Great Whale (Original Art)

Great Whale is a seven-mana blue 5/5 Whale creature, and when it comes into play, you may untap up to seven lands. At face value, it just looks like a big blue creature ¬– but the power lies entirely in its enter-the-battlefield ability: untapping seven lands. That ability meant that once it resolved, you effectively got all your mana back, and could often recast or reanimate it again. In the Urza’s Saga (1998) era, Great Whale was played to generate infinite mana, draw your entire deck, or win on the spot with a loop. Great Whale’s ability to untap lands equal to its casting cost allowed degenerate loops with cards like Recurring Nightmare – repeatedly sacrificing and recurring Great Whale, untapping lands each time. Palinchron and Treachery – both part of the same cycle of “free mana” creatures and enchantments, also worked extremely well with Great Whale. High Tide decks ¬– with Great Whale, Cloud of Faeries, Frantic Search, and Time Spiral, allowed players to generate a massive amount of mana and storm count in a single turn. During Pro Tour Rome 1999, and in the months surrounding it, decks using Recurring Nightmare, Great Whale, and Palinchron – “Recurring Nightmare Combo” –were dominating the competitive scene. These decks could repeatedly untap lands and loop creatures, generate infinite mana and cast spells like Stroke of Genius or Drain Life for lethal. In Premodern, Great Whale is also played in “Nightmare Whale”, together with Palinchron, Cloud of Faeries, City of Traitors and Recurring Nightmare, to set up an infinite mana combo. Once you have generated infinite mana, you can use another creature with some kind of draw or look through your deck effect like Vodalian Merchant, Merfolk Traders, and Raven Familiar – and use that to completely draw your deck. Then you can kill your opponent with Highway Robber by recurring it with Recurring Nightmare over and over again, draining your opponent for 2 life each time it comes into play. Great Whale has also found a home in cEDH/Commander, where it’s used in decks that exploit blink/flicker effects, reanimation loops and infinite mana combos (e.g. Urza, Lord High Artificer and Muldrotha, the Gravetide). Great Whale is on the Reserved List, it cannot be reprinted.