Pojo's Magic The Gathering news, tips, strategies and more!

Pojo's MTG
MTG Home
Message Board
News & Archives
Deck Garage
BMoor Dolf BeJoSe

Columnists
Paul's Perspective
Jeff Zandi
DeQuan Watson
Jordon Kronick
IQ
Aburame Shino
Rare Hunter
Tim Stoltzfus
WiCkEd
Judge Bill's Corner


Trading Card
Game

Card of the Day
Guide for Newbies
Decks to Beat
Featured Articles
Peasant Magic
Fan Tips
Tourney Reports


Other
Color Chart
Book Reviews
Online Play
MTG Links
Staff



This Space
For Rent

Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Rise of Eagles
Image from Wizards.com

 Rise of Eagles
- Journey into Nyx

Reviewed June 12, 2014

Constructed: 1.63
Casual: 2.13
Limited: 3.00
Multiplayer: 1.88

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale:
1 - Horrible  3 - Average.  5 - Awesome

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Rise of Eagles

I like that this card triggers Constellation twice (and thus works well with yesterday's card) but a pair of 2/2's and Scry 1 isn't much of a payout for six mana. It wasn't too long ago that the Core Set was giving us a pair of 2/2 flyers for four mana, in the same set as a Legend who makes extra 2/2 flyers when you cast spells. Is the fact that they're Enchantments really worth that much? Sure, it's an enchantment-themed block, but that just means there's plenty more options for the guy who has six mana to burn and wants "an enchantment".

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

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Rise of Eagles which is a six mana Blue sorcery with Scry 1 that puts two 2/2 Blue enchantment tokens with Flying into play.  This is just not a competitive card as for the cost it doesn't offer enough for any Constructed format.  Talrand's Invocation has the core elements for two mana less and there are far better plays for Blue at six mana that aren't just two 2/2 tokens.
Overall a card that won't see any play outside of the most Casual of settings or a gimmick enchantment or bird deck.
 
In Limited this is a much better play as it works with both enchantment or scry support and puts two evasive tokens into play. The cost is manageable and multiples are possible given the common rarity which is a noticeable benefit as evasion and tokens win games in Limited.  For Booster this is a good early pick for the advantages it brings to the midgame and in Sealed a copy or two is a strong motivation for at least splashing Blue.
 
 
Constructed: 2.0
Casual: 2.0
Limited: 4.0
Multiplayer: 2.0

Mattedesa

Deck Garage

Rise of Eagles

My first impression of this card when I opened it at the pre-release was "bah, this is just another overcosted token producer", and I quickly threw it in the stack of cards I wouldn't be playing. Later, as I was building my blue-green deck, I noticed I was a little light on flying creatures, so for lack of a better card, I decided to toss this in.

Let's just say I was pleasantly surprised. It did multiple things for me. First, it did fit the bill for flying creatures. In one game, I was pretty fortunate to hit all my land drops, so I could play it by turn 6. We had hit a stall with ground creatures, and I was able to get these birds out and use some combat tricks to make them bigger and I finished off my opponent in a few turns.

In another game, I had pulled out a couple constellation creatures, dropped my 6th land, and looked again at Rise of Eagles in my hand. Somehow I had glossed over the fact that these are enchantment creatures! I was able to play it and trigger the constellation of
my Whitewater Naiads twice, making him and another fatty unblockable for the win!

So, Rise of Eagles is a great card, right? No. Fortunately, it was just the right card at just the right time in both of these cases, but it's still a marginal card. There are a lot better things to play for six mana than to get two 2/2 flying enchantment creatures. There are more efficient ways to make get flying creatures. But I learned through this experience that Rise of Eagles is better than I thought. I wouldn't put it in a constructed deck, but I wouldn't be embarrassed to have it in my draft or sealed deck, and perhaps there's a fun casual deck out there to utilize the type of interactions I encountered in that pre-release.

Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 3
Limited: 3
Multiplayer: 2


Michael Sokolowski

Rise of Eagles triggers Constellation for Blue.
 
...and that's it! That's the review. The End! We can all go home now.
 
Ahhh, you caught me. I'll ramble on about it for another paragraph or two.
 
I kind of want to like this card. Nice art, makes more than one guy, they're 2/2's with flying even, plus it has scry thrown on for good measure. All good things. So where does it break down? The cost, unfortunately. 6 mana is simply too much for this. Rise of Eagles is like a Fated Intervention that's worse in every possible way. It costs 6 mana instead of 5, it gives you 2/2's instead of 3/3's, it gives Scry 1 instead of Scry 2, and it's a sorcery instead of an instant. Flying is nice, but not nice enough.
 
How many blue cards with Constellation are there, anyways? Would it surprise you to know there are only two? It almost feels like they did blue last when it came to Constellation, and had already used all their best ideas on the other colours. Still, if this had only cost 5 mana instead of 6, I'd at least say it has a small amount of playable potential. But 6 mana for two 2/2's just isn't worth it by any stretch of the imagination. Join the Ranks felt a bit overcosted too, but at least 4 mana is easier to get to, plus it was an instant and had a heavily supported Soldier theme.
 
Honestly, the best thing going for Rise of Eagles is its art. The only time you should ever use this card is in Limited, as that's where you can reliably get to 6 mana, and 2/2's with flying can play a valuable role. Because it's not like Rise of Eagles is useless. 2/2's with flying and scry are quite nice things. It's just that they're nice early-mid game. By turn 6 you want something with a little more *oomf*. It's just too slow and expensive in Constructed, and even Casual and Multiplayer.
 
Unlike most things in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, this is one situation that the Eagles just aren't going to solve.
 
Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 2
Limited: 3
Multiplayer: 2


Copyright© 1998-2014 pojo.com
This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site.