Today we review Slash and Burn. It’s a card
that comes with the potential to cause
devastation but the reason why it gets
little play is because of its limited
playability. You’re not always guaranteed
to have the perfect circumstances before
using this card.
Slash and Burn
Cost:
4
Civilization:
Dakness/Fire
Type:
Spell
Rules Text:
·
(This spell is put into your mana zone
tapped.)
·
Whenever any of your opponent's creatures is
destroyed this turn, your opponent chooses a
card in his mana zone and puts it into his
graveyard. Then he chooses one of his
shields and puts it into his graveyard.
Slash and Burn is one of those cards that
reviewers like me typically try to stay away
from. The reason is because these cards
have promising effects but under any normal
circumstances they are useless. Slash and
Burn, for instance, asks that you destroy at
least one of your opponent’s creatures
before you can use the effect. If you cast
the spell and end up destroying nothing then
you just threw a card away. However when
the timing is right, you’ll be able wreak
havoc on your opponent’s shields and mana.
So what’s the best way to set off the
effect? It would be easiest to destroy your
opponent’s creatures by using the effect of
a spell or a creature. The more creatures
you destroy the better, so we need to be
creative. The problem is that this spell
costs 4 mana to begin with so that will
pretty much limit what you can do. For
instance, a card like Burst Shot, which
costs 6 mana, would require that you have 10
mana to start out with (4 + 6). We start to
see how much of a nuisance this becomes. We
can be really creative and use a spell like
Intense Evil to destroy Stallob, the
Lifesquasher and the rest of our field,
which will result in card draw and shield/mana
destruction. Just remember that Slash and
Burn is still pretty good when you only kill
one creature because it sets your opponent
behind by one mana and it removes 1 shield.
It’s still somewhat of a good deal.
Even though it would seem more difficult to
guarantee a kill during the battle phase, it
could still prove to be a more effective
strategy for using Slash and Burn. The best
way to abuse it is by tapping Deklowaz, the
Terminator and wiping out all creatures with
power 3000 or less. You can also develop
creative methods, such as casting slime veil
on the previous turn then attacking your
opponent’s creatures while they’re tapped.
The light civilization could also prove
useful because of all of the cheap tapping
effects. Either way you have to create the
right conditions in order to use this card.
The Good:
You have the potential to eliminate your
opponent’s shields and mana.
The Bad:
The card is conditional and very difficult
to use.
The Ugly:
Topdeck this card and it’ll pretty much
become mana.
Constructed Rating:
3/5 – If it works then it’s a beautiful
thing. However once your opponent catches
on it’s not the best card to be using. At
least if you kill one creature you get
something good out of it.
Limited Rating:
3/5 – In limited you’ll only be using this
if you can kill just 1 creature, which still
isn’t bad. The card isn’t good but it’s
also not the worst thing.
Please feel free to post your comments,
questions, and/or objections on the Message
Board and I’ll be more than happy to
respond. Happy dueling!
- DRY 1337
