Time Spiral taught limited players that every
creature with Suspend was worth playing, so when
Planar Chaos arrived, it was a good bet that
Shade of Trokair would at least be decent for
limited. It certainly is better than that.
Limited decks with two or more copies of this
common will very often start their games with a
turn one Suspend of a Shade of Trokair. When the
Shade arrives into play, he is a 1/2 pumpable
creature that fits well in most white draft
decks. Early experiments in constructed imply
that Shade of Trokair could be good enough for
some mono white decks. It would be pretty fun to
put a couple of these guys on the “back burner”
with Suspend and then to play a Wrath of God
clearing the board a turn before the Shades come
into play.
CONSTRUCTED: 3.5
CASUAL: 3.5
LIMITED: 3.5
Aethereal
Friday - Shade
of Trokair
A White Weenie card to end the week. Well, not
really, as this is way too slow for that deck.
There's no way any WW deck will pay 4 for this,
and the suspend is about a turn too slow to make
this worth it. The ability is a great mana sink
for Weenie, but the card is just too slow to see
play over the many other choices the deck has.
Maybe if it cost 2 for a 1/1, like its big
brother Nantuko Shade.
In casual, there are much better choices for
your white deck.
In limited, this is alright. Ideally, you'll
play it for the suspend cost, because paying 4
mana for a 1/2 is wince-worthy. The ability is
nice, though. I'd only play it if I had a heavy
enough white component, though.
Constructed - 1
Casual - 1
Limited - 2.5-3
David Fanany
Shade of
Trokair
The first thing that comes to mind is that it's
a white Hoar Shade with Suspend, which is a
little odd but also interesting. The reason
black Shades were so good in the past is because
of mass mana production, like Dark Ritual, Lake
of the Dead, and Cabal Coffers. White doesn't
really have anything comparable. Shade of
Trokair is also too expensive for mono-white
aggro and too fragile for mono-white control (Akroma
much?). The Shade can end the game in a couple
of attacks if you have Gauntlet of Power out,
but it seems too conditional to make much of an
impact in constructed. In casual play, though,
there are a lot more things you can do with him,
especially with Heartbeat of Spring and Mirari's
Wake. (As a sidebar, if next year's Extended is
slightly slower, someone will probably try to
make a deck with several of the cards I've
mentioned and the Shade.) Also, the novelty of
winning with a white Shade will win you lots of
style points. The card is decent in limited, but
not stellar. You need lots of white mana, which
may sometimes be in short supply in Time Spiral
limited's common two-color decks, but Suspend
creatures and inflatable creatures are both good
in general. And if you have a Saltcrusted
Steppe, watch out world!
Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
LennonMarx
Shade of
Trokair
Constructed
The last (and to my knowledge only) shade that
saw constructed play was Nantuko Shade. And that
was a 2/1 for 2, and it pumped for black, which
ment it could do some obceen things with Cabal
Coffers. This is a 1/2 for 4... not so good. The
suspend is just to slow. If a white deck has
enough mana to make this thing matter, why isn't
it just casting Akroma?
1/5
Casual
*Checks notes* Had to clarify there, but Akroma
is still infact white if you play her in casual.
I just don't see a reason to play this over
something that doesn't need ungodly amounts of
mana each turn to make it threatening.
1/5
Limited
The suspend cost one 1 is nice, and the pump
ability makes it hard to kill. Hardcasting it is
still lackluster, but it's not terrible either.
Not a high pick at all, but playable, and
possibly amazing if you are heavy white.
2.5/5
PsychoAnime
Review by PsychoAnime
Shades are bad as they suck up all your mana
needlessly. I'd rather play a
Marble Titan, who is a 3/3 without the need of
all that mana and has an ability
other than altering P/T. Or let me ask this:
when's the last time you've seen
a Shade in a deck?
... Yeah, that's right, you can't remember.
Constructed: 1/5
Casual: 2/5, Shades are better here, but all
they have is fun.
Limited: 2.5/5, maybe a good White card pool can
grant you enough Plains to
use it's ability, but not very likely. Still, 3
or 4 Plains gives it a decent
size.
Arcane
Shade of
Trokair
Constructed: I have to honestly say that I don’t
think this will find any kind of home in
competitive constructed Magic right now. 4 mana
(or 1 mana and 3 turns) for a 1/2 creature isn’t
any kind of good unless it has an amazing
ability, which the shade does not. Yes it can
swing for big damage against creatureless decks
or open boards, but to do so means that you are
tapping down most if not all of your mana to do
this which means you aren’t developing your
board or leaving mana open for tricks. Without
some form of protection or evasion it just
doesn’t seem to be worth the heavy mana
investment.
Casual/Multi: Devoting all your mana to one
creature to swing with is never a good idea, it
just leaves you open to swings from other
players who try and catch you with your pants
down, or they’ll just eliminate the shade when
you don’t have the mana to pump it up anymore.
It’s an eggs-in-one-basket card, and with a lot
of players, your basket is going to be busted
very quickly. Again lack of evasion hurts here
as it will just keep getting chumped.
Limited: Is where this card really shines.
Suspend lets you get it set up to come out
swinging on turn 3, and if your mana falls the
right way it can be devastating right from that
point (being able to reach 4/5 and up very early
on). Very few creatures can stand up to that in
the early game which means they’re losing a
creature or taking a good chunk of damage. The
variable nature of its power toughness means
that with enough mana it can take out almost any
threat that comes your way. The mana investment
requirements here aren’t as taxing just b/c
games can tend to drag on leading to stalemates
and this will definitely break them by forcing
your opponent into situations they don’t want to
be in.
Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 1.5
Limited: 3
The Missing
Linc
Shade of
Trokair
I am really still unsure about this card. In
limited, I saw this card work
wonders...unfortunately in the opponents deck.
If you can stick to two colors you should be
able to make good use out of this one. Where I
am uncertain is it's power in constructed. The
suspend on first turn sound tempting but that
means no second turn damage and in a white
weenie, that can be what you really want.
However, come 4th turn you have a potential 4/5
beatstick with a few others already on the
board.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Necro
nomikron
Shade of
Trokair:
Constructed: Too many good white creatures for
this thing to make an impact. Not even any
evasion.
Casual: Read above comment about constructed.
Limited: I've used this card, personally, in
limited. I'd often end up with no more creatures
to play, so I'd start turning this guy sideways,
and pumping mana into him. He seemed to hold his
own, not amazing, but, definitely not the worst
common in PC.
