While you
won't see this making the Pro-Tour rounds,
Kansazhi is an interesting card. I would
play it in limited, though I would be hoping
to get it out more quickly than turn 5. Even
if all you turn up is a land, cool stuff.
In casual, I suppose you could incorporate
it in a mill theme to deck your opponent.
Again, at 5 mana, a bit expensive, but still
worth investigating.
And, in
case you didn't notice...the Saviors of
Kamigawa spoiler is making the rounds, and
we have a full spoiler of the rares
available here:
Saviors of Kamigawa! Wow...some great
stuff is about to hit!!
In limited play, where this card is most
realistically useful, be careful not to draft it
too high. At five mana to cast, this card can
help you a lot, but not early in the game. The
benefits of this card are two-fold.
First, you might actually be able to use the
card that you cause to be removed from the game.
Second, you most certainly remove resources from
the opponent's deck that he would like to use.
In some games, Ornate Kanzashi will remove
enough cards to run a player out of cards,
providing your deck another win condition.
Basically, once this card is in play, you will
probably always love it. Staring at Ornate
Kanzashi in your opening hand, however, is quite
suboptimal. While this is a very interesting and
often useful card, it does not have a very high
power level, because it will not directly cause
you to win a game very often. It's hard to
imagine this card being used in any constructed
decks other than the more casual kind.
I've never liked "gimmicky" cards like this.
First off you need to be able to pay for the
spell you get to see. Then you have to have the
proper mana. And on top of that, it has to even
be a spell in their deck that has a use to you.
It's also five mana to cast. The only way I can
see this card getting played is if it's part of
a Millstone deck that's already removing cards.
Usually, when I play something that costs five
mana, I want it to be directly helping me to win
the game -- think Meloku the Clouded Mirror or
Mirari's Wake. This card isn't doing that.
Instead, it is just doing neat tricks. I
appreciate the spirit of the card and all, but
unless you know that you can completely cripple
an opponent by playing his cards, I would
suggest leaving Kanzashi at home, no matter what
the format.
Don't take this as the end-all statement,
though. I wouldn't be completely shocked to see
this turn up in sideboards at some point, if
only for mirror matches in some combo deck.
While you
won't see this making the Pro-Tour rounds,
Kansazhi is an interesting card. I would
play it in limited, though I would be hoping
to get it out more quickly than turn 5. Even
if all you turn up is a land, cool stuff.
In casual, I suppose you could incorporate
it in a mill theme to deck your opponent.
Again, at 5 mana, a bit expensive, but still
worth investigating.
