Tag Archive: planeswalker


Return to Ravnica Speculation – Jace, Adviser to the Firemind

Filed under: Articles by solemnparty — Leave a comment
August 13, 2012

There seem to be some unwarranted spoilers going around that I (and everyone else) assume to be fake, so I’m going to mention the most (or least) believable of them; Jace, Advisor to the Firemind. You can find the blog here.

Here’s the text they’re supplying for the spoiler:

Jace, Adviser to the Firemind {U}{R}
Planeswalker – Jace (Mythic Rare)
+2: Put a card from your hand on top of your library.
0: Look at target player’s hand.
-7: You get an emblem with “Whenever you draw a card, Jace, Adviser to the Firemind deals 2 damage to target creature or player.”
Loyalty: 1

Taking a hint from Tibalt, he’s an extremely under-powered 2-drop planeswalker that’s completely unbalanced. Starting at only 1 loyalty leaves him open to a un-transformed delver or an exalted bird of paradise. His +2 is rather bad, putting a card from your hand to the top of your library. Perhaps if a UR Delver deck develops without Ponder in format, it may see some play. Also, his 0 gives you quite a bit of information; their entire hand. However, the fact that his ultimate is a -7 assumes that he’s going to live long enough for you to get an emblem that apparently needs him on the board to use.

Due to the wording of the -7, Jace, Adviser to the Firemind would have to be present on the board in order to inflict damage to an opponent when a card is drawn. The rest of the time, the emblem would sit there uselessly.

Hopefully, this is not our real jace that’s being released, as that would simply be depressing after Jace Beleren and Jace the Mind Sculptor. Flavorfully, it would make sense for this Jace to be Red and Blue, as the Izzet League seems to be a place where Jace would want to be, especially if Niv-Mizzet truly is a planeswalker. However, only time will tell if this is a real spoiler, but I’m certainly hoping it isn’t.

 

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Tibalt the Fiend-Blooded – Avacyn Restored Mythic Rare Card Review

Filed under: Avacyn Restored, Card Reviews by elspethftw — Leave a comment
May 10, 2012

I’m not really in love with this guy. Yes, he’s a planeswalker for TWO mana. Yes, his -6 is pretty ridiculous. But I think getting him to 6 is going to be pretty difficult. Again, this is a neat little guy for EDH, where if you can drop him turn 2 and your opponent’s can’t kill him, he can become quite a nuisance. He does have an interesting -4, but that’s often going to be at most 7 damage, and he’ll have to survive at least 2 more turns to pull it off. I think in Red Deck Wins he’s a nice cheap alternative to Koth (especially after the rotation of Scars block) but I’m not really that impressed with him. His +1 is just meh, simply because of the discard a card at random. If you drew 2 cards and discarded a random card, I’d love him. A nice card to have, I guess, but I’m underwhelmed. Again, I no longer really follow Standard, but I’d pick one up to have in the old EDH toolbox.

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Tamiyo, the Moon Sage – Avacyn Restored Mythic Rare

Filed under: Avacyn Restored, Card Reviews by elspethftw — Leave a comment
May 10, 2012

Ah, Tamiyo, you are so pretty! Really, I love Elspeth, and she’ll always be my favorite planeswalker, but this is a beautiful card! Yes, she’s a five drop. So what? She is an EDH player’s dream! Frost Titan’s enter the battlefield ability for a +1? Draw a card for each tapped creature target player controls for a -2? Get a sick emblem for a -8? I don’t know how this card works in Standard, and frankly, I could care less. Maybe she’s a good fit in Super Friends. Really, though, I just love her abilities so much in theory that I just want to fill an entire Monster binder with nothing but her! OK, maybe not quite that much, but still, pretty sweet planeswalker!

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Garruk Relentless Announced!

Filed under: Articles, Card Reviews, Innistrad by solemnparty — Leave a comment
September 2, 2011

Garruk Relentless is not just Garruk Relentless, but Garruk, the Veil-Cursed. Garruk is at the magic planeswalker number of CMC 4, 3G. He transforms when he hits 2 loyalty, which isn’t difficult when he’s at 3 to start. However, he has 2 zero abilities, which are both decent. Garruk deals 3 damage to target creature, then he takes their power as damage. Against a 1/1, he would kill the 1/1 and transform. I’m not sure what the rulings on him are going to be, but as Garruk, the Veil-Cursed, is he treated as a different planeswalker? If so, he’s better than I’m assuming. Otherwise, his other zero will be more used, putting a 2/2 green Wolf into play, which is rather good with Mayor of Avabruck’s transformed Howlpack Alpha pumping wolves and werewolves.

I assume that Garruk can’t transform back, however. Garruk, the Veil-Cursed, which is black and green (as people predicted), has a +1 that creates a 1/1 black wolf with deathtouch, which I honestly love. It’s flavorful of his curse, and 1/1 deathtouch wolves are cool, once against with Mayor of Avabruck’s Howlpack Alpha pumping them to 2/2′s. His -1 sacrifices a creature to search your deck for a creature and add it to your hand. It’s good, letting you pop some of those wolves to get something you need, or even helping you trigger morbid abilities. His -3, however, is Overrun with a catch; it’s +X/+X where X is the number of creatures in your graveyard. It’s a decent ability for such a low ultimate. All-in-all, Garruk Relentless/Veil-Cursed will see more play than Liliana of the Veil, sadly.

However, Garruk isn’t the only card spoiled! This card with a very long name, Endless Ranks of the Dead, creates X 2/2 black zombies, where X is half the number of zombies you control, rounded down. Wow. I actually really like this card, as long as they print some decent zombies in the set. If not dealt with, they could become a problem, especially several of them on the field at a time.

This could be crippling against white weenie. That is, if it didn’t cast 5 to play. Terrible rare, hope I don’t get them.

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It’s Garruk and he’s double-faced

Filed under: Articles, Innistrad by solemnparty — 1 Comment
August 30, 2011

As Mark Rosewater already told everyone, Garruk Relentless, as we saw on the stand-in transformation card, is a double-faced Planeswalker, and is the planeswalker with 5 loyalty abilities. No one’s quite sure what he is or what he’ll be doing in Innistrad. It’s possible he’ll be a werewolf and help the werewolves to transform and transform himself into a werewolf planeswalker, maybe giving us a green werewolf Garruk, similar to Gideon’s zero ability to make himself a 6/6 soldier? It’s all speculation at the moment.

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Ajani vs Nicol Bolas Duel Decks? Color Me Unimpressed

Filed under: Deck Profiles, Product Review by elspethftw — 6 Comments
August 25, 2011

In yet another installment of Bang for Your Buck, I’m going to review the recently spoiled Ajani Vengeant vs Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker Duel Decks. Unfortunately, beyond the great new alternate artwork on the aforementioned planeswalkers, these decks really are nothing to get excited about. Besides giving Boros players easy access to Vengeant and Grixis EDH players easy access to a previously rather difficult planeswalker to obtain, there are very few cards in these decks even worth mentioning. I would hardly consider $20 worth what’s actually in these decks.

Ajani has an interesting contigent of Naya cards in his deck, with Wild Nacatl, Qasali Pridemgte, and Ajani’s Pridemate all included in the deck. There’s also a Lightning Helix. But beyond that, there’s nothing incredibly special that’s worth any sort of money.

Nicol Bolas on the other hand at least has Cruel Ultimatum working for him. There’s a Profane Command, Deep Analysis, and Countersquall included, as well. None of these are money cards, though.

As for playability, they’re probably fairly fun decks to play, but there’s nothing really here that you’ll run in any sort of competitive deck. As far as “Bang for Your Buck” is concerned, they’re not really worth it besides the cover cards. There’s just too much jank in these decks to really be worth it. I just don’t think they’re worth the money beyond curiosity – if you want the planeswalkers they’ll be more easily available as singles.

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Garruk, Primal Hunter – Magic 2012 Mythic Rare Review

Filed under: Card Reviews, Magic 2012, Magic 2013 by elspethftw — 4 Comments
July 2, 2011

Magic the Gathering Garruk Primal Hunter

The new Garruk is certainly quite interesting. He has a fantastic +1 ability. Put a 3/3 green Beast creature token onto the battlefield. Nothing wrong with that.

His -3 is rather baffling to me, though. Draw cards equal to the greatest power among creatures you control. This just doesn’t seem like a great ability to me. Yes, it makes for much needed draw power for green, but why would you use it with all of the green tutor cards that exist? Nevertheless, I’m sure there will be game states where a couple of extra draws could win you the game, considering that he would be in a creature-heavy deck, and drawing one more Garruk’s Companion could be the extra punch you need later in the game. You could also get that that Giant Growth or other pump spell could come with that extra draw.

His -6 ability is extremely fun. Put a 6/6 green Wurm creature token onto the battlefield for EACH LAND you control. That is absolutely ridiculous. That is almost guaranteed to win you the game. Barring a boardwipe, and considering you’ll have at least 5 or 6 lands at the time of Garruk using this ability, you’re talking about a nearly insurmountable situation for your opponents. Certainly while all of the ramp cards are still in Standard, this Garruk could be extremely dangerous because of this ultimate ability. His mana cost does have triple green, but considering pretty much all powerful green cards have that triple green mana cost, this is properly costed. He’s quite a boss.

I must say that I’m very satisfied with the three new planes-walkers. They are all built to have decks built around them, with Chandra the Firebrand actually being able to splash. They put a lot of work into these revamped planeswalkers and players both new and old can appreciation what the new Garruk, Jace, and Chandra bring to the table (literally.)

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Jace, Memory Adept – Magic 2012 Card Review

Filed under: Card Reviews, Magic 2012, Magic 2013 by elspethftw — 1 Comment
June 30, 2011
Magic 2012 Jace Memory Adept

The Lord of the Mill

There is very little that I can say that has not already been said about this card. Just look at the spoilers for Magic 2012, and it is very obvious that Wizards is reviving the once extremely popular Mill archetype. This new Jace is easily Lord of the Mill. The implications of this card on the metagame of nearly all Constructed formats is ridiculous. When combined with his two support cards from Magic 2012, Jace’s Archivist and Jace’s Erasure (a COMMON no less), he becomes very, very scary.

Some people don’t like his artwork. I’m not really a huge fan, honestly. I am, however, a fan of his abilities. He does cost 3 colorless and 2 blue to play, yes, making him as expensive as Elspeth Tirel, but he’s worth the price. His +1 ability is ok. You can draw a card and then have your opponent put the top card of his or her library into the graveyard. With Jace’s Erasure, which is an enchantment that allows you every time you draw a card to make them mill the top card of their library, this +1, becomes even more deadly. It’s his 0 ability that is absolutely absurd. You just tell your opponent, put the top ten cards of your deck into your graveyard. That’s it. People argue this doesn’t really do anything, but hey, it’s a clock, and putting your opponent on a clock in the game of Magic has always been a sound strategy. His ultimate ability becomes even more ridiculous. It is -7, so you’ll be having to utilize good ole Tezzeret’s Gambit for its proliferation (and draw 2 effect, as well, obviously) to get this off most of the time. But you have any number of players, including yourself, draw twenty cards. Again, there is the argument that this gives your opponent more choices. But if you combine this with Archivist, whose tap ability makes both players discard their hands and draw a number of cards equal to the player who discarded the most cards, you likely have won the game. If you also have Jace’s Erasure on the field, then you have pretty much guaranteed your opponent will deck out. Jace, Memory Adept is the ultimate combo planeswalker, with cards specifically built just to combo with him.

The reason so many people are upset is that Jace Beleren was such a great draw engine, and Jace the Mind Sculptor was, well, Jace the Mind Sculptor. Both were playable in any deck that utilized blue mana, which in the game of Magic the Gathering, is a high percentage of competitive decks. In Legacy, both of those incarnations of Jace will live on. But now with the third Jace released, you have a card that is absolutely tied to the Mill archetype. There is really no other deck that Memory Adept can work in. But people really should not complain now. Complain later when Jace, Memory Adept’s deck is wrecking the format. You can count me in on this bandwagon. It’s only just starting.

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