MND Set Review: Daybreak and the unreleased Promos

Magi-Nation Card Review

Daybreak & Unreleased Promos

by Kroodhaxthekrood

Art official by 2i and Matt Holmberg. 

Editor's note: All the cards are put together by region.  Promos are marked with 'UNRELEASED PROMO' for clarity.  Some promos, with full template, art, and design, may be missing.  Also note that there was a fan project making art and templates for some of these cards. 

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. 

Also, for this review, I will post the card text for each entry since may older players will not be familiar with the cards and will need some context for the reviews. The text is posted on the reddit and the cards are on lackey.

Now, on with the show:

Arderial

Adis Alt – 3.5

Arderial Magi

Starting Energy: 15 

Energize: 5 

Starting: Firestorm Orish, Hurricane Orish, Shooting Star

Effect – Vengeance: Once per turn, after you discard a Creature from play while it still has energy, draw

a card.

15/5 is certainly good enough, all her starting cards are playable and Hurricane Orish is quite good. Vengeance gets to trigger from both ally and enemy creatures, so your Shockwave draws a card but so does using a Warlum. Sure, it’s only once per turn but given the amount of stuff that can trigger it, you should be able to almost every turn. Basically, we have a magi with good metrics who draws 3 cards per turn in Arderial. That’s pretty good. Not busted, but certainly good. Plus she encourages you to discard your own creatures to their powers or to play cards like Storm Wings. That’s cool. Certainly worth experimenting with.

Legatus – 3

Arderial Magi

Starting Energy: 15

Energize: 6

Starting: None

Power – FIRE IN THE HOLE!: (1) Search your deck for an Arderial Spell and add it to your hand. Shuffle

your deck. You may not play any copies of that Spell this turn. Powers, Spells, and Effects may not copy this Power.

15/6 is awesome. No starting cards is not. FIRE IN THE HOLE! is a really weird power. Tutoring a spell for one energy is obviously awesome, but the fact that you can’t then play any copies of it in the same turn is pretty awful. I have a hard time believing that’s a very useful ability.

Nimbulo Alt – 3

Arderial Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 6

Starting: Lovian, Shock Ring, Shooting Star

Power – Dream Storm: (2) Remove one energy from each non-Arderial Creature with three or more

energy.

UNRELEASED PROMO

14/6 is quite good. Dream Storm and the starting Shock Ring combine to make this magi want to deal direct damage with Arderial spells and powers. That’s not super useful in Arderial. Also, I don’t understand why Dream Storm only hits creatures with 3+ energy. The ability to do it turn after turn would get annoying for decks with a lot of one-drop creatures but meh. It’s nice that Dream Storm triggers the Shock Ring. At the end of the day, Nimbulo Alt is just an Arderial magi with solid numbers and a useful power that you won’t use every turn. I don’t think the Shock Ring build-around gets there but he’s okay on his own.

Sorreah, Warrior – 4

Arderial Magi – Alternate

Starting Energy: 12

Energize: 5

Starting: Two different Arderial Spells

Effect – Dream Block: Players may not use Powers on Creatures.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Almost as good as his normal version. He loses 1 starting energy, and effectively has the same amazing starting cards. Dream Block has the potential to be even more annoying than Suppress but the problem with it is some decks’ creatures don’t have a lot of powers on them.

Caleth – 2.5

Arderial Creature

Energy: 3

Power – Alter (1): Choose a Creature and a Spell attached to a Creature. If that Spell could be attached

to the chosen Creature, move it to that Creature. Only Arderial Magi may play Caleth.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Alter is interesting. The problem with it is that there aren’t really spells that do something when they attach to a creature, where Alter would be able to generate the spell’s effect additional times. The attachable spells are all static buffs or debuffs and moving those around is only marginally useful at best. 

Cloud Hubram – 3.5

Arderial Creature

Energy: 2

Power – Whisper: (1) The next Spell you play this turn is placed under Cloud Hubram.

Power – Echo: (0) Discard Cloud Hubram from play to play one Spell from under Cloud Hubram as

though it was in your hand, paying all costs.

This card is functionally exactly the same as Hubram for Arderial. Hubram is very good because Underneath has powerful spells. That means this card is very good because Arderial also has powerful spells.

Giant Alaban – 2.5

Arderial Creature

Energy: 8

Power – Dream Rupture: (7) Discard Giant Alaban and choose up to two opposing Creatures. Return

them to their owner’s hand if their energy is less than your Magi’s energize.

UNRELEASED PROMO

I do not like this card at all. First of all, it’s hella expensive. Given that, I would expect you to just be able to bounce the creatures without all this rigamarole about they have to have less than your magi’s energize. You only want to bounce big creatures most of the time anyway. If they’ve got 4 energy you can just Crushing Winds them and it’s way the heck better. Also, why does this card discard itself? Too many annoying things attached to try to balance it out, as if making you pay 8 in the first place wasn’t enough.

Soaring Yup – 2

Arderial Creature

Energy: 1

Power – Elude: (0) Choose a Region. Until the beginning of your next turn, Creatures from the chosen

Region remove three less energy in attacks against Soaring Yup.

Whatever, they can still just kill it if they have even a single attacker with 4 energy. That’s not a very difficult thing to have.

Thunder Shryque – 4

Arderial Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Charge: After Thunder Shryque is played, add two energy to it. If there are twenty or more cards

in your discard pile, add four energy instead.

Now we’re talking. This card is cool. Charge is always going to be a good effect, but it gets better late in the game or if you build around it. Nice design. Arderial has Tradewinds to help fuel this card but especially Cloud Sceptre and normal Aula.

Winged Furok – 3.5

Arderial Creature

Energy: 4

Effect – Fetch: Once per turn, after a Spell you play removes energy from one opposing Creature, you

may add half the energy removed, rounded down, to your Magi. You may only use one copy of Fetch per Spell played.

In Arderial, Fetch triggers on Crushing Winds, Lightning, Shrink, Storm Cloud, and in corner cases Lightning Strike or Sorreah’s Dream. Crushing Winds doesn’t really need support, but you’ll certainly take the extra 2 energy. Lightning still isn’t playable. Shrink and Storm Cloud can potentially add a lot of energy to your magi, and I’m in for that. Shrink doesn’t see play outside of Adept’s starting card but might see more with this guy running around. Storm Cloud might also see more play than it does now.

Moonbeam Bow – 2.5

Arderial Relic

Energy: 1

Power – Purge: (2) Shuffle any number of cards from your hand into your deck and choose an opposing

Creature. Remove energy from that Creature equal to the number of cards you shuffled into your deck, plus one.

The first Purge requires you to spend four total cards to become energy-neutral (the relic itself plus 3 shuffled in to your deck deals 3, the relic costs 1 + 2 to use the power the first time = 3). That’s really bad. Subsequent Purges only require you to shuffle in 2 cards to break even. Repeatable damage sources are good and good MND decks have access to lots of cards. That said, the cost of this card is too steep to be good enough. You want to play the cards you draw, not shuffle them away for a marginal ability.

Star Charm – 3

Arderial Relic

Energy: 1

Effect – Rally: Reduce the cost of the first Arderial Creature played each turn by one energy, to a

minimum of one.

Effect – Advantage: Increase the cost of the first Orothe Creature played each turn by one energy.

UNRELEASED PROMO

If this card lasts for three turns, you’re happy with it, as long as you’re playing an Arderial creature on the second and third turn it’s in play. The turn you play it, this card doesn’t do anything, because it costs 1 itself and only affects one creature per turn. Advantage means you can’t play Spray Narth or Hurricane Orish in your Star Charm decks, which is another drawback, and you don’t want to play this card in dual-region Arderial/Orothe either. Still, on a grindy Arderial magi like Delia or Adept, this card can put in long-term work.

Tempest Boomerang – 4

Arderial Relic

Energy: 1

Power – Return: (2) Return Tempest Boomerang to your hand and choose an opposing Creature.

Remove four energy from that Creature. You may not play Tempest Boomerang again this turn.

Three energy to deal four damage. It’s not exciting but it’s efficient. Once per turn means you can’t just hide behind this card and kill all your opponent’s stuff, which is fine with me as I don’t think that would make for fun games. This is the kind of card you’re looking for in a Shock Ring deck. 

Aeroh’s Blessing – 3 

Arderial Spell

Energy: 2

Choose an Arderial Creature. Attach Aeroh’s Blessing to that Creature. While Aeroh’s Blessing is

attached, that Creature gains “Power – Shock: (3) Discard a non-Arderial Creature with four energy or less.” You may not attach another copy of Aeroh’s Blessing to this Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This card is bad for a couple reasons. First, it costs 5 energy (2 to play + 3 from your creature). For five energy you can just play a Shockwave and not need to deal with the conditional nature of this removal, never mind the fact that paying 5 to remove something with 4 or less isn’t a good deal. Second, these cards almost never stick in competitive games. Casual games are a very different story, and if you can use Aeroh’s Blessing multiple times it can be pretty annoying (I’m looking at an Adept deck to mitigate the 3-energy cost). Competitive games are fast and creatures tend not to survive very long, and in that kind of environment this card isn’t likely to stick in play for more than the one turn.

Chain Lightning – 3.5

Arderial Spell

Energy: 3

Choose two Creatures controlled by the same player and remove one energy from each. That player 

chooses one Creature they control and removes two energy from that Creature. If Chain Lightning discards one or more Creatures from play, draw a card.

First of all, as far as I can tell, this card is not on Lackey we currently cannot play with it. That out of the way, let’s look at what it does. Three energy to deal 4 damage spread out across the opponent’s field in increments of 1, 1, and 2. The opponent gets to pick where the 2 goes, so unless they don’t have a choice, it’s not killing a Creature. If the opponent only has 1 creature, this spell costs 3 to deal 3 and (potentially) draw a card, which is actually decent. If you can reliably draw the card, this spell is good. If you can’t, and I suspect most of the time you will not be able to, this spell is pretty medium. With some support (discounts and/or damage boosts), maybe this spell becomes something you’d want to put in your deck. 

 

 

Gust – 3

Arderial Spell

Energy: 3

Choose a Creature. If there is another copy of that chosen Creature in play, discard the chosen Creature’s energy and return the Creature to its owner’s hand.

Very conditional. Nice upside that you can’t really control.

Lightning Strike – 4

Arderial Spell

Energy: 6

Choose a Creature and discard it from play. Remove one energy from each opposing Creature that

shares a Creature type with the discarded Creature.

This card is fine. It’s worse than Tidal Wave and Shockwave. The best card to compare it to is an Unmake, and there it’s about exactly as good. They have the same secondary effect. If they’re killing a 6-energy creature they have exactly the same effect. Lightning Strike is better on bigger stuff while Unmake is better on smaller stuff.

Static – 3

Arderial Spell

Energy: 1

Choose an opposing Creature and attach Static to it. While Static is attached, that Creature cannot use

any named Effects. Discard Static from play at the end of your next turn.

I love that this card is cheap. Since it discards itself, this isn’t a control card. It’s a way for aggressive decks to punch through annoying defensive effects like Pylofuf’s Burrow or remove annoying benefits like Bone Grag’s Reclaim or Yaromant’s Scavenge. I don’t think this card is good enough to merit a slot most of the time, especially since Arderial has direct discard like Shockwave and Kalius’ Ring to deal with these types of cards to begin with.

TLDR: Arderial

Magi

Adis Alt – 3.5

Legatus – 3

Nimbulo Alt – 3

Sorreah, Warrior – 4

Creatures

Caleth – 2.5

Cloud Hubram – 3.5

Giant Alaban – 2.5

Soaring Yup – 2

Thunder Shryque – 4

Winged Furok – 3.5

Relics

Moonbeam Bow – 2.5

Star Charm – 3

Tempest Boomerang – 4

Spells

Aeroh’s Blessing – 3

Chain Lightning - 3.5

Gust – 3

Lightning Strike – 4

Static – 3

Thoughts

Arderial doesn’t seem to get any really interesting cards in Daybreak, which is a shame. Aside from Thunder Shryque, which would see a lot of play, nothing really excites me. I do want to see what impact Winged Furok + Storm Cloud has on the game though, because this really punishes opponents who play large creatures.

Bograth

Baa Alt – 4

Bograth Magi

Starting Energy: 12

Energize: 5

Starting: Rot Arboll, Slarnath

Effect – Leech: When a Creature you control attacks, choose an opposing Creature. Move one energy

from the chosen Creature to the attacking Creature. Powers, Spells, and Effects may not alter the amount of energy moved.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Baa Alt’s Leech means he will only want to go in Bograth decks that are actually trying to attack their opponent’s creatures to win the game, but he’s really, really good at doing that.

Gorb – 4

Bograth Magi

Starting Energy: 12

Energize: 5

Starting: Green Stuff, Black Stuff

Effect – Mmm: After you play a Stuff, add two energy to it.

Starts with some of the best creatures in Bograth. Makes them insanely better. Because of how good Black Stuff is, Gorb can play a bit like a setup magi, getting Black Stuff into your discard pile asap. He’s probably much better with more cards though. There are only 6 Stuff creatures you want to play (3 Black, 3 Green), but you get to play a Black every turn and generate some serious energy in the process.

Olabra Alt – 5

Bograth Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 6

Starting: Rot Arboll, Muck Shovel, Moss Pendant

Effect – Pilfer: When an opponent plays a Relic, choose a Bograth Creature you control. Move one

energy from that player’s Magi to the chosen Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

14/6 in Bograth is nice. Pilfer is not once per turn. This is key. If it was once per turn, your opponent would be able to manage it or play around it. Pilfer is more like Halsted’s Crack effect, punishing your opponent for 2 energy (-1 to them, +1 to you) each time they play a relic. Halsted is busted, partially because he energizes for 8. Energizing for 6 in Bograth feels a little bit like energizing for 7 elsewhere and 14 is a lot more starting energy than Halsted has. I think Olabra Alt is actually really strong.

Obgren Alt – 4

Bograth Magi

Starting Energy: 13

Energize: 5

Starting: Mud Bubble, Ooze Pyder, Trulb

Effect – Ping: After you play a Creature, choose an opposing Creature and remove one energy from it. You may not choose the same Creature more than twice per turn.

First of all, this card’s text is a hot mess on lackey and needs to be re-formatted. His energy numbers are completely average, which means he needs something special to compete. Ping is actually a very nice Effect, and you can (kind-of) think about it like +1 energize for every Creature you play. If Obgren can play 2 Creatures per turn, he’ll play like a bit like a 13/7 Magi. This is a good floor for a Magi to have. Obgren really wants to leverage the 0-cost Creatures and Bograth Creatures that can cheat themselves into play (Vard, Bog Wellisk, etc.). His starting cards are also all highly playable and allow him to slot into a variety of different decks. Trulb is even a great combo with Ping, because it gets you 2 Ping triggers for 1 card. All of this combines together to make for a strong Magi.

Grendawyn – 5

Bograth Creature

Energy: 2

Effect – Drain: When you play Grendawyn, choose up to three Creatures. Move one energy from each of

those Creatures to Grendawyn.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This card is a little silly. For the low, low cost of 2 energy you’re generating anywhere from 2-6 additional energy advantage immediately when you play it. Pay 2, get 8 worth of value? Yes, please.

Moss Garadan – 2.5

Bograth Creature

Energy: 2

Effect – Impose: While you control more Creatures than each opponent, Moss Garadan loses two less

energy in attacks.

Impose is very easy to activate in Bograth, but doesn’t really do anything. It’s a small enough creature where it will still die in combat with anything that has 4+ energy.

Moss Hyren – 3

Bograth Creature

Energy: 7

Effect – Creeping Growth: When Moss Hyren attacks, add one energy to it for each Bograth Creature

you control.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Creeping Growth makes a big dude bigger and requires you to attack. The setup cost is too high to be a serious competitive card but the ability can be seriously impactful.

Ooze Pyder – 3.5

Bograth Creature

Energy: 4

Power – Fling: (0) Discard any number of Bograth Creatures you control from play and choose an

opposing Creature. Remove two energy from the chosen Creature for each Creature you discarded. Powers, Spells, and Effects do not reduce the amount of energy reduced.

This card could see play in a Makoor Bomb deck as an extra copy of Makoor with a slightly different effect. Each creature only deals 2 damage as opposed to Makoor’s 3, but it doesn’t require you to nuke your entire board and can’t be reduced by enemy stuff.

Sludge Hyren – 3

Bograth Creature

Energy: 7

Effect – Creeping Growth: After Sludge Hyren attacks, add one energy to it for each Bograth Creature

you control.

This is exactly the same card as Moss Hyren. I’m pretty sure they were just deciding on the name. Sludge fits better with the art.

Swamp Wudge – 2.5

Bograth Creature

Energy: 1

Effect – Fester: After a Bograth Creature is discarded from play by an opposing card, add one energy to

Swamp Wudge.

They just kill this first. Even if you have a Treepsh as well, it’s not an amazing effect.

Amulet of Stuff – 2.5

Bograth Relic

Energy: 2

Power – Congeal: (0) Discard a Stuff you control from play. Add one energy to each Stuff you control.

The first Congeal requires you to have 3+ Stuff out to break even (one to discard, 2+ to get the benefit). Subsequent uses require almost the same thing. Black Stuff has so many other useful (better) things to do that this card shouldn’t go in your deck, even if you’re playing Gorb.

Blygt’s Ring – 3.5

Energy: 0

Effect – Purity: At the end of your turn, if all Spells in your discard pile are Bograth, discard all of your non-Bograth cards from play and choose an opposing Creature. If that Creature has more energy than your Magi’s energize, move three energy from that Creature to your Magi.

Starting: Blygt

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”.

Book of Grath – 1

Bograth Relic

Energy: 2

Effect – Abate: As a Bograth Creature you control is being attacked, you may discard two energy from

your Magi. If you do, neither Creature removes energy in the attack.

Bograth is not a defensive region. Two energy is also probably as much or more than the cost of the creature being attacked. Add to that you need to pay 2 to get this into play in the first place? No thanks.

Robe of Muck – 3.5

Bograth Relic

Energy: 0

Effect – Pros: If you control fewer Creatures than each other player at the beginning of your turn, draw

two cards.

Effect – Cons: If you control more Creatures than each other player at the end of your turn, discard a

card from your hand.

Pros is pretty awesome, especially in Makoor Bomb. You blow up all your guys and all of theirs, they play new ones, you draw some cards. Cons doesn’t trigger on an empty board either. In other Bograth decks, Cons is a real drawback and Pros only triggers if they wipe your board. Since that’s a real concern for Bograth, this card could see play outside of Makoor Bomb, but that’s where it’s at its best.

Bleph Horde – 3.5

Bograth Spell

Energy: 2

Choose a Creature type. Add one energy to each Creature of the chosen type. If you have twenty or

more cards in your discard pile, add one extra energy to each Creature of the chosen type.

I don’t see this card doing its thing too much in practice, since it’s so hard to control having creatures of the same type. A lot of them discard themselves or don’t stick in play. Bograth doesn’t really have too many tribal synergies either, aside from the newer Stuff tribal and Trulbs. Medium case scenario you’re paying 2 to generate 3 energy if you have three of a kind. It’s fairly easy to get 20 cards into your discard pile as Bograth, but this competes a little bit with Bleph Horde’s payoff. Paying 2 to make 6-ish energy is very good though.

Grath’s Gift – 3.5

Bograth Spell

Energy: 3

Return a Creature you control to its owner’s hand and choose an opposing Creature. That Creature loses

energy equal to the amount of energy on your Magi.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Uhhh… Emlob + Mist Hyren loves this card.

Spawn – 5

Bograth Spell

Energy: 3

Choose a Creature in your discard pile. If there is more than one copy of that Creature in your discard

pile, play the chosen Creature with two energy. Shuffle all other copies of the chosen Creature in your discard pile into your deck.

Spawn gets you a creature play during the PRS step. Crucially, this creature is able to attack. It’s energy disadvantage, but only by a small amount. Would we play Warrior’s Boots if it cost 1 energy? Yes. That’s basically what this is. The discard pile stuff is basically gravy. It can be a drawback or a benefit with somewhat equal chance, you can build around it a little, but whatever.

Stuff Herd – 1

Bograth Spell

Energy: 3

If you control fifteen or more Creatures, add ten energy to your Magi. You may only play one Stuff Herd

per turn and only before the Attack Step.

Even Emlob never has 15 creatures in play. This card is unplayable.

Treepsh Mob – 4

Bograth Spell

Energy: 2

Discard two Creatures you control from play and choose an opposing Creature. Remove all of the

chosen Creature’s energy.

Look, something else Black Stuff is awesome at doing! Very powerful ability that chews through a not-insignificant amount of your resources. Almost always going to be worth it though. Kills Cawhs and Colossi dead.

TLDR: Bograth

Magi

Baa Alt – 4

Gorb – 4

Olabra Alt – 5

Obgren Alt - 4

Creatures

Grendawyn – 5

Moss Garadan – 2.5

Moss Hyren – 3

Ooze Pyder – 3.5

Sludge Hyren – 3

Swamp Wudge – 2.5

Relics

Amulet of Stuff – 2.5

Blygt's Ring - 3.5

Book of Grath – 1

Robe of Muck – 3.5

Spells

Bleph Horde – 3.5

Grath’s Gift – 3.5

Spawn – 5

Stuff Herd – 1

Treepsh Mob – 4

Thoughts

Holy crap does Bogath get some hits. Makoor Bomb becomes way more powerful of a strategy, and it’s pretty strong with just Traitor’s Reach cards. Aggro Bograth gets the new Baa and Spawn, which are pretty critical. Emlob gets Grath’s Gift which is bananas powerful on him specifically. Basically, every Bograth archetype gets new toys as well as some cards that might enable new archetypes. Love it.

Cald

Ashgar Alt – 4

Cald Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 6

Starting: Quor, Braggle, Magma Parmalag

Effect – Scorch: When one of your Cald Creatures removes energy from an opposing Magi in an attack,

draw a card.

The new Ashgar is great. 14/6 in Cald is very, very good, placing him among the biggest magi in the region. Cald has also been steadily getting more benefits for actually attacking stuff, and Ashgar already benefit from one of the best ones, Krawg. Quor is probably the best creature to trigger Scorch, as Battering Ram will do the job even if they still have creatures out.

Barak Alt – 4

Cald Magi

Starting Energy: 18

Energize: 5

Starting: Ergar, Flame Rudwot, Lava Balamant

Effect – Bolster: When one of your Cald Creatures is defeated in an attack, search your deck for a copy

of that Creature and add it to your hand. Shuffle your deck.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Another Barak, this time with even more energy. Works as a setup magi in an attacking Cald deck, as Bolster can keep the creatures flowing. Starting Ergar and Flame Rudwot means he has value in a creature-based burn deck as well, with Bolster replacing his creatures when the opponent attacks and kills them. The only Cald deck he doesn’t fit in is a creatureless spell version.

Dygran – 3

Cald Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 5

Starting: Crushing Heat, Lava Orathan

Effect – Backfire: After an opponent plays a Relic, remove one energy from each Creature that player

controls.

I think Dygran is good but not insane. He’s very punishing of relic-heavy decks with Backfire and his Crushing Heat, but you can’t build around him in any meaningful way and the opponent can play around his abilities or just have a relic-light deck in which case he’s lower impact than many other magi.

Grega Alt – 3.5

Cald Magi

Starting Energy: 15

Energize: 5

Starting: Spirit of the Flame, Magma Gum-Gum, Lava Orathan

Power – Thermal Detonation: (3) Choose a Creature and discard three energy from it. If you have twenty

ore more cards in your discard pile, draw two cards.

For some reason this card is named Greg Alt in lackey, but whatever. 15/5 is quite good in Cald. Thermal Detonation is a really interesting take on the 20-cards-in-the-discard-pile mechanic in Daybreak. It’s fine-ish before you hit threshold but once you do, it’s pretty nuts. I can see running Maelstrom Flasks in Cald with a relatively high spell density to power this out. League Elder first can also turbo cards into the discard pile. There’s some cool potential here.

Agrohan – 3.5

Cald Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Empower: When you play Agrohan, add energy to it equal to the number of Spells or Creatures

in your discard pile, whichever is less. Only Cald Magi may play Agrohan.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This card is super interesting. In a Grega Alt deck where the goal is to fill your discard pile, Agrohan can gain some serious energy (as long as you balance out your creature and spell counts at least somewhat). Not a good card early in the game but by the mid-game, as long as you’re working toward filling the discard, this will get big.

Ash Lovian – 2.5

Cald Creature

Energy: 4

Effect – Choke: As an opposing Spell chooses Ash Lovian, you may discard Ash Lovian from play to

remove two energy from each opposing Creature and Magi.

This is a 4-energy creature that cannot be Crushed, which is pretty cool. On balance, it’s small enough that it dies to attacks and powers pretty easily. They never have to give you a Choke trigger if they don’t want to.

Blaze Moga – 3.5

Cald Creature

Energy: 2

Power – Support: (0) Discard Blaze Moga from play. Add two energy to each Cald Creature you control

that attacked this turn.

More support for Cald Aggro. As long as you have two creatures that attacked and survived, this card is great. That’s really the key, is that they have to survive. You have to earn this card by layering other support cards with it, but the power level is there.

Coal Weebo – 3?

Cald Creature

Energy: 2

Effect – Char: Creatures with more than their starting energy lose three extra energy in attacks against

Coal Weebo.

The wording is confusing. Does the creature have to attack Coal Weebo or does Char trigger on both offense and defense. If the former, this card is a 2. If the latter, it’s probably a 3. In either case, it’s probably not making the cut.

Firesnap Wasperine – 4

Cald Creature

Energy: 1

Effect – Blitz: You may play Firesnap Wasperine at the beginning of your Attack Step.

Effect – Snap: If your Magi is Cald, choose an opposing Creature after you play Firesnap Wasperine.

Remove two energy from the chosen Creature.

Not broken or anything, but Snap is two free energy. That’s very nice. Blitz also allows your Cald Aggro decks to be faster and meaner.

Giant Kelthet – 4

Cald Creature

Energy: 7

Power – Flamebath: (6) Remove three energy from each non-Cald Creature and Magi. Your Powers,

Spells, and Effects may not increase the amount of energy removed by Flamebath.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Flamebath is very strong. It’s basically a one-sided Flame Geyser. Not being able to boost it is pretty irrelevant, since the ability is so good by itself. Sure, in a Cald mirror this card is useless, but whatever. You’re not running 3 copies anyway. The only problem with this guy is how big he is. A lot of Cald magi can never play this unless it’s on their flip turn, which is a big limiting factor. However, Flamebath leaves this card in play, which can be a really big deal. I can see this card becoming a staple in Ergar decks for sure, probably as a one-of but maybe you’d run two copies.

Lava Orathan – 3.5

Cald Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Boost: Add one energy to Lava Orathan after a non-Cald Creature is discarded from play.

In creature-based burn decks you get to play this and then use your Ergar shenanigans to Boost a bunch during PRS 2. That’s cool. Then, if it lives, you can attack with it. Ergar decks don’t typically run a lot of creatures that will be able to profitably enter combat. I see this card actually fitting better with The Last Words than the more common Scroll of Fire. Warrior’s Boots + Lava Orathan onto your Last Words Ergar board, kill all their stuff with 3-damage Sparks, Boost this a lot, hit face?

Magma Gum-Gum – 3.5

Cald Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Friction: As Magma Gum-Gum attacks, you may discard a Cald card from your hand. If you do,

Magma Gum-Gum removes three extra energy in the attack.

Cald doesn’t get access to so much draw where you can afford to throw away resources recklessly. That basically means you don’t want to play this in any old Cald Aggro list. However, if you’re using League Elder or trying to mess with the “fill the discard” mechanic, this is a reasonable way to help fuel your game plan.

Brash Knuckles – 3.5

Cald Relic

Energy: 3

Effect – Aftermath: At the end of your turn, if at least one opposing Creature was defeated in an attack

this turn, draw two cards.

Card draw for your Aggro deck is very, very good. If you can get two Aftermath triggers off you’ll feel super far ahead. Only goes in the Aggro deck though.

Heat Spear – 2.5

Cald Relic

Energy: 2

Power – Jab: (2) Discard Heat Spear from play and choose an opposing Creature. Remove all but one

energy from the chosen Creature. You may not use this Power the turn you play Heat Spear.

Holy crap it’s too slow. Take a pass on this one.

Molten Charm – 3  

Cald Relic

Energy: 1

Effect – Rally: Reduce the cost of the first Cald Creature played each turn by one energy, to a minimum

of one.

Effect – Advantage: Increase the cost of the first Naroom Creature played each turn by one energy.

UNRELEASED PROMO

If this card lasts for three turns, you’re happy with it, as long as you’re playing a Cald creature on the second and third turn it’s in play. The turn you play it, this card doesn’t do anything, because it costs 1 itself and only affects one creature per turn. Advantage means won’t want to run Flame Rudwot in your Molten Charm decks (or Ember Hyren in Aggro), which is another drawback, but truly dual-region Cald/Naroom isn’t really a thing. Still, on any creature-based strategy this is not a bad card to have.

Dreamburn – 3.5

Cald Spell

Energy: 2

Discard the top card of your deck. If that card is a Spell, choose a Magi and remove two energy from it. If

that card is a Creature, choose a Creature and remove two energy from it. If that card is a Relic, choose an opposing Relic and discard it from play.

I really like this card. First of all, it helps you fill your discard for those mechanics. Second, all its modes are fine by themselves and Cald has Scroll of Fire. Where it gets really cool is on original Barak because he can manually choose the outcome he wants.

Inspire – 3

Cald Spell

Energy: 1

Choose a Creature and attack Inspire to it. While Inspire is attached, that Creature must attack each

turn, if possible, and gains two energy as it attacks.

Aggro support card. It’s decent there, helping you keep your Sinder’s Mantle in play and whatnot. It’s not great for your card economy and is a terrible draw if you’re behind the board but it’s still decent.

Skorch’s Blessing – 3

Cald Spell

Energy: 2

Choose a Cald Creature. Attach Skorch’s Blessing to that Creature. While Skorch’s Blessing is attached,

that Creature gains “Effect – Amplify: Once per turn, when this Creature uses a Power that removes energy from exactly one Creature, remove one extra energy and add one energy to your Magi.” You may not attach another copy of Skorch’s Blessing to this Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Once per turn is a bit irritating, since you can’t combine it with Ergar’s Spark on a creature that has a native damage power. That said, it’s energy-neutral right away. If you can Amplify twice you’re happy. I’m skeptical with all of these attaching spells because creatures die all the time.

Volcanic Burst – 3

Cald Spell

Energy: 5

Choose two opposing Creatures. Remove three energy from each chosen Creature.

I think there are better cards to do this effect but this isn’t a bad card at all. Just a tad expensive to play (uses up your whole energize step on the vast majority of magi).

TLDR: Cald

Magi

Ashgar Alt – 4

Barak Alt – 4

Dygran – 3

Grega Alt – 3.5

Creatures

Agrohan – 3.5

Ash Lovian – 2.5

Blaze Moga – 3.5

Coal Weebo – 2/3

Firesnap Wasperine – 4

Giant Kelthet – 4

Lava Orathan – 3.5

Magma Gum-Gum – 3.5

Relics

Brash Knuckles – 3.5

Heat Spear – 2.5

Molten Charm – 3

Spells

Dreamburn – 3.5

Inspire – 3

Skorch’s Blessing – 3

Volcanic Burst – 3

Thoughts

I like the support for Cald Aggro, especially Brash Knuckles and the magi. I love the “fill the discard” support because of how well it interacts with a lot of existing Cald cards (Barak the Red for example) and also gets a lot of new hotness (see what I did there?). Agrohan is really exciting in that kind of deck, and so is Dreamburn/Barak’s Prophecy. Ergar decks also get some cool toys. Creatureless Spell decks didn’t really need any so it’s fine they don’t receive much help if any. Lava Orathan and Firesnap Wasperine making The Last Words more playable might actually be the sleeper coolest thing about the new Cald cards.

Core

Agram Alt – 4

Core Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 6

Starting: Agram’s Staff, Raveled Drush, Haunt

Effect – Dark Knowledge: Non-Core cards cost Agram one less energy to play.

Power – Corrupt: (3) Choose a Creature with two energy or less. Gain control of the Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Okay, so 14/6 is clearly nice. Agram’s Staff + Dark Knowledge seems mostly like a fun mechanic but certainly one with some competitive potential. Corrupt is energy advantage on a 2-energy critter and just fine on a 1 (because 1-energy creatures in competitive decks tend to be very annoying, like Phrup). Solid magi with some potential for silliness. Also, he’s still Agram so he can still abuse Agram’s Plaything and Shroud of the Master like nobody’s business.

Lur – 4

Core Magi

Starting Energy: 11

Energize: 7

Starting: Core Grag, Vile K’teeb

Effect: Lur has a starting hand size of seven.

Effect – Dark Lore: During your Draw Step, you may discard a card from your hand to draw a card.

That’s a hell of a setup magi. Draw 2 more cards than your opponent at the beginning of the game and always has a Tomorrow’s Jewel out for free? Yes please! Lur doesn’t often want to go first, since 11 starting energy is rather low, but hey. The thing is, Lur is competing with Evil Evu, Warrada, Togoth, and The Dark Twins. These magi are all extremely strong. I think Lur does stack up and there will be reasons to play this magi over others (fill the discard anyone?). 

Morag Alt – 5

Core Magi

Starting Energy: 11

Energize: 7

Starting: Terrorize, Dark Furok, Stealth

Effect – The Master’s Will: Morag may use Powers and Effects on Core Relics as though he were Agram.

Power – Out of the Shadows: (1) Play a Creature from your hand, paying all costs. Discard that Creature

at the end of your turn.

UNRELEASED PROMO

While his starting energy and starting cards are a bit weak, this guy doesn’t want to be your starting magi anyway so it’s far less relevant. The Master’s Will allows Morag to play Agram’s Plaything and Shroud of the Master alongside an actual Agram. Your deck can have two magi who abuse their broken bonuses instead of just one. That’s great. Out of the Shadows is really dope as a pseudo-Boots, especially on creatures that discard themselves or are just going to trade into an opposing creature during attacks.

Simreo – 3.5

Core Magi

Starting Energy: 13

Energize: 6

Starting: Rabid Wasperine, Box of Greed

Effect – Sacrifice: As a Creature you control attacks, discard the top card of your deck.

Power – Dark Rewards: (2) Choose an opposing Creature. Remove two energy from the chosen

Creature. If you have twenty or more cards in your discard pile, remove all but one energy from that Creature instead.

Love it. He wants you to play Core Aggro, he pays you off in a big way for doing so. You’ve gotta navigate to his power spike of 20 cards in the discard a little, but thankfully Dark Rewards helps your Aggro deck even before you’ve achieved threshold.

Zet Alt – 2.5

Core Magi

Starting Energy: 9

Energize: 6

Starting: Nightmare Hyren, Darkbreed Hyren, Ill Fortune

Effect – Glee: Increase Zet’s energize by two if Korg is in any player’s defeated Magi stack.

Power – Cunning Blow: (X) Choose and discard an opposing Creature from play. X is equal to the

Creature’s current energy or six, whichever is less.

Nope. 9 starting energy is way too low. I don’t care if he has a 6 energize. I don’t care if Glee can make him a 9/8 Nar-like magi. You have to run Korg in order to do so and your opponent is just going to cackle in glee and abuse your Korg. Cunning Blow is a strong power but it’s not worth running Korg. Unlike promo Zet, Daybreak Zet is more of a trap, since +2 energize is so much stronger than +3 starting energy. It’s also not clear that Cunning Blow is better than promo Zet’s Treachery. It probably is, but it’s close. In my review I want to make sure people realize that this card is, in fact, a trap. Korg is so bad.

Asili – 4

Core Creature

Energy: 5

Power – Swipe: (5) Discard Asili from play. Choose an opposing Creature with four or less energy and

gain control of it. That Creature may not attack this turn. Only Core Magi may play Asili.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This card is pretty awesome as long as you’re targeting a creature with 3-4 energy. I don’t think it quite reaches the level of a 5, since you can’t steal slightly bigger creatures, but creature theft is very strong.

Core Nolio – 3

Core Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Threaten: Opposing Spells may not choose your non-Nolio Creatures.

Threaten provides a protective layer around your creatures, but the problem is that it can be attacked and killed. When I compare this card to Treepsh, the problem is not that it can be attacked but because it doesn’t do anything else. Treepsh sees play because it can draw cards and because it can protect the team. This doesn’t do anything other than (try to) protect the team, and isn’t consistent at doing that.

Giant Grax – 2.5

Core Creature

Energy: 10

Effect – Twist: When Giant Grax attacks, remove half of the defending Creature’s energy, rounded up.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Way too expensive not to do anything immediately on the turn you play it. Also, Twist isn’t even that amazing. It helps a huge creature attack better. It’s already huge though…

Twilight Mowat – 3.5

Core/d’Resh Creature

Energy: 7

Power – Dark Sands: (1) Choose an opposing Creature. That Creature is Core until the beginning of your

next turn.

Effect – Dream Inhibitor: Powers on opposing Core Creatures cost two extra energy.

Only Core and d’Resh Magi may play Twilight Mowat.

UNRELEASED PROMO

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. Also works with Forgotten Dancer.

Unstable Rokarum – 4

Core Creature

Energy: 5

Energize: 2

Effect – Instability: If Unstable Rokarum has nine or more energy, discard five energy from it.

Kybar’s Teeth Magi may play Unstable Rokarum.

This card is basically just a Habob. It doesn’t die to Crushing spells and if it lives one turn it gives you free energy. Instability is very unlikely to trigger because of damaging abilities and creature combat that it’s not really a drawback. Even if they don’t touch it and you don’t attack a creature with it for two turns, you still don’t lose the creature.

Vile K’teeb – 2.5

Core Creature

Energy: 4

Power – Absorb: (2) Choose a Power on an opposing Creature. Add energy to Vile K’teeb equal to that

Power’s energy cost (X equals zero).

Vile K’teeb is a very situational card, because there are a lot of decks without creatures with expensive powers (also Ormagon doesn’t usually stay in play). As a result, it’s too narrow to make your deck.

Box of Greed – 3.5

Core Relic

Energy: 0

Power – Greed: (2) Choose an opposing Creature with less energy than the number of cards in its

controller’s hand. Remove three energy from the chosen Creature.

I mean, it’s energy advantage sometimes. Would this card be broken if it wasn’t conditional? No. But it’s also not really what Core is trying to do. The only place I can really see this card being useful is to reduce a creature’s energy so you can then steal it with one of your conditional possession abilities.

Cackling Skull – 3.5

Core Relic

Energy: 0

Effect – Voices: After an opponent plays a Spell, roll a die:

1: Discard a card at random from each player’s hand.

2: Discard two energy from each Magi.

3: Return all Relics in play to their owner’s hand.

4: Discard Cackling Skull from play.

5: Shuffle all discard piles into their owner’s deck.

6: Each player shuffles his or her hand into his or her deck and draws ten cards.

This card is really weird. I like that. There’s a lot of room for wacky design in MND. It’s random and mostly symmetrical (only when you roll a 4 does it break symmetry). Making this card an integral part of your deck’s strategy is hard to do and the jury is still out on whether it’s good. However, I give this a solid 3.5 because of its kooky potential.

Shadow Seed – 4

Core Relic

Energy: 4

Effect – Dark Rebirth: Discard Shadow Seed after an opposing Creature is discarded from play. Return

that Creature to play, under your control, with five energy, ignoring all costs and restrictions. That Creature may not attack this turn.

Starting: Agram, Morag

Starting: Agram, Morag makes this card very good because Agram and Morag are very good, in both of their iterations. This card is 4 energy to net 5, but feels a lot better than that because you’re taking their card.

Taint Charm – 3

Core Relic

Energy: 1

Effect – Rally: Reduce the cost of the first Core Creature played each turn by one energy, to a minimum

of one.

Effect – Advantage: Increase the cost of the first non-Core Creature played each turn by one energy.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This card is a bit better than the other Charms since Core doesn’t really play non-Core cards most of the time. You just don’t put this in a Shadow Magi deck that’s actively splashing non-Core cards. Those aren’t that common outside of fringe Naroom Shadow Flood of Energy decks or decks with Nagsis. Either way, you still have to wait a turn before you start generating energy advantage from this relic, and that’s a consideration. 

Contaminate – 3.5

Core Spell

Energy: 2

Choose a Creature and attach Contaminate to it. While Contaminate is attached, that Creature is Core

instead of its original region. If there are fifteen or more cards in your discard pile, that Creature may not attack or use Powers or Effects.

One of the better uses for this card is to combine it with Forgotten Dancer or Traitor’s Reach. It’s strange that the threshold number is 15 instead of 20 like you see on most of the “count your discard” cards, but whatever. In its empowered state, you have a cheap, defensive control tool which is good enough for decks like The Dark Twins or theft-based control. So I like that it can act as a solid enabler for powerful removal or in combination with high velocity decks to act as removal.

Grymm’s Blessing – 2.5

Core Spell

Energy: 2

Choose a Core Creature. Attach Grymm’s Blessing to that Creature. While Grymm’s Blessing is attached,

that Creature gains “Power – Distort: (1) Choose an opposing player. That player must remove two energy from a Creature he or she controls.” You may not attach another copy of Grymm’s Blessing to this Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

I have the same problem with this that I have with Blessings in general: your creature will likely die. If it does after one turn you’re actually behind 1 energy (spent 2 + 1 from your creature to deal 2).

Ill Fortune – 3

Core Spell

Energy: 1

Attach Ill Fortune to an opposing Magi. As the first Creature controlled by that Magi’s owner attacks

each turn, remove one energy from that Creature.

Not powerful but certainly irritating. It doesn’t fall off the magi, so this can generate advantage over a stalled game where you’re not aggressively looking to defeat the enemy magi but to wear them down. Core has decks like this but they’re not the most powerful ones.

Sacrifice – 3.5

Core Spell

Energy: 4

Choose a Creature you control and an opposing Creature. Discard both Creatures from play.

One more dumb thing Agram’s Plaything and especially Shadow Fird let you do. This card is very good in combination with Shadow Fird specifically, since you can keep getting it back. You don’t want to discard a Wudge or a Zungg to Sacrifice but you can in a pinch. With anything 3+ energy you’re overpaying and Core doesn’t really have many 2s. Basically, expect Shadow Fird decks to run 3 copies of this card and not to see it much in decks without that guy. Maybe as a one-of in Plaything decks because a 4-energy Shockwave is great even if it costs 2 cards.

TLDR: Core

Magi

Agram Alt – 4

Lur – 4

Morag Alt – 5

Simreo – 3.5

Zet Alt – 2.5

Creatures

Asili – 4

Core Nolio – 3

Giant Grax – 2.5

Twilight Mowat – 3.5

Unstable Rokarum – 4

Vile K’teeb – 2.5

Relics

Box of Greed – 3.5

Cackling Skull – 3.5

Shadow Seed – 4

Taint Charm – 3

Spells

Contaminate – 3.5

Grymm’s Blessing – 2.5

Ill Fortune – 3

Sacrifice – 3.5

Thoughts

Core gets some really good magi to add to the mix and another Zet to troll people. Contaminate is also very powerful removal and might generate a rise in Core Furoks (I hope so). Asili is a good way to steal creatures and Box of Greed might help possession decks activate Turn. Cackling Skull is very silly and the mad deck brewers out there will surely have fun messing with it as well.

d’Resh

Drajan Alt – 4

D’Resh Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 6

Starting: Sand Cape, Craw, Sandtrap

Effect – Blind: Opposing Magi must discard one energy each time a Creature they control attacks,

otherwise that Creature removes no energy in the attack.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Energy and starting cards are awesome (except Sandtrap which you don’t need to play). Blind is very annoying too. Basically, Drajan alt gets to use his energy to build creature boards, protect them with Blind, and then recur the creatures he has that do die with Sand Cape. If they ever blow up Sand Cape, he can Craw it back out and keep going. I see this guy as capable of really grinding out games. I don’t quite think he makes a 5-level because there are several decks that don’t rely on attacking so much, but he’s definitely strong.

Harresh Alt – 3.5

D’Resh Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 5

Starting: Drahkar, Mirage, Sand Hyren

Power – Sleight of Hand: Choose a Creature you control. Play a Creature from your hand, ignoring all

costs, with less starting energy than the energy on the chosen Creature. Return the chosen Creature to its owner’s hand. Use this Power only before your Attack Step.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Sleight of Hand is pretty interesting. By bouncing illusions like her starting Drahkar, Harresh can get out big creatures before the attack step. That’s definitely powerful. Drahkar even allows her to get a discounted Sandsifter into play and certainly combos with her starting Sand Hyren. One of the weird things about her is that neither the bounced creature nor the one she puts into play is region locked, as most strong d’Resh cards are, so Harresh can splash effectively too. The problem is actually getting her creatures to survive (or using Boots). The other problem is that you can’t use normal Harresh to set up in decks with this Alt magi.

Hasseth Alt – 3

D’Resh Magi

Starting Energy: 15

Energize: 5

Starting: Avatar’s Staff, Sand Cape, Xala

Effect – Imaginary World: Non-Illusion Creatures lose one energy at the beginning of your turn.

Very strong starting cards, good energy numbers. Imaginary World is a good effect in an Illusion-centric deck. I don’t think this magi is better than his normal version. Banish is quite powerful. In addition to that, they want to go in the same deck and they can’t.

Uruk – 4

D’Resh Magi

Starting Energy: 13

Energize: 6

Starting: Two different Recurring cards

Effect – Cycle: Once per turn, after you play a Creature, you may discard the top two cards from your

deck.

Power – Cuff: (2) Choose an opposing Creature. Remove two energy from the chosen Creature. If there

are twenty or more cards in your discard pile, remove one energy from each opposing Creature.

Energy numbers are competitive. The Recurring cards are Habob, Mirror Braggle, Szhar, Uban, Venger, and Buried Treasure, so these cards in some combination are what you can get as Uruk’s starting. Cycle is pretty awesome, both as a way to reach 20 card threshold but also in d’Resh which has discard pile themes already. Cuff is a bit odd. It’s a mediocre burn power until you have threshold and then it’s a solid one. It obviously plays extremely well with Sunburn, and the play pattern of Sunburn > Cuff > buyback Sunburn costs 5, leaving Uruk with 1 energy to save up. I think this is a solid magi that can fit in specific builds of burn.

Cactus Hyren – 3

D’Resh Creature

Energy: 7

Effect – Pierce: As Cactus Hyren attacks a Creature with six or more energy, remove three energy from

that Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Big boi that fights other big bois. That’s fine. The problem is that there’s not a single d’Resh magi who can play this off one energize step except Gherish if he has Drift available. Also, it’s slow.

Cef – 3

D’Resh Creature

Energy: 4

Effect – Dehydrate: When an opponent uses a Power, choose a non-d’Resh Creature and remove one

energy from it.

Only d’Resh Magi may play Cef.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Dehydrate does not have a “once per turn” clause. That said, d’Resh already has several cards that punish the opponent for using powers and, while I think this card is comparable to a Sandstorm Xyx, I don’t think it’s better. Sandstorm Xyx is only a fringe playable, so that’s what this is.

Mirror Braggle – 2.5

D’Resh Creature – Recurring

Energy: 4

Effect – Reflect: Mirror Braggle is unaffected by non-d’Resh Spells.

Power – Cleanse: (1) Choose a Spell attached to a Creature you control. Discard that Spell from play.

After you reveal a d’Resh Magi, if you have one or more Recurring cards in your discard pile, you may

discard one energy from your Magi to choose one Recurring card in your discard pile and add it to your hand.

Reflect is pretty great. This is another 4-energy creature that’s immune to (most) Crushing spells. Thing is, attached spells aren’t very common and this only hits the ones that attach to your creatures. Cleanse is a sideboard-worthy option against Nar decks with Crystallize but that’s about it.

Sandy Craw – 3.5

D’Resh Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Gifts: After any player plays one of his or her Magi’s starting cards, choose a Creature in play.

Restore that Creature to its starting energy. This may add or remove energy from a Creature.

This card is pretty sweet. In d’Resh, it’s mostly an additional way for burn decks to deal with heavy creature growth, but it can also reset your illusions (Xala) to full size. I’ve seen this card splashed in Naroom as additional Weebo effects though, and that’s pretty cool. Again, it’s not “once per turn” and it can even mess with the opponent’s plays. If you have a Sandy Craw out, you need to keep track of what cards count as starting for their magi. Also, it’s not a “may” ability but you can choose a creature that’s already at its starting energy if you don’t actually want to use Gifts.

Twilight Mowat – 3.5

Core/d’Resh Creature

Energy: 7

Power – Dark Sands: (1) Choose an opposing Creature. That Creature is Core until the beginning of your

next turn.

Effect – Dream Inhibitor: Powers on opposing Core Creatures cost two extra energy.

Only Core and d’Resh Magi may play Twilight Mowat.

UNRELEASED PROMO

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. Also works with Forgotten Dancer.

Cactus Cloak – 3.5

D’Resh Relic

Energy: 3

Effect – One Thousand Needles: As an opposing Creature attacks a Creature you control, you may

discard Cactus Cloak from play and a card from your hand to discard the opposing Creature from play.

Expensive protection but One Thousand Needles is serious business. Craw can loop this card so I can see a funky defensive d’Resh build using Ahron.   

Dey’s Ring – 4

D’Resh Relic

Energy: 0

Effect – Purity: At the end of your turn, if all Spells in your discard pile are d’Resh, discard all of your

non-d’Resh cards from play and choose a d’Resh Creature in your discard pile. Add that card to your hand.

Starting: Dey

UNRELEASED PROMO

Love it. d’Resh decks tend not to splash much to begin with due to region-specific card effects and especially Crystal Vision. While Dey’s Ring does mean you’re inclined not to play Universal relics that don’t discard themselves (Belt and Channeler’s Gloves especially), you get more recursion power in a region that likes recursion to begin with. Dey can now guarantee a re-buy of regular Olum every turn to make Olum tribal much better.

Dust Goggles – 3.5

D’Resh Relic

Energy: 2

Power – Sand Storm: (0) Discard Dust Goggles and a Creature you control from play. Non-Illusion

Creatures may not attack until the beginning of your next turn. Use this Power only before your Attack Step.

Here’s another d’Resh relic which Craw can loop that has a controlling ability. With Dey’s Ring and/or Sand Cape you can essentially shut down aggro decks as long as you can stick a creature through your opponent’s turn.

Olum Claws – 3.5

D’Resh Relic

Energy: 2

Effect: ECKS!: After an Olum is played, add one energy to it.

Starting: Dey

More stuff for Dey and Olum tribal! With this card and Dey’s Ring, Dey is up to five starting cards which is a ton. He also has a consistent turn of Olum Claws (12 left), Olum (10), Olum Digger (6), Warrior Olum (0). This generates a 3-energy Olum, a 6-7 energy Olum Digger, and a 8-9 energy Warrior Olum, depending on order. Aid actually causes you to lose an energy on this board so it’s not worth it, but you can Aid and drop Dey’s Ring to get Olum back to your hand for next turn. Of course, this is just going first and not getting his energize step. With 5 additional energy Dey can play 2 additional Olum and go nuts (not as a starting magi obviously). Basically, as long as you’re playing 3 Olum creatures the turn you play the Claws, it’ll more than pay for itself. After that it’s free energy.

Sand Castle – 3.5

D’Resh Relic

Energy: 1

Power – Harsh Reality: (1) Choose an Illusion you control. Until the beginning of your next turn,

unnamed Effects on the chosen Creature produce no effect and that Creature is not considered to be an Illusion.

Korg may play Sand Castle.

Sand Castle finally gives illusion decks a consistent way to threaten magi damage. This is amazing. At the same time, it mitigates the fragility of illusion decks by making the creature “real” for a turn. This is an incredible addition to the game because illusion decks were not competitive prior to this card. They die too quickly to canny opponents removing energy from their magi and they have trouble defeating magi even though they can create energy advantage on board. This card solves both problems. The fact that Korg can play it makes no sense whatsoever and I think is meant to be a joke about Korg being silly and juvenile.

Buried Treasure – 2

D’Resh Spell – Recurring

Energy: 4

Choose up to three d’Resh Creatures in your discard pile and return them to your hand. Each opponent

may return the top Creature in his or her discard pile to his or her hand.

After you reveal a d’Resh Magi, if you have one or more Recurring cards in your discard pile, you may

discard one energy from your Magi to choose one Recurring card in your discard pile and add it to your hand.

Mostly too expensive. The Recurring text is a bit interesting though.

Durresh’s Gift – 4

D’Resh Spell

Energy: 3

Return a Creature you control to its owner’s hand and choose a Creature in any discard pile. Put that

Creature into play, under your control, with four energy.

UNRELEASED PROMO

The creature you get can attack this turn. Also, d’Resh has Nemsa. Nemsa is free. This is a great card. Most of the Gift spells are. You don’t need Nemsa or a splashed Agram’s Plaything (Sand Hyren lets you) to make this card good though. Bouncing a 1-energy Uban or whatever is just fine too.

Hallucination – 2

D’Resh Spell

Energy: 3

Choose a Creature you control. The chosen Creature removes two extra energy in attacks this turn. If

you have twenty or more cards in your discard pile, draw a card.

Meh. I don’t see the payoff honestly and paying 3 to remove 2 from the board is awful. Sure, at 20 cards in discard you’re okay with this card’s effect but you’re very much not beforehand. Plus, this isn’t something d’Resh decks really need. Burn doesn’t need it. Illusions don’t need it. Olums don’t. Mohani doesn’t. Discard pile decks don’t need it either, even though that’s the best place for this card.

Haunted Dunes – 1

D’Resh Spell

Energy: 2

Attach Haunted Dunes to your Magi. While Haunted Dunes is attached, Creatures lose two energy as

they attack your Magi. Reduce your Magi’s energize by one.

Oh no. Reducing your magi’s energize to then let stuff hit you in the face is terrible.

Sand Blast – 4

D’Resh Spell

Energy: 3

Search your discard pile for one of your Magi’s named starting cards and play it, ignoring costs. If that

card is a Creature, it may not attack this turn.

Only d’Resh and d’Resh Shadow Magi may play Sand Blast.

There are enough d’Resh magi who have named starting creatures that cost 5, 6, and 7, as well as big illusions like Xala or Drahkar that this card is just good. It doesn’t even need support really, since you can just have your creature die to combat, but this card can obviously get better with discard outlets.

TLDR: d’Resh

Magi

Drajan Alt – 4

Harresh Alt – 3.5

Hasseth Alt – 3

Uruk – 4

Creatures

Cactus Hyren – 3

Cef – 3

Mirror Braggle – 2.5

Sandy Craw – 3.5

Twilight Mowat – 3.5

Relics

Cactus Cloak – 3.5

Dey’s Ring – 4

Dust Goggles – 3.5

Olum Claws – 3.5

Sand Castle – 3.5

Spells

Buried Treasure – 2

Durresh’s Gift – 4

Hallucination – 2

Haunted Dunes – 1

Sand Blast – 4

Thoughts

Aside from Uruk, the new d’Resh magi, while good, conflict with existing d’Resh magi who are also good. I don’t like that a ton, but at least the new ones are interesting in different ways (except for Hasseth who I think is a miss). I love the boost to Olum tribal because I think it was at the edges of competitive viability already. I love Durresh’s Gift and Sand Blast because they’re powerful cards. I’m intrigued by this sort of Craw-centric control idea though I think it’s more fun than good. Cool additions all in all. No Blessing spell or Charm relic. I’m fine with this.

Kybar’s Teeth

Kazm Alt – 1

Kybar’s Teeth Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 5

Starting: Vopok, Giant Baldar

UNRELEASED PROMO

Well, this is clearly not a complete card design. I think any alternate Kazm is going to have to be insanely good to see play, because Kazm is in every KT deck that exists for good reason.

Koll Alt – 4

Kybar’s Teeth Magi

Starting Energy: 13

Energize: 5

Starting: Climbing Staff, Boulder Vaal, Cragnoc

Effect – Mastery: Kybar’s Teeth Creatures you play cost one less energy to play, to a minimum of one. If

you have twenty or more cards in your discard pile, after you play a Kybar’s Teeth Creature, add one energy to it.

Discounts are so useful in the fatty region, especially when combined with his starting Climbing Staff. Starting Cragnoc is sweet. The 20 card threshold effect is just gravy. You’re really playing this card for the discount and I like that design a lot.

Targ’n Alt – 3.5

Kybar’s Teeth Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 6

Starting: Cragnoc, Rokarum, Stand and Take It

Effect – Rockslide: Your Kybar’s Teeth Creatures remove energy in attacks equal to their printed starting

energy instead of their current energy.

UNRELEASED PROMO

What an interesting effect! Right away, it flips KT decks on their head a little bit. Vopok is pretty horrible with this guy, for instance. His starting Cragnoc on the other hand is an immense threat, as is any other normal fatty that’s been whittled down. Stand and Take It becomes playable on this magi as well. Cool card that could be pretty good too.

Tarok – 3.5

Kybar’s Teeth Magi

Starting Energy: 15

Energize: 5

Starting: Gogor’s Spade, Baldar Amulet, Granite Axe

Effect – Summon Defender: Once per turn, after you play a Kybar’s Teeth Relic, reveal the top card of

your deck. If that card is a Creature, you may either play it for two less energy or add it to your hand. If the card is not a Creature, put it on the bottom of your deck. That Creature may not attack this turn.

My first thought is that I don’t like the “once per turn” clause on this guy because there’s no way to stack the deck. Hitting a relic or spell is pretty sad. My second thought is that he’s pretty dope in an Emec’s Forge deck. KT has plenty of good spells and Tarok doesn’t want to see many of them, which is weird.

T’Korr – 4

Kybar’s Teeth Magi

Starting Energy: 16

Energize: 5

Starting: Akkar, Mosp Pendant

Effect – Aggravation: At the beginning of your turn, if each opponent controls more Creatures than you,

add two energy to T’Korr.

This card is basically Kazm lite. He encourages you to play one big creature at a time and gives you a chunk of energy when your opponent tries to get around the one-v-one KT mentality. Having a 16/7 magi in mostly creatureless decks is a pretty interesting notion too.

Black Agrilla – 2.5

Kybar’s Teeth Creature

Energy: 5

Effect – Juggernaut: If you have fifteen or more cards in your hand, Black Agrilla removes five extra

energy in attacks.

Whatever. If you have 15+ cards in hand you can do better. If you don’t you can certainly do better.

Boulder Vaal – 3

Kybar’s Teeth Creature

Energy: 5

Effect – Arrogance: At the beginning of your turn, if an opponent does not control a Creature with more

than its starting energy, add two energy to Boulder Vaal.

Effect – Invulnerability: This Creature loses one less energy in attacks.

This card is fine, and against a lot of decks it will be very good. Against an equal number it’s very vanilla.

Chasm Vogo – 3

Kybar’s Teeth Creature

Energy: 4

Effect – Divebomb: As Chasm Vogo attacks a Creature, you may remove energy from the opposing

Creature equal to twice Chasm Vogo’s current energy. If you do, discard Chasm Vogo from play.

I like this creature simply because it’s a playable 4-energy creature in KT. They don’t really have those. That said, I’m not crazy about it.

Cliff Hubram – 3

Kybar’s Teeth Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – RETREAT!: As a Creature you control is chosen by an opposing Spell, you may shuffle it into its

owner’s deck to add four energy to your Magi.

Again, protective creatures have the problem of dying to just about everything and don’t see much play if they don’t do something else. Sagawal doesn’t see play. This card is basically a Sagawal.

Granite Hyren – 2.5

Kybar’s Teeth Creature

Energy: 7

Effect – Improved Invulnerability: Granite Hyren loses three less energy in attacks.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Tough to kill in combat. That’s literally all I have to say.

Kartha – 4

Kybar’s Teeth Creature

Energy: 5

Power – Vitalize: (1) Add two energy to the smallest Creature you control.

This card is pretty solid. Most of the time, it’s just Vitalizing itself for a 1-energy boost and that’s okay. I don’t think this sees heavy use but it’s definitely a consideration because it’s an efficient creature that a KT magi can play in a single energize step.

Maliwin – 3

Kybar’s Teeth Creature

Energy: 4

Effect – Roar: Maliwin removes four extra energy in attacks.

Only Kybar’s Teeth Magi may play Maliwin.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This is a better Chasm Vogo. That means you’re probably never playing Chasm Vogo.

Summit Furok – 3

Kybar’s Teeth Creature

Energy: 6

Effect – Lookout: Once per turn, after an opposing Spell removes energy from a Creature you control,

remove energy equal to half the energy removed by the Spell, rounded up, from an opposing Magi.

Don’t they just kill this first?

Flint Charm – 3

Kybar’s Teeth Relic

Energy: 1

Effect – Rally: Reduce the cost of the first Kybar’s Teeth Creature played each turn by one energy, to a

minimum of one.

Effect – Advantage: Increase the cost of the first Weave Creature played each turn by one energy.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Discounts are great in KT but this card just isn’t it. We already have Climbing Staff to be better. Yes, they stack but having to wait a turn is really bad.

Granite Axe – 1

Kybar’s Teeth Relic

Energy: 2

Power – SMASH!: (2) Move up to four energy from the largest opposing Creature in play to the smallest

opposing creature in play.

What the actual hell? This card costs 4 and doesn’t remove a single energy from the opponent’s board. I have no words.

Mosp Pendant – 2.5

Kybar’s Teeth Relic

Energy: 2

Power – Harden: (3) Choose a Creature. Until the beginning of your next turn, the chosen Creature

cannot attack and loses four extra energy in attacks. Other Effects, Powers, and Spells may not reduce the energy removed from the chosen Creature in attacks.

At first glance I thought, what a useless effect. It costs 5 and (maybe) prevents 4 damage. Then I saw that you can target your opponent’s creatures to stop them from attacking. This card is still too expensive but it does have some very minor potential.

Krag’s Blessing – 3

Kybar’s Teeth Spell

Energy: 2

Choose a Kybar’s Teeth Creature. Attach Krag’s Blessing to that Creature. While Krag’s Blessing is

attached, that Creature gains “Effect – Slam: Add two energy to this Creature when it attacks a Creature with less energy.” You may not attach another copy of Krag’s Blessing to this Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Like all the Blessing spells, it’s not amazing the turn you play it but gets pretty good over time. If it stays in play. This one is a bit more likely than others to stick but it’s about the same overall.

Overwhelm – 4

Kybar’s Teeth Spell

Energy: 3

Attach Overwhelm to a Creature you control. While Overwhelm is attached, this Creature gains “Effect –

Overwhelm: After this Creature defeats an opposing Creature in an attack, this Creature may immediately attack the opposing Creature’s Magi.”

I can see this card being good. For 3 energy you get a mini Momentum trigger (Giant Baldar). Magi damage is pretty good, and KT creatures are quite likely to be able to survive making attacks and still have enough energy to matter.

TLDR: Kybar’s Teeth

Magi

Kazm Alt – 1

Koll Alt – 4

Targ’n Alt – 3.5

Tarok – 3.5

T’Korr – 4 

Creatures

Black Agrilla – 2.5

Boulder Vaal – 3

Chasm Vogo – 3

Cliff Hubram – 3

Granite Hyren – 2.5

Kartha – 4

Maliwin – 3

Summit Furok – 3

Relics

Flint Charm – 3

Granite Axe – 1

Mosp Pendant – 2.5

Spells

Krag’s Blessing – 3

Overwhelm – 4

Thoughts

Why did the devs hate KT so much? All these cards are extremely mediocre, aside from some interesting magi. Even Overwhelm isn’t overwhelming. For a region with such a simple flavor, designing good cards around it must be really difficult. This is much more disappointing than Arderial’s lackluster additions because KT needs more good cards while Arderial already has a lot. I wish all the regions got cool new toys but this one makes me especially sad.

Nar

Koza Alt – 2.5

Nar Magi

Starting Energy: 10

Energize: 6

Starting: Blizzard Lovian

Effect – Immunity: Powers and Effects on opposing Relics do not affect Koza or Creatures you control.

Effect – Relicbond: Once per turn, after an opponent plays a Relic, add two energy to Koza.

10/6 is still not a very strong energy index. Immunity negates a few common competitive cards, though not a ton. Relicbond is very nice but not reliable.

Nibowl – 4

Nar Magi

Starting Energy: 10

Energize: 8

Starting: Iceberg Hyren

Effect – Armor: Once per turn, as a Creature you control is attacked, you may remove two energy from

Nibowl to add four energy to the defending Creature.

10/8 is fantastic for a Nar magi. Iceberg Hyren is a solid playable. Armor makes attacking Nibowl’s creatures a real pain. This magi fits in with other strong Nar magi like Laranel and Odavast who do things to protect their board state while out-energizing the competition.

Odavast Alt – 3.5

Nar Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 6

Starting: Yaromant

Power – Shatter: (2) Choose a Creature and discard a card. Remove energy from the Creature equal to

the amount of energy on its Magi. If that Creature is Frozen, remove two extra energy.

UNRELEASED PROMO

14/6 is very good in normal regions, and I think it’s good enough for Nar decks as well. The thing is, these numbers push Odavast toward a different style of Nar deck. Personally, I think that’s a good thing. Starts Yaromant which is the best possible card and makes Shatter more powerful. Shatter can be very strong. The thing is, this version of Odavast wants to avoid dealing damage to magi. This means he’s going in a very different style of deck than others and is powerful enough to encourage players to explore decks that depend less on making sure the opponent doesn’t have the energy to play cards. Again, I like this design a lot.

Syllik – 4

Nar Magi

Starting Energy: 10

Energize: 7

Starting: Polar Eebit

Power – Refrigerate: (1) Choose either Magi, Creatures, or Relics. Until the beginning of your next turn,

all cards of the chosen type are Frozen. Powers on Frozen cards cost one extra energy to use. Spells cost Frozen Magi one extra energy to play.

10/7 is the same as Odavast who is heavily played. Polar Eebit is fine as a starting card though you’ll probably only run the one copy. Refrigerate seems simple but actually has a lot of uses. First off, if Nar doesn’t draw into creature freeze it’s pretty awkward and Syllik fixes that issue for the cost of 1 energy per turn. Second, you can just freeze their magi every turn and not worry about yours being frozen, allowing you to put Syllik in spell-heavy control lists and not worry about paying all those penalties but complement them by freezing opposing magi or relics as needed. Third, you can also freeze yourself for specific cards that care about such things.

Velouria Alt – 3.5

Nar Magi

Starting Energy: 13

Energize: 5

Starting: Hunter Furok

Effect – Frost Bite: Powers on opposing Magi cost three extra energy.

UNRELEASED PROMO

13/5 is very awkward in typical Nar decks. Hunter Furok is a solid card but loses the synergy it has with Velouria’s first form. Frost Bite completely shuts down power-based magi. Imagine if O’Qua’s Conjure cost 7 but her energize stayed at 4, or if Tiller had to pay 3 energy every time he tried to Scrounge away a relic. Basically, Frost Bite is powerful enough against a bunch of common magi that it’s worth considering this magi as a surprise counter. However, don’t expect her to do much of anything against magi who don’t rely on powers and don’t expect her to live very long. Putting Velouria’s alternate form in your magi stack is a big gamble and either you or your opponent are going to feel salty at the end of the game.

Arith – 4

Nar Creature

Energy: 5

Effect – Scavenge: When an opposing Frozen card is discarded from play, draw a card.

Only Nar Magi may play Arith.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Card draw in Nar! Perfect for those controlling, removal-heavy freeze decks as lots of your removal spells will replace themselves with an Arith on the board. Also, it’s big enough not to die to Crushing spells and small enough to be able to play this and something else in the same turn.

Blizzard Lovian – 3

Nar Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Anti-Magi: Blizzard Lovian is unaffected by opposing Spells and Powers while it is Frozen.

Small enough that they can attack it to death anyway. It’s great to pump up with Mombak but not quite so strong that a single Cold Pack on it will make an opponent quake in their boots. After two Cold Pack uses I’d be scared though.

Cool Stuff – 4

Nar Creature

Energy: 2

Effect – Augment: After Cool Stuff is played, add one energy to each Stuff you control.

Power – Snowball: (0) Add one energy to each Stuff your control. Use this Power only if Cool Stuff is

Frozen.

Gorb would have to splash freeze cards and that’s pretty terrible in Bograth, so this doesn’t really go in the Stuff deck. What it does is give Nar access to another strong 2-energy creature aside from Sarf. You don’t even need to draw this thing in multiples since it doesn’t say “other Stuff you control”. Augment will always give you +1 energy advantage. Drawing multiples is the only way to get a benefit from Snowball, since being frozen will make it cost 1 energy. Decks that want Ice Arboll will love to put 3 copies of this creature in as well.

Ice Wudge – 4

Nar Creature

Energy: 1

Effect – Swell: After an Arctic card is played, add two energy to Ice Wudge.

Free energy is good. Literally every single Nar deck should start with 3 copies each of Yaromant and Zyavu and figure the rest out from there, so it’s not like you need to build around this card overmuch.

Iced Twee – 3.5

Nar Creature

Energy: 2

Power – Stir: (0) Discard Iced Twee from play and choose a Frozen Creature you control. Move that

Creature’s energy to another Creature you control and return the chosen Creature to your hand.

Stir is pretty dank with Vrak but works quite nicely with Furok Protector too. Also, if they ever attack your Iceberg Hyren because they lost their mind for a moment. Can also reset your Mombak after it has used Cold Pack.

Iceflow Hyren – 3.5

Nar Creature

Energy: 5

Energize: 3

Effect: Iceflow Hyren must attack each turn if able.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Energize 3 will cause your opponent to do anything they can to kill this creature. Attacking every turn is a drawback but not a huge one. It’s only bad against giant creatures and Nar has a bunch of great ways to remove giant creatures. As long as you’re playing several of those kind of cards, this thing will be good. However, Crystallize won’t do it and Blizzard won’t work before attacks, so you’ll have to get a little creative.

Tundra Hyren – 2.5

Nar Creature

Energy: 7

Power – Freeze: (1) Choose an opposing Magi. That Magi’s Creatures are Frozen until the beginning of

your next turn. Powers on Frozen cards cost one extra energy to use.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This is cool design space. That said, I’d be much more interested in a one-sided magi or relic freeze (like on Syllik), since Nar almost always wants to have all creatures frozen at all times anyway. I see this card as being mostly unnecessary thanks to the prevalence of Yaromant, Zyavu, and Essence of Frost.

Wharska – 2

Nar Creature

Energy: 3

Power – Overworked: (1) Choose a Creature with two or more Powers. Remove all but one energy from

that Creature.

Pretty niche card. Not that many creatures have 2+ powers. Cald decks with Ergar and Paradwyn decks with Staff of Vines come to mind. The thing is, if you just freeze creatures (like every Nar deck wants) that already punishes power-heavy decks a lot. You don’t need this card too.

Thast’s Ring – 5

Nar Relic

Energy: 0

Effect – Purity: At the end of your turn, if all Spells in your discard pile are Nar, discard all of your non-

Nar cards from play and choose an opposing Magi. If your Magi’s energize is higher than that Magi’s, add one energy to each of your Creatures and one energy to your Magi.

Starting: Thast

UNRELEASED PROMO

What? First of all, Nar already builds Purity decks because their good magi have so many “isolation” clauses so it’s not even really a drawback. Second, having a higher energize is a very easy condition to meet. Third, the energy generated is pretty incredible. It’s not Orlon’s Ring but it’s also less work. On Thast in particular, you do have to work hard to get the trigger, but the +1 energy on magi enables you to spend all your energy playing creatures to boost his energize rate and not need to worry about leaving at least 1 on him for survival purposes. Also, Thast wants a lot of creatures out and if he gets the trigger he’ll have a lot, which also means the energy generated is very high.

Burst – 4

Nar Spell

Energy: 4

Choose two opposing Relics and discard them from play. If those Relics were Frozen, discard one energy

from each opposing Creature.

Nar gets a Beam of Light-ish card. You probably only want one copy of this card because it does conflict with Shattershards a bit, but it’s quite powerful.

Glaciate – 2

Nar Spell

Energy: 3

Choose an opposing Creature and attach Glaciate to it. While Glaciate remains in play, opposing

Creatures may not use Powers.

Again, just freeze creatures. That makes their powers bad but doesn’t waste your energy. I give it a 2 because it can go on the same creature with a Crystallize so they also can’t attack and get rid of the Glaciate, but it’s pretty unnecessary.

Hail Storm – 2.5

Nar Spell

Energy: 6

Choose an opposing Creature. That Creature’s controller must discard a Creature he or she controls

from play. If the discarded Creature is not the one you chose, add two energy to your Magi.

It’s no Shockwave. You always target their biggest creature, they’ll always choose their smallest creature to discard. That means you discard their smallest creature for 4 energy, as long as you have 6 when you play this card. The creature they discard has to have 4+ energy (preferably more than 4) for you to be very happy and there are a lot of decks where that’s not too likely. Also, this card randomly makes Crystallize a lot worse, since they can discard that useless creature.

Keva’s Gift – 3.5

Nar Spell

Energy: 3

Return a Creature you control to its owner’s hand and choose an opposing Creature. Remove energy

from that Creature equal to your Magi’s energize. If that Creature is Frozen, remove two extra energy.

UNRELEASED PROMO

That’s a lot of damage. The question is what are you bouncing? Nar has Snow Barl Pup, creatures like Mombak or Kyroll who have spent most of their energy on powers, and now Cool Stuff, which is certainly good enough. This card can deal 10 damage pretty easily!

Snowdrift – 4

Nar Spell

Energy: 2

Attach Snowdrift to your Magi. While Snowdrift is attached, all Creatures in play are Frozen. If you have

twenty or more cards in your discard pile, all Relics are Frozen as well. Powers on Frozen cards cost one extra energy to use.

Spells are the most difficult card type to get rid of. Essentially perma-freezing all creatures for 2 energy is great. Nar mostly doesn’t care about frozen relics either, since a lot of their good relics are effect-based anyway, but that’s not what you’re worried about. This will replace Essence of Frost in some decks and allow decks that don’t currently play Essence access to a similar ability.

TLDR: Nar

Magi

Koza Alt – 2.5

Nibowl – 4

Odavast Alt – 3.5

Syllik – 4

Velouria Alt – 3.5

Creatures

Arith – 4

Blizzard Lovian – 3

Cool Stuff – 4

Ice Wudge – 4

Iced Twee – 3.5

Iceflow Hyren – 3.5

Tundra Hyren – 2.5

Wharska – 2

Relics

Thast’s Ring – 5

Spells

Burst – 4

Glaciate – 2

Hail Storm – 2.5

Keva’s Gift – 3.5

Snowdrift – 4

Thoughts

Nar receives a large power and fun-factor boost from the new cards, and the second point is even more important than the first. One of the big problems with Nar is that their decks look very much the same due to the fact that freezing creatures matters so much. With a bunch of new fun, interesting, and powerful cards, Odavast Alt who encourages players to build a different style of Nar, and Snowdrift which provides another enabler for creature freeze, Nar players should be happy to experiment and branch out.

Naroom

Ohk Alt – 3.5

Naroom Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 5

Starting: Braggle, Parmalag, Flutter Yup

Effect – Wander: After you play a Creature that does not share a region with Ohk, add two energy to it.

Cool. So you still pay regional penalty, but you make up for it. Non-Naroom creatures are just one energy bigger and then get a bonus energy. That’s going to lead to some funny stuff I’m sure. His starting cards are a big of a joke. You want to do something specific with Wander, not just play random dudes.

Orwin Alt – 3

Naroom Magi – Alternate, Elder

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 6

Starting: Glade Hyren, Eebit, Vortex of Knowledge

Power – Recall: (4) Choose up to three different Naroom cards in your discard pile and add them to your

hand. You may not draw any cards until the beginning of your next turn. Use this Power only before your Attack Step. This Power may not be copied.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Named Orwin, Elder in lackey. The new Recall is very expensive. There’s probably something good to do with it, but I don’t know. 14/6 with playable starting cards is good though. Regular Orwin which gets played in combo decks because his Recall gets any card. This guy doesn’t do that and I really don’t see where he fits.

Tryn Alt – 3.5

Naroom Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 5

Starting: Eebit, Flame Rudwot, Rudwot

Power – Growth: (3) Choose a Creature that you control and add energy to it equal to its starting energy.

At the beginning of your next turn, discard energy from that Creature equal to half its starting energy, rounded down.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Uh, okay. Growth is hard to wrap my head around. Are you pumping up small-to-medium guys like her starting cards want you to? Are you pumping up huge guys because it’s tons of temporary energy? While I don’t think this card is more powerful than regular Tryn, I think it’s different enough that she might have a deck.

Valleya – 3.5

Naroom Magi

Starting Energy: 13

Energize: 5

Starting: Hunting Moga, Remember Ring, Yaki’s Gauntlets

Effect – Relic Lore: Once per turn, as a Creature you control attacks, add one energy to it for every

Naroom Relic in play.

I’m looking at Robe of Vines, Energy Band, and the starting Yaki’s Gauntlets for around +3. That’s a good chunk. A creature that you’ve boosted by about 6 energy (combining those relics) getting to attack twice is pretty mean. The Hunting Moga she starts with can then proceed to blow up 2 enemy relics if you want. Gotta actually have these relics out though. Without them Valleya does nothing, and Remember Ring doesn’t count.

Giant Eebit – 3

Naroom Creature

Energy: 6

Effect – Foster: When Giant Eebit is discarded from play, choose up to two other Creatures in your

discard pile and add them to your hand.

UNRELEASED PROMO

It’s fine. Six energy is a bit awkward for most Naroom magi, but this card does things.

Glade Raxis – 3.5

Naroom Creature

Energy: 2

Power – Splinter: (2) Choose an opposing Relic and discard it from play.

If you’re not boosting this for a potential second use, you should just play Relic Stalker. If you are, this is a card I want access to.

Hinko Cub – 3.5

Naroom Creature

Energy: 1

Effect – Fluffy-Wuffy: As Hinko Cub is discarded from play by an opposing card, add two energy to your

Magi.

This is the kind of thing a Naroom Weenie deck is looking for. Attacking their creature triggers Fluffy-Wuffy. It doesn’t fit in Forest Hyren decks but those decks don’t need any more help.

Hunting Moga – 3

Naroom Creature

Energy: 5

Effect – Raid: As Hunting Moga attacks, you may discard a card from your hand. If you do, choose an

opposing Relic and discard it from play.

Turns your worst card in hand into a Relic Stalker when it attacks. That’s totally fine but I wouldn’t count on it for relic removal because it has to actually survive long enough to attack. Good enough as a starting card but not much more than that.

Jailin – 4

Naroom Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Underbrush: Once per turn, when a Spell or Power adds energy to Jailin, add two extra energy

to it.

Only Naroom Magi may play Jailin.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Yep. This card is great. Growy Naroom decks obviously want it. Weenie decks probably do too. Tryn’s new best friend. 4 energy for free is nonsense.

Jhaga – 2

Naroom Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Lonely: Discard Jhaga from play if you do not control at least one other Creature.

Effect – Link: Once per turn, as a Creature you control is being discarded from play by an opposing card

while it still has energy, move that Creature’s energy to another Creature you control.

You have to have 3 creatures out for this card to do anything. If you only have 2, you Link the other one’s energy to this and it immediately dies. I think this card is a trap and will increase the likelihood of blowouts rather than decrease them.

Leaf Vulbor – 2.5

Naroom Creature

Energy: 3

Power – Absorb: (1) Choose a Creature you control that has a Spell attached to it. Add energy to the

Creature equal to the energy cost of the Spell (X equals zero). Discard the Spell from play.

Whatever. Attachment spells are mostly bad. Overgrowth sees play but this doesn’t combo with it well at all.

Root Baldar – 3

Naroom Creature

Energy: 7

Effect – Thick Skin: Root Baldar loses no energy while attacking Creatures with four energy or less.

Big dumb guy that’s mostly too expensive. It’s not horrible, it’s just not actively good.

Shrub Balamant – 4

Naroom Creature

Energy: 5

Power – Tangle: (1) Move up to two energy from each opposing Magi to Shrub Balamant.

Starting: Pruitt

Magi damage good. Efficiency good. Randomly super annoying in multiplayer and will likely get you killed by pissing people off. Might not see tons of play because it costs 5.

Timber Bisiwog – 2

Naroom Creature

Energy: 4

Effect – Fury: As Timber Bisiwog attacks, choose an opposing Creature. Instead of removing energy

equal to its current energy in the attack, Timber Bisiwog removes energy equal to the chosen Creature’s starting energy.

Random. You don’t know if this will be useful or not. Also it costs 4, dies to Crushing, and does nothing for a whole round until it gets to attack. Pretty bad.

Wood Thresh – 4

Naroom Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Assault: As Wood Thresh attacks, add two energy to it if the defending Creature has an Effect

printed on it.

This is more like it. Not every creature has an effect. A lot don’t, but this has good attack targets against basically every possible deck. Three energy is much less taxing on a magi with energize 5. So, while it’s slow, at least you can play it and do something else in the same turn, giving it a much higher chance of getting to attack.

Elm Charm – 3.5

Naroom Relic

Energy: 1

Effect – Rally: Reduce the cost of the first Naroom Creature played each turn by one energy, to a

minimum of one.

Effect – Advantage: Increase the cost of the first Underneath Creature played each turn by one energy.

UNRELEASED PROMO

In Naroom Weenie specifically, I can see this card being very good. Making Underneath creatures more expensive does actual nothing, since decks that splash Ormagon aren’t interested in this card anyway.

Twee Whistle – 3.5

Naroom Relic

Energy: 2

Effect – Beckon: Once per turn, after you play a Creature, you may search your deck for a copy of that

Creature and add it to your hand. If you do, you may not play any more Creatures this turn.

This is good card draw in decks with multiples of all your creatures. It’s a “may” ability, so you just play your creatures out in order such that you can Beckon on the last one you intend to play for the turn. It’s tough to justify in fast Naroom decks, but might see a lot of play in grindy ones.

Trunnk’s Blessing – 3.5

Naroom Spell

Energy: 2

Choose a Naroom Creature. Attach Trunnk’s Blessing to that Creature. While Trunnk’s Blessing is

attached, that Creature gains “Power – Invigorate: (2) Add four energy to a Naroom Creature.” You may not attach another copy of Trunnk’s Blessing to this Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This card is also better than your average Blessing spell because Naroom has so much support for grow powers. The problem these cards have is that they need to last multiple turns before you can generate energy advantage. This doesn’t as long as you have something like a Flying Hinko or a Poad’s Secret Sauce in play.

TLDR: Naroom

Magi

Ohk Alt – 3.5

Orwin Alt – 3

Tryn Alt – 3.5

Valleya – 3.5

Creatures

Giant Eebit – 3

Glade Raxis – 3.5

Hinko Cub – 3.5

Hunting Moga – 3

Jailin – 4

Jhaga – 2

Leaf Vulbor – 2.5

Root Baldar – 3

Shrub Balamant – 4

Timber Bisiwog – 2

Wood Thresh – 4

Relics

Elm Charm – 3.5

Twee Whistle – 3.5

Spells

Trunnk’s Blessing – 3.5

Thoughts

I like that Forest Hyren doesn’t get pushed. I like that Weenie does. I want to jam 3 Jailin in a Tryn deck and smash people with them. I think Valleya could be a scary magi in a specific build. I can’t wait to see who comes up with the way to break Ohk Alt because I bet it’s out there.

Orothe

Ebylon Alt – 3

Orothe Magi

Starting Energy: 13

Energize: 5

Starting: River Orathan, Orathan, Orathan Amulet

Effect – Frenzy: Once per turn, after you discard one or more opposing Relics from play, choose an

opposing Creature and remove two energy from it.

So, Frenzy triggers off discarding enemy relics but Orothe has more tools to actually steal them rather than discard them. This effect isn’t going to trigger anywhere close to once per turn, since sometimes they don’t have relics out and even when they do, your relic removal is awkward and Ebylon Alt doesn’t guarantee he draws any. Basically, this magi can play Orathan tribal and only because he draws some of the cards, not because he enhances them in any way. I would expect more energy on than this given his low impact. Not a good card.

Mobis Alt – 4

Orothe Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 6

Starting: Bwill, Iximin, Corf

Power – Vengeance: (4) Choose a Creature that attacked last turn. Discard that Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Vengeance is a power, even though it’s templated as an effect in lackey. It’s also a pretty good power. A conditional Shockwave for 4 is really nice. His creatures also disincentivize the opponent from attacking, and he is just short of Quilla levels of energy. This is a nice, generically powerful control magi and might find a home in lists where players would normally consider Quilla.

O’Qua Alt – 3.5

Orothe Magi – Alternate, Tracker

Starting Energy: 11

Energize: 5

Starting: Ripcurl, Undertow, Sphor Charm

Power – Invoke: (2) Discard an Orothe Spell from your hand. Play an Orothe Creature from your hand,

reducing its cost by the cost of the Spell you discarded, to a minimum of one.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Invoke requires a dedicated deck but can be very powerful when you build around it. Playing a fast Giant Parathin for 4 (by discarding Typhoon) is pretty cool. It costs the same as regular O’Qua’s Conjure, requires more setup, but gives you a giant creature you can attack with immediately and then Interchange later. 11 is very low starting energy, but when you can cheat costs it’s less of an issue. Also, Ripcurl + Undertow is a pretty nice removal combo and if nothing else O’Qua can discard these cards to Invoke. All in all, she rewards creative deck building in a way that is different enough from her original incarnation that they won’t compete with each other very much. At the same time, they remain mechanically similar enough where players can recognize a fresh take on an old classic. Great design.

Coral Weebo – 3.5

Orothe Creature

Energy: 3

Power – Pillage: (0) Discard an Orothe Relic you control from play and choose another Creature. Add

three energy to that Creature.

This is a very interesting design. Most relics are there because you want them to stay in play. Either that or they discard themselves to begin with. Where I can see this card get interesting is when you want to use a relic multiple times in a turn, because if you have a second copy in your hand you can use the relic once, Pillage it, then play and use your second copy.

Giant Iximin – 3

Orothe Creature

Energy: 6

Effect – Spite: When one of your Orothe Creatures is defeated in an attack, choose up to two opposing

Relics and shuffle them into their owner’s deck.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Orothe just doesn’t need this ability. Between Hubdra’s Cube and Crushing Surf they have a very strong way to control enemy relics, and stealing them is better than shuffling them away. Sure, this can handle an entire board of relics in one turn, but situations where that matters are few and far between. I wouldn’t put a 6-energy pseudo-vanilla creature in my deck unless it was a magi’s starting card.

Nolio – 2.5

Orothe Creature

Energy: 4

Effect – Dreamsnag: As you play Nolio, discard all Spells from play.

How often does this ability matter? Not often. Classic sideboard card in a game that doesn’t have sideboards.

River Orathan – 3.5

Orothe Creature

Energy: 2

Power – Reinforce: (2) If you control four or more Orothe Relics, add three energy to an Orathan.

As another Orathan creature, this card makes Orathan Amulet much more playable. Four Orothe relics is pretty easy to assemble, in which case this card can play like a Submerge for Orathans. Amulet does grow this card but sadly Spray doesn’t let this thing survive using its power. This card is playable within the Amulet package but it’s not amazing.

Seaweed Bwisp – 4

Orothe Creature

Energy: 2

Effect – Larceny: After an opponent plays a Relic, choose an opposing Creature. Move one energy from

the chosen Creature to Seaweed Bwisp.

Not “once per turn”! Very annoying little creature. This dies easily but if you’re ahead on board and they can’t simply attack to kill this creature, you can reasonably expect Larceny to pay off. If they only play one relic on their turn, this is not as powerful as Bog Wellisk, but if they play a second one it’s better (as long as they have a creature in play that didn’t attack this).

Wimond – 3.5

Orothe Creature

Energy: 3

Power – Feedback: (2) Choose a Creature. Remove one energy from that Creature for each Relic in your

discard pile.

Only Orothe Magi may play Wimond.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This card combines really well with Coral Weebo and makes me interested in dumping relics into my discard using cards like Maelstrom Flask (since it’s not limited to Orothe relics) or even Parathin. Leaving itself at 1 energy conveniently helps set up a Deep Hyren’s Hurricane, and that combo can outright kill a magi in a lot of circumstances.

Xano – 4

Orothe Creature

Energy: 5

Effect – Strong Current: If an opponent controls more Creatures than you, reduce Xano’s cost by four.

Effect – Swept Away: If you control more Creatures than each of your opponents, discard Xano from

play.

Strong Current is like it says: strong. Four free energy is no joke. Sure they can try to play around it and activate Swept Away but a) you’ve only paid one energy for this thing, and b) you can control how many creatures you have out. If this is all you have, they have to have zero creatures to trigger Swept Away, in which case you can just Hubdra’s Spear them. I don’t know what deck wants this exactly, but it’s very powerful.

Coral Armor – 2

Orothe Relic

Energy: 3

Effect: K-BISH!: Once per turn, after you play a Spell, choose a Relic and discard it from play. If there are

twenty or more cards in your discard pile, add one energy to your Magi.

It seems like Ebylon Alt should start with this card, since it’s making his signature sound effect and it’s triggering Frenzy. He doesn’t. Anyway, this isn’t a “may” ability which means if they don’t have any relics and you do you simply can’t play any spells. That’s actually a pretty reasonable scenario for Orothe to find itself in, so right away I’m skeptical. Also, this costs a lot of energy and doesn’t quickly make up for it.

Coral Charm – 3.5

Orothe Relic

Energy: 1

Effect – Rally: Reduce the cost of the first Orothe Creature played each turn by one energy, to a

minimum of one.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This card is much better than other Charm relics simply because it’s in Orothe. It also doesn’t have a drawback second effect for whatever reason. Arosa decks will probably love this card.

Karak Belt – 3

Orothe Relic

Energy: 2

Power – “Borrow”: (0) Discard Karak Belt from play and choose a Relic in an opposing discard pile. Play

that Relic, ignoring regional penalty and restriction, paying all costs.

This is regular Ebylon’s best friend. As a tech choice, it’s okay in normal decks. People play relics that discard themselves and if you defeat their magi all their relics are discarded so it’s not as if you need dedicated synergy for this. That said, it’s only okay. You’d rather be consistent and have a game plan involving your own cards.

Mirror of Knowledge – 4

Orothe Relic

Energy: 1

Power – Reflection: (0) Add one energy to your Magi for each Magi in your defeated stack.

Cool design. Your first magi never wants to look at this card, your second will happily play it because it’s essentially free, and your third magi thinks it’s super good. Low enough cost to go into relic decks and perform well. Interchange decks hate this, which is fine.

Orothean War-Walker – 3.5

Orothe Relic

Energy: 2

Power – Stomp: (2) If you control more Relics than each opponent, remove one energy from each

opposing Creature and Magi.

Effect: As Orothean War-Walker is discarded from play, remove two energy from each Magi in play.

If you control more relics than each opponent: not hard. This card is expensive at first but can really fuel some kind of Orothe relic-based burn deck with Wimonds and some other stuff. Sphor Charm has caused me to explore that style of deck in the past. It wasn’t good enough but maybe some of these new cards help it get there.

Platheus Scales – 3.5

Orothe Relic

Energy: 3

Power – Equalize: (0) Discard a Creature you control from play. Each player that controls more Creatures

than you must discard a Creature they control from play. Use this Power only after your Attack Step.

Goes in the Xano deck for sure but I don’t know what that deck looks like.

Ebb and Flow – 1

Orothe Spell

Energy: 4

Discard a Creature you control from play. Shuffle your deck and reveal the top three cards. Choose an

Orothe Creature from the revealed cards and play that Creature, ignoring all costs. That Creature may not attack this turn. Discard the remaining revealed cards.

Since you shuffle first, you can’t combine this card with Goggles. Missing is horrendous since you’ve spent 4 and discarded a creature. Sometimes you can high roll but boy howdy does this thing set you up for failure.

Tyde’s Blessing – 3.5

Orothe Spell

Energy: 2

Choose an Orothe Creature. Attach Tyde’s Blessing to that Creature. While Tyde’s Blessing is attached,

that Creature gains “Effect – Lash: When an Orothe Creature is attacked and defeated, discard one energy from each opposing Creature.” You may not attach another copy of Tyde’s Blessing to this Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

I like this a lot more than the average Blessing since even one trigger can get your more than 2 energy worth of value the turn you play this card. The fact that you can get multiple triggers in the same turn is pretty cool. That said, they have to attack you, so basically you’ll want to combine this with Will of Orothe. I still don’t know if that’s good, but it’s worth exploring.

TLDR: Orothe

Magi

Ebylon Alt – 3

Mobis Alt – 4

O’Qua Alt – 3.5

Creatures

Coral Weebo – 3.5

Giant Iximin – 3

Nolio – 2.5

River Orathan – 3.5

Seaweed Bwisp – 4

Wimond – 3.5

Xano – 4

Relics

Coral Armor – 2

Coral Charm – 3.5

Karak Belt – 3

Mirror of Knowledge – 4

Orothean War-Walker – 3.5

Platheus Scales – 3.5

Spells

Ebb and Flow – 1

Tyde’s Blessing – 3.5

Notes

Orothe gets a lot of low-end playables this set. The interesting cards are the Xano/Platheus Scales idea of low-creature decks as well as Mirror of Knowledge in general. Wimond/Orothean War-Walker burn is probably still bad but would be fun to try to make work. Orothe certainly didn’t lose this set like Arderial and KT did but I’m not dying to experiment with the cards either.

Paradwyn

Bazha Alt – 4

Paradwyn Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 6

Starting: Ambush, Spell Pulse, Bulabantu

Power – Dream Drain: (3) Choose an opposing Creature. Until the end of your turn, that Creature loses

two energy each time you play a Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Solid magi. Very good energy numbers, good starting cards, and a power that you’ll use some of the time. When you do Dream Drain something (like when he flips) that thing probably dies. In general this guy is very good at killing creatures. Generically powerful, gets a 4.

Boria Alt – 4

Paradwyn Magi – Alternate, Keeper

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 6

Starting: Tropical Sarazen, Janx Pendant, Staff of Keepers

Effect – Accelerate: Creatures you control with the Effect “Dreamwarp” remove one extra energy in

attacks.

Named Boris Alt in lackey. Don’t get confused. Accelerate is pretty awesome. Also, it’s straightforward. Goes in Dreamwarp decks, makes them better.

Lilia – 4

Paradwyn Magi

Starting Energy: 15

Energize: 5

Starting: Minani, Jungle Jile, Bungi

Power – Sneaky, Sneaky: (1) Choose a Creature you control. Until the end of your turn, that Creature

loses no energy in attacks against Stalked Creatures.

This card will almost certainly replace Ardonia or Culla (probably Ardonia because of energy numbers) in the stalk deck. Sneaky, Sneaky is super strong and is a very good power to use on your opponent’s turn with Bazha’s Pendant (which stalk decks can naturally make good use of).

Ookami Alt – 3.5

Paradwyn Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 5

Starting: Lahalou, Hardshell Weebo

Power – Inspiration: (1) Choose an opposing Creature and a Creature you control. Move up to two

energy from the opposing Creature to your Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This card should demonstrate how good Ookami is. Inspiration is insanely strong, netting you 3 energy every turn of the game and sometimes killing enemy creatures in the process. His energy numbers are the same as regular Ookami, as are his pertinent starting cards. Normally, this magi would be a 5 for power level reasons. The fact that he replaces his normal version though means that you should never, ever put this card in your magi stack. I can’t give this card a 1 because look how good it is, but I’ve considered it. That’s quite a statement. The reason I give him a 3.5 is just that you have to have a helluva good reason to use this version over the other one.

Bungi – 4

Paradwyn Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Bounce: Bungi removes two extra energy in attacks against Magi.

Power – Pounce: (1) Choose an opposing Creature and remove two energy from it.

Efficient creature is efficient.

Canopy Hyren – 3

Paradwyn Creature

Energy: 7

Power – Fear: (3) Remove two energy from each Stalked Creature.

This card is a bit too expensive for what it does. It costs a lot to play, and unlike Bagala Hunter it can’t do anything by itself. It needs Jungle Jile to activate Fear well and even then if they only have one creature it’s not worth it and at two it only feels okay.

Jungha – 4

Paradwyn Creature – Jungle Stalker

Energy: 4

Power – Hunt: (2) Choose an opposing Creature and remove three energy from it. If that Creature is

Stalked, remove one extra energy.

Efficient creature with upside in stalk decks. I like this one a lot, especially since stalk decks can sometimes flounder by not having the right balance of enablers and payoffs at the same time. This thing adds a measure of consistency.

Jungle Agovo – 2

Paradwyn Creature

Energy: 4

Power – Lore: (1) If you control three or more cards with the word “Jungle” in the name, draw a card.

Effect – Dreamwarp: As you play this Creature, increase or decrease its starting energy by up to one, to a

minimum starting energy of one, until the end of the turn.

Too much setup cost as there aren’t all that many “Jungle” cards.

Minani – 3.5

Paradwyn Creature – Jungle Stalker

Energy: 3

Power – Coil: (3) Discard Minani from play. Choose a Stalked Creature and remove six energy from it.

Nice removal in the stalk deck and only in the stalk deck.

Orange Stuff – 3

Paradwyn Creature

Energy: 2

Effect – Hybrid: Each Stuff you control gains “Power – Cling: (0) Choose an opposing Creature. Discard

this Creature from play to remove two energy from the chosen Creature.”

Effect – Dreamwarp: As you play this Creature, increase or decrease its starting energy by up to one, to a

minimum starting energy of one, until the end of the turn.

All the other Stuff creatures are Bograth, so this asks you to play some kind of dual-region deck or splash it in Bograth rather than splash 6 Bograth creatures in Paradwyn. Each Cling is going to be efficient unless you’re playing as Gorb (you know, the “Stuff” magi) in which case you’d rather keep your Stuff in play. I see this as something fun to do rather than something powerful.

Sevarew – 4

Paradwyn Creature

Energy: 4

Effect – Poison: At the beginning of each opponent’s turn, choose an opposing Creature. Remove two

energy from it.

Only Paradwyn Magi may play Sevarew.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Once again, efficient creature is efficient. Randomly, this card is awesome in multiplayer since you can target a specific player rather than spread around the Poison triggers. That way, only one person is mad at you and you get tons of free damage out.

Toxic Heppeswip – 2

Paradwyn Creature

Energy: 2

Power – Forced Gifts: (X) Choose a Magi and a Creature controlled by the same player. Move X energy

from that Magi to that Creature. Forced Gifts may not reduce a Magi below one energy.

I don’t like this card much. The idea is to then kill the creature efficiently leaving the magi open for assassination. That requires too much work and doesn’t get them all the way to zero on the magi. Also, Ambush doesn’t combo with Forced Gifts and that’s your most efficient removal spell. This then pushes in the Froxfire direction but stalk decks have plenty of cards already that fit better and aren’t good at boosting non-Jungle Stalker/Bagala creatures. Plus, Paradwyn already has Spirit Drain which is one of the best ways to kill magi in the whole game. Interesting idea, too many issues.

Tropical Sarazen – 3.5

Paradwyn Creature

Energy: 8

Effect – Ally: After you play Tropical Sarazen, you may choose a Hyren in your discard pile and play it,

reducing its cost by three. That Hyren may not attack this turn.

Effect – Dreamwarp: As you play this Creature, you may increase or decrease its starting energy by up to

two, to a minimum starting energy of one, until the end of the turn.

Since this card has Dreamwarp 2 it’s not as bad (meaning too expensive) as it looks. If you play this for 6 with Robe of Petals out it only costs 5, then you get to recur a Hyren (probably Vine or Tropical) and get another savings of 4 energy (3 + that Robe I mentioned). This is without mentioning Radiant Spring or Flourish which you can likely combine with this on a magi flip. That’s a pretty cool play pattern. Additionally, I find Paradwyn Hyren decks actually have some legs.

Arawan’s Ring – 2.5

Paradwyn Relic

Energy: 0

Effect – Purity: At the end of your turn, if all Spells in your discard pile are Paradwyn, discard all of your

non-Paradwyn cards from play and choose a Magi. Until the beginning of your next turn, each of that Magi’s Creatures gain “Effect – Fear: This Creature loses one energy when it attacks a Paradwyn Creature.”

Starting: Arawan

UNRELEASED PROMO

Probably the worst Purity ring in the whole cycle because it requires your opponent to choose whether or not you get the benefit and by how much. Not a fan.

Janx Pendant – 4

Paradwyn Relic

Energy: 1

Effect – Toughen: After you play Janx Pendant, add two energy to a Creature you control.

Effect – Sustain: Once per turn, after an opposing Creature is defeated in an attack, add one energy to

each Creature you control.

The combination of instant energy from Toughen and repeatable energy boosts from Sustain is really awesome. You get all this energy adding for a measly 1 spent as well.

Pok’s Circlet – 3.5

Paradwyn Relic

Energy: 1

Effect – Hindsight: After an Effect forces you to discard one or more cards from your hand, draw a card.

Pok is great with this card. Combining Brilliantly Absent-Minded with Hindsight has you drawing 4 cards at the end of your turn, then discarding one, then drawing one. That means you’re up 4 total cards. Trogovo requires you to invest in a creature and reduce your energize by 2 to get that same ability. This card also combines very well with Tomorrow’s Jewel, turning its Lore into discard 1, draw 2. Notably, Hindsight only triggers on Effects, so the vast majority of cards that make you discard won’t trigger it. Nice that Pok becomes a much better magi with this relic out. Can’t think of other magi I’d use it on, but I’m sure they’re out there too.

Mareahla’s Gift – 2.5

Paradwyn Spell

Energy: 3

Return a Creature you control to its owner’s hand and choose a Creature. Until the end of the turn,

when that Creature attacks, it removes extra energy equal to its printed starting energy.

UNRELEASED PROMO

One of the less good Gift spells because it requires you to move to the Attack Step before you see the benefit. Paradwyn can use this ability but it’s not insane.

Scarletsong Anthem – 3.5

Paradwyn Spell

Energy: 3

Add one energy to each Creature you control. If there are twenty or more cards in your discard, remove

one energy from each opposing Creature.

This can be a really big swing. It doesn’t empower your Scarletsong Lahalou any which makes me sad, but whatever. I really only want to play this card when it’s empowered so that takes a bit of work to make happen.

TLDR: Paradwyn

Magi

Bazha Alt – 4

Boria Alt – 4

Lilia – 4

Ookami Alt – 3.5

Creatures

Bungi – 4

Canopy Hyren - 3.5

Jungha – 4

Jungle Agovo – 2

Minani – 3.5

Orange Stuff – 3

Sevarew – 4

Toxic Heppeswip – 2

Tropical Sarazen – 3.5

Relics

Arawan’s Ring – 2.5

Janx Pendant – 4

Pok’s Circlet – 3.5

Spells

Mareahla’s Gift – 2.5

Scarletsong Anthem – 3.5

Thoughts

Paradwyn gains some strong magi, especially Lilia, and some generally efficient cards. Stalk decks receive the biggest support but Tropical Sarazen might secretly be the most powerful card of the bunch. Glad to see Pok’s Circlet get printed, giving Paradwyn access to yet another good (?) setup magi (seriously, between Eryss, Arawan, Liriel, and now Pok you’ve got options!). Happy not to see a Blessing or Charm, unhappy to see a mediocre Gift spell and Purity ring.

Underneath

Gavik – 4

Underneath Magi

Starting Energy: 10

Energize: 6

Starting: Spiked Parmalag, Crystal Lascinth, Amulet of Ombor

Power – Symbiosis: (2) Choose a Creature you control. If that Creature is still in play at the beginning of

your next turn, add four energy to Gavik.

Gavik is a good magi for sure. Starting with Amulet of Ombor gets you access to Gate if you want it, and you can then sit behind a wall of Spiked Parmalags and/or Urhails and use Symbiosis on them. If he can keep a creature alive each turn, Symbiosis effectively lets Gavik play as a 10/8 magi, and that’s very good. Due to his ability to fish Urhails continuously, he can even play in an UnderCore deck pretty well. Like much of Underneath, he is better on the defensive than the aggressive and that’s not great in general. It’s much better to be proactive most of the time. Despite that, he is certainly powerful enough to see a good amount of competitive play.

Motash Alt – 3

Underneath Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 6

UNRELEASED PROMO

Even as a 14/6 vanilla magi, that’s better than a lot of what Underneath has to offer. Clearly this card is not finished, but it exists so I rated it.

Strag Alt – 4

Underneath Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 5

Starting: Pillar Hyren, Entrench

Effect – Rugged: Your Creatures gain one energy in attacks, after energy is removed.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This version of Strag is almost a strict upgrade over his original form. He gains one more starting energy, some different starting cards, and an overall better effect. On the starting card front, he basically just loses access to Bottomless Pit which is a small ding to Strag’s power but not too big a deal. OG Strag doesn’t usually get Giant Parmalag or Gum-Gum and New School Strag isn’t usually getting Pillar Hyren or Entrench. The point is that he can still find his Claws and his Ring. Rugged lets you get benefits from attacking and defending which is leagues better than only defending. Yes, his creature now has to survive to get the energy, but it has more opportunities to. Plus it now combos with the Claws.

Trug, Engineer – 4

Underneath Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 7

Starting: Thunderquake, Thunderquake

14/7 is really good. That hasn’t stopped being true. Having the starting cards Thunderquake x2 and Hidden Door isn’t bad either. This magi is actually better than Quilla, and Quilla is insane. In my Orothe review, I give Quilla a 5 and I stand by that rating. That means Trug 2.0 should be a 5 too, right? Sadly, Orothe is enough better than Underneath that Trug only gets a 4. 

Cave Plith – 3.5

Underneath Creature

Energy: 3

Power – Memorialize: (0) Discard Cave Plith from play. Draw a card for each opposing Creature that was

defeated in an attack this turn.

My first inclination is to disregard this card because Underneath has not typically been an aggressive region. However, Underneath is also historically bad at drawing cards and this thing can draw a bunch of cards. I’m looking at Rabid Bisiwog or something to try to combo with this creature. It also stacks with Gogor’s Spade, meaning that if you can figure out a build of Underneath Aggro that has enough juice to get going, all those cards can definitely keep it going.

Chinnor – 3

Underneath Creature

Energy: 4

Effect – Overwhelm: Chinnor loses no energy in attacks against Creatures with less than their starting

energy.

Only Underneath Magi may play Chinnor.

UNRELEASED PROMO

In this Underneath Aggro deck that might happen, this card might be decent. If you have a Thunderquake to spread around some damage (or even some nonsense like Rumble Stones), Overwhelm can sort of always be active. Defensively, it combines very well with Crystal Lascinth’s Spines effect, but whatever. The problem (as usual) is that this creature is Crushing food and a bit slow.

Crystal Brub – 3.5

Underneath Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Slash: As Crystal Brub attacks a non-Crystal Creature, add two energy to Crystal Brub.

Cheap creature that’s good at attacking. Crystal Brub might actually be what the Aggro deck is looking for to complement Granas et. al.

Crystal Yajo – 3

Underneath Creature

Energy: 2

Effect – Vitalize: At the end of each opponent’s turn, if Crystal Yajo was not attacked, you may remove

two energy from it and add one energy to each of your other Creatures.

Effect – Entrenched: When Crystal Yajo is attacked, add two energy to it.

Crystal Yajo may not attack.

UNRELEASED PROMO

I like that this is a cheap creature. I like that it has a decent play pattern. If you have a wide board, they have to attack this and give you the 2 energy from Entrenched, otherwise you’ll get more than 2 energy from Vitalize. What I don’t like is that they don’t actually have to attack it. The difference between a 2- and a 3-energy is enormous in Underneath, thanks to burrow mechanics, and the opponent can use removal on this pretty easily. That’s not even the real issue. The real issue is that you basically have to have this plus three other creatures in play after your opponent’s turn is over for Vitalize to give you an advantage. That’s a lot to ask.

Giant Gum-Gum – 2.5

Underneath Creature

Energy: 6

Effect – Super Slide: Twice per turn, when one of your other Creatures is attacked, you may choose to

have the attacking Creature attack Giant Gum-Gum instead.

UNRELEASED PROMO

What the heck do you so desperately need to keep around that you’re putting this creature in a competitive deck? In a region with burrow stuff no less.

Menao – 3.5

Underneath Creature

Energy: 4

Power – Thrash: (2) Until the end of your turn, each Creature you control gains one energy as it attacks.

A potentially powerful piece of the Aggro deck that might be out there.

Mushroom Sareb – 2.5

Underneath Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Amplify: Underneath Creatures with two energy or less remove one extra energy in attacks.

Cute, but it doesn’t really do enough. I think it’s cute because the burrowed guys they can’t quite kill can use Amplify to squeeze out a little more value. That’s not quite strong enough of a card.

Spiked Parmalag – 5

Underneath Creature

Energy: 2

Effect – Bristle: After Spiked Parmalag comes into play, add six energy to it.

Effect – Impede: Spiked Parmalag removes three less energy while attacking.

Bristle is six free energy. That’s more than the energize step of at least half the magi in the game. I don’t care the Impede makes it worse on offense. It still attacks for 5 and you paid 2. New Strag requires his creatures to live through attacks, and this creature is more than big enough to do so. Plus, on defense this creature is exactly as annoying as it looks. Even if they spend a Shockwave on it, you paid 2 and they paid 5 so you win the exchange.

Crystal Ring – 2.5

Underneath Relic

Energy: 2

Effect – ???: After an opposing Creature attacks, choose a Creature you control and add one energy to it.

Why the hell does this relic cost 2?

Ombor Brooch – 2

Underneath Relic

Energy: 3

Effect – Refund: As a Creature you control is discarded from play while it still has energy, move up to

two energy from that Creature to your Magi.

So when they Shockwave your guy you get 2 energy on your magi? But your opponent knows about this. Also, they have to trigger Refund twice for you to get your energy’s worth. No thanks.

Spore Charm – 3

Underneath Relic

Energy: 1

Effect – Rally: Reduce the cost of the first Underneath Creature played each turn by one energy, to a

minimum of one.

Effect – Advantage: Increase the cost of the first Arderial Creature played each turn by one energy.

UNRELEASED PROMO

It’s a Charm relic. It’s fine but not good. There’s really no drawback on this one, since you don’t see Arderial creatures in Underneath decks, but whatever.

Staff of Fungus – 3.5

Underneath Relic

Energy: 1

Effect – Expand: Increase your Magi’s energize by one. If there are twenty or more cards in your discard,

increase your Magi’s energize by two instead.

Without threshold, this card is worse than Water of Life because you have to pay an energy for it. That’s actually significantly worse because you don’t see a return on your investment until a whole 2 game rounds have taken place, which is forever. Basically, if you don’t have a full discard pile you should not play this card. If you have threshold though, Staff of Fungus is pretty sweet. First of all, it pays you off a full round sooner, like Water of Life does. However, every turn after that you’re able to get way ahead of your opponent. Underneath has some magi that already have energize rates between 6-7, and increasing those to 8-9 is a big deal. Underneath has Ormagon which is expensive and powerful, and a lot of their other powerful options can require quite a lot of energy to pull off too. This card can get you there. The real question is “How are we filling up our discard pile in the first place?” Aside from splashing Tradewinds and running Tomorrow’s Jewel, which many Underneath control decks do already, I’m not too sure.

Fosfur’s Blessing – 3

Underneath Spell

Energy: 2

Choose an Underneath Creature. Attach Fosfur’s Blessing to that Creature. While Fosfur’s Blessing is

attached, that Creature gains “Effect – Wrath: This Creature gains one energy when it attacks and one energy after it attacks.” You may not attach another copy of Fosfur’s Blessing to this Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

You basically put a Strag’s Claws onto a single creature. Sure it combines with Claws but for the same cost the relic affects your whole board. They’re competing with each other for deck space and I know which one I’d pick, especially since we have a magi who can tutor for it.

Sinkhole – 3

Underneath Spell

Energy: 3

Attach Sinkhole to an opposing Magi. After that Magi’s controller plays a Creature, discard Sinkhole from

play to remove up to five energy from that Magi.

Underneath Shadow Magi may play Sinkhole.

Five magi damage is a very nice chunk, and playing creatures is something (almost) every single magi in the game needs to do to stay alive, much less win the game. My concern with this card is that it’s terrible in those situations where both players are playing off just their energize. In that case, they can just play a creature that uses up all or most of their energy and then Sinkhole will trigger and give you less than 3 energy worth of value. You can’t have this card on a magi on their flip turn, unlike Corrupt, and that’s a big difference too.

TLDR: Underneath

Magi

Gavik – 4

Motash Alt – 3

Strag Alt – 4

Trug, Engineer – 4

Creatures

Cave Plith – 3.5

Chinnor – 3

Crystal Brub – 3.5

Crystal Yajo – 3

Giant Gum-Gum – 2.5

Menao – 3.5

Mushroom Sareb – 2.5

Spiked Parmalag – 5

Relics

Crystal Ring – 2.5

Ombor Brooch – 2

Spore Charm – 3

Staff of Fungus – 3.5

Spells

Fosfur’s Blessing – 3

Sinkhole – 3

Thoughts

Underneath gets some more strong magi this set, as well as the powerful Spiked Parmalag and some aggressively-minded creatures. I am actually intrigued about the Underneath Aggro deck thanks to new Strag and the potential draw power of Cave Plith + Gogor’s Spade. That basically draws you 2 cards for each creature you attack and defeat on your turn, which can be a bunch.

Universal

Rayje Alt – 3

Universal Magi

Starting Energy: 16

Energize: 5

Starting: Rayje’s Shield, Rayje’s Belt

Rayje may play non-Universal Creatures, ignoring regional penalties.

Effect – Intimidation: Opposing Powers and Spells remove two less energy from your Creatures.

UNRELEASED PROMO

16/5 is clearly good. So is the fact that he can play any non-Core creature for no penalty. Indimidation is also a strong effect, essentially granting this version of Rayje a full card worth of value (Arderian Guard-Wings is a full card). His starting cards are also great (you have to factor in that he starts with Rayje’s Construct). His starting play can never really be worse than get a 14-energy Rayje’s Construct out and use Lockdown on something. My initial thought (and I’m sure many people have similar reactions) was that he’s not great because he doesn’t gain any of the other Rayje abilities, and that’s true. However, the way it’s worded, if this version of Rayje is in your stack, all subsequent Rayjes in your magi stack will gain Intimidation. Intimidation is probably better than Defense and maybe even Charge, but I think Aid, Lore, and Wily all outclass it which means this guy probably won’t see much play. If you find yourself losing to a bunch of burn decks though, pop this version of Rayje in the first slot and proceed laugh maniacally. Also, Intimidation is close enough in power level that the ability to splash creatures without Staff of Keepers may cause him to go up in value.

Cedrit – 3.5

Universal Creature

Energy: 2

Power – Focus: (4) Discard Cedrit. Play a Creature, ignoring all costs.

Only Universal Magi may play Cedrit.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This card is sweet. How you give it the extra 2 energy is the whole puzzle, because obviously the ability does work. Universal has Heal, which is a great way to use multiple Cedrit in a turn. If you’ve just got one, you’re probably looking at a Rayje’s Shield and/or Ring of Secrets interaction. As far as what creature to play, you go big. Rayje’s Construct is an easy answer but you can play any non-Core fatty so this thing opens up some interesting design space as well. Love it.

Omni Construct – 3

Universal Creature

Energy: 7

Power – Enhance: (2) Choose a Creature type. Add one energy to Omni Construct for each Creature of

that type in play.

UNRELEASED PROMO

There aren’t that many specifically tribal decks in MND. There are a few, but I’m not too sure they want to play 7-energy creatures that just make themselves bigger. Maybe some of them do, but I’m a bit skeptical. If it cost 5 this card would be pretty cool.

Inhibitor Cloak – 3

Universal Relic

Energy: 1

Effect – Hinder: Creatures may not use Powers or Effects unless that Power or Effect is printed on that

Creature.

This card stops Mohani and Thrybe, all the Blessing spells that attach to creatures, K’teeb, Taglat, T’kanzam, and especially Ergar and Staff of Vines. That’s quite a decent selection of things. It would be a great sideboard card if the game had any. Maybe too good. If your deck loses hard to any of those strategies, it’s worth considering a tech slot for this but even then I would only run it as a one-of in decks that gain a big benefit from having or playing relics.

Resistance Orb – 2

Universal Relic

Energy: 2

Effect – Dissent: Creatures that do not share a Region with their Magi lose two energy after they enter

play. This may not reduce a Creature’s energy below one.

Similar to Rayje’s Boots which doesn’t see any play. Costs 2 which is much worse. Affects Universal magi too which is marginal upside. Generally worse than preventing them from playing the card in the first place, especially since it can’t kill the creature. Again, if you happen to lose a lot to triple Rayje decks that play all kinds of non-Universal creatures here’s a card that helps. That’s way too specific to make a deck in 99% of cases though.

Scales of Justice – 2

Universal Relic

Energy: 3

Effect – Fair Game: As an opposing card would take control of a card you own, you may return Scales of

Justice to your hand. If you do, that card does nothing instead.

Wow, look, a card that costs 3 and does nothing! This only gets a 2 because possession is so powerful.

Gamble – 2.5

Universal Spell

Energy: 2

Shuffle your deck. Put the top four cards from the top of your deck on the bottom of your deck, then

reveal the top card of your deck. If that card is a Creature, play it with three energy, ignoring all costs. If the card isn’t a Creature, discard it.

Another card that mostly does nothing. Sure, if you happen to hit a creature you’re gaining one energy on board. That’s good but not exciting. If you miss you’ve just spent 2 for no benefit. Most competitive decks play somewhere around 50% creatures, so you can expect to hit half the time, maybe more if you play more creatures than is probably good for you (or maybe if you’re Bograth or something). The problem is that you can’t improve your odds or try to guarantee anything because you shuffle first. In a very creature-heavy Bograth swarm deck I can see this card being okay. It’ll never be good though.

Repossess – 2.5

Universal Spell

Energy: 3

Choose a Creature or Relic you own. Gain control of that card.

This is a better version of Scales of Justice. Yes, Scales helps prevent your magi from dying on the turn when your opponent steals your guy, but spending 3 to do nothing makes you more likely to die. At least with the spell version you know it’s worth the energy when you play this card. Good tech card against Orothe and Core, medium tech card against River Abaquist builds of Paradwyn. I’d only run it if I were guaranteed to face one of those decks.

Traitor’s Reach – 3.5

Universal Spell

Energy: 2

Choose a Creature and a Magi controlled by the same player. If the chosen Creature does not share a

region with the chosen Magi, discard that Creature from play and remove two energy from that Magi.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This card is bananas powerful but requires either Hrada or Twilight Mowat to turn it on.

Unity – 1

Universal Spell

Energy: 1

Discard a Creature you control from play. Until the end of your turn, Creatures that share a type with

the discarded Creature cost you two less energy to play, to a minimum of one.

Can’t think of a tribal deck where paying 3 and discarding one of your creatures is worth this discount. At minimum you need to play 3 creatures of the same type before you see any benefit because we’re assuming the creature you discard has actual energy on it. Plus the creature you discard has to be the same type and if you’re playing a bunch of Furoks or what have you, I assume you’d rather just have one in play and not bother with this mess.

TLDR: Universal

Magi

Rayje Alt – 3

Creatures

Cedrit – 3.5

Omni Construct – 3

Relics

Inhibitor Cloak – 3

Resistance Orb – 2

Scales of Justice – 2

Spells

Gamble – 2.5

Repossess – 2.5

Traitor’s Reach – 3.5

Unity – 1

Thoughts

The new Rayje is cute but probably not going to make it. They tried to push tribal decks and maybe Omni Construct gets there but Unity is quite bad. Cedrit is awesome. Like, really awesome. So is Traitor’s Reach for the people who didn’t know about that card already. That’s about it.

Weave

Gia Alt – 2.5

Weave Magi

Starting Energy: 16

Energize: 5

Starting: Gift of the Weave, Grass Hyren

Effect – Lore: At the beginning of your turn, you may choose a Weave Relic in your discard pile and add

it to your hand. If you do, discard a card form your hand.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Regular Gia is mostly better. The reasons to play her alternate form are pretty slim. Weave relics that discard themselves include Three-Leaf Clover and Everburning Wick. You can order the Wick first, deal 5 to a creature and then get it back, which is interesting but not reliable because you need to have no creatures in play to do it. Three-Leaf Clover lets you immune a Spirit Drain every turn, which is good but not an active game plan. You can use Weave Powder to tutor for all your relics over a million turns but you have to discard a card every time you use Lore so I don’t even think that’s good.

Ninx Alt – 10

Weave Magi

Starting Energy: 12

Energize: 5

Starting: Bulb Trulb, Weave Ergar

Power – ???: (0) If you control at least two Creatures, discard each Creature you control from play. Add

energy to Ninx equal to his starting energy.

This card needs an errata. The way it’s worded right now, ??? doesn’t actually require you to discard creatures because there’s this little card named Bog Stench. With that card active plus a Mirror Pendant, Ninx can gain 24 energy in a single turn. It would be very easy to fix this problem. Either require the creatures to be Weave (since Bog Stench gives you imaginary Bograth ones) or change the wording to something like “Discard each Creature you control from play. If you discarded at least two Creatures, add energy to Ninx equal to his starting energy”. If our community ever uses Daybreak in a tournament we need to either ban this card or agree on an errata. Not that difficult, it’s just a thing. With these changes in place, I imagine Ninx would be somewhere like a 3.5 for power because you can use the Radiant Spring + Weed Hyren combo to gain 9, have Tweaves in your deck, or just spend 2 cards on tiny Weave critters.

Zaya Alt – 5

Weave Magi

Starting Energy: 14

Energize: 6

Starting: Drowl, Frusk, Countless Blades

Power – Entwine: Discard up to five cards from your hand. Add energy to Zaya equal to twice the

number of cards you discarded. You may not use Entwine on your next turn.

UNRELEASED PROMO

This card seems quite strong. Weave has access to very good draw power including her starting Drowl. Gaining tons of energy for relatively little effort is always one of the best things you can do in the game, and Entwine doesn’t require much work at all. Not using it every turn isn’t really an issue since you won’t have enough cards for that anyway. Even in a conservative example where Zaya uses Entwine as often as possible and only discards 2 cards each time, she still energizing for an average of 8 energy. The reality is that she’ll be able to do more than that with lots of card draw. Additionally, Weave has cards that want to be in the discard pile, and even a form of limited recursion with Junjertrug Horn. The best part is that Zaya doesn’t ask much of you other than that you have lots of cards, and all competitive decks want that anyway.

Bulb Trulb – 2.5

Weave Creature

Energy: 4

Effect – Recycle: After Bulb Trulb comes into play, choose up to two cards in your discard pile and

shuffle them into your deck.

Effect – Weave: Whenever Bulb Trulb attacks or is attacked, before energy is removed, you may more

one energy between Bulb Trulb and any one of your other Weave Creatures in play.

This might be useful in weird combo decks that use things like Grubble. However, Forgotten Dreams is probably just better in those. This can shuffle spells back into your Tomes of the Great Library deck, but the cost to do that is astronomically high at 4 energy. 

Grass Plith – 3

Weave Creature

Energy: 1

Effect – Wisdom: Once per turn, after a Creature you control uses the Effect “Weave”, draw a card.

Seems okay. You can trigger it offensively and defensively. If you can pull off a full round of that you’ll be thrilled but it’s not super likely.

Mearith – 4

Weave Creature

Energy: 3

Effect – Regrowth: When you play Mearith, you may choose a Weave Creature in your discard pile and

add it to your hand.

Only Weave Magi may play Mearith.

UNRELEASED PROMO

While there aren’t a ton of Weave creatures that discard themselves for fun and profit, this can get you back an Aritex or a Weggit and that seems fun. Even at face value it’s a 3-energy creature that draws a card most of the time. I think this card is pretty solid.

Quikket – 2.5

Weave Creature

Energy: 2

Effect – Hop: Once per turn, as Quikket is attacked, reduce the energy removed by the attacking

Creature by that Creature’s starting energy.

It’s small enough to remove and not punishing enough to be worth setting up a Taunt situation onto this creature.

Snag Hyren – 2.5

Weave Creature

Energy: 7

Power – Stumble: (3) Until the beginning of your next turn, opposing Creatures remove two less energy

in attacks.

UNRELEASED PROMO

Not normally an incredible ability, Stumble combines well with what Weave is trying to do. That said, it’s too expensive and doesn’t have Weave.

Uwaru – 3.5

Weave Creature

Energy: 4

Power – Deconstruct: (3) Choose an opposing Relic. Add energy to Uwaru equal to that Relic’s cost.

Discard the Relic from play.

Most of the time this card is an expensive way to deal with relics. It’s also a creature which you can loop with your Mearith and it leaves a one-energy body behind for things such as Aritex. Playing one, maybe even two in a deck can allow you to handle relics much better, especially if you have stuff like Gia’s Tome, Nyrex, or the aforementioned Mearith to get more uses out of the few copies you do run if you need to do that. I don’t really want to run it without this support, since at that point I could just play Relic Stalker, but the reusability gives it some interesting options.

Weave Ergar – 3

Weave Creature

Energy: 4

Effect – ???: Once per turn, after another Creature uses the Effect “Weave”, choose an opposing

Creature and discard one energy from it.

You can’t guarantee the ability to Weave the turn you play it without a Boots effect, and even though it’s likely you can’t guarantee a Weave on the opponent’s turn either. What that means is that you can’t effectively build around this card. However, if your Weave Ergar sticks in play over even two turns, you can get a lot of value from ??? triggers.

Iyori’s Ring – 3.5

Weave Relic

Energy: 0

Effect – Purity: At the end of your turn, if all Spells in your discard pile are Weave, discard all of your

non-Weave cards from play and choose one of your Creatures. Until the beginning of your next turn, that Creature gains “Effect – Impede: Your other Weave Creatures may not be attacked. Powers, Spells, and Effects may not prevent this Creature from being attacked.”

Starting: Iyori

UNRELEASED PROMO

A nice little relic in Taunt decks.

Weave Armor – 3

Weave Relic

Energy: 2

Effect – ???: As a Creature with five or more energy attacks a Creature you control, add one energy to

your Magi.

This card costs too much. You need the third big creature to attack you before you get paid off. Surviving that long can be a chore, even in very defensive Weave builds. That said, Taunt decks will probably be able to find a home for this card because it does help punish the opponent for attacking.

Embrace the Weave – 3.5

Weave Spell

Energy: 1

Choose a Weave card in your discard pile. Place that card on top of your deck.

This card is really cool. The thing that immediately comes to mind is to combine it with expensive Weave spells and Maelstrom Flask. Keru can put the spells in the discard pile and in a Kesia list this card means you can Weave Winds someone almost every turn if you want to. You can also get back creatures and relics if there’s a specific reason to do that. Lots of possibilities for this cheap little enabler.

Fight or Flight – 3

Weave Spell

Energy: 3

Choose an opposing Creature and attach Fight or Flight to it. If the Creature does not attack on its

controller’s turn and is still in play at the end of that player’s turn, return it to its owner’s hand and draw a card. Powers, Spells, and Effects may not prevent this Creature from attacking.

Kind of cute as a way to get around a Pylofuf that’s not attacking you. In highly defensive builds where attacking you is a nightmare for the opponent this basically forces them to attack because letting you get the value out of it is very bad for them. Still, they get the choice and there are enough aggressive decks out there that I don’t know how good this is.

Glow Grass – 3.5

Weave Spell

Energy: 2

Choose a Creature you control and attach Glow Grass to it. While Glow Grass is attached, as this

Creature is being attacked, add one energy to it and draw a card.

More Taunt payoffs. If your creature survives the attack to get a second Glow Grass trigger (which the spell helps it do a little) you’ll be quite happy.

Reinforce – 3

Weave Spell

Energy: 3

Choose a Weave Creature and attach Reinforce to it. As this Creature is attacked, discard Reinforce from

play and add energy to the Creature equal to its starting energy.

Yet more Taunt payoffs. This one is interesting in that it cares how big the creature is that you put it on. The bigger the better. If the creature has less than four starting energy, you’re not too happy to put this card on it, which does limit the cards you put this on but not an incredible amount.

Surge – 5

Weave Spell

Energy: X+2

Play a Weave Creature from your hand, ignoring all costs. X is the Creature’s energy cost. If there are

twenty or more cards in your discard pile, this spell costs two less energy to play.

This card is just Warrior’s Boots. Warrior’s Boots is a 5. Sure, some of the time you’ll have to pay 2 extra energy but Weave can use Keru as its setup magi, in which case you’re very likely to get a large discard pile pretty quickly. Additionally, this card is pretty dope with the Zaya Alt magi (who can dump cards into the discard pile) and also with Embrace the Weave which can buy this back.

Vieva’s Gift – 3.5

Weave Spell

Energy: 3

Return a Creature you control to its owner’s hand and choose an opposing Creature and a Creature you

control. Move half of the opposing Creature’s energy, rounded down, to your Creature.

UNRELEASED PROMO

The payoff isn’t as strong as a lot of other Gift spells, but one of the things that Weave can lose to is giant creatures that don’t care about all the little defensive tricks you have going on. This card helps fight giant dudes quite well. Also, there are a lot of Weave creatures you don’t exactly mind bouncing to your hand. There’s Tweave, Pagajack, anything with a “when played” ability like Drowl, even an Uwaru who has already blown up a relic.

TLDR: Weave

Magi

Gia Alt – 2.5

Ninx Alt – See above

Zaya Alt – 5

Creatures

Bulb Trulb – 2.5

Grass Plith – 3

Mearith – 4

Quikket – 2.5

Snag Hyren – 2.5

Uwaru – 3.5

Weave Ergar – 3

Relics

Iyori’s Ring – 3.5

Weave Armor – 3

Spells

Embrace the Weave – 3.5

Fight or Flight – 3

Glow Grass – 3.5

Reinforce – 3

Surge – 5

Vieva’s Gift – 3.5

Thoughts

Aside from the need for an errata on Ninx Alt, I’d say Weave did very well in the new set. Zaya Alt and Surge both seem insane and Embrace the Weave has vast untapped potential. Taunt decks also get a lot more support and while I’ve never really been interested in them, I hope some players out there who are enjoy playing with their new toys.