Magi-Nation Card Review
Universal
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. This grading scale will be slightly different from all the
other (true) regions, as I will be grading Universal cards based on how they
affect the overall game rather than how they fare in mono-Universal decks.
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
League Elder – 5
League Elder is only technically a Universal magi, since
Adapt always turns him into something else, but that means he can go in any
region in the game! That said, the Purveyor of Great Fun is enormously powerful
if you build your deck around Prepare. The ability to discard cards for value
by using cards like Channeler’s Gloves can give League Elder the ability to
power through your deck to find whatever cards you need. There are a lot of
ways to make this good. The best ones I’ve seen are abusing Tweave as a Weave
magi, slotting into discard pile-based d’Resh decks because he can use his
starting card on Mirago, and acting as a magi with actual draw power in
creature-based Cald decks.
Rayje – 5
This magi allows you to actually play a mono-Universal deck
and that deck can be very powerful. He is extremely flexible and gets more
powerful as the game goes on. The best thing about Rayje is probably his
starting cards, which allows the player to get Rayje’s Construct + Warrior’s
Boots + A piece of disruption or protection on turn one. A lot of decks will
not be ready for this giant, hugely impactful creature to hit the board so
early and it can net you free wins.
Tony at a Con – 1
Taking two turns in a row would be pretty dope, even if
you’re defeated right after. He’s also got great starting cards. The reason he
gets a 1? Easy. This card is actually banned from competitive play.
Tony Jones – 2.5
Animite Affinity allows Tony Jones to play creatures and
spells of any region with no penalty, though he cannot play Core cards for both
mechanical and flavor reasons. The errata also allows Tony to use Favors to
play any non-Core relic. It’s expensive, but he can even use it to get a discount
on some 3-cost relics like Remember Ring, and some relics cost 2 anyway. He
still pays zero for the cheap Universal relics anyway. Essentially, his
abilities allow Tony Jones to go into any non-Core deck but that’s not useful
in and of itself. You want to play a magi for the unique things they can do,
not just because. What you’re looking to do with Tony Jones is to find a
combination of cards across different regions that only he can create. Even
when you do find such a combo, you still have to deal with his abysmal starting
energy of 10 which makes him from interesting to basically unplayable as your
main magi (which is what his abilities push you toward).
Tuku – 1
As a card, Tuku is pretty good. His starting cards are a
powerful combination and Restrain is a very powerful ability that can severely
limit your opponent’s options in the right situation. The only problem with
Tuku really is that including him in your Universal deck makes your Rayje’s
less powerful. Unlike League Elder and Tony Jones, he can really only fit in
the mono-Universal deck since he pays regional penalty for all non-Universal
cards and can’t play non-Universal relics. The only other mono-Universal magi
is Rayje, and he’s selfish.
Magi: TLDR
5
League Elder
Rayje
4
N/A
3.5
N/A
3
N/A
2.5
Tony Jones
2
N/A
1
Tony at a Con
Tuku
Creatures
Baby Hyren – 3
A one energy creature with energize: 2 is really cool if it
ever lives. Fledling helps it live … sometimes. Growth Spurt is really slow and
it has to live to use it, which means you need a way to protect this card from
opposing powers, spells, random effect damage. It’s not terribly likely to do
its thing at competitive tables.
Collosit – 2.5
Spare Parts does combine nicely with Nightmare Construct,
making it one less than your magi’s energize to actually play. Colossus and
Rayje’s Construct are so expensive that the one energy often doesn’t make that
much of a difference, especially when this card costs 4 to begin with.
Colossus – 3.5
A big dumb hunk of metal. If you can cheat this into play
it’s pretty awesome. Paying the full twelve energy is pretty lackluster unless
you have inordinate amounts of energy on your magi.
Hapu – 2.5
This card’s effects don’t do a whole lot. At 3 energy, it’s
extremely easy to remove either in or out of combat.
Monarch Hyren – 3
Demand has the problem of hyren not having much synergy with
each other and the problem of paying 9 energy to get this thing into play
before you can use it. Otherwise, searching up a hyren is cool. Command is one
of the few hyren synergies that exist and it’s quite a good one since the card
was errata’d to boost itself. Command wants as many hyren in play as possible,
and there are precious few hyren that cost less than five energy, so build your
deck with that in mind.
Nightmare Construct – 3.5
Okay if you can boost your magi’s energize rate so there’s
something left over after you play this card. Actively good in either a Naroom
or better yet, Core, Flood of Energy deck.
Rayje’s Construct – 4
This card does a LOT of stuff. It staples a Robes of the
Ages, Mirror Pendant, Channeler’s Gloves, Water of Life, Book of Ages, Relic
Stalker, and Ring of Secrets to a 12-energy creature. The one thing it doesn’t
do is protect itself from Shockwave and the like. The other problem it has is
that you have to remember all the things it can do! The only reason this card
isn’t a 5 is because it’s very expensive to actually play out.
Creatures: TLDR
5
N/A
4
Rayje’s Construct
3.5
Colossus
Nightmare Construct
3
Baby Hyren
Monarch Hyren
2.5
Collosit
Hapu
2
N/A
1
N/A
Relics
Ancestral Flute – 3
Two energy for two cards is great. The problem with Song of
the Family is that it’s just barely too slow to set up. As in, you can’t play
the copies of your creature until the next turn unless you start your turn with
it in play. There aren’t too many decks where having multiples of a creature is
better than having other creatures, but this card is great with creatures that
get better in multiples, such as Flame Trulbs, Mombaks, or what have you.
Ancient’s Puzzlebox – 2.5
This card makes your deck worse because you can take up 6
card slots. If you do, you have a lot more opportunities for awkward draws.
That said, Mind Games can add a lot of energy for cheap, and that’s a good
ability to have. Plus the card replaces itself when used.
Baloo Root – 2
It’s technically energy advantage but it’s also an entire
card for much less than a card worth of effect.
Book of Ages – 3
There aren’t too many decks that want to spend their energy
this way, but Lore isn’t bad card draw as far as that goes.
Channeler’s Gloves – 3.5
This card is surprisingly awesome. At first glance,
Channeling isn’t a good rate, at least when you consider that two energy is
worth drawing one card. The thing is, adding energy to your magi is very
powerful. Additionally, Channeler’s Gloves lets you discard cards to get them
into your discard pile or just out of your hand, and this doesn’t cost any
energy to do. For any decks that make use of the discard pile or just have a
bunch of cards and need more energy on their magi, this card is an excellent
choice.
Dream Balm – 3.5
Weebo is a 5. Dream Balm is a one-use Weebo that can be
played in any region. While Naroom has actual Weebo and usually doesn’t need
Dream Balm, Vitalize is a very powerful ability. You want giant creatures that
you can get to low energy on purpose before you put Dream Balm in your deck,
but that’s somewhat easy to do.
Forgotten Dancer – 3.5
Normally, cards like this are not good since they’re too
narrow. However, the upside of Excise is absurdly powerful which means if you
have access to Abwyn’s Quill or Twilight Mowat you can break this card and it
should go in your deck.
Gauntlets of Colossal Power – 3.5
Whole Lotta Glove is pretty expensive at 4 total energy.
However, allowing a tiny creature to attack for 12 does some serious work. The
creature can attack a creature or a magi for 12, so this card can both take
care of giant creatures that a Weenie deck wouldn’t normally be able to handle
or act as magi removal. Most midrange decks don’t want this card because of how
expensive it is, and most control decks don’t need it, so what you’re looking
for is a deck with a lot of tiny, disposable creatures.
Inhibitor Band – 3.5
Inhibitor Band is very powerful. The problem with it is that
it’s symmetrical, meaning it shuts off access to your own powerful Universal
relics like Warrior’s Boots. You need a deck that doesn’t want to play
Universal relics (or doesn’t have space for them) and wants to turn off these
options from your opponent. There aren’t a lot of decks that fit this
description, but it’s a powerful card in some niche spots.
Loaded Dice – 3
If you’re interested in this card you’re probably already in
a fun deck. That said, this card works very well with a lot of the dice rolling
cards in the game, preventing drawbacks or ensuring good rolls. It’s also
pretty incredible in a deck with Pyte.
Maelstrom Flask – 3.5
If you can manipulate the top of your deck, this card is
really cool. If you care about filling up your discard pile, this card is
really cool. If you care about both things, this card is basically the best.
Mantle of Shadows – 3.5
This card does exactly what it says it does, which is allow
non-Core magi to play Core spells. If that’s what you’re interested in doing,
there are few better ways to get this effect.
Mirror Pendant – 3.5
This card usually doesn’t see play outside of crazy combo
decks, but it could. Even using this card just for value on someone like Tryn
or Phlouk is okay and this card can get a lot more powerful in more involved
setups.
Rayje’s Band – 2
This card doesn’t see play, but not because Thought Filter
isn’t powerful. It is. It’s just that you don’t know if it will actually do
anything, and it doesn’t a lot of the time.
Rayje’s Belt – 5
This card sees play in almost every competitive deck because
Lockdown is insane and it costs nothing. There are so many powers and effects
that can be difficult to deal with and playing this card allows a deck to
answer several different abilities with only the one card.
Rayje’s Boots – 2
This card is exactly like Rayje’s Band: powerful but
dramatically narrow.
Rayje’s Cloak – 2.5
This card costs a bit too much and is a bit too defensive to
see much competitive play. It definitely has an effect on the game against
control decks, and it can counter the omnipresent Rayje’s Belt, but it can also
be an expensive do-nothing.
Rayje’s Shield – 4
Unlike most Rayje’s relics, this card actually creates
energy advantage on your board. It pays for itself if you have two creatures
out, and if you can draw extra cards and have more than two creatures, it’s
going to net you a profit on the turn you play it. That’s just a good card.
Rayje’s Sword – 3.5
Piercing gives your burn decks a chance against annoying
stuff like Burrow or Arderian Guard-Wings, and for that reason often shows up
in Cald decks to get around their natural predators.
Reality Anchor – 3.5
Not being able to draw more than 4 cards in a turn is
incredibly annoying to many competitive decks, and is the most powerful thing
about Reality Anchor. Preventing deck search hurts combo decks a lot too.
Finally, you have a pseudo-Climbing Staff effect which can stop you from dying
to Spirit Drain or other shenanigans. This card is perfect for slow control
decks. Just make sure you’re not playing too many effects that draw more than
two cards at once.
Relic Mirror – 3.5
Useful in decks that absolutely need a specific relic in
play for their strategy to work, or in relic-heavy control decks to provide an
extra layer of protection around your cards that are locking your opponent out
of the game.
Relic Stalker – 4
Blows up problem relics for zero energy. ‘Nuff said.
Ring of Secrets – 3.5
You want to be able to trigger Tinker every turn, which
means you want to be playing a high density of relics yet have creatures you
want to stick around to get energy from this card. Mono-Universal decks certainly
fit into this category, as do a couple other strategies.
Robes of the Ages – 4
Goes in any deck that plays even a decent amount of spells
and is awesome.
Staff of Hyren – 3
There aren’t a lot of dedicated hyren decks out there
because outside of a couple cards, hyren don’t have much synergy with each
other. Still, this card gives you energy advantage and is worth it after you’ve
played between two and three hyren.
Staff of Keepers – 3
The only magi who can consistently find this card is Obgren,
and Bograth doesn’t need this card to play Core or Paradwyn creatures, which
are the primary regions that synergize with them. I wish Staff of Keepers was
STARTING: All Keepers, as that would open up a lot of cool stuff. It isn’t, and
that means it’s mostly a fun card rather than a competitive card.
Syphon Stone – 2
It’s like a Baloo Root: It doesn’t do much.
Tomorrow’s Jewel – 4
Extra card selection over multiple turns is awesome in any
deck. Decks that care about what’s in their discard pile can use this relic
especially well, but it’s just good regardless. Don’t forget about the massive
block of text above Lore. It matters that your Orothe opponent can’t steal this
card.
Une’s Scale – 2.5
While it’s true that sometimes decks have 13-20 cards in
their hand and Balance would be annoying to them, it’s also true that you’d
rather have that many cards yourself than play this card and need to deal with
the effect hurting you too. Unless you’re League Elder that is.
Warrior’s Boots – 5
Boots are just so good. This card lets you gain tempo on
your opponent and can shift the flow of the game from a position where you’re
defending and behind to one where you’re attacking and ahead. It’s good in
Aggro decks because it helps you kill your opponent faster. It’s good in
Midrange decks because you can make these swingy tempo plays. It’s good in
Combo decks because sometimes you need the creature out early to actually do
the combo. It’s even fine in Control decks although it’s at its worst in that
environment. Obviously all these Universal cards can go in decks of any region,
but it’s worth mentioning here specifically because everyone has access to this
tool.
Water of Life – 3
Water of Life is fine, but it does nothing the turn you play
it and it requires basically two energize steps before you’re really happy
having used the card slot on this kind of effect. It doesn’t help defend
against Aggro and they can often kill you before Invigorate matters much. This
card is at its best when you’re playing really long, grindy games and when you
already out-energize your opponent.
Relics: TLDR
5
Rayje’s Belt
Warrior’s Boots
4
Rayje’s Shield
Relic Stalker
Robes of the Ages
Tomorrow’s Jewel
3.5
Channeler’s Gloves
Dream Balm
Forgotten Dancer
Gauntlets of Colossal Power
Inhibitor Band
Maelstrom Flask
Mantle of Shadows
Mirror Pendant
Rayje’s Sword
Reality Anchor
Relic Mirror
Ring of Secrets
3
Ancestral Flute
Book of Ages
Loaded Dice
Staff of Hyren
Staff of Keepers
Water of Life
2.5
Ancient’s Puzzlebox
Rayje’s Cloak
Une’s Scale
2
Baloo Root
Rayje’s Band
Rayje’s Boots
Syphon Stone
1
N/A
Spells
Beam of Light – 4
This card is pretty backbreaking as there are so many
combinations of things it can blow up. It’s still just about an even trade on
energy though, so it doesn’t quite reach the 5 spot.
Crushing Will – 4
Very strong in Universal decks but again doesn’t quite reach
the level of a 5 since it doesn’t blow up Universal relics and not every deck
runs a high concentration of relics either.
Dream Channel – 3
The issue with Dream Channel, and its partner card Nightmare
Channel, is that creatures don’t often stay in play for very long. If you don’t
get to energize before they kill whatever creature you put this on, you’re down
2 energy and a card. Even if you do, it requires two energize steps before it
pays for itself. That requires a lot of stuff to go right.
Elemental Shield – 2
This card doesn’t protect your board from opposing relics or
creatures, and that’s mostly what you’re worried about. Also, you can only play
it three times per game which makes it a dead draw if the game goes late.
Equilibrate – 4
For three energy and one card you can deal a ton of damage
to decks that like to boost their creatures. This encompasses quite a lot of
decks, making it just a generally good card.
Fate’s Whimsy – 2.5
Yes, you can kind-of disrupt enemy dice-rolling stuff, but
that doesn’t make it worth putting in your deck. You really want to be rolling
a lot of dice yourself, and this lets you re-roll after you’ve seen the result,
unlike Loaded Dice. Still, it costs a whole card.
Focus – 1
The drawback of not being able to play cards is horrendous.
That said, there are a specific few circumstances where this card becomes
playable. In the competitive environment, Korg & Zet + Focus is a fringe
strategy because 33 is a lot of energy.
Heal – 3.5
Four energy spent for five gained isn’t amazing. If you can
combine this card with effects which increase energy adding though, it’s pretty
incredible.
Healing Light – 3
This card is very conditional and there are a lot of
situations where you simply can’t play it. Any time you can actually play it,
it’s a great card.
Intensify – 2.5
A less flexible Blast Gloves that non-Cald magi can use.
Since it only hits magi, it’s not actually that useful.
Nightmare Channel – 3
Same problems as Dream Channel. You are at least guaranteed
one turn of value from this card though, making it a bit better.
Nightmare’s Dawn – 3
Nightmare’s Dawn requires you to build around it, as playing
dual-region cards or even Universal cards turns it off in most situations. Even
when you build around it, you’re spending a card to gain 3 energy. You can’t
even increase it to 4 energy with Robes of the Ages unless you’re a Universal
magi. This card gets significantly better if you’re using actual dual-region
magi, but even then it doesn’t see tons of play.
Power of the Creators – 1
It’s a banned card.
Pure of Heart – 1
Even against Core magi this only protect your magi, not any
of your creatures or relics. That basically means it’s harder for Core magi to
kill you but not more difficult for them to create a winning position from
which attacking your magi becomes trivial. So basically, it’s conditional,
super narrow, and not even powerful.
Rejuvenate – 4
Powerful energy addition. Works great if you can reduce your
creature’s energy yourself by using a power on it but it’s also fine on any
creature that survives combat.
Spectral Shield – 2.5
It’s one energy for a slow card draw. It also happens to
include anti-discard tech which doesn’t come into play terribly often but is
nice to have. While the card draw is a good rate, it’s slow and uses up a whole
card, making it not worth it. There are also more powerful anti-discard options
out there for specific regions.
Spirit of Rayje – 3
Most of the time, if your opponent can kill you they can do
it through SoR. It’s not a bad card, but it doesn’t usually change much about
the game state.
Traitor’s Reach – 3.5
This card is bananas powerful but requires either Hrada or
Twilight Mowat to turn it on.
“Ummm…NO!” – 2
Four energy is a lot to keep on your magi between turns.
This also doesn’t protect against Ormagon or Giant Carillion. On top of that, a
lot of the giant creatures this would be useful to protect, like Greater
Gargagnor, Colossus, or Cawh, have their own built-in effects that do what this
card does for much less effort.
Voice of the Storms – 3.5
It requires you to build your deck with a lot of dual-region
creatures or be Bograth with a Glablit out. In those situations, even though it
can sometimes boost opposing creatures along with yours, the energy advantage
you gain is pretty busted.
Spells: TLDR
5
N/A
4
Beam of Light
Crushing Will
Equilibrate
Rejuvenate
3.5
Heal
Traitor’s Reach
Voice of the Storms
3
Dream Channel
Healing Light
Nightmare Channel
Nightmare’s Dawn
Spirit of Rayje
2.5
Fate’s Whimsy
Focus
Intensify
Spectral Shield
2
Elemental Shield
“Ummm…NO!”
1
Power of the Creators
Pure of Heart
Find all the regional reviews on the Magi-Nation Duel hub page. Dream the original dream, back when then lands of El still flourished!
No comments:
Post a Comment