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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
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Image from Wizards.com |
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Leveler
Mirrodin Rare
Reviewed April 12, 2004
Constructed: 1.7
Casual: 2.3
Limited: 1
Ratings are
based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ...
average.
5 is the highest rating
Click here to see all
our
Card of the Day Reviews
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Chris
Gerhardt
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game store owner in CA,
ShuffleAndCut |
Yes, yes... Leveler
is huge. Yes, yes... Leveler is colorless and can
be played in any deck. Yes, yes... it's cost
efficient at only 5 mana for a 10/10. Yes,
yes, Leveler is crap.
BUT....it begs to be
combo'd! Like casual? Got balls? Want
to try something crazy? Impress your friends and
family? Then consider the following cards
suggested by our CotD crew to combo with Leveler:
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Shared Fate - sure your library is removed,
but you get to use your opponent's library...and
your opponent gets to use... nothing! (BTW...
your opponent does not auto lose since he
"cannot draw". Shared Fate uses a
replacement effect. Instead of drawing, you "do
this". So in actuality, no one can deck with
Shared Fate on the board.
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Platinum Angel - You can't lose, even if you
deck. So keep taking turns!
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Stifle - Counter that whole "remove your
library from the game" crap. Play on!
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Eater of Days &
Fling (along with Stifle above)
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Pandemonium &
Furnace of Rath - 20 Damage... BAM!
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Soldevi Digger - Replace cards into your
library.
Constructed:
1.5
Casual: 3
Limited: 1
Current Price:
Leveler
$1.99
Combo's well with:
Shared Fate
- Mirrodin - $1.59
Platinum
Angel - Mirrodin - $11.43
Stifle
- Scourge - $7.96
Eater of
Days - Darksteel - $4.71
Fling -
Stronghold - $1
Pandemonium
- Exodus - $7.28
Furnace of
Rath - 8th Edition - $3.51
Soldevi
Digger - Alliances - $5
Hey Pojo.com Fans...
I'm going to try something new here. Do you
have a combo idea? Send me the name of the
cards involved, and I will consider posting it on
my CotD spot. Just make sure your email
Subject looks like this:
Pojo CotD Combo - (card names)
Email me HERE!!!
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Judge
Bill
*Level 2
MTG Judge
*game store employee
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Leveler
Well, the theme for this week is "casual combos."
Leveler has a few. To start off with, there is the
obvious Shared Fate Combo, where you lock your
opponent out of your library. You could also use
stuff like Doomsday, Soldevi Digger, or anything
that puts cards back on your library. Stifle would
work too, to stop the removal of the library.
As janky as this is, it should be limited to
casual only, as there are too many ways to disrupt
your combo. Not even in limited, as the drawback
is way too big.
Constructed - 1.5
Casual - 3
Limited - 1 |
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DeQuan
Watson
* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX)
* pro tour player
* Scrye writer since 2002 |
Oh man...I really
don't like this card. Which is funny, because I
like oddball combo pieces, but this one is so hard
to work with. If you have something like Platinum
Angel out, his drawback isn't so bad I guess.
Also, if you have a stifle, it's useful. The best
use for this guy is with Pandemonium :) You can
though in Furnace of Rath and you can attempt to
go off on one turn :)
constructed: 1
Casual: 2
Limited: 1 |
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Jeff Zandi
5 Time Pro Tour
Veteran
Level 2 Judge |
Leveler
Let me "level" with you, this card is bad. This is
the kind of card that the
Research and Development team at Wizards of the
Coast calls a "skill
tester". A "skill tester" is a card that will seem
attractive to bad players
but that better players will not fall for. A 10/10
creature for five
mana.gotta be a catch, right? Yeah, you lose your
entire library when it
comes into play. There really is no way to use
this guy judiciously in
limited, but it COULD be possible to build
constructed decks around this
creature. Drop two of these on the same turn
somehow and give them Haste
somehow. This is not a good card. The artwork
looks like WOTC STILL has some Battletech artwork
they hadn't used yet!
CONSTRUCTED: 1.5
CASUAL: 2.0
LIMITED: 1.5 |
Ray
"Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer
*Game Store Owner (Gamer's Edge) |
Leveler
Leveler is one of
those trick cards that confuse you into thinking
it’s a big creature. Its not. It’s a combo card.
Even if the creature had haste, losing your
library still means you’d still only do ten, and
then lose next turn from no library. MAYBE if you
gave it haste, and had Savage Beatings, Berserk or
some such card, and they had NO blockers….
No, the fact remains
that the card is really only good at one thing,
removing your library from the game so you can use
something like Soldevi Digger to stack your deck
back to where you want it to be to set up the
perfect game. But even at that, it does a bad job,
costing five mana and being very disruptible. At
least it has the benefit of doubling as a win
condition….
Constructed:
2
Casual:
2
Limited: 1
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Jason
Matthews
* Level 1 DCI
Judge
*game store employee
* gaming for over 15 years |
Leveler A 10/10 for
five generic mana is pretty unheard of in the game
of magic but occasionally you get supplied with a
creature like Leveler. The most common way to
balance a creature like this is to make its
drawback so extreme that you can not justify
playing it. In order to play this deck you have to
insure that either when you play it you will win
on that turn or find a way to trick it into play
without losing you library. In constructed play I
don’t see this card getting a lot of use because
the risk and reward are just not good enough. In
casual play you could run him with Stifle to avoid
losing you library or maybe with Dark Steel
colossus. In limited he really has no play value,
because you don’t have access to the spell that
let you negate his ability or have as much access
to haste abilities.
Constructed 1.5
Casual 2.5
Limited 1
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Jonathan
Pechon
2 Grand
Prix Top 8's
Multiple Pro Tour
appearances |
Leveler
Is it big? Sure. Is
it efficient? Yeah, got that. Does it cause you
to suck the instant you put it into play? Yep,
you betcha. While cute and flavorful, this is a
horrid card that really just doesn’t have a place
anywhere. Nice try, guys.
Maybe you can work
this with Soldevi Digger in casual games; that’s
the only card that remotely makes me want to play
this. Unfortunately, that still doesn’t make it
any good.
In draft, there are
even *less* ways of making this playable. Don’t
try.
Constructed: 1.0
Casual: 1.5
Limited: 1.0
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Chase
Secret Squirrel
on the
Pojo.com
Message
Boards |
Leveler
Maybe with Stifle, but it’s main
use that it’s the win condition in one of the
most annoying rogue decks ever, Shared Fate.
Without Fate, it’s pretty much useless. I could
discuss how Shared Fate decks are built and
whatnot, but I won’t. So simply put, it’s only
good in Shared Fate decks.
In Limited, it’s horrible
because Shared Fate and Leveler are both rare.
Of course, if you got both in your opening hand
(and the rest of your deck is all land) you
would automatically win, but that’s not
possible.
Constructed: 4
(shared fate), 1.5 (everything else)
Casual: 4
Limited: 1
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Danny Tatro |
Leveler
This week seems very
casual so I'll just elaborate on the casual
aspect of the cards this week.
You could have some
fun with Shared Fate, or Stifle. Maybe Leveler
and Eater of Days with Stifle? Fling too?
BallsToTheWalls.dec? Could be fun! Add in
Surestrike Trident and start striking out
players one by one. Scrivenger to get back
Stifle. Sounds like fun to me!
Constructed: 1
Limited: 1
Casual: In the deck
above? 3.5
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