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Pojo's Magic The Gathering Card of the Day


Image from Wizards.com

True Believer
10th Ed.


Reviewed November 15, 2007

Constructed: 2.77
Casual: 2.71
Limited: 2.25

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 


Jeff Zandi

 7 Time Pro Tour Veteran

Player since 1994

Level II DCI Judge

Member of the Texas Guildmages

True Believer
 

All the copies of True Believer that I own say “you cannot be the target of spells or abilities.” By the way, I got a fortune cookie once that said the same thing! Nowadays, the text of True Believer says “you have Shroud”. I can just imagine that AOL voice announcing that I have Shroud the same way it announces that I have mail. Jokes aside, True Believer is a good card for constructed white weenie decks and there really wasn’t anything wrong with him for sealed deck or booster draft either, except that as a rare, you didn’t see him very often. In constructed, he appears in deck lists most often in the sideboard, where he can come in against opponents who play effects targeting you.
 

CONSTRUCTED: 3.5

CASUAL:              3.0

LIMITED:              3.0

BMoor

True Believer

It seems like this should be a decent defense against burn spells, right? Not so much-- they just target the Believer instead of you. It's nothing but a speed bump there. The next thing to think about is discard spells that target a player. But dedicated discard decks can usually force this out of your hand before you can drop it, and less dedicated decks can usually kill the Believer. Ironically, being a creature makes it worse than Ivory Mask, as opposed to Ronom Unicorn, which is better for being a creature.

Constructed- 2.5
Casual- 3
Limited- 2

Aethereal

Thursday - True Believer

Ivory Mask on legs. I would play Ivory Mask over this if it was legal, because it is much harder to get off the board. Unfortunately, Ivory Mask wasn't reprinted in Tenth, so you'll have to use this. However, I probably wouldn't bother unless some kind of wicked combo deck emerges. You could play it in white weenie, but there are better card choices for that.

However, this guy is more useful than Ivory Mask in limited. He's a
2/2 for 2, and the effect may come in handy, but it's still not a top pick by any means.

Constructed - 2
Casual - 2
Limited - 2.5

David Fanany

Player since 1995

True Believer

True Believer isn't quite like Ivory Mask - creatures are probably the easiest type of permanent to get rid of, whereas enchantments may be the hardest. It's a little more fair on the red decks, though, and I'm a big advocate of the "all colors should be equally powerful" and "no one card should shut down a whole color." It's seen play in older formats against storm combo decks, as it demands to be removed before they can go off. It may yet see play again in Standard, if Perilous Storm or a similar deck re-emerges.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 2/5

Arcane
True Believer

Constructed: As I said yesterday most players love creatures that double with effects because it can provide you with an on field presence that can swing at your opponent while doing its thing. True Believer though (for me at least) fall into an exception to the rule, where I would much rather play the alternative and not have a body. True Believer provides you with the same effect as Ivory Mask, shielding you from pesky burn spells or whatever your opponent might want to throw at your head. Ivory Mask does this well as both Red Fireballs and Black Consume Spirits will stare at it with a shaking fist and do nothing in their owner’s hand. True Believer on the other hand sits right out in the crosshairs of black and red decks with a blatant target that says kill me with pretty much every piece of removal you have at your disposal. A 2/2 body is not nearly as good as an enchantment (that are nigh-impossible for Black or Red Mages to deal with). I’m even willing to pay the extra mana to get Imperial mask in the current standard just because of the push that Lorwyn is making on creatures thus putting all decks into a creature killing mindset. I’d rather have a five mana enchantment that thumbs its nose at Shriekmaw, than a small 2/2 that dies saying “sorry I didn’t do my job.”

Casual: Again, stick to the enchantment. More players means more removal and creatures are a commodity that do not really stay in play for that long. Enchantments on the other hand are much harder to deal with and players usually have less answers to them in their deck. 2/2s are usually horribly underpowered in this kind of setting unless you’re trying to do a quick overrun with cheap aggro creatures which is usually better done in Elves or Goblins as they have the staying power to recover from wrath effects.

Limited: Unless you see a great deal of discard effects of maybe a big flashy X spell from your opponent in game one I would leave him in the board. The disadvantage to any WW creature is that they want to come down as soon as possible, which while easy in constructed decks with fine tuned mana bases and money lands can do, is much harder in limited when you have 2-3 colors. The body isn’t going to be very impressive losing to or, at best, trading with our opponent’s average creature. I’m very unimpressed with the card, but I might be in the minority here.

Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 1.5
Limited: 1
Necro
nomikron

MTG Rules Advisor
True Believer:

Very solid card again. White weeny that doesn't intend to cast spells on the player running the deck can even pack this guy in the mainboard. Very solid against any deck running burn.

Very good in the mirror match if running a Boros deck.

In casual/multi, this guy is pretty decent. He keeps your opponents from directly burning you, and creates a situation where someone has to take this guy out first before turning on you.

In limited, this is a bear, for the most part.

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 2.5/5
PsychoAnime

#1 Magic Noob in Canada since 2002
True Believer

There's very little that targets players right now so it's definitely not very useful. It's also not a very supported tribe right now. There's better stuff to put in the sideboard too. It's decently efficient though so it could play a big role later on. For example, if Dragonstorm for some reason gets revived, playing this out will save you for that turn.

In casual, it's pretty much the same.

In limited, it has a heavy white requirement. Not the best, especially white in Tenth edition isn't that strong.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 2/5
Limited: 2/5
Meb9000 True Believer

Here is a card that I am quite glad was reprinted in Tenth Edition. True Believer originally came to us in Onslaught Block, but has made a timely reappearance. Not to mention, it is just cool to see the text, "You have Shroud" lol.

True Believer is at is best in a meta full of Burn or Discard decks, which fortunately seems to be the case right now, with Tarmorack and various RG or B/R burn decks running rampant. True Believer just says no to them until it is dealt with. I'd say this card is best as a sidedeck choice, and it has the most potential in a U/W/x Fish build.

Constructed: 4/5

Limited: 2/5

Swordmaster13
Thursday's card is True Believer, a card reprinted in Tenth.  Clerics themselves are all about making themselves really hard to kill, True Believer makes you hard to target with spells or abilities.  The Believer itself is fragile, but I've played a guy who built the most irritating Cleric deck known to man and Believer could've saved him from some pretty nasty things that he couldn't prevent like Life Drain(I ran a Bleeder Style Green/Black spirit deck when Kamigawa was legal).  True Believer puts a bulls-eye on itself but makes you pretty hard to kill while it's around.
 
Limited:3/5
Constructed:3/5

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