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Pojo's Duel Masters Card of the Day


Image from Wizards Duel Master site
 

  Dealer's Choice Day

Base Set Cards and How They've Changed


Date Reviewed: 03.21.05

Reviewer's select any card from the Base Set and take another look at that card.


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

 
Lee Sandow You know how I promised I’d be back, then went missing for a week? Yeah, I know. I missed doing this too. Btw, before we get to today’s review I have a lesson for you all. If you get one hour of sleep the night before you have to write a big paper in your Language Arts class, it is a BAD idea to chug a can of Crunk Juice to make up for it. Trust me on this. That all having been said, let’s review.

Today we get to choose a card from Base Set that has LOST power since it was first released. If it had been gotten better, I would have reviewed Merfolk, but since Merfolk has become MORE powerful, I couldn’t use that. I had to think for a while. I’m a slow thinker. I started off by thinking about Death Smoke, but then I realized someone else was sure to do that, and I had the same thought about Spiral Gate. I then thought of Seamine, and then I remembered he was never good in the first place. Finally, it hit me like a slippery fish!

Unicorn Fish
Cost: 4

Civilization: Water

Card Type: Creature
Race: Fish

When you put this creature into the battle zone, you may choose 1 creature in the battle zone and return it to its owner's hand.
Flavor Text: It attacks anything that enters its territory, even Leviathans.

Power: 1000

Mana Generated: 1

Rarity: Rare

Card Number: 43/110

I used this guy in the age of the base set. He was such a good friend to me. Then, when Evo-Crushinators came out, somebody new came along. Overnight, this guy became obsolete compared to the 1337 power of this new creature. Before I discuss why C0r1L3 pizowns this card, let me review Unicorn Fish.


Civilization/Race: He’s water, which makes him on par with Corile thus far, but Unicorn fish is also a… Fish? Fish have no support in the current environment. Corile is a Cyber Lord, which helps a certain Merfolk use it’s deadly abilities. Cyber Lords also have evolutions in the next set. Not so for Fishes. So far, Corile is winning.



Cost: Four mana is a reasonable number of mana, but it just is a little steep on this guy. I think he is only worth about three mana. 1 for his 1000 power, and two more for the bounce ability. This is probably the only place this will beat Corile. He costs four, whereas Corile costs five. We’ll get to why this is later.



Power: He has 1000 power. The best he can do is tie in any given duel. Unlike Corile (2000 power), which can kill Bronze-Arm Tribe and Suicide into a host of other things, this guy can’t do that. However, they can both be Crimson Hammered, so they are both susceptible to the same spells. Still, 2000 power is better than 1000

Abilities: Here’s the breakdown:

Unicorn Fish: Returns one monster to the hand. Your opponent can simply re-cast it next turn. If it was a bronze-Arm Tribe or Locomotiver, you are helping them. You gain no lasting advantage. Duel to his 1000 power for four mana cost, you are essentially paying three mana for this ability.

Corile: Returns one monster to the top of the deck. Your opponent essentially skips their next draw, because they are drawing the old card. If you bounce an evo-creature, your opponent can probably not recast it until their next turn. This controls their tempo very sharply. It sets your opponent back a turn, and can absolutely kill them if the are topdecking. Since he costs five mana, you are basically paying two mana for his 2000 power, and three for this 1337 ability.

Get my message?

Ok, now that I’ve reviewed these stats, let’s see how they stack up.

Constructed overview: In the days of base set, a control deck loved this guy. Today, he is overshadowed by the infinitely better Corile. I really see no excuse to run this guy anymore, since you can easily obtain Corile (and Uncommon, whereas this guy is rare). In the old days, I would have given him 4/5, but today, I give him 1.5/5. He’s just not worth it anymore.

Limited overview: Since there is no Corile in this category, he rocks again. Bounce in this format is nice since there are no evolutions to worry about, and his ability can be a game winner at times. In this format, he still earns a respectable 4/5.

Crunk Juice is the 5|-|1z|\|i7
 
Nimbly

This week is gonna be different than normal. The topics are free-response, so it’s my choice what card I review that fits the topic. The card the card today is a card from the base set that has changed in power with incoming sets. There really is one area of cards that really got affected, and that’s the bounce cards of the early sets. There’s only so many, so I’ll choose Aqua Sniper and hope no one else chose it…

 

Aqua Sniper

Civilization: Water

Type: Liquid People

Mana Cost: 8

Power: 5000

Ability: Return 2 monsters in the battle zone to their owner’s hands

 

The Rundown

 

The bounce family of the early base set is Spiral Gate, Teleportation, Unicorn Fish, and this guy. I remember, back in the day, when every deck around my tourney had 3-4 of each of these cards, since everyone ran Green/Blue/Black. This was around the time I got to choosing red/black as my main colors, since they are the least affected by bounce type cards, and it’s true. I’ll get to that later on…

 

The Positive Side

 

Why was this card so good?...

I think people just got hypnotized by the effect, even though Teleportation had a similar effect. That’s really the idea of  bouncing, to remove monsters and force your opponent to waste mana to re-summon a monster. That’s why I saw decks back then using up to 16 bouncers. They focused on all aspects of the game which removes monsters. Bouncing, Destroying, and Sending to the mana zone.

 

The effect is like Teleportation, in that 2 monsters get returned. The greatness is that the card is not specific on what side it can bounce, so it can bounce your monsters. Why would you do that?

What if your opponent had 1 monster. Then you could play this, bounce the monster and the Sniper, then you get to re-use Sniper for the next turn.

 

Just flat out bouncing 2 monsters can be good. TO have your opponent waste that kind of mana would change the game in a drastic way, unless you used red like I did :)

 

In all, the card isn’t really that bad. There are some combos with it, but the ability is really basic and general to go into detail.

 

The Negative Side

 

Now, I’m supposed to say how it has changed. Well, Red and black haven’t really gotten any worse in their ability to produce low cost cards. Speed Attackers really have a field day with the bouncers. Cheap Monsters only take few mana to get out again. On top of that, with new monsters and abilities, bouncing isn’t always a good thing. For example, what if you bounce a ballom? What if you bounce a Survivor? What if you bounce any card that has an effect that works when it’s summoned?...

 

This card has decreased in power and in play ever since the end of the Green/Blue Era (we’re in the Light Era now…). The card was the highest mana cost in the game when it first came out, along with Vampire Silphy and Scarlet Skyterror.

 

I’m guessing that people figured out that bouncing does not really mean removing and destroying. Red was too fast, so bouncing 2 humans to my hand really didn’t affect me, since I could bring them back next turn with the other monster I wanted, except now I have to wait for summoning sickness…

 

The card isn’t really that good…seriously…paying that kind of price for a teleportation monster? Look at Spiral gate. 3 more than that cost is Corile, and that card is soooo much better than a bouncer can ever be. That’s what happened. Corile happened. Deck-Topper cards like Corile took the place of bouncers very well.

 

Finally, here’s what else could you use?

- 4…*rubs eyes*…4 Spiral gates?

- Teleportation and Spiral Gate

- a Liquid People with Crystal Lancer/Paladin?

- A staple card-Terror pit, Natural?

- Corile then spiral Gate?

 

There’s lot’s of combos that result better than Aqua Sniper.

 

The Limited Side

 

This card does get better in limited. Due to lack of resources that kill things, bounce is the next best thing. By 8 mana, the cards that make or break the game come out, so this guy can screw with your opponent a bit. Having 2 of his monsters gone would be cool.

 

The Recap

 

Here’s the + and- again

 

Pluses

+ bounces 2 monsters

+ 5000 attacker

+…uh…it’s blue…

 

Minuses

- too expensive-(maybe not to today’s standards)

- Effect isn’t always worth cost

- New monsters make it less desirable to bounce

 

Constructed-2/5- It’s not a horrible card…but it has really gone down in play since evolution and Speed Attacker was introduced

Limited-3.5/5- Much better here…if you can get the 8 mana you need…

Art-2/5- I…Is it a fish?....

 

That’s it for Aqua Sniper. If anyone has any questions, comments, concerns, or complaints, E-mail me at

pt_1bc_2@yahoo.com

Later Days….

 
Rob Miller

Well, I’m back…its been a longtime but I’m going to be doing COTD reviews again.  This week is a “You Choose It” week.  Today we are reviewing a card from Base Set whose uses have been greatly affected as new sets have released.  I chose Illusionary Merfolk, the Cyber Lord’s best friend.

 

Illusionary Merfolk-Water Civilization, Gel Fish race, 5 mana, 4000 attack, and “When you put this creature into the battle zone, if you have a Cyber Lord in the battle zone, draw up to 3 cards.”

 

This card screams to be put into a water deck.  What water deck doesn’t use Corile?  Not many that’s for sure.  Not only that, how many water decks use Emeral? Quite a few.  The reason I ask these questions, is their relevance to the card that I am reviewing.  His effect says to draw up to 3 cards when you summon him…if there is a Cyber Lord in play.  Emeral and Corile are both Cyber Lords.  Not to mention Hypersquid Walter has been seeing more play lately, making Ill-Folk, as I will call him from now on, far more playable than he used to be.  The main reason for this is Ill-Folk was released in the base set, with the only decent supporting cast being Walter, which was rarely even considered when deck-building.  Then Evo came out, which saw the release of one of the most game-changing card ever, Corile.  The next set, which failed as a set, saw the release of Emeral, the shield swapper.  Technically, this combo could have been big back in rampage, but most people started playing it around the time that Locomotiver was released.  The most popular deck type when he was released was a Blue/Black control deck, which utilized cards that allowed you to draw and made your opponent discard.  This has since died out with the release of Survivors of the Megapocalypse.  Now blue decks still run Ill-Folk, but only in moderation.  However, I have a feeling Ill-folk will still be able to make a reappearance in future sets due to his massive card draw and great support.

 

In limited, however, since he was garbage in Base Set, it would be in your best interest to not use him.

 

Constructed 4.8/5-Not perfect, but really good still.

Limited 1/5-its not the worst card to use…but its pretty close
 

Josh Weisbrod-torres
 

Well today we are supposed to do a COTD where we take a spell that has changed since its first appearance in the game and I chose Natural Snare.

 

 Name: Natural Snare
Cost: 6
Civilization: Nature
Type: Spell
Rules Text:
Shield Trigger Shield trigger (When this spell is put into your hand from your shield zone, you may cast it immediately for no cost.)
Choose 1 of your opponent's creatures in the battle zone and put it into his mana zone.
Mana Number: 1

 

natural_snare

 

When this card came out I thought it was the bomb.  In the first store I played in I played this deck with a mana curve of 6.  All I had to do was wait for my tribes and I would have control of the game turn 6.  Mind you, it was before rampage.  I was playing the Natural snare, Pits, Smokes, Tornado Flames, Rothus and stuff like that.  Then I played white for blockers.  Anyway, I owned the store and when the mall tour came to Dallas I won about 10/12 tourneys losing only to, Mono Blue Liquid People and mono black control, easily. Then I had to stop playing for awhile. When I came back during shadowclash my deck was slow but I still got second cause paladins tore though my blockers easily.   Back on topic though, Mana exel has became the big thing now with how fast your evo can come out or in some deck, which I dont like, how fast will merfolk come out.  Mana snare doesnt help the mana for an opponent. 

 

Pros:

Kills a creature

Shield trigger

Adds to the many forms of removal

Kills aqua solider/knight for good

 

Cons:

Cost 6 same as pit and pit is better

Gives mana to the opponent- this is not fit for the new environment

 

CONSTRUCTED: 3/5

LIMITED: 5/5-  DA BOMB KILLA

ART-3/5

 

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