You're building your deck around this or you're
not playing it. That's all there is to it. You
just don't play this card in any deck except the
Melek, Izzet Paragon deck-- the one you built
for the specific purpose of playing Melek, Izzet
Paragon. So it's not a question of whether Melek
is a good card, it's a question of whether the
Melek deck is a good deck. And that's a dicier
question, because there's different ways to
build it.
You'd need counterspells, to protect the removal
that your opponent will inevitably aim at Melek
when he figures out you built the deck around
it. Card draw, counter-intutively, is not a
major issue, as you'll always have another card
on top of your library, but finding and casting
Melek in a timely fashion is crucial. Red brings
burn and artifact kill to the table, but
enchantments still give the deck fits.
Most deckbuilders' knee-jerk reaction will be to
make the deck primarily blue, for card draw and
countermagic. But a free Twincast on any
eligible spell is a much greater benefit to red
burn, which can now generate card advantage and
take out opponents twice as fast.
The more one looks at it, the more this starts
to look like the Pyromancer Ascension deck from
Zendikar block, a deck which lots of Johnnies
tinkered with but nobody was able to truly
crack. Melek's only real contribution is not
requiring quest counters, and making the deck
viable in Commander (where Pyromancer Ascension
doesn't work at all due to the need for multiple
copies of cards). I have no doubt people will
build this deck, but I doubt it'll be a winning
strategy.
I sort of had a head start on some of you when
it comes to Melek here; I saw an article about
him on Wizards of the Coast's website last week.
Apparently he's the guy for whom "born to X"
(where X in this case is "run the Implicit
Maze") applies literally. I never even
knew there was such a guy until now.
Gameplay-wise, Melek would be good if he were
just an updated version of Magus of the Future
or if he were just a way to double up
on powerful instants and sorceries. The fact
that he does both puts him above the category of
good. His mana cost and Standard's relatively
small card pool mean that we probably won't be
seeing too many competitive appearances from him
in that arena, but Commander is going to be all
over this guy. He obviously shines as the
centerpiece of a deck, but he can also support a
commander like Riku of Two Reflections or almost
any strategy that has a significant number of
instants or sorceries.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
Melek the legendary maze runner for the izzet.
In standard six mana and nothing to immediately
show for it is sort of a downside, the ability
to cast spells from your library can be a boon
in a heavy spell based deck but I don’t see this
card making a huge splash in tournaments.
Especially outside of standard where it is an
expensive and highly reliant on deck
construction to make an impact. In casual and
multiplayer the obvious applications for
commander are there as well as being able to
just stack your deck with good stuff spells and
then immiedetly copy them. It requires some
thinking when constructing your deck or liberal
use of deck manipulation and this card could
find a niche. In limited its kind of expensive
and less likely you can stuff your deck with
good spells making it more of a poor choice.
Overall a powerful card for casual and
multiplayer especially the area of commander.
Today's card of the day is Melek, Izzet Paragon
which is a six mana Blue and Red 2/4 Legendary
that has you play with the top card of your
library revealed, the ability to cast it if it
is an instant or sorcery, and whenever you cast
an instant or sorcery from your library you may
copy it. In an Izzet style library
manipulation deck this has the potential to be a
major component or additional support as a
source of doubling your spells and may gain
traction in Red/White/Blue as well.
The deck is best off when built around the
concept, including library manipulation, and
will probably see some play across formats at
least while this block is in rotation.
In Limited this can be a huge benefit or dead
weight depending on the pool of spells available
to you. A six mana 2/4 with no combat
abilities is a bit underpowered in the format
and blocking or attacking with it adds multiple
removal concerns that can overcome the otherwise
moderate protection of four toughness. The
possibility of doubling removal, direct burn,
draw spells, or other in color choices makes
this very tempting and even getting one use of
the effect per play can often justify the
inclusion. For that it is a playable first
pick in Booster and inclusion in Sealed which is
aided by only having one of each color in the
casting cost, allowing flexibility in splashing
and spells from other colors.
Welcome back to
the Pojo.com card of the day section. We are
looking at previews for the new set Dragon's
Maze this week. Today's card is Melek, Izzet
Paragon. Melek is a rare legendary creature
weird wizard that costs four generic, one red,
and one blue mana for a 2/4. Melek says you play
with the top card of your library revealed. If
the top card of your library is an instant or
sorcery, you may cast it. And whenever you cast
an instant or sorcery from your library, you may
copy it and choose new targets for the copies.
Melek is amazing, except for six mana in non-ramping colors.
But get past that and he is simply amazing! With
some of the potent spells that exist, even in
Standard play, spending six mana for this guy is
worth it. Think of the possibilities with the
Charms. Now they are doubled! Searing Spears,
Shocks, all of them gain extra value for this
guy being a presence.
A really solid card that I hope will see serious
play, and not just be a Commander card.
