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Pojo's Duel Masters Card of the Day

brutal_charge
Image from Wizards Duel Master site
 

  Brutal Charge

DM05
Card #49



Date Reviewed: 01.26.05


Constructed Average Rating:
Limited Average Rating:


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

Lee Sandow

Today he have one of the more interesting cards of this set, in the form of a very cheap spell.  What tricky card is up for our review today?  Why it is none other than the almightly Brutal Charge!

 

Brutal Charge
Cost: 2

Civilization: Nature

Card Type:  Spell

·          At the end of this turn, search your deck. For each of your opponent's shields your creatures broke this turn, you may take a creature from your deck, show it to your opponent, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your deck.

Flavor Text:  Kondu started to regret joining Wrugh's carpool.

Mana Generated: 1

Rarity:  Rare

Card Number:  49/55
 
This card has the wierdest flavor text EVER.  I mean, really.  Who are Kondu and Wrugh?  I'm just curious here, but REALLY.  Anyways, on to the effect.
 
CIVILIZATION:  Since this is a spell, I'm going to have to adjust my review format a little bit.  I've nver reviewed a spell before.  This card is a nature spell.  So, what does that mean for me?  It means it will see play in alot of decks running Green (especially beast folk/Giant Insect EVO decks), and will eventually probably replace Dimension Gate.
 
COST:  This card has a great cost at a total of two mana.  Considering how SICK the effect can be, this could either be a fair price, or bordering on broken.  This thing doesn't cost much, but the likelihood of you using it early duel is low.  You'll probably want to play this a little later in the duel, when you have several creatures on the field for maximum fun.
 
ABILITY:  During this turn, whenever one of your creatures breaks a shield, you may search your deck for a creature, and place it into your hand.  That's one for each shield.  Broken by ANY of your creatures.  This can rampidly become a VERY sick scenario.  Imagine a field with a Barkwhip, a Torcon, and Two Bronze-Arm Tribes on it.  Our player breaks three shields (We'll asume at least one was a trigger to stop the fourth, or that it was summon sick).  Ou player then searches his deck for three creatures, which end up being three more barkwhips.  His opponent quits out of irritation.  I like that scenario. ^_^
 
Now that that's all been said, let's see how it stacks up!
 
CONSTRUCTED:  I like this card.  I haven't had the chance to use it yet, but it sure looks like a sweet deal to me.  The price is extremely low, especially for what you get, and the fact it can search for ANY creature in your deck makes this thing even more powerful.  This cards only drawback is that it is useless if you can't reach your opponent's shields.  That usually doesn't happen though, because eventually you'll find a weak spot in their defence.  This is a very solid card.  4.25/5
 
LIMITED:  I have mixed feelings about this card here.  It helps because it searches your deck for that creature you need, but it also can be situational because in this format, you'd probably rather get a creature ON THE FIELD for the mana you spend on this.  If you've got a bomb waiting in your deck, run this to search for it.  If not, you MIGHT pass on this.  Still, it's solid, just not quite as much as in constructed.  3.5/5
 
Cheers everyone!
 

cecillbill

(Top 4 at
2004 GenCon - Indy
Championship)
Brutal Charge
Logic Cube, Crystal Memory and Dimension Gate say hello to the new kid on the spell Tutor block. Be nice, he's actually worth a spot on the kickball team.

[Goals & Effectiveness]
I'm just going to come right out an say it: Brutal Charge is darn-near perfect. There are several advantages that can be reaped from Tutor cards:

1. Hand replenishment. No need to elaborate extensively on this concept. You get more cards in hand, which equals more options to use, albiet only creature options with Charge.

2. Instant gratification. Charge can place the creature card you need into your hands, skipping the randomness associated with drawing from the top of your deck. Having an answer when you need it is powerful. Not as direct as Dimension Gate because you have to break a shield to get creature cards from it, but Brutal Charge outclasses that trigger spell with the right setup.

3. Information Gathering. Whenever you search your deck you have a way to decipher what's in your shield zone. When you're set to cast Brutal Charge you should look at your graveyard, mana zone, field and hand before casting it. Once you know what you've already drawn (cards in your hand) and played (cards in your graveyard, mana zone and field) then you will be able to figure out what's left for your opponent to give to your thru your shields.
Yes, you don't know which shield is which exactly unless you've done some shield setting, but you know what's in that zone in general. Also, figuring out what's in your shield zone with a Tutor card allows you to switch strategies if what you need to see in hand to complete a play is in your shield zone.

4. Breath new life into your next draws. How? Simply through making you shuffle your deck. Your draws are still random, but you could have shuffled another immediately useful card onto the top of the deck, which could lead to nice topdecking. Yes, you also could have tossed a great card to the bottom of the heap and something not as readily usable to the top, but there is a chance to replace something not immediately useful.

Brutal Charge has mana efficiency written all over it, 2 mana is a steal.
This card's only drawback is that you have to cast it when you can break some shields. Other than that, Brutal Charge achieves hand replenishment with relative ease and can have very explosive results in the right decks.

[Where To Deck]
Weenie Rush. Charge is perfect for a Weenie Rush deck packing Nature. It gets what a weenie deck needs in hand--creatures. This is especially important now that Searing Wave has become a fixture in most metas (really any widespread weenie kill--but I focus on Wave because it's the cheapest option from a hard-casting view). Searing Wave is the enemy of Weenie Rush, on two levels. First, it simply decimates a weenie field. Weenie decks not running guys like Bone Spider and Bloody Squito top the power mark at 3000 power. Losing an entire field to one card creates serious card disavantage for the weenie player. A weenie player without other options in hand is going to scoop after a couple widespread hits to his field. That brings me to my second point, weenie decks tend to topdeck, especially in the hands of inexperienced players. What can be more damaging to a weenie Rusher than having Wave dropped on him when he has no cards in hand? Yes, he could topdeck another little hitter--but that's one little creature for an opponent to face, and that's not even considering what the opponent has in play. Brutal can help curb topdecking, and is as cheap as every other card common to Weenie decks.

Nature-based Swarm or Aggro-Control with Nature. Dimension Gate and Rumbling

Horn were mainstays in many Nature decks because Swarm is mostly about the creatures and those cards nab 'em. If you're playing mono-Nature then that point is even more applicable, the decks are about 70% creatures. Brutal Charge is sick in Nature decks due to the cheapness, power level, and effects of the creatures most of those decks pack. Mana gain or conservation

(Elf-X) gets evil creatures like Barkwhip, Dash-Horn, Obsidian Scarab, Avalanche Giant, Noifa, and Fighter Dual Fang into play quicker. Those decks

overwhelm their opponents thru speed and super efficient creatures for the cost. Charge adds more fuel to the fire by ensuring that those decks rarely want for another baddie to cast. If you can breaks some shields, then you have more fatties you can bring out quick thanks to full servings of mana.

A word of caution: Even though Charge is an excellent spell, you might want to (should) leave it out of slow builds. If you're playing a slow deploying deck then you're running Control. Remember that Brutal Charge is a tutor spell dependent on breaking shields. Control decks win thru card advantage, but how is that advantage better achieved for those decks when it comes to deck thinning? Direct, no-nonsense drawing or tutoring that depends on little else other than being able to pay for the card and one that gives as little profit to your opponent as possible. You want to overwhelm your opponent with cards you've reaped from Hulcus, Serum, Merfolk, Memory, Dimension Gate, Mongrel, Mist--minimizing any sort of card or mana advantage

your opponent could use against you from the shields you break. Charge in a Control deck could lead to some plays where you're pushing attacks at inopportune times just to reap the cards or turns where you're clogging your hand with several copies of it. If you do use Brutal in your Control decks, then don't max it out.

[Format Ratings Overall]
Contructed: 4.5/5. The only drawback to this card is that you must successfully attack an opponent to reap its benefits. So, don't cast it when you know every one of your creatures will be blocked and many of them killed (if you want to trump blockers, then try slayers, Paladin, evasive creatures or Plague). Even so, Brutal Charge is one piece of seriously good hand advantage.

Limited: High. The spells I give consideration besides removal in Limited are tutor or draw spells. I don't pass up good creatures to deck thinning spells, but if I have some blockers or bombs that I want a chance of getting

to I'll toss in a tutor. Brutal Charge has the chance to pack several creatures into your hands, which should be very nice for the player with the more aggressive build. I like immediate results in Limited due to the nature

of the format, and tutor spells are on average cheaper to hard-cast than spells that draw cards randomly off the top of your deck. But, do note that non-kill spells tend to get mana'd much more frequently in Limited because you want to drop creatures every chance you get or something that deals with a threatening creature, so just wiegh out your options when considering Brutal.
 
Knives101 Brutal Charge

Today we have another evil card. Guess who picked the COTD for this week.
ME!! Ain't I evil? This week you're going to see nothing but insanely good card. Brutal Charge is everything that a rush deck could ask for. Just play Brutal Charge, and attack your opponent's sheilds. Then replenish your hand at the end of the turn. Not only that. But you get to put exactly what you need into your hand. Up until now Hand Advantage for Nature was almost non-existant. But now we have this awesome card. Brutal Charge works pretty well with Fighter Dual Fang. Just cast Fighter Dual Fang, then gain two mana, then play Brutal Charge. Now break two sheilds and get what you need into your hand.

Rating: 5
 

 

   
 

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