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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
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Mason
Peatross
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The Familiars are an interesting dilemna for 8th
Edition. Because really
we're mostly talking about one specific Familiar
aren't we? Nightscape. The
other 4 haven't seen that much play, and I don't
expect that to change much
in the future. So does Nightscape Familiar belong
in 8th Edition? Sure. It's
not overpowered, and the only deck it's
"broken" in is Psychatog, and it's
just a very good card in that deck, not broken.
Limited: 4
Constructed: 2
8th Edition Readiness: 4
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Scott
Gerhardt
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I'll break it down
real simple: all 5 familiars have seen some
measure of play in decks. Nightscape sees
continuous play while the others only sportatic in
some weird or block decks. All could be
viable in the future.
In limited, they're
decent bodies with decent abilities. They
are often worthy of consideration and will make
the cut in most non-amazing decks.
Would the familiars
be good in 8th? Sure - I'd love to see them
around another 2 years. Is WotC gonna
reprint them? I doubt it. Base set
stuff is simple, and things like reducing costs,
no less costs for colors other than the familiar's
color, might be a little out of what they want.
Current Price: $.20
- $.95
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Alex
Hockey
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The familiars are much more similar than the
battle
mages, so I will review them as a group and I'll
start
with limited for a change:
Although these guys will ake a few of your spells
cheaper, they are pretty much just overcosted
creatures. I'll give the red and green ones a 2,
the
white one a 1.5 (walls are never that good) and
the
blue and black ones a 2.5 (the black one is harder
to
destroy, and the blue one isn't that bad a
creature
for blue).
On to constructed. Lets face it, you play these
cos
you want cheap spells (eg psychatog wants to play
upheaval/tog as early as possible) and the fact
is,
there is not a single colour that can't benefit
from
getting cheap spells. However, of all the allied
colour deck that I could think of off the top of
my
head, fires is the deck that could not easily
include
a familiar (as the familiars are naturally weak
creatures). So they all get a 2 except the red and
green ones that get a 1.5
They could go into 8th ed but I hope they don't
just
in case that wizards feel the need to up the mana
costs of cards to stop them being abused via the
familiars - and that would suck.
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Judge
Bill
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Nightscape Familiar:
We start off with easily the strongest of the
bunch. Right now, this is one
of the cards that enables Psychatog to be so good.
Ever cast a Fact or
Fiction for 2 mana? How about 1 mana? The fact
that this thing regenerates
is another bonus. If you're playing B/R, he's not
bad either.
Constructed: 4.5
Limited: 3.5
Thornscape Familiar:
The fact that this guy has a backside of 1 with no
other abilities that help
himself is one of the bigger drawbacks of this
card. Also, playing green,
you usually want your green spells to cost less,
not your red spells. Still,
good at the job he does.
Constructed: 3.5
Limited: 3.5
Thunderscape Familiar:
Now this is the guy you want in your R/G decks.
Fires liked this guy, as he
provided a body, and enabled their Blastoderms and
Saproling Bursts to go
off faster. The fact that he has First Strike
really helps, too.
Constructed: 4
Limited: 3.5
Stormscape Familiar:
Right now, the biggest thing about this guy is his
creature type - Bird. He
fits right into the fun bird decks everyone seems
to be making. Other than
that, though, there's not many times I've wanted
to reduce the cost of my
white or black spells, so I think this guys
creature type provides more help
than this guy's abilities.
Constructed: 3
Limited: 3
Sunscape Familiar
And, finally, the worst of the 5. The only place
you'd want this is in U/W
control, and it isn't worth it there for 2
reasons: First, it's only an 0/3.
It won't stop much of anything. Second, most of
the cards U/W uses are
almost exclusively colored mana costs. For
example, Counterspell is {U}{U}.
Absorb is {U}{U}{W}. Even Meddling Mage, if you
choose to use it, is {U}{W}.
It might help some of the card drawing spells, but
this isn't worth ths slot
in that deck, or the early tap out you'd have to
do to have it be effective.
Constructed: 2
Limited: 3
I think these cards are perfect for 8th edition.
They introduce the players
to play cost, which some people still haven't
learned. Also, they are a grea
t cycle of creatures for 2 mana. I wouldn't be at
all surprised to see them
in 8th, and I think it would be a good move to put
them there.
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Andrew
Chapman
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The Familiars would make a nice contribution to
8th
edition, as they are all simple creatures with
fairly
simple to understand abilities. With no gold
cards in
8th, there wouldn't be the confusion of how much
is
reduced when a card is multiple colors, thus
making
these all fairly simple.
Most of these guys are solid critters at worst
(and
sometimes at best) for constructed, and they are
all
quite playable in limited.
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Fletcher
Peatross
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The familiars, unlike yesterday's
Battlemages, do not utilize a mechanic and
can be considered for inclusion into the base set.
Are they unbalancing?
No. Are they good? Yes.
Nightscape familiar sees regular type 2 play in
Psychatog decks. Thornscape Familiar finds
its way into some G/R decks and
could assist in a G/W deck if those were viable.
The Red, Blue, and White
familiars are generally poor creatures on their
own so have not found much
place in Constructed play (White has seen a little
in Block). All are good
for Limited play.
White - C: 1.5 L: 2
Red - C: 1 L: 1.5
Green - C: 3.5 L: 3.5
Black - C: 4 L: 3.5
Blue - C: 2 L: 2
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Michael Garten |
The
planeshift familiars are two casting cost
creatures which reduce the casting costs of spells
of the allied colors. The blue familiar,
stormscape, is the weakest at 1/1 flying. The red
familiar, thunderscape, is the second weakest at
1/1 first strike. The white familiar, sunscape is
potentially good, at 0/3, acting as a blocker for
bears such as Spectral Lynx, Thornscape Familiar,
and Meddling Mage, or 1/1 creatures including
Merfolk Looters and Llanowar Elves. Thornscape
Familiar is the second best; it offers mana
acceleration, and bear-size at 2/1. The spell
costs it reduce include things such as Flametongue
Kavu, Violent Eruption, and Urza's Rage.
The best familiar
of all is the "Psychatog Familiar,"
Nightscape. It regenerates, allowing it to block
Anurid Brushhoppers, Wild Mongrels, and Psychatogs.
It reduces the cost of Fact or Fiction, Repulse,
Upheaval and Psychatog. Thornscape Familiar
deserves a 4 rating, Nightscape a 4.5 rating, and
Sunscape a 3 rating (constructed). The other two
are 2's in Constructed. As for limited, the 2
weaker familiars are both 2.5, the stronger three
are 3's. These creatures would serve well in
eighth edition.
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