A to Z 2016 : ENSNARING BRIDGE

While it's true I have many favorite Magic: The Gathering cards, I can honestly say that this is one of my tops!

And my playset of foil 7th Edition Ensnaring Bridges (first printed in Stronghold) is among my most treasured items from my Magic collection. These in particular have held some value over time. I'd like to think they are rare to come across. As for the card itself, I played with them all the time. The non-foil versions that is.

Those decks I've mentioned so far, especially Discard and Burn, have relied on this card to make the "magic" happen. It's a card that potentially buys me the time I need to set up my board and/or combo pieces. My Burn decks in particular benefited from its inclusion, because you would almost always have no cards in your hand. So if an opponent didn't have any artifact destruction (or some other form of applicable removal), they couldn't attack, and you could stall and buy time.

Hmm this card may have facilitated my Slowplay nickname...

These decks I mention were all for casual play, mind you, but even today the card has been used competitively in the Modern format. I believe this was in response to the overwhelming number of Eldrazi decks that spawned with the newest set releases, Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch. For those reading who may be unfamiliar, the Eldrazi are giant Godlike creatures, so I can only assume Ensnaring Bridge was used to stop them in their tracks!

Now that a key piece of most Modern Eldrazi decks was banned I'm wondering if the price of Ensnaring Bridge will drop, or if its playability and value is realized and it finds even more applications in the format.

I'd hate trying to collect a playset of foils now, so I'm thankful I have mine. I also have a good number of non-foil versions spread across its three printings! As you can guess, I bought those foils to swap between my all-foil incarnations that never came to fruition! Ah, well...

Have you ever played with Ensnaring Bridge? Do you know what decks it's played in competitively? Is it only a sideboard card? Do you like playing with Eldrazi? Do you have a favorite Eldrazi?