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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
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Image from Wizards.com |
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Pulse
of the Forge
Darksteel Rare
Reviewed January 30, 2004
Constructed: 2.8
Casual: 3.8
Limited: 3
Ratings are
based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ...
average.
5 is the highest rating
Click here to see all
our
Card of the Day Reviews
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Chris
Gerhardt
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game store owner in CA,
ShuffleAndCut.com |
Okay, I really like
this card. If red can come up with a decent
burn deck, this puppy could make the cut, even if
it's only casual. If you have the mana, you
can mana burn yourself to just below their life so
you can get it back to finish someone off. Scary,
but effective if you can avoid counterspells and
lifegain on your opponent's part. Actually,
this might be really fun with Worship. Then
you can let your life go down to 1, through
attacks and mana burn, and just keep getting this
returned to your hand to finish off your opponent.
Hmm...fun!
This is a nice pick
to consider for limited if you are going
significant red (note the double red in the
casting cost). Though damage that can only hit a
player, (read Lava Axe), is usually a bad idea,
since this one can recur, it's worth it if you
have the slot available in your limited deck.
Just a note for those
of you who have had their interest perked by all
the new Darksteel cards. I just put up
Darksteel
Singles for Pre-Sale on our Website for
those that are interested.
If you need to see the
pictures of the cards, they aren't functional on
my Website yet, but you can see each
Rare Picture in my auctions if you are
interested in the pictures, exact text or the
artwork. Note: These pictures will only be posted
until this Saturday, so catch a peek now if you're
interested!
Constructed:
3.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 3
Current Price: $4
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Judge
Bill
*Level 2
MTG Judge
*game store employee
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Friday
A "recurrable"
direct damage spell, as long as your
opponent has less life than you. I can see
this getting a lot of play in the Goblin
mirror, as life tends to go down quite
quickly there. However, against all other
deck types, red is too aggressive for this
to ever return to your hand. So essentially,
you're paying 3 mana for 4 damage. I'll just
stick with the Shock/Volcanic Hammer, and
use Hammer of Bogarden if I need a recurable
direct damage spell.
Casual players
will probably build a deck around this and
Form of the Dragon, or Lich. It can be very
good, and since casual is a bit slower, you
can set it up like you need to.
In limited, I
would probably play this, although I
wouldn't go out of my way worrying about it
if I wasn't red and I saw it.
Constructed:
2
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 3
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DeQuan
Watson
* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX)
* pro tour player
* Scrye writer since 2002 |
Friday - Pulse
of the Forge
This is my favorite of the pulses. Pulse of EVEN
THIS BAD BOY UP is really good I would thing.
Again, this is complete speculation. The only
other pulse I really like is the Pulse of 3/3
man. I think the white and the blue ones will
get played, but I don't like them as much as the
Pulse of YOU'RE GONNA HATE ME FOR THIS. I'm
pretty sure that casual players will love the
Pulse of YOU'RE TAKE FOR AGAIN NEXT TURN TOO.
For that matter they will probably like alot of
the pulses. I'm pretty sure all but the black
one get to see some play in limited. If anyone
has any spare Pulse of RED IS CRAZY SOMETIMES,
feel free to send them my way.
Constructed: 3.7
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.7 |
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Jeff Zandi
5 Time Pro Tour
Veteran
Level 2 Judge |
Pulse of the Forge
This red card is so powerful it draws comparisons
to some pretty good red
cards from the past, like Hammer of Bogardan and
Fireblast. Pulse of the
Forge is probably not quite as good as either of
those, because Pulse can
only be pointed at your opponent's face, and
cannot target creatures. Still,
this card can be a win condition all by itself.
Dealing four damage for
three mana at instant speed is completely okay by
itself. Being able to
return this from the graveyard immediately after
using it for no cost (as
long as your opponent has more life points than
you) is amazing. This card
will cause more late game comebacks than any other
card in any current
format. Example: You are at 3 life playing mono
red burn, you have been
pointing your red burn spells at your opponent
while he has hammered at you
with creatures. At the end of his turn, let's put
his life as high as
sixteen. You have six mountains in play, highly
plausible on turn nine or
ten. You Pulse your opponent for four, return the
Pulse, shoot him again.
Untap, Pulse him again, return it and pulse him
again. That's sixteen points
in a VERY short period of time with only ONE card
and with only six mana in
play. Normally, cards that only deal damage to
players and not creatures do
not become feared. This one will change all that.
Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 4.0
Limited: 4.0 |
Ray
"Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer
*Game Store Owner (Gamer's Edge) |
Friday - Pulse
of the Forge
There's a lot of talk about this card, and it
seems very interesting and possible useful. I'm
not a big fan of "burn your face off" cards but
this card seems to have some potential. It's
well costed, and seems to be pretty balanced,
yet strong, the primary issue is its really the
card of card you'd expect to see in a burn deck
or sligh type design, and those type of decks
are invariably further ahead in life than their
opponents, so the "buy back" function seems like
something that won't often be used. Perhaps some
form of counter burn deck could have some
serious fun with it.....
Constructed - 3
Casual - 4
Limited - 2 |
Jason
Matthews
* Level 1 DCI
Judge
*game store employee
* gaming for over 15 years |
Friday-Pulse of the
Forge
Boy I am so biased when it comes to red burn
cards. I love burning my opponent, oh and I like
casting burn spell at them. Pulse of the forge
is a fun spell that can let you get double uses
sometimes if you have fallen behind in the life
race. It give you more damage than the mana
cost, which is a bonus. It does have a
limitation that I hate which is that it cant
target creatures. There are several burn cards
that are more versatile to use but its not a bad
card at all. My recommendation for the this card
is to use it with Form of the Dragon.
Constructed 2.75
Casual 3
Limited 2.75 |
Jonathan
Pechon
2 Grand
Prix Top 8's
Multiple Pro Tour
appearances |
Pulse of the Forge
The jury is out on these cards at this point. I
am not a big fan of being forced to pay from
behind, but I really think that cards like this
could be worth it. The inability to do anything
with creatures hurts this card, but four damage
at instant-speed is definitely appealing. I can
see this getting play, possibly in something
like Burning Bridge or in sideboards.
This can be a situational bomb in limited.
Fortunately, you can manufacture those
situations through mana-burn and other effects.
If you manage 8-12 damage with this card, it
seems likely to me that you should be winning
the game. Four damage is still quite a bit to do
to your opponent’s soft head, in any case.
Casually, this card does a lot of damage and can
be reusable. I can see this being a *lot* of fun
in group games. “Oh, you’re higher on life than
me? Take four, I’ll take my Pulse back, thanks.”
Mental Magic, it’s yet another decent use for
the RR1 slot; anything that lets you put the
card back in your hand in this way is gold in
this game, and it seems like this fits the bill
nicely.
Constructed: 3.5
Limited: 3.25
Casual: 4.0 |
Jason
Chapman |
Pulse of the
Forge is by far the worst of the 5 Pulse cards.
Even so, reusable cheap burn is decent and this
card is marginally playable. The others are just
increadible, however.
Constructed - I'd rather have a Hammer - 2.45
Limited - An okay way to play catch-up too bad
it can't target creatures - 2.65
Casual - Unlike the other Pulse cards, this one
feels like it should be great in casual - 3.25 |
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Chase |
Pulse of the
Forge
And now we come to a new cycle of cards: the
pulses. These cards allow you to do something
that will affect a player but you get to return
it to your hand if you are still behind in
something. The “then” part of the card makes
them below average. The then part says that you
can only return it to your hand if at the time
of resolution you have less of something. I
would expect that a cycle of rares wouldn’t be
dumbed down by that but oh well.
It’s 4 damage to a player for 3 mana which is ok
but Sligh would only want to spend direct damage
on the player if they were recovering from a
Wrath, and if they’re doing that, they’re
probably losing. But otherwise, Sligh will use
its creatures to hit the opponent.
In Casual, you can add this to your burn spell
only deck for lots of fun.
Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 4 |
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Spooks |
Pulse of the
Forge
I don't quite like
this card. Sure it has potential to do a lot of
damage, and it will slow down exalted angels,
but that will require a very large mana
investment. At the same time, if you are
playing red, you not playing very will if your
opponent has more life than you. The whole
purpose of red is to come out guns ablazing and
kill them before they have a chance to register
that thier hair is on fire.
My point is, your
opponent shouldn't have my life than you, and if
they do, red isn't your colour. However, there
is apro to this card, and that is 4 damage for 3
mana. I like that.
Constructed rating -
3. Gives that little extra oomph to those sligh
decks out there
Limited rating - 3.
Again...extra oomph. I would play it if I
opened it.
Trying to be good
but not quite getting there rating - 10
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