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Pojo's
Marvel VS Card of the Day
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Scarecrow,
Professor Jonathan Crane
DC Origins
Date Reviewed: 8.17.04
Constructed Average Rating: 3.05
Limited Average Rating: 2.7
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating. |
IQ |
Scarecrow, Professor
Jonathan Crane
CONSTRUCTED
Before I say anything about this guy let me
re-state that I’m a very, extremely weird
player. With that out of the way I feel this
character is a better five drop than the Killer
Croc IN CERTAIN decks. I’m not just saying this
because I’m a fan of the Scarecrow but also
because it makes gamer sense.
[[Gamer Sense- The more text a card is the
better it is… most of the time.]]
Let me explain why I think this guy is better
than the attacking power house of the Killer
Croc. Most of the Arkham Inmates are pretty
small as far as their cost goes which means
playing cards like No Fear is not completely out
of the question. And since No Fear and Nasty
Surprise just happen to work really well
together it only makes sense that if you’re gona
use one you should might as well use the other,
is not mandatory but it can be more annoying
that you can imagine.
The Killer Croc can neutralize the biggest drop
your opponent has in play rather easily because
of his great attack boosting ability but he only
works while attacking. The Scarecrow doesn’t
care if you have even or odd turns because his
ability works as long as your opponent gets an
attack phase.
The Scarecrow does live and die by the sword and
that could be his biggest catch but you can
control when he’s going to get stunned while
attacking. Which means that if you’re going in
an all out assault his ability to be turned to
your hand if he gets stunned while attacking
might not be all that bad at all. Granted a draw
back is a draw back but having the ability to
control when his drawback is going to kick in
has to count for something.
Last minute add in: Scarecrow Vs Army decks = A
very big game breaking ball of scaryness.
3/5
LIMITED
I have never been able to get this guy in
limited but I can imagine that his boost is
extremely good in this format. He’s already a
five drop with out loyalty and that’s already
good enough to play him in any limited deck. But
when you combine his boost with his ability to
allow you to return him to your hand just about
whenever you desire is really good. But like I
said, this is just a concept that I haven’t been
able to test but it seems pretty good in theory.
What I do know for a fact is that if I drew this
character on turn seven I would be a very happy
player.
3/5
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Nakaiya21 |
Scarecrow –
Professor Jonathan Crane
This week we are going to move onto Arkham
Inmates. My feelings on AI in general is that
this group has some pretty powerful abilities,
yet they lack the strength to use them
consistently. Therefore, I would consider this
group a very good affiliation to use in a casual
format. Why? It is just plain fun to play with
these guys. Ok with that being my two cents
worth for this week, I guess I better get onto
the review.?
Today we are going to look at a potentially
powerful card in the AI roster. On the surface
Scarecrow may not be much to look at, but once
you start playing with him, you can start to see
where the potential of his abilities lie. To
start with, you need to realize that this
character is only a 8/8 for a recruit cost of 5.
This was actually pretty good back in the time
of Marvel, but now that everyone is making the
transition to DC his stats put him into the
shallow end of the 5-drop pool.
The key to this guy is to play him late in the
game. This guy was definitely not meant to drop
on turn 5. This is because of his boost ability.
Imagine, if you will, dropping this guy late in
the game (say around turn 9). Your opponent
should still have a 4-drop on the field (and if
you are lucky possibly a 3-drop as well). By
paying this guy’s boost cost you get to send all
of your opponent’s characters that cost 4 or
less back to their hand. In addition your
Scarecrow will get two +1/+1 counters for each
character returned by his effect (it is too bad
you can’t get the counters using his normal
abilities). All you have to do is send one
character back to your opponent’s hand to make
this guy a +10/+10! Not too shabby! This guy
would be incredible against a weenie rush deck
(i.e. sentinels, skrull, GCPD, etc….)!
The downside is that you do not see many weenie
rush decks in competitive play, which means to
make this guy worthwhile in a deck you have to
survive until you can get his boost ability or
load down your deck with defensive cards. Just
putting him out there on turn 5 is not going to
do a lot in the way of field control. I wouldn’t
necessarily consider this guy an attacking card
either. He is more of an annoying stall tactic
until you can pull everything together. Hey, I
am all for having fun at your opponent’s
expense, but you better make sure that if you
play this card in your AI deck that you provide
some cover for it so that you can actually have
fun with it.
Ratings:
AI constructed – 2.5/5.0 …..If the tournament
environment were full on weenies I would give
this card a 4.5/5.0
Limited – 1.0/5.0 …..You will have to draft VERY
carefully to get this card to work for you in
this environment
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Johnny Blaze |
ARK (8-17)
Scarecrow, Professor Jonathan Crane - Below
average ATK + DEF values for a 5 drop at 8/8.
But this is where his Boost ability kicks in and
can become a factor. To know what X is, you must
know what Boost is. To use Boost, whenever that
character w/ Boost is recruited, you may spend
extra Resource Points to activate the Boost
effect.
In this case, X is however many points you wish.
So if you were to spend 2 to recruit Scarecrow
on Turn 8 then all 2 and 1 drops would be
returned to your opponents hand. Very good
ability to use against an army team such as
Sentinels or Gotham Police Squads. If you can
return just 3 characters to their hand then
Scarecrow becomes a scary 14/14.
His other powers are interesting (Its like
Toad’s ability)but it is the Boost power that is
a real find on this card.
Constructed: 2/5 – Unless there is an
overabundance of Army decks in your area
Scarecrow is situational.
Limited: 3/5 – Because of his Boost option and
no Loyalty, Scarecrow can be a very good card to
draft.
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Jason
Bunch |
This week we're
checking ourselves into the Asylum, and taking a
look at some of our favorite Arkham Inmates.
Today's card will go a long way towards making
the words "Boost: X" your two favorite words to
see on a VS card.
First of all, 8/8 for a 5 drop is small.
However, like many of the cards in the DC set,
the small body is their way of balancing some of
the more abusable effects, and this is no
exception. Anything Scarecrow stuns goes back to
your opponent's hand, which in some cases is
just as good as sending them to the KO'd pile.
If its a smaller character, odds are they won't
bother recruiting it again on their next turn,
they're saving their recruit points for their
bigger drop.
However, with so many discard effects running
around, that just gave them a free card to use
to activate a plot twist. The flip side is that
Scarecrow goes back to your hand when stunned,
but in Scarecrow's case, that can actually help
you out. Since he has Boost:
X, you can play him as any drop you want, and
the higher drop you play him as, the better his
effect is going to get. At 6, you can decimate
Wild Vomit and GCPD builds. Play him as your 7
drop, and a lot of Teen Titans are going down.
Save him for 8, and you can wipe out a TNB deck,
assuming you last 8 turns against it. The 2
+1/+1 counters are almost an afterthought
compared to the huge board advantage you gain
from using his effect. He shouldn't be your main
option at turn 5, but packing a couple
Scarecrows can put some hurt on the right
matchup.
In Limited, his small body becomes a problem,
and not a lot of 1 and 2 drops are going to find
their way into you opponent's deck. Still, with
the unpredictability of the curve in limited,
having an infinitely modular character in your
arsenal means you won't miss that crucial drop.
Ratings:
Constructed - 4.25/5
Limited - 4/5
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Paul Hagan |
Scarecrow, Professor Jonathan Crane
The good news about this card is that it has
a cool ability without boost: bounce an
attacker if they get stunned! The better
news is that with boost, you can make
Scarecrow *huge*, especially if you land him
against Sentinels or a GCPD deck. The bad
news is that Scarecrow has to go back to
your hand if he is stunned by a defender.
The worse news is that Scarecrow is hanging
out with Arkham Inmates.
Honestly, I really, really like Scarecrow,
but Arkham Inmates are a pretty sub-par team
when it comes down to it. They have a lot
of weak characters, and when you are
deckbuilding, you are forced into "what
cards don't make the cut" as opposed to
"what cards make the cut". You just don't
have a lot to work with.
However, as this is a review for Scarecrow,
I will say that he is one of the few bright
spots in Inmates, and as far as I'm
concerned, the Inmates need to play this
card if they want to have a chance of
winning.
In limited, scoop the Scarecrow fairly
early, but he is by no means a first pick.
Constructed Rating: 3.5
Limited Rating: 2.5
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