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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
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Image from Wizards.com
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Pulse
of the Dross
Darksteel Rare
Reviewed September 2, 2004
Constructed: 2
Casual: 2.3
Limited: 1.4
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
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Chris
Gerhardt
*
game store owner in CA,
ShuffleAndCut |
By far the worst of
the Pulses. If you've ever played around with the
7th Edition Pre-con decks, you'll realize what a
bad plan hand destruction is. Against a hand
destruction deck threat, you just play your hand
out more aggressively, and then you really don't
give a crap about their stuff. Only control
has a difficult time with this.
Constructed:
2
Casual: 2
Limited: 1.5
Current Price:
Pulse of
the Dross -
Darksteel - $0.87
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Jeff Zandi
5
Time Pro Tour
Veteran
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Pulse of the Dross
Discard used to be a big part of the game of
Magic. This capability has
slowly been eroded away from the game. While
symmetrical discard effects
have been allowed, there have been fewer and fewer
ways to get rid of two or
more of an opponent's cards from their hand with
just one of yours. Pulse of
Dross represents a way to get card advantage, but
the hoops this card asks
you to jump through are really too complicated to
make the card any good.
It's a Sorcery, it costs two black, and worst of
all, you don't have much
control over what cards are available for discard.
Finally, in order to get
card advantage with Pulse of the Dross, you have
to have fewer cards in your
hand than your opponent AFTER you make them
discard with the Pulse. That's
asking a lot, making this card, like the blue
Pulse discussed yesterday,
barely average in constructed value. This card is
not GOOD ENOUGH in limited
most of the time, because there isn't enough
quality discard in the Mirrodin
block to make it worth drafting. For whatever
reason, Pulse of the Dross is
NOT an exciting card in booster drafts or in
sealed deck tournaments.
CONSTRUCTED: 3.0
CASUAL: 3.0
LIMITED: 2.5
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Ray "Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer |
Pulse of the Dross
I am not going to pay
BB1 for Blackmail with sometimes buyback. I would
rather play Coercion than this card. The only
possible use for this card could be in a
multiplayer format where there is always someone
with more cards than you, and even then, only if
you used it as a “great equalizer,” trying to keep
all the players on the same amount of cards, so
they don’t get mad at you and kill you while
you’re destroying their hand.
Constructed:
1
Casual:
2
Limited:
1
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DeQuan
Watson |
Man... Hrm...
I honestly don't have much to say about this card.
It's a sideboard card at best against control.
Even now though, it isn't good enough to merit any
slots in a deck. And none of the pros seem to
think so either.
Constructed: 1
Casual: 1.5
Limited: 1 |
Paul
Hagan |
Pulse of the Dross
--
This is the low man on the totem pole as far as
Pulses go. You get the same effect as Blackmail,
which never saw much play, and for the extra two
mana, you get to return the card to your hand.
Still, I refuse to call this card bad, simply
because I think it can find a home some day in
someone's mono-black sideboard against control.
Make no mistake, though -- this card doesn't
hold a candle to cards like Duress or Cabal
Therapy.
For casual players, there are (like yesterday) a
billion cards that do a better job of making
your opponent discard, so Pulse of the Dross
should probably be traded away to get some of
those cards.
In limited, Pulse of the Dross sits in my
sideboard, no questions asked. It has to be a
sad, sad draft for this card to make the cut,
just because its too expensive for a limited
effect. Why do you want to use weak discard in
draft when you could have another dude or a
removal spell?
Constructed Rating: 2.0
Casual Rating: 1.5
Limited Rating: 1.0
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Chase
Secret Squirrel
on the
Pojo.com
Message
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Pulse of the Dross
Well it’s not
Duress/Addle or Death Cloud, but it can help.
With Extraplanar Lens, you can easily use this
multiple times a turn. Still, they choose what
they’re gonna show you, and if possible,
there’ll be multiples, or just one new card, so
they isn’t exactly effiecient not to mention
that you have to have a smaller hand, which
isn’t what control decks want. It’s decent for
what it does, but it doesn’t ensure that you’ll
be able to get rid a threat before they play
it. MBC could use a few, but it is expensive,
and sometimes not worth the effort.
In limited, it’s
also expensive, and might not get the job done.
Control is kinda difficult in limited, and it’d
be hard to take advantage of this.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 3
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