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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
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Chris
Gerhardt
*
game store owner in CA,
ShuffleAndCut.com |
Mirrodin blocks
offering for countering. Looking at it
overall, it's crap; would you rather pay UU
counter target spell, or 2U counter target spell
and let your opponent draw a card? But
Counterspell isn't in Mirrodin, and it isn't even
in Type 2 anymore. So Blue Mages are forced to
play less than optimal counters. Wizards R&D
decided that Blue need to be tamed down (and they
were right), and they did an acceptable job of
doing so.
In casual,
permission isn't a very popular theme, especially
with sub-optimal cards such as this when you could
delve into some much better counters. It's
boring, too.
In limited, it's decent if you're going blue and
need to stop something nasty from your opponent.
Consider playing it if you have an open slot.
Constructed:
2
Casual: 1
Limited: 3
Current Price:
Vex
$0.24
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Judge
Bill
*Level 2
MTG Judge
*game store employee
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Take Arcane Denial, add one to the mana cost,
and take away a card from both players. The net
effect of your opponent being up a card is the
same, but you don't get a card. This sounds like
it is real crap, but remember, it is a hard
counter. They can't do anything to prevent their
spell from being countered (compared to a card
like Override).
It also only requires one blue mana. So it is a
splashable hard counter.
When you look at all the hard counters in type 2
(not dependent on or attached to a creature),
you get:
Rewind
Discombobulate
Decree of Silence
Assert Authority
and now Vex and Last Word. Consider the fact
that Vex is the only hard counter at a converted
mana cost of 3, and the only one with only one
blue mana in its cost, and the drawback seems
somewhat reasonable. I still don't like it, but
it's reasonable.
In casual, there are many better counters that
you can use. Plus, who plays counters in casual?
In limited, I don't like counterspells. I like
action cards, not reaction cards, especially
those that require you to have the reaction card
at a specfic time (when the bomb spell is cast).
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 1.5
Limited: 2.25
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DeQuan
Watson
* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX)
* pro tour player
* Scrye writer since 2002 |
Vex
There has been much
debate lately on this card. Everyone keeps
looking at ways to squeeze it into control style
decks. I think the real way to use it would be
to slide it into a creature based deck and use
this as your defense against board sweepers or
problem cards. It has a lot of comparisons to
Arcane Denial, which we played with back in the
day. Unfortunately, that was before a lot of us
were REALLY any good at Magic. Times are a bit
different and different strategies dominate our
game currently, so it's really hard to get a
feel for the power level of this card.
In limited, you can
take it if you want more spell counters, because
there are very few of them. If a casual player
just wants to build the ultimate spell counter
deck, this will probably find its way in there.
Otherwise, its a week counterspell.
Constructed: 2.5
Limited: 2.5
Casual: 2
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Jeff Zandi
5 Time Pro Tour
Veteran
Level 2 Judge |
Vex
In
limited, the jury is definitely still out on this
card. Starting at the pre-releases, some believed
that Vex was good for sealed deck play since it
could counter an extremely important game-changing
card of your opponent with minimum liability for
you. Any way you look at it, that makes Vex a
situational card at best. In draft so far, my
friends don’t seem to like it. In constructed, it
doesn’t quite seem good enough. Maybe in Mirrodin
block constructed. Not too good for the casual
player either, except for those with small
collections.
CONSTRUCTED: 2.0
CASUAL: 2.5
LIMITED: 3.5
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Andy
Van Zandt |
Vex
3 mana, and you can't even retain card parity when
countering your own
spell. This is not arcane denial, do not be
fooled- and arcane denial
wasn't that good to start with. The fact that
this is one of the only hard
counters in block may trick some people though.
constructed 2
casual 2.2
limited 2.1
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Ray
"Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer
*Game Store Owner (Gamer's Edge) |
Vex
Sigh. I still miss
Counterspell.
Casual: 2
Constructed:
1
Limited: 2
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Jason
Matthews
* Level 1 DCI
Judge
*game store employee
* gaming for over 15 years |
Vex
There are hard counters and there
are soft counters in the game of magic. Mana Leak
is an example of a soft counter because it has a
condition that you pay three and the spell isn’t
countered. Rewind is a hard counter because it
just says counter the spell. How important is it
to have a hard counter. Is it worth giving your
opponent a card. I don’t think so. Vex is nice but
one of the advantages of countering a spell is
that they lose the card. Vex lets them have
another card to make up for the one they just had
countered. I thinks its nice that it will counter
it but I really hate giving my opponents cards. In
limited it can be good and in draft I would pick
it up late. In casual play there are better
options but it would be worth playing in a fun
deck. In contructed like block it will probably
see some play.
Constructed- 2.5
Casual 3
Limited 2.75
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Jonathan
Pechon
2 Grand
Prix Top 8's
Multiple Pro Tour
appearances |
Vex
My first look at this card involved the word,
“Poop.” Then I saw this being played in a couple
of aggressive decks as a card comparable to Arcane
Denial, and it started to look a little better.
While this really isn’t quite the card that Arcane
was, sometimes you only need to counter one or two
spells to finish a game in your favor, and having
this plus Skullclamp available can help you
overcome the card disadvantage.
In limited, this card wears a tight T-shirt that
has “I Stop Bombs” printed across the front of
it. While that doesn’t necessarily make it a
really strong card, it’s not completely
inconceivable that this card could see some play.
You have 84527856428 cards that say, “Counter
target spell,” written on them available for
casual play; this goes without mentioning the fact
that those three words do *not* make for a good
group-game mechanic. In Mental Magic, just stick
with Force Void and Complicate if you need to
counter stuff; this card has plenty of better
stuff to be used as.
Constructed: 2.5
Limited: 2.0
Casual: 1.25
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Jason
Chapman |
Vex is awful, really
terrible. While there may be multicolor decks that
are look for a castable counterspell this just
doesn't fit the bill. Not only is it costly but
allowing an opponent to draw doesn't fit with any
control theme. Very weak except for a narrow list
of decks that just splash Blue.
Constructed - Leave it
at home if you can, only good against the bombs -
2.15
Limited - Counters
are fairly weak and there aren't as many must
counter cards - 2.05
PEZ - So many
better choices exist in past sets - 1.25
Casual - If you
can't find enough real counters - 1.75 |
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Chase |
Vex
Could be a nice addition into
Millstone decks, but those decks haven’t been
popping up lately. I haven’t been playing Magic
very long, so I don’t know if this would go in
anything else though.
In Casual, you either deck your
opponent or you don’t. If you deck your opponent,
I would play this.
In Limited, I wouldn’t play it
as you can’t focus a limited deck around decking
an opponent. Unless it has some crazy combo with
something, don’t pick it.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 3
Limited: 1.5 |
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