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Pojo's Duel Masters Card of the Day
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Image from
Wizards Duel Master site
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Brutal Charge
DM05
Card #49
Date Reviewed: 01.26.05
Constructed Average Rating:
Limited Average Rating:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating. |
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Lee Sandow |
Today he have one of
the more interesting cards of this set, in the
form of a very cheap spell. What tricky card is
up for our review today? Why it is none other
than the almightly Brutal Charge!
Brutal Charge
Cost: 2
Civilization: Nature
Card Type: Spell
·
At the
end of this turn, search your deck. For each of
your opponent's shields your creatures broke
this turn, you may take a creature from your
deck, show it to your opponent, and put it into
your hand. Then shuffle your deck.
Flavor Text:
Kondu started to regret
joining Wrugh's carpool.
Mana Generated: 1
Rarity: Rare
Card Number: 49/55
This card has the wierdest
flavor text EVER. I mean, really. Who are
Kondu and Wrugh? I'm just curious here, but
REALLY. Anyways, on to the effect.
CIVILIZATION: Since this is
a spell, I'm going to have to adjust my
review format a little bit. I've nver
reviewed a spell before. This card is a
nature spell. So, what does that mean for
me? It means it will see play in alot of
decks running Green (especially beast
folk/Giant Insect EVO decks), and will
eventually probably replace Dimension Gate.
COST: This card has a great
cost at a total of two mana. Considering
how SICK the effect can be, this
could either be a fair price, or bordering
on broken. This thing doesn't cost much,
but the likelihood of you using it early
duel is low. You'll probably want to play
this a little later in the duel, when you
have several creatures on the field for
maximum fun.
ABILITY: During this turn,
whenever one of your creatures breaks a
shield, you may search your deck for a
creature, and place it into your hand.
That's one for each shield. Broken by ANY
of your creatures. This can rampidly become
a VERY sick scenario. Imagine a field with
a Barkwhip, a Torcon, and Two Bronze-Arm
Tribes on it. Our player breaks three
shields (We'll asume at least one was a
trigger to stop the fourth, or that it was
summon sick). Ou player then searches his
deck for three creatures, which end up being
three more barkwhips. His opponent quits
out of irritation. I like that scenario.
^_^
Now that that's all been
said, let's see how it stacks up!
CONSTRUCTED: I like this
card. I haven't had the chance to use it
yet, but it sure looks like a sweet deal to
me. The price is extremely low, especially
for what you get, and the fact it can search
for ANY creature in your deck makes this
thing even more powerful. This cards only
drawback is that it is useless if you can't
reach your opponent's shields. That usually
doesn't happen though, because eventually
you'll find a weak spot in their defence.
This is a very solid card.
4.25/5
LIMITED: I have mixed
feelings about this card here. It helps
because it searches your deck for that
creature you need, but it also can be
situational because in this format, you'd
probably rather get a creature ON THE FIELD
for the mana you spend on this. If you've
got a bomb waiting in your deck, run this to
search for it. If not, you MIGHT pass on
this. Still, it's solid, just not quite as
much as in constructed.
3.5/5
Cheers everyone!
|
cecillbill
(Top 4 at
2004 GenCon - Indy
Championship) |
Brutal Charge
Logic Cube, Crystal Memory and Dimension Gate say
hello to the new kid on the spell Tutor block. Be
nice, he's actually worth a spot on the kickball
team.
[Goals & Effectiveness]
I'm just going to come right out an say it: Brutal
Charge is darn-near perfect. There are several
advantages that can be reaped from Tutor cards:
1. Hand replenishment. No need to elaborate
extensively on this concept. You get more cards in
hand, which equals more options to use, albiet only
creature options with Charge.
2. Instant gratification. Charge can place the
creature card you need into your hands, skipping the
randomness associated with drawing from the top of
your deck. Having an answer when you need it is
powerful. Not as direct as Dimension Gate because
you have to break a shield to get creature cards
from it, but Brutal Charge outclasses that trigger
spell with the right setup.
3. Information Gathering. Whenever you search your
deck you have a way to decipher what's in your
shield zone. When you're set to cast Brutal Charge
you should look at your graveyard, mana zone, field
and hand before casting it. Once you know what
you've already drawn (cards in your hand) and played
(cards in your graveyard, mana zone and field) then
you will be able to figure out what's left for your
opponent to give to your thru your shields.
Yes, you don't know which shield is which exactly
unless you've done some shield setting, but you know
what's in that zone in general. Also, figuring out
what's in your shield zone with a Tutor card allows
you to switch strategies if what you need to see in
hand to complete a play is in your shield zone.
4. Breath new life into your next draws. How? Simply
through making you shuffle your deck. Your draws are
still random, but you could have shuffled another
immediately useful card onto the top of the deck,
which could lead to nice topdecking. Yes, you also
could have tossed a great card to the bottom of the
heap and something not as readily usable to the top,
but there is a chance to replace something not
immediately useful.
Brutal Charge has mana efficiency written all over
it, 2 mana is a steal.
This card's only drawback is that you have to cast
it when you can break some shields. Other than that,
Brutal Charge achieves hand replenishment with
relative ease and can have very explosive results in
the right decks.
[Where To Deck]
Weenie Rush. Charge is perfect for a Weenie Rush
deck packing Nature. It gets what a weenie deck
needs in hand--creatures. This is especially
important now that Searing Wave has become a fixture
in most metas (really any widespread weenie
kill--but I focus on Wave because it's the cheapest
option from a hard-casting view). Searing Wave is
the enemy of Weenie Rush, on two levels. First, it
simply decimates a weenie field. Weenie decks not
running guys like Bone Spider and Bloody Squito top
the power mark at 3000 power. Losing an entire field
to one card creates serious card disavantage for the
weenie player. A weenie player without other options
in hand is going to scoop after a couple widespread
hits to his field. That brings me to my second
point, weenie decks tend to topdeck, especially in
the hands of inexperienced players. What can be more
damaging to a weenie Rusher than having Wave dropped
on him when he has no cards in hand? Yes, he could
topdeck another little hitter--but that's one little
creature for an opponent to face, and that's not
even considering what the opponent has in play.
Brutal can help curb topdecking, and is as cheap as
every other card common to Weenie decks.
Nature-based Swarm or Aggro-Control with Nature.
Dimension Gate and Rumbling
Horn were mainstays in many Nature decks because
Swarm is mostly about the creatures and those cards
nab 'em. If you're playing mono-Nature then that
point is even more applicable, the decks are about
70% creatures. Brutal Charge is sick in Nature decks
due to the cheapness, power level, and effects of
the creatures most of those decks pack. Mana gain or
conservation
(Elf-X) gets evil creatures like Barkwhip,
Dash-Horn, Obsidian Scarab, Avalanche Giant, Noifa,
and Fighter Dual Fang into play quicker. Those decks
overwhelm their opponents thru speed and super
efficient creatures for the cost. Charge adds more
fuel to the fire by ensuring that those decks rarely
want for another baddie to cast. If you can breaks
some shields, then you have more fatties you can
bring out quick thanks to full servings of mana.
A word of caution: Even though Charge is an
excellent spell, you might want to (should) leave it
out of slow builds. If you're playing a slow
deploying deck then you're running Control. Remember
that Brutal Charge is a tutor spell dependent on
breaking shields. Control decks win thru card
advantage, but how is that advantage better achieved
for those decks when it comes to deck thinning?
Direct, no-nonsense drawing or tutoring that depends
on little else other than being able to pay for the
card and one that gives as little profit to your
opponent as possible. You want to overwhelm your
opponent with cards you've reaped from Hulcus,
Serum, Merfolk, Memory, Dimension Gate, Mongrel,
Mist--minimizing any sort of card or mana advantage
your opponent could use against you from the shields
you break. Charge in a Control deck could lead to
some plays where you're pushing attacks at
inopportune times just to reap the cards or turns
where you're clogging your hand with several copies
of it. If you do use Brutal in your Control decks,
then don't max it out.
[Format Ratings Overall]
Contructed: 4.5/5. The only drawback to this card is
that you must successfully attack an opponent to
reap its benefits. So, don't cast it when you know
every one of your creatures will be blocked and many
of them killed (if you want to trump blockers, then
try slayers, Paladin, evasive creatures or Plague).
Even so, Brutal Charge is one piece of seriously
good hand advantage.
Limited: High. The spells I give consideration
besides removal in Limited are tutor or draw spells.
I don't pass up good creatures to deck thinning
spells, but if I have some blockers or bombs that I
want a chance of getting
to I'll toss in a tutor. Brutal Charge has the
chance to pack several creatures into your hands,
which should be very nice for the player with the
more aggressive build. I like immediate results in
Limited due to the nature
of the format, and tutor spells are on average
cheaper to hard-cast than spells that draw cards
randomly off the top of your deck. But, do note that
non-kill spells tend to get mana'd much more
frequently in Limited because you want to drop
creatures every chance you get or something that
deals with a threatening creature, so just wiegh out
your options when considering Brutal.
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|
Knives101 |
Brutal Charge
Today we have another evil card. Guess who picked
the COTD for this week.
ME!! Ain't I evil? This week you're going to see
nothing but insanely good card. Brutal Charge is
everything that a rush deck could ask for. Just play
Brutal Charge, and attack your opponent's sheilds.
Then replenish your hand at the end of the turn. Not
only that. But you get to put exactly what you need
into your hand. Up until now Hand Advantage for
Nature was almost non-existant. But now we have this
awesome card. Brutal Charge works pretty well with
Fighter Dual Fang. Just cast Fighter Dual Fang, then
gain two mana, then play Brutal Charge. Now break
two sheilds and get what you need into your hand.
Rating: 5
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