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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
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Chris
Gerhardt
*
game store owner (Shuffle and Cut Games,CA) |
Helm is a variable
Millstone plus a random Persuasion, all in one
card. If they are playing light or no creatures,
you can put quite a dent in their deck if this
resolves onto the board. With a deck built around
it with other milling mechanisms, it can get down
right scary. If someone is playing
creatures, then you will Mill and eventually get
one of them, most likely. Kinda fun.
In limited, having any
portion of your deck milled away is always a
distress since the deck sizes of 40 cards is
smaller, hence, more damage can be done. Though,
the vast majority of limited decks will include a
fair amount of creatures. So at worst, you'll pick
up something with legs, and at best, you'll eat
away a significant part of their deck and pick up
a creature, hopefully something worthwhile.
Constructed:
3.25
Limited: 3
Current Price:
$2.50
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Judge
Bill
*Level 2
MTG Judge
*game store employee
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An oldie but goodie.
You get to mill someone, and if you hit a
creature, you get the creature (and sac the
Helm). Good against decks with creatures (read
multiplayer and limited), OK against decks
without creatures (as it acts as a Millstone).
Control decks were so different back when this
was in Standard (type 2), though. And today,
with this only being legal in type 1/1.5, it is
way too slow for the environment.
In limited, this
could be really good. Ice Age block limited
decks had few creatures in them typically,
because there were few creatures in IA and
Alliances. This would be an auto-include, as it
would both give you a creature and put you up in
the decking race (if it ever came to that).
Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 3
Limited:4
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DeQuan
Watson
* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX)
* pro tour player
* Scrye writer since 2002 |
Helm of Obedience
When this card first
came out, it was regarded as one of the big
cards coming out of Alliances. Unfortunately,
it ended up not being as good as we all thought
it was going to be. Helm of obedience is a good
tool for Millstone decks. It allows you to
overturn a ton of cards. If nothing else, you
will get a creature from them. Truth be told
though, this card is most useful against control
style decks. They won't have very many
creatures, so one of two scenarios happens. You
either get to keep overturning their cards and
keep your helm, OR you get their one large
creature.
Constructed: 3
Limited: 3.5
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Andy
Van Zandt |
Helm of Obedience
This card sports several interesting notes...
while bribery may strictly be
better for getting a creature, this card can mill
hefty amounts- enough to
be a big threat against a low or no creature
deck, and usually those with
low creatures have something really good to win
with, like morphling. So
either way you end up with worthwhile results...
and you don't have to play
blue, and you don't need creatures yourself.
Slightly less useful in
limited, but still playable- it's still "a
creature" for all intents and
purposes.
constructed 3
limited 2.9 |
Ray
"Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer
*Game Store Owner (Gamer's Edge) |
Helm of Obedience
An old favorite, this
was my kill card in more than one u/w and r/w
control deck I built. Why play your own creatures
they can kill when you can instead take one of
theirs? And if they have no creatures? Then its a
super millstone! Very flavorful and very powerful,
I love this card in constructed. In limited, it
was not nearly as good. It was expensive for what
it did, and often only grabbed a mediocre
creature. Playable, but nowhere near the
powerhouse it was in constructed.
Limited: 2
Constructed: 5
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Jason
Matthews
* Level 1 DCI
Judge
*game store employee
* gaming for over 15 years |
Helm of Obedience
This card is a living advertisement for an
Anti-Blue Control strategy. So your tired of
getting beat by blue counter decks just use the
Helm of Obedience. Running against a bunch of land
control decks use the Helm of Obedience. Add in a
card or two that lets you see the top card of your
opponents library and you can really start abusing
this card. You don’t want to use this card blindly
if you can avoid it but it can be used as a
sideboard card. In limited where you choice of
cards are small and bad creatures are plentiful I
don’t think I would place a huge amount of value
on it.
Limited 2.5
Constructed 3.25 |
Jonathan
Pechon
2 Grand
Prix Top 8's
Multiple Pro Tour
appearances |
Helm of Obedience
People tried
really, really hard to make this card work back in
the day (I know I did). As a matter of fact, I
ended up using it as a sideboard card in U/W on
U/W mirror matches in an invitational event
(playing against Counter-Post, they never really
did have a lot of creatures). The ability to steal
a man was much less important than the ability to
munch away at your opponent’s library in huge
chunks; if you managed to hit a guy, it was
probably a pretty sizable monster.
In limited, the
effect is less exciting simply because of the
amount of creatures in a deck, but you still get
to mill an opponent, and you can always happen to
grab one of their fatties (though not too likely).
Constructed: 2.75
Limited: 2.5 |
Jeff Zandi
4 Time Pro Tour
Veteran
Level 2 Judge |
Helm of Obedience
I was standing in a little game shop in
Lewisville,
Texas called
Buster and Crabby’s when I first saw this very
interesting card. It was the first day of the
release of Alliances and I was ripping packs along
with some other local gamers. This card was
immediately a strong weapon in lots of control
decks. Some very brave players included a couple
of these as their only win condition. There wasn’t
much limited play back then, but if this card had
been included in Mirrodin, it would be pretty
useful. Even if you hit something as innocuous as
a Myr, you would still be milling through your
opponent’s deck AND stealing one of their
creatures.
CONSTRUCTED: 4.0
LIMITED: 4.0 |
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Chase |
helm of Obedience
Would Millstone be
played if it was 2 mana more to play and it could
steal creatures? Probably not. It’s pretty
expensive and you’re not guaranteed to discard X
cards from X mana. Plus, the creature you steal
could be bad.
In Limited, there
won’t be enough support for this archetype. If you
take this, all you’re doing is making them
randomly discard cards off the top of their
library in exchange for you not being able to play
your fatties.
Constructed: 1.5
Limited: 1.5 |
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Danny Tatro |
Helm of Obedience
A millstone like
card that can put an opponent's creature into
play under your control off the top of their
deck. Interesting. In constructed its only type
1 which means it will never see play cause its
not anywhere near type 1 material.
In limited its a bit
better. Each turn activate it for 1, or go for
the creature and activate it for more. Either
way you get a creature and if they have lots of
good ones you get it and they never will. A bit
random and luck based. Probably not very good
all in all due to the randomness of the quality
of creature you'd most likely be getting.
Constructed: 1
Limited: 2
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