This is one of the more highly celebrated new
cards in Time Spiral, and I must say I was very
excited to hear about it myself. Cursed Scroll
is a longtime favorite of mine, and I was so
glad to see a new version of it printed that I
was willing to ignore the severe shortcomings of
the new version. Cursed Scroll is a one casting
cost artifact, you can play it in ANY deck, your
opponent is not likely to have many cards in his
deck that will get rid of it. Magus of the
Scroll is a dude, a little, tiny 1/1 red dude
that only goes in certain kinds of decks, and
EVERY deck you play it against will contain many
ways to get rid of it. In limited, the ability
of Magus of the Scroll is powerful enough to
make you play him every time, just try not to
overrate him too much. Cursed Scroll was a very
safe play on turn one, an efficient use of your
mana even though you would not be actually using
the Scroll for several more turns. Magus of the
Scroll is a suicidal first turn play in limited,
in my opinion. The word is out, in the world of
Time Spiral limited, every player knows that
there are a number of one toughness creatures
that must be dealt with. Cards like Grapeshot,
that might not have been considered very useful
in other sets, are very useful in Time Spiral
limited for that very reason. In constructed,
Magus of the Scroll will be very useful, almost
as good as the original Cursed Scroll, in
CERTAIN mono red decks. This card is very
powerful, but unlike its brown bordered
ancestor, it is all too easy to destroy.
I like this card. But I do have to say
"OVER-RATED!" *clap* *clap* *clapclapclap*
Really. This guy is useful. Let's not deny that.
But this card is most definitely not a Cursed
Scroll. It's only a 1/1 creature. That's what
keeps it balanced. You should definitely play
this card. Just don't allow yourself to become
overly enamored with it.
Obviously, revealing a card in your hand isn't a
wise tactic if you've got super secret tech, but
usually surrendering a piece of information like
that is worth doing two damage for. The fact
that you need to reveal the card at random is
irrelevant; just have one card in your hand.
Despite being a 1/1 for R, this is a late game
card. Don't drop it on turn one. Play it as the
last card in your hand, and use it as a pinger.
And try not to get it killed by a random
Grapeshot or something.
Magus of the
Scroll - To talk about Magus of the Scroll, you
have to talk about Cursed Scroll. Why was Cursed
Scroll so good? It provided reusable direct
damage to all colors. It did it for a very small
cost. And it did it on a card which was hard to
remove. Magus of the Scroll fails at two of
these things. The card is red, so it will only
go into decks which already have access to the
best burn in the game. It does have the same
small cost, but unfortunately it is attached to
a 1/1 creature. Artifacts might not be
impervious to harm, but they're a lot more
durable than a 1/1. The number of cards that can
remove this are very high. Now, that doesn't
mean this is a poor card choice. Grim Lavamancer
was a 1/1 and it saw a ton of play. This guy
will too. But don't rely on it to be your sole
route to victory like you might rely on a Cursed
Scroll. This guy is a team player, not a leader.
Sorry, but this Magus’ predecessor, the original
Cursed Scroll, was way better than this
Scroll-on-a-stick. The main problem with this
one is that it’s a creature. And a 1/1 at that.
That means almost anything can get rid of it.
The ability is still random, and if you really
want red burn, I will kindly point you in the
direction of far better cards like Rift Bolt and
Jaya Ballard, the REAL reusable burn. And she’s
a hottie, while Magus resembles Doctor Doom-
come on, the choice is obvious!
Constructed: 2
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 2
KC MetroGnome
Magus of the
Scroll
This is one of those cards that will force you
to go into a color if you see it in a draft.
Even if you open it pack three, it means that
you will be at least splashing red. Like Jaya
last week, this card is a must-kill for your
opponent, as reusable removal will win you the
game. It will probably die before you get much
use out of it, but that means you've drawn one
of their precious removal spells. It could be
okay in constructed in the right deck, I just
don't know what that deck is. It's very fragile.
In casual, this would certainly be a lot of fun,
even if it gets killed in a big hurry by your
group.
Constructed - 2 (too fragile, but I hope someone
proves me wrong)
Casual - 3
Limited - 5
Aethereal
Magus of the
Scroll
And now for the Cursed Scroll remake. This is
yet another card for the RDW deck to have fun
with, as it is a very efficient damage dealer.
This pales in comparison to the original,
though, because a) it's a creature (and being a
1/1 dies to every removal spell in the book) and
b) it is not colorless, and therefore is shut
down by CoP: Red. That is not to say it is a
poor creature; it is good, but not awesome.
In casual, he's Cursed Scrolls 5-8 for your
deck. Try it out.
In limited, it's great to have, and is
splashable. Reusable damage is always good here.
Constructed - 3
Casual - 3
Limited - 4
Gackley Ferguson
Well what we
have here is one of the Magus. Wizards have been
doing this a lot in the past few sets, picking a
type of card, and making one of each color.
Bringers from Fifth Dawn, the Dragons from CoK,
the Eidolons from Dissension...etc.
I have to say, I'm not that Impressed with the
Maguses. Some of them have their place, and
unfortunately I don't see this being one of
them. The only real way I can see this being
useful is if you can guarantee what card you're
going to be selecting. I'd only bet this horse
if you have one or two cards in hand. Otherwise
you're spending 3 mana on the CHANCE that you're
going to do 2 damage to a creature or player. I
for one think that there are many more cards
that will give you the same effect for less
cost.
Constructed: 2.7/5
Casual: 2.7/5
Limited: 2.7/5
I gave all three categories the same score today
because I don't really see this card as being
useful. Its a 1/1 that can give you the chance
of doing 2 damage. So at the very best, you cast
it on turn 3 and hope to play its ability
starting turn 4. If you play him any eariler you
run the risk of him being burned away. Use this
only if you can insure that the 2 damage will go
through...otherwise I'd pass.
Cyrus Huang
Constructed:
It's funny how this card is so similar to one of
the greatest constructed cards ever is just not
good. One reason is because of the card pool.
Cursed Scroll was truly dominant in red sligh,
back then with all the fanatics, jackal pups,
and ball lightnings. We don't have anything like
that now, but we just might when 10th comes in
(incinerate + mogg fanatic) so it gets put on
the shelf until then. The big issue though isn't
that those decks emptied their hands so fast
that curse scroll became a shock every single
turn, gruul or zoo can do it almost as fast, but
creature removal is just too prevalent in
constructed. Artifact destruction is very
insignificant nowadays and was back then, but
every deck is packing some sort of creature
removal now. You're much better off playing a
far more efficient creature. You could say that
this card suffers the Jaya Ballard issue.
Still people are going to put it in gruul and
perhaps zoo, but they'll never be happy with it.
2/5
Limited: Yeah cursed scroll is a 5 in limited.
Since it's an artifact with such a good effect,
there is absolutely no reason for you not to
play it. A red creature cursed scroll is a 5
though right? Well it's much worse in that it
requires red (though just 1, so it's not that
big of a deal) and is easily removed as a
creature. I guess once in a million games it'll
win you the game by being a chump blocker.
Whatever, it's still a bomb. It's repeatable
removal which is always sick. You play it.
4.5/5
