MND Regional Review: The Deeps of Orothe

Magi-Nation Card Review

Orothe

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

Arosa – 5

Arosa has one of the game’s most powerful and unique abilities in Shell Game, and this makes her a top-tier choice to build around. She is currently the best magi in the controlling, relic-heavy Orothe decks because, when set up, Shell Game creates a massive value and disruption engine that is very difficult to stop. The combo pieces are Karak Band and Karak Necklace which cause Shell Game to give Arosa two cards and two energy, and Orlon’s Ring which gives Arosa even more energy as well as discarding the creature you just stole (as long as it isn’t Orothe). If you don’t want to limit yourself to only Orothe spells, you can even swap the Orlong’s Ring out for the less powerful Corathan. Essentially what this means is Arosa gains huge amounts of energy every turn, draws tons of cards, and gets to kill a creature for free every turn. That’s way too much value for most decks to compete with.

Aula, Mindseeker – 3.5

Mindseeker is dual-region, which is inherently busted by itself, and in the best dual-region combo in the game. She’s a little harmed by the 4 energize and the two potential drawbacks on her version of Windsight. First, she is forced to include lots of big spells (Cataclysm and Typhoon mostly) which takes up deck space. Second, she has the potential to create awkward situations (like drawing a Tradewinds after using Windsight). Still, very fun and powerful given the right deck. 

Blu – 3

When he was printed, Blu was one of the better setup magi around. Artifice, it turns out, was a little too powerful so they nerfed it significantly. Now relegated to one extra card per turn (but without the energy cost), Blu doesn’t have enough impact as a starter. He’s still fun to play, allowing you to get value from setting up relics and Hubdra’s Chest for your next magi, but he doesn’t do enough. Below average starting cards don’t help either.

Borse – 3.5

Borse is another magi whose power merited errata, but wasn’t harmed as much as Blu was. Tinker is still the only way to get any weird combination of relics into play, so he has some serious brewing potential. I haven’t seen anyone abuse Tinker, but I’m sure it’s possible. The nerf to Orothean Horn is probably a bigger nerf to Borse than his own errata, but I’ll discuss that card in its own section. The key with Borse is deck manipulation such as Orothean Goggles to make combining weird relics a more likely scenario.

Bria – 3.5

Speaking of magi who can combine weird relics together, Bria can do this as well. She is more consistent than Borse by far but more limited in scope. Very often you’ll see Bria try to draw cards using guaranteed relics like Secrets of the Book, but she can do a lot of different things.

Bria, Relic Hunter – 3.5

Limited to Core relics (oh no!), Relic Hunter will still likely be drawing cards with Secrets of the Book. The Desire/Loss engine is annoying for your opponent but not backbreaking. Try to get out Hubdra’s Chest to minimize the impact of Loss.

Brothers of Vengeance – 3

These guys are not terribly competitive, mostly because taking up two magi slots is a big drawback. Obviously their energy numbers are great (though six energize for two magi is still low compared to the others). They have amazing starting cards, and both of their abilities are very strong. We’re Back is especially compelling but requires you to play out lots of creatures and lots of relics to make it good. This happens to be the natural play pattern for River Abaquist as well, so there’s something there. Maybe they’d see play in relic decks if Arosa wasn’t so busted.

Ebylon – 2.5

Ebylon + Tidal Karak is still one of my favorite combos in MND. That said, he doesn’t do anything. Sure, Shatterwave lets you kill enemy relics but that’s very low-impact in general. You don’t even know if there will be targets for it.

Jaim – 2.5

Another relic magi, Jaim has good energy and starting cards and the ability to protect his relics from being blown up. That’s pretty cool. For some reason, they decided to give him a medium-sized drawback to slow him down. My biggest issue with him is that the Orothe relics aren’t what actually win you the game. The payoff cards are, and Hubdra’s Chest basically does the job of Guardian anyway. Not sure what the point of this magi is.

Karse – 3.5

Karse does two things: 1) play Cawh and 2) crush Cald decks thanks to Vengeance. Orothe is already a much better region than Cald, so let’s disregard this niche effect. Karse mostly sees play in Cawh decks, since he can guarantee you draw one of your (probably) three creatures in the entire deck, so he’s somewhat essential there. On the other hand, Fury is actually a very strong mechanic. Here’s a list of Orothe and Universal fatties he can discount: Colossus, Rayje’s Construct, Monarch Hyren, Cawh, Giant Parathin, Megathan, Monsoon Hyren, Sarazen Guard. Of those, Colossus, Rayje’s Construct, and Giant Parathin are good while Cawh is its own deck. Sarazen Guard would be an amazing card as an 8-energy defensive guy that only costs 5. Orothe had more of an ability to play big fat stompy decks in the past, but Karse can still be a good magi in that fringe archetype even now.

Kayliel – 2.5

Great starting relic collection. Relic Subversion can be annoying. The power is there, and can sometimes compensate for her otherwise below-average flip power, but after that what is she doing? Another in a list of relic magi with no real plan.

Mobis – 3

Mobis is fine. He has a good chunk of energy and Legacy gives the next magi a more powerful flip turn. That’s all he does. Mobis + Trug is not really a thing anymore, but if you then bring out a powerhouse third magi that’s a really fun way to build a deck.

M’Rika – 4

M’Rika is one of the three pillars of Orothe’s Interchange decks, along with O’Qua and Shaper’s Apprentice, but even straight-up she’s pretty good. Basically, she incentivizes you to spend a full 17 energy when she flips and then Interchange out to a magi with full starting energy who is much more difficult to kill. This is good even if you’re not looping it, and clearly strong when you are. The guaranteed Parathin Dream Twist is also interesting in decks with few creatures. Interchange decks rely on creatures so you don’t often see Parathin being played there, but in some odd-ball brews, it’s pretty cool.

O’Qua – 5

Dear God, this magi. Conjure is so stinking powerful. Even with some of the worst energy numbers in the game, O’Qua manages to perform two roles better than anyone else. First of all, she’s Orothe’s current best setup magi as she can simply Conjure out Sea Barl a couple times, draw a bunch of cards, and then die. Second, specifically in Interchange decks, she can Conjure out Giant Parathin to switch to M’Rika after spending a bunch of energy (hopefully) drawing some cards. O’Qua synergizes with most of the good Orothe creatures, but one I want to mention specifically is Abaquist. Generally, Abaquist is too much work to be amazing, but when you can Conjure it out at 4 energy, you can start stealing things right away, and that’s awesome.

Orlon – 2.5

Barls and Wellisks are generally good creatures, so Anti-Magic is a reasonable effect. It basically means your opponent has to play into the controlling effects they represent or has to kill your card draw Barls in a fair way. He even starts with a Sea Barl. Still, no one plays him because 10 starting energy is awful. I think giving him more energy would be all he’d need to see play.

Orthea – 2

Salvage is nice in theory, but it will never trigger. Ever. Your opponent knows about it and can just attack you or kill all your creatures first like they were going to do anyway.

Quilla – 5

Ye olde 14/7 magi is just hard to deal with. I’ve said it many times but those numbers are really, really good. The reason, basically, is that you’re sacrificing one starting energy to generate two energy per turn above most magi’s rate of 5. The longer a magi with this sort of advantage can stick around, the more trouble she’ll cause. Unlike Nar magi whose starting energy numbers a woefully low, 14/7 characters like Quilla are just fine going first (though not many of them do). Getting to cherry-pick two Orothe relics is quite nice as well. Most often you see Orothean Goggles and Hubdra’s Cube starts, but you can get what you need. Quilla fits into any deck type and will always be good, even against Sorreah.

Sellia – 4

Good numbers, good cards, good start. Whirlpool isn’t a power she’ll use every turn, but it does efficiently kill a lot of really good creatures. Dual-region creatures tend to be powerful because a lot of the cards that were printed in Nightmare’s Dawn have silly levels of power creep. This basically means Sellia is a solid choice for any type of Orothe deck.

Shaper’s Apprentice – 3.5

Shaper’s is a personal favorite of mine. At face value he is the worst of the three Interchange magi because he has the highest costs associated with him. Dream Twist leaves Shaper’s only one energy to work with for the turn. In Interchange decks, this isn’t a problem because you can just keep looping magi to spend as much energy as you can anyway. However, Dream Twist has the added downside of needing creatures to sacrifice. In Orothe, this is a real cost because you don’t have access to much creature recursion (except Corathan). Still, the Interchange engine is quite strong and Shaper’s is the third piece of its puzzle. The upside is re-buying the Giant Parathin that’s already in your discard pile from O’Qua’s Conjure earlier. Outside of Interchange decks, Shaper’s doesn’t see much play in Orothe. For that, head on over to the Kybar’s Teeth review which will happen in the future.

Voda – 5

The only reason every Orothe deck doesn’t run Voda is because the best two Orothe decks have their magi locked in. For Relic Control you have O’Qua, Quilla, Arosa. For Interchange you have O’Qua, M’Rika, Shaper’s Apprentice. Voda complements Karse and O’Qua/Quilla in Cawh decks and Fattie decks alike and wins games by himself. Seriously, have you ever faced off against Voda first? Look at his opener: Play out Coral Hyren and Reef Hyren, Submerge the Coral Hyren, Deluge the Coral Hyren, keep 3 energy on his face. Before you’ve had the chance to do anything, you’re facing off against an active Reef Hyren and a 12-energy Coral Hyren. The worst part is that’s 100% consistent. Even Tiller has an extremely small chance not to find Forest Hyren on the opening turn. Voda just has it. Backed by all the Orothe control options available to him, Voda will usually not lose control of his Deluge, so good luck. As long as he keeps your board in check he’s a 14/9 magi. Remember how I said 14/7 was good? Yeah…

Voice of the Storm – 5

This is one of the most busted magi in the game. First of all, we have the best possible dual-region combination so already she is great. Second, her energy numbers are solid. Third, Hurricane Orish is a strong card and the ability to cherry pick any Arderial or Orothe relic makes her more flexible than Dhalsim from Street Fighter. If that was it she’d still be a 4. Diplomacy, however, is incredibly powerful and will save metric tons of energy over the course of her time in play. It was even better before errata, when she could double dip on the discount.

Whall – 1

Thank heaven 2i printed Shaper’s Apprentice because regular Whall is the pits. 10/5? Are you kidding me? His Dream Twist costs his entire energize! And it doesn’t even let the creature attack, where Shaper’s does. You still have to discard a creature as part of Dream Twist’s cost. But wait, where are you getting this creature? You have precisely no extra energy to spend on it and your opponent killed all your stuff on their turn. This guy stinks.

Magi: TLDR

5

Arosa

O’Qua

Quilla

Voda

Voice of the Storm

4

M’Rika

Sellia

3.5

Aula, Mindseeker

Borse

Bria

Bria, Relic Hunter

Karse

Shaper’s Apprentice

3

Blu

Brothers of Vengeance

Mobis

2.5

Ebylon

Jaim

Kayliel

Orlon

2

Orthea

1

Whall

Creatures

Abaquist – 3

Possess is great when you can use it. Stealing stuff is twice as good as killing it, after all. The problem with Abaquist is that it takes real work to pump him up. Orothe doesn’t get that sort of thing for free, like Naroom does. Basically you’re only playing this if you have O’Qua (you probably do), and not even all the O’Qua decks will run it.

Allio – 2

When the hell are you ever getting a payoff from Douse? First, you have to face down a Cald deck (slim chance) or a Granas (better chance). Second, they have to play into it! They won’t. It’s not actively bad but it’s close.

Blue Yajo – 3

This unassuming guy is some secret tech in Arosa decks since it can’t attack and you can sort-of give it to your opponent without a drawback. The thing is, you have to find a way to damage it a little first or they’ll just use Strengthen and you’ll be sad. It does survive a decent percentage of the time, since it’s big and has Weave and you’re probably controlling them to begin with, so needing to be in play before the Attack Step is actually a reasonable ask on this card, unlike most others with similar text. Also, three-for-six is quite a good pump effect. Even with all that, most people don’t bother with this card.

Bog Wellisk – 4

I like free stuff, don’t you? Seriously, your opponent doesn’t know you have this unless they’ve looked at your hand, and relics are good so lots of decks play them. When they do: gotcha! You don’t see a lot of these played in Orothe either, but it’s super-duper solid.

Bubble Xyx – 2.5

Formerly a 5, the errata hit this guy pretty hard. Burst is a very good power. Drawing one card in Magi-Nation is roughly worth two energy, so drawing three cards is roughly worth six energy and Burst allows you to do it for effectively four. That’s a big deal. The fact that it has to survive and can no longer be copied with Sorreah’s Dream brings this guy down quite a bit.

Bwill – 2

Power creep was not kind to thee, oh noblest of shellfish. Back in Unlimited, when direct damage was rare, decks would have to spend a real card to kill a Bwill. Not anymore.

Cawh – 3.5

There is no way to break this card. Whatever degenerate nonsense you’re thinking of, it doesn’t work. Still, this guy is a whole sub-archetype all on its own. With the dubious honor of being the single biggest creature in all of MND, and quite difficult to kill as well, Cawh is much talked about, at least in my own circles growing up. There’s always a home for this kind of muscle. Heck, my brother even played one of these in Naroom with Yaki, Core Stalker and had Overgrowth and pre-errata Shadow Rain when he was done with the Cawh. Sometimes bigger is better.

Coral Hyren – 3.5

Orothe decks are not known for playing tons of spells, otherwise Spelltap would be a nightmare. There’s plenty of room to build around a creature with a powerful effect like this, and obviously Voda makes it insane.

Coral Pyder – 3

I’ve written in another region review that 3 is my rating for “this does some stuff and I have no idea what to do with it”. That’s pretty much the case here.

Corf – 2.5

I love this creature. Look at it. It’s a magical dream lobster wearing a wizard hat! As far as game rules go, it’s pretty bad. Final Blow is always card disadvantage, and kind-of requires you to make bad attacks to activate Final Blow. It’s still removal, but it’s bad removal.

Deep Barl – 3.5

This card has high upside. Oddly enough, the Weave magi Scyalla is the one most likely to use it though (I’ll go over that in her entry). What Deep Barl wants to do is Consume creatures who have used up most of their energy with powers or in attacks, converting them into cards. In practice, this happens less often than you’d want but it’s still very strong.

Deep Hyren – 3.5

This thing needs specifically Orothean Gloves to make it good, because then it can survive to discard itself to Hurricane’s second cost. Hurricane really only needs two creatures to become very good, since you’re hitting their magi as well. Obviously against another Orothe deck it does worse than nothing, but you’re not jamming three of these into your deck. Probably only the one copy.

Deep Wellisk – 3

That errata is serious business. “Your cards cannot increase Deep Wellisk’s energy total”. Still, Deep Wellisk is a decent control card that stops relics before they get a chance to use them.

Giant Parathin – 5

Interchange on Giant Parathin is one of the more powerful abilities in the game and leads to some pretty silly decks, most obviously the Orothe Interchange staple. Without this card, the entire archetype doesn’t exist. Other regions can also do dumb combo stuff with GP, and as a leading contributor of degenerate stuff in MND, the big turtle gets a 5.

Grotto Phrup – 3

My favorite card nickname goes to the Ghetto Phrup right here. Another tool Orothe has at its disposal, Ghetto Phrup’s niche is in allowing you access to whatever they hit with Rayje’s Belt while shutting off their other relics for a turn in the transaction. Yes, you can simply destroy their Belt to turn it off, but this goes wider than that. As a one-of it’s pretty interesting.

Hunter Jile – 2.5

Now this is a region hoser. As long as you have the board under control, Drench will be backbreaking for virtually any Core deck. Hunter Jile also has the secondary mode of just being a decent-sized guy they can’t deal with except by attacking it. Still, it’s a region hoser and therefore narrow as heck.

Hurricane Orish – 4

This guy is a big deal. There’s not a single competitive deck in the game that doesn’t play Relics or Spells, meaning Spell Drain will often trigger at least once. If it ever triggers twice, this guy more than pays for itself. The real bonus is that a five-energy creature is big enough to merit a serious resource commitment to actually kill, meaning that trigger is all the more likely to happen. Also, VotS.

Husp – 1

Awful, awful card. Would you like to discard 4 energy to look through your opponent’s deck? And not impact the board at all? No? Me neither. There are even plenty of decks where this might help them! It’s too bad because it looks so cool.

Iceberg Hyren – 3.5

At face value, this card is fine. They can’t really attack into it so they’ll have to find another way around it. Orothe has Will of Orothe to make them attack into it. That’s a lot cheaper than doing the same thing with a Cawh. This interaction probably won’t come up much, but the card is just fine on its own.

Iximin – 4

A fine creature. Nothing much to say about Spite other than, it does what it says and that’s pretty good.

Karak – 2.5

Steal won’t last very long, because it’s not hard to kill a 3-energy creature. There are much better ways for Orothe to deal with opposing relics.

Malevolent Corf – 2

Only because it has a cool tattoo. Seriously, even against Orothe, what does this card really do?

Megathan – 2.5

Big, dumb guy with a minimal effect.

Monsoon Hyren – 3

Ravaging Storm costs 9 which means you need two other creatures in play to Ebb from. Actually using Ravaging Storm requires three or more enemy creatures with 4 energy or less. There are lots of conditions here, and quite honestly you’re probably better off using a Deep Hyren in 90% of cases. The times where the direct discard matters are against Treepsh or Burrow, which are very common in their respective regions, so it’s not like Monsoon Hyren has no upside, but it’s pretty conditional and fiddly.

Nalo – 3

Nalo is a smaller Deep Hyren which is not really as good, but is just fine if you’re in the market for such things. At least it doesn’t need support.

Orathan – 3

This guys is just fine. It never does anything exciting, and I mean never, but it’s all right. What that means is it meets the bar for starting cards being included in a deck but really not much more than that.

Orpus – 2.5

Nice in theory but they can just kill it.

Paralit – 2

This card is actually interesting, but just doesn’t have much of an impact. The drawback makes it so that if you have two other creatures in play you’re only breaking even on energy and it’ll kill your Phrups right off. It seems like a small cost but it’s actually very real, basically requiring a creatureless strategy to be decent. Orothe doesn’t really do creatureless decks.

Parathin – 3

What a weird ability. Only useful in a quirky deck, but really cool. The thing is you want to virtually guarantee a specific result out of this Dream Twist. Something very big and splashy and perhaps not in Orothe.

Pearl Hyren – 2.5

Hoard doesn’t even punish Vaporize or other forms of mass relic destruction, which I have serious problems with. It doesn’t punish Rayje’s Belt shutting down one of your relics because it names the ability and doesn’t choose the relic. Jealousy is both conditional and minimal. I don’t like this card and it could have been really cool.

Phrup – 4

Time Lapse lets you stop the worst thing your opponent can do to you. It’s an effective protection tool and becomes part of the Orothe control puzzle in combination with other controlling effects.

Platheus – 3

Soporific gets pretty great with Orothean Gloves and it’s a decent little control ability even at face value. It’s never very good like some of the other tools Orothe has access to, but it’s decent.

Porphin – 2.5

I wish this didn’t discard itself, because since it does, you’re basically looking at a 3-energy way to attack big creatures down in a relic deck. Except you can just play removal spells for much less hassle.

Reef Hyren – 5

Rebuke is so annoying. This is probably the most powerful and obnoxious of Orothe’s control effects, mostly because it’s repeatable. This card is my pick for best Orothe creature and I honestly don’t know why more decks don’t play it. It’s mystifying to me. Unless you’re in a Fatty/Cawh deck that might not have access to energy reserves to make use of Rebuke, you should be playing this card.

River Abaquist – 3.5

The perfect 3.5 ability: requires some setup, including building your deck with a good balance of creatures and relics and the ability to keep your relics in play, but the payoff is very strong. Dreamwarp also means that this guy really only costs 2 energy unless you want it to actually be a body, in which case it can be 2, 3, or 4 energy as meets your needs best.

Saladarit – 3

Guard is a powerful defensive ability that your opponent can play around 100% of the time by not attacking your thing or simply by killing it with spells and powers. In practice, you probably don’t have time for this.

Sarazen Guard – 3

This card is too expensive, and that’s really the only drawback. Protect means they have to attack into your big creature first, or they’ll end up doing that at the cost of a card anyway, so it’s basically always going to be a meat shield. It’s just too big to be played normally. Then again, there’s a Fattie deck somewhere out there.

Sarazen Keeper – 2

This card asks too much of you and will therefore never do anything. You have to have 12 energy cost worth of creatures (unless you’re splashing for the Outcast in which case it’s still 10) to draw a card from Strength in Union. Never happening. Forged Alliance requires this plus a hyren, which is more doable but you’re probably only getting one energy onto itself. Big deal.

Sea Barl – 5

Every Orothe deck runs 3 copies because Lore is one of the better ways to draw cards after all the erratas hit the game. Pretty self-explanatory there. The best decks also find ways to use the 1-energy body that’s left over after it uses Lore. For example, Arosa can give it away with Shell Game. It isn’t doing anything. Discard it to the cost of another creature’s power, like a Deep Hyren say. Decks that can find a use for the leftovers can really milk a lot of value out of this creature.

Seaweed Lascinth – 3

This is a mean attacker in a region not really focused on attacking things until they die. However, Reflexes is always, always good if this thing survives the round, and Weave even helps it do that a little better than average.

Sphor – 4

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the phrase, “And my Sphor gains an energy” over kitchen table games of MND. Scavenge triggers when anything happens. Phrup. Wellisk. Leftover Sea Barl dies. Orlon’s Ring kills something Arosa just stole. Deep Hyren. River Abaquist. Regular Abaquist. All the things I just mentioned are good cards you should probably be putting in your decks and Sphor triggers on all of them, as well as a host of other Orothe cards as well as just having things die to attacks. Normally a 3.5 is the rating I give cards that need other things to be good, but the sheer breadth of activators for Scavenge means that it’ll always just happen through the course of normal play. You don’t have to put in any extra work here.

Spray Narth – 3.5

Unlike in Arderial, where you can sort-of play this in a normal deck, mono-Orothe decks don’t have time for this because splashing Pharan isn’t great. However, the Arderial/Orothe dual-region deck is still a very real thing and this is an auto-include in there.

Surf Diel – 2

They’ll kill this little bugger before Comb the Beach ever triggers. That means, it’s a 3.5-level anti-Cald tool and the narrow nature of this combined with the condition of “before the Attack Step” means on the whole I’d give it a 2.

Sylorum – 3

Here’s what Sylorum can reasonably pay for with Relic Affinity: Hubdra’s Spear, Orathan Amulet, Book of Ages, Dream Balm, Forgotten Dancer, Gauntlets of Colossal Power, and Mirror Pendant. I might be missing something here, and I didn’t check Arderial for the dual-region deck, but that’s all right to be getting on with. If you’re planning on making heavy use out of any of those relics, Sylorum can be like making a down payment. Energizing creatures are pretty good in general because free energy is always good. This dude is a tad on the expensive side of things, but there’s some room to experiment with. It’ll never be a top-tier card but it’s fun.

Tidal Karak – 2

Same problem as regular Karak: they’ll just kill it, coupled with the less useful “non-Universal” and “discard pile” means this card is bad. Like I said earlier though, I love the combo with Ebylon, another bad card.

Weethan – 2

Too small to matter much. They’ll just kill it and then draw a bunch of cards and you’ll be sad.

Wellisk – 4

Shockwave is good right? This costs 2 less. Sure, they can kill it but then they had to spend their time doing so. Got worse when Crushing spells hit the market but that’s what Phrup is for. This is another good piece in the Orothe control game.

Wellisk Pup – 3

Erratic Shield is good 67% of the time and when it’s bad you’re only out 2 energy. Their creature still had to attack it, so it’s not like it can attack again this turn. Better than it might look. Still not amazing or anywhere in that neighborhood. Sort of hilarious with Orlon.

Creatures: TLDR

5

Giant Parathin

Reef Hyren

Sea Barl

4

Bog Wellisk

Hurricane Orish

Iximin

Phrup

Sphor

Wellisk

3.5

Cawh

Coral Hyren

Deep Barl

Deep Hyren

Iceberg Hyren

River Abaquist

Spray Narth

3

Abaquist

Blue Yajo

Coral Pyder

Deep Wellisk

Monsoon Hyren

Nalo

Orathan

Platheus

Saladarit

Sarazen Guard

Seaweed Lascinth

Sylorum

Wellisk Pup

2.5

Bubble Xyx

Corf

Hunter Jile

Karak

Megathan

Orpus

Pearl Hyren

Porphin

2

Allio

Bwill

Paralit

Sarazen Keeper

Surf Diel

Tidal Karak

Weethan

1

Husp

Relics

Barqua’s Bubble – 4

This is one of the game’s premier defensive relics, as it can shut down an endless list of things. You’ll definitely want one in your control decks, if not two. It’s expensive and a bit unwieldy with the shuffling back in, otherwise it would get a 5.

Corf Pearl – 2

Wow. A 50-50 chance to not screw me over.

Horn of Renewal – 2

All this does is basically let you try and refill after they Vaporize you. That’s very thin. If it let you refill your deck with Warrior’s Boots this card would be pretty cool. It doesn’t.

Hubdra’s Chest – 3.5

The treasure chest does two things for you. Lock Box (this card was printed shortly after the Gore v. Bush election and Lock Box was a pretty big joke on SNL) is relatively inconsequential but is a small punish against single-target relic removal like Relic Stalker, Raxis, or Oranragan. We can mostly ignore this ability, as it doesn’t come up. What you’re playing Chest for is Safe Deposit, allowing a magi to set up a ton of Orothe relics and perform economic suicide (a term coined in the old-school Prima strategy guide), which is finding a way to kill your own magi so you control the terms of the flip. In other words, it allows your deck to play one-of copies of all your important relics but make use of them on two different magi. That’s a big deal for relic decks and means this is a must in those styles of deck. It gets a 3.5 because obviously it doesn’t do anything unless you have a bunch of other relics.

Hubdra’s Cube – 5

Hubdra made some pretty nice relics and but this one takes the cake. I can’t think of a single Orothe deck that doesn’t run at least one of this card, if not two. I don’t think any run three, but it’s a relic. Three-of relics are quite rare to begin with. I’ve said before that stealing something is twice as good as killing it and Cube applies that concept to relics. The best part about this card is it’s 100% free of charge.

Hubdra’s Spear – 4

Stab is an expensive power but it has the potential to kill magi out of nowhere. Orothe has some other ways to deal direct damage to a magi, but you can also just use removal spells and powers on all their creatures in the first PRS Step and attack them to death. You don’t even have to kill them with Stab for it to be good. Just having the conditional ability to take a big chunk of energy away from them is pretty great.

Karak Band – 3.5

Before the errata, this relic led to some really broken stuff, netting about an energize worth of energy on multiple turns over the course of a game. Even at once per turn it’s very nice. River Abaquist costs 2 once you’re set up, and this gives you back 2. Obviously it’s nuts with Arosa because she’ll automatically trigger Acquisition every turn thanks to Shell Game. If your deck doesn’t have many theft abilities in it this card isn’t worth the slot, so it’s mostly only seen in Arosa or other relic-based strategies.

Karak Ink – 3

This is the least powerful Karak relic, but only because you’d really want access to Cloud against the opponent’s setup magi and there’s no way to guarantee drawing it outside of starting with Quilla which most decks don’t want to do. When you can play it in a good spot, Cloud is quite strong and definitely worth the 1 energy cost. It’s just not going to happen every game.

Karak Necklace – 3.5

See Karak Band. The trigger condition is the same, as is the errata which makes it once per turn. None for You gives this relic additional upside against enemy Orothe or Core decks which tend to steal a lot of your stuff, and that’s a really big swing.

Orathan Amulet – 2.5

Before Daybreak, this card was a meme. There were only 2 Orathans and the Flyer already has an energize of 2. Arderial/Orothe decks just have better stuff to do. Gets a little better after Daybreak. Still kind-of a meme.

Orlon’s Ring – 3.5

Purity rings are very good overall and this is probably the best one. In any Orothe relic deck it’s generating tons of energy, which means your magi can safely spend a ton and not worry so much about conserving some in case of death. In Arosa decks, this is also a zero-energy removal spell you get every turn. Like some of the other relics on this list, it’s a 3.5 rating because you need to set it up. The payoff is outstanding though.

Orothean Belt – 3.5

Hydromancy is a very nice effect with very little support. Submerge is the only reasonable Orothe spell that adds energy. It is a good one, but playing a support card that only affects up to three other cards in your deck isn’t great. If you’re playing this card, you need to be running either Heal or Voice of the Storms, because Hydromancy will trigger separately on each creature you spread the boosts to. That can be an amazing combo but does require you build a bit differently than you see a lot of the time.

Orothean Gloves – 2.5

Useful in combination with specific creatures, the best of which is certainly Deep Hyren. It can also (maybe) let your Sea Barl use Lore twice, but your opponent probably won’t allow that sort of nonsense. A list of other things it benefits: Blue Yajo, Monsoon Hyren, Platheus, Saladarit, Bubble Xyx, Karak, and Tidal Karak. These creatures are all aggressively medium or worse, which is the main issue with Orothean Gloves. Unlike the Belt, it doesn’t have an incredible upside either.

Orothean Goggles – 5

Every magi will benefit from having this card in play as Foresight smooths out your draw for the turn. If you’re drawing extra cards, you can use it to see what you’ll have access to right away. It also synergizes with the few other abilities that let you reveal the top X cards of your deck, making it a little bit more likely to hit what you want. It’s also an Orothe relic for everything that cares about how many of those you have in play. The reason this gets a 5 and not a 4 is that you’re going to be doing this for free turn after turn and it often slides somewhat under the radar compared to other things you’re doing to your opponent. Your opponent will usually feel bad about committing energy or even a Relic Stalker to killing this card, because it’s not really affecting the board at all. All in all, this is one of the subtle reasons Orothe control decks can be as good as they are.  

Orothean Horn – 1

Boy was this card good before errata. This was the reason an Orothe Fatty deck was powerful back in the day, because you could look for something with Goggles and then get a free Colossus or whatever. Now that the creature can’t attack at all, you have to be doing something incredibly wacky to even consider plaything with this card in your 40 and even then it’s probably not worth it. You can’t get a Cawh. You have to run a high concentration of big stuff for Call of the Sea to have a good chance at hitting something. It’s just too bad now.

Parathin Shell – 3

I don’t like that this costs 3. At 2 I would be really excited about it (probably). Barqua’s Bubble this ain’t.

Sphor Charm – 2

For this card to be good you have to pack your deck full of Parathin Shells or Vault of Knowledge Keys or whatever. Half the 2-cost relics are better in play than when discarded to Resourceful. I love this idea but it just doesn’t get there.

The Last Words – 1

This stops you from being able to use Hubdra’s Spear or Maelstrom or even Implosion on a magi. These are Orothe’s main ways of killing a magi and Orothe traditionally has no problem controlling the board. Unlike in Cald where the power can make up for the drawback some of the time, in Orothe this card is a trap.

Vault of Knowledge Key – 2.5

Get out your magnifying glass friends. There’s a lot of text on this one. Let’s deal with one effect at a time. We can generally disregard the nameless effect since it doesn’t ever come up though it does mean Qwade can’t play this with Agram’s Staff and it also means you don’t want to put it in decks with Storm of Fishes or Riptide. Animite Infusion lets you double up on relic powers once and then discard those relics after. The only thing I’ve ever seen this card duplicate is a Mirror Pendant, letting O’Qua use Conjure three times in a turn for tons of energy. That deck was a weird version of Interchange that would apply the Will of Orothe + Entangle lock, Burrow a Giant Parathin, and make all their creatures attack it to essentially wipe the board every turn. It was incredibly difficult to pilot correctly and way too complicated but it was pretty sweet. I only mention it because it’s the only time I’ve ever seen a Vault of Knowledge Key in play. Archive has a little more utility, allowing you to turn other relics into additional copies of Warrior’s Boots or whatever, especially in combination with Animite Infusion. The thing is, typically you play relics because you want to keep them in play and use them so this is only marginally useful. This relic is a shame, as Orothe is the “big relic region” and I wish it had access to a win-condition-like relic. This would have been it but it really doesn’t do much.

Relics: TLDR

5

Hubdra’s Cube

Orothean Goggles

4

Barqua’s Bubble

Hubdra’s Spear

3.5

Hubdra’s Chest

Karak Band

Karak Necklace

Orlon’s Ring

Orothean Belt

3

Karak Ink

Parathin Shell

2.5

Orothean Gloves

Vault of Knowledge Key

2

Corf Pearl

Horn of Renewal

Sphor Charm

1

Orothean Horn

The Last Words

Spells

Boil – 2

This card is pretty bad unfortunately. At face value, you’re probably losing energy. They’d need six creatures in play for me not to be sad, and that pretty much only happens on a flip turn if ever. Yes, it’s good against Orothe and destroys Bograth, but most decks don’t have room for a hoser card they can’t make use of in situations where it isn’t good. Cald being able to play it doesn’t really matter either, because they have Wildfire.

Crushing Surf – 4

I’ll say it once per review, but Crushing spells are good and they warp the game around them. This card is quite good. It’s medium-sized removal, controls enemy relics, and triggers your Karak Band and Karak Necklace. Even if you don’t have those relics in play, this card is a casual three-for-one.

Curse of the Abaquist – 3.5

This is a great one-of spell. It’s powerful and you’re not really losing out on card economy since stealing their creature is already a two-for-one. You don’t want too many of the Curse because it’s pretty situational. Orothe doesn’t have too much access to growth effects. This is another fantastic reason to put Sphor in your decks though.

Entangle – 3

An annoying piece of disruption that most decks don’t utilize because it’s somewhat inefficient (3 energy plus a card, passive rather than active). You have to be winning to make Entangle useful, but it can lock people out. In casual games of MND a turn is not a big deal, but at the competitive level that should be enough time to get a lot accomplished. Also some Interchange decks have the ability to loop this with Will of Orothe but that’s pretty difficult to pull off.

Implosion – 2.5

An inefficient way to damage magi is still a way to damage magi. I’ve died to this card lots of times. That said, it is very inefficient and most decks would rather splash for a Maelstrom and pay the one extra energy. Mostly played because O’Qua starts with one if you want her to.

Owinda’s Gift – 3.5

I’m amazed they printed this card the way they did. Four cards? Incredible. Post errata, we’re looking at a medium-power Gift spell. You probably want to be returning your used-up Sea Barls to hand, but there’s also Phrup, a Deep Wellisk that has activated once, or a free Bog Wellisk.

Pillar of Brine – 2.5

It’s cheap enough for the effect. The question is when is this a useful effect, and the answer is not often.

Possession’s Glee – 1

This card is the most win-more card I can imagine. Look, you already stole their guy. Play actual good cards instead of trying to swing the game this hard. Having dead draws in MND is pretty awful. It’s bad in most card games but when the decks have much less variance what do you want to introduce a bunch of it for? Submerge is almost as good a rate as this card anyway.

Ripcurl – 4

That’s a big swing. Four energy for eight energy worth of stuff. This is a good card that I’ve never seen played. It probably should see more play than it does.

Ripple – 2

This card is way too fiddly for comprehension and has a pretty small effect to begin with. Even if you’re messing around with Orothean Belt this card is too wonky.

Riptide – 3.5

This is a very powerful control tool and doesn’t cost you much at 2 energy. I see two homes for it. The first would be some sort of “fair” deck that doesn’t plan on drawing tons of cards and is content with the normal two per turn (maybe Fatties). The second would be in a deck that can dump its whole hand on a magi flip and then try to ice the game with a Riptide (Orothean Belt decks or some versions of Interchange).

Shell – 3

Here’s another reason you don’t see Entangle that much anymore. This card accomplishes a similar task, also protects against hand discard (which is relatively rare I’ll admit), and is one energy cheaper. You can’t loop it turn after turn like you can with Entangle, but if you’re just using it to protect your post-flip board for a turn, that’s pretty good. Post errata they can still Ormagon you but you’ve got Reef Hyren or Phrup or Wellisk right? Also, Shell doesn’t stop enemies from doing their own thing with spells and magi powers, it just protects yours.

Spirit of Orothe – 4

This is one of the better Spirit spells. If you notice, Orothean Goggles and Hubdra’s Cube both received stellar ratings and the flexibility to choose any Orothe creature in your discard pile (because you have to pick from there first and if one of your magi is dead, there’s at least one creature in there) is quite nice as well. None of those cards are even limited by deck type. This is also probably just a strict upgrade going into Quilla.

Storm of Fishes – 3.5

If you can build your deck without spells or without relics, this card can be a big deal. Even in a normal deck, you can just play out all your relics before choosing relics and you can make this a one-sided effect. Same goes for spells but that’s a bit more difficult to pull off because spells actually cost energy.

Submerge – 3

It’s not as common as a starting card as Arbolit or Shooting Star, but several Orothe magi do start with this card. It’s a good card too, just not incredible.

Tidal Wave – 3.5

It’s expensive but it does the job. This card wants you to play Robes of the Ages. Also, unless you’re playing a dual-region magi, this card is strictly better than splashing Shockwave. Even when Awakening was the new hotness I saw Orothe decks splashing Shockwave a decent amount. Between this and Undertow you should never splash Shockwave in your Orothe decks. Hitting two things happens very rarely but it’s nice to have the option.

Typhoon – 2

Imagine if you roll a 1. Now understand the fact that unless you’re rolling a 5-6 you’d probably be much happier with a Deep Hyren. Typhoon is just so expensive. That’s why I’ve only ever seen this card in decks with Aula, Mindseeker since she can draw 4 cards by discarding it.

Undertow – 4

In 9 of 10 scenarios, this card is better than Shockwave in pure Orothe decks. The only time shuffling something back into their deck is bad is when they have tutor effects like Hyren’s Call/Nocturne or O’Qua’s Conjure (only in Interchange). Shuffling back is even a bonus against discard pile-centric decks like some versions of d’Resh. Even if they draw the creature again, they still have to spend the energy to play it.

Will of Orothe – 3.5

This card is expensive but its effect is undeniably powerful. Because it’s so expensive, you mostly see it played in Interchange decks that have the ability to use multiple magi worth of energy in a single turn. Even in those decks, you still need some way to create bad attacks for them to make. This can lock players out of the game though, especially when combined with Entangle. Unlike Entangle, this can also just dominate the board for a big swing. Be careful playing this card against Paradwyn because of Spell Pulse.

Spells: TLDR

5

N/A

4

Crushing Surf

Ripcurl

Spirit of Orothe

Undertow

3.5

Curse of the Abaquist

Owinda’s Gift

Riptide

Storm of Fishes

Tidal Wave

Will of Orothe

3

Entangle

Shell

Submerge

2.5

Implosion

Pillar of Brine

2

Boil

Ripple

Typhoon

1

Possession’s Glee

Find all the regional reviews on the Magi-Nation Duel hub page. Swim with Orothe, or the fishes!

MND Regional Review: The Underneath

Magi-Nation Card Review

Underneath
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

Bronk – 2

Conceal is not very useful. The best thing you can do with it is try to get a Freep to go off, and that would be quite useful except they can kill it with any sort of small removal. Conceal even specifies Underneath creatures so there’s no splashing shenanigans that are possible with him either. It’s a shame because this could have been something cool.

Celebrated Hero – 3.5

Mr. Muscles is a very cool magi. As long as you’re not going first, 10/7 is much more manageable than 10/6, especially in regions that have the ability to defend for a second. Starting with a way to draw cards in Gogor’s Spade is really nice for Underneath, as it has little access to extra card draw in region. The creatures are fine as well. Pump You Up requires Celebrated Hero to play dual-region KT creatures (like Akkar) or be in a Burrow deck (oh no), but this is a relatively small cost. Skipping your draw step does hurt most decks a lot, but Gogor’s Spade can help make up for that. If you’re not building your deck to take advantage of Pump You Up, you shouldn’t be playing Celebrated Hero, so he gets a 3.5 out of me. Also, you can run a full KT/UD deck as there are 3 magi to support it.

D’Jarvish – 3.5

Here’s another magi who goes in Burrow decks quite well. Strengthen is a small effect but boosting Burrowed creatures goes quite a long way since the energy tends to stick around for a while. Escape is nice but you still have to spend the energy to play the creature again so it’s not incredible. It does become pretty nice if he has a Motash’s Staff in play, since this will provide him the energy to play the creature again, and it’s obviously good with Sikra as well. In Underneath, Sikra is really the only Illusion worth mentioning but it is a very good card and he starts with it. There’s no d’Resh/UD deck so don’t waste time trying to figure that one out.

Emaal – 3

This magi is very annoying in the middle of your stack (obviously don’t play her last!). Sabotage makes it so your magi can flip over, play Ormagon and revenge kill them and digs you one card further into your deck in the process. She’s still not incredible.

Fossik – 2

Would you play a 10/8 (ish) magi that draws only one card per turn in a region that struggles with drawing cards to begin with? I wouldn’t, but it’s not the absolute worst. Not being able to gain that three energy during your turn to, you know, attack with it or what have you is a drawback as well.

Fossik, Ringsmith – 3

On the other hand, I would play this version. 12/6 is acceptable and Strengthen lets you actively make use of the extra energy. There’s also an enormous difference between seeing only one new card per turn and choosing to discard one. At least this way you can see more cards from your deck and actually have the normal amount of options.

Gogor – 3

Gravel Storm is really expensive but it can be a game winner. Again, this magi only goes in Burrow decks and is generally worse than the other two we have looked at so far. They get to use their powers and effects every turn. OG (Original Gogor) does not, and his energy numbers are overall worse than the others to boot.

Gruk – 2

How the mighty have fallen. When MND was brand new, Gruk was the most powerful magi in the game. There were a lot of tricks you could do, but Gloves of Crystal + Vulbor after locking down the board was so good 2i hit her with an errata, errata’ed just about every Undream-type ability there is, printed a gazillion cards that punish hand discard, and stopped printing creatures with hand discard abilities (more or less). Discard was so effective, even though you draw 2 cards per turn, because you draw them at the end of your turn. The opponent therefore had the opportunity to prevent you from ever having a hand to do anything with your energy. It doesn’t matter how big your magi’s energize is if they don’t have any cards to play. This was also an environment in which nuking your opponent’s hand size was more possible as most of the things that allowed players to draw enormous amounts of cards had not yet been printed. Turns out when you can make your opponent not play the game at all, it’s not a very fun game. I’ve been Vulbor Locked before. It’s horrible. As for nowadays, I can’t think of a single thing that makes Gruk worth putting into your deck. I’ll still give her a 2 because reasons.

Gulg – 4

This decrepit old man doesn’t play around. Fortify is a very strong power in any deck with reasonable creatures and is pretty nuts if your army is Burrowed. He also just starts with Strag’s Claws which is quite a silly card and also encourages you to attack stuff.

Gyrg – 2

Why? Why does he have to be 10/5? Yes, Digging Mastery does nothing in the region’s central theme because Burrow supersedes it, but he could have helped make non-Burrow control decks more of a thing. Starting with a Grakanden is so cool. I’ve said it before, but 10/5 is awful.

Motash – 2

She has a 4 energize which is awful but at least she has some energy on the flip. I really have no idea why she has a 4 energize though, because Escape isn’t all that powerful. All it does is allow you to conserve some card economy in a region that needs to make their cards count. This is not nothing, but your magi need to DO STUFF!

Myka – 5

Oh Myka, we adore you. You just never die. Underneath is a slow, methodical region that needs lots of time to assemble the Voltron of burrow cards or whatever else it’s doing. Myka gives you that time, first by being 14/6 which allows her to out-energize many magi over the long run and second by shrugging off turns that would certainly kill other magi. She doesn’t actually do anything, relying 100% on her cards for any actual impact on the game, but she gets a 5 anyway because every time I flip her up my opponent groans. Every time. Also, her quote is a reference to Mystery Men, one of my favorite movies. That’s neither here nor there but I just wanted to mention it.

Prek – 3.5

Here’s the second KT/UD magi, thanks to Kinship. She can’t play Kybar’s Fang though, which is a shame since she wants to be using relics. Thankfully, Tech Savvy does not have a “minimum of one” clause in there so she’s just encouraged to play all kinds of relics and to use them. Both KT and UD have some really nice relics and relic synergies, so Prek can do some cool stuff. She also draws lots of Parmalags for that Radget deck.

Radget – 3.5

All her metrics check out just fine, so that’s a good start. Refresh is a waste of time unless you’ve got a Parmalag in play, in which case it’s great. This means Radget only has one home: the Parmalag theme deck … which is more for fun than very competitive. Still, there’s enough Parmalags out there.

Sorrowing Ogar – 3.5

UnderCore decks are quite real thanks to Urhail and Cleansing. It’s also probably the best thing you can be doing in Underneath: playing non-Underneath cards! I joke but in all seriousness, Underneath decks that aren’t Burrow decks have to play some questionable cards to fill out the 40. An UnderCore control deck gets to play all the really silly Underneath cards and supplement them with good Core control spells backed by Urhail and Mantle of Shadow if necessary. Sorrowing Ogar is far and away the best choice for those type of decks thanks to Vile Memories.

Strag – 4

I’ve played more hours with Strag than with any other single magi in MND. While he might look innocuous, let’s review. 13/5: not amazing but checks out. Bottomless Pit is a nice little removal spell and he starts with Strag’s Claws and Strag’s Ring, both of which are incredible. Just don’t have Strag as your opener and he can draw a nice little bundle of cards when he flips up. As for Defense, it makes attacking his board a chore if he’s playing straight up and if he’s got a burrowed team it makes it actively bad. Sometimes the best tactic against Burrow players is to just suck it up and chip down their creatures with attacks. Burrow players try to make you think this is a bad idea (and I mean you’re never happy about it) but Underneath is so slow that by the time you get through their thing they might not be able to punish you. It’s when you stop pressuring them that they’re able to build up and if they can do that, enjoy your difficult game against them. Strag blocks this line of play more or less completely. In any other region, he wouldn’t be incredible but Underneath has to take it where we can.

Trug – 3

This guy is a meme. He can’t actually use Cataclysm when he flips up and if not then, when? The old-school combo was Mobis + Trug to give him enough energy but you can also try to do the same thing with Lady of the Sky or by leaving him an energy boost with Trygar. Funnily enough, this means Trug has more of a chance being seen out of Underneath than in it. In Underneath specifically though, giving him at least three extra energy (which you can do with Trygar + Freep) allows him to play Hidden Door before using Cataclysm.

Trygar – 4

The only true setup magi Underneath has access to. He doesn’t draw extra cards. What he does is have a 6 energize and sit behind a wall of Pylofuf while he draws the normal two cards per turn. Then, when he dies, Avenger lets him give your next magi a little help. Leaving an Ormagon out there if you have a Dream Balm in hand is a nice welcoming gift, or perhaps gifting his buddy Trug a nice little Freep, maybe even getting a Tunnel Hyren into play so you don’t have to spend 9 energy on the silly thing. As a side benefit, his starting cards give you a Burrowed attacker right away, so he can even put on a bit of pressure.

Ulmi – 3.5

As far as theme decks go, Crystal Affinity is quite a good payoff. Here’s what she discounts: Crystals Jile, Parmalag, Hyren, Saris, Twinklet, Lascinth, and Arboll for creatures (which [except for the Parmalag] also benefit from Resist) as well as the spell Crystal Shield (Goblet already costs 1). Plus there’s more support from Daybreak and an Unreleased Promo. The big draws here are that Crystal Arboll is already quite a good creature and is completely bonkers if it costs 1, and the fact that Crystal Goblet is a draw engine of sorts which UD desperately needs. Then you just have to figure out what you’re doing with a bunch of other medium creatures in your deck.

Ulk – 2

The Korrit theme magi, Ulk suffers because other than the basic one, Korrits are not good at all. Also, even if they were better than they are, Strengthen means they would have to survive an enemy turn before you get any value and that’s just bad.

Ulk, Prodigy – 3

While Korrits still stink, she now gives them a much more immediate boost via Fungal Bloom, as well as protects them some with Resistance. That’s an improvement for sure. The biggest improvement to Ulk was starting with Spore Vashp and Amulet of Ombor which are both excellent cards.

Magi: TLDR

5

Myka

4

Gulg

Strag

Trygar

3.5

Celebrated Hero

D’Jarvish

Prek

Radget

Sorrowing Ogar

Ulmi

3

Emaal

Fossik, Ringsmith

Gogor

Trug

Ulk, Prodigy

2.5

N/A

2

Bronk

Fossik

Gruk

Gyrg

Motash

Ulk

1

N/A

Creatures

Agovo – 2.5

This card is not remotely good enough, even in Underneath which wants all the help drawing cards it can get. Lore is exactly on rate at 2 energy for 1 card. The problem is, your Agovo will never survive to do it twice, in which case you’re out 4 energy for 1 extra card and that’s paying double. I don’t want to pay double.

Akkar – 4

This creature is extremely solid. In Big Underneath (decks with most creatures around 6 energy, magi around 6-7 energize), this is probably your best creature because Rolling Thunder will almost always be active and because it’s turning a 6-7 into an 8-9, which is at or above Nar level. Invulnerability (2) means Akkar is quite durable as well. The only time this disappoints is when you can’t play it, but even with normal energize rates this comes up somewhat rarely.

Athik – 2.5

This is one of the better anti-Core creatures, because Smite is enormously strong (RIP All-High King Korg). However, it’s still very narrow.

Bisiwog – 2

Not a threat. Additionally, Burrow decks need to be playing abilities that let their team attack anyway, so having a small creature that can do this on its own is low-impact and redundant. They’re cute though.

Brub – 2

Speaking of low-impact and cute, Scrubbing Bubbles here does nothing at all. No one plays Korrits, and even if you’re playing a Korrit deck with Ulk you’d rather keep your Korrits around than feed them to this thing.

Cave Hyren – 2.5

There’s nothing really wrong with Cave Hyren. It’s just extremely generic and doesn’t advance any of Underneath’s typical goals.

Cave Rudwot – 3

Defense is actually pretty nice if they have to attack this guy and synergizes well with Underneath defensive abilities. Good enough as a starting card some of the time.

Crystal Arboll – 3

If you have deck space for this card, it can be quite impactful. Four energy is a big boost. The issue isn’t whether Crystal Arboll is effective, it’s whether you want this kind of one-shot growth ability and can find room for it in your 40 cards. I’ve found I often can’t but it always feels good when I play it.

Crystal Hyren – 2.5

This card is an odd design. There aren’t that many spells that stay in play (though the ones that do are usually pretty annoying). Illuminate therefore doesn’t matter a lot of the time, as it doesn’t have targets against many decks. Ricochet also doesn’t matter a lot of the time, because your opponent controls when it triggers and they can manage the energy loss somewhat easily. Overall, do you want a 6-energy creature with very low impact on the board? Unless you’re Ulmi I don’t think you do. She might play it as a one-of for those few times where Illuminate comes in handy.

Crystal Jile – 3.5

Earthbond has some potential for giving your magi lots of energy. At its worst, Crystal Jile is a free 2-energy creature, and that’s really not bad. If you can support it to ever use Earthbond a second time, you’re really far ahead.

Crystal Lascinth – 3

Since Spines triggers whether they attack the Lascinth or something else, it’s not too bad. It also gets better against Core and synergizes with other Underneath defensive tactics. This is a hate card that’s worth playing, especially if you run Ulmi.

Crystal Parmalag – 3

In some ways, this is a miniature Colossus. Only Radget and Ulmi would really be interested in this card though, since 7 energy is definitely not 12 and because it doesn’t have synergy in a Burrow deck.

Crystal Saris – 2.5

Even if it’s burrowed, they can just attack into it to stop Regenerate from happening. Effects like this get better in multiples because they can only attack so many creatures in a turn, so if you have a lot of them you’ll probably get at least some of the triggers. Four energy is a bit of an awkward spot as a result of Crushing spells though.

Crystal Twinklet – 3.5

This is probably the most interesting of the Crystal creatures. As opposed to a little energy boost on Crystal Saris, drawing a card from Dream Charge is wonderful. This also helps protect itself with Deflect, which can bounce most spells and powers back onto enemy creatures. If you can protect this, you’ve got some card draw!

Freep – 2.5

Obviously a 4-energy boost to your magi is great. The difficulty is in actually getting this card to stick around long enough to use Refresh. It’s even too small to benefit from Burrow, so that’s a pretty tall order. Mostly used with Trygar because Bronk is bad.

Ghost Bwisp – 3

Digging Goggles is the preferred way to get this effect. However, Ghost Bwisp appears as a starting card enough that you’ll probably play one in your Burrow decks and you’ll be perfectly happy to do so. He won’t last very long in play most of the time, so enjoy it while you have access.

Giant Korrit – 3

Pack Hunt allows Giant Korrit to trade its attack for +5 damage on another creature’s attack. This is clearly only useful for killing big stuff and that’s actually where Underneath needs more help (they’ve got small stuff covered). Thing is, Korrits are very slow because of how the phases of play are structured. There are just so many less expensive options to accomplish a similar job.

Giant Parmalag – 2

Outside of Radget, who can kind-of stall with this thing, nobody want this power because decks don’t have problems killing 2-energy creatures outside the Attack Step.

Giant Vulbor – 2.5

In combination with other hand discard abilities, you have a decent creature. As far as Giant Vulbor is concerned, it’s a shame those are so thin on the ground nowadays.

Grakanden – 4

This card is awesome. Interaction is pretty rare and, while they can play the spell again on their next turn, they’ve still paid the energy for it. Most spells you’re interested in “countering” with Grounding cost more than three energy anyway, so you’re probably also getting an advantage this way. The only hurdle with Grakanden is actually playing one as he’s an expensive bugger.

Granas – 4

This card hits all the right notes. It’s good on defense thanks to Burrow. It’s good on offense thanks to Pummel, even after they chip it down a bit. Any magi with a reasonable energize rate can play it in a turn. What’s not to love? The only bone I have to pick with this card (in Underneath specifically) is the fact that so many people play it in their Burrow decks. That’s not necessarily bad, it’s just not burrowed on your turn so a lot of the synergies there will frequently turn off.

Gum-Gum – 2

Does nothing. They just won’t attack it.

Hubram – 3.5

Drawing a card is worth 2 energy, which is the cost of a Hubram. Hubram allows you to draw a card, it just happens to be a very specific card. Underneath has some very strong spells even though most of them suck. I’ll be honest, the only thing you’re ever going to Dreamfetch is a Crushing Fungus. Your opponent is never coming back from 6 Crushing Fungus over the course of a game. They probably can’t come back from 2.

Jore – 3.5

Obviously super good in Burrow decks and only in Burrow decks. You only need two other creatures that benefit from Nourish because energy on burrowed creatures goes a long way.

Kier – 2.5

It’s like a Granas that is too expensive and requires a lot of work in order to Burrow itself. Also, it doesn’t un-burrow when you might want it to. Pass.

Korrit – 3

Like a Giant Korrit except cheaper and smaller. You’ll find more spots where you can play this one and the combo with Parmalag is nice, but it’s still slow.

Magma Parmalag – 2.5

Unlike in Cald where this could be a fun build-around, Underneath has Burrow decks where this ability is pretty useless. Yes, it still does stuff there but the cost is pretty steep. This would have to go in some sort of non-Burrow Underneath aggro deck starring Gulg but I’m not sure that deck exists.

Muggum – 3

Here’s a cheap way to get your key creature(s) burrowed for a short amount of time. It is vastly more energy efficient than the actual spell, Burrow, so any deck that is thinking about playing that spell can think about playing a Muggum instead. However, being a creature, it’s more limited when you can play this during a turn. Also … Bronk synergy! Oy.

Mushroom Hyren – 3

Don’t get confused by the errata on lackey, you still have to bounce the creature. For some reason they removed that text on its lackey entry in which case this card would be obnoxiously broken. This can combo with Gloves of Crystal + Ormagon but that’s expensive as hell. Mostly what you can do is turn a small energy profit from bouncing Sikra, but also allows you to reset Granas or Pylofuf that have fallen low.

Ormagon – 5

Speaks for itself. Though I will say the fact that people splash this thing in a lot of non-Arderial decks (they have Cataclysm) is one of the most persuasive reasons for playing an Underneath deck I can think of.

Ormalet – 3

This card is fine but between regular Ormagon and Thunderquake you just don’t seem them in play too often.

Pack Korrit – 1

Korrit deck isn’t a thing, effectively discards itself to its own power, then has to have another two Korrits in play to be useful. Nope.

Parmalag – 3

This is a card that is worth boosting up with other cards. Shield is very strong but suffers from being on a low-energy creature. If you have Korrits or Crystal Arbolls this thing can put in work. The problem with that is then you’re playing all kinds of medium cards against people with much higher card quality.

Phosphor Hyren – 2.5

This art is incredible. This creature isn’t. It isn’t actually difficult to get higher than 7 energy or to chip this down with direct damage or to just discard it from play. Also, you can’t burrow it so it doesn’t fit into a Burrow deck, where it might otherwise be kind-of cool to protect your Tunnel Hyren except, oh wait, it doesn’t do that anyway. Bottom line, this is paying a lot of energy for a defensive ability that is pretty easy to get around.

Pillar Hyren – 3

You can actually burrow this for good effect, not that you really need to. This is a much better pseudo-Colossus but doesn’t see play because of its high cost. It’s probably worth messing with a little.

Pylofuf – 5

This is the best Underneath card draw spell we got. It just sits there, letting you stall out the game until you draw enough cards the fair way to be able to do what you’re trying to. Unlike Granas, this card doesn’t even really tempt you to attack with it and fits better into Burrow decks because it’s always active. Also, for whatever reason, people do not play aggressively into this thing when most of the time they should.

Rabid Bisiwog – 3.5

If you can get this slavering beast to attack, it’s well worth it. Needs Warrior’s Boots but that’s a decent-sized swing. This is another card for those Korrit decks, because when you can get a double attack out of a Korrit, that’s value.

Sarazen Keeper – 2

This card asks too much of you and will therefore never do anything. You have to have 12 energy cost worth of creatures (unless you’re splashing for the Outcast in which case it’s still 10) to draw a card from Strength in Union. Never happening. Forged Alliance requires this plus a hyren, which is more doable but you’re probably only getting one energy onto itself. Big deal.

Sikra – 4

As long as you can manage to not die to the Illusion text (much easier in Underneath than in d’Resh because of its defensive nature), Sikra is extremely efficient and durable.

Spore Vashp – 3.5

Like Hubram, this card allows you to continue to generate value from cards you’ve already played, which is important since card draw is limited. True Form is a great build-around power, because you need to engineer situations where both options are bad for your opponent, otherwise they’ll just give you the low-threat option. If you’ve already shown your opponent a Dream Balm or you’re playing as Celebrated Hero, let’s say, they can’t just let you have an Ormagon back so you can almost get anything else.

Striped Korrit – 2.5

They’ll just attack this first or, God forbid, Crush it. I’m not sure Pack Defense has ever triggered in the history of the game.

Syre – 3.5

This card is amazing in Burrow decks. Card draw is good.

Trogovo – 3.5

Ok, so obviously against Core this guy is a liability. However, is it good against non-Core decks? Let’s examine. Inspire reduces your magi’s energize by two, effectively causing you to pay two energy to draw two extra cards. That’s actually good. If they kill it on their turn (unless they’re Core) it’s all upside. If they don’t, you get to draw more cards. To minimize the drawback, you’ll want to play magi with larger energize rates to begin with, magi like Celebrated Hero, Emaal, Myka, Trygar, and Fossik, Ringsmith. That’s a list of some of the better Underneath magi, so I’m not all that disappointed to put them in my stack either. Obviously, Trogovo is best with the former two magi on that list because they’ll still have a normal 5 energize even through Inspire.

Tunnel Hyren – 3.5

Here’s the one card that really lets you Burrow your entire team. This card is a Burrow deck, but not by itself. You have to somehow get it into play with its large cost, and then you have to somehow protect it. That’s a tall order, but if you can set it up it’s righteously powerful.

Tunnel Parmalag – 3

This guy is big and dumb and just fine if you’re in the market for big, fair, slow creatures.

Urhail – 4

If all you do is play one Urhail, you’ll have access to it three different times over the course of the game and that’s powerful. Tainted Dreams is one of the reasons an UnderCore deck is possible and there are lots of good Core spells that are worth playing.

Urigant – 3

This card is odd, burrowing itself at the expense of your other burrowed creatures. Invulnerability (2) is great. This guy is mostly useful against Underneath thanks to his Dig Up effect. As a result, it’s more of a Kybar’s Teeth card but is still cool in non-Burrow Underneath decks.

Venomous Korrit – 1

Narrow and not even incredible. Doesn’t do much against Burrow. It’s another Korrit for Ulk decks I guess…

Vulbor – 2.5

See Gruk.

Weebat – 2.5

An anti-Naroom card they have to play into? Surely not. It’s not strictly terrible because there’s a lot of random things that make it annoying to attack Underneath creatures, and Grounded synergizes with those, even against non-Naroom opponents.

Creatures: TLDR

5

Ormagon

Pylofuf

4

Akkar

Grakanden

Granas

Sikra

Urhail

3.5

Crystal Jile

Crystal Twinklet

Hubram

Jore

Rabid Bisiwog

Spore Vashp

Syre

Trogovo

Tunnel Hyren

3

Cave Rudwot

Crystal Arboll

Crystal Lascinth

Crystal Parmalag

Ghost Bwisp

Giant Korrit

Korrit

Muggum

Mushroom Hyren

Ormalet

Parmalag

Pillar Hyren

Tunnel Parmalag

Urhail

2.5

Agovo

Athik

Cave Hyren

Crystal Hyren

Freep

Giant Vulbor

Kier

Magma Parmalag

Phosphor Hyren

Striped Korrit

Vulbor

Weebat

2

Bisiwog

Brub

Giant Parmalag

Gum-Gum

Sarazen Keeper

1

Pack Korrit

Venomous Korrit

Relics

Amulet of Ombor – 3.5

This is a rare instance of an errata giving a card a buff and I appreciate those. If you’re playing Gate to Ombor, this card will now net you a tutor effect and six energy, which is absolutely crazy. Energy Boost is a 50-50 so if you’re feeling lucky you can get very good results. The negative result isn’t even that terrible if they have two or fewer creatures in play and you can therefore make plays to minimize the risk of a negative result. With the Gate out, you have 2/3 to get the good rolls, so you don’t even need to play Loaded Dice. The real question is, does your deck want Gate to Ombor?

Crystal Goblet – 3.5

This is really the card that makes an Ulmi deck interesting, because card draw.

Digging Goggles – 3.5

Every Burrow deck needs at least two of these, if not the third.

Gate to Ombor – 3.5

Since you don’t want to pay full price for this, it necessitates playing Amulet of Ombor. Ulk, Prodigy does allow you to guarantee this draw with her starting cards. Every Underneath magi starts with Urhail, so in addition to your magi’s printed starting cards, that guy’s always an option. The fact that you can get Urhail on the cheap means this card is most attractive in UnderCore, but it’s fun to brew with even in straight Underneath. Prek can get big Parmalags with it, for example. In decks that run this card, you also want ways to kill magi without attacking, maybe something that makes use of these free creatures, maybe Impact…

Gloves of Crystal – 2.5

See Gruk. This card is still marginally useful, and I guess is funny with Rabid Bisiwog, but there aren’t too many shenanigans you can get up to with it anymore.

Gogor’s Spade – 4

Card draw! It’s better than Crystal Goblet because you A) don’t need to play a Crystal theme deck and 2) get to control when Paydirt triggers.

Gremm’s Hammer – 2.5

It’s so slow but it does let your energy accrue interest over time. If they don’t kill it while you’re charging up that is.

Gremm’s Helmet – 3

This card is hilarious. Unfortunately, some of the best powers specify regions, O’Qua’s Conjure for example or Kalius’ Wind Spawn. Still, there are a lot of good magi where copying their powers and effects can be a big upside. Good examples of this would be stealing Evil Evu’s Devour or Barak’s Prophecy. I’ve never seen anyone else play this card but I’ve had it do good things in a few decks.

Kiesel’s Hammer – 3

A bit weird and situational but can be powerful against regions like Naroom.

Motash’s Staff – 2

When are they ever going to return one of your cards to your hand to begin with, much less with this on your field? That said, it is a combo with exactly D’Jarvish.

Rumble Stones – 3

It’s expensive, but it does hit enemy magi in the process. As long as your first use of Mini-Quake is removing 4+ energy from their field (3+ enemy non-Underneath creatures) this relic is fine.

Staff of Korrits – 2

Do you even want this in Korrit decks? I’m not sure it’s worth the card slot. Pack Hunt is already good value and this doesn’t improve it by much. Pack Hunt is already very rare and this doesn’t make it any easier to get there.

Strag’s Claws – 5

This relic is bonkers. It pays for itself after making one attack (or two if your creature doesn’t survive). How much energy can burrowed creatures lose in a turn? Oh yes, 2. This gives them 2. Even without burrow, this card is still super strong. This is what Underneath does, they have a bunch of pretty medium things going on and then some of their card quality spikes through the roof.

Strag’s Ring – 3.5

One of the better Purity rings. Your Burrow deck needs a way to burrow your Tunnel Hyren and your Celebrated Hero deck needs burrowed things to use Pump You Up, so even in non-Burrow decks starring HansnFrans there, this ring is great. You can’t play this in UnderCore and it does mean you can’t splash for Tradewinds if you would have been inclined to do so, which means the cost is more real than some other regions have to pay.

Tremor Stones – 3

It’s free, so although you must wait a turn, it’s still pretty decent. Plus, if they spend relic removal on this or hit it with Rayje’s Belt, they’re not disrupting your other good relics.

Trygar’s Will – 2.5

Kind of a funny card. It boils down to one energy to blow up one of their things, and that’s likely very good. The problem, obviously, is that your magi has to die before this becomes useful and they’ll see it coming.

Tunneler’s Boots – 3.5

Insane in Burrow decks.

Underlord’s Shield – 2

No one plays enough hand discard for this to matter. If they did it would be pretty cool.

Relics: TLDR

5

Strag’s Claws

4

Gogor’s Spade

3.5

Amulet of Ombor

Crystal Goblet

Digging Goggles

Gate to Ombor

Strag’s Ring

Tunneler’s Boots

3

Gremm’s Helmet

Kiesel’s Hammer

Rumble Stones

Tremor Stones

2.5

Gloves of Crystal

Gremm’s Hammer

Trygar’s Will

2

Motash’s Staff

Staff of Korrits

Underlord’s Shield

1

N/A

Spells

Aglow – 2.5

Burrow decks are pretty darn slow, and what they want is to build up layers and layers of synergy that make their board unstoppable. Aglow gives your Burrow deck a temporary power boost, but that’s not really what it’s looking for.

Atekkia’s Gift – 3

Meh. The big issue here is not with the spell’s text, though it’s not as good as a lot of the other Gift spells already. The issue is, what are you bouncing? A lot of the good Underneath cards either discard themselves to their own power, cost real amounts of energy, or want to stay in play long term. The best you’re getting here is to re-buy something that’s been worn down and you have to wait until that happens to be happy about the energy exchange.

Bottomless Pit – 3

As long as you’re hitting a 3-4 energy creature with this, you’ll be happy with the exchange. There are some really annoying creatures in that energy range and most decks will have enough targets. I wouldn’t play three in a deck, but one is certainly fine.

Burrow – 1

This card is pretty horrendous. It’s a single-use energy-inefficient way to burrow one creature. The only time I’ve ever seen this card be good was in an Orothe Interchange deck. In Underneath, find a better way. Even Muggum is a better way.

Carnivorous Cave – 1

This card costs you 4 most of the time because it’ll hit you too. Not worth it, even in a Burrow deck.

Cave In – 2

This is the same thing but not quite as bad.

Cleansing – 3.5

Here’s another enabler for the UnderCore deck, which is the only one I’d run it in. Since you have some ways to play Core spells already (Urhail and Mantle of Shadows), you can use Cleansing to play Core relics or creatures alongside your powerful Underneath cards. It’s also randomly good against Core if you happen to run into them.

Crushing Fungus – 5

This is the most powerful card left in the game. It is also incredibly un-fun to play against. If you get the bonus effect to go off, you’re not only getting a 4-for-9 energy advantage (on average, often more), you’re usually also preventing them from playing new cards on their next turn. If you ever have 4-energy creatures on the table against Underneath, look out.

Crystal Shield – 3

Unless you’re against Paradwyn (who often pack Spell Pulse), this card is a way to protect your key creature (Tunnel Hyren, Grakanden, etc.). Unlike most of these type of abilities, this one doesn’t fall off after a turn, so it’s actually all right as far as that goes.

Enrich – 2.5

Unlike the cards most similar to this one (Shooting Star and Submerge), your magi don’t start with this and you have to meet the condition of burrowing a creature. Also, like Aglow, your Burrow decks are interested in long-term function rather than one-time boosts.

Entrench – 2

This one has a very low impact on the game. It’s cute that you can Entrench their creature to prevent it from attacking or use it to give one of yours some added defense, but it doesn’t do enough.

Gorgle’s Curse – 3

So your Underneath deck doesn’t have to splash Storm Cloud to kill a Colossus. Then again, your Underneath deck can Burrow and wear down those big dudes over time so it probably doesn’t need this. At least, I’ve never seen one of these played by anyone.

Ground Breaker – 2.5

A somewhat unreliable way to damage magi. I’ve also never seen anyone play this card.

Hidden Door – 2.5

There are plenty of good Underneath relics to go get with this spell. The problem is, unless you’re Trug, you have to play three copies of Hidden Door to have a decent chance to draw this, at which point you have two dead cards in your deck because you probably don’t want this effect twice in one game.

Impact – 3.5

This is a good way to kill magi after you’ve used an Ormagon, and it’s a good way to do it in general. You see this played a decent amount in d’Resh decks because they have big Illusion creatures and almost no natural way to damage magi. It’s fine in Underneath too, but just make sure it’s something your deck wants.

Mudslide – 1

Symmetrical but you’re out an extra 2 energy. This means your creature and relic have to be substantially worse than your opponent’s in which case, what’s wrong with your deck? In multiplayer, this isn’t even good because it makes enemies but doesn’t win you the game.

Resonate – 1

Here’s my biggest soapbox moment in MND. You should not play this card. Ever. I did it for years, thinking, “I like the fact that this card is very flexible”. Unfortunately, it’s cost is prohibitively expensive for any of the modes. To wit: it costs 1 simply to play the card, then you can choose 1, 2, or 3 of the modes. Each choice makes it cost another 1 energy, so you’re paying 2, 3, or 4 energy respectively. Paying 2 to discard a relic sucks. Play Relic Stalker instead. That’s the most common mode. Paying 2 to deal 1 to a creature is obviously bad. Paying 2 to deal 2 to a magi is at least breaking even, but the impact of that is very low. Paying 4 to discard a relic (should have cost you zero), discard 1 energy from a creature, and discard 2 energy from a magi has you behind an energy. Paying 3 to do any two of those things is a 1-for-1 exchange as long as you’re not discarding a relic, but that’s what people put this in their deck to do. This card is garbage. Play Relic Stalker or even mess around with Tremor Stones.

Spirit of Ombor – 3.5

This one wins a Razzie for ugliest card art in the game. That said, there are Underneath decks where Resilience is a very strong effect. These are the Big Underneath decks that I’ve mentioned on a couple cards, so if you’re considering Trogovo, this card should also be on your radar. It should not be in your Burrow deck, because what you’re trying to do there is build up a big army of creatures and Resilience won’t ever trigger unless you’re dying.

Thunderquake – 4

It’s probably better in Cald decks than it is in Underneath, because they have synergies with it, but it’s still a really nice card. Unlike Resonate, this one actually is flexible.

Tunnel – 3.5

I know I’ve said that Burrow decks aren’t looking for power turns necessarily, but this card is so low cost and so high upside, that you’ll want to consider it. Getting a bundle of energy back on your magi can allow you to keep playing out synergistic creatures for your Under-army, and hitting their magi for a chunk is often good too.

Unmake – 4

Unless they have multiple copies of a creature or are playing a theme deck, you won’t get the second part too often, but you don’t need to in order for this to be decent. This is basically a single-target Thunderquake with the upside of directly discarding the target rather than removing the energy.

Spells: TLDR

5

Crushing Fungus

4

Thunderquake

Unmake

3.5

Cleansing

Impact

Spirit of Ombor

Tunnel

3

Atekkia’s Gift

Bottomless Pit

Crystal Shield

Gorgle’s Curse

2.5

Aglow

Enrich

Ground Breaker

Hidden Door

2

Cave In

Entrench

1

Burrow

Carnivorous Cave

Mudslide

Resonate

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