Prophecy - a Complete Review (black)
55. Agent of Shauku, 1B, Creature - Mercenary 1/1, Common 1B, Sacrifice a land: Target creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 3
Two mana for a 1/1 creature means it had better have a good ability to get played. This isn't one, especially not for a mana hungry mercenary deck. 56. Avatar of Woe, 6BB, Creature - Avatar 6/5, Rare If there are ten or more creature cards total in all graveyards, Avatar of Woe costs 6 less to play. Avatar of Woe can't be blocked except by artifact or black creatures. T: Destroy target creature, that creature can't be regenerated. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 5
I doubt this is good enough to play in the main deck. Maybe one copy in a deck with Vampiric Tutors. Still, it's a good sideboard card. A sort of black Lhurgoyf. For a fun deck, I'd make something like this: 4x Ravenous Rats, Bone Shredder, Stupor, Vampire Hounds, Yavimaya Granger, Skyshroud Sentinel
3x Avatar of Woe, Vampiric Tutor
2x Elven Lyrist, Scavenger Folk
1x Reverent Silence, Eradicate, Masticore
23x land to taste
The sentinels get you up to 10 creatures faster and the hounds allow you to fill your graveyard with them more easilly. Limited to Type 2, I'd replace the hounds with Phyrexian Broodlings. The main deck answers to a variety of problems should allow you to live long enough to get the Avatar out, which will usually just stay out and win you the game. 57. Bog Elemental, 3BB, Creature - Elemental 5/4, Rare Protection from White At the beginning of your upkeep, unless you sacrifice a land, sacrifice Bog Elemental. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
This is not a bad creature, but black has so many better ones that few people will consider playing this. The protection from white is nice, but not enough to compensate for the rather harsh upkeep. 58. Bog Glider, 2B, Creature - Mercenary 1/1, Common Flying T, Sacrifice a land: Search your library for a mercenary with converted mana cost of no more than 2 and put that creature into play. Shuffle your library. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 2
This is an interesting change to the normal mercenary tutor mechanic, but there aren't really any good mercenaries you can fetch with this. At the end of the day, this is just a 1/1 flyer for 3 mana. 59. Chilling Apparition, 2B, Creature - Ghost 1/1, Uncommon B: Regenerate Chilling Apparition. When Chilling Apparition deals combat damage to a player, that player chooses and discards a card from his hand. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 5
I love regenerators, but the one problem the black ones always seem to have is that they're too small to bother attacking with. This one is small as well, but with the discard ability, this one is worth ritualing out on turn one against a slow deck. It's no Hypnotic Specter, though. The discard isn't random, it has no evasion and it's not much of a clock. The regenerate doesn't make up for all that. 60. Coffin Puppets, 3BB, Creature - Vampire 3/3, Rare Sacrifice 2 lands: Put Coffin Puppets into play. You may only do this during your upkeep, and when Coffin Puppets is in your graveyard, and you control a swamp. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
A nice ability, but it's on the wrong type of creature. A 3 toughness black creature is pretty hard to kill. Most black removal won't work and a single Shock/Seal of Fire isn't enough either. That means the ability will rarely be useful, also because it's not much of a threat for 5 mana. Of course there are a few fun cards to use with this, like Survival of the Fittest, Buried Alive or Hidden Horror. The combo with Hidden Horror could be good enough to get played, but the chance of getting stuck with one of these in your hand with no good way of getting it into your graveyard is too big I think. 61. Death Charmer, 2B, Creature - Mercenary 2/2, Common When Death Charmer does combat damage to a creature, unless that creature's controller pays 2, that player loses 2 life. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 3
This card is a lot better than the white version that lets you gain life, but again, black has better creatures for normal decks and mercenary decks don't get played much. 62. Despoil, 3B, Sorcery, Common Destroy target land. That land's controller loses 2 life. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 3
Land destruction decks usually aren't worried about killing fast, so the extra 2 life isn't really significant. On the other hand, this is a useful sideboard card against Worship. It's cheaper than Soul Feast and it's useful as spot land destruction to get rid of man lands and the likes. 63. Endbringer's Revel, 2B, Enchantment, Uncommon 4: Take 1 target creature from graveyard to owner's hand. Any player may use this ability, but only when that player can player sorceries. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 2
This is no Oath of Ghouls or even Phyrexian Reclamation. Both are much less expensive and don't allow your opponent to use the ability as well. This looks like lots of fun in multiplayer or sealed though. 64. Fen Stalker, 3B, Creature - Nightstalker 3/2, Common Fen Stalker can't be blocked except by artifact creatures or black creatures as long as you control no untapped lands. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 1
Overcosted. 65. Flay, 3B, Sorcery, Common Target player discards a card at random from his or her hand. Then, that player discards another card at random from his or her hand unless he or she pays 1. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 2
I don't see any reason to play this over Stupor. 66. Greel, Mind Raker, 3BB, Creature - Spellshaper Legend 3/3, Rare XB, T, Discard two cards from hand: Target player rdiscards X cards at random from his or her hand. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
A reusable ability that you should only need once isn't very strong, but instant Mind Twists are fun. 67. Greel's Caress, 1B, Enchant Creature, Common You may play Greel's Caress any time you could play an instant. Enchanted creature gets -3/-0. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 1
This won't kill any creatures. At best, it'll save one of your own. I'd rather have some real creature removal. 68. Infernal Genesis, 4BB, Enchantment, Rare At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player puts the top card or his or her library into his or her graveyard. He or she then puts X 1/1 black Minion creature tokens into play, where X is the card's converted mana cost. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 5
Never have the words "At the end of your turn, I cast Enlightened Tutor for Aladdin's Lamp" been more frightening. Fun with Soothsaying as well. I can't wait to get my hands on one of these. 69. Nakaya Shade, 1B, Creature - Shade 1/1, Uncommon B: Nakaya Shade gets +1/+1 until end of turn unless any player pays 2. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
It's a bit like Flailing Soldier, except that it costs your opponent 2 to "unpump" it and he can't kill it by spending enough mana. That's easily worth the one extra mana. 70. Noxious Field, 1BB, Enchant Land, Uncommon Enchanted land gains "T: This land deals 1 damage to each creature and player." ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
This doesn't have much over Pestilence. It's too bad it doesn't give -1/-1 until end of turn, then at least it would have been good against creatures with protection from black and Mother of Runes. 71. Outbreak, 3B, Sorcery, Uncommon You can discard a swamp from your hand instead of paying Outbreak's mana cost. Choose a creature type. All creatures of that type get -1/-1 until end of turn. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 1
Even with the alternate casting cost, this is heavilly overcosted. 72. Pit Raptor, 2BB, Creature - Mercenary 4/3, Uncommon Flying, First Strike At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Pit Raptor unless you pay 2BB. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
A good, solid creature. The upkeep is a bit crippling, but it's worth it. It's too slow to be great. 73. Plague Fiend, 1B, Creature - Insect 1/1, Common Whenever Plague Fiend deals combat damage to a creature, destroy that creature unless its controller pays 2. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 2
In practice, the ability is strictly worse than being unblockable. It combos with Lure, but that's about it. 74. Plague Wind, 7BB, Sorcery, Rare Destroy all creatures not under your control. These creatures cannot regenerate. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 4
Insanely powerful if you manage to actually cast it. In tournaments it's not worth it, especially because you could easily play against a deck with few creatures. 75. Rebel Informer, 2B, Creature - Rebel Mercenary 1/2, Rare Rebel Informer can't be the target of white spells or abilities. 3: Put target Rebel card at the bottom of its owner's library. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 1
Another rare hoser. This one is stronger than the white one, because rebel decks are rampant at the moment. Actually, this is probably the hoser of choice for rebel decks to play main deck. You don't even need black mana for it, because it's a rebel as well as a mercenary. 76. Rhystic Syphon, 3BB, Sorcery, Uncommon Unless target player pays 3, he or she loses 5 life and you gain 5 life. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 1
A risky version of Soul Feast. It remains to be seen whether this will see play in Bargain decks, but either way I doubt it will make much difference. 77. Rhystic Tutor, 2B, Sorcery, Rare Unless any player pays 2, search your library for a card and put that card into your hand, thenshuffle your library. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
The risk is probably too great for combo decks. Three mana is a bit much as well. Vampiric Tutor is probably better in all cases except if you're on 2 life. 78. Soul Strings, XB, Sorcery, Common Return two target creatures cards from your graveyard to your hand unless any player pays X. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
This'll usually cost at least as much as Death's Duet from Exodus and that wasn't very good in serious play. It was good enough for casual play, but the risk of having to pay through the nose for your two creatures is too big for Soul String to be used instead. 79. Steal Strength, 1B, Instant, Common Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Another target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
If you get tricky with this in combat, it's potential cardadvantage, but just as often it'll be useless. It looks like a very nice sealed card, though. 80. Wall of Vipers, 2B, Creature - Wall 2/4, Uncommon 3: Destroy Wall of Vipers and target creature blocked by Wall of Vipers. Any player may use this ability. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
If I understand the rules correctly, the ability can only be used if there is a "target attacking creature blocked by Wall of Vipers," otherwise this would be quite a useless card. Its 2 power makes this quite a good wall. You won't need to use the ability on weenies and if your opponent uses it, it costs them at least as much to get rid of this card as it did for you to cast it: one card and 3 mana plus whatever it took to cast the creature they have to sacrifice for it. Still, it's a wall and they aren't notoriously good. 81. Whipstitched Zombie, 1B, Creature - Zombie 2/2, Common At the beginning or your upkeep, sacrifice Whipstitched Zombie unless you pay B. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
For B, this would have been an interesting card, but for 1B you can play the 2/2 that can't block instead and save yourself the upkeep. For a weenie deck, speed is much more important than the ability to block.
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