Cloudstone Curio – Ravnica Remastered
Date Reviewed: January 17, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 5.0
Limited: 3.0
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander [EDH]: 4.5
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
This card is very much in the category of things that read very simply or even innocuously, and then just get absolutely ridiculous when you actually play them. The proliferation of comes-into-play abilities has made this much stronger and much more versatile than it was on release, but even then, it actually warped a format at the design phase. One of the cards considered for Time Spiral‘s timeshifted subset was Kobolds of Kher Keep. Somebody pointed out that zero-cost creatures plus Cloudstone Curio plus Soul Warden leads to infinite life, and the Kobolds got cut from the set, as Ravnica: City of Guilds was already locked in. And that’s one of the more comparatively innocuous things you can do with the card – don’t forget that unlike some of the more recent blatant trigger-enablers, it can work with enchantments and lands. And planeswalkers, too, but that’s probably harder to abuse (though you should really never underestimate Cloudstone Curio!).
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 5
Limited: 3
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Cloudstone Curio, at first, lives up to its name. It’s a little curio that sits there and does weird things. Play a thing, have the option to bounce a thing that shares a type back to your hand. It doesn’t work on artifacts, so there should be no risk of it ever being a problem.
Nope. None. No risk whatsoever.
As the links might imply, Cloudstone Curio has built a deserved reputation for being…a lot. It doesn’t take much to start spiraling a board out of control while this little artifact sits there, and there are a lot of ways to turn one turn into a won game with this card’s help. It’s a deceptively vicious card that can go infinite with little additional support.
That said, I do not believe Cloudstone Curio has ever plied its trade in deeper formats. The pressure release valves of Legacy, a format with all of the tools a harmless little Curio might want, are a lot stronger than this card would like, and the fact it says “nonartifact” means they were at last thinking about the shenanigans wrought by Mirrodin (and hamstrings its use in Vintage). I don’t think it’s completely hopeless, but it takes a very careful touch to make this work…and I feel like most decks won’t give you the time to get this set up. And if they do, you already were winning.
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 5
Limited: 3 (depends on having triggers you really want to go off, and I’m not sure of how many there are in either of its three outings)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 5 (this is not for every deck, but Cloudstone Curio is a card that should win you the game on resolution if you know what you’re doing)
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