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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day


Image from Wizards.com

Promise of Power 
 


Reviewed January 13 , 2004

Constructed: 3.23
Limited: 3.47
Casual: 2.88

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

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Card of the Day Reviews 


Judge Bill

*Level 2
MTG Judge

*game store employee

When Mirrodin first came out, people (including myself) were all over this card as a big part of the mono-black deck. Unfortunately, mono-black has its problems lately, ranging from Karma to UW control that make it not a viable archetype. Should Mono-black ever get the goods again, expect this to be in that deck. It gives you 5 cards for 5 mana and 5 life, and late game, it also gives you a huge flier for 3 more mana.
 
I can't do very well to give this a casual rating. It seems like the extra turns given to set up in casual would make this good, but the life loss might not make it as good. Plus, this is rare, so you should see it less.
 
In limited, if you have a heavy enough black component, you play this, no questions asked.
 
Constructed - 2.5
Casual - 2
Limited - 3


DeQuan
Watson

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

* pro tour player

* Scrye writer since 2002

Tuesday - Promise of Power
 
I just don't understand this card.  For all practical intents and purposes, it is a really good card.  The only problem is that black isn't highly played right now in constructed play.  I think that's the only thing that keeps this from being scary.  When a deck is playing black though, you can definitely expect this card to get played.
 
In limited play, I definitely take this card and play it.  You either get some good card advantage or a flier.  Well, maybe you can get both.  No matter what it's pretty good.
 
If you were playing this in a casual deck, I could see how this is huge.  You can play a ton of stuff that lets you draw can and you can get some really big demons.
 
Constructed: 3
Limited: 4.2
Casual: 4


Andy
 Van Zandt

Promise of Power
Big black flying guys are good, as is card drawing. A bit hefty in the cost department, but the potential rewards make this card well worth it in almost any circumstance. One of those cards that, if you're already playing black, it's hard not to toss a couple in, just because.

constructed 3.3
limited 3.4
casual 3.2

Ray "Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge

*Game Store Owner (Gamer's Edge)
 January13 - Promise of Power


This card's name fits it flavor well. It fits very well in control black and is well costed for what it does. Optimally you always want to entwine it, but just playing a big fatty flier or drawing a few cards has its rewards as well. Good in limited too, but takes a heavy commitment to black. Just an all around solid card.

Casual: 2

Constructed: 4

Limited: 3
Jason
Matthews


* Level 1 DCI Judge

*game store employee

* gaming for over 15 years
Tuesday- Promise of Power

Trading life for cards has always been in the black color and promise of power does it nicely. It can be limiting when you get to late game if your life has gotten really low. I like the idea of making big deamons with it if your playing mono black with lots of card draw it can be extremely fun. In constructed I think this card is an okay choice for Mono Black Control. In Draft I usually will snatch this card up so I don’t have to face it. Waiting to use it for the entwine is sometime a mistake so remember that the card advantage can be more important than the demon.

Constructed 3

Casual 3

Limited 3.75

Jonathan
Pechon


2 Grand Prix Top 8's

Multiple Pro Tour appearances

 Promise of Power

Irony at it’s finest. A card that showed such promise when Mirrodin first came out has proven to be a card that, while good, has been relegated to an archetype that isn’t seeing any serious play, being dominated for the most part by Affinity and U/W control. It’s not a bad card, but it just isn’t seeing the play that it could; perhaps this’ll change in the coming sets.

Limited, this thing makes an unTerrorable flying beater, draws five cards, or (ruh-roh) both. A solid hit if you’re one of the black drafters at the table, you should be pretty happy to slam this down.

Constructed: 2.75
Limited: 3.75

Jeff Zand
i

4 Time Pro Tour
Veteran

Level 2 Judge

 Promise of Power

This was thought to be one of the most powerful rares in the set at the beginning of limited play with Mirrodin. Since then, this card may have cooled off a bit. While difficult to cast, it is still an extremely advantageous card in mono black draft decks. While it has yet to surface in many constructed designs, this card should be a powerful component in Standard and Block Constructed decks built around a mono black theme using Extraplanar Lens to provide large amounts of black mana. The cool thing about this card is the way it works with Entwine. In the late game, when you are more likely to pay the NINE casting cost (when you include the Entwine cost), you probably don’t have a lot of cards in your hand to make the black Demon token very powerful. That’s no problem, because when you play Promise of Power with Entwine, you get to draw the cards FIRST and then put the flying black token into play with power and toughness equal to the number of cards in your hand.

CONSTRUCTED: 3.5

LIMITED: 4.0

CASUAL: 4.0
Chase Promise of Power
Oh, I love this card. It’s flexible, it gives black card drawing, and it can get black a flier with no life draw back. (I don’t expect to ever pay the entwine cost, but even so at 5 life and 9 mana, you get 5 cards and at least a 5/5 flier which is good.) It’s rating depends on what Darksteel will do to the environment. MBC and Suicide Black [if there is a viable SB] will be “temporarily” troubled by indestructible artifacts (I say temporarily because I doubt it will be much of force after the dust settles after the prerealse). We’ll have to see.
In Casual, it’s ok, but you can just use tutors (which are cheaper less steep than this) to go get a card. It isn’t bad, but you have much better options.
In limited, the triple black is a pretty heavy requirement and may force you to stay within two colors. Black isn’t very strong in MMM mainly because there isn’t much removal (Terror isn’t that strong as half of people’s decks are artifacts.) But it’s still card drawing and it’s still gives you a flier.

Constructed: 4
Casual: 2
Limited: 3

Jason
Chapman
Promise of Power is one of those psycho overcosted super cards. Most of the time these cards look great but the cost is simply too much. Promise of Power may just make the cut, however. 5 Mana can be achieved in most games and the abilit to draw 5 cards is just too good to pass up even for 5 life. The second ability is also strong as even a 4/4, maybe even 3/3, flyer is worth 5 mana especially for Black. Entwine is almost too expensive to contemplate but it would be crazy cool if it happened.

Constructed - Worthwhile as a 1 or 2 slot -3.00
Limited - Both abilities are good, especially evasion - 3.15

 

 

 

 

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