Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh // Chandra, Roaring
Flame
Chandra is rather harder to "ignite" than Jace;
she rather reminds me of some of the flip cards
from the Kamigawa
block whose transformation
conditions involved combat. The intention
clearly is that you can hang back and untap her
twice in one turn by casting spells, but that's
almost as easily telegraphed as combat, and you
won't always have spells on hand that you wanted
to cast anyway. However, the payoff for
successfully doing so is solid, and reminds me a
little of Chandra Nalaar from way back in Lorwyn
- indeed, her ultimate is even harder to
survive. I'm not sure that getting there will be
considered worth it in competitive play, but
there are plenty of other places where I suspect
she will fit in quite well. It's also worth
noting that you can use her as a "straight"
Prodigal Sorcerer variant: if the current
situation makes that more useful to her, all you
have to do is be careful about how many times
you use her in one turn.
Today's card of the day is Chandra, Fire of
Kaladesh which as a 2/2 for three mana that can
do decent burn damage, but needs an almost Storm
setup or survive an attack to trigger the
transformation. As a planeswalker the +1
of a Shock every turn is quite nice in an
existing burn deck while the -2 is somewhat weak
and very situational. The -7 should be the
top priority, particularly in Multiplayer, as it
deals at least nine damage to every opponent
before they can do much in response.
Overall this is a a great planeswalker for a
direct damage burn build, but needing external
support necessary to trigger the transformation
is a noticeable drawback.
In Limited this is at worst a source of extra
damage that runs down the clock and very much
worth the three mana to cast and a first pick in
Booster. Titan's Strength should be
aggressively drafted as support to help trigger
the transformation. In Sealed this is a
compelling reason to run Red as a primary color,
but if the pool lacks low cost Red spells such
as Fiery Impulse it may force Chandra into the
sidedeck.
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh // Chandra, Roaring
Flame
With every Chandra I read, I get a little bit
sadder for this poor girl. Even pyromaster was
merely okay. This version, her fifth, Is just
groan worthy. A ping ability with an untap
clause built in isn't bad, but Chandra, Roaring
Flame's +1 and -2 are basically just a shock
that's split between 2 abilities. It doesn't
have to be this bad. But it is, and her Ult is
just as bad, short of multiplayer, and your odds
of getting that off is pretty difficult in
single player. Even her flip check is hard to
manage, unless you're pulling off some sort of
combo or simply wasting your hand to flip this
mediocre forgettable excuse for a planeswalker.
block whose transformation
conditions involved combat. The intention
clearly is that you can hang back and untap her
twice in one turn by casting spells, but that's
almost as easily telegraphed as combat, and you
won't always have spells on hand that you wanted
to cast anyway. However, the payoff for
successfully doing so is solid, and reminds me a
little of Chandra Nalaar from way back in Lorwyn
- indeed, her ultimate is even harder to
survive. I'm not sure that getting there will be
considered worth it in competitive play, but
there are plenty of other places where I suspect
she will fit in quite well. It's also worth
noting that you can use her as a "straight"
Prodigal Sorcerer variant: if the current
situation makes that more useful to her, all you
have to do is be careful about how many times
you use her in one turn.