Invasion - a Complete Review
91. Addle 1B Sorcery Choose a color. Look at target player's hand and choose a card of that color from it. That player discards that card. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 3
This'll probably be as close to Duress as this set will come. Note that you'll never get any lands or artifacts with this, but as long as you cast it on turn two, you'll get a card most of the time, even against decks with several colors. 92. Agonizing Demise 3B Instant Kicker 1R (You may pay an additional 1R as you play this spell.) Destroy target nonblack creature. It can't be regenerated. If you paid the kicker cost, Agonizing Demise deals damage equal to that creature's power to the creature's controller. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 2
The kicker effect isn't all that interesting. Sure, it can come in handy, but for 6 mana, you should be able to do worse things to your opponent. Four mana for creature control is a bit much as well for a color that has Vendetta and Snuff Out. 93. Andradite Leech 2B Creature - Leech 2/2 Black spells you play cost B more to play. B: Andradite Leech gets +1/+1 until end of turn. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
Three mana for a 2/2 pumpable is very good. The drawback is negligible, because most of the time you want to use your mana to pump this thing instead of casting more. This card fits in the one-threat-at-a-time school of thought quite well. Also note the difference with the white and blue creatures that made your spells more expensive. Both were best in a deck that splashed them, but this is best in an all-black deck, so you're able to make it as big as possible. 94. Annihilate 3BB Instant Destroy target nonblack creature. It can't be regenerated. Draw a card. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
The effect is very nice, but the cost is too prohibitive to make it worth it. A cantrip version of Vendetta would be much more interesting. 95. Bog Initiate 1B Creature - Wizard 1/1 1: Add B to your mana pool. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 2
Very close to Initiates of the Ebon Hand. It costs one more and doesn't die when it's overused. It's too vulnerable to rely on. 96. Cremate B Instant Remove target card in a graveyard from the game. Draw a card. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
A Headstone at half the cost and as a true cantrip. The effect is too weak to be very powerful, but if any decks that rely on the graveyard become popular, look for these as maindeck hosers. If you're playing against a deck you don't need them against, just burn them up for a card. It only costs you 1 mana. 97. Crypt Angel 4B Creature - Angel 3/3 Flying, protection from white When Crypt Angel comes into play, return target blue or red creature card from your graveyard to your hand. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
It's a nice enough creature, but if you have no use for the ability, it's overcosted a bit. So it needs a very specific deck to work, something that probably won't happen. 98. Cursed Flesh B Enchant Creature Enchanted creature gets -1/-1 and can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 3
A reprint from Exodus. I've always liked as the only playable version of Fear I've ever seen. You can use it to get creatures with special abilities that trigger when they damage your opponent through or you can just use it as creature destruction. 99. Defiling Tears 2B Instant Until end of turn, target creature becomes black, gets +1/-1, and gains "B: Regenerate this creature." ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 2
This card tries to do too many things at once without doing any of those things well. Making a creature black can make it immune to some of black's removal, but you'll rarely have 3 mana to spare in such a case. Pumping with +1 power is just not good enough for 3 mana. Killing a creature with 1 toughness can be done with less as well. The regeneration ability boils down to a Death Ward, which only costs one and rarely if ever gets played. 100. Desperate Research 1B Sorcery Name a card other than a basic land. Then reveal the top seven cards of your library and put all of them with that name into your hand. Remove the rest from the game. ==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 4
It's a bit of a cross between Impulse and Demonic Consultation. If you have 4 of the card you want still left in your library, your chances are pretty good of getting at least one of them. On the other hand, you can never be sure. Vampiric Tutor guarantees card disadvantage, but this one could well be card advantage with a bit of luck. I think this one will become big. 101. Devouring Strossus 5BBB Creature - Horror 9/9 Flying, trample At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature. Sacrifice a creature: Regenerate Devouring Strossus. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
It's a bigger Lord of the Pits with a wimpier name. The drawback and casting cost make it absolutely unusable in any serious deck, but playing with huge creatures is always fun in less serious decks. 102. Do or Die 1B Sorcery Separate all creatures target player controls into two face-up piles. Destroy all creatures in the pile of that player's choice. They can't be regenerated. ==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 5
Diabolic Edict is back, with a vengeance. Two mana for a sorcery that wipes out half your opponent's creatures is a great way to cut weenie rushes down to size. Ok, you can't kill a single creature with it, which makes it not that great against creatures you can't target, because your opponent can always keep one, but the sheer power of the card makes up for that. 103. Dredge B Instant Sacrifice a creature or land. Draw a card. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
I understand the intention of the card, but it pales so badly compared to other cantrips. This should have at least been castable to just draw a card without needing to sacrifice anything. As it is, it's a bad hoser against Control Magic effects or Karma. 104. Duskwalker B Creature - Minion 1/1 Kicker 3B (You may pay an additional 3B as you play this spell.) If you paid the kicker cost, Duskwalker comes into play with two +1/+1 counters on it and has "Duskwalker can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures." ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 2
One mana for a 1/1 isn't useful. Five mana for a 3/3 with Fear isn't good enough. If neither option is good, the card can't be much better. 105. Exotic Curse 2B Enchant Creature Enchanted creature gets -1/-1 for each basic land type among lands you control. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
For 3 mana, this card is seriously overcosted. A Dark Banishing is more effective and costs just as much. 106. Firescreamer 3B Creature - Kavu 2/2 R: Firescreamer gets +1/+0 until end of turn. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
A pumpable creature which forces you to play with off-color mana is just strange. You can't use that mana to pump your creature. 107. Goham Djinn 5B Creature - Djinn 5/5 1B: Regenerate Goham Djinn. Goham Djinn gets -2/-2 as long as black is the most common color among permanents or is tied for most common. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
This one is going to be very hard to get rid of. A 5 toughness black creature with regenerate should be able to survive most removal and creatures out there, including Desert Twister. 108. Hate Weaver 1B Creature - Wizard 2/1 2: Target blue or red creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 2
Pumping power is more useful than pumping toughness, but it's still not a great card. It's expensive to use and quite vulnerable with only 1 toughness. 109. Hypnotic Cloud 1B Sorcery Kicker 4 (You may pay an additional 4 as you play this spell.) Target player discards a card from his or her hand. If you paid the kicker cost, that player discards three cards from his or her hand instead. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
Neither 2 mana for 1 chosen discard or 6 mana for 3 chosen discards is all that good, but it's still an ok card, unlike the creatures with kicker so far. For 6 mana you still get a devastating effect, and for 2 mana, it's still disruption. You'll probably cast the first one for one card, the second one for three cards when you have enough mana and if you draw a third one, you'd cast it for one because your opponent won't let his hand fill up again once he knows you're playing with discard. 110. Marauding Knight 2BB Creature - Knight 2/2 Protection from white Marauding Knight gets +1/+1 for each plains your opponents control. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 2
Probably better than the white variant, because there is no black version of Karma. Still, Gloom usually works better as a hoser and white often plays with Armageddons, which doesn't help this guy any. 111. Mourning 1B Enchant Creature Enchanted creature gets -2/-0. B: Return Mourning to its owner's hand. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 2
I can only see this get any use in a deck that wants to recast enchantments a lot, like Enchantress decks. Urza block has a card that gives -2/-0 as well but comes back to your hand if it goes to the graveyard. In most cases, that's better. 112. Nightscape Apprentice B Creature - Wizard 1/1 U, T: Put target creature you control on top of its owner's library. R, T: Target creature gains first strike until end of turn. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
The blue ability is useful and can even create a potential lock with Avalanche Riders. The red ability is more combat oriented. Useful enough, but not that great. 113. Nightscape Master 2BB Creature - Wizard 2/2 UU, T: Return target creature to its owner's hand. RR, T: Nightscape Master deals 2 damage to target creature. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
Both abilities are very useful, of course, but the double mana costs make it harder to use them. 114. Phyrexian Battleflies B Creature - Insect 0/1 Flying B: Phyrexian Battleflies gets +1/+0 until end of turn. This ability may be played no more than twice each turn. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 2
Vampire Bats never saw much play either and I doubt this will do better. 115. Phyrexian Delver 3BB Creature - Zombie 3/2 When Phyrexian Delver comes into play, return target creature card from your graveyard to play. You lose life equal to that card's converted mana cost. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 4
A black version of Karmic Guide. The life loss should stop any potential stupid tricks with it. It's not a bad card, but black can do reanimation much cheaper than this and the extra 3/2 doesn't make up for that. 116. Phyrexian Infiltrator 2B Creature - Minion 2/2 2UU: Exchange control of Phyrexian Infiltrator and target creature. ==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
To your opponent this is likely to just be a 2/2, so the exchange will usually be worth it. Still, it costs quite a bit of mana to use and blue has better ways of stealing creatures without giving a creature in return. 117. Phyrexian Reaper 4B Creature - Zombie 3/3 Whenever Phyrexian Reaper becomes blocked by a green creature, destroy that creature. It can't be regenerated. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
The ability could just as well have read "Can't be blocked by green creatures". Five mana for a 3/3 is a bit much when the ability is worse than Fear. 118. Phyrexian Slayer 3B Creature - Minion 2/2 Flying Whenever Phyrexian Slayer becomes blocked by a white creature, destroy that creature. It can't be regenerated. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
For the same reason as the previous card, this one doesn't cut it. 119. Plague Spitter 2B Creature - Horror 2/2 At the beginning of your upkeep, Plague Spitter deals 1 damage to each creature and each player. When Plague Spitter is put into a graveyard from play, Plague Spitter deals 1 damage to each creature and each player. ==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 5
A free Dry Spell each turn can be useful. Another one if it dies means that 1/1s don't stand a chance when this enters play. And even if your opponent has no small creatures, if you attack with this, no creature with less than 5 toughness can block without dying as well. The creature will already have 1 damage from your upkeep, get two more from the Spitter and one more when the Spitter dies. The damage to players makes it a nice clock even if it can't attack. Just make sure you're ahead on life. 120. Ravenous Rats 1B Creature - Rat 1/1 When Ravenous Rats comes into play, target opponent discards a card from his or her hand. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
It's a subtle card, but the combination of discard and weenie tends to work out pretty well. I'm glad our little ratty friends won't be leaving T2 when Invasion rotates in. 121. Reckless Spite 1BB Instant Destroy two target nonblack creatures. You lose 5 life. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 3
It's risky, but the five life should be payable in the right deck. The card advantage makes up for the life loss. It's not just one card advantage, but it's one of your cards for two of your opponent's best creatures. Another reprint. 122. Recover 2B Sorcery Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. Draw a card. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 4
It looks like cantrips are making a comeback. This card is pure card advantage, but I still can't see it get played a lot, because Death's Duet didn't either. 123. Scavenged Weaponry 2B Enchant Creature When Scavenged Weaponry comes into play, draw a card. Enchanted creature gets +1/+1. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 2
Krovikan Fetish didn't get played, so this one won't either. 124. Soul Burn X2B Sorcery Spend only black and/or red mana on X. Soul Burn deals X damage to target creature or player. You gain life equal to the damage dealt, but not more than the amount of B spent on X, the player's life total before Soul Burn dealt damage, or the creature's toughness. ==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 2
A reprint from Ice Age. Most of the time you'd rather have a Drain Life, but that one isn't in Sixth, so you'll have to make do with this. It'll probably get used a lot for various things, like a kill card or a late game finisher. Anything Drain Life was used for. 125. Spreading Plague 4B Enchantment Whenever a creature comes into play, destroy all other creatures that share a color with it. They can't be regenerated. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
Very powerful against monocolored decks, but it remains to be seen how many of those will be around when Invasion shakes up the tournament scene. 126. Tainted Well 2B Enchant Land When Tainted Well comes into play, draw a card. Enchanted land is a swamp. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
Yet another card that really didn't need to be reprinted as a cantrip. When did Evil Presence ever see serious play? 127. Trench Wurm 3B Creature - Wurm 3/3 2R, T: Destroy target nonbasic land. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 5
Dwarvish Miner was very good, but this is more expensive and requires two colors. It's costed alright, but it tries to be both a control card and a beatdown card at the same time. I prefer Dwarvish Miner, but this one is good too. 128. Tsabo's Assassin 2BB Creature - Assassin 1/1 T: Destroy target creature if that creature shares a color with the most common color among permanents or the color tied for most common. A creature destroyed this way can't be regenerated. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
It's expensive for such a vulnerable creature, but the ability is even stronger than that of Royal Assassin, as long as the condition is met. 129. Tsabo's Decree 5B Instant Choose a creature type. Target player reveals his or her hand and discards all creature cards of that type from it. Then destroy all creatures of that type that player controls. They can't be regenerated. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
I think this will see play even if only for the untargetted removal. It kills theme decks as well, but Engineered Plague did that better. 130. Twilight's Call 4BB Sorcery You may play Twilight's Call any time you could play an instant if you pay 2 more to play it. Each player returns all creature cards from his or her graveyard to play. ==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 5
Living Death is back. Well, it doesn't have the added bonus of getting rid of all creatures in play as well, plus it costs one more mana, but this will definitely get played. 131. Urborg Emissary 2B Creature - Wizard 3/1 Kicker 1U (You may pay an additional 1U as you play this spell.) When Urborg Emissary comes into play, if you paid the kicker cost, return target permanent to its owner's hand. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
Not a bad card, but it lacks the surprise of a well-timed Boomerang. Not to mention that it costs 5 to get the full effect. A 3/1 for 3 mana is fair enough in theory, but quite vulnerable in practice. 132. Urborg Phantom 2B Creature - Minion 3/1 Urborg Phantom can't block. U: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by Urborg Phantom this turn. ==> TOUR: 1 - FUN: 1
If you know you'll have to use the ability, you're better off not attacking, in which case the ability is useless anyway. As even a 1/1 can kill this guy, I don't think this will attack much. Add to that that it can't block and you have quite a useless creature. 133. Urborg Shambler 2BB Creature - Horror 4/3 All other black creatures get -1/-1. ==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 2
A reprint of Stronghold Taskmaster. The Taskmaster was good in otherwise creatureless decks, like some variants of Necro. Most of the time it just made for a good hoser against suicide black though and I don't think any deck like that is likely to become popular anytime soon. 134. Urborg Skeleton B Creature - Skeleton 0/1 Kicker 3 (You may pay an additional 3 as you play this spell.) B: Regenerate Urborg Skeleton. If you paid the kicker cost, Urborg Skeleton comes into play with a +1/+1 counter on it. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 4
The kicker cost will rarely be worth it, but a regenerator for only one mana is a very nice blocker. I could see this getting played in controlish black/blue decks. 135. Yawgmoth's Agenda 3BB Enchantment Play no more than one spell each turn. You may play cards in your graveyard as though they were in your hand. If a card would be put into your graveyard from anywhere, remove that card from the game instead. ==> TOUR: 3 - FUN: 5
An interesting replacement for Yawgmoth's Will. The restrictions are too severe for this card to be called good, I think. It's only useful to cast this if you have a full graveyard and Dark Rituals are no longer useful. You can't even use it the turn you cast it, because casting it counted as your one spell for the turn. It's not a bad card per se, but it's too slow for black.
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