I like this card because it forces your opponent to make a sadistic
choice with no good option. Block, and lose the
blocker no matter how big, or don't block and
get knocked down to 1. The Master will never
actually kill the opponent, mind you, it'll just
knock them to 1 life and laugh at them. It'll
never actually deal combat damage to a player,
either, making it a useless target for Cipher.
Personally, I think it makes quite a good
blocker as well as attacker. It sits there and
laughs at any creature who would DARE attack
into it. And once it's gotten through unblocked
once, its job is done, so why attack again?
Especially since the game is already over-- you
DID remember to keep a burn spell n hand to
finish the opponent off with, right?
In case you weren't aware, this card does
indeed beat Turbofog style decks. That's because
Fog doesn't actually stop the attack - you still
proceed through the parts of the attack step as
normal, except that if any creature that would
deal damage in the damage part, it deals no
damage instead. Turbofog has annoyed so many
people so much that I'm going to give this card
a high rating for that alone. Competitive decks
will probably pick up a more direct style of
creature, but this guy is going to get plenty of
game time elsewhere. The fact that he works with
Goblin Tunneler is gravy (hilarious gravy).
Today's card of the day is Master of Cruelties
which is a five mana Black and Red 1/4 with
First Strike, Death Touch, can only attack
alone, and whenever it attacks a player and
isn't blocked it deals no combat damage and sets
their life to one. It may not be able to finish
a game by itself, but with any direct damage
from any source the game can easily be won after
the attack. The support needed for this is
minimal as Red has no shortage of burning
options while Black has many loss of life
effects available. Even if it doesn't have an
unblockable attack, which can be forced with
other cards, the combat effects make it a
serious offensive and defensive threat. Overall
a deck with this, some burn, and evasion boosts
can be very competitive and is quite likely to
see competitive play.
In Limited this is a card that can easily win
games and is a particular headache for Orzhov
and their lifegain mechanics. Not surprisingly
for a mythic this is a first pick in Booster and
automatic inclusion for a Rakdos build in
Sealed. There's no real drawback to a First
Strike with Death Touch being available to
pressure the opponent and the chance for the
almost one hit kill is hard to match.
