MND Regional Review: Nar

Magi-Nation Card Review

Nar

by Kroodhaxthekrood

Credits and special thanks:

Shoutout to Cahje93 and Aerrilias for their help getting started.

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

A disclaimer about Nar magi: As a rule, Nar magi have low starting energy numbers, high energize rates, and only one starting card. This differs sharply from the typical magi of all other regions in the game. Most magi have about three starting cards of varying degrees of playability, and the average magi in the game has 13/5 stats. While the average Nar magi’s stats are 12/5, there are only four magi in the region with lower than 6 energize rate and three of those four have natural ways to increase their energize. These factors add up to a few things worth mentioning:

·       Inconsistent draws. Having only one starting card massively increases the variance of your starting hand relative to magi of other regions in the game. At the highest levels, this matters a lot, especially in combination with the next point.

·       Weak early. Low starting energy numbers mean your flip turn is less powerful than other regions. You simply have less energy to put into play, especially going first. While some Nar magi break this rule, it is important to note.

·       Limited card selection. Many Nar magi may only play Nar and Universal cards or receive a greater-than-usual penalty for splashing. The Nar region is meant to be isolated from others in the Moonlands, and this mechanic represents that. It does, however, limit a Nar player’s deck building options.

·       Strong late. Larger energize numbers mean that the longer your magi survives, the greater your chances of taking over the game. This is the tradeoff for the other areas of weakness. As a result, Nar plays out vastly differently than other regions in the game. They don’t have powerful flip turns that establish dominating boards or spend tons of energy to defeat a magi out of nowhere. Nar looks to *ahem* snowball the game, relying on out-energizing their opponents and grinding them into submission. Nar cards and Nar decks need to take this into account, and therefore so do these reviews.

Aurorea – 4

Not being able to play Universal cards is a big drawback, even in Nar which doesn’t splash non-Universal cards, not having access to Belt, Boots, etc. certainly hurts. On the other hand, Mistress of Frost is very powerful. An energize rate of 9 is tough to beat. Expect Aurorea to run basically all the cards which freeze magi. Also, if her deck is freezing magi a lot, expect Aurorea decks to run only a handful of high-impact spells.

Balachron – 3

Numbing Wit is nice because freezing creatures is the best kind of freeze. Most Nar creatures need to be frozen to reach their full potential and sometimes the opponent blows up all your Arctic cards. Freezing relics is fine, especially if your relics provide effects rather than powers. That said, 11/6 is not a great stat line in Nar and Kintor isn’t a very strong card to start with.

Bronn – 3.5

Bronn has good Nar stats, a relatively reliable way to damage magi in Icefang Battlesled, and never wants to splash. Snowball is a good build-around power and wants to target something with 4+ energy (Furok Protector is an amazing way to accomplish this feat). This in and of itself makes Bronn good at handling large opposing creatures. The build-around factor comes in because the Snowballed creature dies and end of turn. What he wants to do is Snowball it, attack with it (optional), then use a spell after combat that has a cost of discarding a creature. Due to the high cost of his power and the fact that Icefang Battlesled also has an expensive power, Bronn only wants creatures to be frozen.

Emaya – 3.5

10/5 is awful and she is penalized for splashing. Not a good start. Korul isn’t a particularly good card. Her nameless effect can increase her energize but a) your opponent doesn’t have to play relics most of the time and b) Nar likes to blow up enemy relics. Improvise is a very strong power though, effectively generating four energy worth of value on board for no energy cost. You need to play lots of relics in your deck, as well as keep at least one creature in play (or be able to play one) at all times. Emaya needs to Improvise every single turn to stay relevant. Also, she doesn’t want to freeze magi and she probably doesn’t want to freeze relics since she might be playing some of them.

Erisa – 3

11/6 isn’t good in Nar. On the other hand, it’s not like you put this magi in your stack expecting her to stay in play. Nomad, Legacy, and a creature freeze from her guaranteed Zyavu means Erisa’s job is to spend a bunch energy on creatures and then die. The problem is that unlike Trygar, Erisa doesn’t grant her leftover cards any protection from the opponent’s turn and, unlike Interchange or Ritual Spear, your magi doesn’t reveal right away. Instant Fortress can stop their spells and powers for a turn, but they can still attack your board to death if they have creatures out. This means Erisa has to spend 4 energy on Fortress plus some more on removal, leaving her little energy left over to deposit her creatures for the next magi. The other way is to win the die roll, go first, and hope which, with only one guaranteed starting card, isn’t usually paying you off. Overall, she’s fun to try but not consistent in any manner. She gets a “just for fun” rating of 3 from me.

Fray – 3

13/6 isn’t even that good of a stat line in Nar, because despite having the highest energy index in the region at 19, with an energize of 6 you’re not really out-energizing a lot of competitive magi. Yaromant is the best card in Nar, so that’s nice. Big Chill can add up, since it triggers both on offense and on defense. It also stacks up nicely with a lot of other Nar cards which remove energy from the opposing magi in some form. Savvy opponents will find ways to spend all their energy every turn against decks with a lot of these effects, but Big Chill happens before their Play Creatures step. Fray isn’t a bad magi, she just feels pretty mediocre in competitive play.

Hajnyn – 1

Aside from his name (ninja but backwards), the only good thing about this guy is that he starts with any Arctic card. He needs that to fuel Iceberg anyway. Basically, 13/5 isn’t going to out-energize anyone and Iceberg always causes you more energy than the opponent. Nar has other ways to directly discard creatures.

Halsted – 5

Holy crap Crack is annoying. Lots of very competitive decks rely on relics to make powerful plays. We’d probably all be fine paying one extra energy for Warrior’s Boots, but two (much less three if he freezes relics on you)? Crystallize is also a great card because it slows the game way down, and with 8 energize that’s exactly what Halsted wants to be doing. Not splashing is a limitation but only in deck construction, not in actual play. Nar decks just don’t play non-Nar, non-Universal cards as a rule since so many of their magi have this drawback.

Helgrem – 3

This guy is very weird. He’s 12/6 which isn’t great in Nar and starts with Ice Furok, which is a fine card but doesn’t synergize very well with All for One which wants the biggest creatures possible (but definitely not a Vrak). Helgrem wants the triple Kyroll deck. One for All can be really aggravating, especially against Vellups, but sometimes it hurts you too. Sure, you can break the synergy with All for One but what if you have multiple multiples in hand? Not being able to play cards in a region with poor card draw is a big yikes. I think if he had better energy numbers he’d be a decent build-around magi. As is I don’t think he quite gets there.

Koza – 2.5

Koza basically stinks. 11/6 isn’t good. Refract isn’t good. Borrow is funny but not reliable. Steal is actively useful but Nar has so many ways to damage magi they don’t necessarily need that ability from their magi.

Laranel – 4

Furok Protector basically always nets you a nice bit of energy advantage, making it a very nice play for your weak starting turn. On top of that, Cold Shoulder actively protects your cards (if you remember to remind your opponent about it all the time). Other than that, Laranel is the quintessential Nar magi who gets better the longer she survives.

Locke – 4

Locke has the right energy numbers for the region and can play his starting Frost Hyren off a single energize. Treasure Hunt gives a Nar player access to some much-needed card draw, even if it’s expensive and you’re getting the worst card out of your top three. You do actively want to freeze Locke because 3 energy for 2 cards is much better than 2 energy for 1 card, especially since it changes it to the worst and best cards out of the top 3. Sadly, Locke doesn’t naturally have a way to freeze himself so either he doesn’t go in your first slot (which stinks because he wants to draw cards) or you rely on luck (which your opponent probably doesn’t have to do).

Odavast – 4

10/7 is good. Mombak is good. Ice Wall is good. You see this guy as the last magi in a lot of Nar decks. He’s nothing fancy but he also doesn’t care.

Thast – 3.5

This is the guy you want to combo Erisa into since Invigorate will then boost up his numbers and make Ice Grinder more powerful. Even with no creatures in play, Ice Grinder is still energy advantage but obviously it gets much better. Thin Ice is an okay spell but it’s basically at its best in Thast decks which want swarms of little guys instead of lower amounts of larger creatures. This guy can keep up the pressure pretty well if he maintains a board of creatures. The problem is his first turn. If Erisa can set him up, he can probably take over. If not, who knows?

Ust – 3

Brittlebreak isn’t very good because you don’t know if your opponent is playing a relic-heavy deck or not. He’s got the energy numbers to succeed, even if they are strictly worse than Halsted, Aurorea, Laranel, Odavast, and Locke. Gambit is an interesting high-risk effect. Typically we don’t want to rely on stuff like this because it’s so easy to just die unexpectedly and cards like Spirit Drain don’t require an opponent to attack you in order to defeat you. That said, Nar has the very powerful Hailstorm Pendant. I don’t think Ust decks want to just sit there not playing creatures because how do you win that way? Ultimately, while he isn’t bad, this means Ust ends up falling short of a 4 in power level and he doesn’t have a very build-around ability. In sum, this drops him to about a 3.

Velouria – 4

Velouria is surprisingly strong. Even if they leave only two energy on their magi, Adore gives you a 4-energy swing (removes 2 from them and adds 2 to you). She also has the highest starting energy of all Nar magi, so she actively wants to go first when you win the die roll. Hunter Furok also synergizes nicely with what she’s trying to do, making an ideal partner to Adore.

Magi: TLDR

5

Halsted

4

Aurorea

Laranel

Locke

Odavast

Velouria

3.5

Bronn

Emaya

Thast

3

Balachron

Erisa

Fray

Helgrem

Ust

2.5

Koza

2

N/A

1

Hajnyn

 

Creatures

Aegris – 4

A speedy Aegris can give Nar a way to directly discard creatures from the board. This uses up a Warrior’s Boots, so it costs 2 cards and 3 energy for a Shockwave, and it requires creatures to be frozen, but it is a way to do it. The reason this guy is so good, though, is that you can often grind games to the point where the opponent is only playing off their energize and so sticking an Aegris onto your board means they either remove it and spend less energy building up their own board or they play a creature and your Aegris just kills it.

Blizzard Hyren – 3

This card is a bit on the expensive side, but Storm is pretty dirty if both creatures and magi are frozen. Fury doesn’t really come up that often but in the rare case where creatures are not frozen and you have two good attacks, it’s nice to have. Basically, this is a nice AOE card and it can be worth running one or two.

Djarmander – 4

Relics are generally the least useful thing to freeze, not because it’s bad to do so but because Nar has access to a lot of things which just blow up enemy relics. This tension is very evident on Djarmander itself, but that’s actually a good thing. If you need to freeze relics, this’ll do it. If you want to blow them up, Dreamdrain gives you a bonus for doing so. What you don’t want to do is put Djarmander in a deck that plays lots of relics that have powers.

Dryte – 4

Dryte’s Snowball seems like a win-more ability, and to a certain extent it is. However, Nar doesn’t have a ton of cards which deal effectively with lots of enemy creatures at once. That gives this creature a solid role to fill, because as long as you can find that first attack this thing is good at taking out the trash.

Frost Hyren – 3

This card isn’t bad. You definitely run it on Locke. Freezing creatures is awesome as is punishing the opponent for playing relics. This just takes up your whole energize and Odavast, Velouria, and all the 3.5 magi have trouble playing it.

Frost Raxis – 3

Giving the opponent a choice isn’t great. The ability to repeatedly blow up enemy relics is. Nar has other ways to blow up relics though, so it doesn’t need this creature.

Furok Protector – 4

Thick Coat means you’re getting 2 free energy on average when you play this creature. That’s called efficiency. Resistance is some nice gravy on top of that.

Garlak – 3

If Nar could splash creatures this guy would be fun with a Gargagnor. As is, it’s good if it lives, extremely medium if it doesn’t.

Glacier Hyren – 3  

Big dude is big. Magic Resistance means this particular big dude is annoying to kill. If creatures are frozen, this big dude is even more annoying to kill because, while Frostbite costs 3, it gains that energy back and makes their team smaller in the process. If creatures are frozen they can’t really Ormagon you and attacking is annoying so the best way to take this out are powers, but creatures are frozen so that’s expensive too.

Gransaber – 3

Chill on a big dude once again. This is just a big creature that’s slightly more difficult to remove compared to your average big creature.  

Great White Narth – 3

Overwhelm is basically just a worse version of Dryte’s Snowball. What makes Dryte good is that it can attack a second time. Overwhelm can add more energy against huge swarm boards, but Dryte is much more consistently useful. Sustain is cool and all, but the Play Creatures step happens in between the attack and the power so the extra five energy doesn’t help you play out more guys. It helps you play spells, and that’s not nothing.

Grendile – 3

It’s big and good at attacking stuff. It combines with other magi damage in Nar, though when you have incidental magi damage in a lot of places it has diminishing returns.

Hunter Furok – 3

Adding even one energy to your magi is very useful. Chill can sometimes come up if the opponent damages but doesn’t kill your Furok. The difference between 7 and 8 energy also allows non-frozen Aurorea, Odavast, and Bronn to play this creature from a single energize.

Ice Arboll – 3.5

There’s nothing terribly fancy about Ice Pack. It just wants you to have a lot of creatures in play. I find that Nar decks usually don’t have more than 2-3 creatures in play at a time. You only need two (aside from the Arboll) for Ice Pack to be good, but in an atypical deck with more small creatures Ice Pack gets extremely strong. Thast likes a lot of small creatures in play too…

Ice Furok – 3

Smash is very powerful. It’s also slow.

Ice Hyren – 3

Another big Nar creature that has pretty good effects. Shared Strength will usually be active and Ravage is some nice upside on a big creature. It just takes up your whole turn and doesn’t protect itself.

Ice Vinoc – 3

This creature is fine but nothing to write home about. Icy Vines is a 2-point energy swing but the opponent has to give it to you.

Iceberg Hyren – 3

Nar doesn’t really have access to Will of Orothe. Sure, you can splash it but on most of your magi it’ll cost 8 energy. This means you can’t really force the opponent to attack your Iceberg Hyren, but they’ll never want to on their own, so it’s a nice defensive creature you can sit behind to start the process of out-energizing your opponent.

Icefield Ashryte – 1

Narrow, can’t use Thermal Stress if creatures are frozen. No thank you.

Ickle – 2.5

More relic hate. This one is trivial for the opponent to deal with.

Kintor – 2.5

Usually Snowblind works out in your favor but a 33% chance to fail is very bad because when it fails you lose your creature in the process.

Korul – 2.5

Slow and inconsistent.

Krenkrajak – 3.5

You have to have a specific deck to want to freeze magi a lot. Either you’ve got Aurorea, Kintor Furs, a low spell count, or something to that effect. Then Krenkrajak is a good card for you.

Kyroll – 4

This card is a reason to want one-sided creature freeze. It’s also pretty cool with Halsted. It’s also good enough by itself since it can Smash something and then if they don’t use removal on it you can attack, Drift Back to hand and re-play Kyroll. It takes up a whole energize step, but it does come down and give you immediate value unlike a lot of other big Nar creatures.

Mombak – 4

Cold Pack is just a nice efficient energy boost. It’s also one of the rare cards commonly played in Nar decks that works fine when it’s not frozen. Multiple Mombak are great together as well, each gaining two energy from the other’s Cold Pack if they’re frozen or one if not.

Polar Eebit – 2.5

It still dies to removal just fine. All Eebits do, but this one is by far the easiest Eebit to actually deal with.

Polar Rudwot – 3

It has to live long enough to attack, but Snowbank is pretty awesome.

Rask – 2.5

Chill is actually good on small creatures! You so often see this kind of ability on creatures that already have 8-ish energy and at that point it doesn’t come up much. An attacking Rask can always get a nice profit out of Chill, but it has to live long enough to make that happen. Satiate on the other hand is something Nar decks typically want to avoid. Yaromant (the best creature in the region) grows very large. Furok Protector comes down above 3. Mombak is pretty ubiquitous. Basically, Nar decks have enough creature growth that Satiate isn’t something they’re typically looking for.

Rask Deserter – 2

Too narrow. Also, many Nar decks don’t play that many relics to begin with (though Ice Lens is pretty universal).

Saitorr – 2

It’s really too bad that a card-draw creature in Nar has this particular ability. Nar doesn’t draw many cards compared to other regions and Snuggles could draw you a ton due to the low starting energy on a lot of Nar magi. It’s never going to live until your beginning of turn though. Plus, this means you have to navigate the game into a situation where you don’t need to play (many) cards for a turn. There are too many conditions here to be worth it. Sorry Tigger.

Sarf – 4

Sarf does enough things that it’s a generally useful card. It can sit in play if you need a creature, it can damage magi for a highly-efficient chunk with Freezerburn, and if it lives you can Snatch one of their relics and use Freezerburn (or sit back to block).

Snow Barl Pup – 4

Dream Draft allows you to play a free 4-energy creature on your opponent’s turn. That’s pretty incredible. It’s not a 5 because it doesn’t always work when you want it to. While most competitive decks draw tons of cards, not all of them do. Additionally, sometimes you don’t draw it against their setup magi.

Snow Hyren – 3

If your magi can play this creature in a single energize (many can), it’s pretty decent. Having creatures frozen basically means any time a creature attacks you get an energy from Cold and Colder. On the other hand, if creatures are frozen Energy Transfer becomes inefficient because it costs 1 more than it adds. And, like all large creatures, if they use a removal spell on it you’ll be very sad.

Sunglare Celphet – 2

So ugly it’s charming. Reflect is so easy for the opponent to play around that it basically has no text.

Tithragar – 2.5

Too narrow. Cool card though with a fabulous Monty Python flavor text reference.

Tundra Hyren – 2.5

We haven’t really seen a one-sided freeze effect yet, so this is cool design space. That said, I’d be much more interested in a one-sided magi or relic freeze, since Nar almost always wants to have all creatures frozen at all times anyway. I see this card as being mostly unnecessary thanks to the prevalence of Yaromant, Zyavu, and Essence of Frost.

Vrak – 3.5

Since you can’t really rely on Vrak staying in play to leverage Really Really Big’s enormous energy gain, what you want to do is play it in decks that have lots of ways to discard their own creature. Ice Rupture is probably the best thing to pair this card with. Also, if you’re winning and in the full grip of your snowball strategy, dropping a Vrak onto the table can be a really difficult spot for the opponent.

Wasperine Stalker – 4

Not as good in Nar as it is in Naroom because there are a bunch of magi damage cards just lying around in Nar. Still, this has the advantage of staying on board after you damage their magi, and that’s very good.

Worgle – 2.5

Much more conditional than some of the other AOE options Nar has. Potentially more powerful, but the other ones also don’t require you to discard them from play.

Yaromant – 5

First of all, this is an Arctic card. It’s also the most important kind because it freezes creatures and turns on most of the other cards in the region. You’d probably play it if it did nothing else. Scavenge is insane though, triggering and netting you energy when any creature dies (even better if you have a Djarmander out or something). This creature often grows to giant proportions, especially since Nar has plenty of cards that allow it to sacrifice their own creatures for profit.

Yaw – 1 

Too expensive for the ability. Run Dream Balm instead. Even if it’s frozen it only costs 3.

Zyavu – 4

Sometimes you don’t have a Yaromant and this creature is good enough. You always run 3 copies because so many of your creatures rely on being frozen.

Creatures: TLDR

5

Yaromant

4

Aegris

Djarmander

Dryte

Furok Protector

Kyroll

Mombak

Sarf

Snow Barl Pup

Wasperine Stalker

Zyavu

3.5

Krenkrajak

Ice Arboll

Vrak

3

Blizzard Hyren

Frost Hyren

Frost Raxis

Garlak

Glacier Hyren

Gransaber

Great White Narth

Grendile

Hunter Furok

Ice Furok

Ice Hyren

Ice Vinoc

Iceberg Hyren

Polar Rudwot

Snow Hyren

2.5

Ickle

Kintor

Korul

Polar Eebit

Rask

Tithragar

Tundra Hyren

Worgle

2

Rask Deserter

Saitorr

Sunglare Celphet

1

Icefield Ashryte

Yaw

Relics

Blizzard Core – 1

They had to errata this because you could splash Gargagnor and actually be able to use this ability. Still, you’d have to blow up all the opponent’s creatures, have paid extra for a Gargagnor (sometimes 2 extra), paid 5 for this relic, and still have a ton of energy on your magi. That’s a lot to ask, even when you can control it. With errata you have to wait until your Energize Step which means if you’ve put your opponent in this position you don’t need this card to defeat them. Spend the 5 energy on something actually useful.

Bronn’s Battle Staff – 3

This card might be good. It stops some really annoying spells such as Vaporize and Spirit Drain. It does not stop Crushing Fungus. For this card to be useful, you really have to have relics frozen though, so it can discard itself or something you didn’t spend energy on. Nar doesn’t have many creatures you’d be happy to spend on this effect, if any at all. I’m also not sure Nar decks need this ability, because if they’re controlling the game it’s because the opponent is very limited in what they can actually play and is more concerned about surviving.

Cauldron of Ice – 3.5

Really cool card in more controlling builds of Nar, as long as neither magi nor relics are frozen that is. The setup cost is definitely real at 2 energy, but once this relic is in play you’re paying 1 extra energy to turn your worst card in hand into another copy of a powerful spell.

Chill Cane – 3.5

Chill Cane is really cool if Nar decks can find ways to discard cards. Some of their magi have this ability innately, like Emaya and Halsted. You can run Channeler’s Gloves alongside one of those magi to get some extra draw power in a region without much, and that’s a big deal. Waste Not also randomly hoses decks that rely on the discard pile. Nar doesn’t so it’s relatively free to you. Even the turn you play Chill Cane you’re getting above-rate draw, as long as you can keep triggering Want Not. 

Dreamdrain Charm – 3

You’re paying 2 to limit your opponent’s energy on their next turn. They better have at least 2 relics in play (almost no one has spells that stick in play but it does come up once in a while). On your turn you can just discard this card if it’s your only relic or spell in play. You don’t want Crystallize in decks that run Dreamdrain Charm and Crystallize is a more powerful card. Also, you never know how many relics you’ll face.

Essence of Frost – 4

The ability to just have everything frozen all the time is very powerful. Sometimes you don’t want to freeze magi, but if you have relatively few spells and play relics mostly for their effects this card is mostly upside. It’s also harder to get rid of than even a Yaromant. It’s almost a 3.5 because you don’t want this card in decks that avoid freezing magi.

Hailstorm Pendant – 5

This card is really strong. Spending 2 (3 the first time) to deal 7-8 damage is absurd. It’s not a traditional build-around because Nar doesn’t want creatureless decks. Rather, you just put this in a control deck and if they remove all your creatures every turn you get to punish them for it very hard. If they don’t, you live which means another turn of out-energizing the opposition. Also, some of your powerful spells require you to discard your own creatures which allows you to set up pretty dirty turns.

Ice Lens – 5

Ordinarily, something like this would be a 4. In Nar, Magnify is the single best way the region has to draw cards. Additionally, there is no Nar deck that doesn’t rely on freezing at least creatures. That means you always run at least 2 copies of this card in your deck, often the full 3.

Icecap – 2.5

It’s not that this card doesn’t do anything, because it does. It either ends up slowing them down for a turn or outright crippling relic-heavy decks like Orothe. It’s just that it costs 3, doesn’t help you on board, and the opponent gets to make the decisions for it instead of you.

Icefang Battlesled – 4

This card is relatively expensive but you get that value right back. It’s imperative not to freeze relics if you want to make use of this card though.

Icy Heart – 2

You have to play 4 humongous things in order for this card to be worth it. I’d rather just spend the full amount on 3 humongous things and play better cards in my deck. If it said “printed energize” it’d be a super-combo with Thast. It doesn’t say that though.

Icy Prison – 3.5

If you’re ahead on board, dropping an Icy Prison can outright defeat a magi over the course of two turns. Basically, you have to maneuver the game into a position where their magi is sitting on low energy (you have lots of magi damage to create this situation) but has a good amount of creatures out. The most common situation for this is immediately after they have flipped over a new magi, but you can also just walk them into this position by damaging their magi directly a bunch. Often, they will get fed up with losing energy for free and elect to spend all or most of their energy playing out creatures. You can also Crystallize their creature so it reduces their energize for no real benefit. Once you drop this, you get to remove the last point of energy from their magi somehow and remove their creatures and they lose a magi. This pairs up very well with Dryte, and any other cards which can remove multiple creatures in a turn.

Instant Fortress – 3

Super expensive. Doesn’t protect your board against attacks. Can be good against heavy removal decks though, especially when you flip a new magi. Suffers because of its cost and because you don’t know what you’ll be facing.

Kintor Furs – 3.5

Two energy and a card turns freezing magi and relics into a one-sided affair, but you still get the benefit of your cards counting as frozen. This gives Nar decks that ordinarily don’t want to freeze magi or relics the option to do so.

Void Stone – 3

Drawing cards is good, but you want the relics you play to stay in play or discard themselves to their own abilities. On the other hand, this card does discard itself just fine and one energy is below rate as far as card draw is concerned. Also, it lets you discard Dreamdrain Charm and Icy Prison but not before those cards have reduced your energize rate at least once. Demand does stack with Halsted’s Crack effect, which is pretty brutal, and it gives non-Halsted magi a smaller version of Crack. Between the two abilities, this card is decent.

Relics: TLDR

5

Hailstorm Pendant

Ice Lens

4

Essence of Frost

Icefang Battlesled

3.5

Cauldron of Ice

Chill Cane

Icy Prison

Kintor Furs

3

Bronn’s Battle Staff

Dreamdrain Charm

Instant Fortress

Void Stone

2.5

Icecap

2

Icy Heart

1

Blizzard Core

Spells

Blizzard – 4

Because you can’t play this card during PRS 1, it doesn’t help you push for lethal on an opposing magi. What it does do is directly discard creatures from play. You do need to spend two real cards to deal with the opponent’s one creature, as Nar doesn’t really pack small re-usable creatures. However, it slows the game down and as long as you’re discarding more energy than you’ve spent (in total), this card is good, especially when you get to actually attack with something and then Blizzard it away. This card doesn’t look good, but it is.

Brittlebreak – 2.5

You can never know ahead of time how many relics the opponent has. I’ve typed that text a lot for this region.

Crushing Ice – 3

This is one of the worst Crushing spells. Paying four energy to deal seven damage is very good. The problem is that, if you’re playing Nar, canny opponents will not keep three energy on their magi for you to just remove. Also, if your magi is frozen is becomes 5-for-7 and that’s not as good. You still have to play enough magi damage effects so the opponent respects them, but I’ve had this card in hand many times and never feel excited by it.

Crystallize – 5

Slows the game way, way down. Replaces itself. Deals with giant creatures for the low price of 2 energy. You have to eventually deal with the creature for real but all you really want to do as Nar is grind people down and this card is a superstar at doing that. It is vital to remember that the creature can still use powers, so pick your target wisely. This card also enables a combo, which is just to stack a Nightmare Channel on the same creature. The opponent will end up needing to spend their own removal cards on the Crystallized creature to try and dig out of that awful situation.

Exposure – 3

The Spirit Drain of Nar. I see this card a lot but, as with Crushing Ice, I doubt its effectiveness. Of course it’s good if the opponent doesn’t play cards, but even when they do I might just rather have a Sarf. It’s not like you’re fighting Core magi more than 50% of the time.

Flashfreeze – 3.5

Nar decks don’t often have insane amounts of cards in play, so a lot of the time you’re not getting incredible value. Thast-style decks that want more creatures in play than average will probably appreciate this spell though.

Ice Rupture – 3.5

(In a Danny DeVito voice) Two words: Vrak. It’s also pretty awesome with Furok Protector. This card requires you to pay a pretty real cost but boy does it give you a lot of power.

Icepack – 2

I can think of exactly Kyroll who wants this card on it, and even then it’s not insane.

Ominous Chill – 2

Not as good as it is in Bograth, since discarding the creature is a much higher cost in Nar and your creatures are bigger on average anyway. I gave it a 3 in Bograth so in Nar that’s about a 2.

Refract – 2.5

The definition of “meh”.

Shattering Wind – 2

This card does nothing so often you just shouldn’t put it in your deck. Again, players will not hoard energy on their magi against Nar. You want magi damage incidentally or repeatedly over turns, not at the cost of a whole card.

Shattershards – 4

This card alone means Nar decks are good at blowing up enemy relics, and is a big reason why some other relic-related Nar cards go down in value. So good it’s played in Cald.

Snowball – 3

Definitely fun but not super reliable.

Spirit of Nar – 3.5

Actually pretty devastating a good amount of the time. They don’t get to play creatures or any more spells or relics. Nar doesn’t have a ton of ways to come back from losing situations and this card helps in that regard, especially if you have plenty of magi damage in your deck.

Thin Ice – 4

Looks bad but really, it’s three energy spent to gain somewhere around 4-5 worth of value on average.

Whiteout – 2

If Yaromant, Zyavu, and to an extent Essence of Frost weren’t so ubiquitous you might actually play this card. Nar creatures just want to be frozen all the time, so they don’t have much use for a temporary freeze like this.

Spells: TLDR

5

Crystallize

4

Blizzard

Shattershards

Thin Ice

3.5

Flashfreeze

Ice Rupture

Spirit of Nar

3

Crushing Ice

Exposure

Snowball

2.5

Brittlebreak

Refract

2

Icepack

Ominous Chill

Shattering Wind

Whiteout

1

N/A

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