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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Alchemist's Refuge
Image from Wizards.com

Alchemist's Refuge
Avacyn Restored

Reviewed May 9, 2012

Constructed: 3.20
Casual: 3.60
Limited: 2.60
Multiplayer: 3.10

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 

BMoor

Alchemist's Refuge

Suddenly, an all-creature deck starts to look viable. You can now drop creatures, Auras of all kinds, artifacts, and even planeswalkers at instant speed... if you pay an extra three mana per turn for the privilege to do so. Momir Vig Commander decks will love this, as will any deck that runs Sages of the Anima, but it's no substitute for a well-timed combat trick.  As much as I love Simic-style decks, I just don't see this making much of a splash. It reminds me too much of Novijen, Heart of Progress, which also wanted you to pay an additional "GU, T" for your spells and was best when you had multiple creature cards in hand and the ability to drop all of them in a turn. That never worked because nobody wanted to pay that much extra, and I see this card having a similar fate.

Constructed- 2
Casual- 3
Limited- 2
Multiplayer- 1.5

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Alchemist's Refuge
 
Fun fact: Alchemist's Refuge is a near-reprint of Winding Canyons from Weatherlight, and I'm very surprised it's taken so long to get such a reprint. Being able to play during your opponent's turn is a very strong advantage, since a lot of decks can't reciprocate. Plus, since Wizards of the Coast still doesn't seem to have observed what the right cost range for universal (soft or otherwise) counterspells is, you can easily splash one of the two colors in a deck that's partly the other and post your decklist all over every format until they do finally take notice. Plus, flashing a Kederekt Leviathan onto the field is pretty hilarious.
 
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5

Paul

Welcome back readers today’s card of the day is Alchemists Refuge an interesting land granting all your non land cards flash. In standard I can see this card as maybe a one of or two of in land bases for decks required the right color it helps do decent combat tricks at instant speed but also allows you to try and play around countermagic but with Cavern of Souls I don’t know how relevant that is making this a fringe card in standard. In extended and eternal you can flash in even more powerful things but I don’t see this card making much of an impact it requires tapping three lands for marginal benefit and decks in these formats just have time for that. In legacy and vintage the same concept applies this card doesn’t do enough and slows down the game for the person playing it putting them behind. In casual and multiplayer this card is an EDH all-star and also helps players do insane things such as flashing planeswalkers in at instant speed. In limited its expensive and requires a blue/green deck making it not much of a pick. Overall a card best suited to casual and multiplayer play and provides an interesting and cool effect.
 
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 1.5
Multiplayer: 3.5

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Alchemist's Refuge which is a land that can tap for one mana or for a Blue and Green mana allows you to play non-land spells as if they had Flash until end of turn.  This is likely going to see quite a bit of play in the future as Green/Blue cards return to Standard.  The additional two mana to play various non-instant cards outside of your turn is a cost that can easily be managed with Green's acceleration and Blue's control.  The threat of nearly anything appearing during an opponent's turn, particularly during combat, is a major psychological weapon even if the effect isn't triggered.
 
For Limited this is a bit of incentive to try forcing a Blue and Green deck, but isn't strong enough by itself to do so unless the pool itself encourages it.  As a rare this is not something you really want to see in Sealed where the odds of Blue/Green being a playable build is unlikely.  For Booster this could be made to work, but it isn't the best color pairing and is a pretty weak first pick.  Casting spells at instant speed may be useful as a combat trick and having the flexibility to wait until the end of your opponent's turn to play a spell, it just seems too situational to dedicate a card or entire build around.
 
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 2.0
Multiplayer: 3.5

John
Shultis
Phoenix
Gaming

      Welcome to the card of the day section here at Pojo.com! Today we are looking at Alchemist’s Refuge from Avacyn Restored. Alchemist’s Refuge is a rare land that taps to add generic mana. It also has the ability of pay a green and a blue mana, tap it: You may cast nonland cards this turn as though they had flash.

      Rare lands are always nice. They usually come with some form of ability that makes them insane. While Alchemist’s Refuge certainly meets the criteria, it falls well short of the best rare land from Avacyn Restored. However, while it is no Cavern of Souls, it does do something really amazing, granting flash to your nonland spells. It is always nice to be able to drop in a surprise blocker, or launch a sorcery on your opponent’s turn. The drawback is that it costs mana to spend mana. And sometimes it is not worth it to spend the extra two mana.  

Limited: 4/5
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5


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