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Pojo's Magic The Gathering Card of the Day


Image from Wizards.com

Aether Membrane
Planar Chaos


Reviewed March 07, 2007

Constructed: 2.00
Casual: 2.07
Limited: 2.93

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 

BMoor

AEther Membrane
 
This thing is already getting a good amount of use in Pyrohemia decks as a creature most likely to survive the bloodfire.  It also works well as a cheap, high-toughness creature for a Red mage to hide behind while he slings off burn spells.  Although there hasn't been much call for Wall of Stone as of late (is that still in Standard?), this might prove useful in any deck that just needs to hold creatures off for a bit.
 
Constructed- 2
Casual- 2.5
Limited- 2.5

Lincoln Waterhouse

Aether Membrane

Constructed: Not bad if you need to buy some time. However, red rarely wants to buy some time. Usually red is hoping to pump out the damage. A defender never really gets much constructed play in red.

Casual: I like this for casual group format. At least you can hold some players at bay and they may think twice about coming your way. The fact that this blocks flyers makes it that much better.

Limited: A solid pick. However, far from a first pick. Its always good to have as many creatures as you can in a draft or sealed, so I certainly would not pass this up as a 4th pick or later.

Constructed: 1 for dualing. 2 for group play
Casual: 2 for dualing 4 for group play
Limited: 3

David N

Wednesday - Aether Membrane

Remake of Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch or Wall of Tears but in red and more defense. Being able to block fliers will also add to the usefulness of this card. If you need a wall in red use this guy. Beyond a pseudoflying blocker don't see anything else for this guy.

Constructed: 2
Casual: 1
Limited: 3
David Fanany Aether Membrane

This is certainly a unique card, since most cards that can block creatures with flying are green. Unfortunately, I don't think that's enough for Aether Membrane to see serious play in constructed formats. Many of the creatures with flying you'll want to block have five power or more anyway, and it'll only buy you one turn of not being hit; as such, Silklash Spider will be better. Most red decks want to be aggressive anyway, and those that don't have better ways of controlling the board. In Limited, though, a creature like Aether Membrane can be moderately useful. Even though you'll generally want a creature that can attack as well, its high toughness and its ability to bounce blockers can buy you time to set up your side of the board. In casual play, you can probably find a use for this, but you might be better off just using Silklash Spider.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 2/5
Limited: 3/5
LennonMarx Constructed
It's a wall. Yuck. Red creatures that don't turn sideways and/or don't have relevent abilites are bad. Period. Just play another threat, or some burn... or more land, just dont play this.
1/5

Casual
A bit better here but not much. It can hold off the a few people in multiplayer because no one wants to recast their creature when they can just hit someone else, and its a pitty to waste a kill spell on a wall.
Still not very good. Not loseing the game doens't matter if you can't win the game, and this just doesn't help you win.
1.5/5

Limited
In limited this is okay for buying time in a controling red/x build. Not a real high pick in draft, as it will likely table, and it would likely be cut even if it was picked, but still not a bad sideboard card. More likely to see play in Sealed. Not terrible by any means, but I'd much rather have something that wasn't a wall in all but the most controling decks.
2/5
 
PsychoAnime When's the last time you've seen a defender in a good deck? Cmon, I'll give
you sometime...

Well, the only one I can think of right now is Steel Wall, and even that's
not very good. There's a reason why they aren't in them though, and it's
because not being able to attack is a huge disadvatange, so Aether Membrane
better have a really good ability to redeem itself for use.

So it's a flying wall. That's a plus. And it bounces anything it blocks to its
owner's hand. That's actually decent but no one's going to attack when they
see this in play without good reason so it really all goes down to how easily
this card can be worked around.

5 toughness means it's not going to get burned down or overpowered easily so
it's either going to be killed by a spell or overpowered. Getting killed by
a spell is unavoidable for many creatures and even if it's overpowered,
your opponent's has probably spent a great deal of resources to get such a
large creature so bouncing it is pretty good in tempo.

However, it's still a defender and red is not the colour to stall with so it's
score suffers a bit from that. It's also not a threat and doesn't generate
any advantage so in the end, its score remains low even with its pro points
described above.

In limited it could be a ok pick because it's just so hard to kill and it keeps
your life high.

Constructed: 2.5/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Arcane Reviews by Arcane

Aether Membrane

Wall of Stone, Wall of Fire all have nothing on Aether Membrane for being the great wall of redness.

Constructed: Dedicated Red burn decks will probably like this card as a blocker to throw in the way of their opponent’s creature while they toss burn spell after burn spell at the head. Only black decks with their removal spells will have an easy time getting this out of their way (though a lot of black aggro decks will probably be relying on shadow or fear which slip right past the “tongue wall”).

Casual/Multi: If a big wall wasn’t enough of a deterrent to keep your opponent’s from attacking you, the bounce ability tacked on is really going to make them look elsewhere for their beating shenanigans, the only disadvantage being that it will probably become a target very quick for removal spells (which may be to the benefit of your other creatures). Won’t stop combo decks from going off, or from being swarmed with a huge group of creatures (unless you combine it with Valor Made Real *wicked laugh*) but you can’t have everything.

Limited: In limited this is an amazing grab, even if it isn’t a first or second pick. Not as strong as all the burn or some of the other aggressive creatures red has access to, but I’ve seen this wall shut down entire decks before by making it really difficult if not impossible to attack you. Most decks will have to expend some resource to kill it (gaining you some tempo if they have to use a combat trick like brute force b/c their creature will still return to their hand at end of combat).

Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 2.5
Limited: 4
 

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