What are ouphes*?
These are ouphes. Two of them. Note the branches growing out of their heads and the blue toes. Also note the mask that one of them is holding. These ouphes, Aerie Ouphes** to be precise, are clearly quite strange.
This is another ouphe. A much better known one: Kitchen Finks. Note that these ouphes have somehow crept into someone's kitchen and are eating knives and drinking gallons of water? soap? The differences between them and Aerie Ouphes can be seen through their shorter noses, having hair, and only having three fingers.
More ouphes! These Dusk Urchins are chasing faeries and trying to eat them. They have glowing blue eyes and look like demonic rabbits. So far, none of these ouphes really have something in common.
Next up is an ouphe that is extremely different from the others: Gilder Bairn. It's wearing a dead frog and is putting various coloured mushrooms, worms, and strange fruits*** on stones, turtles, and trees. It's most likely hiding something though because it definitely did not kill a frog with its basket full of salamanders. Still no similarities with the other ouphes even though Gilder Bairn and Aerie Ouphes are from the same set.
The next ouphe I'll be talking about is Brown Ouphe. It is not on the plane of Lorwyn unlike the other ouphes, but on Mirrodin. It has a coat of fur on its upper back and is not doing anything particularly interesting.
Some more ouphes on Mirrodin! These ouphes are Ouphe Vandals. These ouphes have coyote-like heads and have strange sickles made of either wood or bone. They're actually quite similar to the Brown Ouphe with their brown-orange hair on their upper body.
Next up are some Dominarian ouphes, printed in Ice Age. This ouphe, the Fyndhorn Brownie, has red skin and is hiding in a pile of snow, throwing snowballs at unsuspecting passerby. It has grey fur and is quite unlike the rest of the ouphes.
The next ouphe is also from Dominaria, but looks nothing like the previously mentioned Dominarian ouphe, Fyndhorn Brownie. This ouphe is Pyknite. Pyknite looks like a short humanoid creature with grey wings. None of the other ouphes look remotely like anything human nor do they have wings. It also has a red hat unlike all the other ouphes**** which have no form of typical clothing*****.
Another Dominarian ouphe, this time printed in Legends, is Shelkin Brownie. It looks like a humanoid creature with blue eyes and no pupils. In the background you can see two shadowy creatures that also have blue eyes. Most likely these creatures are other Shelkin Brownies.
Next up is the most recently printed ouphe, Collector Ouphe. This card was printed in Modern Horizons and is quite an interesting ouphe. It looks like it has an Aether Vial in its hand and lives in a small cave with gems, vials, and a broken bird cage surrounding it. It looks similar to the Mirran ouphes with its orange hair and also is similar to the Aerie Ouphes with its long, pointy nose.
These last two ouphes are by far the strangest ouphes, which is why they have been saved for the last. This ouphe, Spellwild Ouphe, was printed in Future Sight and has glowing, blue eyes similar to the Shelkin Brownie. It also has the orange hair similar to that of the Mirran ouphes, but it also has a weapon, a small dagger. This is quite unusual for ouphes.
This... creature looks completely different from all the other ouphes with its vibrant, green skin and humanoid teeth and eyes. It is quite the horrifying monstrosity.
Mechanics of Ouphes
Let's take a further look into these ouphes by looking at their mechanics. Aerie Ouphes can sacrifice itself to deal damage to flying creatures and also has persist. Nial Silvain's ability is quite bad and lets you pay four green mana and tap it to regenerate a creature. Gilder Bairn is quite good though and lets you double counters on a permanent you control.
Brown Ouphe can counter activated abilities of artifacts. Disrupting activated abilities of artifacts is quite a common theme among these ouphes, as Ouphe Vandals can sacrifice itself to counter an activated ability of an artifact and then destroy it. The trend continues with Collector Ouphe, which is a Stony Silence on a 2/2 creature. Some more ouphes are Spellwild Ouphe which makes all spells that target it cheaper. Another ouphe is Shelkin Brownie which has quite a useless ability that makes it so that creatures cannot band with each other.
Next up, Pyknite. Pyknite is like a worse Elvish Visionary with it being more expensive to cast and waiting till the next upkeep to draw the card. Another ouphe, Dusk Urchins, puts -1/-1 counters on itself, eventually drawing you three or fewer cards. After that is Fyndhorn Brownie. It lets you untap your creatures for a cost of three mana.
Lastly, Kitchen Finks. This card lets you gain 2 life when it enters the battlefield and also has persist. Because of these abilities it sees a lot of play in Modern and is part of many infinite combos where you end up gaining infinite life.
Thanks for reading.
*Note: I am not responsible for nightmares caused by pictures of ouphes.
**Sadly, I still don't have the hover-over cards. I'm trying to find how to do it, but the HTML just isn't working.
*** At first glance, they look like lanterns.
**** Except Shelkin Brownie.
***** Just to be clear, dead frogs and leaves are not considered typical clothing.
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