Shard Phoenix
Shard Phoenix is a very powerful card for
constructed red control decks.
Decks with enough red mana to make the most of
Shard Phoenix's abilities are
usually mono colored, extremely aggressive and
burn-oriented builds, but Shard Phoenix finds
itself most at home in slower, more steady
decks. Shard Phoenix's future is bright. He's
back in print in Ninth Edition and one deck
design he fits in well, a red control deck with
blue as a secondary color, could be very
effective with burn spells and counter spells
that only require one blue mana to cast. This
card is a serious power card in limited,
the few times that you would be likely to see it
in the few Ninth Edition limited drafts or
sealed deck games in which you might play.
CONSTRUCTED: 3.5
CASUAL: 4.0
LIMITED: 4.0
I'm not sure how positive or negative I want to
be with this card. I know that back in the day
there was a deck type that centered around it.
Unfortunately, a lot of those cards are no
longer available. I'd expect something like this
will have to see some competitive play. It
should fit well in more control oriented decks.
I'd also expect it to see a lot of sideboard
time to help kill weenie creatures. This is a
fun card though and I'm glad to see it back in
9th edition.
I'm pretty happy Shard Phoenix made the cut into
9th Edition. I wasn't around for the first run
of this card, and when it was first announced
that it was going to be in 9th, I wasn't that
excited. Then someone pointed out to me that it
was dealing damage to *each* creature without
flying, not target creature without flying. Any
statements I had made up 'til then were duly
revoked.
At first glance, it seems like Shard Phoenix is
slightly overcosted, but with the ability to
have a continual board-sweeper, I really can't
see this card being any less expensive. If you
are playing Red, I won't call Shard Phoenix an
automatic inclusion in your deck, but it at
least warrants a second glance, no matter what
the format.
