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Pojo's Magic The Gathering Card of the Day


Image from Wizards.com

Nourishing Shoal 
Betrayers of Kamigawa


Reviewed February  4, 2005

Constructed: 1.75
Casual: 2.50
Limited: 1.87

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 


Jeff Zandi

5 Time Pro Tour
Veteran

 Nourishing Shoal

Is it possible that Wizards has finally given us a green gain life spell that's worth playing in competitive formats? No. Nourishing Shoal is a waste of time in general. You just can't waste a card in your deck for a spell that just gains you life. In the case of this card, you either have to tap out to gain a lot of life, or give away a lot of card advantage using this card's alternate casting cost. I don't think so. If the alternate cost was DISCARDING a green card instead of removing a green card from the game, this card could have been a fun part of a reanimator deck.

CONSTRUCTED: 2.0
CASUAL: 3.0
LIMITED: 2.0

Ray "Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
 Nourishing Shoal

I never played Stream of Life, even as a new player. I certainly don't want to pay an extra green to do play Stream of Life. And I definitely don't want to pitch an extra card just to gain some life. This card goes down for me as 'suckiest rare printed in a long long time.'

Constructed: 1
Casual: 1
Limited: 1


DeQuan
Watson

Nourishing Shoal - Thursday
 
OK, I only think this card is useful in casual decks and possibly reanimator decks.  There may be other uses, but those are the only obvious ones to me.  This is another reason I hate rating cards before I've had time to play with them.
 
Constructed: 2
Casual: 3
Limited: 1.5


Chris
Gerhardt

* game store owner
(Shuffle and Cut)

Nourishing Shoal
 
Okay, here's where the shoal equation breaks down.  You definitely lose the advantage of the alternate casting cost - lose 2 cards to gain a little life is a bad deal.  Even if you are playing something large, like Myojin of Life's Web, it's just not worth the loss of 2 cards in hand.  So you are left with its regular casting cost, in the hopes that you can generate huge amounts of mana.  But then that is called Stream of Life, and Stream does it better - though "better" is a relative term.  Lifegain is and should be relegated to the most casual realm, except in extreme rogue situations, and then only as a side issue.
 
So, if we take this card in the purely casual sense for lifegain purposes, it can be a nice addition to Stream of Life in your deck... did I just say that? =/
 
Constructed - 1.5
Casual - 3
Limited - 2
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