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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
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Judge
Bill
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Read the Runes is an
amazing card. An instant that allows you to draw
X cards, with almost any drawback, will see a
lot of play. The drawback on this is only very
mild, though. Two very popular decks right now
won't mind the drawback at all.
U/G will pitch a
couple of Wallas, or in some instances, a Logic.
Tog will just pitch most of the cards and sac a
couple of lands to use as tog food from the
graveyard.
This card will also
see play in a lot of decks it shouldn't see play
in, simply because it is instant speed card
drawing.
In the right deck,
though, this is better than Fact or Fiction. And
there are really 2 right decks, mentioned above.
In limited, this is
not as amazing. Yes, you get to draw some cards.
But you have to lose resources (either cards in
hand or permanents) for the cards you drew.
Maybe a 20-23rd card in a deck. I don't see
myself playing it very often in limited.
Constructed: 5++++
Limited: 2
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Rob
Lawing
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Read is an excellent
instant card drawing spell for Blue. At a cost
of only U+X (X being the number of cards you
draw and the number of cards you discard or
permanents you sacrifice) this is a very
powerful spell which allows the control U or U/x
mage to load their hand with good cards and even
help obtain threshold (if desired). Late game
sacking surplus land to keep a larger and higher
quality hand is another strong possibility. In
short, this card is a powerful instant which is
strongest in the mid to late game. It will be a
staple of control oriented decks for a long
time.
In limited it is a
good but not great spell with the same basic
advantages as constructed but on a scaled down
basis. I would play it but I don't think it
merits a high pick.
Rating
Constructed 4
Limited 2.5
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Alex
Hockey
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Ok, before
trying to break this card, lets see if we can use
it honestly:
1. It could be used as a searcher or a very good
way of improving the quality of your hand without
actually giving you card advantage.
2. Could be used as a madness outlet. Although
most decks already have wild mongrel, you have to
decide whether you want an extra 1 damage or an
extra card. I think the card is probably a better
choice.
3. Reach threshold quickly
The dishonest ways:
1. As a kill mechanism when used with wild mongrel
or psychatog: Draw loads of cards, sac loads of
permanents to keep the cards in hand, pitch all
your cards to mongrel/psychatog. (as 'tog uses
upheaval to win, this strategy is pretty much
confined to u/g threshold decks)
2. Combo with the "Words" enchantments - the
black, white and green ones look especially good.
So the rating. A 4.5 in constructed: damn good but
not in all decks. This assumes it isn't banned
really quickly.
Limited: Not much to say here. Its ok, for example
if all you need to win is that <<cardname>> use
read the runes to get it. A 3 in limited.
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Mad Hatter |
Read the Runes:
Yet more broken
blue card drawing. With Madness, this card
becomes _way_,_way_ too powerful. Without
Madness, this card still allows a player to get
to the cards that he needs while discarding land
and junk. Alos, it feeds Threshold. I wish that
WOTC would come to the understanding that blue's
card drawing ability is, and always has been,
way over the top and too powerful. This one is
so broken, that you can do it as an instant in
combat when your creatures are about to die, and
then sacrifice them when they were going to die
anyway. Expect to see this card everywhere.
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