From: Ronald14048 Waclawski [kian1602@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 1:14 AM
Subject: Cards to Look Out For - Hydromorph
Hey, Ronald (hydromorph1602 from the message boards) here. Alright, I’m kind of banking on doing Card of the Day reviews or writing articles and deck reviews if pojo starts doing it, so I’m putting some good insight into this article in the hopes of being asked to help.
Duel Masters has hit the scene, and right now we don’t have to many options.
Only 120 cards as your resources means your not going to have a lot to go on as far as deck construction. You have to know which cards are staples for colors your playing right now (and believe me, there are) and which cards are over-hyped or complete garbage.
Right now I want to give you some insight on what I think are the cards you should be looking for in each civilization. Since this is just a “Yammer”
and not an actual article, I’ll keep it brief, but I hope to do some in the future.
First off, what cards should you be looking for if you plan on playing Light? Get yourself Holy Awe. This card should prove a staple in almost all Light decks. Unlike other cards that people say are amazing and devastating, I believe this one truly lives up to it’s hype. As far as the leagues of Commons and Uncommons go, Solar Ray and Moonlight Flash are about as key as Holy Awe in predominantly Light Decks. Creature wise, Miele, Vizier of Lightning seems promising, locking down things upon entry, which can be combo-ed with other cool bounce effects. The biggest sleeper in Light and probably the game would be Toel, Vizier of Hope. Although all colors should have some way of dealing with it, it’s a threat that has to be dealt with or it will win you the game a turn or two after it’s arrival.
Urth, Purifying Elemental and Rayla, Truth Enforcer should be big for a while, but only because of the lack of other huge creatures. I’m sure many new mechanics and innovations in the game will come out that will pale some of the current creatures.
Water players should sit comfortably on the wings (or fins) or King Depthcon for a while. An unblockable creature with double breaker can end the game quickly. An particular, Fire and Light have to deal with it through combat alone, with no direct field removal spells. Light can tap out all the blockers and swing with Urth maybe, but that’s about it. Other Unblockable creatures include Candy Drop and Faerie Child, unblockables at 3 and 4 mana respectively. Spell-wise, Brain Serum and Crystal Memory seem strong, netting you more card advantage or outright getting the cards you want.
Spiral Gate and Teleportation net awesome tempo and may be the answer to 3rd Turn Explosive Fighter Ucarn craziness decks. Water also has a wide array of blockers, and most importantly a few blockers that can attack, like Seamine or King Coral. Overall, a very serious civilization which nets excellent archetypes and awesome slashable cards.
If you plan on Darkness, get Terror Pit and Death Smoke, which are 2 of the
3 most effective creature kill spells. As far as hand destruction goes, there’s nothing overly spectacular. Ghost Touch isn’t an amazing card by any means. If you happen to pull it as a shield, it just force your opponent to lose a card instead of you gaining a potentially amazing one.
Masked Horror, Shadow of Scorn seems horribly overcastted for it’s effect.
You can do tricks with it, but 5 mana investments every turn still make it sub optimal, even if you opponent is stupid enough to keep cards in hand after the initial trick. Dark Reversal is good, but expect it to get played less as better cards come out. The Darkness seem are sub-optimal, not giving us cool effects like a 5-mana double breaker, or an unblockable one at that. Deathliger, Lion of Chaos and Zagaan, Knight of Darkness are both random double breaker beat sticks. Stinger Worm might be the only creature to salvage beat down decks with this type. Creeping Plague has potential too, and Darkness is the only civilization with Slayer yet, so I’m not judging it too much as of now. But it seems to have the weakest selection of creatures for a civilization that should have the most tricks.
Fire is all about speed, offering up the only creature you’re able to effectively play on turn 1, Artisan Picora and Deadly Fighter Braid Claw.
Little kids might get spill their Kool-aid when they see Explosive Fighter Ucarn, which is an extremely powerful card, but can be easily dealt with.
In par with the Mana-destructor Creatures is Onslaughter Triceps, which I think is strong enough for the drawback, since by turn 3 your still able to do things, and you can replay it without totally crippling your mana base if it’s bounced, unlike Explosive Fighter Ucarn. Bolshack Dragon, could be the biggest creature in the game. Unfortunately that means little if you send it to the graveyard, or more insulting, and mana zone. I don’t have a lot to say about the dragon yet, except it’s probably over-hyped, but still very much playable. Scarlet Skyterror will also be the real terror for overly defensive decks. Tornado Flame peeks as Fire’s most powerful spell, which doesn’t say much. It’s also the only Shield Trigger Fire got. Crimson Hammer is good, and I have a special place in my heart for Magma Gazer in and unblockables deck. Aside from that, Fire has no blockers and no way outside of battle damage to deal with big creatures.
Rounding out the civilization come the mana loving Nature, and Coiling Vines and Mighty Shouter, it’s adoring fans. For such a creature loving civilization, it certainly doesn’t like protecting it’s creatures to much, no blockers here either. Deathblade Beetle is insane if it’s played correctly, and can pose a quick and stable threat. Poisonous Mushroom + Pangaea’s Song is a big combo people have been talking about, potentially ramping up your mana to 5 by turn 3. Pangaea’s Song is an outright horrible card on it’s own, quite possibly the worst in the set. The reasoning is you could just play it as a mana in it’s own and not waste a creature. It is playable in this situation, but I’d go for further support as opposed to speed and card disadvantage you get of these cards. It comes down to personal preference I suppose, and I’m sure this annoyingly scrubby and narrow combo will be used over and over in the future. In the way of good Nature Spells, Natural Snare is where it’s at. It’s hard to retrieve stuff that’s in your mana zone, and it might be oddly enough a better choice than Terror Pit in some situations if they have graveyard recursion. Aside from that, you really have slim choice with nature. Aura Blast is a potential board-sweeper, and Storm Shell looks interesting. Aside from that, just use Nature to support another type, since it’s a fairly weak civilization on it’s own.
Well, that’s it, hope you enjoyed. Comments and Criticism welcome.
-Ronald Waclawski (hydromorph1602 on pojo-boards)
Email: Kian1602@hotmail.com
AIM: hydromorph1602
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