Review of Diagon Alley set - Alex Rockwell

Well, I have been gone for two weeks without email access, but now I am back, and I have decided to do a review of the cards in the new set to make up for not writing the last couple weeks :)

I am going to go over all the cards, then talk about the set as a whole. If you just want to here my thoughts on the set as a whole, skip down a ways…

I am going to give every card a letter grade, like in school (from F to A+_ and I want to explain my grades.

A+: One of the top few cards ever made for the Harry potter game. I will try to reserve this grade for cards which truly deserve it.

A: A totally aweosme, solid card which is one of the cards that makes you want to play a certain type of lesson. For example, you wouldn’t play quiddich if there were no awesome quiddich cards, only average ones! Or the same with any type of lesson. These are the type of cards that make you want to play a certain type of spells in your deck, like charms or transfiguration. You always want to consider them in any type of deck of that color, and often want to consider them for basing decks around.

B+/B/B-: Various grades of playable cards which form the backbone of your deck. They aren’t the star cards, but they are what makes the deck work. Most of the playable cards will be under this category. B+ is a really awesome card. That just shows how good an A is.

C+/C/C-: Barely playable cards which you might use in a certain situation, but can probably find something better for. This might include cards that work against a certain type of deck but are worthless against others. Or, these might be cards which are okay, but there are similar cards which are much better. For example, I would consider Swarm! A C card, because Steelclaw is so much better, however you could find a deck where Swarm! Would be a decent card.

D+/D/D-: Bad cards which I wouldn’t want to play in any deck. You might be able to find situations where they would be good, but these will rarely occur in real play, and there are probably better cards to do the same thing.

F: One of the worst cards ever made, you could find no conceivable use for this card.

So that’s my grading system. Time to start the review!

One final note: I have used the spoiler list from Pojo as the basis for the cards, so I didn’t have to retype them. Thanks to profpoke for his work! Its really awesome.

First: The new characters. The characters are some of the most interesting to me whenever I look at a new set, because they are ones that you can guarantee that you start with in play, you don’t have to draw them or play them. So they are cards you can truly base a deck around.

Characters

Name: Draco Malfoy, Slytherin

Type: Character - Wizard Slytherin Unique

Text: Once during each of your turns, when you use an action

to play an item card, you get 1 more action that turn.

Rating: A

The new Draco card is totally amazing! There are a huge number of awesome new items, including the books, which are for each type of lesson, provide a lesson and can be discarded to draw three cards, thus allowing you to do something useful if you draw too many lesson cards. Since there are so many good items, Draco’s ability which basically lets you play one item a turn for free, is truly awesome. If you play four items during the game, that’s four free actions! If you play several lesson producing items in the beginning, say a wand, a book, and a cauldron, then this ability will speed you up considerably. I definitely see people playing him as their starting character.

Name: Griphook

Type: Character - Goblin Unique

Text: Once per game, you may make your opponent discard his or

her hand. Then your opponent draws as many cards as he or

she discarded in this way.

Rating: B

Well, you cant start with this guy, since he’s not a wizard, but he’s probably not good enough to warrant that anyway. Basically, he is a character that lets you play a charms exam, except that he’s better because your opponent cant draw only a couple if they are getting low on cards, and cant draw a whole bunch all at once, which can be problems with charms exam. However, it does take two lessons and you can only use one.

He has definite potential and could be good in the right deck. Definitely consider him if you have lots of ways to put all their stuff back in their hand.

Name: Hagrid, Keeper of Keys

Type: Character - Unique

Text: You may use an action to search your deck. You may take

a location card from your deck, show it to your opponent

and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your deck.

Rating: C+

Well, this card’s power depends on the power of the locations that are available. Basically, he is two actions to let you get a location of your choice out of your deck. However, due to the existence of Gringotts Vault Key, which costs only one action, the not unreasonable six lessons, and gets you ANY card, Hagrid, Keeper of Keys doesn’t seem so good anymore. Still, in the right deck he could be okay, if you really need a certain location and don’t have charms lessons to use the Vault Key.

If the Vault key didn’t exist, this guy would be much better.

I love Hagrid in the books, I just don’t think the cards they are making for him are all that amazing. I understand that there can be some appeal to playing Hagrid, that he is “fun” to play, due to his character. But I am trying to write about the power of a card, not how fun it is to play. So please, no more emails writing that I suck because I gave Hagrid bad marks! That covers most of the emails from people whop don’t like me :)

Name: Hermione, Top Student

Type: Character - Witch Gryffindor Unique

Text: Once per game, you may search your deck. You may take up

to 2 lesson cards from your deck, show them to your opponent

and put them into your hand. Then shuffle your deck.

Rating: A

Another truly awesome new character.

While Hermione doesn’t give you free actions in the way that the new Draco, or a character that provides a lesson does, she does ensure that you wont have to waste draws trying to get lessons. Also, she can get you two types of lessons, ensuring that you can play three colors of spells whiler having to have lots of only one type of lesson! You could also conceivable play very few lessons in your deck, since you get two free ones automatically. Combine that with some items and you wouldn’t really need to play many lessons.

Conceivably, you could play only one of two types of lessons, and use Hermione to search for both of them on the first turn, and then play them. This would mean you only need one type of lesson in your deck to play three different types of spells. However, a single lost notes or similar spell could destroy your ability to play that type of spells, so I would be careful. Also, if someone uses Hermione against you and grabs a couple lessons, I would target those ones with any lesson destruction, hoping that they only have one or only a few of them in their deck.

Name: Lee Jordan

Type: Character - Wizard Gryffindor Unique

Text: You may use an action to reveal the top 3 cards of your deck.

Put all of those cards that need Quidditch power into your hand.

Put the rest on the bottom of your deck (in any order).

Rating: B

At first I thought this was a once a game ability, but its not. (He would really suck if it was).

Thus, if you play with loads of cards that need quiddich, this could be good. Compare him to the original Harry Potter card. Harry can use an action to outright draw two. This guy can draw up to three quiddich cards, but will usually get an amount equal to three times the percentage of cards in your deck requiring quiddich power. If half your deck is quiddich spells, you would on average draw 3/2 cards. However, you avoid drawing the weaker lesson cards, and only draw the good quiddich spells you want, so the card quality is high. Overall I think he is pretty good, provided that your deck is entirely quiddich, and more than half of the card in your deck are quiddich spells, items or matches. If so, he could be good. However, I find that the characters which give lessons or actions, and have other abilities too are usually better. Compare characters from the original set like Flitwick and Harry Potter. While Harry’s drawing ability is good, the extra lesson and Flitwick’s abiity are usually better. If you spend a lot of actions drawing, you don’t have much time left to use all the spells you drew.

Name: Madam Irma Pince

Type: Character - Witch Unique

Text: You may use an action to put a book card from your discard

pile into your hand. (Lesson cards aren’t books.)

Rating: D

Hmm, lets see how this would work. It takes one action to play a book. It takes one action to use the book to draw three cards, discarding it. It takes one action to use this ability. That’s three actions, and you got three cards out of it. But you could do that already!

Generally, if you discard a book, its because you don’t need more lessons, you need real cards! So Madam Irma’s ability doesn’t really help much. You cant use it to get extra cards, basically it only helps if your opponent destroy’s your books when you need them and you bring them back. So this is a pretty bad character.

Name: Professor Quirinus Quirrell

Type: Character - Wizard Unique

Text: Once per game, you may return all Creatures and Items to their

owners’ hands.

Rating: B

This is a hard card to choose a rating for…it really depends on how many items and creatures people are using in their decks. However, I suspect that due to the new powerful creatures and good items, people will use them quite a bit. The problem is, it also returns YOUR creatures and items! So you cant just use it to hit your opponent, unless you have none. And you will want to use items for sure, since there are many good ones.

This card is good at stopping their creatures for awhile, and can be very good if you can force them to discard their hand with a Charms Exam, Obliviate, or that Goblin character I talked about. I doubt I would use him as my starter, since he doesn’t help with lessons or give you extra actions, but he could be a good backup for creature and item defense.

We’ll have to see just how good this guy is.

Name: The Famous Harry Potter

Type: Character - Wizard Gryffindor Unique

Text: Before each of your turns, if there are 4 or fewer cards

in your hand, you may draw a card.

Rating: B

I think this version of Harry is better than the original in most decks, since it allows extra draws without using up actions. If you get low on cards then you can use this and your one draw per turn to get two cards, then use two actions to play them. I think he is about as good as the Harry from the quiddich set in this regard, he gives you a free draw per turn under the right circumstances. But I don’t think he can match the characters who give extra actions (like the new Draco) or lessons. Generally, an extra action is much better than an extra draw. Also, you have to wait a few turns before this ability starts kicking in.

Well, that’s all the new characters. Basically, the new Hermione and Draco cards are the starts of the set. I was hoping for a character that provided a care of magical creatures lesson, but we still don’t have one. We’ll see about the next set! I definitely want to make decks using Hermione and Draco.

Alright, time for the new type of cards from the set: the Locations.

These are interesting because you can only have one in play, and the new one destroys the old. That means that players may want to have one that they like, because it destroys one their opponent might play. If there is a location that you think is bad for your deck, then put in one that you like, and use it when your opponent plays the bad one.

Locations

Name: Eeylops Owl Emporium

Type: Location - Unique

Cost: 4F

Text: When you play this card, discard any other location from

play (yours or your opponent’s). Each Owl has 1 more health.

Whenever an Owl does damage, it does 1 more damage.

Rating:C

Well, that’s a kindof funny card. I don’t think its very good because there aren’t a lot of good owls. And generally you don’t hink of using owls as your big source of damage. Plus, locations are vulnerable to being destroyed by other locations. I have played magic, and in that game there are a number of cards that increase the power and health of a type of creature. They are usually bad, and people just play them in fun, theme decks like an elf deck, or whatever. This is the same. People might make some fun owl decks, but they probably wont be all that amazing.

The owls in this set have some good versatile cards, but I don’t think a deck based around killing with owls would do very well against a good deck.

Name: Flourish and Blotts

Type: Location - Unique

Cost: 3T

Text: When you play this card, discard any other location from

play (yours or your opponent’s). Either player may use an

action and discard 2 of his or her lessons from play to

draw 5 cards.

Rating: D

Again, a pretty bad card. Consider that two lessons is worth two cards plus two actions to play, and the action you spend using this could draw you a card. So in essence you are spending 5 cards or actions worth to get 5 cards, so you aren’t really gaining. Add to that the fact that both

players get this ability, and its not a good card.

Name: Gringotts

Type: Location - Unique

Cost: 4C

Text: When you play this card, discard any other location from play

(yours or your opponent’s). Each player gets 1 more Action

on each of his or her turns (including the turn you play this card).

Rating: B-

Well, if it didn’t help your opponent then this card would be amazing. As it is, its good in combination with cards like Bravado where that extra action will help you much more than it would your opponent. Overall though, Unicorn is better since it only helps you, though it is more expensive. This card would be good in the right deck, and you could imagine some Bravado deck using it that needed a third action on their turn to cast Bravado and play two spells.

Name: The Leaky Cauldron

Type: Location - Unique

Cost: 2P

Text: When you play this card, discard any other location from play

(yours or your opponent’s). Whenever either player plays a

character card, he or she uses up 1 action to play it instead of 2.

Rating: D

Well, this is like Ron’s ability, which I don’t see many people playing. Consider this:

You already spend one draw to get this card, and then one action to play this card. If you play one character with this, then you regained the one action and are down a draw. If you play two, then you have converted a draw into an action, a small advantage, but probably not worth it. And the chance that you will get out three characters before your opponent can play a location and kill this one is quite small. You will have to use a huge number of characters in your deck to make this good, and then its very bad if you don’t draw this, and you have no room left for actually killing your opponent. So this card is quite bad.

Uncommons:

Name: Cauldron Shop

Type: Location

Cost: 3P

Text: When you play this card, discard any other location from

play (yours or your opponent’s). Either player may use an

action to search his or her deck. That player may take an

item card from his or her deck that needs Potions power,

show it to his or her opponent and put it into his or her

hand. Then the player shuffles his or her deck.

Rating: B+

Well, it lets you search for cauldrons and a few other cards, so it could be good. You can get some of the new potion items that do lots of damage, so it has definite potential. You will have to use this at least twice I think to get a big advantage, but twice could be enough to grab two big potions items and win, so that might be feasible. So this card seems pretty good to me, and has potential to make a deck around. Generally, cards that let you get your choice of cards from your deck are good. Ones that let you do it more than once are quite good. If this card wasn’t vulnerable to having a different location played, it would be even better!

Name: Madam Malkin’s Robes

Type: Location - Unique

Cost: 4T

Text: When you play this card, discard any other Location from play

(yours or your opponent’s). Whenever a card (yours or your

opponent’s) does damage, it does 1 less damage.

Rating: B+

Another great location card, this one is very good defense against creatures, and helps a little against other sources of damage. Use it in a controllish deck that does damage in big chunks, and it should help you stay alive much longer.

Name: Quality Quidditch Supplies

Type: Location - Unique

Cost: 3Q

Text: When you play this card, discard any other location from

play (yours or your opponent’s). Either player may use an

action to search his or her deck. That player may take an

item card from his or her deck that needs Quidditch power,

show it to his or her opponent and put it into his or her

hand. Then the player shuffles his or her deck.

Rating B+

Similar to the Cauldron shop but maybe not as good because their aren’t as many great quiddich items. Yet it’s still good if you base your deck around it. (Grabbing bludgers could be quite good) Definitely a playable card, and one to make a deck about.

Name: Wand Shop

Type: Location

Cost: 4C

Text: When you play this card, discard any other location from

play (yours or your opponent’s). All Charms lessons (yours

and your opponent’s) provide two Charms power instead of one.

Rating: A

Wow does this card ever have amazing potential!

Doubling your lessons is totally amazing. If you play just charms lessons, and a few wands, then this will most likely benefit you far more than your opponent. It can let you cast Obliviate for six lessons! Or, you can use mostly charms lessons and a few of another, or a character for the other type, and cast big spells of that type much earlier than you otherwise could. This is kindof like a smaller Bravado that doesn’t go away!!!! A really awesome card, its only problem is that your opponent can destroy it with a lesson, and if they play heavy charms too, it benefits them like it does you. Still, I want to make a deck based around this. This might help out the big Obliviate/Potions Class Disaster decks a LOT.

I think its funny that the rare locations suck but the uncommon ones are awesome :)

Alright, time for the creatures. There are some new power creatures, so this should be fun.

Creatures

Name: Hebridean Black Dragon

Type: Creature - Dragon

Cost: 8F

Text: To play this card, discard 1 of your CoMC lessons from play.

Damage/turn: 7

Health: 5

Rating: A

Wow is this guy good!!!!

A totally amazing creature. Mountain troll was pretty good in the right deck, and this guy is much bigger for the cost of one lesson. Fluffy was hard to play because its difficult to get up to 10 lessons, but 8 is much more reachable. I expect this card to be played a lot, and its extremely powerful. The 5 health is also really good. That might make people have to play targeted creature kill spells like Incarcifors again, instead of cards like Stream of flames and Doxy, which deal damage. 5 health is a lot, so this guy is stable as well as powerful.

Name: Hedwig

Type: Creature - Owl Gryffindor Unique

Cost: 6F

Text: When you play this card, you may put a non-Healing card from

your discard pile into your hand.

Damage/turn: 1

Health: 2

Rating: B+

An interesting card with lots of potential. First of all, he can get dead creatures and used spells back, but he can also get you cards that have been discarded off your deck due to damage! His ability is a lot like Flitwick’s, but more versatile, and you get a ½ creature to boot! Definitely a different type of creature than the dragon, this guy is versatile and gets you a card you need later in the game. Its not as good as Gringott’s Vault key, which gets anything (unless you have taken loads of damage), but its very good.

Uncommons:

Name: Barn Owl

Type: Creature - Owl

Cost: 3F

Text: When you play this card, you may discard 1 of your CoMC lessons

from play to put a creature card from your discard pile into your hand.

Damage/turn: 1

Health: 1

Rating: D+

Well, there are better ways to get back creatures than by discarding lessons! Halloween feast will get four creatures back. And a 1/1 creature isn’t a huge deal, so you don’t gain a lot for that lesson you discarded. Only play this guy in those fun owls decks you build that I mentioned earlier :)

Name: Quintaped

Type: Creature - Quintaped

Cost: 5F

Damage/turn: 2

Health: 5

Rating: B+

A really awesome mid power creature, significantly better than cobra lily, who was already a good, playable creature. 5 health is just awesome, since you can’t count on him not dying to damage unless your opponent really focuses on him. And if they do, you play your Herbidian Dragon :)

This guy is really awesome, and is another reason why I think we will be seeing more creature kill spells instead of creature damage spells.

Name: Wild Boar

Type: Creature - Boar

Card #: Card 50 of 80

Rarity: Uncommon

Cost: 2F

Text: To play this card, discard 2 of your CoMC lessons from play.

Damage/turn: 3

Health: 5

Rating: C-

Well, this guy is really destructive, though he at least sticks around. This guy will be bad if people play creature kill spells that don’t depend on damage, but he could be good if they don’t. Still, I think two lessons is too much to do only 3 damage a turn, since you make it so its extremely hard for you to play anything else. You basically gamble the entire game on one creature, which is never a good idea. I’d rather wait another turn and play a quintaped, then play some bigger creatures later.

Commons:

Name: River Troll

Type: Creature - Troll

Cost: 5F

Text: To play this card, discard 1 of your CoMC lessons from play.

Damage/turn: 4

Health: 3

Rating: C+

Again, another lesson sacrifice creature. For 5 lessons you could get a quintaped, which is only 2 power but is more durable. If you don’t sacrifice the lessons you could get to vicious wolf and guard dog, which are close to this guy in power. I would probably wait to sacrifice lessons until I got up to the Black Dragon, but this guy is better than most lesson sacrificers. Still, a stream of flames takes him out and is very insulting.

Name: Screech Owl

Type: Creature - Owl

Cost: 3F

Text: When you play this card, you may put a lesson card from your discard

pile into your hand.

Damage/turn: 1

Health: 1

Rating: B

A decent owl card. This guy is similar to Trevor, yet deals one damage and is not unique. It helps to get a lesson if you have sacrificed one or taken damage. Still, I don’t see myself using up space on a bunch of them, maybe one or two.

Name: Tawny Owl

Type: Creature - Owl

Cost: 3F

Text: When you play this card, you may put a non-Healing item card

from your discard pile into your hand.

Damage/turn: 1

Health: 1

Rating: B+

A surprisingly amazing card for a dinky owl with a poor sounding name such as this one!

He only costs you three lessons, yet gives you any non-healing card from your discard! We all know that Flitwick’s ability is good, this one is better, and you get a creature in the deal as well!

I think people will definitely use this card. Who would think a tawny owl would be that good!

Well, that’s all the creatures. A few owls, a big awesome dragon, a couple sacrifice creatures, and the solid quintaped. Definitely a good improvement to creature decks.

Well, lets move on to the items. There are some awesome items in this set, so this should be good.

Items

Name: Bulgeye Potion

Type: Item

Cost: 10P

Text: You may use an action and discard this card from

play to do 13 damage to your opponent.

Rating: A

Very, very awesome! You use 2 actions and a card (which costs 10 lessons) for 13 damage! Compare to draught of living death, you save two lessons, for the cost of action and a higher lessons cost, and get one more damage. You can play these without destroying all your lessons, and can search for them with the Cauldron Shop! That’s a great deck waiting to be built. Plus, you can play Snape and use these, since you don’t need to sacrifice lessons! That makes Snape a bit better.

Name: Colour-Changing Ink

Type: Item

Cost: 4T

Text: You may use an action to count the cards in your hand.

Put them all on the bottom of your deck (in any order),

and then draw that many cards.

Hmm, this is interesting. Its hard to see at first how good this one is, I think we’ll have to wait and see if its useful. It really lets you cycle through your deck and get the cards you need. This could be very powerful if a good deck was built using it. I’m not going to rate it, I’ll let you try and make it awesome.

Name: Dragon-Hide Gloves

Type: Item

Card #: Card 6 of 80

Rarity: Rare / Foil

Cost: 8F

Text: Whenever a creature does damage to you, prevent 1 of that

damage.

Rating: B

This is a very good defensive card against decks with lots of creatures. Expect to see it played. The fact that it exists makes bigger creatures better and smaller ones worse.

Name: Hagrid’s Umbrella

Type: Item - Wand Unique

Cost: 3C

Provides: 1C

Text: You may use an action and discard this card from play to

search your deck. You make take a location card from your

deck, show it to your opponent and put it into your hand.

Then shuffle your deck. If you play this card, and you already

have a Wand in play, discard the old one.

Rating: B+

This is a good wand, its like a lesson that also gives you a free search of your deck for a location card! And which good charms location did we see earlier? How about the wand shop, which we can now conveniently play since we are at 4 lessons! If you use wand shop, or some other location is very important to you, then this is an awesome card. Otherwise, Borrowed wand is very good.

Name: Self-Stirring Cauldron

Type: Item - Cauldron

Cost: 4P

Provides: 4P

Text: To play this card, discard 2 of your Potion lessons from play.

You get 1 more action the turn you play this card.

Rating: B+

Another awesome lesson producing item! This is better than a Pewter Cauldron, if it stays in play. Its cheaper, still gives two more lessons than you lose, and doesn’t take an action! Totally awesome! If you are the new Draco character, you just got a free action without even using one up!!!!! And you get two free lessons in the process!!!

There is only one problem. That is, if they destroy it you are in big trouble. I expect item destruction to be very common, so I see that as a likely scenario. Too bad, because this card would have totally ruled!

Name: Silver Unicorn Horn

Type: Item - Healing

Cost: 6P

Text: When you play this card, put up to 2 non-Healing cards from

your discard pile on the bottom of your deck (in any order).

You may use an Action and discard this card from play to shuffle

up to 6 non-Healing cards from your discard pile into your deck.

Rating: B

Well, its two actions and a card to heal yourself 8 points, and you get to shuffle. That’s pretty good. Burning bitterroot balm is ten for one action, but you lose a lesson, so that kindof cancels out. This one however can be searched for using the location that lets you search for potion items, so that could be very good. I think this one will be played, and it is quite solid.

Uncommons:

Name: Bluebottle Broom

Type: Item - Broom Healing

Cost: 4Q

Provides: 1Q

Text: You may use an action to put a non-Healing card from your

discard pile on the bottom of your deck. If you play this

card, and you already have a broom in play, discard the old one.

Rating: D

What the heck? A one point heal for an action? Comet 260 prevents one damage a turn, which is much better than having to use an action to heal a damage, and its cheaper! This is just bad in comparison. You don’t want to have to use an action to heal one point! Play Comet 260 over this any day.

Name: Beetle Eyes

Type: Item

Cost: 5P

Text: When you play this card, do 4 damage to your opponent. You may

use an action to discard this and Eel Eyes from play to search

your deck. You may take a Bulgeye Potion card from your deck

and put it into play. Then shuffle your deck.

Rating: C

I can see it now, people playing Beetle/Eel and Bulgeye potions. Well, since you have to get both the beetle and the eel to search for the Buldgeye, its not all that amazing. I would rather use the Cauldron shop to search, but this is definitely playable, and I expect people will make decks based around it. If both Beetle and Eel eye potions were great on their own it would be very powerful. However, eel eyes totally sucks, so its not all that good. At least Beetle eyes does 4 damage.

Name: Eel Eyes

Type: Item

Cost: 1P

Text: When you play this card, look at your opponent’s hand. You

may use an action to discard this and Beetle Eyes from play

to search your deck. You may take a Bulgeye Potion card from

your deck and put it into play. Then shuffle your deck.

Rating: D-

This card’s effect is a bunch of crap, you only want it to get the Bulgeye. I recommend using a different way to get Bulgeye potions, there are many ways to search for them.

Name: Porcupine Robe

Type: Item

Cost: 7T

Text: At the end of each of your opponent’s turns, do 1 damage

to each creature that did damage to you that turn.

Rating: B-

A very cool card that kills off your opponent’s creatures over time. The problem is that now there are some cool 5 health creatures that people will play a lot, so this isn’t nearly as good as it would have been in a previous set. Still, its quite good against small creature decks. I would love to see someone play a cunning fox against this :)

Commons:

Name: A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration

Type: Item - Book

Cost: 2T

Provides: 1T

Text: You may use an action and discard this card from play to draw 3 cards.

Rating: B+

Awesome! Its like a lesson but it can be used to draw cards instead if you have too many lessons. Cards like this really help you to get more use out of your lessons. You can put in more lesson producing cards without reducing your ability to draw real cards, since some of them are books such as this one. Of course, you still need a transfiguration lesson before you play this one, so you still need the lessons.

Name: Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them

Type: Item - Book

Cost: 2F

Provides: 1F

Text: You may use an action and discard this card from play to draw 3 cards.

Rating: B+

Same comment as the other books.

Name: Magical Drafts and Potions

Type: Item - Book

Card #: Card 61 of 80

Rarity: Common

Cost: 2P

Provides: 1P

Text: You may use an action and discard this card from play to draw 3 cards.

Rating: B+

Same comment as the other books.

Name: Moonseed Poison

Type: Item

Cost: 8P

Text: When you play this card, do 3 damage to your opponent. You may

use an action and discard this card from play to do 6 damage

to your opponent.

Rating: B+

This is similar to a dogbreath potion, but using an action instead of a lesson sacrifice. Not as good as bulgeye probably, but easier to play and still very good. You can search for it too, with Cauldron shop.

Name: Quidditch Through the Ages

Type: Item - Book

Card #: Card 67 of 80

Rarity: Common

Cost: 2Q

Provides: 1Q

Text: You may use an action and discard this card from play to draw 3 cards.

Rating: B+

Same comment as the other books.

Name: The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)

Type: Item - Book

Card #: Card 75 of 80

Rarity: Common

Cost: 2C

Provides: 1C

Text: You may use an action and discard this card from play to draw 3 cards.

Rating: B+

Same comment as the other books.

Well, that’s the items! There are many powerful items and I suspect that many more people will start playing item destruction spells now.

Time to go on to the adventures!

Adventures

Name: Letters From No One

Type: Adventure

Effect: Your opponent may only use actions to draw cards.

To Solve: Your opponent discards 5 cards from his or her hand.

Reward: Your opponent may draw two cards.

Rating: D

Well, its an awesome effect, but the problem is that its too easy to kill and doesn’t gain you anything when they do. You spend two actions playing it and one card (that’s 3 cards worth), and they have a net loss of three cards, so you are even. So its not really worth it.

Name: Through the Arch

Type: Adventure

Effect: Your opponent can’t play spell cards.

To Solve: Your opponent skips a total of 4 actions. (Those action

don’t need to be one right after the other.)

Reward: Your opponent may put an item card from his or her discard

pile into his or her hand.

Rating: A

This adventure is totally amazing! Its probably better than 4 Privet Drive! The costs is really painful, and its something that most decks need to get rid of. And if you haven’t destroyed their items yet, its even better!

You lose a turn playing this, but they lose two destroying it! Very cool!

This makes Minerva McGonagall even better.

Well, only two adventures this set, but one was very good.

Time for the matches:

Matches

Name: Gryffindor Match

Type: Match

Cost: 1Q

To Win: Do 12 damage to your opponent while this card is in play.

(That damage doesn’t have to be done all at once.)

Prize: The winner gets 2 more actions during his or her next turn.

Rating: C+

An okay match with a nice effect. This should have been in the last set! What were they doing printing the three other houses matches but not Griffindor! (Its as if everyone is in Griffindor house, and we only play the other three, or something :)

Not the best match, but decent. Play it in a bludger deck :)

Name: Three-Month-Long Match

Type: Match

Card #: Card 28 of 80

Rarity: Rare / Foil

Cost: 1Q

To Win: Do 30 damage to your opponent while this card is in play.

(That damage doesn’t have to be done all at once.)

Prize: The winner does 15 damage to his or her opponent.

Rating: B+

Really, really awesome! I wanted this one (or something like it, I was thinking, do 30 damage, the winner wind the game, but this is close). I wanted this to exist a long time ago! Unless they have healing, its basically the same thing. Think about it. You start with 7 cards, so 53 are left. A few turns go by, so they are down to around 45. If you deal, 30, then that extra 15 will win you the game! This is basically 15 damage all at once, provided they don’t destroy it, and you can do 30 damage first! A very good card.

Finally, on to the spells. We’re almost done!

Spells

Name: Beater Grabs the Snitch

Type: Spell

Cost: 4Q

Text: Return a match in play to its owner’s hand.

Rating: C-

This one is pretty much only useful if everyone starts playing three month long matches against you. Most decks don’t have matches, so its not too good.

Name: Christmas Feast

Type: Spell

Cost: 4C

Text: Put up to 4 non-Healing item cards from your discard

pile into your hand.

Rating: B

Its hard to get that many items into your discard. But you could do it in the right deck.

I suspect people will use this to get two or three back. You could pick up your destroyed wand and a book, or a cauldron, a book and one of those potions items that does damage. Very good in the right deck, but not the game changing card that Halloween feast was.

Name: Good Night’s Sleep

Type: Spell - Healing

Cost: 10T

Text: Choose 1 of your characters in play that has a “once per

game” ability you have already used. Use that ability.

Rating: D

This is way too expensive for its effect. You need several different characters to give this the versatility it needs to be good.

Name: Gringotts Vault Key

Type: Spell

Cost: 6C

Text: Search your deck. You may take any card from your deck and

put it into your hand. Then shuffle your deck.

Rating: A+

This card is totally awesome and amazing, and I was hoping they would make something like this. Now all we need is a combination of two cards that win the game, and we are set! (Of course, then the game is ruined until they ban something, but that’s beside the point). This is a totally amazing power card, and the best in the set in my opinion. With this card in your deck, it can be quite good to play one of a number of versatile cards, so that in any situation you can go and get what you need. You can play one of adventures like Gaze into the Mirror, that really kill certain decks, and go get them against those decks. I love this card.

Name: Table Trouble

Type: Spell

Cost: 5T

Text: Discard all items from play (yours and your opponent’s).

Rating: B

Very awesome if you don’t have items. Or if you wait to play them until after your opponent, then play this. You destroy your opponent’s items, then play your own.

With all the good itmes out there, this is pretty good

Name: Vanishing Referee

Type: Spell

Cost: 4Q

Text: Choose a non-Healing character in play (other than a starting

character) and shuffle it into its owner’s deck.

Rating: C-

This is only good in limited circumstances, and only in some decks. I would not play it.

Uncommons:

Name: Alihotsy Draught

Type: Spell

Cost: 7P

Text: Do 6 damage to your opponent or choose 1 of his or her items

in play and discard it.

Rating: B+

With all the good items, this is really awesome! 6 damage and an item kill is really awesome.

Name: Biased Commentary

Type: Spell

Cost: 3Q

Text: The next time this turn you play a spell card that needs

Quidditch power, if that card does damage to your opponent,

it does 5 more damage.

Rating: C-

This is like a bad damage spell. Use a real damage spell instead.

Name: Colloshoo

Type: Spell

Cost: 3C

Text: Look at your opponent’s hand. If there are any item cards

there, choose 1 of them and discard it.

Rating: D

I would rather kill an item once they play it! That’s way better. If this got all of their items, it would be good, but it doesn’t.

Name: Frog-Spawn

Type: Spell

Cost: 2F

Text: During your opponent’s next turn, prevent all damage done

to your creatures.

Rating: D

Much better to prevent them from playing spells, or just play more creatures. They can just wait a turn to go kill your creatures. Plus, this doesn’t protect them from automatic kill spells.

Name: Injured

Type: Spell

Cost: 5C

Text: Look at your opponent’s hand. Discard all cards from it

that need Quidditch power.

Rating: C

This is the type of spell you use the Gringott’s Key to go get, that you have one of in your deck. Very good against quiddich decks, very bad against others.

Name: Lapifors

Type: Spell

Cost: 7T

Text: Choose 1 of your opponent’s creatures in play and discard it.

Then search your deck. You may take a creature card from your

deck, show it to your opponent and put it into your hand. Then

shuffle your deck.

Rating: B

With all the big creatures, this becomes quite good. You kill a big creature of your opponent, and get your own. Only a B because not all decks use creatures.

Name: Practical Joke

Type: Spell

Cost: 3T

Text: Count the number of items in play (yours and your opponent’s).

Do that much damage to your opponent.

Rating: B

This could actually end up doing a good deal of damage if you use many items!

Name: Spiral Dive

Type: Spell

Cost: 5Q

Text: Discard any number of cards from your hand. Do that much

damage to your opponent.

Combo Rating: A

Only good as a final kill spell, but if you can draw loads of cards at once, its deadly. Now we just need a card that lets us draw any number of cards, and we have our two card combo kill, AND we have the Gringotts Key to go get the parts of it. That’s the makings of a killer combo deck. Now can you find a way to draw any number of cards….it exists :) Unfortunately, it takes two cards, so we don’t have our two card combo just yet.

Name: Verdillious

Type: Spell

Cost: 9C

Text: Do 5 damage to your opponent or to a creature of your choice.

Rating: B-

Did they make this just to deal with the Herbidian Dragon?

Its good but expensive.

Commons

Name: Bludger in the Stands

Type: Spell

Cost: 6Q

Text: Do 4 damage to your opponent. Then, if your opponent has any

items in play, he or she chooses 1 of them and discards it.

Rating: B+

Very good item destruction plus damage all in one.

Like the potion spell that does six, but a little cheaper and weaker.

Name: Blue Wig

Type: Spell

Cost: 6C

Text: Do 4 damage to your opponent. Then draw a card.

Rating: B

I like this spell, its solid.

Name: Butterfly Weed Balm

Type: Spell - Healing

Cost: 5P

Text: To play this card, discard 1 of your Potions lessons from play.

Shuffle up to 9 non-Healing cards from your discard pile into your deck.

Rating: B

Like a burning bitterroot but cheaper and a little weaker.

Quite good.

Name: Cancelled Practice

Type: Spell

Cost: 2T

Text: Choose 1 of your opponent’s Quidditch lessons in play and discard it.

Rating: C-

Useless if they don’t play quiddich, only good if most people do.

Name: Dogbane Potion

Type: Spell

Cost: 5P

Text: Choose 1 of your opponent’s creatures in play and do 3 damage to it.

Rating: D-

Very bad, there are way better cards to deal damage to creatures, and this one cant hit your opponent!

Name: Dog Biscuits

Type: Spell

Cost: 1F

Text: Remove all damage counters (if any) from 1 of your creatures

in play. Then draw a card.

Rating: D

Also bad, usually this will be a waste.

Name: Flipendo

Type: Spell

Cost: 2C

Text: Do 2 damage to your opponent or to a creature of your choice.

Rating: D

Too weak, use a bigger spell.

Name: Freeze!

Type: Spell

Cost: 3C

Text: Choose 1 of your opponent’s creatures in play and do 4 damage to it.

Rating: C-

Not versatile, and still pretty weak. This wont kill the new 5 health creatures.

Name: Mid-air Collision

Type: Spell

Cost: 10Q

Text: Do 10 damage to your opponent. Then choose 1 of your cards in

play (other than your starting character) and discard it.

Rating: B

Expensive, but really awesome if you can cast it! Its like a super Cobbing!

Name: Picking on Neville

Type: Spell

Cost: 4T

Text: Choose 1 of your opponent’s cards in play (other than his or

her starting character) and discard it. Your opponent may prevent

this by choosing 2 of his or her cards in play (other than his

or her starting character) and discarding them.

Rating: A

This card is so completely awesome!

Its like Diffindo for 4 if you play it early, and later on, it forces them to sacrifice two cards to save their important one. Truly amazing!

Name: Pigley Dudley

Type: Spell

Cost: 5T

Text: Choose 1 of your opponent’s creatures or characters in play (other

than his or her starting character) and put it on top of his or her deck.

Rating: C

Not as good as many other creature kill spells, but okay.

Its better if you can deal damage right after this.

Name: Quick Thinking

Type: Spell

Cost: 6Q

Text: Do 3 damage to your opponent or draw 3 cards.

Rating: C

A little versatility, but I would rather play a cheaper card drawer.

Name: Sloth Grip

Type: Spell

Cost: 5Q

Text: During your opponent’s next turn, you may prevent all but the

first 3 damage done to you.

Rating: C

You still take 3, so I would play a more expensive card which prevents it all. But in the right deck at the right time its good.

Name: Spongify

Type: Spell

Cost: 2C

Text: Choose a non-Healing item in play and return it to its owner’s

hand. Then draw a card.

Rating: B-

Much better to kill an item, but the card draw is nice, and if used on a cauldron its awesome!

Name: Swelling Potion

Type: Spell

Cost: 7P

Text: Do 5 damage to your opponent. During your opponent’s next turn,

he or she can’t use actions to play item cards.

Rating: C+

This is okay, but by the time you cast it they will probably have their important items out. If not, they can wait one turn.

Name: Teacup to Rat

Type: Spell

Cost: 3T

Text: Choose 1 of your opponent’s items in play and discard it. Then draw a card.

Rating: B

A good item destroyer, very good due to the number of good items. Anything that does something and draws a card is worthy of consideration.