Magi-Nation Card Review
Kybar’s Teeth
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
Celebrated Hero – 4
With a 7 energize (the highest printed energize in KT),
Celebrated Hero is able to play a wider selection of the big KT creatures off
just one turn’s energy than most magi, and this is a definite plus.
Additionally, Pump You Up is easier to activate in KT than it is in UD, since
almost everything has Invulnerability. Finally, having access to Gogor’s Spade
for card draw (especially with some Agrillas running around) can help your KT
deck get those resources into hand. Put that all together and you have an
excellent magi for Teeth decks.
Emec – 3
Emec’s best quality is that he draws you an Emec’s Forge. While
his energize is good, 10 starting energy puts Emec among the smallest KT magi
which isn’t great in a region designed to play and back up big critters. As far
as Tinker goes, it obviously synergizes well with his starting Kybar’s Scroll
but here’s a list of the other relics it works with: Chogulith (poor), Kybar’s
Hammer (poor), Hogra Stones (bad), Ullig’s Slingshot (medium), and Moga Fang
Necklace (unplayable). The fact that Tinker is only once per turn is pretty
annoying too, making building around it less all-in and more of a slight touch,
not that you’d want to go all-in because these cards don’t warrant it.
Grej – 3.5
Since Kinship essentially means Grej is a dual-region magi, you’ll
mostly see her in dual-region KT/UD decks and nowhere else. These decks aren’t
terribly common, but they can be really fun. My favorite thing to do with
Toughen is combine it with a Rabid Bisiwog + Shard of the Great Fossil. You can
keep tacking things onto that combo as well: her starting Korrit, an Agrilla, Strag’s
Claws, whatever.
Groll – 2
10/5 is abysmally low. Yes, Recover sometimes grants Groll
some extra energy but it has two glaring faults. First, you have to have enough
energy to actually play the creatures in the first place, which Groll can
struggle to do. Second, they can simply choose not to attack your creatures if
they have enough removal or they can wait Groll out, building a board advantage
thanks to better numbers.
Groll the Fallen – 4
On the other hand, Groll the Fallen’s Desperate power allows
him to control the energy gain and works both on offense and on defense. This
means he can actually get his 4 energize up to much higher numbers if he plays
his cards right. It’s also nice to randomly hose Core decks with Darge and
Betrayed. Core decks are usually lurking somewhere around the top tables. As
long as grumpier Groll has a big creature and the ability to protect it, he can
generate a big energy advantage and that makes him among the more powerful magi
in KT. He’s not a 5 because if he loses the ability to protect his creature,
his energize 4 is going to really hurt, but his upside is extremely powerful
and relatively easy to maintain.
Hok – 3
Hok is a great bit of design. He’s an amazing intro magi for
budding KT players since he does everything the basic KT decks are looking to
do. His energy numbers are fine, he has a big creature in Giant Baldar, and he
protects his big creature(s) with Resilience. That said, Hok has no ways to
reliably generate an energy advantage or draw a bunch of cards (at one time) and
that means he’s not on par at the competitive level. He does have access to a
Grapple Tooth to combo with his Giant Baldar, but that rate of card draw is a
little slow.
Jagt – 2
Jagt is probably the actual smallest KT magi (she ties Emec
at 16 but 11/5 is worse than 10/6 and both Groll and Kyg’n have ways to
generate more than their printed energize). This means Jagt’s ability better be
awesome. Is it? Kind of? Perpetual Motion is a definite KT theme and basically
Jagt eliminates the need to have a Gargagnor in play for your deck to hum
properly. However, she doesn’t start with any cards that would benefit from
Perpetual Motion so she can’t go first in your stack, she needs a big hand when
she flips so she’ll have options, and she doesn’t have the energy to play as
many options as typical powerhouse magi need in the second slot. All she’d need
is like 2 more starting energy and maybe one starting card that works with her
effect and she’d be worth considering. Oh well.
Kazm – 5
Kazm goes first in literally 100% of every KT deck I’ve ever
built, regardless of what its theme is. The only starting card he needs to pull
is Giant Baldar, which combined with Hunter can completely overpower some decks
right from the get-go. Seriously, if you’ve never played Kazm against a Bograth
deck you haven’t lived. Additionally, Kazm has the option to find Cleansing and
turn on decks that rely on Cleansing a specific Core card. There are decks that
don’t have to worry about Hunter, but not too many of them.
Koll – 2.5
Koll is pretty bad. His Dream Twist is usually energy
disadvantage on board so it doesn’t combo well and he can’t even combine it
with Vopok. The idea behind this version of Dream Twist is actually to have
your big creature trade energy for a while and Dream Twist it away for
something much bigger when it gets low. In practice though, your opponent just
isn’t going to give you enough time to do that. They’re trying to kill you.
Koll is at least another good intro magi, teaching players to start thinking
about KT’s combo potential and making the most out of your big, Invulnerable
bodies.
Korok – 3.5
Korok requires a bit of finagling before Empower becomes
useful. Some of the most commonly-played KT powers do not cost any energy at
all (Pebble Hinko, Greater Gargagnor), and Empower actually has anti-synergy
with those. Additionally, there is only a relatively small selection of KT
cards with useful powers on them to begin with. The key cards when building a
Korok deck are Rokarum, which can fix the anti-synergy problem as well as
synergize with other creatures with powers, and Cragnoc which is already a
strong card but gets noticeably better with Empower and White Wind backup. However,
do note that Empower affects all your KT cards, so many relics get
significantly more powerful and Korok can still use Warrior’s Boots etc. free
of charge since these are not KT cards.
Kyg’n – 2.5
I really like Kyg’n. He’s a very interesting card design. You
can make him very hard to kill by playing Dewstones and Spirits of Rayje. His
starting cards are all decent, though none are very strong. 12 starting energy
is a bit low, and obviously energize 3 is the pits, but his nameless effect can
help make up for this. In one-v-one games, Kyg’n will energize for 5 most of
the time, sometimes more. Not dying isn’t the same as winning though, and decks
with Warrior’s Boots or direct magi damage can kill Kyg’n through all his stuff
just fine whereas control decks can just starve him of energy by keeping only
one creature on the board and building up to the point where nothing he can do
will matter. Kyg’n is one of the rare cards that get much better in multiplayer
games. First of all, the nameless effect will almost always be really good in
multiplayer. Second, in multiplayer games staying alive and being actively
non-threatening is very valuable.
M’ck – 3.5
14/5 are completely average numbers. They don’t go
incredibly far in KT due to all the expensive cards, but M’ck can make up for
that. Rock Out means “rock” cards cost 2 less (min 1). Rock Arboll, Hyren,
Silth, and Yajo, as well as Jagged Rocks and Rock Slide are all discounted. Of
these, the Yajo, Hyren, and Silth are probably still not worth it because
they’re not good cards. However, the two removal options become insanely strong
and Rock Arboll becomes interesting as a big vitamin. This pushes M’ck towards
a controlling style of play. On the other hand, Flint means “stone” cards draw
you up to 1 extra card for the turn. Stone Quor, Hogra Stones, Slime Stone, Crushing
Stones, Feet of Stone, and Stone Storm. Again we see a lot of removal and
controlling cards here. Honestly, the once per turn could be eliminated and
M’ck still wouldn’t be overpowered compared to some of the other regions, but I
think after Nightmare’s Dawn 2i toned down the power level of their cards very
much on purpose. Also a quick note, Rockslide Hyren, Sandstone Hyren, and
Dewstone are not eligible cards for M’ck’s effects as they need the actual word
and not just the letters as part of another word.
N’ssah – 3
I love 14/6. It’s almost as good as 14/7, the magic numbers.
I don’t love Fearless having the same name as Ullig’s completely unrelated
ability. In traditional decks, N’ssah’s Fearless isn’t doing much since your
creatures are bigger to begin with. This means, like Koll, she is empowering
her team maybe every other turn, after they’ve done stuff on their own. The
problem with these abilities is that your opponent won’t just leave your
creatures out there to get value from later. They’ll kill them. She’s way
better than Koll on energy index alone.
Shaper’s Apprentice – 3.5
Shaper’s can do some nutty things in KT. In Orothe he’s
mostly just Interchanging around with O’Qua and M’Rika, so you don’t often get
to see him really put in work. In KT, as long as someone has set up Cleansing
on Agram’s Plaything, Shaper’s can pop off. Greater Gargagnor can Unearth
Playthings since they’ll be KT after a Cleansing and Dream Twist can get back
your Garg if need be. From there, the only limit is his low energize but there
are some tools he can use to improve that.
Tal’ik – 4
Like Hok, Tal’ik wants to play a big creature and protect
it. Unlike Hok, Tal’ik protects it from being stolen to Orothe or Core
shenanigans and that’s a really, really big deal. Tal’ik also has 5 more energy
to work with than Hok. Otherwise, the two are very similar.
Targ’n – 2.5
Unless you’re playing a deck built around Chogus or
Gargagnor, Targ’n doesn’t do enough. He’s beefy and makes your creatures even
more so. Invulnerability (3) on Akkar is nuts, and (2) on most other things is
very good. The thing is, Invulnerability isn’t something you can build around
to succeed. The only real syngergy with it (aside from Targ’n himself) is the
very expensive Shard of the Great Fossil. Invulnerability is more like
incidental value rather than a strategy and so Targ’n doesn’t have much to do
unless you’re utilizing his starting Chogus + Garg combo (which is probably
bad).
The Prankster – 2.5
Like I’ve said before, 14/6 is good. Also, Pebble Hinko is a
great card to start with and Yark Gloves is a good card in Slime Stone decks. That
said, Surprise! is a lot worse than it appears at first glance. First of all,
it’s a Perpetual Motion trigger but it doesn’t synergize with Gargagnor because
you can’t have creatures in play. Second, there’s not a really reliable way to
stack the top of your deck, so you’re relying on playing an extremely
creature-heavy deck. This can sometimes be okay, but in KT this is a problem
since it severely limits what you can play on a given turn unlike other regions
with access to more and better small- to medium-sized creatures. Third and most
importantly, your opponent has to allow Surprise! to happen: they have to get
rid of all your creatures and not take away a big chunk of energy on The
Prankster, because even though Surprise! gives you a big discount, you still
need some energy left over to actually play the creature you might hit. These
things all add up to mean that there’s not really much you can do to actively
advance The Prankster’s game plan and that means she’s just for fun.
T’lok – 4
There are a decent number of magi setups that can create
flip kills with Big Ol’ Rock. T’lok can splash Ormagon to do it himself (Vopok
+ Topple is good enough sometimes too), there’s Wessig + Spear into T’lok, and
there was a highly competitive deck back in the day called BarGoLok which used
Golthub. Big Ol’ Rock kills magi dead. Even if he’s not murdering people out of
nowhere, T’lok has some good starting cards and very reasonable energy numbers
so he can play a normal game just fine.
Traveling Healer – 3
TH is much better in Cald creature decks that can actively
spend the energy off their creatures and which can play more creatures in
general, netting more energy from Bolster in the process. In KT he can use
Slime Stone and Galiant decently well, and gets to combine Scroll of Fire with
some good KT spells like Stone Storm and Topple, but he’s really not at his
best.
Ullig – 3
They had to errata Ullig for the same reason they had to
errata Kybar’s Echo: you could discard your own things. In Ullig’s case that
led to some pretty abusive stuff and it’s good the change was made. Now
Fearless plays like it was intended: Ullig plays one or two enormous creatures
using her big 20 starting energy then doesn’t do much until her last thing
dies, at which point Fearless gives her enough energy to play some other big
thing. She protects it with Ullig’s Slingshot and auto-sixes and can use
Vertigo + Ullig’s Ring to make things expensive for the opponent. If she could
consistently draw a creature more impactful than a Darge with her 2 remaining
starting cards, Ullig would be pretty annoying right off the bat. She can’t.
Wessig – 5
Wessig isn’t really a magi (outside of multiplayer where either
no one wants to kill her or she can reset the board if someone has gotten too
big for their boots). If she ever sees a turn of competitive play that means
you haven’t drawn your Ritual Spear and are almost 100% going to lose. However,
Wessig goes in almost every competitive KT list because Ritual Spear +
Landslide is an amazing way to switch back to the magi you built your deck
around.
Magi: TLDR
5
Kazm
Wessig
4
Celebrated Hero
Groll the Fallen
Tal’ik
T’lok
3.5
Grej
Korok
M’ck
Shaper’s Apprentice
3
Hok
Emec
N’ssah
Traveling Healer
Ullig
2.5
Koll
Kyg’n
Targ’n
The Prankster
2
Groll
Jagt
1
N/A
Creatures
Agrilla – 4
It’s got the Invulnerability keyword, it’s not incredibly
expensive, and it lets your giant guys attack twice. That’s a very solid
creature for KT decks. Unlike some of the other cards that grant extra attacks,
Agrilla’s target will probably have some way to protect itself so its second
attack won’t be neutered as much by the first.
Akkar – 4
Invulnerability (2) is pretty great, as is the fact that
this guy survives opposing Ormagons, which can otherwise be tough for KT to
deal with. Six energy ends up being a great size in KT as well. The best part
about this card is that they have to try to kill it because you’re playing KT,
which means Rolling Thunder will basically always be active to generate value.
Alpine Xamf – 2
This card is better in Naroom because they have access to
smaller creatures than KT, which means more Strengthen triggers. It’s a 2.5 in
Naroom, which means it’s a 2 in KT.
Baldar – 3
Not having Invulnerability hurts Baldar a decent amount,
because it doesn’t get to synergize with some other good cards. Smash is really
a powerful effect, but Baldar is a slow attacker and isn’t as durable as other
KT creatures which means it’ll often die before it gets in an attack. It’s
pretty common to play one since it’s starting for some good magi, including
Kazm.
Ballistic Baldar – 2.5
KT has a small dice-rolling sub-theme, including this card. Ballistic
Baldar is a decent AOE removal option but the chance of a misfire is always
there. Also, if you roll higher than the number of creatures in play, it won’t
do anything whereas if you roll, say a 4, and they only have 3 things you must
hit one of your own as well.
Bone Cragnoc – 3
Here’s our first Perpertual Motion trigger. Frenzy one is
very simple: giant dude gets even bigger. Two energy is two energy, and I’m not
knocking it. Like all PM cards, this card wants to pair with a Gargagnor or
Jagt. It’s expensive and if you don’t have PM up, Frenzy probably won’t trigger
since the opponent can prevent that from happening. There are better giant
creatures, but there are worse ones as well.
Chogus – 2.5
This is an enabler creature, pairing up with lots of other little
kid cards (“My dad’s better than your dad!”). It’s basically a build-around
engine by itself. The problem with Chogus is that at 4 energy, just about every
removal spell (especially Crushings) or solid attack will kill it and then
you’re left with a bunch of cards that get much worse since your Chogus is no
longer in play. Here’s the list of Exuberance payoffs: Crag Quor, Galiant, Gratch,
Rock Arboll, Stubborn Chogus, Xamf, and Yebed. And there’s the other problem
with Chogus: a lot of these cards aren’t good.
Chogus Little – 3
The best possible case for playing Chogus Little is when you
defeat your opponent’s magi. If you then drop one of these, Panic ensures the
first thing they have to spend energy on is dealing with this, otherwise their
big flip turn gets blunted by giving this guy tons of energy for free. The
worst possible case is that this card is dead in hand because you need to play
other cards in PRS 2, however this might not come up too often. You get to
attack with it and trade off before playing more cards. Overall, it’s a decent
card but not amazing.
Cliff Hyren – 2.5
Too expensive, Shockwave bait, minimal board impact when
played. Typical big dumb thing. If you’ve played this what other creatures are
you protecting?
Crag Quor – 2
Our first Exuberance card. Also a Perpetual Motion card. Rebound
makes you jump through a lot of hoops, but a 4-energy payoff is pretty big if
it ever triggers. Face value: 7-energy is not likely to be smaller than their
smallest guy at all, so they’d have to damage this but not kill it for Rebound
to work. They won’t. With Chogus, they’d have to leave it alone. They won’t. With
Gargagnor, you can get Rebound to work basically against KT or other giant
fatty decks. Rare. With Chogus AND Gargagnor/Jagt, Rebound will likely pay you
off but boy is that a difficult setup cost.
Cragnoc – 3.5
Here’s another dice roller. Lend a Hand can be awesome. On
2d6, the most likely result is a 7, and you’re turning a profit at 6+, so almost
75% of the time. In other words, the power is pretty good just at face value.
If you’re supporting it at all, it can get better than that and anything in the
8+ range (41.66% chance) is really powerful. Additionally, Cragnoc addresses
one of the biggest difficulties KT magi face: not enough energy to play their
big stuff. I recommend supporting this creature in some way rather than simply
putting it in your deck because failing results on Lend a Hand are pretty
nasty.
Crouching Xamf – 2.5
Like all Skulkers, this card is too narrow. It is actually a
powerful one though. Not all of them are.
Darge – 3
This is one of the more commonly-played anti-Core creatures,
just by virtue of it having the additional Invulnerability effect tacked on,
which means it’s not just plain vanilla if you’re not battling evil.
Elder Yark – 3.5
Elder Yark is better in KT than in Arderial because KT has
Slime Stone, and Shriveled Dreams is a nice combo with Regal Presence. If you
don’t have Slime Stone out, Regal Presence is still fine but much more
situational.
Galiant – 3
Also better in KT than in Arderial, this time because of
Chogus. Without Chogus, Riding Tall is bad unless they have nothing below 4
energy. Not exactly rare but situational. With Chogus, Riding Tall is probably
pretty good a lot of the time. It’s worth noting that if you just play this and
Chogus and that’s your whole board, Riding Tall will pump the Chogus which lets
you maybe keep your enabler around longer.
Gargagnor – 3.5
As with Chogus, this card is a fragile enabler creature that
makes lots of other cards in the region more powerful. Here’s a list for
Perpetual Motion: Bone Cragnoc, Crag Quor, Gratch, Xamf, Yebed, and more. If
you’re planning on messing with Perpetual Motion, the best triggers are often
found outside KT.
Giant Baldar – 3.5
This is a big boi that’s worth paying for. Momentum is
insane if you can land it. I rate it at 3.5 not because it needs anything
specific other than the opportunity to attack, but because of how important it
is to be able to protect or profit from having a large creature out, and also
because of how much damage Momentum can deal if you do actually put in the
effort.
Giant Chogus – 2.5
It doesn’t have Invulnerability and you do feel that lack.
Big Chill is situationally good against board swarm strategies but this
creature is as vulnerable as a big creature ever gets, so they can probably
deal with it.
Granite Hyren – 2.5
Tough to kill in combat. That’s literally all I have to say.
Granite Parmalag – 2.5
Outside of Prek in KT/UD, what Parmalags are you synergizing
with? She’s the only magi who will ever want to play this card. Maybe Radget,
but she has to pay regional penalty so maybe not. It’s probably at most a one-of
in some decks that include Prek and that’s it.
Gratch – 1
Like Crag Quor, Gratch keys off both Chogus and Gargagnor. Unlike
Crag Quor, the payoff for all the rigamarole is minimal. You’re not swarming
the board in KT. It’s just not a thing. Here’s your scenarios. Face value: IF this survives it’ll be your smallest
guy, if they don’t have anything above 3 energy you’ll net what 1-2 energy? God-awful.
With Chogus: use some removal to net a few extra energy right away. On the low
end of decent. With Garg: they just need one small creature. Ok-ish but will
always get disrupted somehow. With Both: Ok-ish if they have a small critter.
None of these modes are close to good enough.
Greater Gargagnor – 5
Easy 5. Best creature in the region. The errata on GG is
just for clarification really and doesn’t impact how awesome it is. Expect It
never matters. Solid and Invulnerability help protect your giant 10-energy
investment, leaving it only vulnerable to expensive possession, Spirit of the
Core (this is when you concede), and Ormagon. Unearth lets you do all kinds of
silly broken shenanigans, which mainly involve getting back spells to use over
and over. Every competitive KT deck runs at least 2 copies of this card.
Grizzled Moga – 3
Rampage is better than it looks. One of the weaknesses with
the tall-not-wide playstyle that the Teeth is known for is that it can be
difficult to finish off their magi if your opponent plays smart. Chip damage is
therefore very valuable, even if it’s only 1-2 per turn. This has the same
problem a lot of attackers have: it’s slow.
Karkik – 3
Contrary to appearances, Karkik does not actually synergize
with Chogus as Flameburst doesn’t check all opposing creatures. That means it’s
easier to evaluate! More creatures in play than you? No problem. Kill their
smallest guy for 2? You’re probably fine with that unless they have 1-energy
creatures. You even get to break the tie? Not bad. Flameburst isn’t going to do
anything wacky and discard giant creatures. It’s a small removal power on a
6-energy body and that’s decent.
Kier – 2.5
This can randomly stop itself from being able to attack if
you play Akkar. Akkar is much better than Kier. Play Akkar instead. Also, why
do they put Crush on a large body where it hardly ever comes up?
Moga – 2.5
Moga’s Roar allows your smaller creatures to punch above
their weight class. What smaller creatures are we talking about? There are
actually a few that see a lot of play (Pebble Hinko), but the more common use
case is boosting the last efforts of a big thing that has already put in some
work. Like a lot of stuff, Moga is slow.
Moga Pup – 2.5
A smaller version of Moga. Same exact rating.
Mosp – 2
Cute in theory, just the right size for a Crushing spell in
practice.
Oranragan – 4
The giant ape is another good fatty. Invulnerability helps
it live. Vengeance means your opponent will try to focus it down first because
if they don’t you’re getting sick value. Crush means you’re getting something
right away which is a big deal.
Pebble Hinko – 3.5
Pebble Hinko is a KT magi’s best friend, as long as you
prepare your deck with a high creature count and a good amount of card draw.
Three extra energy pays for itself the first turn, and if it lives will start
doing serious work. This energy isn’t free though. You need to strike the
delicate balance between having enough creatures to play while discarding them
and enough card draw to keep it all flowing.
Rock Arboll – 3
Exuberance again. Face value: If they have something small
this card does nothing or worse. With Chogus: If they have a medium-size
creature this is decent; If they have a giant creature this is insane.
Rock Hyren – 2.5
This card is a pain for Cald and d’Resh Burn decks to deal with,
since its Invulnerability applies to spells, powers, and effects and not just
attacks. It’s still just a big dumb Shockwave magnet.
Rock Silth – 2.5
This is the opposite of a big dumb Shockwave magnet: a big
dumb burn magnet. That’s probably a little better, but it’s still a humongous
thing that doesn’t do anything special.
Rock Yajo – 2
While there is a powerful combo deck that makes very good
use of Dream Cross, this card is objectively terrible. KT/Weave decks are just
not a thing. Still, it’s the only 2-energy creature to which KT has access, and
sometimes you just need a body.
Rockslide Hyren – 3
If Crush worked the way you want it to, it would be awesome.
Unfortunately it doesn’t. What actually happens is you choose 3 targets. Your
opponent then discards 2, 4, and 8 from them in the way that makes it best for
them, not for you. For instance, they can discard 8 from something tiny. What
this means is that the average scenario has you paying 7 and dealing around 8
damage, which is +1 energy but leaves you staggeringly vulnerable to getting
killed afterward.
Rokarum – 3
White Wind is kind of bad. In order for you to be happy, you
have to have two other damaged-but-not-dead KT creatures, because having only 1
other one doesn’t really do anything. The large energy investment and the fact
that you can’t pump things that are already at full energy means this card
doesn’t accomplish much of anything. It is a combo with Slime Stone but not a
good one. On the other hand, this card is Korok’s best friend, as Empower
causes it to immediately become energy efficient with only one creature
affected and very good with more than that.
Rolling Baldar – 3
Collision is a great effect, but like so many creatures in
the game and in KT specifically, Rolling Baldar is just slow. Additionally,
without Invulnerability and at 5 instead of 6 energy, it’s a little less
durable than many of your other options for KT attackers.
Sagawal – 2.5
Watchful is a decent protective effect to support your giant
KT monsters. The problem with Sagawal, though, is that it’s a creature. It’s
also a small enough creature where your opponent can easily attack or Crush it
to death before dealing with your actual threat. It’s a little better than Mosp
because it has some starting card value.
Sandstone Hyren – 3
The good thing about Sandstone Hyren is that it’s pretty
reasonable at protecting itself. It’s hard to defeat in combat thanks to Super
Invulnerability and, while your opponent can Shockwave it, that still costs
them 8 energy (9 if splashing) thanks to Monolith. The bad thing about
Sandstone Hyren is that Monolith turns off against a decent amount of
competitive decks due to the likes of Greater Gargagnor, Rayje’s Construct,
Wudge, Forest Hyren, etc. etc.). Powerful decks often don’t have trouble
getting a creature above 9 energy, and then the Hyren becomes much easier to
deal with.
Stone Quor – 3
Squeeze is energy efficient when it targets something at 5+
energy because it rounds up (unusual for cards like this), even though it
doesn’t feel efficient until it’s targeting something that has 7+ energy
because it costs so dang much energy. Korok’s Empower doesn’t really help much,
unfortunately, and there’s no other discarding/adding/moving energy synergies
within the Teeth. Stone Quor also costs too much energy to actually play a lot
of the time. It’s fine but not terribly good.
Stubborn Chogus – 3
Exuberance. Face Value: It’s not difficult to trigger
Determination to get a two energy bonus, but that will probably suicide your
Stubborn Chogus causing it to behave like a slow direct damage spell. Very
medium. With Chogus: Pretty good. Attacking small things for close to free is a
nice effect. This card is always slow and dies to Crushings, but whatever.
Thoughtful Baldar – 3.5
Ponder is a very interesting power. It wants you to be able
to empty your hand to maximize your chance of hitting what you want as well as
play three-of copies so you can try to get a big energy discount. You can
accomplish the first task in lots of ways including Pebble Hinko and Vopok
which are also just good cards. You can accomplish the second task by building
around Thoughtful Baldar. That’s really cool.
Tunnel Parmalag – 3
Shield makes Tunnel Parmalag much better in KT than it is in
Underneath. This is yet another big dumb slow attacker to which KT has access
but its hybrid nature does help you survive against Ormagon which is a hidden
benefit.
Urigant – 3
Urigant is a cool card that almost never sees play, because
it’s a region hoser. It’s a bit worse than that actually, since not every
Underneath deck is a Burrow deck that this can shut down with Dig Up. In either
region you’re not really planning on using the Burrow effect on Urigant, but
Invulnerability (2) is a nice one, as is Ormy protection. I play a one-of in a
lot of decks with Greater Gargagnor (all KT decks) since you can discard it to
Unearth (or Pebble Hinko) if you’re not playing against Burrow and when you are
it’ll be an all-star.
Vogo – 2.5
A six-energy creature with Invulnerability faces some stiff
competition in the form of Agrilla and Akkar. Even Baldar is a common starting
card. Vogo is less impactful than basically all three of those creatures. Interrupt
allows you to redirect removal spells away from your other creatures and onto
the Vogo (because how many guys do you really have in play at once?) but that’s
pretty medium since they can also just target the Vogo first.
Vopok – 5
Vopok is a monster. It’s not as good as Greater Gargagnor
but it’s the same size for six less energy! Just playing this card with a KT
magi nets you 6 energy! From there, your 10-energy creature can synergize with
lots of other KT cards such as those that care about having a big guy in play
or, you know, Topple. It also synergizes with any card that wants you to have a
small hand size, such as Thoughtful Baldar. Vopok does have some harsh
weaknesses to cards like Equilibrate or anything that can reset a creature to
its starting energy, but its strength outweighs those weaknesses by a
significant margin.
Xamf – 2
Exuberance + Perpetual Motion. The payoff of 4 “free” energy
on your magi is a very strong one, so that’s good. We’re not talking about a
Gratch here. Face Value: They’ll just disrupt your combo by killing your stuff.
With Chogus: Same. With Gargagnor: If your Gargagnor (4) is bigger than their
biggest thing (not likely). Probably still won’t trigger. With Chogus +
Gargagnor: If your 4-energy thing is bigger than their smallest guy (maybe 75%
of the time since you can set this up) you get Windchill right away. I don’t
like it at all. It just takes so much effort to get the value.
Yark – 3
Combo with Slime Stone, but it has to survive a round before
it gets to attack. Against some decks (like Naroom) it doesn’t need Slime Stone
for Diving Attack to be useful.
Yebed – 1
Exuberance + Perpetual Motion. Here we go again. The payoff
on Rolling Stones is just awful. If you want the ability to discard 1 energy
from their board, just splash a Poison Baloo Root and do it for much, much less
energy and significantly more card economy.
Creatures: TLDR
5
Greater Gargagnor
Vopok
4
Agrilla
Akkar
Oranragan
3.5
Cragnoc
Elder Yark
Gargagnor
Giant Baldar
Pebble Hinko
Thoughtful Baldar
3
Baldar
Bone Cragnoc
Chogus Little
Darge
Galiant
Grizzled Moga
Karkik
Rock Arboll
Rockslide Hyren
Rokarum
Rolling Baldar
Sandstone Hyren
Stone Quor
Stubborn Chogus
Tunnel Parmalag
Urigant
Yark
2.5
Ballistic Baldar
Chogus
Cliff Hyren
Crouching Xamf
Giant Chogus
Granite Hyren
Granite Parmalag
Kier
Moga
Moga Pup
Rock Hyren
Rock Silth
Sagawal
Vogo
2
Alpine Xamf
Crag Quor
Mosp
Rock Yajo
Xamf
1
Gratch
Yebed
Relics
Baldar Amulet – 3.5
Affinity will help pay for the cost of the Amulet, and
starts getting real nice at 3+ Baldars played. So how many Baldars do you want
to play with? Thoughtful and Giant are both strong, regular and Rolling are
pretty good, and we can skip the Ballistic one but even if you want it, it’s
not completely unplayable. That’s plenty of options. Hammer helps protect your
Baldars as long as you have some cards in hand (you’ll have at least 2). I
never really considered this card before now, but in combination with
Thoughtful Baldar this could lead to some powerful stuff.
Chogulith – 2.5
If you’re playing a Chogus deck, you’ll probably want to put
in at least one Chogulith to protect your build-around engine. That said, the
first time you use Strengthen you’re losing out on total energy unless you roll
a 5+, and that sucks. Also, you’re playing a Chogus deck. This does help your
Stubborn Chogus and Chogus Little survive to actually attack your opponent, and
that’s probably better. It’s quite bad with Giant Chogus.
Climbing Staff – 4
This card goes in tons of decks, not just KT ones, but also
happens to be extremely confusing and resulted in 165 mentions in the Rules
Clarification Document. The nameless effect’s ability to prevent your opponent
from doing nasty things to you is invaluable. Here are some interesting things
about it: It prevents Sorreah’s Suppress permanently, and you do not even need
to have the Staff when Sorreah flips. It will not stop Vaporize or Corrupt since
these also affect other cards. It does not stop Rayje’s Belt since that doesn’t
affect your magi, even if the named power or effect is only printed on your
magi. It does stop Impact since discarding your creature is a cost. Discarding
it from your hand does not count as playing a card (if you read the rules doc
all the way down, you’ll find this out even though early on there was a
contradictory ruling). This also means that magi of any region (even Korg) can
use the unnamed effect. All the costs for the spell, power, or effect must
still be paid. The most common things a Climbing Staff will counter are direct
magi damage effects, such as Spirit Drain, which lots of competitive decks use
to kill your magi, and having access to this type of effect can be extremely
useful. In KT decks, the relic is fantastic because Higher Ground allows you to
get some energy advantage as well, meaning it’s a powerful, flexible,
zero-energy-cost card.
Dewstone – 4
Dewstone is good value. If Sip gains you 2+ energy the turn
you play it, the relic is essentially free like other relics and can occasionally
be better than that. Every turn after that, Sip can net you some free energy.
While your opponent knows Gulp can happen, it’s still a protective layer around
your magi and it’s pretty awesome with Kyg’n. Sip helps you solve the energy
scarcity KT decks are faced with.
Emec’s Forge – 4
Emec’s Forge is worth the price. It might not be in other
regions, but in KT, where you usually have one or two large monsters in play,
protecting them matters a lot. Recycle’s ability to revive your creature after
they attack it is also completely unique as far as protective relics go. The build-around
nature of Emec’s Forge is cute, pushing you to play relics, but it can also
simply discard itself so it doesn’t even need the help of other cards (though
it gets much more powerful with 0-cost things to discard to revive 10-energy
creatures).
Flint Staff – 2.5
Alright. This card looks bad. It costs 1 for no benefit,
then costs 3 to move 2? Moving 2 is really discard 2, add 2 so it’s a 3-for-4
(4-for-4 the first time). As far as energy efficiency goes, the play + first
use is breaking even and every use after that nets you 1 energy. That’s
technically coming out ahead but in a very slow and clunky way. You also can’t
even use it all the time. If the game is going well, your creature will be
bigger and you won’t be able to use Tremor at all. Leave this one behind. Side
note: Doesn’t actually combo with Chogus.
Gogor’s Spade – 3.5
Sadly, Gogor’s Spade is the best single card draw card KT
gets, which is why they all splash Tradewinds. That said, KT decks often don’t
have too many creatures in play so you’ll find it a bit difficult to draw
multiple cards off this in a single turn. This is one reason why Agrilla is so
awesome and if you have one, Paydirt will pay off quickly.
Grapple Tooth – 3.5
Not a combo with Chogus, but that’s fine. Grapple is an easy
“1 energy: draw a card” when you’re in a good spot, making this a good card
draw tool that only delivers one card at a time. The first card you get will be
on rate and every subsequent one will be discounted, and that’s definitely good
enough. Climb is a highly situational effect that can sometimes protect your
magi against things like Wasperine Stalker or Quor, but it’s mostly just gravy.
You do need the biggest creature in play so make sure you can consistently make
that happen.
Hogra Stones – 2
Hogra Stones is a strange one. It encourages you to play
fewer relics and more creatures, it rolls dice, and mostly it’s just terrible.
What happens if I roll a 1-2 and mill a non-creature? Nothing. What happens if
I roll a 5-6 and mill a spell? Nothing. Does the region have any deck
manipulation like Orothean Goggles or Barak? No. The best thing you can do with
Hogra Stones is try to give Emec an energize rate of 10 by getting rerolls and
milling lots of creatures. That’s so inconsistent and finnicky though that the
best thing Hogra Stones will do is discard itself to his Forge.
Jasker’s Mask – 3
Double or Nothing has a good amount of matchups where it performs
well, in other words any time your magi’s energize is bigger than theirs,
because it will increase the energy delta. KT does have access to a good
selection of spells, but the cost is symmetrical so it’s not too bad. The real
combo with Jasker’s Mask is in a deck with Celebrated Hero and Prek because
they can Crushing Fungus their opponent and CH already has 7. 14 is a lot of
energy, especially when your opponent gets nothing Willy Wonka style. Even with
all that, sometimes you play against Nar and can’t play this card. The point of
this, I suppose, is that KT creatures are bigger and so the energy will benefit
you more than your opponent but competitive decks that draw lots of cards can
always find something awesome to do with all that energy.
Kybar’s Fang – 3
I’ve seen this relic used in exactly one deck ever, and that
deck is more fun than anything else. Still, it’s energy efficient and the more
turns it stays in play the more it’ll bury your opponent. The only way they can
get rid of it is by killing your magi. Kyg’n anyone?
Kybar’s Hammer – 2.5
Turns cards in your hand into size-limited Shockwaves. Dice
rolling really hurts this one, since sometimes it will do stone nothing. Other
dice roll cards feel bad when you low-roll them, but this one feels worse. For
things at or below 4 energy we have a Crushing spell like every other region.
There’s always Emec but he’s not very good to begin with. This one is too much
of a liability.
Kybar’s Scroll – 3
I used to play this card a lot because 2 energy to draw a
card is fine, and this is better than that the vast majority of the time since
it lets you choose from a selection of cards. However, at 2 energy many KT magi
will not have near enough energy to make another impactful play during a turn
in which they use Lore and that hurts a lot.
Moga Boots – 2
This will basically come down to 3 energy and 2 cards to
discard your opponent’s worst attacker, because your opponent can read. It’s
not a surprise or anything. Competitive decks often don’t even need to attack
to kill a magi, so this is sometimes a 3-energy do-nothing. Pass.
Moga Fang Necklace – 1
KT creatures are already big so Roar isn’t that helpful. On
the other hand, the nameless effect is downright horrifying.
Ritual Spear – 3.5
Goes with Wessig.
Shard of the Great Fossil – 3.5
This card is expensive. However, as long as you’re attacking
something with 4+ energy the first time you use Shield, it’s probably a good
exchange. This card does nothing unless you have control of the game’s tempo or
can get something out in PRS 1, which means you’ll want to use Warrior’s Boots
heavily (or some other cheat). There are also some random creatures, like
Vopok, who can’t be targeted by Shield. Very powerful when it works.
Slime Stone – 3.5
There are a lot of sneaky tricks this relic can get up to. Aside
from the three Yark cards, there’s Celebrated Hero, Gravity, and Dream Balm to
abuse both Shriveled Dreams and Grand Nightmares.
Ullig’s Ring – 3
In combination with Vertigo this Purity effect can really
grind someone’s gears. The biggest problem here is that KT is the number one
region that is encouraged to splash Tradewinds and you can’t if you want to use
Ullig’s Ring. Tradewinds is better.
Ullig’s Slingshot – 3
Aggressively mediocre with most magi. Decent with Emec. Very
annoying with Ullig.
Yark Gloves – 3.5
Combo with Slime Stone. Good against swarmy, growy
strategies.
Relics: TLDR
5
N/A
4
Climbing Staff
Dewstone
Emec’s Forge
3.5
Baldar Amulet
Gogor’s Spade
Grapple Tooth
Ritual Spear
Shard of the Great Fossil
Slime Stone
Yark Gloves
3
Jasker’s Mask
Kybar’s Fang
Kybar’s Scroll
Ullig’s Ring
Ullig’s Slingshot
2.5
Chogulith
Flint Staff
Kybar’s Hammer
2
Hogra Stones
Moga Boots
1
Moga Fang Necklace
Spells
Ascend – 2.5
On most turns of the game you won’t want to play Ascend,
since attacking and defeating your opponent is pretty nice. When you flip over
a new magi, Ascend is pretty decent to try to set up. Then again, you could
play Warrior’s Boots and be aggressive instead. For as many “protective”
abilities KT has, it’s not a defensive region.
Cleansing – 3.5
At the competitive level, most of what KT ends up doing
involves some form of shenanigans with this card and Greater Gargagnor.
Creeping Chill – 1
KT/Bograth is not real. I wish it was.
Crushing Stones – 3
This is probably the worst Crushing spell in the game, but
it is a Crushing spell. The reason it’s the worst is because, on average, the
Crushing bonus is worth 3 energy. To get that, you need 3 KT creatures in play.
This does not happen unless you are pretty far ahead or have built your deck
with smaller creatures in mind.
Feet of Stone – 2.5
Just kill it instead. There are some uses, especially in
shutting off effects, but it’s not an amazing card. If you do run a Feet of
Stone, you should only run one as your Greater Gargagnor can discard it when
it’s bad and Unearth it if you ever need to use it multiple times.
Gravity – 4
While it doesn’t always have targets, when it does you’re
usually getting an insane amount of energy for your measly one. You can also
just play Slime Stone to ensure this has targets.
Jagged Rocks – 3
Doesn’t combo with Chogus. Sometimes this card is dead in
hand against another KT deck, but sometimes it’s a nice little energy advantage
play. Jagged Rocks is never amazing but it’s always generating a small
advantage.
Kybar’s Echo – 2
They fixed it, so you can’t discard your creatures from play
and bounce them straight back to your hand anymore. There were wacky decks that
did a lot of that before. When you’re relying on your opponent to walk into
your face-up trap card, it doesn’t accomplish much.
Kybar’s Gift – 3.5
This card requires quite a bit of setup. You have to bounce
a creature (in KT), then have a lot of specifically KT creatures in your hand.
The payoff is well worth it though, as you get to kill their creature and hit
their magi for a big chunk of damage. This card is a very effective way to
finish off opposing magi. You just have to build around it and put in the work.
There are several ways to bounce things. Climbing Staff + Rock Yajo is quite
cheap. My favorite is Cleansing + Agram’s Plaything because that’s very dumb.
Even Cragnoc is pretty reasonable to bounce after using Lend a Hand.
Ominous Presence – 1
Why would you play this when you can just Cleansing the
thing and be able to play it on any turn. It costs the same amount of energy. Cleansing
can also work against Core decks. This doesn’t. Furthermore, Cleansing allows
your newly KT creature to interact with things like Kybar’s Gift and Climbing
Staff. This doesn’t. It would be a fine card in a vacuum or in a different
region that didn’t have Cleansing, but whatever.
Roar – 2
Same problem with every other Roar ability in KT: Big guys
don’t need this.
Rock Slide – 4
As long as you’re attacking to
reduce the energy on your own large creatures, this card is just Shockwave. You
want to remove the biggest enemy thing anyway. That said, it’s not Shockwave in
the sense that it’s conditional and will occasionally create awkward
situations. Shockwave is a 5, this is a 4.
Spirit of the Teeth – 2.5
This Spirit spell is fine. Making your magi harder to kill doesn’t
come up a lot though. A lot of assassinations happen because you spend down
your own energy and your opponent capitalizes on that. A lot of other ones
happen because they have built an overwhelming advantage and can kill you from
a million. Tough Stuff does nothing in either case, but it’s not like you spent
energy on it. You did spend deck space and 2 cards, but whatever.
Stand and Take It – 2.5
I love the art on this card. The price is also very, very
right at 1 energy to potentially grant much more than that. It’s pretty awesome
on a Greater Gargagnor too. That said, competitive decks have ways around these
cards and will never trigger them, in which case you’re down a card. This is
better than most of these kinds of attaching spells because it doesn’t cost
much energy and because you can combine it with other protective effects. That
still doesn’t make it good.
Stone Storm – 4
If you can get a lot of energy onto your magi, this is a
very powerful thing to do with it. It breaks even at X = 3 and gets better
really fast from there. You do need two targets, so sometimes it’s awkward, but
mostly the question is how to save up the energy to play a big Stone Storm in
the first place. There are enough magi who can get pretty juiced in the region
that this is pretty solid.
Topple – 3.5
If you’re discarding something you paid a lot of energy for,
Topple good but not great. If you’re discarding a Vopok or something you
cheated out with Shaper’s Apprentice, Topple is amazing.
Vertigo – 4
These stack. Making your opponent pay extra for things
doesn’t accomplish much if you’re behind on board, but if you can get into a
winning position and use this to help ice the game it’s fantastic. Sadly or
thankfully, depending on how you look at it, this doesn’t affect a freshly
flipped magi.
Spells: TLDR
5
N/A
4
Gravity
Rock Slide
Stone Storm
Vertigo
3.5
Cleansing
Kybar’s Gift
Topple
3
Jagged Rocks
Crushing Stones
2.5
Ascend
Feet of Stone
Spirit of the Teeth
Stand and Take It
2
Kybar’s Echo
Roar
1
Creeping Chill
Ominous Presence
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