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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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Promise of Power
Reviewed January 13 , 2004
Constructed: 3.23
Limited: 3.47
Casual: 2.88
Ratings are
based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ...
average.
5 is the highest rating
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our
Card of the Day Reviews
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Judge
Bill
*Level 2
MTG Judge
*game store employee
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When Mirrodin first came out, people
(including myself) were all over this card
as a big part of the mono-black deck.
Unfortunately, mono-black has its problems
lately, ranging from Karma to UW control
that make it not a viable archetype. Should
Mono-black ever get the goods again, expect
this to be in that deck. It gives you 5
cards for 5 mana and 5 life, and late game,
it also gives you a huge flier for 3 more
mana.
I can't do very well to give this a casual
rating. It seems like the extra turns given
to set up in casual would make this good,
but the life loss might not make it as good.
Plus, this is rare, so you should see it
less.
In limited, if you have a heavy enough black
component, you play this, no questions
asked.
Constructed - 2.5
Casual - 2
Limited - 3
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DeQuan
Watson
* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX)
* pro tour player
* Scrye writer since 2002 |
Tuesday - Promise of
Power
I just don't
understand this card. For all practical
intents and purposes, it is a really good
card. The only problem is that black isn't
highly played right now in constructed
play. I think that's the only thing that
keeps this from being scary. When a deck is
playing black though, you can definitely
expect this card to get played.
In limited play,
I definitely take this card and play it.
You either get some good card advantage or a
flier. Well, maybe you can get both. No
matter what it's pretty good.
If you were
playing this in a casual deck, I could see
how this is huge. You can play a ton of
stuff that lets you draw can and you can get
some really big demons.
Constructed: 3
Limited: 4.2
Casual: 4
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Andy
Van Zandt |
Promise of Power
Big black flying guys are good, as is card
drawing. A bit hefty in the cost department, but
the potential rewards make this card well worth
it in almost any circumstance. One of those
cards that, if you're already playing black,
it's hard not to toss a couple in, just because.
constructed 3.3
limited 3.4
casual 3.2 |
Ray
"Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*Game Store Owner (Gamer's Edge) |
January13 -
Promise of Power
This card's name fits it flavor well. It fits
very well in control black and is well costed
for what it does. Optimally you always want to
entwine it, but just playing a big fatty flier
or drawing a few cards has its rewards as well.
Good in limited too, but takes a heavy
commitment to black. Just an all around solid
card.
Casual: 2
Constructed: 4
Limited: 3 |
Jason
Matthews
* Level 1 DCI
Judge
*game store employee
* gaming for over 15 years |
Tuesday-
Promise of Power
Trading life for cards has always been in the
black color and promise of power does it nicely.
It can be limiting when you get to late game if
your life has gotten really low. I like the idea
of making big deamons with it if your playing
mono black with lots of card draw it can be
extremely fun. In constructed I think this card
is an okay choice for Mono Black Control. In
Draft I usually will snatch this card up so I
don’t have to face it. Waiting to use it for the
entwine is sometime a mistake so remember that
the card advantage can be more important than
the demon.
Constructed 3
Casual 3
Limited 3.75
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Jonathan
Pechon
2 Grand
Prix Top 8's
Multiple Pro Tour
appearances |
Promise of Power
Irony at it’s finest. A card that showed such
promise when Mirrodin first came out has proven
to be a card that, while good, has been
relegated to an archetype that isn’t seeing any
serious play, being dominated for the most part
by Affinity and U/W control. It’s not a bad
card, but it just isn’t seeing the play that it
could; perhaps this’ll change in the coming
sets.
Limited, this thing makes an unTerrorable flying
beater, draws five cards, or (ruh-roh) both. A
solid hit if you’re one of the black drafters at
the table, you should be pretty happy to slam
this down.
Constructed: 2.75
Limited: 3.75 |
Jeff Zandi
4 Time Pro Tour
Veteran
Level 2 Judge |
Promise of Power
This was thought to be one of the most powerful
rares in the set at the beginning of limited
play with Mirrodin. Since then, this card may
have cooled off a bit. While difficult to cast,
it is still an extremely advantageous card in
mono black draft decks. While it has yet to
surface in many constructed designs, this card
should be a powerful component in Standard and
Block Constructed decks built around a mono
black theme using Extraplanar Lens to provide
large amounts of black mana. The cool thing
about this card is the way it works with
Entwine. In the late game, when you are more
likely to pay the NINE casting cost (when you
include the Entwine cost), you probably don’t
have a lot of cards in your hand to make the
black Demon token very powerful. That’s no
problem, because when you play Promise of Power
with Entwine, you get to draw the cards FIRST
and then put the flying black token into play
with power and toughness equal to the number of
cards in your hand.
CONSTRUCTED: 3.5
LIMITED: 4.0
CASUAL: 4.0 |
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Chase |
Promise of Power
Oh, I love this card. It’s flexible, it gives
black card drawing, and it can get black a flier
with no life draw back. (I don’t expect to ever
pay the entwine cost, but even so at 5 life and
9 mana, you get 5 cards and at least a 5/5 flier
which is good.) It’s rating depends on what
Darksteel will do to the environment. MBC and
Suicide Black [if there is a viable SB] will be
“temporarily” troubled by indestructible
artifacts (I say temporarily because I doubt it
will be much of force after the dust settles
after the prerealse). We’ll have to see.
In Casual, it’s ok, but you can just use tutors
(which are cheaper less steep than this) to go
get a card. It isn’t bad, but you have much
better options.
In limited, the triple black is a pretty heavy
requirement and may force you to stay within two
colors. Black isn’t very strong in MMM mainly
because there isn’t much removal (Terror isn’t
that strong as half of people’s decks are
artifacts.) But it’s still card drawing and it’s
still gives you a flier.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 2
Limited: 3 |
Jason
Chapman |
Promise of Power is
one of those psycho overcosted super cards. Most
of the time these cards look great but the cost
is simply too much. Promise of Power may just
make the cut, however. 5 Mana can be achieved in
most games and the abilit to draw 5 cards is
just too good to pass up even for 5 life. The
second ability is also strong as even a 4/4,
maybe even 3/3, flyer is worth 5 mana especially
for Black. Entwine is almost too expensive to
contemplate but it would be crazy cool if it
happened.
Constructed -
Worthwhile as a 1 or 2 slot -3.00
Limited - Both abilities are good, especially
evasion - 3.15 |
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