Magic: The Gathering - the Ridged Kusite

Back in 2002, a Magic card was released with the following illustration:



This transparent, bug-eyed monster was instantly one of my favorite designs in the game, reminiscent of something off a 1950's pulp cover. Unfortunately, it had no name. This was merely the illustration to a spell card called "guided strike," and neither the woman nor the monster appeared anywhere but on this one-shot battle scene.

I thought I was the only one who remembered this guy, but half a decade later, a new wave of Magic cards were released which paid homage to older cards in all manner of unexpected ways, one of which was the addition of black creature called the "Ridged Kusite," shown here:



They changed up the original design a little, but in some pretty cool ways. I love the lattice-like veins added to the eyes, the oblong body and the tentacle nose. It reminds me oddly of a greatly distorted Tardigrade, especially with the now tooth-lined maw. The name "Ridged Kusite" is actually an anagram for "Guided Strike," and its type is "Horror Spellshaper." A "spellshaper" in magic is a creature which can change the effect of one of your spell cards, and the Kusite, of course, can change any card into a Guided Strike.