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Pojo's Duel Masters Card of the Day

The Light
Civilization

  Date Reviewed: 09.05.05

Average Rating: 4.5

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

cecillbill

(Top 4 at
2004 GenCon - Indy
Championship)

The Light Civilization

It’s no secret that I dig several things about the Light civilization, having pioneered Phal Control. Despite what most people think, there’s more to Light than just some godly tappage in Holy Awe and some blockers that go berserk when you cast Diamond Cutter. Let’s check it out:

Attributes:engineer_kipo

1. Tappage—Light basically gives an opponent permission to summon his creatures, and then tries to answer creature summons by preventing them from making effective attacks thru tap-and-destroy. The problem with the approach is that tap-and-kill requires more than a one-card and a one-move investment. Holy Awe is generally the most economical form of creature tappage as it has shield trigger and affects your opponent’s entire field regardless of what civs he’s playing. Tap can be a defensive or offensive play, giving it some versatility.

Currently Most Played Tappage Cards:

Holy Awe, Craze Valkyrie, Miele, Kolon

2. Spell Recursion—although limited in capacity as its restricted to spells, Light’s recursion helps cut down on the randomness associated with gaining more options, and eases the reliance upon drawing another copy of a spell to use it. It also helps extend the use of the singletons and doubles of spells in deck by allowing you to re-use them, and helps curb the damages of hand discard. The tactic is a huge asset when you want to “abuse” a spell like Future Slash.

Currently Most Played Spell Recursion Cards:

Phal Eega

3. Spell Tutoring—no card can match Crystal Memory’s level of flexibility and secrecy, however Light is the civilization to turn to if spell tutoring is what you need or you’d like to have access to a creature with the effect. You can use tutoring to decipher your shield zone and keep track of the options you have left in your deck. Running a creature that can search for spells like Forbos gives you a way to net even more card advantage as you gain a card in hand and field presence. It also greatly enhances spell recursion effects.

Currently Most Played Spell Tutoring Cards:

Forbos, Logic Cube

4. Blocking—ways to prevent the loss of a creature or a shield. One of the drawbacks of playing blockers is that most blockers simply sit there until something attacks and then can only block. But many of Light’s blockers have the distinction of not only sporting great cost-to-power ratios but also being able to attack tapped creatures, and some can attack players and untap after blocking/end of turn.

Currently Most Played Blocker Cards:

Sarius, Senatine Jade Tree, Kenesill, La Ura Giga

5. Card Drawing—enables you to get to your answer/threats and maintain options in hand. It helps you build your mana supply without sac’ing your draws and generate card advantage. No civ can match Water’s card drawers, but Light has some solid offerings. Magris is one of the best 4 drops in the game, and is similar to Aqua Hulcus as it’s a body that replaces itself and has utility as evo material. Mist Rias has the potential to be a downright scary source of card draw, and lets you draw cards on your opponent’s turn, which basically penalizes him for building board presence. 

Currently Most Played Card Drawing Cards:

Mist Rias, Magris

6. Negation—card negation like Alcadeias, Lord of Spirit’s “anti-Light spell” effect cripples your opponent’s ability to use his cards effectively. It also gives you something called virtual card advantage—every time your opponent draws a non-Light spell with Big Al out it’s a dead card aka mana. He won’t reap any of the advantages associated with playing such cards because he can’t play them.

Currently Most Played Negation Cards:

Alcadeias

7. Untapping—provides a way to engineer_kipooverextend your attacking options and cut down on a risk you incur when you attack—your creatures being vulnerable to retaliatory attacks. Notable: Whisking Whirlwind.
 

8. Mana Zone Drawing—grab back an option & cut down negative effect of losing a card to mana. Water completely pwns Light in this department with Thrash Crawler, since all of its mana zone drawers are limited to spells except for Boomerang Comet. Notable: Lena, Vizier of Brilliance.

 

9. Shield Placement—prolongs duel and complicates opponent’s thinking game. Sundrop Armor still sees some play although it drains your hand and is overshadowed by Mana Nexus. Sphere of Wonder is a nice asset for deck out decks since opponent will often have more shields than you. Notable: Sundrop Armor, Sphere of Wonder (deck out).
 

10. Mana Acceleration—helps bring late-game online sooner. Light’s offerings like Glory Snow are extremely poor in comparison to Nature’s offerings, especially since they are conditional. Lightening Charger is the most playable offering since it doubles as tappage, and isn’t conditional. Notable: Lightening Charger.
 

11. Evasion—guarantee a hit with “can’t be blocked” spells. Cards like Sonic Wing are limited to a certain number of creatures, usually one. Far outclassed by Crystal Paladin and Holy Awe. Notable: Miracle Portal.
 

12. Blocker Creation—turn other creatures into blockers unexpectedly and have answers to your opponents attacks. Notable: Full Defensor.

13. Summoning Sickness Removal—launch surprise attacks. Miracle Portal fits this effect too, but is overshadowed due to Diamond Cutter affecting the whole field. Notable: Diamond Cutter.

There are more effects in the civilization such as Peeking (Wyn, the Oracle) and Hand Discard (Rain of Arrows), but I covered a solid amount, lol.

Ratings:

There’s no question that if you want to tap creatures or build a deck focused on spells then Light is the civilization to use. But, some of its attributes are more soundly performed by other civilizations such as Card Drawing or best avoided like Hand Discard. Due to all the blocker-hate in the environment mono-Light has seen its heyday come and go in most metas. Light’s lack of direct creature removal hampers its ability to generate card advantage and control the duel effectively on its own. Light’s a solid support civilization if your strategy calls for use of its best tactics, and is most competitive in non-mono strategies.

Mono: 2.5/5

Multi-civ: 4.5/5

Lee Sandow Ladies and gentlemen, today marks a wonderful occasion for the COTD section. For the first time ever, we are reviewing not one card, not a combo of cards, but an ENTIRE CIVILIZATION. Thus, we shall redub the Card OTD to the Civilization OTD. Best yet, we don't even have to change the abbreviation. It's COTD time!

The Light Civilization

Civilization Strengths:
We start with the light civilization. This is a civ that is well known for two strategic elements. Blocking, and tapping. Light has the best blockers in the game. Their power/cost ratio is always nice, and these blockers usually have the ability to attack creatures, and sometimes, players. It is fairly easy to summon a swarm of blockers, then use the Diamond Cutter card to unleash a world of hurt on your opponent!

Also good in the light realm is the ability to tap. Spells such as Holy Awe, and creatures such as Kolon the Oracle and Craze Valkyrie, the Drastic have abilties to render your opponent's creatures helpless! This is great for destroying your opponent's creatures. Just tap them, and have something attack! Also, you can simply tap all your opponent's blockers, and go for the win!

The light civilization also has some draw power, in the form of Magris, Vizier of Magnitism and Mist Rias, Sonic Guardian.

The light civilization creatures have some nifty abilities! Wyn the Oracle allows you to look at an opponent's shield every time you attack, so you can choose to get rid of that shield or save it for later. Great for springing or avoiding shield triggers!

Civilization Weaknesses:
Light has very little to accelerate it's mana curve. Glory Snow is the only card I can think of that can do this. Light also suffers from having virtually NO killing spells. Additionally, light does not have many attackers, and those that do exist tend not to have terribly helpful effects.

Civilization Allies:
The light civilization combos very well with the water realm. By using some water cards, such as Emeral, Corile, and Aqua Hulcus, light can for a large army and knock their opponent out. It gives light some desperately needed control options, and a little more offensive muscle.

Light and Nature have been used before, and they kicked butt! Using cards like Craze Valkyrie, along with nature cards to give you extra mana, you can drastically hurt your opponent quickly.

Fire and Darkness might seem wierd to pair with light, but this too can work well to your advantage. Using darkness to destroy your opponent, the light realm can serve to draw you cards and protect your shields. The fire realm has no blockers at all, so light makes an excellent ally for them

Notable Light Cards:
Alcadeias, Lord of Spirits - A powerful evolution, this card shuts down all spells other than light spells. Your opponent will have a hard time coming back from this!

Holy Awe - A powerful shield trigger, this card is excellent both offensively and defensively. I currently own 36, and I want more!

Sundrop Armor - This spell nets you an extra shield. Great for keeping yourself alive, it's also a great way to get shield triggers like Holy Awe in the mana zone.

Mist Rias, Sonic Guardian - A creature that allows you to draw any time a creature is summoned, this card allows you to draw a multitude of cards quickly. Your opponent won't be able to keep up!

Overview:
The light civilization is a very powerful civilization on it's own, and with help from the other civilizations can be truely mighty. Out of five points, I give this civilization a solid 4.5.

Light shines in play, so is water all washed up? Find out Wednesday!
 
Steven Cantrell

Lee Sandow did the honors of choosing which cards we review. Turns out he got a little carried away, because the next two weeks we are reviewing entire civilizations. That’s right! To kick things off, dive into my fairly in-depth and hopefully somewhat accurate analysis of....

 

Introduction: The LIGHT civilization generally does not see nearly as much playing time as the other four. But why do the majority of duelists view yellow as the weak link? Well there are one-hundred-eleven Light cards currently released, tying them for the largest card pool. That breaks down to 88 creatures and 23 spells, plus a few promos not released in a set. According to the M:tG color wheel (which you should all know since it applies to DM) yellow tandems with blue and green, while it is opposite red and black. Strong evidence of this comes from Shadowclash.

 

Top Cards: In this grading category I’ll cover some of the most noticeable themes, strengths, and weaknesses between all Light cards. Here is my list of the best few creatures with spells to follow:

 

- Miele, Vizier of Lightning            (3.25)

- Magris, Vizier of Magnetism        (3.50)

- Mist Rias, Sonic Guardian            (3.60)

- Phal Eega, Dawn Guardian           (4.00)

- Forbos, Sanctum Guardian Q       (3.40)

- Craze Valkyrie, the Drastic          (2.83)

- All Blockers                               (Not Applicable)

 

- Logic Cube                               (3.50)

- Diamond Cutter                         (4.30)

- Bonds of Justice                        (2.80)

- Holy Awe                                  (4.75)

 

Those ratings come from past CotD reviews. If that particular card has never been done before, then the ranking is my opinion. Together the top Light creatures have an average score of just 3.43, and spells are 3.83 for a combined 3.59 between the two.

 

One of the main Light trends is the ability to tap opposing creatures. This nifty effect can come in handy either to bypass blockers or open creatures for attack. An example would be tapping the opponent’s Emeral via Miele, then smashing it to pieces with your own creature. Cards like Holy Awe can even be used defensively as a Shield Trigger. Because if a creature is tapped, then that means it can no longer attack!

 

They also have a good deal of draw power, though it is not as prominent as in the Water civ. Having more cards in hand simply opens up more options. That in turn allows you to cast more cards, play more mana, etc. Just remember that draw power can often single-handedly decide a game.

 

Several Light cards are extremely spell friendly. Searching for just about any spell can be devastating at the moment. Cards like Logic Cube work best in decks that have at least 16 spells so that you have more choices to grab. Let’s say your opponent has one card in hand. Summon Phal Eega, then re-use Ghost Touch to shut them down.

 

The final major area is blockers. Most decks run at least 3-5 for security and defense. Light’s blockers are the best of the best, which is one of their few advantages over other Civs. Take Senatine Jade Tree for example. Not only is the power to cost ratio excellent, but it can attack creatures unlike some other blockers.

 

Underrated Picks: Now the following cards are not necessarily godly, but I think they deserve a little more recognition. All three can be fun to play. Check em out.

 

- Rodi Gale, Moonlight Guardian

- Dava Torey, Seeker of Clouds

- Thunder Net

 

Rodi Gale has a medium curve, with the major plus side of being Wave-proof and unblockable at least 50% of the time. Dava Torey is the ultimate anti-control weapon, great for catching the opponent by surprise. Thunder Net was first shown to me by Justin Couch. He of course used it in a deck with plenty of Blue, using Light back up his unblockables.

 

Overall: Light truly deserves the tag of worst Civilization in my opinion. They have a handful of solid cards, but nothing to really push yellow over the top. Stick to splashing Awes along with maybe 6-10 other support cards. The more adventurous of you could always try an updated Diamond Cutter deck, but don’t expect amazing results. Civilization standings thus far (one is best, five worst):

 

1. TBA

2. TBA

3. TBA

4. TBA

5. Light (yellow)

 

Tune in Wednesday as we continue with the Water civilization. Agree, Disagree, think I missed something? Feel free to contact me whenever. You can also check out my latest tournament report which should be up soon.

 

Steven Cantrell

Smcman7@aol.com


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