In play, this is a 2/2 for four. Highly
unimpressive. Its only selling point is that
once it's in play, you can cash it in for the
ability to cast Blaze. Only you have to wait a
turn, because it's a tap ability.
It's a decent way of saying to the table that
you have a burn spell and will use it if
threatened. In multiplayer it thus acts as a
decent deterrent, to encourage other players to
not make you decide to pop your Cinder Elemental
on their creature. You can in theory convince
opponents to go after each other that way.
Mostly this is just a Blaze on a stick that can
occasionally block a creature and kill another,
and might even be able to attack. Attacking taps
it, leaving you unable to use its ability
though, and as a 2/2 for four, you don't play
this for its combat presence. You pretty much
have to be playing Limited for this to be of any
real worth.
I'm surprised this card hasn't been seen in
Standard since Mercadian Masques. It's elegant,
evocative, reasonably powerful, and can pull off
ominous flavor text about ancient gods. It
probably won't displace Bonfire of the Damned,
because people like riding their luck and a few
people also like effects that are probably still
overpowered at a cost of 50 mana, but does
Bonfire of the Damned combo with Wildwood
Revival?
Today's card of the day is Cinder Elemental
which is a four mana Red 2/2 that can be
sacrificed by tapping it with X and a Red to
deal X damage to target creature or player.
The body is a bit too expensive and without
Haste it sits in play which prevents any element
of surprise, but can work as a psychological
weapon. Even if it had Haste the four mana
cost is prohibitive and outside of trying to use
this as a finisher on a turn where it isn't
attacking. Aside from that the only real
value is having a creature that can be cast
instead of a Fireball effect when four mana is
available, though a 2/2 isn't very impressive
for Red at that cost. Overall this isn't exactly
a bad card, just not one that is likely to see
much play as it sacrifices too much just to add
a little flexibility.
In Limited this is a fairly solid removal option
even with the turn delay and is not horrible as
a creature when needed. A reasonable
midrange pick in Booster and well worth
including in Sealed builds with even a little
Red mana.
Welcome back to
the Pojo.com card of the day section. Today we
are taking a look at the Cinder Elemental from
Gatecrash. Cinder Elemental is an uncommon red
creature elemental that costs three generic mana
and one red mana and is a 2/2. Cinder Elemental
has an ability of pay X mana and one red mana,
tap Cinder Elemental, and sacrifice it: deal X
damage to target creature or player.
Welcome back to Cinder Elemental, of course
originally printed in Mercadian Masques. This is
the first time it will be introduced to Modern
formats, like Standard and so on. But, I don't
think he will make too much of an impact.
I did always enjoy the Cinder Elemental though, and the one
main thing I like about seeing him reprinted in
Gatecrash is the fact that they printed a card
in the same set that actually can help make
Cinder Elemental much more impactful. That card
of course would be Illusionist's Bracers. With
those bad boys equipped, you'd be able to copy
the Cinder Elemental's X ability, and choose new
targets for said ability. But come on, mana
dumping in AND then copying it, you know that
you are plowing the damage into your opponent's
face.
