Some cards look better than they turn out to be
later. Torchling is just such a card. At first
glance, all that an old school Magic player can
see is MORPHLING. Not so fast, scarlet wizards!
While Torchling is certainly better than the
average 3/3 creature for five mana, Torchling
fails badly in comparison to Morphling in the
important area of evasion. Fans of Morphling
(all of us) wish Torchling had flying or at
least the ability to make creatures unable to
block it (it has the opposite ability as a
matter of fact). From a design standpoint,
Torchling is solid enough with more than enough
capabilities. Unfortunately, the lack of evasion
makes Torchling only better than average for
limited or constructed play. Morphling was
considered rather overpowered when it appeared.
Torchling is a bit of a “fixed” Morphling that
makes us smile, but doesn’t rise to the
legendary level of the original.
CONSTRUCTED: 3.0
CASUAL: 3.0
LIMITED: 3.5
Jeff Zandi
Texas Guildmages
DCI Level II Judge
Zanman on Magic Online
jeffzandi@hotmail.com
With this many abilities, it has to be good. It
untaps for R, nobody will ever dare target it,
it has some sort of super-Provoke, and can
change size. Only trouble is, it can't avoid
blockers like its grandmother could, it can only
make other things block it. This could be
aboslutely brutal if people can play it right.
Red Akroma
might be the headliner, but Red Morphling is the
card that everyone's talking about. It's not as
effective as the blue original, but I don't
think anyone expected it to be. Superman was
hated by many for its ridiculous strength, and
Torchling isn't that far behind it. Regardless
of color, any creature with these abilities and
this much survivability is going to get used.
Whether it has any purpose in the current
environment remains to be seen, but people will
play it no matter what.
Torchling has some big shoes to fill. Does it
pull it off? No. Is it still a pretty good card?
Yes. If we're going to compare it to Morphling,
one of the ultimate control-deck finishers of
all time, Torchling will fall short every time.
Evasion is replaced with a sort of
Pseudo-Removal (bad trade) and untargettability
is replaced with a redirection ability that only
works if it's a spell and if you have somewhere
else to direct it (bad trade). However, if we're
comparing it to other 5cc red cards, it doesn't
look so bad. It is hard to kill (at least,
harder than your average bear) and forces your
opponent to try to pull some shenanigans to off
it. I don't really see it filling the 5 slot in
any constructed decks right now due to the hefty
mana requirements after it's in play, but I
would never be sorry to play this in limited.
Constructed - 2
Casual - 3
Limited - 4
Aethereal
Torchling
Morphling's weaker brother. Morphling is
superior to this guy simply because they are
control cards, and Morphling fits better in that
role. Flying is much more useful than making
them block this guy, and untargetability is a
little better than redirection because you can't
redirect it if Torchling is the only creature in
play. He's just not as good a finisher as
Morphling was. That's not to say he's bad, but I
don't know if he'll find a home.
In casual, hey, now you can play a blue/red
Morphling/Torchling deck. This'll be popular.
In limited, a very good card. He's pretty hard
to kill and can selectively take out your
opponent's army.
