Yuan-Ti Malison – D&D: ADVENTURES IN THE FORGOTTEN REALMS
Date Reviewed: July 14, 2021
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 4.00
Limited: 4.13
Multiplayer: 3.00
Commander [EDH]: 3.13
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
David
Fanany
Player
since
1995
Yuan-ti are a strange case among Dungeons and Dragons‘ creatures. If you’re not familiar with them, they’re all technically snakes, but some look like snakes and some look like humans. The ones who look like humans are called “purebloods”, which seems counterintuitive for a species that’s actually more closely related to snakes. Confusing as things like this might be, I’ve always felt that they help convey the alienness of yuan-ti.
If you want to focus on venturing into the dungeon as early and often as possible, there might be no better card to use than this guy. If you prioritize getting him to attack alone as much as possible, you’ll rack up dungeon effects quite quickly, though some of them might not be optimal for a lone attacker situation. If you end up playing other creatures and attacking with him along with them, he might end up being the one targeted for blocking and removal spells so that you don’t pile up dungeon effects. Either way, he should have a decent impact on many games, and a tempo deck that figures out a way to protect him as a lone attacker and take advantage of reliable dungeon effects could be quite strong.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5 (he makes a good target for the various equipment in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms)
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander: 3/5
If you attack with it alone, Yuan-Ti Malison is unblockable, which I’m sure makes for plenty of appealing Voltron-style shenanigans…and as a two-power creature, he represents a ten turn clock on his own. Venturing into the dungeon has its other upsides, and while I’d need a lot of space to detail the gory bits about the dungeons brought by the Dungeons & Dragons collaboration, think of it as an incremental bit of advantage each time Mister Snek strikes a target. He’s potent in a deck that wants to go spelunking early and often, but not so bad outside of it, and you can use the traipsing as a bit of upside on an already decent creature.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 4.25
Multiplayer: 3
Commander: 3.25
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