|
|
Casual Magic the Gathering is dedicated to the casual play of Magic the Gathering.  Magic the Gathering Cards Store Home Articles Magic Library Magic Shop Custom Cards Contact Us Links Submissions Newsletter |
A Complete Review of Scourge (black)55. Bladewing's Thrall 2BB uncommon Creature - Zombie 3/3 Bladewing's Thrall has flying as long as you control a dragon. When a Dragon comes into play, you may return Bladewing's Thrall from your graveyard to play. ==> FUN: 4 Usually, if you have a dragon in play, you don't need an additional 3/3 flier, but it doesn't hurt. It'll help against your opponent's dragons as well. And, with no dragons in sight, it's still a Hill Giant. -- 56. Cabal Conditioning 6B rare Sorcery Any number of target players each discards cards from his or her hand equal to the highest converted mana cost among permanents you control. "Hear only the Cabal's voice. See only the Cabal's way. Speak only the Cabal's word." - Cabal mantra ==> FUN: 3 Potentially devastating, but at seven mana, it'd better be. There's simply no reliable way to cast Cabal Conditioning at a time when your opponent still has anything useful in hand that he can't cast yet. Add to that the necessity for you to play with high casting cost permanents yourself and Cabal Conditioning ends up too hard to play with, with the possible exception of multiplayer, where it's a great way to make enemies. -- 57. Cabal Interrogator 1B uncommon Creature - Zombie Wizard 1/1 XB, T: Target player reveals X cards from his or her hand and you choose one of them. That player discards that card. Play this ability only when you could play a sorcery. ==> FUN: 3 This theme isn't new, but this is a pretty good implementation of it. For X equal to 1, your opponent gets to choose the discard, but for anything higher, you get more and more influence on the choice. Cabal Interrogator is also not so expensive that it'll be a big loss when it gets Shocked. On the downside, discard isn't very good anymore. There are now a lot of very solid hosers around and even some mechanics that feed off of it (madness, flashback, threshold). -- 58. Call to the Grave 4B rare Enchantment At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player sacrifices a non-Zombie creature. At end of turn, if there are no creatures in play, sacrifice Call to the Grave. ==> FUN: 5 Call to the Grave is very similar to The Abyss, a very popular Legends card. The difference is that The Abyss sticks around if there are no creatures in play, creating a pretty tight lock on your opponent. Any time he'd play a new creature, he'd have to sacrifice it at his next upkeep. But that's easy enough to get around, just play with zombies. Other differences with The Abyss are relatively minor. Call to the Grave costs one more mana and instead of not working on artifact creatures, it doesn't work on zombies. Call to the Grave will probably turn out to be one of the most sought-after cards in the set. -- 59. Carrion Feeder B common Creature - Zombie 1/1 Carrion Feeder can't block. Sacrifice a creature: Put a +1/+1 counter on Carrion Feeder. ==> FUN: 3 A surprisingly strong card in a weenie deck with removal flying around fast and furious. Sacrifice any creature that's going to die anyway or sacrifice a creature to save your pumped-up Carrion Feeder from death. Creatures like this have the ability to keep the pressure on, even late in the game when a weenie deck usually runs out of steam. -- 60. Chill Haunting 1B uncommon Instant As an additional cost to play Chill Haunting, remove X creature cards from your graveyard from the game. Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn. ==> FUN: 1 Useless early on and black has better things to do with the creatures in its graveyard. -- 61. Clutch of Undead 3BB common Enchant Creature If enchanted creature is a Zombie, it gets +3/+3. Otherwise, it gets -3/-3. ==> FUN: 2 A nifty combination of removal and creature boosting, but it's way too expensive for a creature enchantment that doesn't do anything special. Most creature enchantments are just too fragile, giving your opponent the option of killing the enchanted creature and getting cardadvantage out of it. -- 62. Consumptive Goo BB rare Creature - Ooze 1/1 2BB: Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn. Put a +1/+1 counter Consumptive Goo. ==> FUN: 4 It's removal and a self-boosting creature in one. What's not to like about Consumptive Goo? It's too expensive to use to be a big threat, but your opponent has to deal with it eventually, or face a huge monster attacking him. -- 63. Death's-Head Buzzard 1BB common Creature - Bird 2/1 Flying When Death's-Head Buzzard is put into a graveyard from play, all creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn. ==> FUN: 4 That name sounds awkward, so it'll probably turn out to be spelled wrong on the spoiler. A very solid creature, especially for black, which usually gets vastly overcosted weenie fliers. The death-ability is just a bonus with some good potential. You'll just have to be careful not to play with many 1-toughness creatures yourself and Death's-Head Buzzard is almost a 3/1 flier, because any blocker will probably kill it and get the extra -1/-1 on top of the 2 damage. -- 64. Decree of Pain 6BB rare Sorcery Destroy all creatures. They can't be regenerated. Draw a card for each creature destroyed this way. Cycling 3BB. When you cycle Decree of Pain, all creatures get -2/-2 until end of turn. ==> FUN: 5 When cast, Decree of Pain should be a cantrip Wrath of God, at the very least. After all, why would you cast it if it isn't going to kill even a single creature? It's very expensive, but for the potential cardadvantage definitely worth it. And if you need a solution to those pesky White Knights earlier, you can just cycle it and get a card out of that too. -- 65. Dragon Shadow 1B common Enchant Creature Enchanted creature gets +1/+0 and fear. When a creature with a converted mana cost of 6 or more comes into play, you may return Dragon Shadow from your graveyard to play enchanting that creature. ==> FUN: 4 Dragon Shadow is similar to Dragon Wings, but fear is not something a lot of expensive creatures already have. Dragon Shadow has no built-in way of getting it into your graveyard, but the extra power makes up for that. -- 66. Fatal Mutation B uncommon Enchant Creature When enchanted creature is turned face up, destroy it. It can't be regenerated. ==> FUN: 1 Too limited. Black has much better removal that will get rid of a morphed creature completely and still has a good chance of getting rid of it if it morphs in response. Hosers should always be better than normal cards, because they are only useful in a limited number of cases. -- 67. Final Punishment 3BB rare Sorcery Target player loses life equal to the damage dealt to him or her this turn. ==> FUN: 2 Boring. Final Punishment can be pretty strong after an all-out attack, followed by some direct damage, but where is the fun in that? Final Punishment is too expensive to be effective. -- 68. Lethal Vapors 2BB rare Enchantment Whenever a creature comes into play, destroy it. 0: Destroy Lethal Vapors. Skip your next turn. Any player may play this ability. ==> FUN: 2 Lethal Vapors is bit like a Timewalk, which only works when you have creature superiority and even then, your opponent decides when you get your extra turn exactly. Lethal Vapors makes it too easy for your opponent to get out of it. -- 69. Lingering Death 1B common Enchant Creature The controller of enchanted creature sacrifices it at the end of his turn. ==> FUN: 3 Finally a worthy alternative to Terror. Lingering Death has the disadvantage of not being an instant and giving your opponent an extra turn with the creature, but at least it works on all creatures, including black and artifact ones. -- 70. Nefashu 4BB rare Creature - Zombie Mutant 5/3 When Nefashu attacks, up to five target creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn. ==> FUN: 3 Interesting ability. Usually, it means all your opponent's targetable creatures get -1/-1 when Nefashu attacks. That'll make Nefashu harder to block. Weenie decks will really be decimated by Nefashu, especially if you manage to get two of them in play, but there are cheaper ways of getting rid of weenies. Massacre springs to mind. -- 71. Putrid Raptor 4BB uncommon Creature - Zombie Beast 4/4 Morph - Discard a Zombie card from your hand. It eagerly gobbles up bits of its own rotting flesh as they fall to the swampy ground. ==> FUN: 3 Basically, Putrid Raptor gives you a 4/4 for 3 mana and a discarded zombie. I'm sure that can be put to good use, especially in combination with certain zombies that like to be in the graveyard. -- 72. Reaping the Graves 2B common Instant Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. Storm ==> FUN: 4 Multiple use Raise Deads can be very powerful. Because it's an instant, Reaping the Graves should be able to get you at least three creatures back if you play it right, like at the end of your opponent's turn in which he played a spell and you Terrored one of his creatures. -- 73. Skull Tap 1B common Sorcery As an additional cost to play Skull Tap, sacrifice a creature. Draw two cards. ==> FUN: 1 At the cost of two cards and at least three mana (two for the Skull Tap, one for the creature), you get to draw two cards. Not very impressive. It would have been more interesting as an instant, so there was the potential of using it on a creature that was going to die anyway. -- 74. Soul Collector 3BB rare Creature - Vampire 3/4 Morph BBB, Flying Whenever a creature dealt damage by Soul Collector this turn is put into a graveyard, return that card to play under your control. ==> FUN: 4 Usually, this kind of vampiric ability just discourages people from blocking or attacking, but on a morph creature your opponent may not realize the danger his creature is in. Add to that the fact that Soul Collector has the potential to be attacking as early as your fourth turn and it's clear that Soul Collector is a strong card. -- 75. Tendrils of Anguish 2BB uncommon Sorcery Target player loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. Storm ==> FUN: 3 Tendrils of Anguish has the potential to be big, in combination with Shrieking Drake, but Drain Life is more versatile. I have an irrational hatred of this kind of reusable lifedrain effect, because I've been killed more often by Brush with Death than I care to admit. Just when I think I have control, my opponent starts casting Brush with Death with buyback every turn and I'm left wondering why I didn't put any Duresses or Counterspells in my deck. -- 76. Twisted Abomination 5B common Creature - Zombie Mutant 5/3 B: Regenerate Twisted Abomination Swampcycling: ?? ==> FUN: 4 Assuming the cycling cost is reasonable, Twisted Abomination is a very solid fatty, especially for a common. A black 5/3 with cheap regeneration is very hard to get rid of and well worth the six mana. You don't even have to worry about getting stuck with it if you're lacking mana, because it can just turn into another swamp when you need it to. -- 77. Unburden 1BB common Sorcery Target player discards two cards. Cycling 2 ==> FUN: 3 I like any discard that gives cardadvantage as well and Unburden is helped by the fact that it's not even a dead draw when your opponent is empty-handed. Still, as I mentioned earlier, untargeted discard like this is pretty bad right now. -- 78. Undead Warchief 2BB uncommon Creature - Zombie 1/1 All Zombies get +2/+1. Zombies spells cost 1 less to play. ==> FUN: 5 An easy choice for any zombie decks. Even 1/1 zombies, like Undead Warchief itself, become 3/2 threats. And, as a bonus, your Twisted Abomination will only cost 5 mana to play, instead of 6. -- 79. Unspeakable Symbol 1BB uncommon Enchantment Pay three life: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. ==> FUN: 4 Three life for a +1/+1 counter is a bargain if it means your creatures can safely attack, without fear of blockers. You should be careful not to use it as a Hatred, though, because you'll run out of life before your creatures are big enough to win you the game. Just use Unspeakable Symbol to make small creatures a threat and your opponent's blockers and burn ineffective. It's also a good idea to play some lifedrain cards as well, because Unspeakable Symbol is not without risk. -- 80. Vengeful Dead 3B common Creature - Zombie 3/2 Whenever Vengeful dead or another Zombie is put into a graveyard from play, each opponent loses 1 life. ==> FUN: 3 Nice addition to a zombie deck. It almost guarantees some extra lifeloss for your opponent and it discourages the use of removal by your opponent a little. -- 81. Zombie Cutthroat 3BB common Creature - Zombie 3/4 Morph - Pay 5 life. The single-mindedness of a zombie, the cunning of an assassin. ==> FUN: 2 Three mana and five life for a 3/4 isn't all that great, unless you get it out on turn one with a Dark Ritual. |
Other Links |
|
