Nemesis - a Complete Review (blue)

• white
• blue
• black
• red
• green
• artifact
• land
• conclusion

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 5
It's hard to predict whether this will see serious use. I'm guessing it won't, because the first one will usually just be a cantrip and the second one won't show up until you should already have control. Maybe some deck that dumps a large chunk of its library into its graveyard will be able to use this as an Ancestral Recall, but by that time there are usually better things to cast (like Replenish). Still, maybe some decks will use this and once it starts getting popular, it could get more attractive to play, because it checks all graveyards. Needless to say, this could be quite interesting in multiplayer.

27. AEther Barrier, 2U, Enchantment, Rare Whenever a player plays a creature spell, that player sacrifices a permanent unless he or she pays 1.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
The same sort of mechanic as Soul Barrier. It's not really something a blue deck wants to waste its time on, especially because tapping out to cast this leaves you wide open to real problems you'll have trouble countering. Mana Denial like this can make for some interesting fun decks, though. Add Mana Breach, Slow Motion, Soul Barrier and watch your opponent go nuts when you Armageddon (or Sunder).

28. Air Bladder, U, Enchant Creature, Common Enchanted creature has flying. Enchanted creature may block only creatures with flying.

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
Great. Another useless flying enchantment. I really, really wish they'd stop printing these. They have to realize by now that flying just isn't powerful enough for a creature enchantment. Especially because there are better ways to give a creature flying, like Levitation, which gives all of your creatures flying.

29. Cloudskate, 1U, Creature - Illusion 2/2, Common Flying Fading 3

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 2
This looks pretty bad at first sight, but keep in mind that the white gliders are 3 mana for a 2/1 and they aren't bad. Cloudskate can attack 3 times, for a total of 6 damage. Almost like a slow Ball Lightning. The only problem is if an opponent has blockers that can kill this guy without dying. In that case your Cloudskate is as good as dead. If blue weenie becomes popular again, I expect to see this in it. Too bad Unstable Mutation isn't in sixth, because they would have gone quite well together.

30. Daze, 1U, Instant, Common You may return an island you control to its owner's hand instead of paying Daze's mana cost. Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
First turn counter ability has been sorely lacking for blue decks. Annul was pretty much it. Now it's possible again with Daze, but will it see play? For a counter deck, the first turn is a nightmare and if you use Daze, you get to relive that nightmare next turn. But when you do need it, to counter that Defense Grid, it's pretty much essential to have a counter ready. Daze also gives you the ability to counter twice in a row on the early turns. At two mana you can Counterspell the Defense Grid and still Daze the Multani's Presence.

31. Dominate, 1UU, Instant, Uncommon Gain control of target creature with converted mana cost X or less. (This spell's effect lasts past the end of the turn.)

==> TOUR: ? - FUN: ?
It doesn't say how to compute X, so it's hard to say how good or bad this will be. It'll have to be very good to beat Treachery, though.

32. Ensnare, 3U, Instant, Uncommon You may return two islands you control to their owner's hand instead of paying Ensnare's mana cost. Tap all creatures.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 2
If you cast it at the end of opponent's turn, it could break a stall, but I doubt it'll be worth it most of the time. Fits well into Stasis decks, like most of the other blue ACC spells. A good thing Stasis isn't in sixth.

33. Infiltrate, U, Instant, Common Target creature is unblockable this turn.

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
It's easier to play with unblockable creatures in the first place.

34. Jolting Merfolk, 2UU, Creature - Merfolk 2/2, Uncommon Fading 4 Remove a fade counter from Jolting Merfolk: Tap target creature.

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
It's overcosted and the ability isn't useful enough to make up for it.

35. Oraxid, 3U, Creature - Crab 2/3, Common Protection from red

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
A bit on the expensive side. A 2/3 with special ability usually costs 1UU. As a red hoser, Weatherseed Faeries are better in most cases.

36. Pale Moon, U, Instant, Rare Until end of turn, nonbasic lands produce colorless mana instead of their normal type.

==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
As a non-basic hoser, this pales (no pun intended, honest) compared to Blood Moon or Back to Basics. In the best case, you'll stall your opponent for a turn. Not really worth a spot in your sideboard. Most of the time, your opponent will have enough basic lands that he or she can still cast some things, even if not always exactly what they wanted. This might get played to stop some combo deck that uses Gaea's Cradle from going off that turn, but I don't see it happening.

37. Parallax Tide, 2UU, Enchantment, Rare Fading 5 Remove a fade counter from Parallax Tide: Remove target land from the game. When Parallax Tide leaves play, return to play under their owners' control all cards removed from the game with Parallax Tide.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
As landdestruction goes, this is pretty bad. It can save some lands from your own Armageddon, but I think that's about the only use for it.

38. Rising Waters, 3U, Enchantment, Rare Lands don't untap during their controllers' untap steps. At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player untaps a land he or she controls.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
It's a watered-down Winter Orb. Of all colors, blue is the one with the least use for such a card, because it usually plays control. And control is always mana hungry. With artifact mana so insanely popular these days, any deck based around Rising Waters had better have at least one Energy Flux maindeck with a way to tutor for it.

39. Rootwater Commando, 2U, Creature - Merfolk 2/2, Common Islandwalk

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 2
Quite vanilla. It doesn't fit in a merfolk deck, because 3 mana is a bit too much for a normal 2/2 and it already has islandwalk, so the Lord of Atlantis overlaps with it.

40. Rootwater Thief, 1U, Creature - Merfolk 1/2, Rare U: Rootwater Thief gains flying until end of turn. Whenever Rootwater Thief deals combat damage to a player, you may pay 2. If you do, search that player's library for a card and remove that card from the game, then the player shuffles his or her library.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 5
This is better, a merfolk with two nice abilities. It's also cheaper and has only one power less than Rootwater Commando. It doesn't seem nearly as irritating as Jester's Cap to play against. The Cap was hard to prevent, but Rootwater Thief can be Shocked or Vendetta'd or just plain blocked to prevent the loss of your cards. Maybe I'm overestimating the Thief for tournaments, because it can only take one card per turn and that'll usually be too slow against combo decks. But on the other hand, you do have counterspells to slow the opponent down.

41. Seahunter, 2UU, Creature - Mercenary 2/2, Rare 3, Tap : Search your library for a Merfolk card and put that card into play. Then shuffle your library.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
At 4 mana, do you really want to go looking for merfolk? It'd be different if there were a few big Merfolk around you could put into play cheaply with this, but, from the top of my head, I can't think of anything bigger than 2/2.

42. Seal of Removal, U, Enchantment, Common Sacrifice Seal of Removal: Return target creature to its owner's hand.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
Unsummon tends to be underrated in my opinion. Sure the effect is pretty limited, but you do get to fizzle creature enchantments (especially Rancor), save your creatures from destruction and make your opponent pay any costs for casting a creature again, including extra costs like loss of life or creature sacrifice. It's also quite a nice answer to a first turn Ritualed Negator or an early Tinkered Colossus when your opponent hasn't got the mana yet to cast them back from his hand. Because Seal of Removal is an enchantment, it lacks the surprise of Unsummon, but this can actually be a good thing. It gives you something to play on turn one if you have nothing better to do and it means you don't have to keep mana open later on.

43. Sliptide Serpent, 4UU, Creature - Serpent 4/4, Rare 3U: Return Sliptide Serpent to its owner's hand.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
A fixed Palinchron. As long as Palinchron is still around, there won't be any reason to play this.

44. Sneaky Homunculus, 1U, Creature - Illusion 1/1, Common Sneaky Homunculus can't block or be blocked by creatures with power 2 or greater.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 1
It's a fixed Metathran Soldier. And I didn't even know Metathran Soldier was broken. It's actually quite a bit worse than the soldier, because this guy isn't too hard to block with a wall or something. It also can't even take one for the team, by chump blocking something big.

45. Stronghold Biologist, 2U, Creature - Spellshaper 1/1, Uncommon UU, Tap , Discard a card from your hand: Counter target creature spell.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
I doubt this will make an impact in the tourney scene, but you never know. It's too vulnerable, but the white enchantment that makes all your creatures and lands untargettable, Spiritual Asylum, could help against that. That should make it a quite irritating creature. Still, it's likely too slow.

46. Stronghold Machinist, 2U, Creature - Spellshaper 1/1, Uncommon UU, Tap , Discard a card from your hand: Counter target noncreature spell.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
At least the Machinist can protect itself once it looses summoning sickness. I rate this higher than the Biologist, because creatures are usually easy enough to deal with (Earthquake, Wrath of God), it's the other stuff you want to counter, like Armageddon and Defense Grid. I think this guy is good enough to see some play, although I thought Brine Seer was nice too, but in playtesting it turned out to be horrible. Too expensive and showing your hand is never a good idea for blue.

47. Stronghold Zeppelin, 2UU, Creature - Drake 3/3, Uncommon Flying Stronghold Zeppelin may block only creatures with flying.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 3
Vanilla.

48. Submerge, 4U, Instant, Uncommon If an opponent controls a forest and you control an island, you may play Submerge without paying its mana cost. Put target creature on top of its owner's library.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
Time Ebb with a subtle difference. Because it's an instant, it can Fizzle Rancor and Might of Oaks and the like. This is definitely a sideboard card though, because 5 mana is just too much to ever count on paying. Hibernation is usually better, but green is popular enough that this could fit in as well.

49. Trickster Mage, U, Creature - Spellshaper 1/1, Common U, Tap , Discard a card from your hand: Tap or untap target artifact, creature, or land.

==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
Twiddle-on-a-stick. Twiddle is actually quite a useful card, except that it's usually too situational to actually put in a deck. Trickster Mage can turn any of your cards in Twiddles. Don't look at this card as a Twiddle permanent, though, look at it as a weenie with a potentially useful ability. This card is really helped by costing only 1 mana. An untapped Trickster Mage can allow one of your bigger creatures to attack, and keeping your opponent from counterattacking, because you can Twiddle your big creature to be ready to block. Most of the time, you won't even need to use it, the mere threat is enough.

50. Wandering Eye, 2U, Creature - Illusion 1/3, Common Flying All players play with their hands revealed.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
I'd rate this higher if it only revealed your opponent's hand. That would make sense, it is after all _your_ eye wandering around. As it is, it's an ok card, but not strong enough for tournaments. A 1/3 for 3 mana doesn't fit in a weenie deck and a control deck doesn't like to reveal its hand.