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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day


Image from Wizards.com

Bloodline Shaman 
 


Reviewed January 12, 2004

Constructed: 2.9
Limited: 2.0
Casual: 3.3

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

Click here to see all our 
Card of the Day Reviews 


Chris
Gerhardt

* game store owner (Shuffle and Cut Games,CA)

This card is really fun in Elf decks.  It's especially good in Elves because they decks tend to be low mana costs, so the decks usually run very light land. So you have a very good chance of drawing an Elf when using it. If you don't, you probably milled away a land you didn't need anyhow.  While I don't see Elves being viable in competitive MTG at the moment, they are still a really fun casual deck.  In limited, Bloodline Shaman isn't really usable as you wouldn't likely have a tribal deck of any consequence.

Constructed: 2.75
Limited: 1.5
Casual: 4

Current Price:
$1.25
 


Judge Bill

*Level 2
MTG Judge

*game store employee

A great card for tribal decks. With a tribal deck, you usually have about a 50% chance of "drawing" an extra card. Also, since this is an elf, he can help with the bonuses on Wellwisher, Caot of Arms, etc. A great fit in a tribal deck in casual, a bit slow these days in constructed.
 
In limited, you usually don't have enough creatures of the same type to justify running this. There are many better things to do with your 2cc slot.
 
Constructed - 2.75
Casual - 3.5
Limited - 1.75
 


DeQuan
Watson

* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX)

* pro tour player

* Scrye writer since 2002

Bloodline Shaman
 
It's so funny that I had nearly disregarded this card as a whole for constructed play.  Later, we see that it's pretty amazing in the elf decks.  And amazing might be an understatement.  It's actually one of the key cards that make the elf deck so good.  I'm just upset that I only discovered it two days before it was revealed in the Magic Online Qualifier.
 
In limited play, this card isn't so great.  Most of your cards are of different creature types, so this ability doesn't get used all that often.  I would imagine that this card has a lot more uses in casual play when you can include a ton of different combo cards from various formats.
 
Constructed: 3.3
Limited: 1.4
Casual: 3.5
 

Ray "Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer
*Game Store Owner (Gamer's Edge)
 

Bloodline Shaman

 

Rofellos... Eldamari... Elvish Champion... you are not the glue that holds the elves together. No, that title belongs to one tiny little elf called the Bloodline Shaman. It is she who keeps your forces coming in the face of Earthquakes, Pyroclasms, Starstorms, Pestilence, and lo, even the Wrath of God! It is she who deserves the coveted honor of an Elf among Elves! 

 

But she's not so amazing in limited...

 

Casual : 4

Constructed: 4

Limited: 2

Jason
Matthews


* Level 1 DCI Judge

*game store employee

* gaming for over 15 years
Bloodline Shaman

A perfect card for an elf deck. Bloodline Shaman is card advantage is green , a color that normally has none. I played this card in mono green elves and it can really get the deck moving fast. One of the few problems is if you have to use it early when you are behind on mana you can sometimes put the lands right in the grave. In draft I don’t value this card very high as it loses some of its effectiveness.

Constructed 2.75

Casual 3

Limited 1.5

Jonathan
Pechon


2 Grand Prix Top 8's

Multiple Pro Tour appearances

Bloodline Shaman

Elves loved him, that’s for sure. In constructed, this guy reads, “Tap to draw an Elf or put a land into your graveyard.” Nothing else really plays him, and I really don’t think much of anything else can, with the weak exception of a Beasts deck, and this guy neither accelerates your mana nor bludgeons your opponent into the ground, thereby making him less than stellar.

In limited, your deck is going to need to be absolutely loaded with a tribe in order for him to be worthwhile. I think he was better in ONS/ONS/LEG draft than when Scourge came into the mix, simply because green was so much stronger and you could dig for Timberwatch and Wellwishers. If you had the super-Beast deck, you were probably just winning anyway, but this guy could grease the wheels for you.

Constructed: 2.0

Limited: 2.0  

Chase Bloodline Shaman

Welcome to a week full of random (but not necessarily bad) cards. We start off the week with a card that has been popping up in elf decks. By turn 3, this card can be tapping away and getting the player an extra creature. This card is probably less useful after the first game as you might accidentally put that sideboard win condition into your graveyard. But otherwise, you can read this as “tap: draw a card”.

In Casual, it could be a nice addition to an elf deck but otherwise, you don’t need it. If you’re playing wizards, milling away counterspells isn’t a good idea.

In Limited, it isn’t as useful here as it is in Constructed because it’s much harder to focus a limited deck on all creatures. Not to say it isn’t good, but it requires more of a focus.

(Also, how many green wizards are?)

Constructed: 3 (it depends on the viability of elf decks)
Casual: 2 
Limited: 2


Jason
Chapman
Bloodline Shaman is one of those 'almost' cards. It is almost great but just not there. If the cards could be put directly into play, it would be great. If you could search a little further in the deck, it would be great. If you could do it multiple times a turn it would be great. The point is that you can't do any of these things. Still, is is a solid card and provides some additional acceleration for Green decks. Try it with Flashback and you shouldn't be disappointed.

Constructed - Just lacks the little extra to make it great - 2.60

Limited - Drawing creatures is awsome - 4.20

PEZ - Just not strong enough or fast enough for an Uncommon - 2.20

Jeff Zandi

Bloodline Shaman

Everyone first encountered this card in Onslaught limited formats, where the card was a qualified success. Some people loved it, especially in limited decks with a lot of Beasts or Elves. In Onslaught block constructed, the Shaman was one of the key cards to the all-Elf mono green deck that had some success early in that format. In a deck focused to make this card’s ability useful, Bloodline Shaman provides FAST card advantage for a color that doesn’t see a lot of that kind of thing.

CONSTRUCTED: 3.5

LIMITED: 3.5

CASUAL: 4.0

Andy Van
Zandt
Bloodline Shaman

While this guy has shown up in elf decks already, and is playable in limited, it's not the potential powerhouse that the turn-over-4 guys were.
Still, it's potential card advantage, and the better tuned your deck is to support this, the better a 2 mana advantage gainer is.
constructed - 2.9
limited - 3
casual - 3
 

 

 

 

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