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Pojo's Duel Masters Card of the Day

engineer_kipo
Image from Wizards Duel Master site

  Cryptic Totem
Thundercharge of Ultra Destruction

Card # DM47


Date Reviewed: 08.15.05

Constructed Average Rating: 4.5
Limited Average Rating: 3.5


Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating.

 
Steven Cantrell

Hello Pojo readers. This week I picked the cards that will be reviewed. Aside from being some of my favorite cards, each of them has had a dramatic effect on the metagame recently. We begin with...

 

Cryptic Totem

Type: Creature

Civilization: Nature

Race: Mystery Totem

Mana Cost: Six (6)

Rules Text:

Double breaker (This creature breaks 2 shields.)
While this creature is tapped, your opponent can't use the Shield Trigger ability of his shields.

Flavor Text:

"He speaks in riddles. Or gibberish. I can't tell." -Fighter Dual Fang

Power: 6000

Rarity: Rare

Set: Thundercharge of Ultra Destruction

 

Cost/Power: Six mana starts getting into the higher end of the spectrum. Cryptic Totem is well worth the cost though, boasting 6k attack power with Double breaker to boot. His power is more than enough to survive Searing Wave, destroy Merfolk, and blast through all commonly played blockers. Just be careful when summoning Cryptic Totem because he is especially vulnerable to Corile.

 

Race/Civilization: Cryptic Totem is an odd man out here. He lacks the regular mana tricks we have come to expect from Nature, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just means you’ll have to do some experimenting to see if Cryptic Totem is worth using in the Nature section of you deck. His race, the Mystery Totems, is nothing spectacular. There are only five Totems so far and they have little support.

 

Effects: This ability is how Cryptic Totem earns his keep. Taking away shield triggers from your opponent can be devastating. No longer can they count on that Holy Awe set by Emeral to save the game. No longer will that chain of Mana Nexus be enough. Once you have enough creatures to destroy their shields and attack for the win, Cryptic Totem seals the deal. One minor downside is that he must be tapped to activate the effect. This means you need tot wait a turn for summoning sickness to go away before attacking trigger-free. A solid card overall.

 

Limited: 4/5

Fatties are normally better in drafts due to the low number of ways to counter them. Cryptic Totem is indeed a great beatstick in limited, but his effect will not matter much with few shield triggers available in Thundercharge.

 

Constructed: 4/5

If you are running any type of control or aggro-control then consider Cryptic Totem. He has been great so far in my own BUG deck, helping to win two major tournaments.

 
Toilet
Head
Brett

Yay, cryptic totem:

 

Name: Cryptic Totem
Cost: 6
Race: Mystery Totem
Civilization: Nature
Type: Creature
Rules Text:
Double breaker (This creature breaks 2 shields.)
While this creature is tapped, your opponent can't use the "shield trigger" ability of his shields.
Flavor Text:
"He speaks in riddles. Or gibberish. I can't tell." -Fighter Dual Fang
Power: 6000
Mana Number: 1
Artist: Yoko Tsukamoto
Rarity: R
Collector Number: 47

I pulled 2 of this out of my prize at 5 civs, which were Sunday.  Expect a report!  It will be short though. 

 

Anyway, this is clearly one of the best cards in the game.  I mean, no shield triggers?  I use 14 trigs so, this would really screw me over.  It has a 1:1 cost to power ratio.  You can get 6 mana on turn 4 pretty easily with mana excel.  The only support it's race has is forbidding totem who is grade A garbage.  Double breaker is always fun too.  Especially with no trigs...  I can see many ways to use this in a 1 turn kill deck or even in combination with a triple breaker or something.  Well, that's all I can say about this card so, here are the scores

 

Limited: 3/5  I don't believe there are any triggers that are all that great but, its still a double breaker with 6000 power.

Constructed: 5/5  If you use nature, use this.  I  am thinking of adding nature just to use this and a couple other cards.

 

Look for the tournament report, if it gets posted!  I just have to write it first........

 
Horus Master lv8 Well today is the day before I start school, so you want be seeing me as much, though I will try to send the CotD's right before I go to sleep. I know that y'all are prolly so sad =(....nah you prolly aren't, lol.

Name: Cryptic Totem
Cost: 6
Race: Mystery Totem
Civilization: Nature
Type: Creature
Rules Text:
Double breaker (This creature breaks 2 shields.)
While this creature is tapped, your opponent can't use the "shield trigger" ability of his shields.
Flavor Text:
"He speaks in riddles. Or gibberish. I can't tell." -Fighter Dual Fang
Power: 6000
Mana Number: 1
Artist: Yoko Tsukamoto
Rarity: R
Collector Number: 47
DM Card Database

Cost/Power: Well 6 for 6k is average, actually better than average seeing that most cards have more cost than power....this card is great for this fact.

Type/ Civ : Well nature = Mana Accel and Shield Rejuvenation. This card is a little different but different = better =)...Mystery Totems are a new little type that I believe started in SoIW....Interesting they are.. or should I say Mysterious?? xD

Effect: Well, can you say awesome, if you can't you better stare at this card for awhile...cause it is just that...great, now all they need is this and four creatures and it is good game me...I think you know what this means....if you don't then don't expect me to tell you =p

Rating:
Constructed: 4/5 Just read what I said and you'll know.
Limited: 5/5 Less destruction + this = good game (I've always been good at math)
Overall: 4.75/5
Art: 3/5 Meh not so great, and it could've been better.
Flavor: 5/5 These are so funny some times

Till next time, happy dueling and good luck
 

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