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Saviors Set Review: Barreling Down SokenzanBy Sean DeCoursey on June 1st, 2005 · Filed in General Magic · Comments not available just now    , Legendary Creature - Spirit */*, RareAdamaro, First to Desire's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in the hand of the opponent with the most cards in hand. This guy is a definite twist on the Maro cycle since he's a) cheap, and b) under the control of your opponent who can now make him bigger or smaller by playing cards. Very much an anti-control creature, this guy fits very well into a Red weenie strategy since you don't need to keep cards in hand for him. Standard: Good Extended: Bad Limited: Playable Akki Drillmaster #92  , Creature - Goblin Shaman 2/2, CommonT: Target creature gains haste until end of turn. Alan Pollack A goblin that gives other creatures Haste. Yay! Oh wait, no, this was done right for three mana in Goblin Warchief. This guy is just another reminder of how far Red's little green men have fallen since Onslaught rotated out. Standard: Unplayable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Playable Akki Underling #93 , Creature - Goblin Warrior 2/1, CommonAs long as you have seven or more cards in your hand, Akki Underling gets +2/+1 and has first strike. Franz Vohwinkel Yeah.. this guy is decent without the seven card boost, but honestly, how often does any Red player have seven cards in hand? Standard: Unplayable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Playable Barrel Down Sokenzan #94 , Instant - Arcane, CommonSweep - Return any number of Mountains you control to their owner's hand. Barrel Down Sokenzan deals damage to target creature equal twice the number of Mountains returned this way. Greg Staples Probably the only way Akki Underling will ever get his power/toughness boost, this card does do a nice job of finally giving Red a solid creature kill spell for larger critters. Standard: Playable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Good Burning-Eye Zubera #95 , Creature - Zubera Spirit 3/3, UncommonWhen Burning-Eye Zubera is put into a graveyard from play, if 4 or more damage was dealt to it this turn, Burning-Eye Zubera deals 3 damage to target creature or player. Anthony S. Waters Well, you can finally play with more than four Zuberas of a single color in your deck, and the newer ones trigger with a higher power level effect, but they also have a restriction of taking four damage first. On the upside, it's nice to see the extra Zuberas coming in Red and Blue since those were pretty much the best two colors for Zuberas anyway. Standard: Playable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Playable Captive Flame #96 , Enchantment, UncommonR: Target creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn. Keith Garletts A universal "Enchant Creature" (and a reprint) this one gives all of your boys firebreathing. This is another Red card that really seems to be pushing the Red weenie strategy that got its first big jump from "Slith Firewalker and some junk" in Betrayers with Goblin Cohort. Standard: Bad Extended: Unplayable Limited: Good   , Sorcery, UncommonPut three 3/1 red Elemental creature tokens with haste into play. Remove them from the game at end of turn. Six mana for nine damage was a pretty good deal last time I checked, but the lack of trample means it's probably more like 3-6 damage and a sacrifced Tribe Elder or two. Still, this is definitely worth considering as a Rude Awakening-type finisher in a mono-Red deck. Standard: Playable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Good Gaze of Adamaro #98 , Instant - Arcane, UncommonGaze of Adamaro deals damage equal to the number of cards in target player's hand to that player. Storm Seeker, Sudden Impact, now Gaze of Adamaro. This card is pretty brutal if your opponent is holding a lot of cards and is a nice counter to the set theme of large hand sizes. Being Arcane is a nice bonus. On the other hand, if your opponent is holding lots of cards, they probably have an answer for this. This will be the dominant card in the Splice-n-Burn mirror. Standard: Playable Extended: Bad Limited: Playable Ghost-lit Raider #99 , Creature - Spirit 2/1, Uncommon2R, T: Ghost-lit Raider deals 2 damage to target creature. Channel - 3R, discard Ghost-lit Raider: Ghost-lit Raider deals 4 damage to target creature. Ittoku It's a slighty overcosted creature with a semi-useful ability. No, it's an expensive but decent critter kill spell. Oh wait! It's both. This kills everything from Meloku on down, so it's definitely worth considering in Block, but probably not so much in Standard. Looks like an absolute beast in Limited though. Standard: Bad Extended: Unplayable Limited: Broken Glitterfang #100 , Creature - Spirit 1/1, CommonHaste At the end of turn return Glitterfang to its owner's hand. Ron Spencer The mini Viashino Sandstalker has two real uses in my mind, and those are enabling your Goblin Cohort to attack every turn, and setting off a Spiritcraft trigger every turn. While the second ability is more useful, it does require using two colors since Red doesn't really have any solid Spiritcraft creatures like Green and Black do. Still solid in Block Sligh even if the Cohort is his only purpose though. Standard: Good Extended: Bad Limited: Playable Godo's Irregulars #101 , Creature - Human Warrior 1/1, UncommonR: Godo's Irregulars deals 1 damage to target creature blocking it. They aren't Samurai, so they don't benefit from Godo's ability, which makes me wonder why they're his troops, but otherwise it's just a bad 1/1 red creature that will on rare occasions kill something bigger than itself. Standard: Unplayable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Playable Hidetsugu's Second Rite #102 , Instant, RareIf target player has exactly 10 life, Hidetsugu's Second Rite deals 10 damage to that player. This card is called the Second Rite for a reason. Along with Hidetsugu the Heartless tapping, it's an instant kill assuming your opponent had 20 life to begin with. The downside of course, is that how often does the opponent of a red player have 20 life while still being vulnerable to a four-mana creature without haste and a four-mana spell? Still, I see combo decks built around this, Desperate Ritual, Inner Fire, and Shinen of Fury's Fire, and that's just in Block. Standard: Playable Extended: Playable Limited: Unplayable   , Legendary Creature - Human Monk 4/4, RareHomura, Human Ascendant can't block. When Homura is put into a graveyard from play, return it to play flipped. ----- Homura's Essence Legendary Enchantment, Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have flying and "R: This creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn.". Wow, so let me get this straight. In exchange for having a casting cost of six, instead of the two or three cc most of the other Legendary flippers have, this guy gets a solid power/toughness with no drawback (seriously, have you ever blocked with a Red creature besides Rukh Egg? Didn't think so), a flip that's very easy to trigger, and when he does flip, he's Wonder + double Glorious Anthem + Captive Flame? And it's not even like you have to wait for your opponent to kill him... Crack the Earth goes into a deck with this guy without even thinking about it. Glitterfang as a 3/3 Shivan for every turn. At least Red doesn't have the mana acceleration to power him out early. Oh wait. Wow. Just Wow. Red Weenie in Block needed a big finisher, and here it is. The only reason this guy WON'T see lots of play in Standard initially is because Arc-Slogger is still around.Standard: Broken Extended: Playable Limited: Broken Iizuka the Ruthless #104 , Legendary Creature - Human Samurai 3/3, RareBushido 2 2R, Sacrifice a Samurai: Samurai you control gain double strike until end of turn. This guy definitely has a "win the game" ability in a samurai deck. Unfortunately the ideal Samurai deck would include both Red and White and the complete lack of playable dual lands means that isn't happening. Standard: Bad Extended: Unplayable Limited: Playable Inner Fire #105 , Sorcery, Add R to your mana pool for each card in your hand. Another Red mana producing spell, this one just slides right into the block mechanic. This would be better if it were Arcane and playable with Desperate Ritual, but unfortunately, it's not. This will still find a home in many combo decks though, especially Dragonstorm and Eggstorm. Standard: Unplayable Extended: Playable Limited: Unplayable Into the Fray #106 , Instant - Arcane, CommonTarget creature attacks this turn if able. Splice onto Arcane R Forcing a creature to attack is an ability that Wizards keeps making and players keep ignoring. This card doesn't look to change that. Standard: Unplayable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Unplayable Jiwari, the Earth Aflame #107 , Legendary Creature - Spirit 3/3, RareXR, Tap: Jiwari, the Earth Aflame deals X damage to target creature without flying. Channel - XRRR, Discard Jiwari: Jiwari deals X damage to each creature without flying. Adam Rex I look at Arashi, then I look at this guy and I just want to cry. Giving Earthquake an extra RR in the casing cost just kills it. Plain RR would be fine, but RRR is just too much. And seriously, would 4/4 have been too much to ask? A house in Limited, but that's about the only place this guy will see play. Standard: Unplayable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Good Oni of Wild Places #108  , Creature - Demon Spirit 6/5, UncommonHaste At the beginning of your upkeep, return a red creature you control to its owner's hand. If there were a Red creature you wanted to return to your hand every turn, or if Red had good Spiritcraft creatures, I could see this guy, even at six mana. But as an oversized Sandstalker that's vulnerable to sorcery-speed removal, he doesn't quite cut it. Standard: Unplayable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Good Path of Anger's Flame #109 , Instant - Arcane, CommonCreatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn. This is one of the best weenie cards printed in a long time. Make no mistake, this spell will kill a lot of people. Arcane status ensures extra goodness and the ability to remove blockers for your alpha strike with Glacial Ray. This might make it into Extended Goblins, R/G, and Affinity decks. Definitely gives Green Beacon players a reason to splash for red, since unlike Echoing Courage, killing one creature won't turn this off. Standard: Broken Extended: Playable Limited: Good Rally the Horde #110 , Sorcery, RareRemove the top three cards of your library from the game. If the last card removed isn't a land, repeat this process until the last card removed is a land. Put a 1/1 red Warrior creature token into play for each nonland card removed from the game this way. Convenient that this card comes right after Path. They almost look like they were designed to work together (which they probably were). Red decks with low land counts, assuming they can get up to six mana, can create a LOT of little guys with this. Probably works best in a Green deck that pulls lands out and accelerates mana so this can be cast earlier for more effect. Of course, if you were doing that, then why you'd use this over Beacon is beyond me, but hey, I'm just throwing stuff out here. Standard: Playable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Bad Ronin Cavekeeper #111 , Creature - Human Samurai 4/3, CommonBushido 2 Limited, maybe, but thats it. Standard: Unplayable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Playable Shinen of Fury's Fire #112 , Creature - Spirit 2/1, CommonHaste Channel - R, Discard Shinen's of Fury's Fire: target creature gain haste until end of turn. Haste is the quintessential Red ability, and this guy grants Haste. Kind of works together nicely. Standard: Playable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Unplayable Skyfire Kirin #113 , Legendary Creature - Kirin Spirit 3/3, RareFlying Whenever you play a Spirit or Arcane spell, you may gain control of target creature with that spell's converted mana cost until end of turn. Another Kirin, another almost good creature. If this guy included granting Haste with his thievery it would be amazing. As it is, if you have a way to sacrifice the stolen critter like Crack the Earth or Miren, the Moaning Well, this is very good. Even as just a way to stop blockers it's decent, but this card really excels with the ability to use instants to cause your opponents' creatures to block each other. Flying is nice too. Definitely a powerhouse in Limited, not sure how well it will make it in Constructed. Standard: Bad Extended: Unplayable Limited: Good Sokenzan Renegade #114 , Creature - Ogre Samurai Mercenary 3/3, UncommonBushido 1 At the beginning of your upkeep, if a player has more cards in hand than any other, the player with the most cards in hand gains control of Sokenzan Renegade. If you ever wondered how many creature types you could fit on one card, now you know. Otherwise just say hi to Ghazban Ogre's bigger Red cousin. Standard: Unplayable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Unplayable Sokenzan Spellblade #115 , Creature - Ogre Samurai Shaman 2/3, CommonBushido 1 1R: Sokenzan Spellblade gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of cards in your hand. Ok, it only took one card for Wizards to top the absurd creature types presented in the Renegade, but I guess somebody in development was bored on Sokenzan day. In Limited this guy has to be blocked every time he attacks if his controller has two or more cards in hand. Why? Because the ability is followed by a colon, which means it can be used as many times as you have mana to activate it. At two cards in hand you're breaking even with something with Firebreathing, after that you begin entering the stupid Cranial Plating damage range. Standard: Unplayable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Good Spiraling Embers #116 , Sorcery - Arcane, CommonSpiraling Embers deals damage to target creature or player equal to the number of cards in your hand. Much like Gaze of Adamaro, except it's more splashable, a sorcery, and can target creatures. In other words, it's better and will show up in U/R Splice-n-Burn decks. Standard: Good Extended: Unplayable Limited: Playable Sunder from Within #117 , Sorcery - Arcane, CommonDestroy target artifact or land. Finally a second LD spell in Kami Block. Unfortunately it probably won't be enough to stop every Green deck from playing one Island for Meloku, the Clouded Mirror. Standard: Bad Extended: Unplayable Limited: Unplayable Thoughts of Ruin #118 , Sorcery, RareEach player sacrifices a land for each card in your hand. John Avon If they had stuck with the original plan and made it all lands EXCEPT the number of cards in caster's hand, this would be an Armageddon reprint for red weenie/burn. Instead it's a card that might work if you have enough mana to use it after Sweeping up your land since that's the only way a red deck is going to have a bunch of cards in hand. Standard: Playable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Bad Undying Flames #119 , Sorcery, RareRemove cards from the top of your library from the game until you remove a nonland card. Undying Flames deals damage to target creature or player equal to that card's converted mana cost. Epic (For the rest of the game, you can't play spells. At the beginning of each of your upkeeps, copy this spell except for its epic ability. You may choose a new target for the copy.) So let me get this straight. I'm giving up casting spells to get a free Erratic Explosion every turn? Run away, run away, run away. And I bet some of your thought the other Epics were bad. Congratulations on being the new worst big spell in Red. Take a bow. Standard: Unplayable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Unplayable Yuki-Onna #120 , Creature - Spirit 3/1, UncommonWhen Yuki-Onna comes into play, destroy target artifact. Whenever you play a Spirit or Arcane spell, you may return Yuki-Onna to its owner's hand. This is the famous creature from Japanese Folklore after it gets the Wizards treatment? A bad Viridian Shaman is not something I'd call good. I haven't seen a famous mythological character treated this badly since Disney released "Hercules." I guess it does kill Jitte in Limited and block though. Standard: Unplayable Extended: Unplayable Limited: Playable Lands Mikokoro, Center of the Sea #162 Legendary Land, Rare T: Add 1 to your mana pool. 2, T: Each player draws a card. Gives any deck that needs it card drawing as long as you're willing to let your opponent in on the fun. Standard: Playable Extended: Playable Limited: Bad  Legendary Land, Rare T: Add 1 to your mana pool. 3, T, Sacrifice a creature: You gain life equal to the sacrificed creature's toughness. Besides making Life fans happy, this combines with Vedalken Shackles as a new Preacher/Diamond Valley combo, but it'll cost five mana instead of being free. Standard: Playable Extended: Good Limited: Good Oboro, Palace in the Clouds #164 Legendary Land, Rare T: Add U to your mana pool. 1: Return Oboro, Palace in the Clouds to its owner's hand. I get the feeling looking at this that I did when I looked at Storm Cauldron and thought there's something going on here but I'm definitely not smart enough to figure it out. In the meantime works as a second Titan-proof Island alongside Minamo. Standard: Playable Extended: Playable Limited: Playable Tomb of Urami #165 Legendary Land, Rare T: Add B to your mana pool. Tomb of Urami deals 1 damage to you if you don't control an Ogre. 2BB, T, Sacrifice all lands you control: Put a legendary 5/5 black Demon Spirit creature token with flying named Urami into play. Now THIS is a cool land. A super swamp that pops out a revived legend if you sacrifice all your lands to him. Very in flavor for black, very excellent concept. Standard: Bad Extended: Playable Limited: Playable The cards from Red and Lands that are most likely to see constructed play in various formats are, in no particular order: Path of Anger's Flame Homura, Human Ascendant Spiraling Embers Hidetsugu's Second Rite Glitterfang Adamaro, First to Desire Mikokoro, Center of the Sea Miren, the Moaning Well I'd also like to take a second to talk about a deck that I mentioned frequently, but that many of you are probably not familiar with, Splice-n-Burn. Basically, this is a  Arcane deck that seeks to abuse Glacial Ray and Lava Spike along with Reach Through Mists in order to create massive card advantage while burning out your opponent. This archetype gained A LOT of cards in Red, making it much more viable in block.
By Sean DeCoursey on June 1st, 2005 · Filed in General Magic · Comments not available just now
About Sean DeCourseySean Decoursey is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom where he served with the 2/124th Infantry from 12/02 through 03/04. He attended Truman State University where he was a member of the rugby team which ranked in the top ten nationally three times. Sean graduated with a degree in Justice Systems and now lives in Kansas City, where he works as a Financial Advisor. |
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