Callow Jushi – 1UU
Creature – Human Wizard
Whenever you play a Spirit or Arcane spell, you may put a ki counter on Callow Jushi . At end of turn, if there are two or more ki counters on Callow Jushi, you may flip it.
2/2
Jaraku the Interloper
Legendary Creature – Spirit
Flying
Remove a ki counter from Jaraku the Interloper: Counter target spell unless its controller pays 2.
3/4
“We make great investments so we will not be alone.” – Jaraku
****
The White card in this cycle was the first one I saw, and it impressed me. This is the second, and it’s even better. This is the correct color to work with Arcane, which probably interests me more than spirits, and the effect is a more valuable one. Blue also needs a solid creature more than White does especially in the three slot. Three mana for a 3/4 flyer and the chance to counter at least one spell or make them more than pay for the Jaraku’s casting cost at the time of your choosing? That’s a steal. If you’re playing cards that can trigger this, the only reason not to run it is if you’d be running into a lot of creature removal you could otherwise dodge. If that’s not the case, he is made of gold.
Chisei, Heart of Oceans – 2UU
Legendary Creature – Spirit
Flying
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Chisei, Heart of Oceans unless you remove a counter from a permanent you control.
4/4
“Anything worth counting can be counted against you.”
**
This is a worthy creature if you have counters that are painless to remove, so the question becomes where those counters are going to come from. Aether Vial is one option, with the theory being that once you get to four counters to play this (or whatever number your deck wants) you don’t want to keep going anyway. There are a number of other similar choices. I overrated Ion Storm, so I want to be cautious here. Counters are hard to have reliably. Chisei lets you use even detrimental counters, so search Standard and/or Block for good ways to give yourself bad counters you can remove at a profit, but the truth is that reliability is the key to finding good men. If he’s be a bad card to just run out onto an empty board, there needs to be a lot of compensation for that.
Disrupting Shoal – XUU
Instant – Arcane
You may remove a blue card with converted mana cost X in your hand from the game rather than pay Disrupting Shoal’s mana cost. Counter target spell if its converted mana cost is X.
What… do… you… mean, “NO”? *fizzle*
****
Some people never learn. This card is a huge skill tester, in the sense that if you at any point dismiss it in general (as opposed to in one particular Blue deck at one particular time) you’re simply not very good at Magic. Print a legal free counterspell and the world will beat a path to your door. Spell Blast was just below the power curve at XU, so this is overcosted when you pay for it by between one and two mana, as opposed to Force of Will, which cost an extra three. The compensation is that you need to match the casting cost exactly to play this card for free, which won’t always be easy. Often you’ll have to pitch exactly the card you were looking to cast next turn, but that’s all right. For something this good, I’ll do whatever it takes. Most solid decks will have curves that go from one to four or so with a smattering of higher costs. Right now, there’s the problem of a few decks whose curves are not normal but that doesn’t make this bad there, just unable to target some of their cards, and soon those decks will be gone.
Against anything else, if your curve is standardized your deck is all or mostly Blue, more than half the time you’ll have a card that matches and Arcane decks can go looking for what they need in the long term. Shoal itself counts as a two, which is one of the key numbers, and if you use this aggressively, then you’re not going to even give them time to cast spells big enough that you can’t match them. Expect this card to make a big splash in Block as well as both Standard (if not now then in a year) and Extended, although the converted mana cost of five on Force of Will will likely minimize the impact in Vintage. The biggest issue to me is just that you can’t use this with a small number of Blue cards, your deck has to be mostly Blue, and that will cut down on use. For those who think this should have said “or less” or otherwise been strengthened, you don’t realize what you’re asking for.
Floodbringer – 1U
Creature – Moonfolk Wizard
2, Return a land you control to its owner’s hand: Tap target land.
1/2
“Moonfolk. The term is moonfolk. How dare you!”
*
The only thing I can think of that is worth doing with this card is to use it under Hokori, spending your untap and your land play to negate their untap or combining with a Talisman. This is similar to the interaction of Rishadan Port, Eye of Ramos and Rising Waters back in the day, except that now the combination involves multiple creatures with only two toughness, one of which is a Legend and you can’t progress while doing it because you sacrifice your land drop. That can’t be good enough. Oh, and Wizards, it’s too bad about whatever legal problem is responsible for that creature type. I feel your pain.
Genju of the Falls – U
Enchant Island
2: Enchanted Island becomes a 3/2 blue Spirit creature with flying until end of turn. It’s still a land. Whenever enchanted Island is put into a graveyard, you may return Genju of the Falls from your graveyard to your hand.
“No machine could secure the skies for long.”
***
This can be a hard attack to stop, other than with continuous direct damage and that is a hard commodity to find. It comes down for one mana, and then you have a respectable clock in the air. If you kill it, it can come back down at any time. If you are running an aggressive deck that can be expected to still be around after your hand empties and your mana base has a lot of Islands, this could be a very interesting card for a deck like Skies. You don’t want to overload on continuous mana costs, but a few go a long way.
Heed the Mists – 3UU
Sorcery – Arcane
Put the top card of your library into your graveyard, then draw cards equal to that card’s converted mana cost.
“Many know to do so, but few know how.”
**
The first question to ask with a card like this is how many cards you would have to draw before this card would start to be put into decks. To pay five mana, you’ll need to draw at least four cards. Heed the Mists is never going to get it done if you aren’t at least looking at your top card, because you can’t afford to risk turning over a land or low casting cost spell. Drawing nine cards is not sufficiently better than five cards to compensate you. While there are reasonable ways to see or even change the top card of your library, that same contrast sinks this card in my mind. You have to do work to set this card up, which makes it unreliable even with tricks, but how much better are those seven cards than the usual four or five? With four extra cards, you should have enough advantage to win the game. Perhaps multiple colors of free spells could change that somewhat, but the X in their casting costs are not good for this card either.
Higure, The Still Wind – 3UU
Legendary Creature – Human Ninja
Ninjitsu 2UU (2UU, Return an unblocked attacker to hand: Put this card into play from your hand tapped and attacking.)
Whenever Higure deals combat damage to a player, you may search your library for a Ninja card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you did, shuffle your library.
2: Target Ninja is unblockable this turn.
3/4
“That’s funny, I don’t see any ninjas…”
**
What can I say, I had to use that at some point. It might as well be now. Higure is card advantage if unblocked, and once you can afford him getting more men is likely to be a very good thing to do. Ophidian came down for three mana, and Higure comes down for four, but since you can replace an existing attacker it is actually far easier to sneak into play than Ophidian or Shadowmage Infiltrator was. You can also use a flyer or other hard-to-block card to sneak the first hit in, after which you are already up a card. Unless you’re playing both ninjas and hard to block creatures this doesn’t make much sense, so the question becomes whether a deck like that is interesting. My first impression is that it is not, but it would involve several new cards and has another set to fill in the gaps. Sometimes a deck like this is made out of nowhere.
Jetting Glasskite – 4UU
Creature – Spirit
Flying
Whenever Jetting Glasskite becomes the target of a spell or ability for the first time in a turn, counter that spell or ability.
4/4
*
They have to target it twice to kill it, but the first effect can be trivial. In the best case, this card is untargetable by your opponents’ effects. Would that make it worth playing? I don’t think it would. Six mana is simply too much, and getting one free pass is far from full immunity as a benefit.
Kami of the Vanishing Touch – 1U
Creature – Spirit
Defender (This creature can’t attack.)
Whenever Kami of the Vanishing Touch blocks a creature, return that creature to owner’s hand at end of combat.
0/3
“You never see it when you’re coming and no one sees you when you leave.”
**
Cutting this down to two mana and making it a spirit both score points for good hustle, but it’s still a wall. Walls are still tough to justify, and at 0/3 for two mana this is not going to be easy. The good news is this is going to be good at slowing down an opponent trying to rush you with little men, but if it can survive blocking then a real blocker would have been even better. If it doesn’t survive, then all you did was bounce a guy while giving your opponent options. I can’t quite dismiss it because blue sometimes ends up dreadfully short of early defense, but I wanted to.
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner – 1UU
Legendary Creature – Spirit
Flying
Creatures you control have “Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability for the first time in a turn, counter that spell or ability.”
2/2
“First hit’s free. Second one will cost you.”
***
She doesn’t just work on spirits, which is a pleasant surprise. If you use this in a skies deck, most decks that use spot removal will have a hard time avoiding spending two cards to remove it and also have a hard time removing anything else without digging their hole even deeper. In a way, this could be considered an even more annoying, but far more fair Frenetic Efreet. Things have come a long way, and you can’t dodge death by combat damage or mass removal, but this should still be solid.
Minamo Sightbender – 1U
Creature – Human Wizard
X, tap: Target creature with power X or less is unblockable this turn.
1/2
“If you can’t block what you cannot see, how do you block with a wall?” – Zen Koan
*
Unblockability is one of the most overcosted and overvalued abilities in Magic, and this card is no exception. Taking away the X in the activation cost might not even earn this card a second star.
Minamo’s Meddling – 2UU
Instant
Counter target spell. That spell’s controller reveals his or her hand then discards each card with the same name as a card spliced onto that spell.
“I got away with it too!” – Minamo
**
You can obviously forget about this card if you’re not playing Kawigawa Black and it becomes an overcosted counter if splice onto Arcane isn’t one of the key strategies in the block. Against an Arcane deck this is a devastating card that can wipe out their entire game plan in one swoop without much risk, so there are two ways to use this card. You can maindeck it and sideboard it out aggressively against non-splicing opponents, or you can sideboard it in against splice and when you just need another counter at any price.
Mistblade Shinobi – 2U
Creature – Human Ninja
Ninjitsu U
Whenever Mistblade Shinobi deals combat damage to a player, you may return target creature that player controls to its owner’s hand.
1/1
“Where’d everybody go?”
*
Mistblade Shinobi is a card and U for a bounce spell and a 1/1, as long as you don’t mind bouncing an unblocked attacker. Somehow I think I’m going to mind at least a little. That’s still a creature at no extra charge in the right situation, but the additional worry of its reliability and vulnerability is a serious problem. The compensation would be either forcing your opponents to block him on a future turn, which I nice but not enough, and making him unblockable, which also won’t be worthwhile. Compare this to Cephalid Constable, which could even bounce lands. I spent a lot of time, likely more than I should have, in an attempt to break that one. This one you can skip.
Ninja of the Deep Hours – 3U
Creature – Human Ninja
Ninjitsu 1U
Whenever Ninja of the Deep Hours deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.
2/2
“Isn’t it the perfect time to get lost in a good book?”
***
Putting this out on the second turn with a one-drop is a scary proposition. Suddenly you’re up a card and threatening to draw an extra one every turn unless your opponent does something about it. Casting this card by hand is practical if you have to, but far from cost effective, so you need to try and speed it out as quickly as possible. The good news is you can afford to lose a one-drop on the attack to get the right to play a Ninja knowing you’ll get the card back right away. This is going to end up costing you at least three mana, but that’s fine. As usual, the always useful effect and solid body being offered at the right price for the time you’ll want to play it will end up being the way to go if any of the Ninja cards are worth it.
Patron of the Moon – 5UU
Legendary Creature – Spirit
Moonfolk Offering (You may play this card at any time you count play an instant by sacrificing a Moonfolk and paying the difference in mana costs between this and the sacrificed Moonfolk. Mana cost includes color.)
Flying
1: Put up to 2 lands from your hand into play tapped.
5/4
“Everyone who howls at the moon is a little crazy, but they never dreamed it would howl back.”
*
I’m very confused by this card. What is the point? In a perfect world you’ll be able to get it out on turn 4 with a fast moonfolk and a little mana acceleration. Let’s say that happens. What are you going to do now?
Phantom Wings – 1U
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature has flying. Sacrifice Phantom Wings: Return enchanted creature to its owner’s hand.
“Whatever you do, don’t look down.”
*
This is a solid reprint for Limited players, but it does not go beyond that.
Quash – 2UU
Instant
Counter target instant or sorcery spell, then remove it from the game. Search its controller’s graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with the same name as that card and remove them from the game. That player then shuffles his or her library.
“Who dares speak out against me in time of war?” – Memnarch
**
Another reprint, this one has more promise. When it was first used, there were cards slow enough for it to stop that were key to the decks they were in. It’s great to Quash an important card like Wrath of God or even just a solid one like Hinder, but do you get enough to justify the mana cost? The price could be considered cheaper, because the standard cost for a counter is now three, or it could be more expensive because the average curve has gone down. Right now, this is too situational to be worth playing other than as a sideboard card against decks that simply cannot win if it resolves on the correct target.
Quillmane Baku – 4U
Creature – Spirit
Whenever you play a Spirit or Arcane spell, you may put a ki counter on Quillmane Baku.
1, tap, remove X ki counters from Quillmane Baku: Return target creature with converted mana cost X or less to its owners hand.
3/3
“You are a stranger in an even stranger land. Return whence you came while you still can!”
*
The payoff just isn’t there for a card this expensive.
All right, now it’s time for everyone’s favorite game show, incorrect spoiler lists! Are you ready for some fantasy card reviewing?
Here’s the card that was on the list I was working from, and what I had to say about it:
Reduce to Dreams – 3U
Instant
Return all artifacts to their owner’s hands.
“They came with big dreams and shattered ours, then their own. Soon they will leave in one.” -Uyo, formerly known as the Silent Prophet
I suppose I have to say *** and frankly I’m kind of embarrassed just typing that
Reduce to Dreams is our last, best hope for peace. It will fail and reduce our dreams to ashes. Does anyone remember Rebuild? Does anyone remember how often it was played? Does anyone remember… let me pause for impact… WHAT IT COST?
I’m sorry, this is stupid. I understand the principle of giving Affinity its place in the sun for a year, because artifacts were the theme of the block and Affinity is the ultimate artifact deck. I get it, I really do. I disagreed with the decision to let the deck survive so long, but reasonable people can disagree about that. But give me a break. This is the best you can do? A card that in its previous incarnation had cycling and cost one less without seeing almost any play? It is like someone is protecting Affinity, making sure nothing can threaten it for the remainder of its stay in Standard.
Not giving this card a way to replace itself if there are no artifacts to return was a mistake. Not making this one of the free spells was a wasted opportunity. Having it cost more than two mana was probably an error. Making it cost four was unforgivable. Whoever made that decision, shame on you. You’ve doomed us all for the next four months. If I still played competitive Magic I’d be furious. By the time the casting costs on this set locked, the artifact storm was already upon us, and I can’t think of a reason to even think about this card if Mirrodin Block cards are not the target.
I’m not saying that this card is going to make things worse, because it won’t. It just won’t make things much better either.
Now, here’s the card as it exists for real:
Reduce to Dreams 3UU
Sorcery
Return all artifacts and enchantments to owners’ hands.
“That’s all it ever was, and all it ever will be.”
**
So now I owe the people involved an apology, but I wanted to leave the old review in as it seemed appropriate to the card involved. Instead, what we have is nothing important unless there’s something big I’m missing. This is not a card that is worth looking at twice in the fight against evil, and I can’t think of any engines either.
Ribbons of the Reikei – 4U
Sorcery – Arcane
Draw a card for each Spirit you control.
“We do not share their quest, but they have much knowledge. Seek it out.” – Azami, Lady of Scrolls
*
It’s all right that this card is unplayable, as all of its previous incarnations have been in other blocks with the borderline exception of Collective Unconscious. Five-mana card drawers need to consistently net you at least three cards to be worth considering at all, as I’ve already explained. No big deal. It was never supposed to, oh I don’t know, help bring an entire format back from the Abyss.
Shimmering Glasskite – 3U
Creature – Spirit
Flying
Whenever Shimmering Glasskite becomes the target of a spell or ability for the first time in a turn, counter that spell or ability.
2/3
“In case of emergency, step one is to break glass.”
*
Kira’s very existence demonstrates just how bad a deal this is.
Soratami Mindsweeper – 3U
Creature – Moonfolk Wizard
Flying
2, return a land you control to its owner’s hand: Target opponent puts the top 2 cards of their library into their graveyard.
1/4
“Why does everyone keep asking for the ambassador?” – Soratami Mindsweeper
*
There’s no reason that returning a land had to be part of the cost, and that makes this rather difficult to use to wipe out an opponent’s deck in short order. If that’s not what you’re going to do, what’s the point?
Stream of Consciousness – 1U
Instant – Arcane
Target player shuffles up to four target cards from his or her graveyard into his or her library.
“Should adjust me glasses, this setup is going to give me neck pain, I can feel it now, but it’s better than using a laptop keyboard, I wonder if my roommate is up yet, I guess it’s still early, I wonder why I still wake up with the sun, guess that’s about as long as this should get…”
**
It’s good to know that an Arcane way to make your Arcane deck go infinite exists if you can get to that point. I see no reason you shouldn’t be able to kill someone before that happens, but it’s always wise to know what the anti-decking options are in every format. They might come in handy some day.
Sway of the Stars – 8UU
Sorcery
Each player shuffles his or her hand, graveyard, and permanents he or she owns into his or her library, then draws seven cards. Each player’s life total becomes 7.
“Take two, they’re small.”
**
This card has a problem. If you’re going to be able to afford the ten mana before the game ends, how are you going to have a deck that wants to start the game over with life totals of seven? The only scenario that satisfies both is if you’re playing a fast deck up against a counterless control deck like MWC that gives you that kind of time. In that case, you still need to careful and make sure you get to ten often enough but most of the time the more prepared deck will win a game from seven life points. [Paul Sottosanti said this card was completely broken for a looong time during development. The cost kept going up as Paul kept discovering more and more ways to get turn 2 and turn 3 kills off with this in Type 2. – Knut]
Teardrop Kami – U
Creature – Spirit
Sacrifice Teardrop Kami: Tap or untap target creature.
1/1
Whenever the newcomers littered, they had an odd feeling on their shoulders.
*
This does not have flying, so this ability has to be better than flying. It’s not totally worthless, but I’d much prefer going to the air.
Threads of Disloyalty – 1UU
Enchant Creature
Threads of Disloyalty can enchant only a creature with converted mana cost 2 or less. You control enchanted creature.
You get who you pay for.
***
The matchups in which you want Control Magic and its variations can be divided into two categories. Sometimes it’s about taking control of a big, juicy creature that can swing the entire game. In that case, this won’t help you. However, the other method is to use them to stabilize the board, giving you a blocker and taking away an attacker which will hopefully not lose you a net of mana and put you ahead by a card. This is very good at that. If you take a two-drop on the third turn, you’ve reversed his second turn with your third and you’re ahead by a card. That’s a good deal. It likely needs to be a sideboard card to avoid going dead, but it could be a worthy one. It also avoids swinging entire draft games at random, so good design.
Toils of Night and Day – 2U
Instant – Arcane
Tap or untap target permanent, then tap or untap another target permanent.
Twiddledee, twiddledum…
**
Most of the time attacks involve only one or two creatures, so there’s a good chance that if you’re clearing the board every now and then that this counts as a fog with benefits. The benefits are the other options like tapping their blue mana in odd situations. I have no objections to this being a card, but three mana is rather expensive especially if you’re trying to splice onto Toils. At two mana I’d like this a lot more, as it is there should be better ways to stall with Arcane cards.
Tomorrow, Azami’s Familiar – 5U
Legendary Creature – Spirit
If you would draw a card, look at the top three cards of your library instead. Put one of those cards into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
1/5
“Tomorrow may not hold infinite promise these days, but threefold’s not bad.” – Azami
*
I love this ability, but am I going to run a one-power six-drop in order to get it? It’s just not going to happen. If you need something to compare this to, try Arcanis.
Veil of Secrecy – 1U
Instant – Arcane
Target creature is unblockable and can’t be the target of spells or abilities this turn.
Splice onto Arcane – Return a blue creature you control to its owner’s hand.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to glue this thing on?
*
That’s a great trick, and when people pull it off in Limited I’m going to think it’s good for them and great for the game. In Constructed, that’s a lot of pieces of a puzzle that comes together and does not give you all that much. You need to run a blue creature deck with enough arcane to be worth splicing and even then this is not that impressive considering the number of things that can go horribly, horribly wrong.
Walker of Secret Ways – 2U
Creature – Human Ninja
Ninjitsu 1U
When Walker of Secret Ways deals combat damage to a player, look at that player’s hand.
1U: Return target Ninja you control to its owner’s hand. Play this ability only during your turn.
1/2
“He’s surprisingly easy to block.”
*
Looking at your opponents’ hand is one of those odd abilities that is worth having, but not worth paying for. When it appears on a card with a different primary purpose, it could best be described as a nice plus. Any card that you would have winced to draw if it didn’t also let you see your opponents’ hand has been atrocious. While there are some cute things going on with this card, Ninja of the Deep Hours puts this card to shame. It needs a second point of power and the removal of the restriction on its ability to make me interested.
Callow Jushi, Disrupting Shoal, Genju of the Falls, Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, Ninja of the Deep Hours and Threads of Disloyalty. Will Blue’s drought never end? That would be highly misleading, because Blue does not have a history of having more quality cards than the other colors, or of having that good an average rating. Blue is so good because of the few Blue cards that slip by when they shouldn’t have, and those two in this case may be Callow Jushi and Disrupting Shoal. Callow Jushi would give Blue a creature that is worthy of the name, and Disrupting Shoal is a free counter. If you don’t have great respect for what that means, you need to let go of the past and your pride. What did you expect, that you would get Force of Will back at the old price?
Bile Urchin – B
Creature – Spirit
Sacrifice Bile Urchin: Target player loses one life. 1/1
“We outnumber them. A life for a life, an eye for an eye makes their whole world blind.” – Iname, Death Aspect
**
Maggot Carrier worked when it came into play, which let it do its damage repeatedly with the use of effects that bounced it back to your hand. Without those tricks, the fact that Bile Urchin doesn’t hurt its owner matters less than you might think. If you’re recursing it with Soulshift effects, you’re using overpriced cards to not do all that much, so this is mostly just a 1/1 that does one extra damage. If you’re just desperate enough for one drops and Spirits this might be passable in a block design, but that would be where it stopped.
Blessings of Leeches – 2B
Enchant creature
You may play Blessings of Leeches as an instant. At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose one life.
0: Regenerate enchanted creature.
May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.
*
I love the idea of this card. It’s so cool and so flavorful. The problem is that it costs three, and I can’t see myself paying three mana for a double edged sword when I’ve been passing up a cheaper way to get drawback-free regeneration for years. Cards like this have a way of biting back when they’re not part of a blitzkrieg.
Call for Blood – 4B
Instant – Arcane
As an additional cost to play Call for Blood, sacrifice a creature. Target creature gets –X/-X until end of turn, where X is the sacrificed creature’s power.
They cost us dearly, yet they never stop.
*
If it weren’t for Limited play I’d only be asking one question: Is this casting cost a cosmic joke?
Crawling Filth – 5B
Creature – Spirit
Fear
Soulshift 5
2/2
Oh no, it’s improperly sanitized dead!
*
Nothing to see here, move along.
Eradicate – 2BB
Sorcery
Remove target non-black creature from the game. Search its controller’s graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with the same name as that creature and remove them from the game. That player then shuffles his or her library.
“We must never allow their spirits to return.” – Memnarch
***
Eradicate was a solid card back in the day, but the game has far less tolerance for higher casting costs and there is less reward for long term removal. If this was around at the same time as Eternal Dragon, it would have been a good application. I can’t think of good modern use right now, but there will probably be one soon enough.
Genju of the Fens – B
Enchant Swamp
2: Enchanted Swamp becomes a 2/2 Black creature with “B:This creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.” It’s still a land. When enchanted Swamp is put into a graveyard, return Genju of the Fens to its owner’s hand.
The further in you go, the deeper in you are.
***
This Genju has one big advantage, which is that later in the game it becomes an absolute monster serving up giant man after giant man. The big disadvantage is that early in the game this is rather inefficient because you need to spend mana to activate it and the card itself is another would-be mana source. You do get a 3/3 blocker, and that counts for a decent amount, and often you’ll have a respectable attacker reasonably early. The ability to drop this late in the game and end it all on the spot looks very nice to me, but I like the whole Genju cycle quite a bit. They cost a lot of mana, but that’s because they’re worth it.
Goryo’s Vengeance – 1B
Instant – Arcane
Put target legendary creature card from your graveyard into play. That creature gains haste until end of turn. Remove it from the game at end of turn.
Splice onto Arcane: 2B.
“What kind of villain isn’t good for one last scare?” – Goryo
*
Splicing onto Arcane for fun and profit requires an Arcane deck, and it’s hard to have one when you’re busy with all those legends. There are too many things that need to come together, because to make Shallow Grave worthwhile on just legends would require the existence of a bunch of targets that I don’t know about and even then those decks were never more than fun without a true death blow being involved.
Hero’s Demise – 1B
Instant
Destroy target legendary creature
Most of the time those intricate death machines that you set up and leave assuming he’s going to die actually work just fine. They just don’t turn those stories into major motion pictures.
**
In a world where the majority of the creatures worth killing are legends, this is worthy. It would be more worthy under the old legend rule, but that ship has sailed. Right now, I can see this as a sideboard card in block but situational creature removal is almost impossible to maindeck.
Hired Muscle – 1BB
Creature – Human Warrior
Whenever you play a Spirit or Arcane spell, you may put a ki counter on Hired Muscle. At end of turn, if there are two or more ki counters on Hired Muscle, you may flip it.
2/2
Scarmaker
Legendary Creature – Spirit
Remove a ki counter from Scarmaker: Target creature gains fear until end of turn.
4/4
We’d show you close ups, but this is a Family Fun Center.
**
Cycles tend to be games of “let’s see which color gets the shaft.” The smart money is almost always on Green, but all the colors have ways to turn a wonderful idea into a way to keep warm when the blizzards come. Black’s favorite method is fear. If there is one thing Magic players need not fear, it is fear itself. Several creatures in this cycle have worthy things to do with their counters, and the fourth point of power doesn’t come close to making up for them, but any time I can get a 4/4 for three mana I have to remember that it is out there.
Horobi’s Whisper – 1BB
Instant – Arcane
If you control a Swamp, destroy target nonblack creature.
Splice onto Arcane – Remove four cards in your graveyard from the game.
We may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.
****
I can see playing Swamps in an Arcane deck without ever intending to cast a Black spell. This card is that good, and if it cost 2B it would be an autosplash for any Arcane deck. If you’re playing Arcane, you’re constantly looking to cast spells to keep your engine working, which should fill up your graveyard quickly. Cantrips were already your best friends. This works its magic essentially free of charge, so even if you only got to do it once, it would be amazing. Having this card available at common in draft blows my mind. I have yet to do a single draft in this block, but this could become this block’s version of Kaervek’s Torch and I wouldn’t hesitate to splash a few Swamps into almost any other deck even without many Arcane cards. Remember, you only have to do it once. Anything more than that is just a bonus.
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni – 4BB
Legendary Creature – Rat Ninja
Ninjitsu 3BB(3BB,Return an unblocked attacker to hand: Put this into play from your hand tapped and attacking.)
Whenever Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni deals combat damage to a player, you may put target creature card from that player’s graveyard into play under your control.
1B: Regenerate Ink-Eyes.
5/4
“You brought this upon yourselves. All that die become your enemies.”
***
Rat Ninja? Just saying. Once you get beyond that, I like this card a lot. At five mana and a hopefully cheap creature, this is a good price for a heavy swinging regenerator with an excellent special ability. He has to be blocked by any creature deck, and if you fail to do so things will rapidly get out of hand. If you get stuck paying full price, this becomes an overpriced fat guy, but not by all that much and once you get into the thick of things, a fat guy can win the game no matter what the price tag. You want to make sure you get your money’s worth during deck construction, because the power curve starts shooting to the sky, but more often than not you won’t feel cheated when paying 4BB for Ink-Eyes.
Kyoki, Sanity’s Eclipse – 4BB
Legendary Creature – Demon Spirit
Whenever you play a Spirit or Arcane spell, target opponent removes a card in his or her hand from the game.
6/4
There are a lot of ways to go crazy these days, but if you have choose stick with the classics.
*
More funky legends are always welcome, especially if you can draft them or even better trade them away for fun and profit. Just don’t get caught putting one in a Constructed deck at these prices.
Mark of the Oni – 2B
Enchant Creature
You control enchanted creature. At end of turn, if you control no Demons, sacrifice Mark of the Oni.
But I AM an Oni!
**
Black getting a Control Magic is more than a little odd to me, but times change. You can use this without a demon to get rid of a blocker or some such, but that doesn’t seem like it is worth the trouble. You’ll need a demon, which leaves two choices. You can just take a demon, which is the most reliable thing to do, but that requires a demon deck and sideboard space. Then you could use it with demons of your own, but that gives your opponent an obvious opening for card advantage, since you will be hard pressed to reliably get redundant protection for this card. It will also be hard to cast on turn 3, which will often mean that it ends up being more expensive than the real thing.
Nezumi Shadow-Watcher – B
Creature – Rat Warrior
Sacrifice Nezumi Shadow-Watcher: Destroy target Ninja.
1/1
“Rats!”
**
That’s funny, cause I don’t see any ninjas. If you do, then this becomes a good card, but let’s face it. There aren’t going to be enough of them around, not unless the next set has a bunch of them and they’re far better, at which point this could possibly be an option. For now, it’s worthless.
Ogre Marauder – 1BB
Creature – Ogre Warrior
Whenever Ogre Marauder attacks, it can’t be blocked this turn unless defending player sacrifices a creature.
3/1
The second needs the example of the first.
***
You can’t trade with this in creature combat without a creature that can win a fight with a 3/1, and you can’t ever defeat it outright with a block. That’s rather nice considering this has three power for three mana. It’s easy enough to take care of with spells if you want to, but so are most men these days. Being Black helps a little there I suppose. That makes this a solid aggressive creature, but I still can’t consider it anything too special.
Okiba-Gang Shinobi – 3BB
Creature – Rat Ninja
Ninjitsu 3B
When Okiba-Gang Shinobi deals combat damage to a player, that player discards two cards from his or her hand.
3/2
Suddenly the wizard became distracted from his studies by old ’80s video games.
**
It’s four mana to sneak this out, but you get a two-card swing right away that can wipe out someone’s entire hand. That’s a good deal, which helps partially make up for the extra mana costs. Having decent power helps too. The total mana cost involved in this card combined with the tendency of many good decks to empty their hands quickly, have two spare cards and/or murder 3/2s over breakfast when they have to keep me from liking this card, but it does present a credible threat.
Patron of the Nezumi – 5BB
Legendary Creature – Spirit
Rat offering (You may play this card at any time you could play an instant by sacrificing a Rat and paying the difference in mana costs between this and the sacrificed Rat. Mana costs include color.) Whenever a permanent is put into an opponent’s graveyard, that player loses 1 life.
6/6
Dear, they left behind rat offerings again. We really should have this problem dealt with.
*
If you lowered that casting cost a little the promise of a big creature would make things interesting, but this is just too much mana.
Psychic Spear – B
Sorcery
Target player reveals his or her hand. Choose a Spirit or Arcane spell from it. That player discards that card.
It’s not easy to shatter someone in their dreams.
**
Obviously this is a strong card against a dedicated Arcane or Spirit deck, but pinpoint discard that doesn’t work against most opponents has a way of not having much of an impact. The decks vulnerable to this card would have to approach the level of Affinity in popularity and threat. In block it’s not something I would rule out, and this may be one of the few practical ways to stop certain splice spells.
Pus Kami – 5BB
Creature – Spirit
B, sacrifice Pus Kami: Destroy target nonblack creature.
Soulshift 6
3/3
“Why can’t anything freaking stay dead around here?” – Toshi Umezawa
*
Seven mana isn’t going to get it done, people.
Scourge of the Numai – 3B
Creature – Demon Spirit
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 2 life if you don’t control an Ogre.
4/4
But then, who ever really controls an Ogre?
**
This is a reasonable price but far from a generous one, and the drawback is easy to reduce but hard to get around reliably. In block formats, decent prices can go a long way if the rest of the deck has sufficient compensation for the power level of a card like this, but the Scourge has no illusions of competency beyond that.
Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker – 4B
Legendary Creature – Spirit
Whenever a creature with power 1 or less is put into your graveyard from play, you may return that creature card to play under your control at end of turn if Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker is still in play.
2/2
An impotent spirit’s work is never done.
**
There are spirits this can turn ugly with, Bile Urchin being the most obvious. It’s good to have him around. But it’s always good to have a five-drop around, and he does remarkably little to save your cheap guys from removal, since he is still a juicy target. If you can face a deck that doesn’t have creature removal and attacks into your guys, that’s great, even if that deck doesn’t sound so hot. There have been decks like that, but they tend to have something extra like Contested Cliffs to make them worth playing. You can also sacrifice your men for fun and profit, but all the systems for doing that don’t seem to mix with the idea of a five-drop and even if they did, there would be more pressing needs.
Sickening Shoal – XBB
Instant – Arcane
You may remove a black card with converted mana cost X in your hand from the game rather than pay Sickening Shoal’s mana cost. Target creature gets –X/-X until end of turn
I… can’t… go… on… *thud*
****
Two cards, kill a guy. That’s a pretty good deal when you need it, and what puts this card over the top into the top tier is that its casting cost is going to be practical a large percentage of the time. You can often pay three or four mana to kill a small guy without it being that big a deal, later on you have enough to kill a large man, and when you don’t have that kind of time that’s exactly when you need a free spell to stop the bleeding. Picking off cards like Disciple of the Vault when you need to is a lifesaver. I don’t quite think that this goes into every Black deck, because that’s a very high standard, but if you don’t run it and half or more of your nonland cards are Black you need a very good reason.
Skullmane Baku – 3BB
Creature – Spirit
Whenever you play a Spirit or Arcane spell, you may put a ki counter on Skullmane Baku.
1, tap, remove X ki counters from Skullmane Baku: Target creature gets –X/-X until end of turn.
2/1
Hang around with spirits for long enough and they’ll ask you to join them.
*
Eventually this kills guys, which at least is a good cause, but nowhere near at the level I’d expect for this kind of investment.
Skullsnatcher – 1B
Creature – Rat Ninja
Ninjitsu B
Whenever Skullsnatcher deals combat damage to a player, remove up to two target cards in that player’s graveyard from the game.
2/1
“I don’t believe it. Rats can’t be ninjas.” – Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
**
The price is right I suppose, but it’s never going to be a true bargain and you’re giving them a chance to preserve their graveyard with a free spell at a minimum if they care about it enough. Even in block there seem to be better tools around, but it does at least try to perform a valuable service.
Stir the Grave – XB
Sorcery
Return target creature card with converted mana cost of X or less from your graveyard to play.
You only thought you’d heard the last of the battle cry of flatware.
*
This is Raise Dead combined with casting the creature right away and a mana filter. The original was worthless and the third costs more than I want the second one.
Takenuma Bleeder – 2B
Creature – Ogre Shaman
Whenever Takenuma Bleeder attacks or blocks, you lose 1 life if you don’t control a Demon.
3/3
“It doesn’t have to be you. I’m open to suggestions.”
**
Most of the time you won’t control a demon, but attacking and blocking are optional, so you won’t be forced to kill yourself. In return you get a solid deal, if better ones are not available. Black has paid more for less when it had to, and less for more when it could.
Three Tragedies – 3BB
Sorcery – Arcane
Target player discards 3 cards.
Skullclamp, Imi Statue and Reduce to Dreams.
**
This card has existed before in non-Arcane form, and no one paid it much attention. There are times when it is exactly what you need, but those times do not come often enough. For five mana I want more than just a two-card swing.
Throat Slitter – 3BB
Creature – Rat Ninja
Ninjitsu 2B
Whenever Throat Slitter deals combat damage to a player, destroy target creature that player controls.
2/2
Find a need and slit it.
***
If you can get a creature through and there’s something to kill, that was a fine play. A creature is dead, you paid three mana and lost nothing and there’s someone they simply have to block from now on. If they get greedy, you can use removal to take out their tapped creature by clearing a path through their untapped one, and evasion makes Throat Slitter even better. Even if it just gets him through the first time, that’s a good deal. The key is going to be finding an efficient way to do all that without spending a ton of mana or playing cheap creatures that do little else.
Toshiro Umezawa – 1BB
Legendary Creature – Human Samurai
Bushido 1
Whenever a creature an opponent controls is put into a graveyard from play, you may play target instant card from your graveyard. If that card would be put into a graveyard this turn, remove it from the game instead.
2/2
“Stop them before I kill again. Or even better, don’t.” – Toshiro Umezawa
***
If you’re running a deck with a good mix of creatures and instants, especially creature removal, this becomes a very interesting card. Killing two opposing creatures at the cost of one removal spell should be common place, and Sickening Shoal can help you by making both castable in one turn if you need removal to kill the first creature. If you can keep the chain going, that’s even better, and all at the cost of less than one additional mana in his casting cost. This is a solid offering for those who can use him.
Yokura, the Prisoner – 2BB
Legendary Creature – Demon Spirit
When Yokura, the Prisoner leaves play, sacrifices all non-Ogre creatures you control.
5/5
No one left is willing to cage him.
***
This is obviously a fine creature if you don’t intend to play another one, but it’s not as special a value as it would have been a long time ago. It’s also a great creature if your other creatures are Ogres. If you meet these requirements and want a cheap, efficient large man then this is the creature for you. The worry is that he is legendary, so it’s hard to get enough men this way without risking a two for one on occasion. In a relatively low power set, this still looks like a gem. It’s just not the easiest gem to use.
Black gives us the return of Eradicate along with dangerous Genju of the Fens, Limited star and dangerous Arcane spell Horobi’s Whisper, Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni which shall hereby be called the clunkiest Ninja, the hyper frustrating Ogre Marauder, the dreamy Sickening Shoal and the gleeful Toshiro Umezawa. A lot of those just serve to keep Black solid. Horobi’s Whisper and Sickening Shoal are the removal, and they are this set’s reason to play Black. Both are excellent removal cards that Black didn’t know it was looking for until it found them.