Pojo's Magic The Gathering news, tips, strategies and more!

Pojo's MTG
MTG Home
Message Board
News & Archives
Deck Garage
BMoor Dolf BeJoSe

Columnists
Paul's Perspective
Jeff Zandi
DeQuan Watson
Jordon Kronick
IQ
Aburame Shino
Rare Hunter
Tim Stoltzfus
WiCkEd
Judge Bill's Corner


Trading Card
Game

Card of the Day
Guide for Newbies
Decks to Beat
Featured Articles
Peasant Magic
Fan Tips
Tourney Reports


Other
Color Chart
Book Reviews
Online Play
MTG Links
Staff



This Space
For Rent

Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Image from Wizards.com

Top 10 New MTG Cards of 2016
#5 - Chandra, Torch of Defiance
- Kaladesh

Reviewed Dec. 26, 2016

Constructed: 4.00
Casual: 4.50
Limited: 4.50
Multiplayer: 3.50
Commander [EDH]: 3.75

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale:
1 - Horrible  3 - Average.  5 - Awesome

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Chandra, Torch of Defiance
 
This weeks reviews - the rest of our top ten cards of the year - are heavy on characters important to the storyline, but you'll find there's a lot to look at gameplay-wise too. Chandra, for example, is only the second planeswalker with four loyalty abilities, and she was clearly expected to be a red counterpart to Jace the Mind Sculptor. She doesn't read quite as ridiculous as he does, but every one of her non-ultimate abilities is something that will help a midrange deck at least some of the time. It impresses me how many mid- and high-cost red cards we've gotten recently that are not only powerful but enable interesting lines of play, and I welcome them - red was definitely in danger of being pigeonholed as a color of low-cost creatures that are worse than white's plus burn spells. (Although the fact is, her abilities are pretty good in a Sligh-style deck, too!)
 
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
EDH/Commander: 4/5

James H.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance (12/26)
 
Overall rank: 5
My rank: unranked
 
Despite being similar to a certain busted blue planeswalker, Chandra's been pretty underwhelming so far. The issue is that she's good at a lot of things, but she's not "great" at any one thing, which means that you can find yourself wishing there had been something more specialized at times.
 
Her two +1 abilities are similar in that they help you get ahead, either one card deeper (with it serving as a potential burn option if you can't play it) or 2 mana further. Her -3 is good removal (Flame Slash has been playable), even if it's not quite there at times. 4 loyalty makes her able to survive a couple of turns on her own or get a couple of Flame Slashes out in time.
 
Again, the issue is that Chandra is good at a lot of things but not great at anything in particular. I had her on an early draft of this list, but took her off in favor of Smuggler's Copter. She's powerful, and she's probably the most consistent of the Kaladesh planeswalkers, but don't think she's as elite as we all expected her to be.
 
Constructed: 4
Casual: 5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 3
Commander: 3.5


Copyright© 1998-2016 pojo.com - Magic the Gathering Card Reviews
This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site.