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Pojo's Magic The Gathering Card of the Day


Image from Wizards.com

Martyr of Ashes
Cold Snap


Reviewed July 19, 2006

Constructed: 2
Casual: 2.55
Limited: 2.65

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 

BMoor

Martyr of Ashes

Essentially a 1/1 that can be sacrificed for 1 mana for an Earthquake-type effect. The price is certainly right mana-wise, but the damage done depends on how many cards in your hand you reveal. Magic is a game of information, after all, and some cards you don't want your opponent to know about until they're on the stack. Also, red is not the card-drawing color by any means, so you may not be able to reveal enough cards to kill the majority of problem creatures. In Ravnical block, there's plenty of multicolor cards that count as both red and another color, so this might find a place in a Gruul beatdown deck, but then Gruul already has Savage Twister. Maybe an Izzet deck with plenty of card draw and few creatures beyond Niv-Mizzet and some Dragonauts...

Constructed- 2.5
Casual- 4
Limited- 3
 

Jordan Kronick

Martyr of Ashes

The Martyr cycle will remind anyone who played with Urza's block cards of a couple cycles from that. These ones, however, just don't cut it. The Cinder Sage and Scent of Cinder were great directed removal.
This is just a tremor on steroids. Mind you, the effect plays nice with holding cards in hand, but since when does red want to hold back and play defense. Red in Coldsnap already seems a big underpowered, and this guy doesn't do much to shake that reputation.

Constructed Rating - 1.4
Casual Rating - 1.6
Limited Rating - 2.0
 


Christine
Gerhardt

Martyr of Ashes

I like this guy in limited - he's a short order board reset, if you can go mono or heavy red. I know others don't like him, since I can pick it up very late pick, but eh. I've 2, 3 and 4 for 1'd many times with this.

In constructed, I wonder if it would be any good against White Weenie as a board wiper - probably not...? It's drawback is that it doesn't hurt flyers...if it did, it could be good.

Constructed - 2
Casual - 2.5
Limited - 2.5
 

Aburame Shino

Martyr of Ashes

The red member of the Martyr cycle, this one has possibly the most powerful of all of them. For really cheap, and giving the opponent a peek at your hand, you get a semi-earthquake ability. In limited this can be really good since mass removal of any kind can at least be considered usable, but only if you get enough red cards to reveal for this card. However, I don't see this card making the cut for Standard. Most red decks will have their hands empty from all the burn, so I don't think you'd have the cards to reveal to its ability.

Constructed: 2 - Maybe if the format starts revolving around smaller creatures...
Casual: 2 - It's a fun board-wiper.
Limited: 3 - You have to get enough red cards to abuse it, but it's still good.

 
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