Voldaren Estate – Crimson Vow
Date Reviewed: November 17, 2021
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.92
Casual: 4.67
Limited: 3.92
Multiplayer: 3.92
Commander [EDH]: 4.42
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
David
Fanany
Player
since
1995
You know you’ve made it as a Magic tribe when you get a multiland specifically for you. It’s arguably taken longer than expected, but vampires have theirs . . . and it’s pretty cool. And we’ve come a long way from Lorwyn‘s basic tribal dual lands, because this is very much more than Mana Confluence for Vampires – those blood tokens and the card filtering are as useful as you can get in aggro and midrange decks. I’m not sure that ability is quite enough to justify running Voldaren Estate in a non-vampire deck, but it gives you a little bit of extra options. It probably won’t help you keep up with a dedicated card advantage engine in itself; it’s more the sort of thing that might make a difference in close games.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 5/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander: 4/5 (There are surprisingly many vampire commanders right now!)
As far as “tribal lands” go, Voldaren Estate hits every note Vampires as a tribe might want to hit. It fits into any of their possible decks (be it two color or three color), and even the Blood token generation has some value in a long game as both card filtration and an enabler for Vampires; a lot of Crimson Vow Vampires care about blood, and this even pairs well with things like madness. It’s not the star of the show, but sometimes all you need is a land that keeps the wheels turning, and Voldaren Estate does just that.
Constructed: 3.75 (it’s good, but Vampires as a tribe can be a bit hit-and-miss, so this is as strong as the best Vampire deck)
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.75 (color fixing and card filtration late are nice)
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander: 4.25
Voldaren Estate
Automatic include in a vampire deck that is running more than one color, I’d say you could get away with four copies in a deck and have it be successful and you’ll never get color hosed. The one life loss can be offset by the plethora of black cards that allow you to gain life so that’s not a huge issue and in a pinch you can use it for a colorless mana. Outside of vampire decks, this card is pointless and just straight bad. I’m going to say this here and now, I don’t like the blood token mechanic, I think WOTC realized that food, treasure, and clue tokens were really powerful and they had to dumb down blood tokens by making you discard a card in order to draw a card on top of paying one generic mana to use. In the right situation (thinking the Madness mechanic or some of the cards in Crimson Vow) the blood tokens are pretty good and useful but outside of that they’ll help in a pinch if you have a handful of lands or bad cards. I’m just not a fan and think this is their answer to overpowered cards.
Any vampire commander deck should run this, no questions asked. In any other non-vampire deck don’t bother playing this card.
Constructed: 5/5 (Vampire decks) 1/5 all other
Casual: 5/5 (Vampire decks) 1/5 all other
Limited: 5/5 (Vampire decks) 1/5 all other
Multiplayer: 5/5 (Vampire decks) 1/5 all other
Commander: 5/5 (Vampire decks) 1/5 all other
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