Magi-Nation Card Review
The Core
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
Agram – 3.5
You can’t just jam Agram into any old Core deck and have him
be good, but when you build around him he is very powerful. Starting energy and
cards are good, and he starts with an Agram’s Plaything in addition to what’s
printed. Since I’ve just mentioned that card, let me mention the number one
reason Agram is so good: There are good cards that randomly get way better just
because you’re Agram. These cards are Plaything and Shroud of the Master, which
are both completely busted on Agram. Possess is also a fabulous power and the
other reason he’s so strong, especially in combination with his starting Wudge.
Now, to deal with his complicated energize situation otherwise known as the
reason people don’t play Agram. Obviously a printed starting energize of 1 is worse
than the worst. He will have 16 energy on his flip turn though, and that’s only
slightly lower than a lot of powerful magi with 18. In Agram’s early turns, he
will have to play very cheap, efficient cards. Focus mitigates this to some
degree, but requires many turns in play before Agram’s energize gets good. He
often dies before that happens. Opportunist mostly does not come into play, but
can allow you to have 4 magi maybe one out of 100 games you’ll play. It can
also be Locked Down with a Rayje’s Belt in weird games. Overall, Agram can be
very aggressive since he gets a lot of mileage out of cheap stuff and can
reliably steal enemy creatures somewhat cheaply. Don’t try to play him in
control decks as his energize situation will mess you up. Get aggressive with
him and you’ll have some fun.
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.
Ashio – 2
Oi Ashio! Why do you make me try to figure out lists of
weird cards? In practice, this guy just makes Flugg really good against Weave and
that’s about it. He can’t play the other anti-Core creatures and Chaos Flugg
doesn’t change its text due to Weave Twist. There’s a small chance I’m missing
something here, but 13/5 with a negligible effect does not a good magi make.
Chur – 4
Man, Chur is annoying. She’s big at 15/6 and has amazing
starting cards, not that she’ll be the one playing her Vaporize. You might not
even get it if you play Chur first, but it’s nice to have the option. Smash
just messes up so much enemy strategy. Sure, it prevents you from playing the
relics you draw but you can build your deck with a low relic count whereas your
opponent doesn’t know about that ahead of time.
Empress Gia – 3.5
They are a bit kooky, since they count as being both Gia
(the person Nagsis is pretending to be) and Nagsis (the person Nagsis… is).
This means you can’t have Empress Gia in a magi stack with either Gia or Nagsis
but also means Empress Gia can start with both Gia’s Tome and Nagsis’ Sigil
(and Weave Powder since they are a Weave magi). When you add that to their
printed starting cards which are quite nice to begin with, you have a very nice
selection of things to get. You can only choose 5 of them, but it still gives
you a lot of options. As far as their effects go, Act Like Gia is good but if
you’re in a Core deck unlikely to turn on. On the other hand, Fight Like Nagsis
is also good but requires you to build your deck with creatures that can’t
normally attack. Attacking with humongous Uwamars is a big game, but then
you’re building some kind of bizarre Core deck. There are two Weave Shadow Magi
in Ashio and Yayek, so it’s possible to build an Agram’s Staff deck but that’s
probably bad. EG is better in a Weave deck splashing Core than the other way
around, but they’re powerful enough that it’s worth messing with. As an aside,
Fight Like Nagsis does, in fact, allow EG’s creatures to attack through “permanent”
effects a Crystallize or a Binding (which they can even play) but not through
temporary effects that prevent attacks, like a Blue Yajo (don’t know why this
would come up but there you go). All that to say, Fight Like Nagsis has some
utility even if you’re not building around it.
Evil Evu – 5
Good grief, this magi is strong. His energy numbers are
actually small for the Core, but are actually above the 13/5 overall game
average. What makes Evil Evu nuts is his sheer ability to draw cards. I had a
game the other night where I had 31 cards in hand when he died! Obviously this
is a special case, but the combination of Chaos Plith, Dream Rift, and Devour
triggers means he will consistently amass a sizeable hand for whomever comes
next. Additionally, he can just straight-up play Naroom cards, making him a
dual-region magi.
Fiend of Furoks – 3
Fiend of Furoks is mostly a fun option, as Core Furok decks
aren’t very competitive. That said, alternate Sperri is pretty big and
Reconstruct lets her do a lot with the cards she draws. As far as fun decks go,
Fiend of Furoks is among the more powerful magi to mess around with.
Golthub – 3
You won’t want to play Golthub outside of dedicated
Bograth/Core decks, having energize 4 is pretty horrible, even more so in Core
where there’s a lot of big 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.
Harror – 3
Spellfire is a nice little effect. Core decks tend to have
lots of spells, and it gives your opponent a headache. She also gets to start
with a Cataclysm, so if blowing up everything is something your deck is
interested in, she’s a fun way to do it. This version of Harror doesn’t ever
become insanely strong, but she’s fun to annoy people with.
Harror, Nightstalker – 3
The second version of Harror is also quite annoying, but in
a different way. Outside of d’Resh there aren’t an incredible number of magi
that rely on their starting cards for their primary strategy. Against d’Resh
she’s a nightmare. The reason Nightstalker is annoying is that she sometimes
breaks the logic of the game, and this is not fun. She does get to start
Cataclysm but she can’t actually play it without Rayje’s Belt. More than that, Quilla
and Sorreah are commonly played magi, and the messaging from 2i seemed
contradictory in that case. On the one hand they state magi must lock in the
name of the starting card, so Starfire would prevent those named cards from
being played. On the other hand, they also state Risha is immune to Starfire.
This annoys me to no end.
Hrada – 5
I think facing down Hrada is one of the least pleasant
experiences in MND. If you’re one of those players who believes in a finite
amount of fun to be had in any game of cards and want to have all the fun
yourself, look no further. 16/6 is quite large, especially when you factor in
Tainted Touch. This power does cost 2 and Hrada wants to use it every turn
making him 16/4, but it’s actually worth it as your opponent must pay 1 more
energy on each of their cards (most of the time). The real kicker is that they
probably can’t play their relics as a Shadow Magi. Also, Traitor’s Reach is a
spell now, and it’s a disgustingly powerful combo with Hrada. The only drawback
Hrada has (not actually printed on his card) is that if you’re playing him you
don’t get to play The Dark Twins).
Jalex – 3
Jalex is an interesting magi that I rarely see on the table.
The reason for this is his Power, Designer Intent, makes him a niche pick for
odd decks. For instance, if you are trying to build a non-Naroom Shadow Magi
deck for a specific region, let’s say an Orothe Shadow deck using Qwade and The
Real Qwade, Jalex can do a decent job filling the third slot. The fact that
he’s not a Shadow Magi does hurt though, as he doesn’t count for things like
Crushing spells or Shadow Ritual. Because he needs to use his power to play
non-Core cards, Jalex will operate as an effective 14/5 magi without an ability
in many decks, and this is pretty underwhelming. However, Designer Intent opens
up some neat deck options and this makes him enjoyable, if not too competitive.
Korg – 1
All three Korg magi have pretty steep drawbacks, and the
Promo is no exception. Dis…ray prevents Korg from playing some staple Universal
cards, such as Rayje’s Belt and Warrior’s Boots. This is certainly a hit but
not a crippling weakness. It also makes you essentially pay one more energy for
every creature you play, as you paid full price but they enter play smaller
than that. This is a huge hit, as it prevents Korg from playing some of the
best Core creatures (Zungg and especially Wudge) as well as stopping some
creatures (like Core Grag) from being able to activate their powers. 19/6 is a
big boi, but if you want to ever play two creatures in a turn, he’ll be
operating closer to energize 4 and that’s just bad. Skip this guy even though
he’s hilarious.
Korg & Zet – 3
This time, Korg’s partner in crime tags along to make him…
not completely unplayable. Counting as two magi is a big drawback, and the Korg
effect is very bad as well. These guys need to be playing extremely impactful
cards, since they only get two each turn. They can mitigate this a little with Rabid
Wasperine, which can be played out of turn, but in general their cards need to
do serious work. They must be extremely careful playing cards such as Haunt or
Crushing Darkness as well, because those cards actually count as playing two
cards under their ideal circumstances. The Zet effect is a bit of a rules
nightmare, but it is at least a positive ability. Here’s how it works: You
attack with a creature as normal, activate “Zet” naming a creature you didn’t
just attack with, the defender chooses one of them to take damage in the
attack, both of your creatures damage the defending creature. You may then
attack with the second creature providing it survived as, unlike a Korrit
ability, “Zet” doesn’t use up the second creature’s attack for the turn. If you’re
planning on using Zet a lot, you’ll basically want to attack with smaller
things first because your opponent can always choose to select the
non-attacking creature to take damage, reducing the number of effective attacks
you can make if it doesn’t survive. Moving on, six starting energy is the
lowest in the game, while 11 energize is the highest. The only reason these two
jokers are fun to play is because they can play a card, play Focus, and try to
survive for a turn. If they make it to their energize step without dying,
they’ll energize for 33 and be able to play a pretty strong game from then on.
Korremar – 3.5
Korremar is no fun personified. Mind Shock hampers a lot of
magi and decks at the competitive level by preventing them from drawing lots of
cards, and he starts with a Mind Blank as well to deny more resources to the
opponent. Skipping your own draw step can be managed by including other types
of draw effects into your deck (Core Hyren, Chaos Plith, etc.) and he is one of
the few magi in the game that can activate a Shryque. Korremar has a lot of
qualities that make him a good choice in Prison style decks, which aim to grind
the game to a halting pace.
Lanyx – 2.5
Harvest is an awesome power, allowing Lanyx to basically
play a Shockwave for no cards spent. The problem with this magi is that he has
a 4 energize and Harvest costs 5. On top of that, 4 energize is really, really
bad in Core. It’s bad normally, but Core cards are mostly expensive. To be
remotely close to good, Lanyx needs a Dream Channel-type effect in play, but
these can be relatively easy to remove.
Lanyx, Reaper – 2.5
Hey look! They gave him a normal energize rate! Hatred is a
good power if your opponent has three creatures in play or if they are d’Resh
and have two. It’s a fine power, but you can also play Core Grags in your deck
and play more powerful magi.
Morag – 4
Here’s another 14/7 magi and every single one of those is
very good. Morag is mostly just a big scary guy, but Theft can allow him to do
some tricky plays if your opponent has a juicy relic in play. The power is a
much more expensive, temporary version of Hubdra’s Cube, but it has great
utility.
Nagsis – 3.5
Nagsis is a brewer’s dream, able to turn any other non-Core
magi into a Core magi to do wacky things with. You don’t often see Possession
into a Naroom magi because The Dark Twins are much more powerful than Nagsis
and can accomplish the region-swap just as well. However, for non-Naroom magi,
Nagsis is your man. The most common magi I see after Nagsis is Ookami, but any
powerful magi will do, as long as you can cobble together the synergies with
Agram’s Staff.
Ninibom – 3
In Core decks, Ninibom is an 8/7 Bograth/Core magi that
can’t splash other cards, which most Core magi don’t worry about doing anyway.
When considering him, the question is: “Do you want an 8/7 magi?” Not when you
can play Morag instead you don’t. Like Golthub, this means Ninibom is relegated
to a fully dual-region deck, where he plays his role just fine.
Ogar – 2
The reason Ogar scores so low is that Feral Instinct is A)
low-impact and B) a potential drawback. When it’s good, like on the flip, Ogar
will net some nice little energy advantages from playing creatures, either by
boosting her own or by pinging enemy guys. It’s random, but as long as there
are enemy creatures in play when you’re playing your own guys, you’re happy
with either result, though never ecstatic. On the other hand, sometimes your
opponent kills your whole team in the Attack Step then plays a bunch of
creatures themselves, in which case half the time you’re adding energy to your
opponent’s board. There are also a limited number of small Core creatures, so you
won’t be getting that many triggers on your turns. It’s just a very fiddly,
minimally effective ability to have.
Qwade – 2
Qwade is not good. Leech costs a bunch of energy and he
doesn’t generate much energy at 12/5. X+4 means that in order for you to break
even on Leech, X must equal 4, since you discard 4, then add 4. If X equals 5+,
then Leech becomes pretty efficient, but almost no magi can stockpile 8-9
energy reliably, and certainly not magi as small as Qwade. He does start with
some nice cards, but that’s about it. The real qwestion is, is playing this bad
magi worth it to put The Real Qwade in your lineup. For more on that, see The
Real Qwade…
The Dark Twins – 5
Holy Moses. I know they count as two magi and that’s a
drawback, but at 26/7 The Dark Twins have the highest energy index of any magi
in the game (33) and counting as two magi is their only drawback. To show you how big this gap is, All-High King Korg
is the next highest at 30, but he dies to a stiff breeze and can’t play relics.
The Real Qwade is next at 26, but counts as two magi anyway since you have to
play stinky regular Qwade (again, we’ll talk more about TRQ in a bit). Promo
Korg comes in fourth but he’s awful too. You have to get down to Tal’ik at 19/5/24
before you get an actual decent magi (The Brothers of Vengeance also have 24
energy index but count as two magi the same as the Twins). 26/7/33 is massively ahead of every other
reasonable character and we haven’t even started talking about The Dark Twins’
abilities. Let’s check starting cards: Entomb, a staple Core spell that is
incredibly good, and the flexibility to grab any Core creature and spell,
including the backbreaking combo of Corathan + Corrupt that cripples a lot of
decks before they even flip over their first magi. That’s also an amazing
feature on the diabolical duo. They can choose to go first every game, and
should because they have 26 freaking starting energy which is like two average
magi stapled together. They get to draw 2 extra cards at the beginning of the
game for free. Finally, they allow for interesting deck construction by
corrupting a Naroom magi. They don’t have to do this, it’s simply an option
they have. A lot of the time you’ll see Pruitt behind them for some Flood of
Energy nonsense, but a lot of the time they’ll just play Warrada afterward (or
even before. They don’t have to go
first). None of these abilities are even effects, which means Sorreah and
Rayje’s Belt don’t do anything against these two terrors. When you factor all
that in, it’s pretty easy to see why Twins decks are the most common Core
archetype at the competitive level.
The Real Qwade – 3
The Real Qwade is big. He’s not Dark Twins big, but he’s
big. That’s good. He’s got good starting cards too, so that’s good. His version
of Leech is a much more powerful version of Ogar’s effect. He’ll want to play
lots of creatures on the turn he flips anyway, and has 26 energy with which to
do so. On other turns, he at least has the option. This is a good effect but
not game-breaking and I want it to be after going through the rigamarole of
playing normal Qwade. As is, TRQ isn’t quite worth the drawback at a
competitive level. If you’re looking to simply have fun, this is a way to do
that.
T’lok, Traitor – 3
He’s good sized, he starts with some decent cards,
Strengthen is simple and powerful, and Betrayed Secrets allows his creatures to
attack into Kybar’s Teeth creatures, Cawhs, and Burrowed things with impunity. Cool.
That all adds up to about a 3: good but not outstanding in any particular way.
Togoth – 4
Togoth is just good. Shadow Geysers are all powerful spells
with enormous costs to get into play. We’re not trying to win the game with
Awakening here, we’re simply benefitting from having a very powerful card in
play and hopefully building our deck to take advantage of its text. Most often,
you see Togoth with the Naroom Shadow Geyser in Trask decks, and here he really
excels (his rating would increase to a 5 in that specific deck type). The
Shadow Geyser is a spell, and so will constantly trigger Lifetap when you play
creatures. Togoth can also use Underneath Shadow Geyser to draw cards or use
the Orothe Shadow Geyser for some disruption in relic-heavy Core decks
(Warrior’s Boots and Rayje’s Belt costing 2 is also a big deal for disruption
against a lot of decks). These two options are less powerful than Shadow Trask,
but are still good. The Cald Geyser can be kind of fun in Vrill decks or decks
that run a lot of creatures with expensive powers (Borgor, Dark Cragnoc, Gorath,
etc.) but is probably on a tier below. The Arderial one is the worst, since you
can do the same thing with a Robes of the Ages. Shadow Geysers get to stay in
play when Togoth dies as well, since “all but one” doesn’t matter if you only
have one in play. Unless you’re facing some niche cards that can discard spells
from play (Spell Pulse the most common), your whole deck should be able to
benefit from whatever Geyser Togoth plops down.
Warrada – 5
Energy advantage is the most important thing in MND. The
game is about making plays that creature more energy than your opponent. Dark
Blooming allows Warrada to energize for 10 sometimes. She’ll automatically do this
on her flip turn, making her an effective 17/5/22 magi at minimum, which is statistically
enormous, even if she only triggers Dark Blooming once. Dark Blooming also
makes attacking her awkward: if she leaves enough energy on herself so you
can’t kill her, you don’t really want to kill all her creatures and thus
trigger Dark Blooming again. You’re now faced with a choice: kill all her stuff
and she’ll just energize for 10, which you probably can’t beat, or let her keep
some stuff in play which means she A) has stuff in play and B) isn’t dead.
That’s not too difficult a thing to set up as Warrada. Add to that she starts
with Warrada’s Ring and Tomes of the Great Library and we have a nightmare
control magi who can also swarm the board with a bunch of creatures if she
wants to. Before Nightmare’s Dawn was printed, Warrada would have been probably
a 3, since it would have been much more difficult to play a creatureless game
on her. With those starting cards, forget about it.
Yayek – 2.5
I’ll admit, I’ve never read this card before just now. 10/4
is awful, and I never looked past that. Yayek isn’t actually 10/4 thanks to
Seeds of Deceit, but his?her? average turn can’t be too much bigger than that. Shuffling
a Crushing spell back into your opponent’s deck isn’t exactly a low cost
either. If Yayek can reliably be a 10/7 magi, I’m not even convinced Ninibom
isn’t just as good. (S)He’s probably better most of the time. Yayek does have
some nice starting cards, but that’s not nearly enough to compensate for how
awkward the stats are.
Zet – 4
Unfortunately, the Rules Team did decide that Korg & Zet
count as both an Alternate Korg and an Alternate Zet, which means the best of
the Korgs can’t go in the same magi stack with Promo Zet to trigger Good
Riddance… which means it’s probably just not happening. You can activate Good
Riddance with All-High King Korg but that still means you have to play a bad
magi for a 3-energy boost. This devious little bugger is a better version of
Qwade. Treachery has the same cost as Leech at X+4, but for the price you get
to steal their guy. This is better than trying to kill their guy and pump one
of yours because you don’t need a creature of your own in play to make it good.
Additionally, he has a bigger energize and so can generate more energy with
which to use Treachery. When Treachery is good, it’s really good, but it is
still quite expensive.
Magi: TLDR
5
Evil Evu
Hrada
The Dark Twins
Warrada
4
Chur
Morag
Togoth
Zet
3.5
Agram
Empress Gia
Korremar
Nagsis
3
Fiend of Furoks
Golthub
Harror
Harror, Nightstalker
Jalex
Korg & Zet
Ninibom
The Real Qwade
T’lok, Traitor
2.5
Lanyx
Lanyx, Reaper
Yayek
2
All-High King Korg
Ashio
Ogar
Qwade
1
Korg
Creatures
Arboll Stalker – 2
This thing is pretty bad. Also, somewhat unsettling. Arboll
Stalker basically has two modes: a 4-enrgy creature with no text or a 4-cost
way to deal 3 damage to a creature that you can’t even play during the PRS
Step. Unless you can somehow spend 1-2 energy on the Arboll Stalker before
using Detonate, it’s energy disadvantage and that stinks. It’s not a 1 because
Detonate can still kill a key creature, it’s just a bad way to do it so don’t
put it in your deck.
Black Agovo – 1
If 2 energy is a card, Black Agovo is netting you 1 energy.
That said, Disrupt creates a giant energy loss on your actual board, so it
doesn’t combine with regular creature decks that well. Additionally, MND has
progressed to a state where players normally have vastly more than 3 cards in
hand, so Disrupt is often a 5-cost way to not accomplish anything. It’s better
than an Epik but not by much.
Borgor – 3
Borgor is pretty decent. Some magi (like Morag) have it as a
starting card, which is value. He also has two modes, but unlike Arboll Stalker
they’re both good. Borgor can sometimes just be an 8-energy creature when you
need a big dumb thing in play to hit your opponent with. On the other hand,
when Sever is good, you can net a lot of energy off your opponent’s board.
Sever also allows you to combo with the good smaller removal Core has access to
in order to take down big things. This card is never amazing but it is a
playable.
Chaos Flugg – 2.5
Dark Demanding is very powerful against Core or Weave. So is
resistance. At least this card hoses multiple regions, but that’s still not
enough to put it in your deck most of the time. Also, it irritates me that it’s
not a Weave creature because then Ashio could actually combo with it.
Chaos Jile – 3
This is a decent card despite the Weakness effect. You have
to be careful and pick your spot when playing this card though, preferably onto
an empty opposing board. If you can make it work, Rebound is a dramatic energy
boost. The difficulty getting this card into play means you don’t see it in
competitive decks but Rebound is powerful enough and it’s a fun enough card
that you shouldn’t feel bad putting it in your deck as long as you’re aware of its
potential for disaster.
Chaos Plith – 4
This card is quite good. You mostly see it only in
combination with Evil Evu because Guile and Devour will trigger at the same
time and draw you 3 cards when this defeats a creature in an attack. Outside of
Evil Evu, it’s still a good card.
Corathan – 3.5
Corathan’s Betrayal feels busted when you get to activate
it. This is because stealing opposing cards is already so good that when you
get to tack on a powerful card selection ability on top of it the value goes
off the charts. I want to note that using a Turn to steal something while you
have a Corathan in play does not create a loop, since the Turn doesn’t hit the
discard pile until after it fully resolves, at which point the Betrayal trigger
has also resolved. However, cards like Corrupt can loop with Betrayal. All in
all, Corathan is a nice value engine as long as your deck is packing lots of
possession abilities. You also probably want to find a way to protect your
Corathan investment as much as possible (by killing or stealing all their
stuff).
Core Grag – 4
Core Grag is a very nice AOE removal card. If they have two
or more creatures in play and 3 energy on their magi, Core Grag becomes
extremely efficient and that’s a low bar. Even if they only have one creature
and 3 energy, you’re trading 1-for-1.
Core Hyren – 3
A mid-sized attacker that can draw you some extra cards?
Sounds solid. Core Hyren is slow, in that it doesn’t provide value until you’ve
waited a round and also in that you don’t see the card immediately and must
wait until the end of your turn, and as a result you don’t see this played too
much but it’s not because the card is bad. It’s because there are better things
to play.
Dagok – 3
I’ve never seen anyone play a Dagok. Dream Inversion is a
very weird bit of text. Basically, removal abilities that discard energy don’t
work on this guy but energy-adding abilities turn into removal against it, and
it doesn’t stop itself from being discarded from play. Dream Inversion does
have the ability to force your opponent not to add energy to their own field in
order to kill your Dagok, so even if they remove it with a growth ability,
you’re still getting some value. Naroom Shadow Magi (all the best Core magi) get
a small energy advantage simply from playing a Dagok, so there’s that. At the
end of the day, this card is probably a 5-energy vanilla creature, but it’s a
funny one.
Dark Ayebaw – 3
Magi damage is good. Xyx is a 5, and Dark Ayebaw is an Xyx
that trades efficiency for the ability to hit creatures as well. That’s a
pretty good card. However, you are always losing out on resources when you use
Implode, so try not to target creatures with it unless you’re in a really bad
spot. Killing a magi is often worth discarding some extra cards, so if that’s
what you’re doing with Implode I wouldn’t worry too much about the “waste”.
Dark Cragnoc – 4
The only reason Dark Cragnoc isn’t a 5 is because it’s so
expensive. You’ll basically never be able to play one of these except on a flip
turn, but there’s no denying the impact it has on the board. Cremate allows it
to discard creatures from play, even difficult-to-remove things like a Greater
Gargagnor. It either kills something big and leaves a small body or kills
something smaller and leaves a large body, and both of those are good
abilities. Solid is a drawback meant to stop people from abusing Cremate but it
also prevents this guy from being Shockwaved.
Dark Furok – 4
Revile is very aggressive, and can often result in a Dark
Furok attacking and killing two opposing creatures, which is obviously good.
Revile can also turn into a drawback by occasionally forcing you to damage your
own board. But we’re playing a Core deck. We don’t have feelings.
Dark Vellup – 3.5
In a deck with Dark Vellups, you just need to play lots of
3-ofs and Purge will sometimes net you a card for 1 energy, which is
outstanding. When Purge fails, it’s not even bad: You spend 1 to discard your
worst card and draw a card which will hopefully be better. I’m in for that,
especially if your deck is using the discard pile in any way. Dark Vellup is
also a low-threat creature. They’ll still try to kill it but if they have to
choose between different creatures this will probably survive.
Darkbreed Hyren – 3.5
As cool as they are, there aren’t many Hyren decks outside
of Naroom. Subvert is the best possible way to deal with an enemy Forest Hyren
though. Subvert is also pretty good against Paradwyn, and there are enough
other situations where it has targets that Darkbreed is a decent card. It won’t
come up in every game, but unlike region-specific hate cards, this one has game
against lots of different decks. If you include it, just also include ways to
discard your cards for value so that when it’s bad you can still do something
with it.
Darkbreed’s Minion – 3
Darkbreed’s Minion is a must-kill against a lot of decks.
I’m not talking about decks that draw tons of extra cards. I’m talking about
slow deck that just draw 2 at the end of their turn. Smolder will deal 2 damage
to your opponent’s entire board automatically at the end of their turn unless
they have abilities which let them skip their Draw Step. It does the same thing
to your board, though, and unless you just have multiples of this in play
(which is pretty nice) that hurts you almost as much. In creature-light decks
we have a fun option, and if you can get one into play against a setup magi,
you’re probably pretty happy. Also, if you’re trying a Prison deck, this is
something to think about. The reason you don’t see DM played much is because
it’s symmetrical and hurts you first, so you’re actually losing value most
turns you play it and then you must wait for your opponent to play around its
effect. Also, it’s vulnerable to direct discard removal and you’ll lose a lot
of energy in that exchange.
Drush – 2.5
Drush’s Vengeance can be powerful but your opponent has full
knowledge of it and must allow you to actually make use of the ability. They
won’t. Also, Drush naturally sits at 4 energy which makes this the perfect
target for Crushing spells of all varieties.
Dryte Fiend – 2
Dryte Fiend is another card that gives your opponent full
knowledge and control over the possible penalty, which means Condemn’s ability
never ends up accomplishing a whole lot. In multiplayer games, this card is
obnoxious, because it’ll trigger lots and bunches of times and encourage your
opponents to attack and use their removal on each other.
Garadan – 2.5
Unfortunately, Garadan has no way to attack magi directly
and I don’t think there’s a way to make that happen. This creature is fine as a
big beater with marginal ability but only at starting card level. That means
you’ll basically only ever play this creature as a one-of in Hrada decks, if
that.
Gia Pet – 3
Gia Pet has two very niche abilities stapled to a big body,
and this is the kind of card that usually never sees play, because all the
cards in your deck (barring a few tech slots) need to be actively advancing
your game plan. Power Siphon is the less useful of its two abilities, since it
relies on your opponent’s deck leaving spells in play, which not many actually
do. When you do get a chance to Power Siphon, that’s gravy. Impede is the
effect you can actually build around, but its prison effect relegates Gia Pet
to decks trying to slow the game to a crawl rather than decks that want to go
fast and kill your opponent. These prison decks will only be playing a Gia Pet
when they flip a magi as well, so don’t play too many copies.
Gorath – 3.5
I almost had Gorath as a 4, because it’s iconic and can be
quite powerful, but unlike most theft abilities, Gorath’s Enslave gives your
opponent the creature back when Gorath leaves play, so your opponent can just
kill your Gorath. And they will. Theft is still very strong, but Gorath’s large
size and vulnerability to getting killed mean it won’t be as good as you think
just by jamming it into your deck. You have to be playing a very controlling
style and possibly using Shadow Bones or something on this post-Enslave. In
other words, it’s more build-around-y than it appears.
Gorath Cub – 4
Gorath Cub is a solid little creature, which can be played
in a single energize step. Chain Whip is always an energy-efficient power when
you can actually use it. While not every deck has targets, most of them do,
making this creature pretty reasonable despite the fact that it doesn’t see a
lot of play.
Gragling – 4
Like Gorath Cub, Gragling is a solid creature that’s never
stranded in your hand. Melancholy means they’ll want to target this down with
removal first. That, coupled with its possible energize due to Lonely, means
Gragling is likely a removal magnet that can protect your more important
creatures. If they ever leave it alone, it’s going to get real value as well:
either they kill all your other stuff and it grows through Melancholy or they
don’t and it grows through Lonely.
Grax – 2.5
Grax is a miniature Borgor that has two very big problems.
One, it’s less impactful than Borgor. Two, it’s not a starting card for any
reasonable magi. Borgor sees lots of play because of how good Morag is. Grax
doesn’t have that advantage.
Grubble – 3.5
Grubble isn’t really a creature, in the same sense that Core
Grag isn’t either: it’s not in your deck to actually stay in play. Grubble goes
in wacky combo decks that can somehow recycle them or abuse Dreamform to cheat
out giant monsters. Don’t put this in your normal Core decks, and honestly most
of the decks I’ve seen that actually use Grubble aren’t Core at all but are
splashing this thing because of its ability.
Gumph – 4
Night’s Shade is an incredibly aggressive effect which
allows Core Aggro decks to kill creatures at an accelerated clip. It’s also
sometimes a bit of a rattlesnake effect that disincentivizes your opponent from
attacking … but will stab your own creatures in the back almost as often as the
word “may” is nowhere to be seen in its text. Of note, cards must be in play
for their effects to actually trigger, so if your Gumph dies, it doesn’t
trigger its own Night’s Shade. In any case, it’s very powerful and aggressive.
Gwaeg – 3.5
Gwaeg is only really useful in dedicated Bograth/Core decks,
as it allows a single-region magi to play both region’s creatures. That can be
essential in the deck type. There are enough magi (All-High King Korg, Golthub,
Ninibom) to eliminate the need for Vile Herald, but if you want to play relics
for example, you may not want to run all three of those magi. Escape also tacks
on some utility as a defending body, allowing you to sometimes get a second
turn of Vile Herald.
Harban – 3.5
Decent body, Browbeat comes up much more often than it looks
like it will, especially if you build your deck with sources of incidental
creature damage. When Browbeat works, it’s creature theft and that’s very
powerful.
Koil – 4
Koil is extremely solid and gives you a lot of value.
Nightmare is useful for picking off small creatures and even more useful for
damaging a creature so you can Turn it. Re-Koil should almost always hit your
opponent unless they’ve shown you specific reasons not to (Hyren’s Call,
Grubble, Tweave, etc.). Shuffling your opponent’s discard pile into their deck
can turn off Brushfire against Cald and Weave, gets rid of Fird and Shadow
Fird, and can seriously mess up some d’Resh opponents. That said, if you want
to put 3 Warrior’s Boots back into your own deck or whatever, you also have
that option.
Nightmare Hyren – 2.5
Horrible Dreams is an expensive power that reads like it
wants to stay active over the course of many turns. It won’t. What it actually
does is discard some energy from their board (they must have 3+ creatures for
it to be decent) and cause them to suicide the creature with Toss and Turn into
your team, dealing 2 less damage in the process. In that sense, Nightmare Hyren
is a bit like a bad removal spell and a mediocre AOE removal spell stapled
together, but it costs 7 to do that. Killer art though.
Orok – 4
You don’t see a lot of these, but it’s another good
aggressive creature to which Core has access. Mostly you see it as a starting
card, but it’s well above average in that department.
Rabid Wasperine – 3
Counterattack can be a powerful effect. The problem is its
cost. Most magi, even in Core, don’t have such a surplus of energy they can
afford to just leave 4 up to play this thing as a surprise. Korg & Zet can
use this to cheat the two cards per turn part of Korg’s effect, so that’s fun.
Raveled Drush – 4
This thing, unlike a normal Drush, is a ball of value. Ravel
guarantees you +1 energy advantage and can give you more with support cards or
if it stays in play. Unravel allows your creature to act as a kill spell if
that’s what you want – you have the option – and it randomly gets a lot better
in multiplayer. Weave also means that the opponent has to think about what
might happen during the Attack Step and sometimes they’ll mess it up and leave
your RD alive to use Ravel again.
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.
Severos – 3
Mind Dredge is pretty kooky. I really don’t understand why you
can’t activate it after the Attack Step, since you wouldn’t be able to attack
with the reanimated creature anyway. That’s probably the biggest reason Severos
isn’t played but there are some more. Unless you grow it, Severos can only play
5-energy creatures or smaller. You’ve had to actually kill the creature to get
it into the discard pile, so it’s not like you’re getting a resource advantage
from Severos. He doesn’t make it any cheaper to play the creature, doesn’t make
it Core, and in general isn’t abusable in any way. At the end of the day,
Severos is a very fun card that leads to some interesting scenarios but is
never going to be amazing.
Shadow Dryte – 3
Descendance is a very good effect if you can get it to
trigger. In that sense, Shadow Dryte is comparable to a really, really slow
Crushing spell: Kill something 4-energy or less, get a big payoff. They’ll
probably just kill your guy unless you can Boots it in though.
Shadow Fird – 3.5
In Core Furoks this is annoying. Additionally, there are
some crazy combo decks that make Feed completely broken by Dreamwarping it up
for tons of energy (you’re still ignoring the now-much higher cost). Great
build-around.
Shadow Hyren – 3
Taste can allow Shadow Hyren to act like a more expensive
Koil by picking off small things. It doesn’t actually help you Turn because of
how expensive that is. Taste then sets up your Hyren to act as a good attacker.
None of that is really worth the large cost, but if you’re using Shadow Magi,
Feed can help you offset this cost and continue making big plays. Another big,
slow attacker though this one does have a big payoff attached.
Shadow Vinoc – 3
When printed, Dark Strength triggered off your own relics in
addition to your opponent’s, which meant that you could play tons of relics and
make cheap, huge creatures just by playing this card. That was too good.
Post-errata, this card is fine as a starting card but only at that level. Most
competitive decks play a good amount of relics, so you should still be able to
find a moment to get some free energy from Dark Strength, but you don’t want
many of these.
Shryque – 2
Having no cards in hand sucks, meaning in order to make
Shryque good, you have to be losing the game. In some decks, Mindless Abandon
is pretty easy to trigger by just playing out your whole hand all the time, but
as soon as you can’t do that (a common occurrence) you’ll be sad. There are
some decks out there built to activate Dream Vengeance, and the payoff is real.
Even though you can build around this card, it’s very dangerous to do so
because working hard to trigger Dream Vengeance means you can just randomly
lose the resource war.
Slinking Greal – 2
Situational, not even clear that Skulk is that powerful
since it gives your opponent the choice.
Szalak – 3.5
There is no other card in the game that wants Loaded Dice
quite so badly. 1, 2, 5, and 6 are all fabulous results while 3 and 4 are
disaster. If you’re in for that gamble, all you have to do is succeed once on
Supercharge and this card is well worth it. It can also be a 4-energy do
nothing, even with Loaded Dice in play.
Tar Hyren – 2.5
Tar Hyren is big enough where it’s probably killing whatever
creature attacks into it, if any, so Cling isn’t that useful. That said, you
can cheat this card into play with a lot of Bograth abilities. It’s a Bograth
card, so in Core you’ll only run it in your dual-region deck if at all.
Tragan – 2
Meh. This card is a much worse version of Chaos Jile. Chaos
Jile is a 3, so that puts this around a 2.
Trask – 3.5
If this were a Naroom card, it would be a 5 because
everything would trigger Lifetap. In Core, only specific cards add energy so
you have to build around Trask to make it work. If you do, however, this card
plays like a 5.
Twilight Mowat – 3.5
Dream Inhibitor doesn’t matter most of the time, though
against Core it does do a good job at shutting of Zungg, Vrill, Gorath, and
Core Grag and making a few other cards more expensive to use. At face value,
Dark Strands’ job is to make some non-Core creature’s power more expensive to
use, but that’s not great because they’ve already had a chance to use it the
turn they played it. When you consider that the card Traitor’s Reach exists, Twilight
Mowat becomes a two-card combo and that is quite powerful, though more of a
testament to the power of TR than a statement about how good this card is.
Ugger – 2.5
This card doesn’t do much but it does have a few cool
interactions. It’s useful with Gorath as a way to get immediate value out of
the Enslaved creature and eliminate the weakness of Gorath dying. It’s useful
with Agram + Agram’s Plaything as a way to get some “free” energy. Mostly,
Ugger doesn’t do a lot as these are pretty marginal situations.
Vrill – 3.5
Succor is annoying, because you’ll have less energy with
which to play cards, but it is a slow way to grow your Vrill to a size where it
can use Nightfall. If you’re playing medium-sized or bigger creatures in your
deck, Nightfall can add a ton of energy to your board. You need at least Shadow
Bones to make Nightfall work consistently though, and even then you need other
big bodies in play to actually see a benefit. The total energy cost of all
these plays means Nightfall never does as much as you want it to. When it works,
it seems very powerful but it’s not at all consistently useful.
Wudge – 5
This is the best creature in Core, hands down, and one of
the strongest creatures in the game. Strengthen generates obnoxious amounts of
free energy and at the same time discourages your opponent from playing
creatures. If they can’t kill your Wudge with spells right away, they’re in
serious trouble.
Zungg – 5
Zungg is an automatic 3-of in most Core 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. The only reason not to put this card in your deck is
Vrill, because Nightfall gain 1 is extremely bad.
Creatures: TLDR
5
Wudge
Zungg
4
Chaos Plith
Core Grag
Dark Cragnoc
Dark Furok
Gorath Cub
Gragling
Koil
Orok
Raveled Drush
3.5
Corathan
Dark Vellup
Darkbreed Hyren
Gorath
Grubble
Gwaeg
Harban
Shadow Fird
Szalak
Trask
Twilight Mowat
Vrill
3
Borgor
Chaos Jile
Core Hyren
Dagok
Dark Ayebaw
Darkbreed’s Minion
Gia Pet
Rabid Wasperine
Severos
Shadow Dryte
Shadow Hyren
Shadow Vinoc
2.5
Chaos Flugg
Drush
Garadan
Grax
Nightmare Hyren
Rous
Tar Hyren
Ugger
2
Arboll Stalker
Dryte Fiend
Shryque
Slinking Greal
Tragan
1
Black Agovo
Relics
Agram’s Armor – 2.5
On your opponent’s turn, this is a low-impact defensive tool
your opponent can play around, which is to say, bad. On your turn, it can allow
your creatures to survive attacks and that has some limited utility. Usually,
this card is not worth the deck slot.
Agram’s Plaything – 3.5
This card is very silly, by which I mean it breaks all the
rules. Puppet Strings allows you to have a one-energy creature before the
Attack Step free of charge. If you’re Agram, it’ll be 3 energy, which is
obviously nuts. Any deck that can play this card gets to abuse it with the
various Gift spells as well as any other powerful ability that requires a
creature to be sacrificed.
Agram’s Staff – 3.5
This card enables decks which would otherwise just not work
at all. In any sort of Nagsis deck, in Dark Twins decks, and in Shadow Magi
decks splashing for powerful cards, Mastery allows your magi to play a broader
range of cards including and especially the relics from their “old” region. It
also lets Agram play other cards but that’s not really what we’re interested
in.
Chaos Sphere – 3
There’s only one deck type that can actually use Doom
reliably, and that is Flood of Energy. This card is one of the big payoffs for
a Core Flood of Energy deck, as Doom is incredibly powerful if it ever
activates. I would normally rate this kind of card at a 3.5, except the level
of effort required to pull off Doom, as well as its inconsistency makes it a
bit worse than that.
Collar of Despair – 2.5
Ugh. Prison decks only. Nar magi will still laugh at you. In
general, a pretty un-fun effect. Still, it’s not horrible if you like not
actually playing the game.
Ebony Mirror – 2
Grim Reflection is a huge non-bo with Shryque, but who
cares? Here’s another lockdown-type effect that generally isn’t worth a card
slot. It does do funny things with Shadow Zajan though.
Grim Goblet – 1
I love this card for casual games, but in a competitive
environment Backlash is too much of a liability. Discarding your whole had is
terrible. Even if you’re using Shryques.
Nagsis’ Sigil – 4
Nagsis Rules. Corruption barely requires a build-around
since Core magi basically can’t play non-Core spells to begin with (with some
exception). Given that, I’d love a free 4-energy swing every turn thank you
very much!
Secrets of the Book – 4
This card gets better in competitive games since lots of
competitive decks draw lots of cards. Creatureless decks are also relatively
rare. They had to put a 4-card cap on Secrets because it was too good when you
could draw upwards of 6-7 cards for the cost of 1.5. Also, don’t underestimate
the benefit of seeing your opponent’s entire hand. The biggest drawback on this
card is there isn’t a magi who can find it consistently.
Shadow Bones – 3.5
Shadow Bones is too expensive to jam into a deck without
thinking and does nothing to help the best Core creatures (Wudge and Zungg),
but it can combo very nicely with a lot of Core cards, especially Vrill. Just
make sure you have a specific purpose for Vitalize and it’s a powerful card.
Shadow Cloak – 3
This card is useful for protecting big boards that you just
built by flipping over a new magi. Past that, it probably won’t do much but
sometimes one turn is all you need. Typically the only Core decks that run a
Shadow Cloak are those trying to swarm and grow giant boards, but any deck with
3 Wudge can benefit from Protection. Of course, Protection doesn’t prevent your
opponent from attacking you, so make sure you can survive their board before activating
this.
Shroud of the Master – 3.5
Absolute Authority allows you to turn your worst card in
hand into a vitamin. If you have 2-3 creatures in play on the first use, the
3-energy cost is mitigated. If you’re Agram, the card is bananas.
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.
Tomes of the Great Library – 5
Core has lots of powerful spells, so you probably have lots
of juicy options to Research out of your own deck. If you run out, you can
always try to Re-Koil yourself or just draw enough cards and reshuffle. Yes,
Research makes your spell 1 more expensive but that’s basically paying 1 to
draw a card then playing the card and that’s still above rate. Even at 2 bonus
energy to play an opposing non-Core spell, you’re still on rate for drawing a
card. Speaking of which, Research also allows you to use enemy removal or card
draw spells against them and that’s fun. The drawback of needing a Naroom
Shadow Magi for Tomes to actually be in play isn’t so bad when you consider that
those are some of the better Core magi anyway.
Warrada’s Ring – 4
Phenomenal Cosmic Power is a wonderful ability, most often
just drawing you an extra card, which is roughly equivalent to 2 energy per
turn. Sometimes it’ll net you more because you’re planning on playing 3+ cards that
turn. Try to avoid combining the discount with 0-cost Core relics since that
doesn’t interact well, but it doesn’t harm your Universal relic drops. The only
drawback of Warrada’s Ring is that you don’t get Phenomenal Cosmic Power until
a turn after you play it, and they can sometimes kill the Ring before that
happens.
Relics: TLDR
5
Tomes of the Great Library
4
Nagsis’ Sigil
Secrets of the Book
Warrada’s Ring
3.5
Agram’s Plaything
Agram’s Staff
Shadow Bones
Shroud of the Master
3
Chaos Sphere
Shadow Cloak
2.5
Agram’s Armor
Collar of Despair
2
Ebony Mirror
Statement of Core Values
1
Grim Goblet
Spells
Anarchy – 1
This card is only for multiplayer games, as doing this in
one-v-one has almost no effect on the game. You maybe swap your worst creature
for their worst creature? Maybe? Terrible competitive card.
Arderial Shadow Geyser – 1
This is the worst of the Shadow Geysers, since unless you’re
against Arderial its ability to discount your spells is the same as a
zero-energy, one-card-only Robes of the Ages. Not worth putting in your deck
even if you have Togoth, unless you’re trying to meme with Awakening.
Awakening – 1
The Shadow Geysers are so ridiculously difficult to get into
play that you’ll just die before you ever get to win the game with this card. It’s
just not a competitive strategy at all. You play one with Togoth but certainly
never all five.
Blight – 3
The cost of this spell is absurdly high, but there are
boards where you can make it energy efficient and it is AOE removal. You have
to find some way to net 7+ energy out of it, for example 3 enemy creatures and
a small board of your own. In that case it’s fine but if I’m spending 7 energy
for a spell I want it to do really powerful things rather than just reasonable
things.
Cald Shadow Geyser – 1
This Geyser isn’t any good either since it’s basically a 10+
energy do-nothing unless you’re using a Cald Shadow Magi (both Lanyx aren’t
very good and have low energy numbers) or using Togoth who has better options.
Corrupt – 4
This is a great spell since many decks don’t have an
efficient way to play around it and even those that do have to draw it or fall
way behind on tempo. When playing Corrupt, remember to attach it to your own
magi even though this kind of ability seems like it should attach to the
opponent. Also remember to play this in the second PRS step after you play
creatures of your own, otherwise you can break your own Corrupt and look silly.
Crushing Darkness – 4
Look, Crushing spells are always awesome. This one is a bit
awkward sometimes because Shadow Magi cannot play it, so it goes in fewer Core
decks than you’d think. Additionally, this is not a theft ability; you kill
their creature then play it, and this does count as playing two cards (Korg
& Zet steer clear). Finally, the creature you get can’t use Powers which
some people (me) forget about a lot. There are a lot of finicky details on Crushing
Darkness, but it’s still a great card for those who can use it.
Dark Portents – 2
This card has a very low impact. You’ll probably reveal 2-3
creatures which means you’re not really gaining any energy in the average case
and it takes up a card slot in your deck.
Dream Rift – 4
This card draws you 3 cards (6 energy worth of value) for 5
energy, so it’s good right there. Shuffling your creatures back in never really
matters much. The only drawback with this card is the expensive cost, but on
setup magi like Evil Evu or Warrada with Tomes it’s great. Even later in the
game it’s a fine play if you’re running low on resources or you need to suicide
your magi for value.
Entomb – 4
Every deck has at least one spell they rely on, and
preventing them from playing it is a phenomenal control option. There are a few
magi against whom this doesn’t do anything (Yaki, Core Stalker, Sorrowing Ogar,
etc.), but it’s mostly very strong.
Gloom – 2
Cards which give your opponent the choice are usually pretty
bad since they’ll always choose the best outcome for them and your energy will
net you little comparative value. I’d be surprised if this ever gets one
creature, which is a shame because I think this card is cool. It might be
decent-ish in a prison deck.
Haunt – 3.5
Haunt is a sizeable up-front investment and requires you to
then kill the creature somehow. That said, when you do kill the creature you
get lots of value. Don’t put this on creatures with low starting energy. Also,
like Crushing Darkness, you’re not stealing their guy but killing and playing
it. Basically, this is a powerful payoff for having other good ways to deal
with creatures in your deck.
Haunting Visions – 2
This card has extremely limited utility in lots of matchups,
but can do things against Naroom, Cald Creatures, and any deck that wants to
swarm the board. Even then though, they get at least a turn of using their
spells and powers before you have a chance to slap this on their thing.
Maelstrom – 4
Kills magi dead.
Mind Blank – 3.5
This is a very powerful spell that requires you to play few
spells in your own deck. Core has a lot of very good spells, so Mind Blank
requires a bit of ingenuity when building your deck. It can be outright
devastating though. You get to see their hand and strip them of tons of
options.
Morag’s ‘Gift’ – 3.5
Gift spells are generally pretty high on the power scale,
and this one doesn’t disappoint, giving your magi tons of free energy when your
opponent plays creatures. Combined with the ubiquitous Wudge and the presence
of Corrupt, Core can really punish opponents for just playing the game. As
usual, the question with Gift spells is what creature to bounce and in this
region we have access to Agram’s Plaything to bounce for free, as well as
Shadow Fird or even just resetting a Zungg or something else with a decent “enters
play” effect (Koil, Shadow Vinoc, etc.).
Naroom Shadow Geyser – 3.5
This is probably the best Shadow Geyser as it turbo-charges
Trask and helps you build large boards of creatures. Additionally, the Naroom
Shadow Magi are very strong, not that you ever want to discard 3 creatures to
play this straight-up. Goes with Togoth.
Orothe Shadow Geyser – 2.5
Hand discard usually doesn’t do enough and this is a very
inefficient way to do it. It’s insane against Orothe Relic decks though, so
including it in Togoth decks just to deal with those isn’t the absolute worst.
Paranoia – 2
This just doesn’t do anything reasonable. They can just play
a big creature.
Shadow Rain – 2.5
Pre-errata you could gain some big energy advantages by
putting Shadow Rain onto something that can easily grow very large. Post-errata
you can’t do that anymore. This card does replace itself and allow a small
thing to attack into something big, but there are relatively few situations
where that’s a strong play.
Shadow Ritual – 3.5
This can net your board a big energy savings in certain
situations. Obviously you have to build your deck with lots of expensive powers
to make this card good, but Core has some good choices in that department,
especially Vrill.
Spirit of the Core – 5
I lose to this card a lot. There’s not much you can really
do about it, and the threat of SotC makes defeating a Core magi a risky
proposition at all times. Stealing a creature for no energy is just incredibly
powerful. If you’re taking their biggest creature you’ll generate twice that
amount of energy in value for free, meaning this can net you 20 energy worth of
value sometimes!
Stealth – 3.5
As long as your creature can trade in a fight, Stealth can
act like a 3-energy removal spell and that’s pretty awesome. All you need to
turn it on is a medium-sized creature, and Core decks have plenty of those. It’s
worse than a straight-up removal spell because it’s not as high-tempo but the
energy value you can generate with Stealth is very real.
Terrorize – 3
While there are differences which allow for slightly
different uses, Terrorize is basically a Stealth that costs 1 more energy. On
the other hand, Terrorize has starting card value and Stealth doesn’t.
Turn – 3.5
It’s conditional, it’s expensive, and it’s still creature
theft and that’s a very powerful ability. You’ll want Zungg or Koil to set this
up.
Twisted Dreams – 2.5
Sometimes it does nothing. Sometimes it kills their Giant
Carillion. Most creatures with expensive powers tend to use them right away so
it’s difficult to justify putting Twisted Dreams in your deck. There just
aren’t any practical situations where you’re getting good value out of it.
Underneath Shadow Geyser – 3.5
This is the other good Shadow Geyser to get into play with
Togoth. Drawing extra cards is quite nice, and this allows you to use Togoth as
a setup magi in basically any type of Core deck. That’s quite handy.
Vaporize – 5
Competitive decks tend to play relics. If nothing else,
they’ve probably got a Rayje’s Belt to blow up, but they’ve probably got a lot
more than that. Competitive relics tend to be very strong. Blowing them all up
at once is great. Killing their magi in the process is great too.
Spells: TLDR
5
Spirit of the Core
Vaporize
4
Corrupt
Crushing Darkness
Dream Rift
Entomb
Maelstrom
3.5
Haunt
Mind Blank
Morag’s ‘Gift’
Naroom Shadow Geyser
Shadow Ritual
Stealth
Turn
Underneath Shadow Geyser
3
Blight
Terrorize
2.5
Orothe Shadow Geyser
Shadow Rain
Twisted Dreams
2
Dark Portents
Gloom
Haunting Visions
Paranoia
1
Anarchy
Arderial Shadow Geyser
Awakening
Cald Shadow Geyser
Find all the regional reviews on the Magi-Nation Duel hub page. Energize your dreams, and thanks for keeping the game alive!