Prophecy - a Complete Review (white)
1. Abolish, 1WW, Instant, Uncommon You can discard a plains from hand instead of paying Abolish's mana cost. Destroy target artifact or enchantment. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 3
A staple card with a new mechanic, nothing special really. Its tournament use depends solely on the metagame. If there are any mana denial decks floating around with nasty enchantments or artifacts, this'll be a good sideboard card. 2. Aura Fracture, 2W, Enchantment, Common Sacrifice a land: Destroy target enchantment. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
This looks like it could worry Replenish decks. If you keep taking out their Opalescenses, they'll eventually run out of Replenishes. Of course they do have Seal of Cleansing to deal with it. Bargain might not like it either, because it's so easily reusable. Disenchanting the first Bargain can be dealt with, but can it handle having to recast Bargain more than once? It's worth a try. The combo with Groundskeeper is obvious and reminds me of the Rancor/Arenson's Aura combo. Very frustrating to play an enchantment heavy deck against. 3. Avatar of Hope, 6WW, Creature - Avatar 4/9, Rare Flying If you have 3 life or less, Avatar of Hope costs 6 less to play. Avatar of Hope may block any number of creatures. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 5
Even if you have to pay for it the hard way, this is a great fun card. It's big, white and it can save you if you're loosing. In tournaments it could be a good sideboard card against aggressive decks, but it'll require careful manaburning and damage control to use. It works best with cards that let you pay life for an advantage, most obviously Necropotence. 4. Blessed Wind, 7WW, Sorcery, Rare Target player's life total becomes 20. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 2
For 9 mana, this does surprisingly little. As lifegain, it only works well if you're in trouble, in which case you'd rather deal with the problem than putting off the inevitable. In fun games it's a stylish way of cutting someone who has got up to 100+ life down to size, but that's about it. 5. Celestial Convergence, 2WW, Enchantment, Rare When Celestial Convergence comes into play, put seven omen counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a counter from Celestial Convergence. If there are no omen counters on Celestial Convergence, the player with the highest life total wins this game. If two or more players tied for the highest life total, the game is a draw. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 3
It's an interesting idea, but it's executed rather poorly. Four mana, seven turns of vulnerability to enchantment destruction _and_ the necessity of keeping your life total up makes this card too hard to seriously use. 6. Diving Griffin, 1WW, Creature - Griffin 2/2, Common Flying Attacking does not tap Diving Griffin. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 3
Three mana for a 2/2 with two special abilities is about normal for white these days, but there are better creatures for this slot. This suffers from not being a rebel. 7. Entangler, 2WW, Enchant Creature, Uncommon Enchanted creature can block any number of creatures. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
For that price, you'd expect a bit of a toughness boost as well. In tournaments, you'd usually prefer Wall of Glare. Not only is it much cheaper, it comes with its own built-in creature as well. Fun with a Cockatrice. 8. Excise, XW, Instant, Common Remove target attacking creature from the game unless its controller pays X. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
I like removal that removes from game, it's good not to have to worry about recursion. Still, this is a card for specialized decks. Any deck that expects to have more mana than opponent could use this. It's still a risk of a bad draw if your deck isn't working right, though. And that's usually when you most want removal. 9. Flowering Field, 1W, Enchant Land, Uncommon Enchanted land gains "T: Prevent the next one damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn." ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 3
A less vulnerable version of Samite Alchemist, but still not very good. Damage prevention is rarely tournament worthy, because it's too reactive. It's one of those cards that wins creature battles, because people tend to overlook it in their calculations. 10. Glittering Lion, 2W, Creature - Cat 2/2, Uncommon Prevent all damage that would be dealt to Glittering Lion. 2: Until end of turn, Glittering Lion loses "Prevent all damage that would be dealt to Glittering Lion". Any player may play this ability. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 2
An interesting mechanic. As long as the two mana isn't paid, this is effectively a creature with an insanely high toughness. On the other hand, you usually only have to pay that mana once, so it might as well read: "If you kill this creature, pay 2 to make it stay dead." There are better creatures and 2 mana isn't enough disruption in casual play. 11. Glittering Lynx, W, Creature - Cat 1/1, Common Prevent all damage that would be dealt to Glittering Lynx. 2: Until end of turn, Glittering Lynx loses "Prevent all damage that would be dealt to Glittering Lynx". Any player may play this ability. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 2
This suffers from the same problem. It's better costed at W for a 1/1, but being a 1/1 also makes the ability less interesting. 1/1s are too small to be a threat. 12. Jeweled Spirit, 3WW, Creature - Spirit 3/3, Rare Flying Sacrifice two lands: Jeweled Spirit gains protection from artifacts or the color of your choice until end of turn. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 5
It's too expensive for a weenie and too small to be a big creature. It only seems to fit as a kill card in control decks, but with Morphling still around, I can't think of anything this would see play in. Still, a creature this hard to kill without getting completely impossible to get rid of, like Blinking Spirit, deserves full marks for fun play. 13. Mageta, the Lion, 3WW, Creature - Spellshaper Legend 3/3, Rare 2WW, T, Discard two cards from hand: Destroy all creatures in play except for Mageta the Lion. Those creatures can't be regenerated. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
A deck that can't get rid of this or win before it becomes active isn't good enough anyway. On the other hand, an instant Wrath of God is always good and I certainly want to try a deck with this and Howling Mines. 14. Mageta's Boon, 1W, Enchantment, Common You may play Mageta's Boon any time you could play an instant. Enchanted creature gets +1/+2. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
A versatile card. You can use it as removal or to save your creature and it still adds the +1/+2 permanently. 15. Mercenary Informer, 2W, Creature - Rebel Mercenary 2/1, Rare Mercenary Informer can't be the target of black spells or abilities. 2W: Put target Mercenary card on the bottom of its owner's library. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 1
A nice idea for a hoser, but mercenaries haven't seen much (if any) play so far. Maybe Prophecy will change that, but I doubt it. I subtracted fun points for being a rare hoser. 16. Mine Bearer, 2W, Creature - Soldier 1/1, Common T, Sacrifice Mine Bearer: Destroy target attacking creature. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
Defiant Vanguard is usually better, even though it can't kill flying creatures. This suffers from not being a rebel. 17. Mirror Strike, 3W, Instant, Uncommon Target unblocked creature deals combat damage to its controller instead of you this turn. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 2
Four mana is a bit much for that. It's a fun answer to Hatred, though. It'd be more reasonable if you could deal the damage to target creature or player. A bit like Kor Chant. 18. Reveille Squad, 2WW, Creature - Rebel 3/3, Uncommon Whenever you're attacked, if Reveille Squad is untapped, you may untap all creatures you control. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
Four mana for a 3/3 is surprisingly cheap for white. Because it's a rebel, the ability could be useful as well. Pull a surprise Vitalize out of your deck with a bonus 3/3 creature thrown in. Just the existance of this card will make people think twice before attacking a rebel deck with a tutor open. 19. Rhystic Circle, 2WW, Enchantment, Common 1: Any player may pay 1. If no one does, the next time a source of your choice would deal damage to you this turn, prevent that damage. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
This only works if you're sure you'll have a good mana advantage, but it looks quite devastating if you do. A deck overloaded with Rhystic magic along with a bit of mana acceleration or land destruction could be just the thing to drive your opponent nuts. 20. Rhystic Shield, 1W, Instant, Common Creatures you control get +0/+1 until end of turn. They get an additional +0/+2 unless any player pays 2. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
In tournaments this could be useful, because you'll often get the +0/+3. On the other hand, it's still a reactive card. Useful against Earthquake and Massacre, but not much else. In casual play your opponent will have more mana and as a result this will usually be +0/+1. 21. Samite Sanctuary, 2W, Enchantment, Rare 2: Prevent 1 damage that would be dealt to target creature this turn. Any player may play this ability. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
It's too mana intensive for serious play, but it opens some fun casual options. 22. Sheltering Prayers, W, Enchantment, Rare Basic lands each player controls can't be the target of spells or abilities as long as that player controls three or fewer lands. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 1
A very limited card that is only good against dedicated land destruction decks. It doesn't protect non-basics, so Wasteland and Dustbowl aren't affected. It only prevents targetted destruction, so Armageddon and Wildfire are still good. Even a few Stone Rains in a deck are still good to take out a colour selectively if you get above 3 lands. This might see sideboard play, but only if the metagame is strongly in favour of land destruction. Another rare hoser. 23. Shield Dancer, 1W, Creature - Rebel 1/3, Uncommon 2W: The next time target attacking creature would deal combat damage to Shield Dancer this turn, redirect all combat damage that would be dealt to Shield Dancer to itself instead. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
As surprise creature removal, it's quite mana intensive (at least 2 to bring out and 3 to activate), but a 1/3 for 2 mana is quite good, especially with the nice defensive ability. The only problem this card has is that there are already quite a lot of good rebels it has to compete with. 24. Soul Charmer, 2W, Creature - Rebel 2/2, Common Whenever Soul Charmer deals combat damage to a creature, you gain 2 life unless that creature's controller pays 2. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
Lifegain isn't that strong, especially if it's preventable. In rebel decks, this has to compete with gliders for the 3cc spot. Something tells me the gliders will win. 25. Sword Dancer, 2W, Creature - Rebel 1/2, Uncommon WW: Target attacking creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
This looks a bit like a Masticore at first glance, but you can't clear the board with this. You can only discourage attacks with it (and do some damage if you bring it out unexpectedly in the middle of an attack). It's good against regenerators, but there are already plenty of rebels with pseudo removal abilities. If it sees play, it'll probably be only one in a deck as an alternative to some other removal and as a potential surprise. 26. Trenching Steed, 3W, Creature - Rebel 2/3, Common Sacrifice a land: Trenching Steed gets +0/+3 until end of turn. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 3
Not a bad card either, but it probably won't make the cut. Rebel decks like to have a lot of land and a 2/3 doesn't really need the extra toughness that badly. 27. Troubled Healer, 2W, Creature - Cleric 1/2, Common Sacrifice a land: Prevent the next 2 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
Red won't like this, but red doesn't like a lot of things white can do. Other than that it's useful, but it's not a rebel and probably won't make the cut.
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