Magi-Nation Card Review
Naroom
by Kroodhaxthekrood
by Kroodhaxthekrood
Rating Scale
Magi-Nation Duel has only one traditional format,
Constructed, where all cards are legal except for a limited few. Cards will be
rated in this context with the rating scale shown below. These grades do not
tell the whole story and should be viewed in the context of the writing which
accompanies them.
1: Unplayable. Actively bad or
detrimental to your board own board in some way.
2: Low-Impact. Not actively bad but
doesn’t do a whole lot.
2.5: A little better than “meh”.
3: Role Player. Cards which are
simply not played as much but either could be good given
support or are at least decent or fun options.
3.5: Very strong with the required
support.
4: Staple. Strong cards which see
lots of play (or should) but are not completely busted.
5: All-star. Practically an
auto-include in most if not all of decks from that region.
Now, on with the show:
Magi
Chayla – 3
Chayla is really fun. She’s can act as a slow setup magi by
playing and recurring Eebits, and she makes your Eebits slightly more
threatening with Swarm. The big problem with her is there aren’t enough Eebits.
You can splash for Jungle Eebit and/or Polar Eebit, but neither one is very
good, especially when paying regional penalty. In other words, as a competitive
magi, Chayla isn’t good. She’s tons of fun though.
Eidon – 3.5
Eidon seems relatively innocuous at first glance. All his
metrics are solid and Familiarity is a nice effect that might not trigger too
often in ordinary decks but is still quite a boon. The fact that he is a Keeper
(and therefore benefits from Staff of Keepers) and the Familiarity effect
combine well to make Eidon a great choice for some of the more complicated
decks that splash heavily or have built-in recursion to guarantee Familiarity
triggers. So, while he’s always fine, Eidon can be pushed a significant amount.
Evu – 2.5
Evu is meant to draw lots of cards. The only problem with
his card as printed is the 4 energize, which is quite honestly terrible. It’s
not even as if Lore is incredible to compensate for it, as we see with some
other magi such as Valkan in Cald. Add power creep to this problem and we have
a magi that just isn’t worth playing. Drawing extra cards is so good that he
still merits a 2.5. PS: Evu first is a fun way to play multiplayer, since
you’re not a threat and you get to sit there and draw cards.
Ohk – 2.5
Starting energy way too low, which is his biggest drawback. Low-impact
starting cards. Mind’s Gift is fine but requires Ohk to have a lot of cards in
hand to benefit from the extra energy. Let’s say he has a good Mind’s Gift
every other turn. That means he’s generating between 6 and 7 energy each turn. That’s
fine, but his drawbacks outweigh this small advantage.
Orwin – 3.5
If Orwin can make use of a big hand size, Recall allows him
to recur powerful one-shot abilities (like Warrior’s Boots) or whatever other
useful card is lying around in the discard pile. This makes Orwin an especially
good choice as the third magi in your stack. The only help he needs is to have
cards in the discard pile to get back. This means you want to churn through
your deck, but not too fast, as reshuffling the deck will hurt him.
Poad – 3.5
Heroes’ Feast wants at least three creatures on the field,
which happens sometimes in normal decks but can occur much more often in a Naroom
Weenie deck, playing lots of small creatures and pumping them up. Poad is an
ideal choice for those type of decks. Also starts with a Flying Hinko.
Poad, Innkeeper – 4
On the other hand, alternate Poad is just good. 12/6 feels a
lot better than 13/5, and starting with an automatic Giant Carillion is probably
his best feature but the hidden Flying Hinko is pretty sweet too. Hearty makes
combat math annoying for your opponent and nets another free energy with Naroom
creatures (not sure why it works with Nar guys honestly). Party allows the
Innkeeper to pump small creatures to gigantic size in a Weenie deck, letting
them punch through a big defender, and only costs 1 to do it. You’re not using
Party every turn but when you need it, the ability is pretty incredible. Even
in normal decks you’re still probably getting a good rate on Party, so Innkeeper
is not restricted to only one deck type.
Pruitt – 4
Pruitt is my benchmark for how good a magi needs to be. 15/5
is perfectly average. Starting cards are all fine. Refresh is fine and worth an
entire card. She does absolutely nothing impressive, but still manages to be
solid on every metric. This feature also makes her the ideal magi to teach new
players how the game works.
Pruitt, Ringsmith – 3
Refresh and Nurture are both nice in Balamant theme decks.
She is a Balamant theme magi who wants to go wide with lots of puppies.
Balamants are all solid cards, especially when you can get multiple Pups out so
they can all boost each other. Balamants are not really competitive cards.
She’s for fun.
Salafy – 3
If it weren’t for the abysmally low starting energy on her,
I think we’d see a lot more of this magi. Protégé is a neat effect that lets
you loop creatures, and her starting cards let you do that with the Furok +
Fird engine, so she can get a lot of value out of your cards, as long as you
have a decent discard pile built up in the first place. Still, 10 energy
stinks.
Sive – 3.5
Sive has a major drawback: Research means that all her
relics that would normally cost zero now cost one. This is horrible, since most
Naroom relics cost zero. She only gains an advantage from the following list
(in Naroom): Blooming Bracelet, Evu’s Jellybeans, Poad’s Secret Sauce, Remember
Ring, Tomes of the Great Library. Knowledge is nice and the first trigger will
offset the cost of Research, but still, she limits your deck building and is a
non-bo with her own starting Energy Band (until she has used it twice anyway).
You have to be aware of this, especially when building your deck. However,
playing the big relics with her can allow you to explore a controlling build of
Naroom, as Tomes synergizes the best with her text.
Sperri – 3.5
Infuse is pretty dope and so are Furoks. Preserve gets more
Furoks, which can get more Firds, all of which can benefit from other good
Naroom cards and the magical Fird Stone. Unlike other magi best suited to theme
decks, Sperri’s abilities are powerful enough and support good enough cards to be
reasonable in competitive play.
T’Dek – 5
Energy numbers are above rate. Starting cards are all very
good, which is a rarity. Vitalize is an entire Weebo which has very powerful
applications in Naroom (Forest Hyren, Giant Carillion, etc.). The only drawback
on this card is the text “T’Dek may only play Naroom and Universal cards”. That
basically means he can’t splash removal spells and doesn’t play as well with
Tomes of the Great Library, but he even mitigates this downside by starting
with a Crushing Roots, second conditional removal ability in the Thumper, and
the ability to immediately Stomp something if he has a GC in the discard pile.
Tiller – 5
I don’t think it’s a secret that Tiller is the best magi in
Naroom and one of the most powerful magi in the entire game. For those of you
not in the know, let me explain. On the first turn of the game, Tiller will
draw 9-10 cards (starting 3 plus an additional random 2, Vortex, Scrounge the
Weeblit, Exchange optional). This is 25% of your entire deck! Other magi have
to spend tons of energy to do something similar. How much does it cost Tiller?
1. Stinking. Energy. He still has 14 or 19 left (depending on if you went
first) to play things with that turn! Every turn he stays active after that has
you drawing up to 5 additional cards for no energy. Before you say, “yes but he
has to discard cards to draw them”, this is only relevant on Exchange, when
you’re at an even or detrimental rate of card exchange. Scrounge is always +1
card advantage as long as you play a decent amount of relics in your deck
(which you should be doing here). Whatever your deck wants to do, Tiller has
the tools to find those pieces and make them happen starting on turn one. Often
what he will want to do is guarantee a Forest Hyren + Weebo on the first turn,
which is tough for even the most competitive decks to beat, but he’s not
limited to that. All he requires from you is to play more relics than you might
normally.
Tryn – 5
So simple. So effective. 14/7 is an incredible stat line.
Wait, she’s only 14/5! Yes, but her Refresh power adds two for no cost, so she’s
basically 14/7. She’s actually better than that, because there are many cards
in Naroom that synergize with powers that add energy, and Refresh will trigger
all those abilities.
Tryn Flame Saver – 1
As bad as she is in Cald, she’s probably even worse in
Naroom since they have more ways to add energy to their magi which get blanked
by the worst rules text in the game.
Wence – 3
Again, 10 starting energy is way too low. Otherwise, we’d
probably see more Wence as well, since everything else about him is good
enough. Wayfarer’s Lore lets him draw 4 cards per turn as long as you’re
playing creature-heavy decks and is at rate even when it misses. Starting with
a Robe of Vines can be quite nice as well.
Wence the Wanderer – 3.5
Dual-region magi are great, since they get access to two
regions of relics. 11 is still a bit low for starting energy, but with all the
other stuff he has going on, he can be good. He’s more of a Weave magi, since
Wence Is Here will hit more on “Creature with the Effect ‘Weave’” than it will
on Naroom spells, but still. There are a lot of Naroom effects like Orwin’s
Gaze which can put Naroom spells on top of your deck, and in practice, this is
a lot of what he does to maximize his potential so in that sense he’s more of a
Naroom magi.
Woot! – 3.5
Weebos Are for Wimps makes Woot! a poor fit for typical
Naroom decks, as it prevents the region from doing a lot of what it does best.
That said, just by having access to tons of Wasperines, he is a powerful
finisher in aggressive decks that can take out at least two magi before he
flips up.
Yaki – 4
Yaki might be the most commonly played Naroom magi. He’s
great in either the middle or last slot due to his decent size and up to five
starting cards (including Yaki’s Gauntlets). I’ve also seen him played first
and that can be a very aggressive start with the right draw. Double Strike is a
very powerful effect in a region that wants to grow its creatures to a large
enough size so they will survive to make use of it.
Yaki, Core Stalker – 3.5
I don’t see this guy a lot but he’s basically a dual-region
magi (Naroom/Core). He’s not as good as his basic version, but he still has
some uses in specific decks that are making use of weird interactions between
cards caused by Absorb Darkness.
Zajan – 2
This guy doesn’t do anything. He was created at a time when
Gruk was running rampant with Vulbor Lock, and the theory was that he’d always
have access to at least two cards. Zajan doesn’t even solve that problem
because he opens himself up to direct damage effects preventing him from
playing cards in a different way. There are some funny things that he can do,
like play Ebony Mirror if he follows The Dark Twins or Nagsis in a magi stack,
but mostly he just sleeps there dreaming about milking Yakows.
Zannah – 4
Before errata, Zannah was probably the most annoying magi in
the game since she got a free attack on her turns and a free defense on the
opponent’s. Even after fixing it, Charm is obnoxious, especially when combined
with her starting Baby Furok. She provides a protection effect for her field of
boosted Naroom stuff, and that’s just strong no matter what deck she’s in.
Magi: TLDR
5
T’Dek
Tiller
Tryn
4
Poad, Innkeeper
Pruitt
Yaki
Zannah
3.5
Eidon
Orwin
Poad
Sive
Sperri
Wence the Wanderer
Woot!
Yaki, Core Stalker
3
Chayla
Pruitt, Ringsmith
Salafy
Wence
2.5
Evu
Ohk
2
Zajan
1
Tryn Flame-Saver
Creatures
Alpine Xamf – 2.5
Good effect on a creature that’s too expensive to play in
the same turn as other creatures unless it’s a magi flip.
Arboll – 2.5
This gives your magi +1 energy for a whole card. Wowee.
Baby Furok – 4
Dear lord this thing is annoying. Cuddly-Wuddly makes it
very aggravating to deal with and there are lots of synergies this little guy
can take advantage of to make it better. Furok is a good creature type.
Balamant – 3
This guy is much better than I thought it was when I first
started playing the game. That said, I used to think this was unplayable. Now
it’s just too expensive a body. Naroom magi mostly have energize rates of 5,
which means there are turns where they can’t play this. While that’s fine for
big, splashy effects, this isn’t. Magi damage is good though and a repeatable
two-for-four is a nice way to do it.
Balamant Pup – 3.5
Good in multiples. Good with Naroom synergies. Never
amazing.
Bhatar – 2.5
This guy is fine but too small a payoff most of the time.
Tunneling Charge sometimes doesn’t even do much because their guy is burrowed.
Bikneets – 2
Not repeatable, defensive power in an aggressive region. Makes
me laugh every time I see it though.
Bungaloo – 3
A good weenie creature since Flee makes it basically free as
long as they don’t burn it. Only really fits into weenie decks.
Carillion – 3
It’s fine. Pretty much only sees play as a starting card.
Carillion Titan – 2.5
I want to see someone make this good but it’s so damn
expensive, vulnerable to all sorts of removal options, and needs to see the
Attack Step for Rampant Growth to trigger. It’s a giant meatball.
Eebit – 3
The old-school combo was Eebit + Robe of Vines, netting you
a constant stream of one-energy positive transactions. Eebit is another good
weenie that can generate some value for you. Escape triggers on offense and
defense, so remember that!
Elder Weebo – 3.5
This card is great in Flood of Energy decks and incredibly
bad outside of them.
Ember Hyren – 4
In Naroom, your creatures are going to be attacking things
pretty regularly. This of course means Heat Feed will net you some good value,
which means this is pretty much always a solid creature.
Fird – 3.5
Play lots of Furoks. Furoks are good anyway.
Flame Rudwot – 4
If I had a 4.5 rating, this would be what it looks like.
Flame Rudwot does everything. It burns, it grows, it synergizes with other good
cards in region, it gets better in multiples. Staple+ rating.
Flying Hinko – 5
This card is nuts in Naroom, because it triggers off of just
about everything. Extra energy for doing what you already want to do is very
strong, and in normal growy Naroom decks Empower will more than pay for itself
in no time.
Forest Hyren – 5
This is (arguably) the best Naroom creature. There are a lot
of good ones, but this has an energy adding power in Energy Transfer and
benefits from other energy adding powers via Underbrush. It’s big enough to
attack things dead, and it also benefits from other very strong support cards
in Naroom (Hyren’s Call, Weebo effects, etc.). It doesn’t have to survive past
your turn to generate value either. Compare this with Carillion Titan and for
the same cost you have a much more versatile threat.
Forest Jile – 3.5
The only thing here is your creatures have to survive the
attacks. Reinforce can be very strong on some boards, but only some.
Forest Wudge – 3
A regular Wudge this ain’t. Strengthen only triggers on
opponent’s creatures which is fine but they will minimize the effect. It’s
great against other Naroom decks but what are the odds right? At face value its
all right though.
Furlosk – 1
Bograth/Naroom decks are not real. Even if they were,
Companionship would still make this card a huge liability, even post-errata
where they changed it from “and” to “or”. The benefits of Swamp Lore and Forest
Power are real, but all they have to do is kill off your other stuff and you’re
eating a 7-energy loss for free. That’s too big to recover from.
Furok – 4
This creature is very solid. You’re not getting anything
extreme, but Retrieve will net you a good reward for attacking. The bigger you
make your Furok the better the reward, so it also rewards good Naroom play:
pump stuff, attack with stuff. It also has tribal synergies.
Furok Guardian – 3.5
This thing, on the other hand, is for doing silly combo
stuff. There aren’t really any amazing decks I can think of that abuse Terra
Rebirth, but it’s a powerful and unique effect that I’m sure can be pushed to
do some good things. The key with it is you can discard your own creature and
trigger Terra Rebirth to get it back.
Garan – 2.5
Rake is an interesting effect. The drawback isn’t as bad as
you might think because that’ll probably be your plan anyway, and it doesn’t
punish you if you run out of targets. Mostly Garan is an interesting option
against burrow and other defensive strategies, but there are better (cheaper,
less vulnerable) options out there for that.
Giant Carillion – 4
Boom. GC is probably Naroom’s best removal card. While it is
expensive, 6 energy is the cost of a splashed Shockwave anyway, so it’s
basically Shockwave on a stick. The creature part helps tremendously in Naroom
though, because of Weebo, Nocturne, and Remember Ring, or even just regular
creature growth which are all very powerful in conjunction with Stomp.
Glade Hyren – 3.5
Here’s a payoff card for those Naroom Weenie decks I’ve been
mentioning. Play out a bunch of little guys, then use Serenity to get a big
guy. Profit.
Grendile – 3
Snow Plow is powerful and can win you games. This thing is
expensive and slow though. What I mean by that is it costs more energy than any
Naroom magi’s energize rate and does nothing until the turn after it hits the
board. It’s not bad, and if you can connect with it you’ll be happy, but it’s
not great either.
Jip – 3.5
Tap Strength is one of the nuttier abilities out there. When
combined with some other cards, you can actually break Tap Strength. Usually
what you’re trying to do is add a bunch of energy to the opponent’s whole field,
which the Jip sees all of. You can profit from this by using Vim and Vigor or other
cards which make use of a giant guy. It requires finagling, but the reward on
Jip is there.
K’teeb – 3.5
Speaking of combo cards, K’teeb is one of the ultimate combo
cards in the game. It can be a second copy of any creature’s power. Go nuts and
let your imagination be your guide!
K’teeb Cub – 3
The Cub is similar in a lot of ways to the normal K’teeb,
but instead of getting a second copy of the power you get a free power at the
cost of a card. They each benefit different support creatures, but in general
the Cub is not as useful since it must discard itself and not all powers have
high costs.
K’teeb Thumper – 3.5
Normal K’teeb has the greatest potential but the Thumper is
the most generally useful. Lots of decks use powers on their creatures and/or
magi and this punishes those decks really hard. It only gets a 3.5 because
there are regions (Weave for example) against which Dreamthump won’t have many
targets.
Leaf Chogo – 2
Too narrow and Leaf Storm isn’t even that insane. First, the
Chogo has to survive the attack, then it discards itself, then the payoff is
small.
Leaf Hyren – 3
Needs some kind of support to make work, but then it allows
you to turn a small energy profit. Triggers all your grow power synergies as
well.
Nodj – 2
Nodj’s as good as a wink to a blind man. This doesn’t do
much, since they can probably kill it meaning it’s a 5-energy vanilla creature.
Restore at least makes it so they have to kill it or leave it alone, so very
occasionally it’ll come into play.
Plith – 2
Look! It draws cards! Unless you’re Evu (and why are you
Evu?) this is below rate at 3 energy for a card. Plus they have to attack into
it, which means often you don’t even get the card from Warning. Plus it’s a
defensive ability in an aggressive region.
Rabbage – 3.5
Holy romaine lettuce Batman! This thing’ll kill ya. This is
good in Weenie decks and in Flood of Energy decks, and 2 energize on a creature
is actually really annoying. They have to kill this.
Rudwot – 2.5
Two words: Starting Tryn.
Sabertooth Jumbor – 3
What a weird card. Offensively, this is just a way worse
Forest Jile. Defensively, you’re making them attack you and if you survive, you
heal up a little. This is mostly a Weave card, since Naroom doesn’t really
benefit from the opponent attacking their stuff. Also, 3 is my rating for “this
does stuff that’s good but not incredible and I don’t understand why we’re
doing it”.
Scout Bungaloo – 2.5
They’re never going to attack into it if they have any other
options.
Snag Arboll – 2.5
Sure. Conditional magi damage is still magi damage.
Sneaky Weebo – 2.5
Incredibly narrow, very strong ability.
Stagadan – 3
Has to survive to attack the magi, but this can hit for a
lot if you want it to.
Stagadan Charger – 3.5
Nocturne + Weebo doesn’t help so we’re looking at Warrior’s
Boots to get this into play before the Attack Step. Syphon is a very good power
though. Sometimes this can survive the round, but only if they let it.
Tillant – 2.5
Incredibly powerful, very narrow ability.
Timber Hyren – 1
Ugh. Why do I want to be so inefficient?
Tree Hinko – 4
This thing is a lot of value. Invigorate generates one
automatically (unless they kill your magi first!), but they have to kill this.
Amazing in Flood of Energy decks, good in Weenie decks, and even just good
normally.
Twee – 2.5
It does stuff.
Twunk – 2.5
They can play into it, defensive power in aggressive region,
yadda yadda. At least it’s alphabetically close and receives the same rating as
Twee so the list reads Twee Twunk. That’s fun.
Vinoc – 2.5
Bad rate but it’s a body that can be as big as you want in a
pinch.
Wandering Balamant – 3
This card is perfectly fine, but has to survive until the
attack phase to generate value. Wander is strange but the card isn’t really
high-impact enough for other regions to want to “splash” it.
Wasperine – 4
Speed. Aggression. Kill things dead. You can’t pump this
card pre-attack in any traditional ways, but you can make it bigger with Robe
of Vines and anything that triggers “before energy is removed”. Even Wandering
Balamant actually. Mostly, this card breaks the rules and lets you have more
attackers than they thought you had.
Wasperine Stalker – 4
Same thing here. Aside from the obvious synergy with Woot!, this
is a Wasperine that hits the magi’s face. Which is often where you want your
normal Wasperine to go anyway.
Weebo – 5
Simple little Weebo is an enormous workhorse. Mostly what
it’s doing is pumping up Forest Hyren and Giant Carillion, but it also combines
with Nocturne and anything else that’s big. Pumping it up first is the best,
but even if you only get one Vitalize off, that’s worth it 9 times out of 10.
Creatures: TLDR
5
Flying Hinko
Forest Hyren
Weebo
4
Baby Furok
Ember Hyren
Flame Rudwot
Furok
Giant Carillion
Tree Hinko
Wasperine
Wasperine Stalker
3.5
Balamant Pup
Elder Weebo
Fird
Forest Jile
Furok Guardian
Glade Hyren
Jip
K’teeb
K’teeb Thumper
Rabbage
Stagadan Charger
3
Balamant
Bungaloo
Carillion
Eebit
Forest Wudge
Grendile
K’teeb Cub
Leaf Hyren
Sabertooth Jumbor
Stagadan
2.5
Alpine Xamf
Arboll
Bhatar
Carillion Titan
Garan
Rudwot
Scout Bungaloo
Snag Arboll
Sneaky Weebo
Tillant
Twee
Twunk
Vinoc
2
Bikneets
Leaf Chogo
Nodj
Plith
1
Furlosk
Timber Hyren
Relics
Blooming Bracelet – 2
This is a defensive relic that can be managed pretty easily,
since you do not control when Blossom triggers. Most decks have some form of access
to small removal, from the commonly played Zungg to the entire Cald region.
This makes Blooming Bracelet a very poor investment in the short term and making
plays like that can hurt your long-term game plan by putting you in an early
energy deficit.
Book of Life – 2
Should say “to your hand”. It’s already costing you 3.
Still, for the wacky combo player out there, this can be what you need.
Energy Band – 4
It’s never completely broken, but it is one of the better
relics in Naroom. It’s also quite simple. Pump stuff. Attack with said stuff.
Essence of Naroom – 3.5
Against Naroom, Weave, or Paradwyn, this is probably the
best card you can play. Stealing a creature is twice as good as killing one,
and that’s not really obvious, especially to new players. But think about it:
you remove it from their board and add it to yours. Against anything else, it’s
useless.
Evu’s Jellybeans – 2.5
There’s a lot of text on this relic for something that
doesn’t do much. In the specific case in which you are Evil Evu, Black Ones is
pretty good. If you’re a different Naroom Shadow Magi, Black Ones is fine. In
Naroom though, all you get really is Red Ones, which is an expensive, slow way
to draw extra cards. However, they can kill it or your magi before the counters
run out, in which case you’ve wasted a lot of energy not impacting the board.
Fird Stone – 3.5
Great defensive relic for specifically Furoks.
Hood of Hiding – 1
Right up there with Tryn Flame-Saver as one of my most hated
cards in the game. Conceal costs your whole turn and doesn’t even stop direct
damage effects. You could instead play a creature and make them lose some
energy in the exchange. Here you’re just sitting and waiting. They could remove
the “You may not use this Power on your next turn” text and this card still
wouldn’t be good. It’d be too annoying for words, but it still wouldn’t be
good.
Orwin’s Ring – 3.5
Here’s another payoff for your Weenie decks. The more
creatures you have out, the bigger the impact on this Purity ring. I would only
play it in those type of decks though, and as always with these, it does limit
your deck building.
Orwin’s Staff – 3
This is for the crazy combo player who needs a specific card
exactly and hasn’t drawn it yet. It doesn’t cost any energy, but it does cost three
cards to find one so you better need that one card real bad.
Poad’s Secret Sauce – 4
This might be the most powerful relic effect Naroom has.
It’s expensive to get into play, but basically turbo-charges most of your
spells and powers. Just don’t put this in your Weenie decks that play lots of
go-wide spells like Harvest Feast. It doesn’t help you there.
Pruitt’s Robe – 2.5
Unless you’re Pruitt, why bother? Even if you are Pruitt,
you might not even want to bother. That said, if you’re Pruitt, Glimmer does
provide 2 extra energy for your field. The only combo I’ve ever seen with this
is The Dark Twins or Nagsis to make Pruitt a Shadow Magi, then combining it
with Vrill, and that’s not even insane.
Remember Ring – 4
This is a tad expensive, but it lets you re-buy giant things
… like Forest Hyren and Giant Carillion, then hit ‘em with a Weebo. It is
obviously better later in the game when you have things in the discard pile to
target, and this fact makes it a dead draw much less often than Hyren’s Call
and Nocturne.
Robe of Vines – 4
The more creatures you play, the more energy you get off of
Strengthen. On a magi flip, on a magi you can keep in play for many turns, or
in a Weenie deck, this card will be worth the slot.
Tomes of the Great Library – 4
You get to play their removal spells so you can kill them
faster or their card draw spells if you’re running low on resources. It’s not
quite as good as it is in Core, because your magi have lower energize rates on
average and because you’re more aggressive than controlling and this is at its
best in control strategies. All that said, a repeatable removal spell is great.
Weeblit – 2.5
Only ever played as a one-of because Tiller starts with it
and it’s a relic. Can kill enemy Weebos.
Wence’s Travelog – 3
Difficult for Wence Was Here to trigger, since the creatures
have to survive your opponent’s turn. Good effect when you get it.
Yaki’s Gauntlets – 3.5
Both versions of Yaki should always have access to this, as
it can turn up the aggression at the right time to finish off the opponent from
a position they thought they could survive. Outside of Yaki decks you don’t see
this being played much. Though, even in Tiller decks without Yaki it’s worth a
slot since you can just Scrounge it if you don’t want it.
Relics: TLDR
5
N/A
4
Energy Band
Poad’s Secret Sauce
Remember Ring
Robe of Vines
Tomes of the Great Library
3.5
Essence of Naroom
Fird Stone
Orwin’s Ring
Yaki’s Gauntlets
3
Orwin’s Staff
Wence’s Travelog
2.5
Evu’s Jellybeans
Pruitt’s Robe
Weeblit
2
Blooming Bracelet
Book of Life
1
Hood of Hiding
Spells
Bythan’s Gift – 4
The power level of a Gift spell is all about minimizing the
downside of bouncing your own creature. In this case, we have the ability to
re-buy a creature who has spent most of its energy using a power. Something
like Giant Carillion or Tree Hinko. We also have Fird, which is just kind-of
always around. Those creatures are common enough to make Bythan’s Gift a nice
one.
Crushing Roots – 4
Look, it’s a Crushing spell and those are good. This one
will trigger your normal synergy cards and is an option for removal in an
aggressive region, so it’s no exception to the rule.
Deadfall – 3
This is a weird one. They can play around this (kind of) and
it’s really a controlling spell that does almost nothing against Weenie decks
like Bograth. I’ve yet to find a home for Deadfall, but it’s certainly unique
and can be strong as well.
Flood of Energy – 3.5
Sadly, Naroom Shadow decks use this better, since they have
Chaos Sphere and higher energize rates on average. However, Flood of Energy
decks are called that for a reason, and Naroom can do it too. You have to build
your entire deck around this card, but it can pay off.
Forest Blessing – 2.5
This is mostly way too expensive. Some people use it for
crazy combo shenanigans though.
Gilded Cage – 3
It doesn’t cost much for a situational spell against hard to
deal with creatures. There are lots of them out there. Anything that can’t be
specifically discarded from play (like Colossus) spring to mind.
Grow – 3
I’ve never had more swings in a game of MND than when using
this card. You’re not packing dice rolling synergies to make this work, because
it’s the only dice rolling card in Naroom, so mostly you’re playing it because
your magi start(s) with it.
Hyren’s Call – 3.5
Look: A cheaper Forest Hyren! This card is sometimes played
in non-Naroom hyren theme decks, but you need to be creating an energy
advantage for this to be useful there. In Naroom, you just get a tutor plus
3-energy discount on your biggest threat. That’s a good card. You do have to
have one in the deck though, so this is much better early on, as late in the
game it becomes a dead card.
Nocturne – 3.5
This is very similar to Hyren’s Call in many ways, except
you can also get your Giant Carillion or K’teeb (or Carillion Titan I suppose) and
it requires Weebo/T’Dek to make really good.
Orwin’s Gaze – 2
A one-use Book of Life that can hit any card. Still only for
crazy combo players.
Overgrowth – 3
This card has obvious uses in Flood of Energy decks and is
also quite good on a Cawh. Its issue, like many other cards, is that you need
to wait a full round to see the benefit.
Sap of Life – 2
A more expensive Weebo or a wimpy version of Forest
Blessing. Neither makes me want to play it.
Spirit of Naroom – 2.5
Eternal Vigor is fine but not exciting.
Tap Roots – 3
Since I myself often have rules questions about Tap Roots,
here’s the skinny: there must be two creatures to target (or two magi if you
switch it with Abraxin’s Crown [only comes up b/c Flame-Saver]). You discard
energy from one and add energy to the other. This means that any support cards
that affect the amount of energy you discard or the amount of energy you add
will apply to Tap Roots. You may choose zero, one, or two as the base amount
for the discard and the add, independent of each other. Choosing zero makes
this a very inefficient spell, but you have the option. After all that, what we
have is a flexible, somewhat low-impact spell that mostly isn’t worth it but is
just good enough to think about. Sadly, this is also probably the most
interesting thing you can do with Tryn Flame-Saver.
Verdant Shield – 1
Takes up a card slot, costs an energy, only works for a turn
during which your opponent can still do math.
Vim and Vigor – 3.5
This card can be very broken, which is why they had to
errata the thing. When you could target your own creatures there were too many
ways to gain a massive energy profit after casting this. Now, it’s mostly
played in concert with Jip because you’re somehow making your opponent’s
creature large or splashed in Cald spell decks as a way to deal with creatures
that have been grown to epic proportions.
Vortex of Knowledge – 3
Typically this is only played on Tiller’s first turn. If he
goes first, it’s insane. Here’s why: In MND, unlike most other TCGs, the player
who goes second does not immediately draw their opening hand. Instead, they
wait until they flip up their magi, get starting cards, and then draw the rest
of their five. If Tiller goes first, before the opponent flips, Vortex of
Knowledge will cause them to draw cards but when they flip they still don’t get
to draw above their normal five unless they’re a magi like Yaki with access to
more than three starting cards. The drawback of giving your opponent resources
is completely removed in this case. If Tiller goes second, he’s still going to
play it but your opponent will be happier about it. Also, this card is great in
multiplayer because it makes lots of friends.
Spells: TLDR
5
N/A
4
Bythan’s Gift
Crushing Roots
3.5
Flood of Energy
Hyren’s Call
Nocturne
Vim and Vigor
3
Gilded Cage
Grow
Overgrowth
Tap Roots
Vortex of Knowledge
2.5
Forest Blessing
Spirit of Naroom
2
Orwin’s Gaze
Sap of Life
1
Verdant Shield
Find all the regional reviews on the Magi-Nation Duel hub page. Energize your dreams!
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