Planeshift - a Complete Review (black)
39. Bog Down 2B Sorcery Kicker: Sacrifice two lands. Target Player discards two cards from his or her hand. If you paid the kicker cost, that player discards three cards from his or her hand instead. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
Stupor is a good enough card that Bog Down is automatically good as well. Sure, you don't get the random discard, but if you're playing a discard deck, that's not that big a deal, because you'll empty your opponent's hand just as fast. The kicker option looks interesting. Sacrificing two lands won't always be an option, but if you go turn two Addle, turn three Stupor and turn four Bog Down with kicker for the last three cards, the kicker can certainly be worth it. ---
40. Dark Suspicions 2BB Enchantment At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, that player loses 1 life for each card in his or her hand more than you have in your hand. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 3
At first glance this card doesn't look like much, but it does have a lot of potential. Up to seven life loss per turn is better than most, if not all creatures for just four mana and it's impossible to block or prevent. Not to mention that creatures are much easier to get rid of. Dark Suspicions does require a tailor-made deck, though. A deck, which can empty its hand while keeping the opponent's hand filled. You could go the combo route and make a deck with Howling Mines, Grafted Skullcaps and Null Brooches. In type two, you could just go with a land destruction deck. ---
41. Death Bomb 3B Instant As an additional cost to play Death Bomb, sacrifice a creature. Destroy target nonblack creature. It cant be regenerated. Its controller loses 2 life. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
I don't get this card and suspect there's something wrong about the spoiler. This card costs a creature and one mana more than Dark Banishing for the gain of making the creature's controller lose 2 life. If I compare Despoil to Rain of Tears, I see that one mana extra is about right for the bonus of two loss of life, yet Death Bomb also costs a creature. Sure, you can use it in response to removal to nullify the drawback, but that's pretty situational. ---
42. Diabolic Intent 1B Sorcery As an additional cost to play Diabolic Intent, sacrifice a creature. Search your library for a card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
Here, the creature sacrifice makes a lot more sense. It's the only thing that stops it from being a copy of Demonic Tutor and thus too powerful. Obviously, it fits well into Nether-Go, because a Nether Spirit is easily sacrificed. On the other hand, does Nether-Go need a tutor? Maybe to tutor for a Nether Spirit, but that defeats the purpose a little. In extended, Hatred decks could easily use Diabolic Intent to search for a Hatred or silver bullet, but Demonic Consultation is better in that deck. Ravenous Rats is a good creature to sacrifice to Diabolic Intent, so maybe a discard deck could run them with Pyre Zombies as additional creatures. The old Yawgmoth's Bargain deck would have liked this card. Cast a Rector and sacrifice it to a Diabolic Intent to get a Bargain in play and whatever else you need in your hand. On the other hand, with no Rector in play, it'd be a dead card. ---
43. Exotic Disease 4B Sorcery Target player loses X life and you gain X life, where X is the number of basic land types among lands you control ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 2
At best it's a Rhystic Syphon that can't be prevented or a Soul Feast with one extra strength. It's not worth the risk of not getting the land types you need. ---
44. Lord of the Undead 1BB Creature - Lord 2/2 All Zombies get +1/+1. 1B, T: Return target Zombie card from your graveyard to your hand. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 5
Finally the zombies get a fearsome lord! Zombie Master just didn't cut it. Let's see if a zombie deck could possibly be viable in type two right now. Zombies in type two: Gravedigger, Gravebane Zombie, Scathe Zombies, Deepwood Ghoul, Midnight Ritual, Coffin Puppets, Whipstitched Zombie, Metathran Zombie, Phyrexian Delver, Phyrexian Reaper, Pyre Zombie, Shivan Zombie and Vodalian Zombie. That's quite a bit more than I expected, but there aren't a lot of good weenies among them. Shivan Zombie and Vodalian Zombie are ok, but multicolor slows down a weenie deck. There's enough to make a good fun deck, but I don't expect to see it played at type two tournaments, with no Sarcomancy or Carnophage available. Oh well, it'll definitely see play in thousands of zombie theme decks around the world, including mine. I guess I should invest in a few Sarcomancies. ---
45. Maggot Carrier B Creature - Zombie 1/1 When Maggot Carrier comes into play, each player loses 1 life. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 2
Another zombie for the Lord of the Undead to command. By itself, it's not that good, though. Loss of life can be useful against Worship decks, but Worship isn't type two anymore and the loss of one life isn't usually enough to get around a Story Circle. ---
46. Morgue Toad 2B Creature - Toad 2/2 Sacrifice Morgue Toad: Add UR to your mana pool. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 3
A Blood Vassal for allied colors. Interesting. It's better than Blood Vassal in that it doesn't just give a mana boost, but it can also help you get out of a color screw. On the other hand, it can't help power a Drain Life, but that isn't type two anymore anyway. If this card sees tournament play, it'll probably be to help cast Crosis. Turn three Morgue Toad and turn four Crosis looks quite good to me. ---
47. Nightscape Battlemage 2B Creature - Wizard 2B Kicker 2U and/or 2R. When Nightscape Battlemage comes into play, if you paid the 2U kicker cost, return up to two target nonblack creatures to their owner's hands. When Nightscape Battlemage comes into play, if you paid the 2R kicker cost, destroy target land. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
It's not really a tournament quality card, because both options cost six mana in total and using both at the same time costs nine, for not that much gain. Destroying is usually something you want to do when you have three or four mana available, not six. On the other hand, in casual play the abilities do complement eachother well. Bounce two creatures and destroy a land to stop your opponent from recasting them immediately. When you get to nine mana, though, land destruction does tend to become less effective. ---
48. Nightscape Familiar 1B Creature - Zombie 1/1 Blue spells and red spells you play cost 1 less to play. 1B: Regenerate Nightscape Familiar. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 3
Another zombie for the Lord of the Undead, except that making blue and red spells cheaper to cast isn't very useful in a zombie deck. It'll make Metathran Zombie easier to cast, but that's about it. The BR and BU zombies don't have a generic part to the casting cost, so they're out. Oh well. It's a bit of a strange card, actually. A 1/1 creature is pretty vulnerable, although this one is immune to most black removal, so the regenerate ability is important. Yet, if you want to keep enough mana open to regenerate it, the bonus of your other spells becoming cheaper is negated. Still, I can see it in a black/blue control deck. A second turn Familiar sets up a third turn Fact or Fiction or Wash Out. The Familiar will be vulnerable for a turn, though, and you have to take care not to get your Familiar bolted while you've tapped your three lands to cast Fact or Fiction, which will suddenly cost four mana again. Although that shouldn't be too hard to prevent, because as far as I know, you can't respond to lands being tapped for mana. ---
49. Noxious Vapors 1BB Sorcery Each player reveals his or her hand and chooses one card of each color from it, then discards all other nonland cards from it. ==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 5
Obviously, Dark Ritual - Noxious Vapors is a pretty devastating first turn play against mono-colored decks. One problem that immediately comes up is that you'll get hit pretty bad as well if you're playing mono black or even black-blue. It's still playable in a mono black deck, though. You could play with a few Nether Spirits as the only creatures or with a lot of creatures and Avatar of Woe. Unmask could work well in that deck, even though you can't pick a land with it. Urza's Bauble isn't in Sixth and neither is Gustha's Scepter. Hmm. Necrosavant might work in a deck like that with Ravenous Rats and various other small creatures to sacrifice to it. An early Noxious Vapors will stall the game enough to make higher casting cost spells playable. Of course, if it gets countered, you have a problem. As for multicolor, a decklist like this would be nice (keep in mind it's off the top of my head): 4x Noxious Vapors
4x Dark Ritual
4x Vampiric Tutor
4x Morgue Toad
4x Crosis
4x Snuff Out
4x Ravenous Rats
4x Pyre Zombie
2x Necrosavant
2x Avatar of Will
4x UR sacland from Invasion
+ more land to taste
A bit rare-heavy, but that's what proxies are for. An ideal play would be: Turn 1 swamp, Snuff Out on an elf or bird, ritual, vapors leaving Crosis, Morgue Toad and two land in hand. Turn 2 land, rats (only if you're a good topdecker). Turn 3 toad. Turn 4 Crosis. It's unlikely to be that easy, but the deck has a lot of late-game strength as well by the looks of it. It probably needs some Lobotomies in the sideboard against Armageddon and Rising Waters. All in all, if you hadn't noticed yet, I like this card. ---
50. Phyrexian Bloodstock 4B Creature - Zombie 3/3 When Phyrexian Bloodstock leaves play, destroy target white creature. It can't be regenerated. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 3
It's too expensive for what it does. Sure, the ability can be useful, but it's too unpredictable. If it was a comes-into-play ability, it would be an ok sideboard card against white, but still nothing to brag about. At least it's a zombie. ---
51. Phyrexian Zombie 3B Creature - Zombie 3/3 Kicker: Pay 3 Life. If you paid the kicker cost, Phyrexian Scuta comes into play with two +1/+1 counters on it. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
This card has been compared to Juzam Djinn. It's in the same league, but I doubt it'll be that popular in the current type two. With Blastoderm and Jade Leech, another 5/5 for four mana isn't that big a deal, even if it is black and thus immune to a lot of black removal. It'll probably see quite a bit of play, if only as a splash in Fires decks. You can never have too many 5/5s for 4 mana. And hey, it's another zombie, so the lord can turn it into a 6/6 and fetch it back from the graveyard. ---
52. Planeswalker's Scorn 2B Enchantment 3B: Target opponent reveals a card at random from his or her hand. Target creature gets -X/-X where X is the converted mana cost of that card. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
Reusable creature destruction is good, but in this case it's both expensive and unreliable. ---
53. Shriek of Dread 1B Instant Target creature can't be blocked this turn except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
I'm not sure what the point of this is supposed to be. It's easier to splash than Fear, but the fact that it's an instant will rarely matter. Whether you cast it before combat or after you declare attacks doesn't matter that much. Maybe Shriek of Dread is supposed to be a cantrip. ---
54. Sinister Strength 1B Enchant Creature Enchanted Creature gets +3/+1 and is black. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 3
Unlike Twisted Experiment, it can't be used as creature removal. On the other hand, for two mana, you can turn a small creature into a force to be reckoned with. As a bonus, the extra toughness will help against red removal and turning the creature black will help against black removal. ---
55. Slay 2B Instant Destroy target green creature. It can't be regenerated. Draw a card. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
Heh. It's about time black got a few bad green hosers for a change. Not that Slay is such a bad card, but it sure pales compared to Perish. ---
56. Volcano Imp 3B Creature - Imp 1/1 Flying. 1R: Volcano Imp gains first strike until end of turn. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
This one is so bad I don't believe it's real. It's probably either bigger or cheaper. ---
57. Warped Devotion 2B Enchantment Whenever a permanent is returned to a player's hand, that player discards a card from his or her hand. ==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 5
As someone else pointed out to me, this card is sick if you can follow it up with a Wash Out. Other cards, like Recoil, are also good with it. Maybe it's possible to play one or two copies in a tweaked Nether-Go. Nether-Go usually already has Recoils and Wash Outs and it shouldn't be that hard to add a few Warped Devotions to make the most of those. Of course you have to stay away from cards like Daze, and Gush, but those are more Rising Waters cards. Planar Overlay is an option as well, depending on how accurate the spoiler is. Rushing River suddenly looks much better as well, as does the black battlemage with the double bounce kicker. Waterfront Bouncer suddenly isn't card disadvantage anymore. Sunken Hope is expensive, but if you're running creatureless (or if you're only using Nether Spirits, which you can bounce and then discard to get them back next turn), it's almost an Abyss with a Warped Devotion in play. Waterspout Elemental suddenly looks a lot better as well. Sure, it costs you a turn, but it'll cost your opponent several cards, at least.
|
