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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
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(NOT)
Chris
Gerhardt
*
game store owner in CA,
ShuffleAndCut.com |
Okay. This
looks like Chris, but I (Scott) actually stole her
slot for today...mwuhahahahaha!!! Actually,
we got to talking about this card and I felt like
writing. My
initial impression - crap. My current
impression - crap. Here is wherein lies the
problem with this card: 7 mana. It's very
expensive, as it will be very hard to
cast/equip/swing all in one turn. If the
opponent has any destruction at all, it will
surely come flying out at the Spellbinder
immediately in a desperate 2-for-1 effort.
Now the flip side -
brutality. Hey casual players - slap a
Searing Wind under this thing. Hell, Type 2
players - slap a
Searing Wind under this thing. Ten
damage is nothing to be scoffed at. By the
time this thing hits, you might as well have a
"build your own Phage". We of course, have
the sick sick sick combo known as
Savage Beating. If your opponent gets
caught sleeping at 7 mana, you could kill them
with a lowly 1/1 all in 1 turn. With
anything you slap on this thing, unblockable (like
Neurok Spy) or trample is your friend.
You don't have to do ALL the damage to your
opponent - only some combat damage.
For acceleration, try
Cloudposts and/or Urza Lands, depending on the
deck/environment. Remember, you don't even
NEED colored mana here. You can play
super-fast artifacts, drop this thing on turn 4-5
and just win.
In extended, imagine
the fun you can have with this thing and
Cunning Wish. "End of your turn, go wish
for whatever instant I need to let me win.
Untap, play Spellbinder, swing with something you
can't stop, and win." I won't even start in
on the possibilities, as they are endless.
In the end, I can't
say this is going to be a major, format-altering
card. I'll say some people are gonna try it,
and you don't want to be the one caught with your
pants down with the Savage-Binder combo kicks you
square in the nads.
I wish everyone
good luck with the card - not sure it's the best,
but it's sure gonna be fun. ~ Scott
Constructed:
2
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 1.5
Spellbinder
Current Price: $2.39
Searing
Wind Current Price: $1.45
Savage
Beating Current Price: $2.39
Neurok Spy
Current Price: .25 cents
Cloudpost
Current Price: .50 cents
Cunning
Wish Current Price: $5.49
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Judge
Bill
*Level 2
MTG Judge
*game store employee
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Spellbinder
An interesting concept. An Ophidian like effect
for whatever instant you care to put on it.
Therein lies the problem: "Instant."
Most effects that you really want to copy are
sorceries. The instants you may want to copy all
have a converted mana cost of 3, and thus don't
need to depend on an unblocked creature - just 2
mana.
In casual, this may see some play. I'm sure
there might be one or two cool instant effects
that you might want to generate.
In limited, you have so few instants to begin
with that this will likely be useless. The more
instants you have to put on this, the less
creatures you will have to put this on.
Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 2
Limited: 2 |
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DeQuan
Watson
* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX)
* pro tour player
* Scrye writer since 2002 |
Spellbinder
As far as casual
play goes, I'm not impressed with this card in
the least. Honestly, it cost too much to
equip. Most of the good equipment that gets
played doesn't equip for more than two. Outside
of that, it's not that good for its effect. The
Sword of Fire and Ice and the Sword of Light and
Shadow both generate solid effects when they
damage your opponent and you don't risk losing a
card to imprinting.
This is a great
casual player card, because you can find a ton
of things to do with this card. In limited, I
generally don't have enough good instants to put
on this card, so I'd probably pass on it.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 4
Limited: 2
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Jeff Zandi
5 Time Pro Tour
Veteran
Level 2 Judge |
Spellbinder
It sounds very interesting to have a piece of
equipment with the power of Isochron Scepter
built into it. Unfortunately, a lot has to go
right for this card to work for you. The trick
with imprinted cards is to not play it until you
are sure you will get to use the card in play at
least once before it gets destroyed by your
opponent. The point of this is to avoid card
disadvantage. In limited, Isochron Scepter
doesn’t ALWAYS make the cut, just because you
don’t have enough cheap instants in your deck.
With Spellbinder, you can use any instant, not
just ones costing two or less, but it’s much
harder to play Spellbinder at a time when you
can come close to assuring yourself at least one
use of it before it is destroyed by an
opponent’s effect. In constructed, the biggest
problem with this card is the high equip cost.
CONSTRUCTED: 2.5
CASUAL: 2.5
LIMITED: 2.5 |
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Andy
Van Zandt |
Spellbinder
A very conditional panoptic mirror. Unless
you've got a consistent turn one win with it in
t1, not interested. In limited- you have to
draft like you're drafting a sceptre deck AND an
evasion/equipment deck. A bit too restrictive,
but potentially playable... but not a card you
slam down in any case.
constructed 2.2
casual 2.6
limited 2.4 |
Ray
"Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
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Spellbinder
Well, how fun is
Spellbinder + Savage Beatings? Seriously. If
there was ever a combo waiting to be played,
this is it. But that being said, the cost to
equip Spellbinder makes it unplayable in
Constructed. In limited though, it has some real
potential on any unblockable or evasive
creature. It's a bit situational because it
requires you having the instant, and the
spellbinder, and the evasive creature, but it
has some potential and is worth a try.
Casual:
2
Constructed:
1
Limited:
3
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Jason
Matthews
* Level 1 DCI
Judge
*game store employee
* gaming for over 15 years |
Wednesday-Spellbinder
Warning, warning, warning this card has abuse
potential. Lets start with red. Add Savage
Beating to this card and you have as many combat
steps for your guy as you need as long as he
gets thru once. Lets not forget the fact that
red has just about every good burn type spell
ever. How about in blue you have fliers that can
now draw you cards in huge amounts just by
getting a point off combat damage on your
opponent. White of course gets its share of life
gain and other goodness. Green of course has
token generators like Elephant Ambush and
multitude of others. Black still has some of the
best stuff with creature destruction spells,
loss of life type spells, and oh yeah lots of
cards that say search my deck for a card. I
don’t want to sound like a worry wart but I
think this thing is just really good and
probably should have cost 4 to cast and 4 to
equip. In constructed this card should find a
home in a couple of decks. In casual I would
make a group of fun players take me out and burn
me at the stake if I played this in a deck…I
would be INVINCIBLE. Thanks god this card isn’t
indestructible to boot. In limited it’s a
moderately good card unless you draft correctly
and get it with evasion creatures and solid
instants to go with it. I like this card a lot.
Constructed 3
Casual 4.5
Limited 2.74 |
Jonathan
Pechon
2 Grand
Prix Top 8's
Multiple Pro Tour
appearances |
Spellbinder
We’ve been waiting
for the really crappy equipment to rear its ugly
head in this set. Well, here we go! If you
want to try to imprint Searing Wind on this
thing, go right ahead. That’s about the only
use this card can really have.
In limited, I’d
rather just cast my instant at an opponent’s
creatures *before* they got blocked and I don’t
get to continue killing them. If you are able
to imprint a spell, equip it on a creature, and
get through unmolested, you’re not winning;
you’re just winning more.
Casual might be the
only realm that this is usable. In group games,
I can see this being a threat that significantly
alters the way opponents have to approach you.
The fun-value of this card (as far as the random
stuff you can imprint on it) seems like it could
be pretty high.
Constructed: 1.25
Limited: 1.5
Casual: 3.0
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Jason
Chapman |
Spellbinder is
interesting and I would have to sit down and
really think through the non-damage/non-drawing
instants that would prove really nasty on this
thing. There could be some really nasty combos and
even simple cards like Opt would be extremelly
tempting. Even so, this card is a little slow to
hit the table and needs a creature that can get
through to deal combat damage.
Constructed - I expect
some nasty combos but it seems a little slow for
now - 3.50
Limited - How many instants are you packing? -
2.15
Casual - This could be really fun with a number of
strange combos - 3.50 |
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Chase |
Spellbinder
Imprint Searing Wind,
Dark Banishing. Note: this is for Casual only. In
Constructed, it’s too expensive. 3rd
turn and 4th turn are taken up by this
artifact. And it can only be effective in combat.
That means that burn is the best option for this.
Destroy spells are good too, but if they don’t
have a legal target on your opponent’s side, they
have to take one of your creatures. Not cool.
In Casual, just
attack with this and burn spells. Your opponent
will be dead so quickly.
In Limited, meh,
what spells would I want to copy during combat?
You can’t focus a limited deck around abusing this
card. A pretty much crap rare.
Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 1.5 |
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