MND Regional Review: Cald

Magi-Nation Card Review

Cald

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

Amanax – 5

This is a card (and a rating) that will probably confuse new players. He has terrible energy numbers which should by rights make him unplayable. He has one starting card. What’s going on? Pyromaniac is one of the most powerful magi texts in the game and, in combination with his starting Syphon Vortex, will combine to enable Amanax to get up to 25-30 energy on himself when he flips. You just target the biggest creature you can and Vortex them for everything, then trigger Pyromaniac to gain double the energy you just dealt in damage. From there you have so much energy that you can try to overpower the competition.

Ashgar – 2.5

Hey, this guy draws cards right? There’s Magma Armor in Cald right? Six energize is good. Ten starting energy stinks. He has five starting cards, including the un-printed Boomstick and Krawg, and they’re even all playable cards. It’s just a shame that Nerve requires you to basically die to draw a card. That’s a really bad effect, even in a region that isn’t good at drawing cards and wants all the help in that area they can get.

Barak – 4

He’s big, he’s beefy, he’s got decent starting cards. Prophecy allows you to control your draw for the turn or manipulate your deck for in case you can draw extra cards somehow. One of the best things about Barak is that he can slot into any deck type just fine and still do his thing.

Barak the Red – 4

The alternate Barak gets a starting card upgrade in Flame Rudwot and a more powerful power in Command. Command lets him tutor for any Cald creature at the cost of 1 energy and a card. This means he turns your worst card in hand into the exact creature you need right now. This makes him ideal for creature-based decks (most of them) and bad in the rare “creatureless” variety.

Gar – 4

Many players can see how good Quilla, a 14/7 magi with no text, is. Many players can see how good Tryn is. I’m not saying Gar is as good as either of those magi, but that’s only because he’s in a much worse region. Strengthen means as long as Gar has a creature out at the end of his turn, he is generating 7 energy per turn. This is especially good when compared to many of the other Cald magi, who tend to have low energy numbers overall.

Good Ol’ Ashgar – 3.5

Some of you may have read one of my earlier articles about setup magi. This guy is unfortunately the best one Cald gets access to. While he relies on his starting Krawg to draw you extra cards, Good Ol’ Ashgar otherwise just gets you a consistent few turns at the start of the game and sometimes a board clear with Flame Geyser going into your second magi.

Grega – 3.5

If it weren’t for her terrible starting energy of 10, Grega would be good. Thermal Blast is an entire decent card, and she can really blow up a lot of stuff given that her Ring (which she starts with) and her power allow her to Thermal Blast twice per turn for no additional cards spent. She’s not going to live very long though.

Jory – 3.5

This guy is good. His starting cards are way above average and synergize nicely together with Heatwave, which is a really annoying effect to deal with. The only reason he’s not a 4 is that you have to skew your deck to include more spells than normal which is a real cost.

Magam – 2

Naroom gets to Vitalize for 2, which is 50% less. Even if Magam’s Vitalize cost 3, she wouldn’t be great. At 4, it’s just way too bad.

Magam, Flamesmith – 5

But don’t worry! They… fixed her? Man this card is annoying. Gorgle’s Glasses is one of the few ways Cald gets to draw extra cards, so starting with it is sick. The combination of Flame Boost and Flame Strike means Flamesmith passively generates 9 energy worth of value every turn she sits on the board. Yes, your opponent can play around the Flame Strike, but it’s often annoying to do so and you’re still getting your value anyway.

Nara – 3

She’s a very interesting magi. Ergar is a great creature to support. Rare Spirit is very powerful. Overall, there’s just not a lot of cards that interact well with what Nara does.

Pyte – 3.5

If you haven’t yet, build a dice-rolling deck around this guy. I promise you’ll have fun. 15/5 in Cald is actually great, and so is Respite. Anything Cald can do to draw extra cards goes a long way. Again, the only reason he doesn’t get a higher rating is the fact that he warps your deck build a lot.

Raega – 3

Cremate is a strong power that requires a lot of energy on a magi not very good at generating a lot of energy.

Sinder – 2.5

A little better than “meh”.

Sinder, Apprentice – 3

This guy has a ton of good stuff going for him but just doesn’t really have a home. Spells you’re looking at include Equilibrate and Heal. I’m open to being proven wrong here, I just don’t think anyone has made him good yet.

Traveling Healer – 4

This guy has big energy numbers in Cald. Grudge will actually trigger sometimes because Orothe is a commonly-played region and he gets two tries instead of just one. Bolster is very similar to basic Gar’s Strengthen, becoming better at 3 creatures affected.

Tryn Flame-Saver – 1

I hate this card so much. 2i went so far out of their way to make sure you couldn’t do anything busted with her powers that they added what is, in my opinion, the worst rules text in the game: “Effect: Your cards cannot add energy to Tryn Flame-Saver”. Whatever you were thinking of doing to make this Tryn awesome, that line of text means it almost assuredly doesn’t work. Yes, she’s a dual-region magi which is inherently strong by itself, but that text just ruins everything.

Valkan – 3.5

I’ve spent so many hours trying to make Valkan good. Pyromancy is an incredibly powerful effect. He just never has enough energy to do any of the fun things I want to do with him.

Ven – 3

It’s still probably too expensive for what it does, but this Vitalize is much better than Magam’s. Plus he has more energy. Still, he doesn’t do a whole lot.

Vorga – 4

Shatter has a target most of the time and so is quite good. Repeatable relic destruction can hose some decks by itself. Vorga also starts with the best card in Cald, Scroll of Fire.

Xandia – 3.5

Good energy numbers for Cald, good starting cards. Burning Desire is most often a 3-for-5 rate (because you’re building around her and including bigger dudes in your deck). Sometimes you get to discard Silth to it though (but yes, then you have to put those in your deck).

Magi: TLDR

5

Amanax

Magam, Flamesmith

4

Barak

Barak the Red

Gar

Traveling Healer

Vorga

3.5

Good Ol’ Ashgar

Grega

Jory

Pyte

Valkan

Xandia

3

Nara

Raega

Sinder, Apprentice

Ven

2.5

Ashgar

Sinder

2

Magam

1

Tryn Flame-Saver

Creatures

Arbolit – 3

Since most Cald magi start with one of these, it turns a pretty low-impact card into an automatic one-of in most Cald decks.

Ash Hyren – 3

This card does stuff, it’s just too expensive for most Cald magi to actually play.

Braggle – 4

Mirror Shield + Morph is very annoying. This guy’s still just so solid, even after every region has a Crushing spell.

Caldera Aq – 3.5

Drawing cards in Cald is fabulous. All this card needs is an Ergar to become very strong. You have the Caldera Aq use Spark, then trigger its own Heartwarming for essentially 1: Draw a card. Even if Ergar isn’t how you trigger this, it’s still on rate at 2: Draw a card, it’s just not exciting then.

Charg – 3

They were printing more and more Attack Step-oriented cards for Cald but before Daybreak anyway they hadn’t quite got there on the theme. This is a pretty good creature for those type of decks.

Cinder Hyren – 3.5

Not good early. Pretty good late, especially when you’re shuffling your Ergars and Giant Arbolls back in because you ran out.

Coal Ergar – 2.5

What?

Diobor – 2.5

This is a 1-for-2 that you have to have six energy to actually play, or you can use its other mode: a six-energy creature with no text. Technically it does stuff at a profit but really? You want to put this in your deck?

Diomant – 3.5

It’s a Diobor with a much better rate that only hits magi. This is actually a playable card, especially if you have an Abraxin’s Crown running around.

Drakan – 4

Guy is solid.

Ergar – 5

Finally. Best Cald creature right here. This guy is the most important piece of probably the best Cald deck type, as he allows your creatures to combine with Scroll of Fire to start shooting down your foes, one Spark at a time.

Ember Hyren – 3.5

In Cald this requires some building around, since a lot of the best Cald creatures don’t attack as often as some other regions (like Naroom). It’s still quite a strong card, you just have to support it.

Ember Vard – 4

Exactly as good as it is in Arderial. You have a Brushfire right?

Fire Chogo – 3.5

This thing looks awful but it starts to get very efficient very fast when Scroll of Fire is in play.

Fire Grag – 3

You have to discard a two-energy creature for Metabolize to be efficient, and Cald has no shortage of those if they want them. It can be powerful, I just don’t know what you’re doing with it. I suppose Flame Trulbs are decent ammunition.

Firestorm Orish – 2.5

Another one that’s exactly as good in Cald as it is in Arderial. Firestorm nets your board one energy, which is fine but nothing to write home about. In practice, it’s a little better than that because you get to put three energy onto something that can really benefit from that. You still need to discard two in order to gain the three. No cheating, because that would be unfair… or something.

Flambit – 4

The rate on this is 3-for-6, which is good. Magi damage is underrated. Cald can certainly make use of growing its creatures. It gets better if you can use its excess energy so it has room for synergy cards, despite not being affected by Scroll of Fire. This isn’t a three-of, but is a good, solid card to put in your deck that won’t disappoint unless you have too many.

Flame Hyren – 3.5

This card is for combo players. Do not play it straight-up. It’s not worth it. When you’re doing something wacky with it though, you’re in the market for a big payoff.

Flame Jakla – 3.5

You have to get all the energy off the magi for Heat Syphon to be really good, but if you combine this with other incidental ways to damage magi (Jory, Flambit, Abraxin’s Crown, etc.), it’s a strong power (1-for-3 rate).

Flame Rudwot – 4

If I had a 4.5 rating, this would be what it looks like. Flame Rudwot does everything. It burns, it grows, it synergizes with other good cards in region, it gets better in multiples. Staple+ rating.

Flame Trulb – 4

The first many times I read this card Familiarity was very confusing so here’s the DL: 1) Bograth/Cald decks are not a thing, 2) They see themselves so the first one you play grows to 3, and if you have multiples they become 4, then 5 energy when they hit play. That’s awesome.

Giant Arboll – 5

This is the second-best Cald creature and 1/3 of the puzzle of the typical Cald engine (the others being Ergar and Scroll of Fire). Also, the errata on this card actually made it better and I think that’s cool. Being able to survive to Healing Flame again is quite nice. In any case, Healing Flame combined with the other pieces of the Cald engine can generate a big energy advantage.

Granas – 4

This card is extremely solid. It’s really just as good in Cald as it is in Underneath, but not played as often. Being Burrowed on the enemy turn allows Granas to survive, while Pummel allows it to attack well even after they chip it down for a turn or two.

Greater Vaal – 3

Kaboom. The probability that you break even on Immolate is roughly 11%. The probability you turn a profit is basically 72%, for 83% or 72% success rate depending on how you think about it. That’s pretty good for rolling dice, actually better than a single die roll. The thing is, the fact that this large energy investment can fail coupled with the relatively rare amount of times where such a big, splashy amount of damage is required often sidelines this card. We’ll see why in a second.

Inferno Xyx – 3.5

Here’s why. The times where you need the huge hit of damage, this thing will deliver 100% of the time. For one extra energy, you get three more damage (not that there’s too big a difference between 12 and 15, but it does matter occasionally. The support this needs is a target where tons of damage actually matters.

Ithapher – 3

The fact that this doesn’t affect AOE spells and powers hurts it quite a lot, as does the fact that a Cald engine already requires two four-energy creatures to function so a third would make it unwieldy a lot of the time.

Jakla Prowler – 1

A highly conditional region hoser? No thank you.

Karkik – 3

So many conditions to factor in before this works. Most of the time the payoff isn’t very big anyway.

Kelthet – 3

Like with Fire Grag, I’m not sure what you’re trying to accomplish with this guy, but you sure can make it big if you want to.

Krawg – 4

If this card were in a region that had higher energy on their magi or liked to attack stuff more, we’d probably think it was busted. It feels busted when Ashgar plays it. Overall, it’s just good.

Lava Aq – 2

The cost on Firestorm is huge. It requires you to play a 4-energy creature, spend 2 of its energy, and then discard one of your creatures (it could just be the Lava Aq itself). For 3-4 energy, would you like to deal 1 to everything on your opponent’s board? No? Poison Baloo Root does almost the same thing? Look, I know you can boost this up. I know it hits their magi too. It doesn’t do nothing, but it’s so bad.

Lava Arboll – 3

An Arbolit with a bit more oomph that doesn’t get better because of incidental starting card-ness.

Lava Balamant – 3

It’s a creature that gets better when it attacks stuff. Straightforward, boring, overall only played if one of your magi starts with one.

Magma Hyren – 4

This hyren has legs. I don’t mean literally because who would know? I just mean it does a lot of stuff in very similar vein to Flame Rudwot. This card is just always value.

Magma Jile – 3

It’s fine. There’s nothing you can do to make your opponent play into it. It’s hilarious against Bograth.

Magma Parmalag – 3.5

Making your whole team not lose energy in attacks is an enormously powerful ability. Yes, the cost is high, but so is the potential reward. In practice, you don’t see this played much because Cald Attack decks hadn’t quite got there.

Primat – 2

Doesn’t do much, especially in a region that can deal one damage basically at will.

Quor – 3.5

Surprisingly annoying. It needs support from a lot of cards to really pack a punch (mostly just ways to grow it), but the chip damage adds up.

Quor Pup – 2

On the other hand, when Quors are little, they don’t do much. Moving the energy from your magi is a very inefficient way to grow a creature, and the odds are not good that this survives to attack anyway.

Raxis – 4

In either mode, Shatterfire is a great deal. The fact that your opponent gets to choose is a drawback, because they will choose whatever is best for them, but this is repeatable until they kill your Raxis and you’re not going to be sad in either case really. Just don’t plan your entire game on the outcome of Shatterfire. Use it as incidental value. Also, if you need to guarantee the relic destruction, just damage their magi first.

Rock Silth – 2.5

What Cald magi can actually play this card?

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.

Silth Giant – 2.5

Swallow Whole is really neat, especially in light of this mythical Cald Attack deck that never quite got there. Again, what Cald magi has 10 energy lying around to play this, even on the flip?

Smoke Xyx – 3.5

Very similar to Magma Parmalag but with a lower cost and a smaller effect.

Spark Chogo – 4

Spark Chogo is a small energy investment that can trade up most of the time and doesn’t need any help to do so. That’s a good card.

Vaal – 2.5

Yes, but when you attack with a 2-energy creature it’s not all that threatening, even if your dude will survive.

Volcano Hyren – 3.5

I have such dreams of using Conflagration on this guy and then lighting the world on fire with Valkan. Yes, that’s a combo. Mostly, this is too much of an energy investment.

Yollum – 3

Powerful. Narrow.

Creatures: TLDR

5

Ergar

Giant Arboll

4

Braggle

Drakan

Ember Vard

Flambit

Flame Rudwot

Flame Trulb

Granas

Krawg

Magma Hyren

Raxis

Spark Chogo

3.5

Caldera Aq

Cinder Hyren

Diomant

Ember Hyren

Fire Chogo

Flame Hyren

Flame Jakla

Inferno Xyx

Magma Parmalag

Quor

Smoke Xyx

Volcano Hyren

3

Arbolit

Ash Hyren

Charg

Fire Grag

Firestorm Orish

Greater Vaal

Ithapher

Karkik

Kelthet

Lava Arboll

Lava Balamant

Magma Jile

Saladarit

Yollum

2.5

Coal Ergar

Diobor

Rock Silth

Silth Giant

Vaal

2

Lava Aq

Primat

Quor Pup

1

Jakla Prowler

Relics

Abraxin’s Crown – 4

This card is deceptively powerful. It basically allows things that only hit magi to hit creatures and vice versa, which opens up a lot more avenues of attack. The splashiest example is hitting a magi that has been hoarding energy for 15-16 with Inferno Xyx, but there are a lot of others.

Barak’s Ring – 2

This is not one of the amazing Purity rings. If they had made it a power so it could synergize with Scroll of Fire and what have you, it would probably be good, but as is it limits your deck building in a big way while not providing much of a benefit.

Blast Gloves – 3.5

This can sometimes be a very nice effect, and it’ll certainly be providing a big energy advantage when you want it. I’ve found though, that these situations are relatively rare.

Boomstick – 3

Starting: Ashgar. It kills stuff pretty dead, but costs too much for most situations.

Disc of Inferno – 2.5

Highly conditional and somewhat costly.

Everburning Wick – 4

This card is neat in creature-light decks, where Really Short Fuse will trigger a lot. Overall, you’re making a down payment of 2 energy to deal probably 6+ damage, so that rate is excellent. The drawback of course is that it requires your opponent to play into it, which is very real.

Firefly Amulet – 3

I love this card. It turns any (Cald) card in your hand into “0, Discard this: Deal 2 damage to a Creature”. It turns any Cald spell in your hand into Firefly Swarm, which is a pretty nice little spell. Protecting your creature engine has serious value and this card can help you do that, but it doesn’t pack a lot of oomph.

Flameplate Armor – 3.5

While this card requires an expensive 2-energy payment and your opponent can see it happening the entire time, this is some serious protection. Cald magi already experience massive energy shortages much of the time, and anything that prevents your opponent from exacerbating them is a good tool to have access to.

Gorgle’s Glasses – 5

This is Cald’s best way to draw extra cards. While the 2 energy is an enormous cost for Cald magi, Pyrovision is quite an irreplaceable ability.

Gorgle’s Ring – 3

50% chance for a bad outcome, 50% chance for a good one. That’s not good enough. With Pyte and/or Loaded Dice it can be really fun. You’re not spending any energy to do this.

Grega’s Ring – 3

Pretty much only sees play on Grega because she starts with it, as it requires three activations before you’re ahead of simply playing the Thermal Blast spell three times. I don’t think this card should cost 2 energy. Probably only 1. It’s a repeatable damage source though.

Heat Lens – 3.5

Unlike other discard effects in the game, this one is hard to remove because it’s on a relic. It’s also repeatable. It also lets you look at their hand. Creature decks don’t want this as much because they’d rather spend energy building their board than not affecting it at all. However, creature-light spell decks love this card because it gives them game against their biggest weakness by shutting down speedy threats like Warrior’s Boots before they hit play.

Magam’s Ring – 4

Good protective card. 2 energy to re-play a 4-energy creature is fantastic. Even a 3-energy creature is good. Just make sure you’ll turn a profit on this and it’s pretty great. Also, it gives you one additional blocker in front of your magi’s face.

Magma Armor – 2.5

You’re probably dying through this anyway. Ashgar variations and Sinder, Apprentice appreciate this card though.

Molten Gauntlets – 1

Why does this cost 3? Also, there are plenty of games where Heatstroke will never trigger. Also, it’s a nonbo with your own Giant Arboll.

Rod of Coals – 1

Cald has so many other efficient ways to do this, what are you putting this in your deck for?

Scroll of Fire – 5

This is the best card in the entire region. Pyromancy basically has the text: “Every card in your deck is now better at doing the thing it does”.

Sinder’s Mantle – 3.5

Omen of Fire is insane. This is the biggest payoff for playing a Cald deck that wants to attack things, and it is a very real payoff at that. That said, the combination of the Burnout effect and the fact that Cald Attack decks aren’t great (at least until Daybreak. I’ll do a Daybreak review last) moves this card down to a 3.5.

The Last Words – 3.5

In days of yore, I thought this was a better Scroll of Fire. Thankfully, the community turned me around on it. First of all, the 2 cost is very real. Secondly, “Your Spells, Powers, and Effects can not discard energy from opposing Magi” is a very detrimental text. It means that you have to actually attack them to kill them, and so your deck must be set up in a very specific way that allows you to do that. This version of Pyromancy is undeniably powerful but also very limiting, and is probably best as a one-of or in a very singular deck.

Relics: TLDR

5

Gorgle’s Glasses

Scroll of Fire

4

Abraxin’s Crown

Magam’s Ring

3.5

Blast Gloves

Flameplate Armor

Heat Lens

Sinder’s Mantle

The Last Words

3

Boomstick

Firefly Amulet

Gorgle’s Ring

Grega’s Ring

2.5

Disc of Inferno

Magma Armor

2

Barak’s Ring

1

Molten Gauntlets

Rod of Coals

Spells

Bombard – 2

Not good enough by itself at all. You’re actually losing energy 50% of the time. Support synergies help this card more than others, but its high cost and the fact you need the synergies in place in order to want to play this means it’s just nowhere close to worth it.

Brushfire – 4

Every Cald deck should play at least one and probably two. The ability to always have access to a Brushfire cannot be overstated. Again, Cald is bad at drawing cards and you have to make the cards you do get go a long way. This goes a really, really long way.

Crushing Heat – 4

Turning off magi and relic text is pretty dope. It’s a Crushing spell in a region with direct damage synergies. You’ll want to play this.

Fire Ball – 2

This is the baseline and it isn’t good. Crushing spells are a 1:1 rate but they have huge upside. This doesn’t, costs an entire card, isn’t repeatable, and generally has no utility whatsoever beyond hitting magi. There are countless other ways to do this for cheaper or better in Cald.

Fire Flow – 2

Moving the energy from your magi means this is energy disadvantage. I can’t come up with a scenario where that rate of return is worth it. Perhaps the combo players in the community have found one. If so: tell me about it!

Firefly Swarm – 3

I love this card too. It’s fun and has a unique effect. It’s just not incredible at anything.

Flame Control – 3.5

Here’s a combo card if I’ve ever seen one. I’m rating it at a 3.5 because I’m certain someone has done something nutso with it but I don’t know what or who.

Flame Geyser – 3

Really only sees play on Ashgar because it’s too expensive and basically kills you when you cast it. This is how you transition from Ashgar into your next magi when you’re done with him.

Flame Spurt – 2.5

I mean it discourages things from attacking you but not by a whole lot.

Gorgle’s Gift – 4

This card is great. As with all the Gift spells, you want to find ways to turn the creature bounce into an advantage. In this case, you get to save a low-energy, high-value creature, such as a Giant Arboll after it has used Healing Flame, for another use. You can also just bounce your Arbolit over and over because everyone starts with that guy.

Lava Blast – 2.5

Really only interesting in multiplayer… which no one plays. I used to play multiplayer a lot, and it’s quite fun actually. In one-v-one games, this does slightly more than nothing.

Lava Flow – 2

It’s a Fire Ball that can kill Burrowed creatures instead of hitting magi. It can’t kill a Granas though.

Searing Touch – 3

You need four creatures out, then a relic (preferably one that costs zero) to make this truly worth it. Even when you have these conditions met, the payoff isn’t that big. I think it’s cool and fun but not more than that.

Singed Pride – 3

This is a funny card that they can and will play around but it’s fun and can punish people for good play.

Spark – 2.5

This is a 2-for-3. Meh.

Spirit of Cald – 2.5

This ability costs you two cards and the price of including this in your deck. They just killed you. They don’t have to play a lot of creatures to their field, and this will therefore probably not be that good.

Spirit of the Flame – 3

It combos with Nara. That means you have to play Nara. It also puts Cald creatures into your discard pile for Cinder Hyren or whatever other shenanigans. Mostly, cards in Cald are not so easy to come by that you can afford to spend them in this manner.

Sulfurous Spirit – 3

At its best this is a 2-for-4, which is good. Sometimes you can’t play it because the cost is prohibitive.

Syphon Vortex – 5

If you’re playing this card straight-up, it’s fine but not amazing. This is the only Cald spell that you can regularly do silly broken stuff with. That high power ceiling makes it the best Cald spell.

Thermal Blast – 3.5

You break even 67% of the time just on spec and there are a lot of ways to make it better than that. Both high- and low-rolls with this card can be game-breaking.

Wildfire – 3.5

Here’s your big AOE spell. It needs a minimum of three enemy creatures but that’s a relatively low bar a lot of the time. With support it does really shine. As opposed to Flame Geyser which kills you too.

Spells: TLDR

5

Syphon Vortex

4

Brushfire

Crushing Heat

Gorgle’s Gift

3.5

Flame Control

Thermal Blast

Wildfire

3

Firefly Swarm

Flame Geyser

Searing Touch

Singed Pride

Spirit of the Flame

Sulfurous Spirit

2.5

Flame Spurt

Lava Blast

Spark

Spirit of Cald

2

Bombard

Fire Ball

Fire Flow

Lava Flow

1

N/A

Find all the regional reviews on the Magi-Nation Duel hub page.  (Burn baby burn!)

MND Regional Reviews: Bograth

Welcome to another Magi-Nation Duel Regional card review, by Kroodhaxthekrood!  We'll be featuring these reviews once or twice a week on the blog, and linking all of them in one place on the main Magi-Nation Duel page here on this blog!  Enjoy!

Magi-Nation Card Review

Bograth

 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

Abger – 3

The Dealer of Rare Goods is a funny magi who wants to perform as a setup, drawing cards with Barter. Barter is in fact a good effect, but since some decks don’t really play relics and your opponent gets to choose not to, he isn’t very consistent. Shrewd is nice when it’s a factor but that’s exceedingly rare. Try Abger as a first magi if you’re interested in playing a lower-powered game or in multiplayer where Barter can trigger much more often.

All-High King Korg – 2

He’s not a 1, even though Super Clever is a horrible drawback and Super Brave is even worse. At 24/6 he just has tons of energy. That’s all he does but that makes him better than a lot of other magi in the game. Make sure to pack some Climbing Staffs if you are running AHKK, because these can prevent him from dying! That said, Super Brave is awful and will have him killed out of nowhere in 90% of the games in which he sees play.

Baa – 4

Hordes lets Baa draw insane amounts of cards, and each extra card drawn is above rate at 1 energy per. Baa is Bograth’s second-best setup magi. He is less consistent than Eryss: If he draws non-creature cards for his random 2, he’ll use Hordes 3 times and draw a total of 10 cards on turn 1, which is less than her 12. He also has less energy to work with which can sometimes cause you not to use Hordes. On the other hand, if Baa survives for a few turns and you have enough creature density (you better, you’re playing Bograth), he can get aggressive and start taking the enemy down which Eryss doesn’t usually get to do.

Blygt – 4

Waking Dreams is very powerful with a big discard pile, getting two bodies into play before the Attack Step. The creatures can’t attack right away, but this is still very relevant since a lot of Bograth creatures have powers that have to be used prior to attacking, for example his starting Moss Quido. I think many players would rate Blygt a 5 because of Waking Dreams’ massive utility, but it has two significant drawbacks. The first is that your opponent gets a choice. The second is that it’s often all Blygt can do in a turn. Three energy uses up most of his energize of five and is always an energy loss of one on board. This can lead to games where Blygt just falls further and further behind the opponent and can never really pull ahead. Also, if you have too much card draw (somewhat easy to do with Bograth), you can cycle your discard pile back into your deck and then Blygt becomes very sad. Even with all these drawbacks, Waking Dreams is still an incredible power and Blygt goes last in a great many good Bograth decks.

Brog – 4

Fertilize is an incredible effect. First of all, it triggers on both your creatures and your opponent’s creatures, which means Brog usually has a bunch of energy to work with. Second, Fertilize combines with Great Throne Mushrooms to allow Brog to draw tons of cards. While he can’t consistently find Great Throne Mushrooms which means he can’t start your lineup, if you have a setup magi into Brog you’ll be cycling through your deck at an extremely rapid pace. All this combines to make Brog the best magi possible in a Bograth Aggro deck, a deck type that was receiving more and more support with each expansion.

Brog, Swamp Thug – 4

Brog’s alternate form loses one energize and the might of Fertilize, which are both pretty big. On the other hand, he starts with a Black Stuff, the most useful Bograth creature, and has a great built-in way to synergize with it in his Intimidation power. As a result of Black Stuff + Intimidation every turn, Brog, Swamp Thug can have a pretty big energize rate while dealing damage to the enemy field. Additionally, that power allows Brog to deal consistently and easily with giant creatures, which can be a weakness of some Bograth builds.

Bulomp – 2.5

A lot of Bograth creatures already have Shifty, making Shiftier a pretty useless bit of text. Bograth has much better options than a 15/5 vanilla magi.

Drig – 3.5

Leech is potentially quite powerful, which is why it’s so expensive. With four creatures on the board (in any combination of yours and your opponent’s), it starts turning a profit, and Bograth is known for its ability to get lots of small creatures in play. Also, Leech triggers his starting Torpar’s Community effect, which is cool. Drig has the same problem that Blygt has, which is that he can run out of energy pretty quickly and not have ways to get it back. Drig needs to build resilient boards, because if he falls behind due to an AOE removal card he doesn’t have any good ways to come back.

Emlob – 5

Emlob is the most powerful Bograth magi but for newer players, it’s pretty difficult to see why. The reason is because a lot of Bograth cards require a specific number of creatures in play or count the number of your Bograth creatures in play for scaling abilities. Having +3 to every one of those counts is very powerful. The biggest reason to play Emlob, though, is the Mist Hyren + Updraft combo. With enough creatures and/or a Deadwood Staff, Emlob can play Mist Hyrens for free and then Updraft them to gain 13 energy (Updraft costs 2 with penalty). Magi that can energize for 18 tend to win the game. Starting with a Mist Hyren pushes this over the top, because Emlob just needs to draw an Updraft from his setup magi and you get to play 3 copies of it, making this combo very consistent. So, the combination of an abusive combo and the ability to get a lot more value than average out of cards that count the number of creatures makes for a very strong magi.

Eryss – 5

Eryss is one of the game’s most consistent setup magi and probably goes first in almost every Bograth deck (unless you’re running Baa for a specific reason, like a Transformers setup). Since this isn’t obvious, as Eryss doesn’t say “draw cards” anywhere on her text box, I’ll explain. She has four starting cards, draws all of them, and plays all of them (plus the fifth card if it’s a card she can play). She then uses Gremble’s Parasitic Growth to discard the (maybe) one card left and draw 3. Then Fog Hyren draws 2 with Obscure Knowledge. Then draw another 2 cards for the turn. By the end of Eryss’ first turn, you have drawn 12 cards into your 40-card deck, which is more than 25% of your deck’s cards. From there, she can often last another couple turns to play additional card draw, and especially use Fog Hyren again (a good reason to Dreamwarp it as big as possible). Whatever your main magi is, Eryss will set them up for success with an extremely high degree of consistency. Also, never forget about Discordia. It almost never comes up, but when it does, it’s extremely strong.

Golthub – 3

You won’t want to play Golthub outside of dedicated Bograth/Core decks, having energize 4 is pretty horrible, even in Bograth where there’s a lot of small stuff. That said, her flip turn is still pretty good. Mire, unfortunately, is pretty bad since you don’t get to keep your cards in play. In a dedicated deck she’s good enough just for being dual-region.

Gorran – 3

Affinity and Jile-treats let Gorran play a for-fun Jile theme deck. It’s not competitive because Jiles are not synergistic in any way and none of them are particularly powerful. Jile and Forest Jile are some of the best ones, and she at least starts with one of each. Additionally, Gorran’s flip turn has access to the most energy a Bograth magi who isn’t All-High King Korg can get (at least on paper), and that’s nice. Since she doesn’t protect her puppers from removal and has a low energize rate, Gorran will lose steam pretty fast. Only use if you’re interested in fun more than winning. 

Grahnna – 4

Grahnna has great starting cards, and Share allows her to generate a lot more energy per turn than her four energize would suggest. As soon as she plays one creature, she has generated the normal five energy for the turn, and it gets better from there. In combination with a bunch of cards and Mirago, Grahnna can build a big board when she flips. From there, she just wants to keep playing creatuers and pumping them up. I highly recommend her for starting Bograth players because she’s simple and powerful. She also goes third in Transformers setups, which is another cool reason to run her (see Ninibom).

Keggerop – 3.5

Keggerop has a similar playstyle to Grahnna: he wants to swarm the board. Momentum wants him to trigger it on the last creature he intends to play each turn to get the biggest boost out of it. Discarding Black Stuff to Momentum is an easy way to reduce the cost to your board presence. Of note, unlike other similar abilities, Momentum counts the creature before it is discarded, meaning you get one more energy than you might think. Without Black Stuff, discarding one of your creatures matters quite a bit (less so on his flip turn, but it’s a real pain on every subsequent turn). Again, four energize is quite low. Momentum does offset this somewhat, but not if your opponent wipes your board, where Grahnna is more resilient.

Ninibom – 3.5

Okay, so the Transformers setup. In Bograth, Ninibom is almost never seen unless he is the fourth magi following Baa, Wiep, and Grahnna (a reference to the Universal Greeting in the Transformers toy franchise and why his subtitle is what it is). The power of the Transformers setup actually lies in Wiep and Grahnna’s Transform effect, which allows them to get a specific card from the discard pile when they flip over (though sadly not a Warrior’s Boots). With a Bog Stone, this means the Transformers can get a bunch of value from one-of tech choices or just play more copies of their best creatures. Ninibom then comes in and requires the opponent to stretch their resources a little more, which can sometimes be enough to take down the game. As an 8/7 magi, he pales in comparison to magi like Brog or Emlob, or even Grahnna herself.   

Obgren – 3

Obgren is a really interesting magi who was the main magi component of the original infinite energy deck at one point. Nowadays, Obgren doesn’t see much play because it’s difficult to know what to do with Delusions. 12/6 is quite nice, especially in Bograth, and his starting cards are all quite good. Of note, Obgren is the only Keeper who actually starts with the Staff of Keepers. He’s in a very unexplored state right now.

Olabra – 3.5

Olabra has a few things going for her. First, she is the biggest Bograth magi who is actually good (All-High King Korg and Gorran are the only ones who have a higher energy index). Second, Resilience allows Olabra to build large boards of creatures and worry a lot less about them getting blown up (Ormagon still works though). Third, starting Jile and Moss Pendant help her boost up her wide boards. Olabra doesn’t have a specific niche, but these traits combine to make her pretty solid as a follow-up to your primary magi, as she doesn’t need specific cards to be good, making her just pretty good in a good deck.

Phlouk – 3.5

Phlouk’s Ring Testing power is one of the coolest powers in the game. It allows him to do some really neat stuff. First of all, Ring Testing works well with creatures that discard themselves and/or creatures whose power needs to be used before the Attack Step. Cards like Moss Quido and Ainjer become strong in Phlouk’s hands where normally they are pretty lackluster. On the other hand, Phlouk can use Ring Testing on a Swamp Hyren to get a big discount from Nightmare Gate. This works really well when he flips over. You can just spend his energy down to lower than eight and discard the Hyren, or keep it in play, whichever works best. A surprise Swamp Moga before combat is also a pretty nice way to use Ring Testing after Phlouk has already established a board. There are a ton of uses for his power and he’s probably the most fun Bograth magi to build around.

Whilp – 3

Plague is better than it looks, since it’s always energy efficient damage even if it only hits one creature. Situations where it will harm your own cards are also quite rare. Against decks with multiples of a specific creature or against tribal decks in particular, Plague gets a lot better. That said, this magi is never amazing and you can’t control whether or not Plague will be powerful.

Wiep – 3.5

Wiep is only really ever played in the Transformers setup where he’s just fine. If he can kill one opposing magi, that exceeds expectations. That said, he starts with some ways to blow stuff up. Darkness is extremely expensive but can blow up the world, and Spirit Drain is Bograth’s main tool for killing magi. Power Drain, like Eryss’ Discordia effect, rarely comes into play but when it does it’s very powerful.

Yog – 3.5

Played straight up, Yog can be fine as a last resort magi. Turn can set up flip kills pretty easily, and she mostly guarantees a second piece of removal in Yog’s Maul. Having a 3 energize after using Turn means she won’t last more than a couple turns after her initial burst of strength. There is one specific deck, built by Me, Silly which pushes Yog to a 3.5 build-around. In that deck, Orwin interchanges back and forth between Yog, allowing her to steal a creature each time she flips up. Outside of that exact deck, Yog should only go in your deck if you’re looking for an aggressive burst to finish the game after your main magi goes down. 

Magi: TLDR

5

Emlob

Eryss

4

Baa

Blygt

Brog

Brog, Swamp Thug

Grahnna

3.5

Drig

Keggerop

Ninibom

Olabra

Phlouk

Wiep

Yog

3

Abger

Golthub

Gorran

Obgren

2.5

Bulomp

2

All-High King Korg

1

N/A

Creatures

Ainjer – 3.5

Ainjer has a lot of setup cost but can be a hyper-efficient removal “spell” if you can set him up. He needs two things: a bunch of creatures in play (Emlob or Bog Stench help here), and a way to cheat him into play (Phlouk, Crushing Stench, Trulb Horde, Warrior’s Boots, etc). If you can manage to do this, Ainjer can kill even large burrowed creatures for the low, low cost of one energy and that’s very powerful.

Black Stuff – 5

This card is easily the best creature in the region. Regenerate allows you to always have a body in play. The thing can even attack, if that’s what you decide to do with it, but it has so many options. Anything that requires you to discard a creature (Yog’s Maul is a particularly good one) becomes much better with this guy. It also helps you get your creature count up for the payoff cards while maintaining card economy. A lot of times, you can build a big board and then lose because you don’t have resources in hand after a board wipe. Black Stuff helps you climb back from those spots.

Bleph – 3

Bleph can work as an efficient attacker, trading up with Bleph-Fu, but it has to survive a round first or you have to spend a valuable Boots effect on this, which is often not that impactful.

Bog Wellisk – 4

Dream Draft just lets you play a 3-energy creature for free on your opponent’s turn. That’s insane, even given the fact that you can’t always do it. It’s never overpowered, but it’s so stinking energy efficient that you can’t really go wrong with this guy in your deck.

Bolobog – 3

This guy is very similar to Ainjer, but Strengthen is less impactful than Grr. Building one big creature isn’t typically what Bograth wants to do. It’s not bad by any means, but Bolobog typically only sees competitive play as a starting card. There are better options.

Creeping Ainjer – 2.5

Strong, narrow effect. Doesn’t go in the deck.

Flame Trulb – 4

The first many times I read this card Familiarity was very confusing so here’s the DL: 1) Bograth/Cald decks are not a thing, 2) They see themselves so the first one you play grows to 3, and if you have multiples they become 4, then 5 energy when they hit play. That’s awesome. They’re also Trulbs for cards that care about that sort of thing.

Fog Hyren – 4

The only reason this isn’t a 5 is that it’s a big creature in Bograth, and those aren’t normally what you want. That said, you can Dreamwarp this thing down to 4 if you want. The flexibility of a creature you can play with anywhere from 4-8 energy combined with Obscure Knowledge which (in Bograth) is 2 energy for 2 cards makes for an exceptionally solid creature.

Furlosk – 1

Bograth/Naroom decks are not real. Even if they were, Companionship would still make this card a huge liability, even post-errata where they changed it from “and” to “or”. The benefits of Swamp Lore and Forest Power are real, but all they have to do is kill off your other stuff and you’re eating a 7-energy loss for free. That’s too big to recover from.

Glablit – 3.5

Glablit does two things: One, he lets you actually play Zungg Swarm, which can be an immensely powerful spell. Two, he allows you to play the Voice of the Storms spell, generating a ton of energy on a Bograth board full of little critters. These are both very powerful things.

Green Stuff – 4

A free creature is a really good deal. Also, if they don’t deal with your free card, it has an energize rate. Another hyper-efficient guy. You do have to watch out because it’s pretty low-impact by itself.

Gremble – 3

This card is usually only played because of Eryss. At most other times during a normal game, you will have more than three cards in your hand and you won’t want to use Parasitic Growth. When you’re low on cards though, it’s pretty nice. As a result, this card combines with Mirago pretty well.

Gwaeg – 2.5

There’s nothing bad to say about Gwaeg. It lets you play Wudge in Bograth decks but A) there are dual-region magi already and 2) you can’t do that consistently. Escape is fine but they can play around it if they want.

Jile – 3

Jile is a little bit too big compared to most Bograth creatures and it’s a removal-magnet. In the rare situation where your opponent doesn’t kill it, Vitalize is quite strong. Its potential is above a 3, but in practice that’s the amount of board impact this creature has.

Looph – 3

Looph getting to attack and trigger Regroup allows you to keep up the pressure. It also lets Brog cycle and play creatures mid-combat with Great Throne Mushrooms. The best thing to Regroup into is probably a Wither Twee, but Bleph isn’t bad either. You’re paying all costs for Regroup, so bear that in mind.

Makoor – 3.5

This card has an entire deck type/power turn named after it: the Makoor Bomb. It’s not too complicated in theory. You just use Onslaught and blow stuff up. In practice, this requires lots of math but otherwise it’s very powerful. Of note, you can use Ruid to turn your creatures into Core creatures so they don’t die to your own Onslaught if you don’t want them to.

Mirago – 4

Bograth can draw a lot of cards, and sometimes Extra Focus lets you use those resources to make your small creatures much more impactful on board. At worst, it’s a 2-energy Shifty creature, which is just fine, but it has a high ceiling when trying to swarm, even if you’re not using specific discard pile synergies. It gets better with Transform, Black Stuff (works with everything), Blygt, and Bog Stone.

Mist Hyren – 3.5

Part of the Emlob + Updraft combo with Deadwood Staff. Doesn’t see play apart from that, but that’s a very strong combo. You can also just attack with it because it’s huge.

Moob – 2

They errata’ed the hell out of this poor little thing. Now it just doesn’t work. As printed, it was completely disgusting though.

Moss Quido – 3.5

They had to errata Moss Quido because it was too powerful, so that’s a good start. Capped at a maximum of four cards, Dark Secrets is still incredibly efficient draw power if you can get it. You need four other creatures out before the Attack Step, so like with Ainjer you want Black Stuff and ways to cheat. It’s a great payoff card that keeps the engine of your deck working.

Moss Trulb – 3.5

Multiply is an efficient-to-awesome power that grows this card at the expense of your opponent’s board. The only cost is that you must run Trulbs. Flame Trulb is already a solid card, as is regular Trulb, so having nine Trulb creatures in your deck is actually completely fine. Given that, this card can be really good, especially if your opponent is trying to swarm.

Muck Vinoc – 3.5

While this isn’t the kind of card you want many copies of, having access to a one-of way to kill giant creatures is nice. Grapple takes a little bit of work, so certain magi are going to get more out of this card than others. Drig and Grahnna are great examples, as is anyone with a Moss Pendant.

Muggum – 2.5

In Bograth, you don’t have burrow synergy like you do in Underneath. Coupled with the fact that most of your stuff is very small anyway, and you have a worse card than in Underneath. That said, burrowing some Jiles for a round so they can actually survive is pretty nice. There are plenty of situations in swarm decks where burrowing one or two key creatures gives you a bunch of resilience. You don’t see a lot of this adorable mushroom crab but it has its uses.

Mydra – 3

While tough to attack into, people run Crushing spells and that feels really sad. Dreamwarping up to five energy doesn’t really help too much in that regard either. If they don’t have spells or powers to deal with your Mydra it’ll be great for you but they always do in competitive.

N’kala – 4

This card provides a body anywhere from 2-4 energy and Support is just free energy on your magi. What’s not to love?

Ooze Arboll – 3

You’d normally much rather have this guy than a Bolobog, even though it costs one more energy to add the same total amount. First, you don’t have to cheat this in before the Attack Step. Second, spreading the energy wide is more often where Bograth wants to go. That said, it’s still not amazing.

Poison Baloo Root – 4

Like a lot of Bograth/Paradwyn dual-region creatures, Dreamwarp gives this thing a flexible cost (here from 3-5). That’s cool. Wither is also just good. I spent many years thinking this card was bad and it just isn’t. If they have even two creatures in play Wither is really nice and it scales very well. Also like N’kala, decks tend not to run many copies of this creature but it’s quite solid.

Pyder – 1

IT’S A TRAP! This card permanently sets your magi to one energy. What happens then is they Shockwave your Pyder and easily kill you. Summoning is nice and all, but when it opens you up to dying like Pyder does, the payoff has to be a lot better than making already cheap creatures even cheaper.

Quido Swarm – 3

This card is super funky. You can’t play it onto an empty board because it just dies (unless you’re Emlob). Its cost fluctuates with how many creatures you have out, so when you’re doing really well it becomes prohibitively expensive. It also plays very well with Dream Balm: play one creature, play this, play all your other stuff, restore it to its full size. You have to constantly check how big this thing is. Sometimes your opponent can’t kill it or won’t want to, and I’ve seen it run over people. It’s quite uncommon though.

Rot Arboll – 3

Blight is very annoying, even if it suffers from diminishing returns. Dropping a bunch of these guys right before your opponent has a power turn can make their life difficult. It’s easy to kill a Rot Arboll, but Shifty helps a little and they might have to sequence their plays in an awkward manner to really play around this card. You don’t see a lot of it, but it’s completely fine.

Rous – 2.5

“If all your ROUS are ROUS, discard ROUS”. Even though this card will kill itself to the Myth effect in every single game in which it sees play (though you can Belt the Myth), Hit is really good. If Myth simply discarded some energy from the ROUS, this card would be pretty strong. As is, the best thing about it is that it’s one of the Three Terrors of the Fireswamp.

Ruid – 3

Invigorate is awesome if this creature lives long enough. Mutate allows it to control the outcome of your Makoor Bomb turns to a greater degree. Don’t know of other uses for the card, and it tends to only see play in Makoor Bomb decks as a result. In a normal deck, N’kala is just a better way to give your magi energy because that energy is immediate.

Sarazen Outcast – 2.5

Too narrow against almost all competitive decks, as Tribal themes aren’t very common.

Slarnath – 4

Drawing cards is good. Drawing one card for one energy is very nice. This is almost always active, especially in decks that can draw a lot of cards, which this helps accomplish.

Sludge Hyren – 3.5

I haven’t seen a deck configured in such a way that Creeping Growth becomes powerful, but the potential is certainly there.

Swamp Hyren – 3.5

Too expensive for most Bograth magi to play straight-up. Nightmare Gate is a powerful ability offset by the cost of the creature to which it’s attached. Note that it affects “cards” and not just creatures like Pyder. Watch out you don’t make relics more expensive, but otherwise this is great. Finding a way to cheat this card into play can give you really powerful flip turns.

Swamp Moga – 3.5

Another good payoff to cheat into play prior to attacks. With a lot of small creatures, sometimes they have trouble attacking into big stuff, and Roar provides you a way to trade up over and over, which is really good value.

Swamp Weebo – 3.5

Requires a ton of setup, but Devitalize can blow up your opponent’s entire board under the right conditions. Grahnna and Keggerop are particularly well suited to enabling this type of play. Grahnna + her starting Mirago can set Swamp Weebo to five energy, and Keggerop’s Momentum can do that pretty much at will.

Taglat – 3

As a 4-6 energy creature, Taglat is a bit expensive for what many Bograth decks want to do. However, Dream Cross is a powerful and fun ability that gives creative players a lot of neat tools. So, while you don’t see this a lot because it’s not particularly aggressive and it doesn’t help you activate your own deck’s combos, I certainly wouldn’t fault any player for putting one of these cards in their deck. If nothing else, this can copy Rayje’s Belt.

Tar Hyren – 3

More annoying than good. It’s too expensive for what it does, and a six energy creature wants to survive combat while Cling wants it to die. Cheating this in is useful, but only Trulb Horde really lets Tar Hyren do its thing since the other cards either cost the full amount (Boots) or prevent the creature from attacking. Certainly better in Bograth than in Core.

Torpar – 3.5

In Bograth, Community combines well with Drig, Ooze Arboll, Moss Pendant, and Wither Twee, all of which are at least playable. Protection also gives your swarm strategy a protective layer against spell and power damage, which is quite valuable. The only drawback to Torpar is that it’s a bit expensive at 3 energy. For instance, Drig can’t play a Torpar and use Leech off one energize.

Treepsh – 4

Treepsh is almost always included in Bograth decks as a three-of. Supply can draw two cards for two energy, giving you another tool to dig through your deck. If you don’t need the draw power, Watchful allows Treepsh to protect your big swarm boards from getting blown up (Ormagon still works). Both of these modes are fantastic.

Trulb – 3.5

Trulb’s Dream Hatch means the adorable guy is never in play for too long, making it a poor choice for aggressive or swarming strategies most of the time. However, in Bograth combo decks, Trulb is incredible, allowing you to churn through your deck very fast, sometimes finding specific creatures, sometimes just finding anything. Dream Hatch + Great Throne Mushrooms is a very powerful draw engine.

Umbu – 3.5

Umbu also combines really well with cards that discard your own creature for benefit. This card can pull double duty as a Bograth creature for cards which count them while at the same time dealing with opposing relics. Be careful you don’t accidentally Mud Clod your own card, because the effect is mandatory!

Vard – 3

Another way to make a free creature. This is the worst of the three (Green Stuff and Bog Wellisk), but it’s still fine. Turning off when you have more creatures in play isn’t terrible.

Wither Twee – 3.5

Sweet Rot is really powerful. Try to make sure you get to trigger it. That means cheating this card into play with Warrior’s Boots, Looph, or Trulb Horde specifically. The opponent attacks into this a surprising amount of the time though.

Zungg – 5

Zungg is an automatic 3-of in Bograth decks because it’s extremely efficient, even if it only gets to Gnaw once. You’re paying 1, getting 2 on board, and dealing 1 to your opponent’s board. That’s 1 energy spent and 3 energy worth of value.

Creatures: TLDR

5

Black Stuff

Zungg

4

Bog Wellisk

Flame Trulb

Fog Hyren

Green Stuff

Mirago

N’kala

Poison Baloo Root

Slarnath

Treepsh

3.5

Ainjer

Glablit

Makoor

Mist Hyren

Moss Quido

Moss Trulb

Muck Vinoc

Sludge Hyren

Swamp Hyren

Swamp Moga

Swamp Weebo

Torpar

Trulb

Umbu

Wither Twee

3

Bleph

Bolobog

Gremble

Jile

Looph

Mydra

Ooze Arboll

Quido Swarm

Rot Arboll

Ruid

Taglat

Tar Hyren

Vard

2.5

Creeping Ainjer

Gwaeg

Muggum

Rous

Sarazen Outcast

2

Moob

1

Furlosk

Pyder

Relics

Blygt’s Ring – 3.5

Not one of the better Purity rings. Still, it’s not a bad payoff for playing only Bograth cards. A lot of Bograth decks want to do that naturally since the cards reference “number of Bograth creatures”.

Bog Stone – 4

While it is expensive to use, Rummage lets you continually make use of your key Bograth creatures, especially those that discard themselves from play.

Crown of Grath – 3

Mostly Regal Presence is mostly not that useful. It’s not exactly a bad card but it doesn’t do quite enough to protect your cards.

Deadwood Staff – 3.5

Mostly seen with Emlob + Mist Hyren + Updraft. Could also help you play your big Sludge Hyrens.

Great Pool of Wisdom – 2.5

It’s fine because it doesn’t cost any energy, but it does cost you a card slot and does nothing often enough that you’re probably better off leaving this one at home.

Great Throne Mushrooms – 5

Enduring Renewal is pretty ridiculous. When one of your creatures dies for any reason, you can basically get a Hordes trigger from Baa. You have to have energy reserves on your magi to make use of this tool, but even if you don’t have enough to cover your whole board, you can still get a lot of extra value here.

Heart of Paradise – 2.5

The alternate win condition on Korg’s War never, ever happens. This is just a second copy of Water of Life with a drawback. Just play Water of Life if that’s what you’re into, unless you’re also trying to use Blygt’s Ring that is.

Korg’s Poetry – 2

Korg is bad, so this card is also bad. It’s too expensive for Performance Art alone, and the other two effects don’t do anything. Unless you’re trolling people.

Korg’s Sceptre – 1

This card is even worse. Just play Poison Baloo Root if you want this kind of effect. The cost is way too high for the effect.

Moob Ring – 4

Protects your hand and turns all your creatures into Treepsh on defense. That’s a lot of value. Works best with Black Stuff which comes right back after protecting the team.

Moss Pendant – 3.5

It’s a little expensive to keep using Decay over and over, so ideally you have a good reason to do that. It’s still a way to pump the whole team and does enough good things to warrant inclusion in swarm-style decks.

Muck Shovel – 2

I’m going to be honest, I have no idea what to do with this card. You can get value from Quido Swarm sometimes. You can try to make Moob happen. None of that seems particularly useful. It also seems too expensive.

Olabra’s Staff – 2

Skipping your attack step is awkward. What are you pumping your team for if you don’t want to attack? Too conditional.

Slime Stone – 3.5

Bograth has Sneak Attack. Even though that’s about the extent of it, there’s also always the combo of Grand Nightmares + Dream Balm which works on anything that survives the round (Black Stuff is so good).

Statement of Core Values – 2

This card is awful. It only goes in Bograth/Core decks but that’s fine. All-High King Korg can’t play it. Uh oh. Bograth creatures are already tiny so Pals doesn’t really matter. As a matter of fact, an active Pals makes your Green Stuff cost 1 so avoid that pitfall. Buddies can be pretty good, especially on those flip turns. The problem is, you somehow need to generate 3 discounted creatures for this card to earn start profiting, and you have to accomplish that the turn you play it to be sure you’ll get enough value.

Trulb Bracelet – 3.5

Costs 2 to get into play, which is bad. Requires you to play lots of Trulbs, but as we established in the Moss Trulb entry, that’s totally fine. The first time you use Sweet Sorrow, you’re paying 2 to draw 2-3 cards and discard your Trulb. That’s about even or possibly a little less than. If you use Sweet Sorrow a second time, the card starts to look pretty appealing.

Yog’s Maul – 3.5

Black Stuff. Emlob. Even a Bog Stench turn is pretty nice with this card. While it doesn’t help you against Burrowed creatures (you have Ainjer, Muck Vinoc, and Muck Rain for those), Yog’s Maul can kill big creatures with the greatest of ease. Repeatedly. That’s a good card. It does require you to actually have a board built up though, so it’s not quite a 4.

 

Relics: TLDR

5

Great Throne Mushrooms

4

Bog Stone

Moob Ring

3.5

Blygt’s Ring

Deadwood Staff

Moss Pendant

Slime Stone

Trulb Bracelet

Yog’s Maul

3

Crown of Grath

2.5

Great Pool of Wisdom

Heart of Paradise

2

Korg’s Poetry

Muck Shovel

Olabra’s Staff

Statement of Core Values

1

Korg’s Sceptre

Spells

Ainjer Swarm – 2.5

Very cheap, but this is relatively low impact for not being allowed to play it 100% of the time. You want bigger, better effects than this out of your non-creature cards. Again, you could just play a Poison Baloo Root.

Bog Stench – 3.5

This card does nothing whatsoever by itself. It is the definition of an enabler, making your other cards better. Not every deck runs this card, but I’ve seen 1, 2, and 3 copies in different deck lists, all of which were good. You do need to play multiple cards that benefit from the effect in the same turn to make it worth the investment of a card though.

Creeping Chill – 1

KT/Bograth is not real. I wish it was.

Crushing Stench – 4

Though it doesn’t specify on the card text, you don’t have to pay costs for the creature you play off this card. There are a great many Bograth creatures that want to be in play before the attack step. For all those which don’t actually need to attack, this card is extremely good at getting them into play.

Darkness – 3

So expensive. Requires your board to survive. Probably best on Olabra as a result, but Wiep starts with one, meaning you often only see it in the Transformers deck. Very powerful though. You need to Shockwave at least two creatures with this to make it remotely worthwhile. Three preferably. Above three and you did it.

Frenzy – 3.5

Frenzy also boosts your opponent’s board. While this might help you make friends in multiplayer, in one-v-one battles, that’s quite a liability. Sure, you’re supposed to have more creatures than they do, but even so. Splashing Jip in your Bograth decks is a good reason to run this card though.

Lightning Sand – 2.5

Helps protect against attacks. Otherwise Moob Ring and/or Treepsh cost less and are better.

Muck Rain – 3.5

I rate this a 3.5 not because of any specific thing you have to do to make it work, but more because of its highly variable nature. Against Nar magi, Core Magi, Quilla, etc. this card can be dead in hand a lot of the time. Emlob makes it much better, as does Bog Stench. Muck Vinoc can be easier to set up a lot of the time, but this can hit smaller targets which might be frustrating otherwise.

Mud Bubble – 4

Very similar to Bog Stone, this card lets you recycle your key creature and helps you draw cards in the process. The card draw helps offset the spell’s actual cost, as 2 energy for 1 card is on rate, and you’re really getting 2 cards.

Mydra Swarm – 2

Before errata this card was a house. Now, it’s a minor annoyance.

Ominous Chill – 3

While it’s less total energy than Swamp Moga, the fact you need to discard one of those potential attackers does hurt this card, as there will be situations where this becomes unplayable. However, the two effects do stack up nicely together. Again, Black Stuff.

Sneak Attack – 3.5

What an annoying card. While Bograth does not have access to Kioko or Bagala Fangs to mess abuse Sneak Attack, it does have Slime Stone. Additionally, cheating in a big creature with Crushing Stench or Trulb Horde is a good way to combine well with Sneak Attack.

Spirit Drain – 4

Competitive decks draw lots of cards. In that environment, this card just says kill a magi who has no creatures in play. Bograth has a bunch of good ways to deal with creatures.

Spirit of Bograth – 3.5

If you’re looking to swarm the board, having 5-ish extra energy on your flip turn sure helps you accomplish that goal. It’s a lot of air in combo decks though, so they can’t really run this card that well. Works pretty well in Transformers since they have one additional opportunity to play it.

Trulb Horde – 4

Energy neutral way to cheat your creature in before attacks. This comes up as useful quite a lot.

Trulbble! – 3

This card is Trulb Bracelet but all at once. Trulb Bracelet is much better because it’s better card economy. The Bracelet gets to stay in play and be useful again later. The spell version doesn’t.

Vard Stampede – 4

You should almost always run at least one copy of this card in Bograth, regardless of what your deck is doing. This effect is insanely powerful. You get to blow up all their relics and their Shadow Geyser or Dream Channel or Crystallize or whatever. Four creatures is a minimal cost.

Zungg Swarm – 3.5

One of the more powerful effects in the game, this card requires a massive 7 dual-region Bograth/Core creatures before you can play it. Without Glablit, this is an impossible task. Even with Glablit, seven bodies is a lot to ask on a turn when you need six extra energy to play the spell. If you can pull it off though, you effectively kill your opponent’s entire board.

Spells: TLDR

5

N/A

4

Crushing Stench

Mud Bubble

Spirit Drain

Trulb Horde

Vard Stampede

3.5

Bog Stench

Frenzy

Muck Rain

Sneak Attack

Zungg Swarm

3

Darkness

Ominous Chill

Trulbble!

2.5

Ainjer Swarm

Lightning Sand

2

Mydra Swarm

1

Creeping Chill

Find all the regional reviews on the Magi-Nation Duel hub page.