like Commander, the card still holds its original purposes. For a mere three mana, you can alleviate getting swarmed to death while perhaps keeping a few Birds around for some payback, or you can be the one doing the swarming. Where the card becomes even more worthwhile is in combat not involving you. If Player A is attacking Player B with a token army, who’s to say you  can’t at benefit by creating an army of fliers? It’s an instant air force for almost no investment.

Granted, you’ll certainly up your threat level by profiting on someone else’s border war by effortlessly gaining a sizable amount of recruits, but in that case we have a good idea you don’t need us to tell you that you’ll be putting your new flying armada to use in short order.

Keep an eye out for us to be regularly featuring other more accessible-but-worth-it Commander cards going forward. In the meantime, we’ll keep the light on for you.

You can discuss this article over on our forums!

Do you have a particular Commander card to suggest for us to shine a future Spotlight on? You can send suggestions to ryan@cardboardrepublic.com