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Today is the second day of your Sneak
peak to Stomp-a-trons. Hopefully you all have D-Max
posters and cardlists by now, so maybe you’re
familiar with most of the cards by now.
Anyway, today, we review Arc Bine,
the Astounding.
Arc Bine, the Astounding
Civilization: Light
Type: Guardian
Mana Cost: 5
Power: 5000
Ability: You may tap any of your
light creatures instead of attacking to use this
monsters -> ability
-> Tap one of your opponent’s
creatures.
The Rundown
This card was previously released as
a promo out of the “The good, the bad, and the
Bolshack” DVD.
I had a chance to use this in draft,
which is pretty cool. To experience a card’s ability
for yourself is always a good thing. I have 3 now,
so my new light deck is off and running pretty well.
The Positive Side
I think this card has lots of
potential. Guardians have 4 evolutions right now,
all somewhat playable. Ladia Bale, Larba Geer, Loth
Rix, and now Arc Bine.
Yellow is known for tapping. Arc Bine
only reinforces the idea. I should go buy some tap
shoes and learn “Singing in the Rain”…
Arc Bine has the ability to cause
more tapping. Use this with the blockers that really
can’t attack, use a toel for untapping, and this
guy. This way, you wipe out the field, and you
always have blocking power, so the tap ability
doesn’t cause vulnerability later on in the game.
If you can keep your opponent from
playing significant monsters every turn, then you
pwn the game. Think about it. You keep your opponent
without any option. Alcadeias will stop the spells,
This guy will stop the threat of an attacker, and
blockers and toel for reinforcement. Madness...
This card only gives more gas to the
fire that we all have come to know as the
Alcadeias-Abuse deck. You could go with a different
idea of a deck mainly focused on tapping. It’s
possible, just not ideal if you don’t have the
blockers and alcadeias to stop their monsters.
The Negative Side
There isn’t that many bad things with
this card.
One thing would be it costs 5 mana.
That isn’t really a great number. 5 is normally the
time when you get out the Aeris for the Alcadeias
you got coming next turn.
5000 power isn’t that great for an
evolution card. Larba Geer is 5000, but that’s 3
mana.
The tap cards all have disadvantages.
You have to give up an attacker for the turn to use
an ability, whether that tapped card is another
creature or the tap monster itself. With this, it
only prolongs the game when it can be done a lot
quicker, without the real threat of the tides
turning on you, which can happen. My red/black took
out a yellow deck that had 15 monsters on the field,
9 of them blockers. I drew a holy awe and nailed the
shields for the miracle victory.
It does cost 5 mana, and that is
staple bait. That’s probably why you should summon
Alcadeias first, then get this guy out. Yes…that’s
grand…
Finally, here’s “what else can you
use?”
- Aeris, for the Alcadeias next turn?
- Wait a turn for Holy Awe?
- Blocker swarm?
- Shield replenish?
Yea, you really don’t have much else
to use, so I would say go for it.
The Limited Side
Evolutions suck in limited. We all
know that…right?
You can take it, but the chances of
you finding a guardian to evolve from isn’t too
high. When I drafted, I had only 2 guardians with my
Arc bine, and it isn’t the easiest thing to pull
off. Another thing, tapping has less significance if
you don’t have strong monsters with it, so if you
want this, go with strong monsters to wail on the
tapped.
The Recap
Here’s the + and – Again
Pluses
+ Adds to the Guardian Family
+ Taps opponent’s monsters
+ not limited to only 1 use
+ Another key component to the
opponent lockdown strategy
Minuses
- 5 for 5000 evolution isn’t that
amazing
- Leaves your cards vulnerable for an
attack next turn
- Can cause too much stalling…
Constructed-4.5/5-
If you can bust out the lockdown, then by all means
go for it. I gave it a strong score because it is a
part of the lockdown. Otherwise, it would probably
be around 3.5-4.
Limited-2/5-
Not too strong, not that easy to use, and makes you
vulnerable to an attack…something you never want.
Art-3/5-
Looks really cool. It’s Star
Wars/Trek meets Duel Masters…is it time to quit
yet?...
That’s it for Arc Bine, the
Astounding. If anyone has any questions, concerns,
comments, or complaints, E-Mail me at
pt_1bc_2@yahoo.com
Later Days…
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