Card of the Day Home

Decks to Beat - Tournament Winning Decks!

Card of the Day - A single card reviewed by several members of our crew.  Updated 5 days per week!

Card Price Guide

Featured Writers  
Judge Bill
DeQuan Watson
Ray Powers - Monk's Corner
Jeff Zandi
Jonathan Pechon
Chrstine Gerhardt
Jason Chapman
- on Peasant Magic

Deck Garage
Jason's Deck Garage

MTG Fan Articles
Deck Tips & Strategies
Peasant Magic
Tourney Reports 
Featured Articles  
Single Card Strategy

Magic Quizzes & Polls

Community
Message Board 
Chat
Magic League

Contact Us

Pojo's Book Reviews

Links

 


Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Card : Jushi Apprentice  
Cost : 1U  
Type : Creature - Human Wizard  
Power : 1/2  
Text : [2][U], [Tap]: Draw a card. If you have nine or more cards in hand, flip Jushi Apprentice.

/flip/

Tomaya the Revealer Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
3UU, T: Target player draws X cards, where X is the number of cards in your hand. P/T: 2/3


Image from Wizards.com
 

Jushi Apprentice 
Champions of Kamigawa Rare


Reviewed September 16, 2004

Constructed: 2.9
Casual: 3.4
Limited: 3.2

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 


Chris
Gerhardt

* game store owner in CA, ShuffleAndCut

This comes back to something I always say...Card advantage wins games.  Jushi does that, but it's cost to draw one is a little high.  But you could use it at end of your opponent's turn when you have leftover mana.  One thing... Flipping this puppy is going to be more than difficult. Drawing extra cards ain't that hot if you're not doing great things with them. But, if you do manage to flip it to Tomaya, dayum...that's a pretty amazing ability.  Besides drawing yourself some cards, you could also choose to try to mill your opponent out if he's low.  Though I can't imagine him being much lower than you if you've been drawing like a madman with this guy.

In casual, players really don't give a crap about card draw.  But they should.  And if they did, they could do interesting things with Jushi and Tomaya.

In limited, card draw really becomes all the more amazing. In a deck that is only partially optimal, seeing your good stuff first becomes game breaking.  Card draw gets you there, and Jushi can certainly help with that.

Constructed: 3
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4

   Current Price:
Jushi Apprentice - Champions of Kamigawa - $TBA

Special for my CotD fans:  For those of you interested in picking up some of the new Champions of Kamigawa Rares, check out my Auctions Here!! For every auction you win, I will throw in a FREE Bonus Rare with your win!  This promotion is only for my CotD readers...just email me at the end of the auction and mention that you read Pojo's CotD and I'll throw in the Free Rare!  (Free rares are of my choice... auctions must be paid within 7 days of closing to qualify)  Thanks, guys!
 


Judge Bill

*Level 2
MTG Judge

*game store employee

Jushi Apprentice
 
You get an extra point of toughness over Archivist, and you only have to pay 2 mana to get it out. You have to pay 3 mana for each card, though.
 
The side that really shines is the flip side. In any control blue deck, it's really easy to trigger this flip. Just start the turn with 7 cards, draw a card for your turn to make 8, and then use this ability to make 9.
 
The flip side says "Choose One - Double your hand size, or deck your opponent." It is target player, so you can use this on your opponent if you have an obscene number of cards in your hand. Hell, use this on him during his end step, and he'll have to discard down to 7 immediately. You'll have to use a CoP to aviod the burn, because if you use Ivory Mask to prevent them from throwing anything at you, you can't use the ability on yourself.
 
Constructed - 3.5
Casual - 4.5
Limited - 3

 


Jeff Zandi

5 Time Pro Tour
Veteran

Jushi Apprentice
Oh my, this card is wonderful in all formats. In limited, you can drop the 2
toughness apprentice on turn two, play a land on turn three and immediately
start using his abilty. In constructed, Jushi Apprentice will be slightly
less amazing, but will be fine in its un-flipped state for some decks. When
you manage to flip Jushi, firing the Apprentice in favor of Tomoya the
Revealer, you have a card-drawing engine that simply screams COMBO DECK.
Unfortunately, the Apprentice's rarity makes him much less likely to appear
in your limited stack than if he were common or uncommon.
CONSTRUCTED: 3.5
CASUAL:           4.0
LIMITED:          3.0

Ray "Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer

Jushi Apprentice

 

Am I the only one looking at this card and thinking, “I will never want to flip this guy.” I want to use him to draw a card each turn for two mana, and just need to make sure I never have nine cards in hand, which shouldn’t be too hard. Who cares about milling my opponent for nine? I just want to keep drawing cards and smashing my opponents face in with them.

 

From a competitive standpoint, this card is a waste of space being a flip card. No serious player will want to ever flip this guy except in the most narrow of circumstances. And to be honest, being able to flip this guy is incredibly difficult to do, as its not often you have nine cards in hand and haven’t already won the game. So in reality, the flip card is something only the most devout of casual players will shoot for, and when the finally go through all the trouble, and flip the card, and activate it for the first time, their opponent will Terror it, and since they just had to tap FIVE MANA to activate it, they won’t be able to do anything but watch it die, frustrated.

 

So, just ignore the bottom half of this guy, and treat it like the good card drawing machine it’s meant to be.

 

Constructed:                 3

Casual:                         3

Limited:                        3

 


DeQuan
Watson

* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX)


My first thought on this card was that it was really good. Unfortunately, I then realized that in order to flip it (to get to the good side) you have to get to nine cards or more in hand. This means that you have to use some other card drawing spell or effect BEFORE activating this guy. This makes its stock drop in my opinion.

I'm not sure if this fits well anywhere in casual play. I can see a few Millstone decks using this as one more way to deck their opponents but that's about it. IT is a great limited card though. Anything that can efficiently help you draw into more spells is worth it in limited play.

Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 2.5
Limited: 3.5
Paul
Hagan
Jushi Apprentice --

Like the previous flip-card this week, I'm not terribly pleased with Jushi Apprentice. You have a pretty lack-luster ability on the front side (a bit expensive), and you have a bit of a stretch to flip him -- there aren't too many times that I willingly have nine cards in hand. Once he's flipped, he gets slightly better, with an ability that your opponents can fear.

Unfortunately, like many cards that can get silly, Jushi Apprentice is weak in the fact that he is a small creature that can be destroyed by just about anything. Most of your opponents will have a way of dealing with this guy within a turn or two.

Casual players might appreciate Jushi Apprentice more than tourney guys. He is a legend, and can draw you silly amounts of cards if you give him time. Don't forget the fact that once you have a gigantor hand, you can make your opponent draw twice as many, which can actually be a bad thing.

In limited, this guy will usually hang out elsewhere, but every once in a while, he might sneak into my deck if I don't have too many small men.

Constructed Rating: 2.0
Casual Rating: 3.0
Limited Rating: 2.0


Andy
 Van Zandt


Jushi Apprentice
Very situational.  Certainly a good thing when you fact or fiction at the
end of their turn, and then lay this guy on your turn and immediately flip
him (the best use of any of the flip creatures is immediate flippage).  But
his ability is pricey and he's pretty fragile.  In limited, he's good just
as a jayemdae, since you may deck yourself if you use the other ability
after filling up your hand.
constructed 2.5
casual 3.5
limited 4
 

 

 

 

Pojo.com

Copyright 2001 Pojo.com

   

Magic the Gathering is a Registered Trademark of Wizards of the Coast.
This site is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast and is not an Official Site.