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Pojo's Duel Masters Card of the Day

Image from Wizards Duel Master site

Dealer's Choice Day

Evo Cards and How They've Changed

Date Reviewed: 03.23.05

Reviewer's select any Evolution Card and take another look.

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating.

Drizer	Name: Barkwhip, the Smasher Civilization: Nature Race: Beast Folk Cost:2 Mana Generated:1 Rules Text: Evolution-Put on one of your beast folk When this creature is tapped, each other of your Beast Folk get +2000 power Power: 5000 Type: Creature Artist: Tsutomu Kawade Drizer's Flavor Text (For cards that don't have them): - Flavor Text: "Rage leads to war. War leads to rage. Isn't it magical?" -General Dark Fiend AWESOME! Today, (thanks to Nimbly) I got to review whatever evo I felt like. Well, what better card to review then one of the cheapest and (in my opinion) the most potential evo. By the way, sorry for no review Monday, I got my calendar email late and didn't have time to check it because I'm kinda addicted to MVP Baseball 2005. Oh well, I'm here for awhile now. TO THE REVIEW! Good Points of the Card -VERY CHEAP -VERY Good power for cheap cost -Attack on the first turn -Gives other Beast Folk +2000 Constructed Side Can you say "BROKEN?" Let's all say it now: "Bro-ken" Honestly, this is still one of the best cards out in the game even though it's from evo. This card was totally brought back with the release of Torcon and has been rolling ever since. I can promise you, when the new set comes out, this card won't slow down at all. I don't really have much to say about Barkwhip. Ok, let's do my "simulation game" Turn 1: Lay mana Turn 2: Summon either Torcon, Mane, or Mushroom (lay extra for Mushroom) Turn 3: Play BAT if you played mushroom and evo to Barkwhip or if you played a Beast Folk, evo to Barkwhip right away. The PERFECT card for those beast folk rush deck, HANDS DOWN Limited Side I'll tell ya, if your drafting with evo, and you got a Beast Folk, draft this. If your trying to play strategectically (is that a word?) I would take him just so he wouldn't be used against me, because I would be scared outta my pants when he hits the feild on turn 3 possibly Bad Points of the card -Uh.... -Um.... -Eh.., no Beast Folk 1 drop yet? Overall Standings: This is still one of the most deadliest cards throughout Duelmasters Constructed:5.0 Totally Broken here, especially when used correctly Limited: 4.5 Only because you might not draft or get a beast folk to evo Art: 3.6 SMASH, SMASH, SMASH Pretty much wraps it up for Barky, Till Friday!
Lee Sandow	Today is another free-choice day. We are to review our favorite evolution creature. Goody! Until a few months ago, I didn’t trust evolution creatures. I figured the fact that they required a lower level monster on the field to evolve from was a huge minus. Further, I figured their abilities were just not worth it in most cases. Sure, they didn’t have summoning sickness, but what was so great about that? Well, Blocker decks started ripping my Dark Tide deck a new one, and I really had no way to fight them. Finally, in an act of desperation, I threw in some Aqua Jolters, and my two Crystal Paladins. This was the BEST decision of my dueling life. I started to dismantle those blocker decks, and even after the age of the blocker passed, I kept on using them. Their haste ability was excellent, and it was powerful enough to win many battles. I fell in love with this evolution creature: Crystal Paladin Cost: 4 Civilization: Water Card Type: Evolution Creature Race: Liquid People Evolution-Put on one of your Liquid People. When you put this creature into the battle zone, return all creatures in the battle zone that have "blocker" to their owners' hands. Flavor Text: “I love the ocean! I love fish! I love rocks! I love being an artificial monstrosity constructed by the Cyber Lords! Everything is great!” Power: 5000 Mana Generated: 1 Rarity: Super Rare Card Number: S2/S5 This guy made me love evolution creatures. To this day, he is the only one I have run at a tournament. To this day, he has won me an UNHOLY amount of games. Let’s discuss why I love this guy for a minute. Civilization/Race: He’s a water card. Civilization really doesn’t matter except in extreme circumstances. His race is Liquid Person. Liquid People are some of the best cards in the game. Hulcus, Guard, and Jolter see quite a bit of play. His effect plays well with other water cards. Score good points here. Cost: He costs four mana, plus whatever the creature you evolve him from costs. Generally, to one turn evo him, you can evolve a guard for five mana, or evolve a Hulcus/Jolter for Seven. Definitely doable. His ability is great for his cost, and his power level is fine too. Power: He can kill all creatures in the 2000 and under bracket with ease, and he’s more than capable of suiciding into a Barkwhip. He will rarely meet a blocker stronger than himself. His only real threats are other evo creatures and fatties. 5000 power is nice. Abilities: First, he has to evolve from a Liquid Person. Between Aqua Guard, Aqua Jolter, and Aqua Hulcus, you have no lack of good selections to choose from. His other ability is the one that wins games. When he hits the field, all blockers on the field go back to their owner’s hands. That’s awesome. It can easily clear the field for a final rush, or it can simply keep your opponent with little field control. This guy was pretty much what caused Diamond Cutter to die as a good deck type. Ok, now that I’ve reviewed these stats, let’s see how they stack up. Constructed overview: I love this guy. I personally think he’s better than Crystal Lancer since he’s faster, and his ability essentially makes ALL your creatures unblockable for a turn. He’s a great race, with a good power level, and an AWESOME ability. He’s the only evolution creature I’ve ever used, for good reason. 4.5/5 He’s THAT good. Limited overview: He’ll be difficult to use here even if you pull him. There are only two (non-evo) liquid people in the set, and one of them is an * overcosted * rare. The other is a Common, thank goodness, but he is himself a blocker. So be careful. If you can get his evo-line, run him, and if you can’t, put him in your binder. He’s great for trades, and great for Constructed. 1/5 if you don’t pull and base liquid people, 5/5 if you do. With a swing of his blade, the Crystal Paladin clears the way to victory.
cecillbill (Top 4 at 2004 GenCon - Indy Championship)	Aloha Pojo-ers! I could make up an action-packed story explaining my month-long absense, claiming that I was abducted by aliens and forced to play Twister until my insides exploded. Keeping up the fascade, I'd cap off my emotional account of the ordeal by saying I was so exhausted from putting my "right hand on green" one million times that I couldn't write card reviews for a month. But, the truth is I've been uber-busy and now have the time to focus on writing reviews and articles again. /end excuses Knives' idea for cards to review this week is very fun. Today we have to review an Evolution creature that we either love or feel is not playable. I'm all for loving the Liquid People and Beast Folk evolutions, but I've discussed all of them more than what should have been permissible under the law. I want to review a subpar evolution. So let's review Legendary Bynor. Never heard of Legendary Bynor? Come on! He's a Legend, hence the name...well, anyways, here's the stats for quick reference: Legendary Bynor 6 mana Leviathan Water Evolution Creature Evolution--Put on one of your Leviathans. Your other water creatures in the battle zone can't be blocked. Double breaker 8000 [Effects] 1. Double breaker. Double Breaker is standard fare on fatties and most evolution creatures. From a highly competitive standpoint, a double breaking fattie nearly requires an additional effect complimenting this ability, or affordability, or stellar synergy with other creatures to be worth a glance. 2. Your other water creatures in the battle zone can't be blocked. Okay, so here's the additional effect I mentioned that can be a defining asset on a fattie. When Bynor drops all your other Water hitters can run beats uncontested, and Bynor's 8000 power can give many blockers and tapped creatures a run for their mana. Even with Bynor sitting idle in the face of a wall like Gran Gure, your other Water guys just have to worry about being slammed on the rebound or triggering something devastating. Unlike race-mate King Nautilus, Bynor's effect includes all other Water creatures (not just Liquid People), he lacks summoning sickness so he can immediately join the beatdown, and he's 6 mana so he's not too expensive. Your other Water guys are unblockable for as long as Bynor is out, which could be more than one turn. Sounds good, right? Well, in general, Evasion is not the powerhouse ability is was several sets ago. Blocker-heavy decks just aren't making the rounds. If I'm concerned with forcing my field through a wall then I'd want a choice that doesn't push me into a heavy Water commitment and into running subpar creatures as evobait. Evasion appears to be a more competitve asset when it comes cheaper (Paladin, although not permenant evasion), or extends to the whole of your field regardless of creature composition (again, Paladin). Bynor would be an okay fit in mono-Water decks in terms of maximum payoff for your 6 mana investment, but it's not nearly supported well enough to be worth decking over the Liquid People evos. Bynor has some desirable traits, but the major factor preventing it from being competitive material is... [Other Considerations--Race] ... his race. Legendary Bynor is a Leviathan. There are 9 Leviathans besides Bynor, and many of them pack useful effects that run the gamut from tutoring to drawing to bouncing. However, Leviathans are some of the most expensive hitters in the game. This is the race that houses King Tsunami, the 12 mana "OMG how are you going to get that thing into play" monstrosity! Another point against the race is that there is often a cheaper Water creature that can do the nearly the same job and with more support than the Leviathans. There's only one Leviathan costing below 6 mana---ONE---BELOW 6 MANA---and that's King Coral. I've seen King Coral decked by very competent players, but it's an awkward piece of blocker/hitter and that was in a meta long past. At 3 mana you have a 1000 power creature that can block, attack creatures, and attack players. But, you're paying an additional 2 mana to have a Marrow Ooze without a suicide effect. If overpaying for 'aggro' evobait blockers was a highly desirable setup then Aqua Shooter would have been commonplace in Lancer decks long ago. After King Coral at the 3cc, the situation becomes even worst for Bynor's employment chances on the field. The next evobait choice appears at 6 mana and again there's only one, King Neptas. Neptas costs the same amount of mana as Bynor, not exactly the hallmark of curve management. Leviathans are tricky creatures to play and basically require decks with mana acceleration to reap benefits from them. That brings me back to maximum payoffs. If some of the creatures in my field are going to be Nature hitters, then why not have a means to make them unblockable so I can mount an even more threatening offense versus an opponent who has spent turns playing defensively? Oh wait, there is a way...Paladin. You could make a small commitment to Bynor and run 4 King Coral and 2 Bynor, but how about running a finisher that has more ways to surface.. like Lancer? The important factor in evaluating an Evolution creature's playability is its base creature pool. Having a cheaper and more fleshed out evo line might help rescue Bynor from the realm of obscurity. [Power/Cost] Bynor rocks the same cost-to-power package as Crystal Lancer, 8000 power for 6 mana. Bynor can kill a wide range of creatures, and overrun the great majority of blockers that see play in the current meta. That's a sweet package for sure, but it means diddly squat since Bynor's base creature selection pool is as sexy as a rabid baboon in tights. [Format Ratings] Constructed: 1.5/5. Bynor would be more playable if his evoline were more playable and the Liquid People weren't so tasty. Sure, you can get him out faster running Nature, but that undercuts the maximum benefit of his evasion ability. Sure, you could play him in mono-Water, but try keeping an overcosted weenie like King Coral out for 3 turns. Limited: 0/5. One Word: NOOOOO! No support. Bad support. Evolutions on the whole are less playable in Limited, and Bynor clocks in as one of the worst Limited choices ever, Draft or Sealed.
Rob Miller	Day Two of “You Choose It” week. Today we are reviewing any Evolution creature, good or bad. I’ve chosen Überdragon Jabaha. He falls into the bad category. Überdragon Jabaha-Fire Civilization, Armored Dragon race, 7 mana, 11000 attack, and “Evolution-Put on one of your Armored Dragons. Each of your other fire creatures in the battle zone has "power attacker +2000." (While attacking, a creature that has "power attacker +2000" gets +2000 power.) Double Breaker.” Where do I begin…this card is one of the worst evolution cards to ever be released; quite possibly the worst. First of all, lets look at the cards he evolves from. Bolshack (popular among newer players, however has his uses), Bolzard (unfortunately used by newer players as well, uses are far more limited however), Boltail (generic creature with very little going for him), Astrocomet (no…don’t even think about it), Garkago (the best armored dragon so far), Galklife (way too much light hate oriented), Bolgash (triple breaker, could be fun to try) and finally Billion-Degree Dragon (if you Evo him into Jabaha…you should be shot). Well, looking over those cards they are pretty cool looking cards, some whose effects can be utilized. But then you see their costs…with the lowest ones costing 6 and the highest costing 10, you realize, maybe jabaha’s not worth the trouble…and you are probably right. I guess if you wanted to you could build a mana building deck that utilizes Elf-X and Bronze-Arm Tribe to try to get them out early, but even then it would be a shame to see all that mana wasted because of a Terror Pit or Natural Snare, and if you don’t have the Evo, a Death Smoke. In short, don’t play Jabaha, unless it is for fun. You will regret the decision immediately. Constructed- 2/5- It is able to be played, just not easily. Limited- 0/5- Never use this card in limited, never
Nimbly	Today, we get to review an evolution card, either your favorite, or one that you think is the most useless. Now, I can’t pick my favorite. You all know it’s Valdios and I’m pretty sure everyone doesn’t want me to ramble on about that again. You all would probably rather eat dog biscuits and watch Dr. Phil…I’ll be back… … … So, this means that I have to choose the most useless evolution. But that won’t be too great since it’d just be a bunch of people rambling on about Armored Cannon Balbaro. So I went to the next one, Astral Warper, but that was already done. So this continued for a while until I came to this monster: Armored Groblav Civilization: Fire Type: Human Mana Cost: 5 Power: 6000+ Ability: Double Breaker Gets +1000 for every other human in the battle zone when attacking The Rundown Meet Armored Groblav, bigger brother of the more popular Armored Blaster Valdios and the pwner of Armored Cannon Balbaro. We all should know this as the first promo that was given in JDC tourneys and Leagues, so we’re pretty familiar with him. This was around the same time we all got introduced to barkwhip, probably the most abused evo ever, next to Alcadeias. So, what made us like Groblav so much? Was it because we were all impatient for Armored Blaster Valdios, or were we just too caught up in the Barkwhip stuff that we were to busy to notice? The Positive Side Basically, if you know Valdios, you know him. There is one major different between both, besides mana cost. Valdios powers others and Groblav powers itself. So it’s teamwork against Self-improvement…Sounds like the MLB steroid scandal… It does cost 1 more than Valdios. Is not really that much of a problem, but it does affect the card, but I’ll get to that later. The 1 more mana to have a non-fixed power is sometimes worth it. This card doesn’t always die to cards like Szubs Kin and Angler Cluster, cards that Valdios would fall to, which gives Groblav somewhat of an advantage. 5 mana is decently small compared to other evolutions. It’s mana cost is the standard cost for a Double Breaker, which is okay. That’s really all I have to say about the positive. It’s good side is really not that much different from Valdios. The Negatives differ immensely. The Negative Side Hurray!! Now I can start bashing on this Valdios Wantabe!! The mana cost is the major factor in making Valdios a better card. 4 isn’t affected by any card. To my knowledge, 4 bypasses many strong staples for a couple of turns. 5, however, can hit trouble next turn when your opponent has a potential 6 mana. So Valdios has a potential 1 extra turn to live and Double Break and crap. Groblav’s ability only lasts for it’s attack. It goes back to 6000 as soon as it’s tapped. So it can get hit by the monsters that kill Valdios. Still no advantage there. Groblav does not really do much as a team player, what ever that really means. Valdios helps others outlive their eventual death, even though most people neglect that ability. Groblav does get some power out of the other humans, but is it that really worth it to chose this guy over Valdios? No…it really isn’t…trust me…ok, so you don’t trust me. Go find out for yourself then. Finally, here’s what else can you use? -Uh…how about Valdios?!!! - you can even go a human and an Armored Cannon Balbaro - DFBC then Rothus? There really aren’t many other things to play instead of this besides Valdios. The Limited Side It’s not that much better here. Valdios is amazing in limited because it’s cheap. This guy is also pretty cheap, but there are bet….wait….how can you get this in limited if it’s a promo?...It’s not in a pack….Why the hell am I doing this section then?...That’s it…I quit…slams door…crickets chirp The Recap Here’s the + and – again Pluses + Poor Man’s Valdios + Does basically the same thing as Valdios + Powers itself up + Double Breaker Minuses - 1 more mana makes it infinitely worse than Valdios - Doesn’t stay powered when tapped - Doesn’t power other humans like Valdios Constructed-2.5/5- Not that bad if you don’t have Valdios, it’s just masked by Valdios’ overall zeal and popularity. It’s just that the mana cost makes it vulnerable to those pesky staples. It is better in some ways though, if you need power Limited-3.5/5- Not bad in limited. Still fast and strong. You’ll have a harder time drafting this thing than using it. If you find this in a pack, I’ll give you a cookie… Art-2/5- As if Valdios needs more traits on this guy. It’s like watching Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls take on 10-year olds…I’d like to see that actually… Well, that’s it for Armored Groblav. If anyone has any Questions, comments, concerns, or complaints, E-mail me at pt_1bc_2@yahoo.com Later Days…. PSP arrives Tomorrow. Holy…Crap…

Crystal Paladin

Card Number: S2/S5