We’re coming close to the
official release date of DragonStrike Infernus and
already some of you have managed to find packs at
your local Target stores several days early! I’ll be
checking the store again to see if anything has
changed because this set is just too good not to get
your hands on and today’s card is no exception!
Let’s take a look at the strongest water creature
out there as of now: Issyl of the Frozen Wastes.
Name: Issyl of the Frozen Wastes
Civilization: Water
Type:
Creature
Race: Tsunami Dragon
Level: 8
Power: 11000
Flavor Text:
Issyl remembers the first ice age and plans to
unleash the next one.
Rarity:
Super Rare
Set Number:
S2/S5 l 6DSI
Abilities:
Double Breaker (This creature breaks 2
shields.)
Arctic Winds-
While this creature is tapped, enemy creatures
don’t untap at the start of your opponent’s turn.
Issyl has something that a lot of Water Civilization
players have been lacking, raw power! With a
staggering 11000 power, this dragon is able to take
down most other creatures in this game outside of a
few other dragons. Wizards of the Coast even gave us
a balance for taking away that extra 1000 power and
Triple Breaker by decreasing his Level by one. If
you’re already using Nix or the other Firebird
creatures, then you can even get Issyl out by turn
five or six!
Where Issyl really takes flight
is when it’s tapped. When Issyl attacks and it
happens to survive, during your opponents next turn,
they will be unable to untap their creatures! This
is extremely restricting for your opponent. Even if
you do happen to have an answer to Issyl, your
creatures won’t be untapping until your
next turn!
That means that your opponent will be able to attack
any one of them or get free reign at your shields.
Even if you attack with Issyl again at one of their
tapped creatures or if it gets blocked, you just set
yourself up again for
another
turn of being locked down!
This card is a control players
dream and in some decks can even become a reality
with Bottle of Wishes which we reviewed on Tuesday.
This card will see some play in Water/Light builds
so that they can protect him with cards like Lux and
benefit off of Nix.
Probably the biggest weakness
that this card has is Terror Pit, Root Trap, in some
cases Death Smoke, and other decks that run huge
creatures like Flamespike Tatsurion or the other DSI
Super Rare Dragons. This is not a card you want to
see hit the battle zone and stay there if you’re
opposing its Arctic Winds; you may want to bundle up
‘cause you might be left sitting out in the cold for
a while.
Ratings:
Constructed: 4.25/5.00 (This card is unbelievable as long as your
opponent doesn’t already have access to a 12000+
power dragon already and if you can get one attack
in to get it into its tapped position.)
Limited: 4.00/5.00 (Limitedly speaking, if this gets tapped it may
shut your opponent down, however, they likely have
firebirds in the battle zone that they don’t want to
attack with, so not everything will always be
tapped. There is removal in this set, so Issyl isn’t
going to necessarily be around forever, however,
11000 power for 8 mana? Yes please!)
Make sure to stop by tomorrow
when we wrap up our preview week of DragonStrike
Infernus with one of the most ridiculously powerful
effects printed on a card in this set! Until then,
remember to keep calm and game on!