Yes, I am finally back. My family went on our summer vacation until last Sunday night, and I didn’t feel like drafting Monday’s review the next morning. But you can expect the regular CotD and tourny report write-ups from here on out until my retirement at the end of August. We will be covering the new expansion cards from Thundercharge of Ultra Destruction for a while.

Crath Lade, Merciless King

Type: Creature

Civilization: Darkness

Race: Dark Lord

Mana Cost: Eight (8)

Rules Text:

Instead of having this creature attack, you may tap it to use this ability:

Your opponent discards two cards at random from his hand.

Flavor Text:

“Mortals are my crops. The souls are my harvest.”

Power: 4,000

Rarity: Super Rare

Set: Thundercharge of Ultra Destruction

Power/Cost: These are normally the first two things people notice when they look at a new card. Unfortunately for Crath Lade, his Power-to-Cost ratio is not a pretty sight. Eight mana is far too expensive to warrant his average attack and mediocre ability. One of the few good things in this category is that Crath Blade can at least survive the increasingly devastating Searing Wave.

Civilization/Race: Darkness makes its living through hand destruction. This means Crath Lade fits right in, but he also has solid competition to deal with. Better hand discard options include Lost Soul, Locomotiver, and Horrid Worm. As for his Race, the Dark Lords have minimal support. They also lack any evolutions whatsoever.

Effects: This effect looks potentially devastating at first glance. Two cards gone from my opponent’s hand? Great! But that is assuming Crath Lade lasts another turn to use his tap-effect, and assuming your opponent has two cards in his hand at all. The extra turn gives your opponent time to see it coming. In that situation they will attempt to destroy him, or use up their entire hand.

Limited: 1.5/5

Not too exciting here. Mana generation is very “limited” in drafts, so Crath Lade will be even slower without the needed accelerants. Draw power also doesn’t show up often in draft, meaning that the opponent will be topdecking with a hand fairly often. There are much better choices.

Constructed: 2.5/5

Bottom line is that Crath Lade has an above average ability with an above average price tag. Avoid him if possible, but he could be okay in a Black n Green control variant. That’s all for today...