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A Complete Review of Scourge (blue)28. Aphetto Runecaster 3U uncommon Creature - Wizard 2/3 Whenever a creature is turned face up, you may draw a card. ==> FUN: 4 In the right deck, Aphetto Runecaster can net you a lot of cards. -- 29. Brain Freeze 1U uncommon Instant Target player puts the top three cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard. Storm ==> FUN: 5 Brain Freeze isn't very strong, but the idea of winning by repeated casting of Shrieking Drake, followed by a Brain Freeze to mill most of your opponent's library away has a nice ring to it. It's also an easy way to get threshold: at the end of your opponent's turn, cast Brain Freeze. Your opponent probably played a spell, so you mill yourself for six and the Brain Freeze card makes seven and threshold. -- 30. Coast Watcher 1U common Creature - Bird Soldier 1/1 Flying Protection from green ==> FUN: 3 The anti-green version of Sea Sprite. A good blocker against green creatures, as long as they don't have trample. -- 31. Day of the Dragons 4UUU rare Enchantment When Day of the Dragons comes into play, remove all creatures you control from the game. Then put that many 5/5 red dragon creature tokens with flying into play. When Day of the Dragons leaves play, sacrifice all dragons you control. Then put the removed cards into play under your control. ==> FUN: 5 Finally a good use for Wall of Kelp! Use it to make a handful of 0/1 walls and follow it up with a Day of the Dragons, turning them all into 5/5 flying monstrosities. Even in ordinary blue creature decks, you should be able to get enough dragons out of Day of the Dragons to win. And if your opponent manages to Wrath your tokens away, you can Boomerang your Day of the Dragons and do it again. -- 32. Decree of Silence 6UU rare Enchantment Whenever an opponent plays a spell, counter that spell and put a depletion counter on Decree of Silence. If there are three or more depletion counters on Decree of Silence, sacrifice it. Cycling 4UU. When you cycle Decree of Silence, you may counter target spell. ==> FUN: 4 A welcome addition to any Replenish/Opalescence deck, but a bit too expensive to cast for my tastes. In tournament decks, you'll want an instant game-winner for eight mana and in casual decks, I usually have plenty of useless spells to sacrifice to Decree of Silence. It's a pretty nifty card, though, because it can also be used as a cantrip counterspell that can't be countered, giving you the final word in any counterwar. -- 33. Dispersal Shield 1U common Instant Counter target spell if its converted mana cost is less than or equal to the highest converted mana cost among permanents you control. ==> FUN: 2 Another in a long line of limited counterspells. I don't like the need to rely on having permanents in play, especially if it means I can't counter something if it's bigger than anything I have. And those are usually the kind of spells I _need_ to counter. -- 34. Dragon Wings 1U common Enchant Creature Enchanted creature gains flying. Cycling 1U. When a creature with a converted mana cost of 6 or more comes into play, you may return Dragon Wings from your graveyard to play enchanting that creature. ==> FUN: 4 The cycling is a nice addition Dragon Scales lacked. On the other hand, Dragon Wings gives an ability that most of the good big blue creatures already have. -- 35. Faces of the Past 2U uncommon Enchantment Whenever a creature is put into a graveyard from play, tap or untap all creatures that share a creature type with that creature. ==> FUN: 2 Faces of the Past is either a weak hoser against creature theme decks, or a card with some potential use if you're playing your own theme deck. If you attack all-out and even one of your creatures dies, you can untap the rest, preventing a counterattack. It's a limited use, though. -- 36. Frozen Solid 1UU common Enchant Creature Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step. When damage is dealt to enchanted creature, destroy it. ==> FUN: 2 Nice imagery: freeze an enemy and the shatter him with a single blow. But Frozen Solid is still typical sub-par blue removal, so I wouldn't play it outside of sealed. -- 37. Hindering Touch 3U common Instant Counter target spell unless its controller pays 2. Storm ==> FUN: 1 Overcosted. Ok, so storm makes it usually at least 4 mana that your opponent needs to pay to prevent the countering (because the spell that you're countering was already played this turn), but Hindering Touch is still worse than Counterspell at twice the price. Granted, if your opponent has two spells on the same stack, you could counter both, but that's very rare, except in counterwars and in a counterwar, you only need to counter your opponent's last counterspell anyway. -- 38. Long-Term Plans 2U uncommon Instant Search your library for a card. Shuffle your library. Then put that card in your library as the third card from the top. ==> FUN: 4 Well, it's a tutor, but Long-Term Plans is a bit expensive and slow for practical use. In three turns, you may need a completely different card than the one you tutored for. -- 39. Mercurial Kite 3U common Creature - Bird 2/2 Flying Whenever Mercurial Kite deals damage to a creature, tap that creature. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap phase. ==> FUN: 3 A 2/2 flier with an ability that could come in handy, but will probably be no more than an annoyance to your opponent. -- 40. Metamorphose 1U uncommon Instant Put target permanent an opponent controls on top of its owner's library. That opponent may put a permanent from hand into play. ==> FUN: 2 I like Time Ebb effects, but I've played with Hunted Wumpus too often to think that my opponent won't put anything interesting into play. Metamorphose is a nice idea, but you'll usually end up in bigger trouble than you were to begin with. -- 41. Mind's Desire 4UU rare Sorcery Shuffle your library. Remove the top card of your library from the game. Until the end of turn, you may play this card without paying its mana cost. Storm ==> FUN: 4 Mind's Desire is a bit too expensive for the trick with Shrieking Drake, but if you manage to get enough mana to pull it off (using High Tide and/or plenty of artifact mana), you could end up with half your library in play. You just need to be lucky enough to get a second Mind's Desire from your first. That means the second one will net you even more cards, increasing your odds of finding a third. Meanwhile, you're casting free Denying Winds and Traumatizes, until your opponent's library is depleted. Fun, but very unreliable, because you can't influence which cards Mind's Desire allows you to play. -- 42. Mischievous Quanar 4U rare Creature - Beast 3/3 3UU: Turn Mischievous Quanar face down. Morph 1UU When Mischievous Quanar is turned face up, copy target instant or sorcery spell. You may choose new targets for that spell. ==> FUN: 5 As if Mischievous Quanar isn't fun enough all by itself, it also allows you to use and reuse Aphetto Runecaster's drawing ability. It's more expensive to reuse than Mirari, but Mischievous Quanar can get you a 3/3 ready to attack on turn four, while it copies a cheap carddrawer, like Brainstorm. That's pretty good for blue. But, even if it was bad, copy spells are too much fun not to use. And that's coming from someone who has just been faced by a friend who managed to Radiate Ice, allowing him to draw a card for every permanent in play (ouch!). -- 43. Mistform Warchief 2U uncommon Creature - Illusion 2/2 Creature spells you play that share the same creature type as Mistform Warchief cost 1 less to play. T: Change Mistform Warchief's creature type to the creature type of your choice until end of turn. ==> FUN: 4 Should be a good addition to a Mistform deck, but I doubt it's worth adding Mistform Warchief to another creature theme deck, just to make those creatures easier to cast. -- 44. Parallel Thoughts 3UU rare Enchantment When Parallel Thoughts comes into play, remove seven cards from your library from the game, put them in a face-down pile, and then shuffle the pile and shuffle your library. If you would draw a card, you may instead put the top card from the pile into your hand. ==> FUN: 2 There might be a way to completely break Parallel Thoughts, but by itself, it reminds me too much of Skyship Weatherlight. At least that allowed you to draw extra cards, but Parallel Thoughts just gives you some influence on what you'll draw. And not even that much influence. I suppose Parallel Thoughts might be useful in some kind of wacky combo deck, so you can basically tutor for all pieces of the combo at once and you'll only need a Stroke of Genius for seven to get the cards into your hand. -- 45. Pemmin's Aura 1UU uncommon Enchant Creature U: Untap enchanted creature. U: Enchanted creature gains flying until end of turn. U: Enchanted Creature can't be the target of spells or abilities until end of turn. 1: Enchanted creature gets +1/-1 or -1/+1 until end of turn. ==> FUN: 2 Morphling's abilities on a creature enchantment means you can turn any of your creatures into a Morphling. Pemmin's Aura might be useful for those on a tight budget, but it's just not the same as a real Morphling. For one, Morphling is very hard to get rid of, but a single Disenchant will kill Pemmin's Aura. The third ability should have read something like: "Enchanted Creature and Pemmin's Aura can't be the target of spells or abilities until end of turn." That would have preserved the Morphling feel a lot better. -- 46. Raven Guild Initiate 2U common Creature - Wizard 1/4 Morph Return a bird you control to owner's hand. ==> FUN: 3 An interesting variation on the morph cost, but what's the point when you're only getting a 1/4 for your troubles? At least it can be used to save a bird from destruction and to reuse birds like Sage Owl with good comes-into-play abilities. -- 47. Raven Guild Master 1UU rare Creature - Wizard Mutant 1/1 Whenever Raven Guild Master deals combat damage to a player, that player removes the top 10 cards of his or her library from the game. Morph 2UU ==> FUN: 4 A nifty morph trick, but it probably won't work more than once. After that, Raven Guild Master will be burned on sight. But, if you're playing with a lot of different morph guys, you can really make your opponent sweat. Nobody likes to lose a big chunk of his library like that, especially if you're prepared to back it up with Brain Freezes and Traumatizes. -- 48. Riptide Survivor 2U uncommon Creature - Wizard 2/1 Morph 1UU Whenever Riptide Survivor is turned face up, discard two cards from your hand, then draw three cards. ==> FUN: 3 The card drawing when Riptide Survivor morphs is pretty good, especially in casual decks where you'll often have less than optimal cards in hand. But there are better and cheaper card drawers out there and the 2/1 this is on isn't very awe-inspiring. Sure, in combination with some other card, it can be reused, but so can Whispers of the Muse. -- 49. Rush of Knowledge 4U common Sorcery Draw cards equal to the highest converted mana cost among permanents you control. "Limitless power is glorious until you gain limitless understanding." - Ixidor, Reality Sculptor ==> FUN: 4 Rush of Knowledge poses the risk of being useless when you have no useful permanents in play, which is just when you need it the most. Still, even with a 3 or 4 casting cost permanent in play, it becomes worth it and it has the potential of giving you much more, if you can find some high casting cost permanent that's easy to get into play. One of the Avatars springs to mind, but if you get one of those into play, things are looking rosy already. -- 50. Scornful Egotist 7U common Creature - Wizard 1/1 Morph U "Once I was human. Now I am far more." ==> FUN: 1 Obviously meant to be used with Rush of Knowledge and similar cards, but it's just silly on its own. Strictly a combo card and I prefer creating my own combos. -- 51. Shoreline Ranger 5U common Creature - Bird Soldier 3/4 Flying Islandcycling 2 ==> FUN: 3 As a creature, Shoreline Ranger is a bit too expensive, but getting more land early on, without it being a dead draw later could be useful. -- 52. Stifle U rare Instant Counter target activated or triggered ability. "If I'd wanted your opinion, I would have told you what it was." - Pemmin, Riptide survivor ==> FUN: 2 Activated and triggered abilities are usually not worth countering. It's more cost effective to get rid of the permanent completely, although that's not always easy for blue. Often, countering an ability just means a one turn delay. It's interesting that Stifle can counter a triggered ability, though. As far as I know, it's the first card that can do that. -- 53. Temporal Fissure 4U common Sorcery Return target permanent to owner's hand. Storm ==> FUN: 3 As an instant, I would have liked Temporal Fissure a lot better. That would have given it the possibility of bouncing every creature your opponent just played and more. But, as a sorcery, you can't really use your opponent's spells against him and Temporal Fissure is too expensive to get a lot of use out of it from your own spells, except in combination with Shrieking Drake and the likes. Even then, it's expensive. -- 54. Thundercloud Elemental 5UU uncommon Creature - Elemental 3/4 Flying 3U, Tap: Tap all creatures with power 2 or less. 3U: All other creatures lose flying until end of turn. ==> FUN: 3 If you're paying seven mana for a big flier, you don't want to use it to tap your opponent's weenies every turn if you can help it. The second activated ability is more interesting, giving Thundercloud Elemental a kind of super-flying, making it almost completely unblockable (except by Giant Spider and friends). |
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