The Blastosplosion set has been instrumental in giving us some very peculiar and deadly weapons to add to our decks.  Fortunately ghosts were not left out.  Gazer Eyes, Shadow of Secrets now gives darkness an efficient way to eliminate your opponent’s “secrets”.  Let’s see how it measures up.

 

Gazer Eyes, Shadow of Secrets

 

Cost: 4

 

Race: Ghost

 

Civilization: Darkness

 

Type: Creature

 

Rules Text:

Silent skill (At the start of each of your turns, if this creature is tapped, you may keep it tapped and use its silent skill ability.)

• Look at your opponent's hand and choose a card from it. Your opponent discards that card.

 

Power: 3000

 

As far as power, Gazer Eyes surprisingly comes in at average.  It’s understandable that paying 4 mana for a 3000 power creature isn’t very efficient, but it’s the way that the Darkness civilization operates.  Just look at cards like Nightmare Invader, Skeleton Soldier, and Tentacle Worm.  These are all cards with the same stats but unlike these three cards, Gazer Eyes comes with an effect.

 

The effect is a silent skill ability, which I know some people will not be thrilled with.  Let me just say that there are plenty of ways to mitigate having to wait for that extra turn before the silent skill effect goes off.  I can go on with a list of ways but it would be beyond the scope of this review (and the review would have to be a few pages longer ;)).  So with those remarks out of the way, let’s visualize the effect as a whole.  As long as this creature is tapped, we get to look at our opponent’s hand at the start of each of our turns and discard a card.  This is huge!  Just imagine knowing your opponent’s strategy before even drawing your card.  Even without the discard effect you get to plan ahead and make sure you derail him/her.  How many times have we put down a card in our mana zone only to realize the following turn that it was the card we needed?  On top of that you get to discard your opponent’s biggest threat from his/her hand.  You can get rid of Soulswap, Bombazar, Petrova, Corile, etc.  You’ll be able to look at your opponent’s strategy and foil it at the start of each of your turns.

 

Of course the silent skill effect does take a little bit of extra thought in order to be used effectively.  However, the benefits with Gazer Eyes are huge.  The power is just right and the civilization is perfect for this type of effect. 

 

 

The Good:  Counter and dismantle your opponent’s strategy without lifting a finger.

 

The Bad:  At 3000, Gazer Eyes is likely to be killed (don’t forget his ghostly brother, Shadow Moon).

 

The Ugly:  Once your opponent has no hand this creature becomes ineffective.  Nevertheless, if your opponent has no hand then he/she has no options.

 

Constructed Rating: 4/5 – Look at your opponent’s strategy, trash their key card, and create a counter strategy.  What more could you ask for?  The silent skill ability does hurt the rating somewhat but then again without having the silent skill aspect this card would be broken.

 

Limited Rating: 3/5 – This effect is somewhat useful in limited and Gazer Eye’s power will allow it to stay out for a few turns.

 

 

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