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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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Cranium Clamp
Epic
Dragons of Hyperchaos
Card # DM27
Date Reviewed: 10.26.05
Constructed Average Rating:
4.7
Limited Average Rating: 4.95
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating. |
|
Lee Sandow |
Continental
Championships are coming up this weekend! Yays!
I'll be going, but since I have to catch a
flight Friday, I might not have time to do a
COTD. You can expect a tournament report upon
my return though. Also, I plan to soon update
my "War in the DM World" article, since Epic
Dragons gave me tons of new material to work
with. Anyways, I do have an AWESOME card to
review today, so let's get our game on!
Cranium Clamp
Cost: 4
Civilization: Darkness
Card Type: Spell
• Your opponent selects and discards two cards from
his hand.
Mana Generated: 1
Rarity: Rare
I took one look at this card
and freaked out. This card is.... Evil. More than
women, more than movie villains, this thing is EVIL!
Civilization: This is a
darkness card. It fits the theme of darkness
very well, and it comes on a turn where darkness
usually doesn't do too much. Aside from Loco or
a Death Smoke (or Proclimation of Death, if
you're into that kind of thing), not much goes
on here. So it fits good.
Cost: This is (as I mentioned
above), a good cost for a darkness card. It
doesn't compete with much, and it's completely
worth the cost. THink of it this way: For the
same cost, you could use two Death Smokes for
about the same effect, bt then you'd be lacking
hand advanatge. THis card is supposed to GIVE
YOU ADVANTAGE.
Abilities: You discard two
cards from your opponents hand. On turn four,
this hurts VERY, VERY badly. It will put you
severly ahead of your opponent, and take away
from them several important cards for their
strategy. This is very nasty. YOur opponent
chooses what to discard however, so they'll
likely pitch out what they don't need/can't
afford at the moment. Or they'll discard Dava
Torey, on which point you can have a nice day.
Still, this card is a total beefcake, and is
worth the risk.
THE REVIEW
Constructed overview: What can
I say? We have on our hands another near broken
card. I personally think this is the scariest
card in the set, even worse than all the big
dragons. I plan to use this, most control
decks could stand to use this, because really,
what do you stand to lose. Just watch out for
Dava Torey (which will probably see more play
just because of this card). 4.5/5
Limited overview: Your opponent
will hate you. There isn't much draw power in
this set, and even less discard, so using this
will give you such a leg up that your opponent
will probably never recover. Plus, there's no
Dava Torey here. 5/5
FOR
THOSE THAT DON'T KNOW...
Anyhow, I'm
doing a little contest at the moment. Look at
the underlined part of my review (not the next
time line, but something else), and tell me what
that line is from, or where I got it from.
Today, I told you to figure out next weeks
theme, by looking at this weeks. The first
person to e-mail me five times with the correct
answers will win a copy of the card we reviewed
that day, plus a little... Bonus.
Yeah, I used
the word AWESOME 12 times on Monday. That is
many, many times. However, I also used the word
AWESOMEness, which as Lyinginbedmon correctly
pointed out, is not the same thing. He got the
question right first.
As for todays
bonus, the first five people to wish Team
Galactic Quest luck at regionals all get a
point. Have fun!
Next time in the review: Tornado Flame on a
stick!
|
Prince
Yaken |
Cranium Clamp
Cost: 4
Civilization: Darkness
Card Type: Spell
• Your opponent chooses and discards 2 cards from
his hand.
Civilization: All hail the darkness civilization
known for hand discard effects above most other
things. Famous brethren of Cranium Clamp such as
Ghost Touch, Lost Soul, and Locomotiver either
discard 1 card or a situational amount. In no
situation is hand discard ever a bad thing to have
considering mana and hand control are key in this
game.
Cost: The ranks of 4 mana cost often seems like the
black sheep since most players have to debate
between various options. For darkness the debate
more often than not seems to revolve around Death
Smoke, Locomotiver, and now Cranium Clamp. Very
efficient for its cost, Cranium Clamp will find its
way into almost every deck that run darkness
(splashing darkness being the exception).
Abilities: Despite this card receiving a revision
before it hit the American scene, your opponent
having to discard to cards from his hand is
powerful.
The only time this will be less effective is when
your opponent either keeps a draw card or has a
duplicate copy of a discarded card. Dava Torey,
Seeker of Clouds is the only card that will really
make Cranium Clamp backfire.
Card Efficiency: Cranium Clamp is efficient at the
standard 2 for 1.
Constructed: Control sees play in every metagame
there is so unless Dava Torey, Seeker of Clouds
hiding in a player’s hand this card will always be
worth its rating. 5/5
Limited: I lucked out pulling 2 copies of Cranium
Clamp at my release tournament. This card is event
deadlier in a limited format but most players play
3-5 civ rush in limited so it is only so effective.
4.75/5
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Christian |
Okay, let me
start by saying I'm sorry for not being on line for
the past few weeks, but now that school is settling
down, i will probably be able to write to this site
more often...now for Cranium Clamp, the card which
is in my opinion the most broken card from the new
set
Name: Cranium Clamp
Cost: 4
Civilization: Darkness
Type: Spell
Rules Text:
Your opponent chooses and discards 2 cards from his
hand.
Flavor Text:
"Hold still! This is the only headache remedy I
know. I promise, soon you won't be able to feel your
head at all!"
Okay, that is one doozy effect for a four mana
spell, isn't it? Let's look at some good points of
the card.
Being darkness helps the card some, as killer
removal and other awesome hand discard is in that
civilization, so it goes along nicely with the theme
there. I also find one of the best things about the
card the fact that it is only four mana. Not only is
it cheap, but if you get someone top decking on the
fourth turn, we can bust out our favorite creature
the next turn and put them in the all so
hated,"Corile Lock." But what if they draw a card
like Brain Serum to replenish their hand after it
has been so handily destroyed? Either play a
Locomotiver or something, or treat this as an
example to why a deck could defifitely use 3-4
copies of this card.
The only bad point I see on this card is that it
lets your opponent choose the discarded cards.
Normally, that would still devastate their strategy,
but Dava Torey could hurt you, so act cautious if
you happen to be playing against a deck running some
light. Now for the final ratings!
Limited- 5/5 (duh...)
Constructed- 4.75/5 (Just cause of Dava Torey)
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Brandon
Schmidt |
Name: Cranium
Clamp
Cost: 4
Civilization: Darkness
Type: Spell
Rules Text:
Your opponent chooses and discards 2 cards from his
hand.
Flavor Text:
"Hold still! This is the only headache remedy I
know. I promise, soon you won't be able to feel your
head at all!"
Mana Number: 1
Artist: Akifumi Yamamoto
Rarity: R
Collector Number: 27
Set: Epic Dragons of Hyperchaos
Cost: Cranium Clamp is an overall weak cost, at only
four mana. This card is very impressive and think
that four mana is right for this card. Now Control
decks have a new four drop card that is awesome.
Civilization: Cranium Clamp fits into the whole
darkness civilization perfectky with its discard
ability. Darkness spells are most of the time usable
and this card is definatly usable in any deck that
used darkness, espically control decks.
Effects: Cranium Clamp makes your opponent choose
two cards in his hand and discard them. This is a
great card at any time. Even if they choose its two
cards, most likely cutting their options in half. If
they only have two cards oh well, I guess they are
topdecking for a while. Imagine two in a row or the
same time. This is perhaps one of the few cards from
the set I fear, use, and love.
Limited: 5/5 No problems here. This card is awesome
in Limited, as in Constructed. Making your opponent
discard two cards from his hand in Limited is like
using Lost Soul in Constructed.
Constructed: 5/5 Im defiantly looking foward to
seeing this card in almost every deck. They will
probably make a promo out of it which would be
sweet.
Have fun everyone thats going to Continentals! Team
GQ all the way!
MaskOfRestrict3 - AIM
CrystalPaladin06@yahoo.com -EMAIL
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Steven Cantrell |
Cranium Clamp
Type: Spell
Civilization: Darkness
Mana Cost: Four (4)
Rules Text:
-
Your opponent chooses and
discards 2 cards from his hand.
Flavor Text:
"Hold still! This is the only
headache remedy I know. I promise, soon you won't be
able to feel your head at all!"
Rarity: Rare
Set: Epic Dragons of Hyperchaos
Known by the name Skeleton Vise in
Japan, Cranium Clamp was one of the most anticipated
cards from set eight. This baby used to torch two of
your opponent’s cards randomly. That turned out to
be too powerful on turn four, so WotC wisely decided
to tone down the ability a tad for its English
release. Cranium Clamp still smacks two cards, but
your opponent will be able to choose which two are
discarded. Take a look at how Cranium Clamp could
affect other cards and our metagame prior to
Nationals this weekend:
1)
Increased play for Essence Elf. This one’s a
no-brainer. Just smack down the Elf on turn two,
then you are free to cast Clamp a turn early.
Nasty stuff.
2)
Dava Torey making an appearance in most decks
running Light. The ultimate hand control counter
just took a huge jump in usefulness. Personally I
plan to run 2 or 3 copies of Dava, since you can
choose to ‘discard’ it when your opponent casts
Clamp, thus gaining a free creature.
3)
Locomotiver now has competition as the ideal turn
four drop in control decks. Who else has noticed
that there seems to be a huge lack of solid 4 mana
cards in general? Well now Cranium Clamp helps to
solve that problem, acting as an alternative discard
mechanism.
4)
A decrease in power for Lost Soul might be just
around the corner. Much like Locomotiver’s
situation, Cranium Clamp offers a powerful hand
control effect that could become more popular than
Lost Soul and even Ghost Touch. Keep this in mind.
Limited:
4/5
Hear me out before you swear that I’m
crazy for not handing Clamp a perfect rating. Yes,
hand control is normally great in draft, but playing
Clamp means you probably skipped a creature drop.
The only time I played Clamp in my release, Fordham
ended up winning because he kept dropping creatures
while I could not. Wining in this format often comes
down to who can attack with the most force, not who
can pull off the neatest tricks. Keep that in mind.
Constructed: 4.5/5
In normal play however, Cranium Clamp
is indeed an up and coming staple of control decks
everywhere. Two-for-one trades are just nice no
matter how you look at it.
Steven Cantrell
Thrash-494 on DMRealms
Smcman7@aol.com
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