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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Killing Wave
Image from Wizards.com

Killing Wave
Avacyn Restored

Reviewed June 18, 2012

Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 4.12
Limited: 4.00
Multiplayer: 4.00

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 of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Killing Wave
 
It's a sweeper that doesn't always sweep, and a mass life-loss card that doesn't always cause mass life-loss. Are you still following me? Good, because the fact is that this card is actually better than it might sound from that suggestion of unreliability. It's almost always certain to do at least one thing that benefits you, and black's myriad ways to steal life from the opponents can help you keep your creatures and/or control what choices are available to opponents. Don't forget that people have to pay X life for each creature they want to keep, not for the total effect - it's easy imagining this card being potentially lethal surprisingly early in matches against token decks, or even some "regular" aggro decks.
 
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Killing Wave which is a Black one mana and X that requires for each creature a payment of X life or to sacrifice it. 
This is a playable mass removal for Black that isn't ideal for decks running many creatures, but can be quite solid in single creature strategies or possibly variants on the mono-Black sacrifice theme.  An opponent with three creatures can either lose them or nine life with a payment of just four mana making this quite efficient if you avoid a major sacrifice of your own.  Overall this will probably be played more as the current formats evolve and suits several concepts of Black deck designs very well.
 
In Limited this can be a finisher by clearing the field or forcing an opponent to dip dangerously low on life.  The single Black mana also allows easy splashing and in many situations it can be a dominant force no matter what the opponent chooses.  The sacrifices against your own field is a concern that can be worked around with the proper math and generally good timing with this should win the game.  There is little reason not to pick this first in Booster and it should be included in Sealed whenever even a splash of Black is reasonable.
 
This won't make you any friends in Multiplayer, but it is a viciously effective card when even a small amount of mana is paid for X.  Building the deck around this effect is viable and well suited to the format.
 
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4.0
Multiplayer: 4.0

John
Shultis
Phoenix
Gaming

      Welcome to another new week of card of the day reviews here at Pojo.com! Starting this week off we are looking at Killing Wave from Avacyn Restored. Killing Wave is a rare black sorcery that costs X and one black mana. Killing Wave says for each creature, it’s controller sacrifices it unless he or she pays X life.

     Of all the black spells, Killing Wave is making waves to become one of my favorites. The reason why is if your board is empty, there is no draw backs to sinking enough mana into this thing to bring the Titanic back to the surface just to sink it again! And even if you do have creatures, if your opponents have more, and are not very well depth in the life total, this could well end the game. A single creature could be all it takes. I try and get as much mana into this as possible, just so that I can gain the most advantage. When using it with blue, the one creature you elect to keep can be Artful Dodged right into a game winner.

     For those that love playing old cards, consider running with Wound Reflection, and enjoy the results. In that scenario, I highly doubt your opponent will want to keep many creatures, as they lose twice as much just to keep them around!
 
Limited: 5/5
Constructed: 5/5
Casual: 5/5
Multiplayer: 5/5


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