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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day


Image from Wizards.com

Helm of Obedience 
 


Reviewed January 6, 2004

Constructed: 2.68
Limited: 2.79

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

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Card of the Day Reviews 


Chris
Gerhardt

* game store owner (Shuffle and Cut Games,CA)

Helm is a variable Millstone plus a random Persuasion, all in one card. If they are playing light or no creatures, you can put quite a dent in their deck if this resolves onto the board. With a deck built around it with other milling mechanisms, it can get down right scary.  If someone is playing creatures, then you will Mill and eventually get one of them, most likely. Kinda fun.

In limited, having any portion of your deck milled away is always a distress since the deck sizes of 40 cards is smaller, hence, more damage can be done. Though, the vast majority of limited decks will include a fair amount of creatures. So at worst, you'll pick up something with legs, and at best, you'll eat away a significant part of their deck and pick up a creature, hopefully something worthwhile.

Constructed: 3.25
Limited: 3
Current Price:
$2.50

 


Judge Bill

*Level 2
MTG Judge

*game store employee

An oldie but goodie. You get to mill someone, and if you hit a creature, you get the creature (and sac the Helm). Good against decks with creatures (read multiplayer and limited), OK against decks without creatures (as it acts as a Millstone). Control decks were so different back when this was in Standard (type 2), though. And today, with this only being legal in type 1/1.5, it is way too slow for the environment.
 
In limited, this could be really good. Ice Age block limited decks had few creatures in them typically, because there were few creatures in IA and Alliances. This would be an auto-include, as it would both give you a creature and put you up in the decking race (if it ever came to that).
 
Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 3
Limited:4


DeQuan
Watson

* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX)

* pro tour player

* Scrye writer since 2002

Helm of Obedience
 
When this card first came out, it was regarded as one of the big cards coming out of Alliances.  Unfortunately, it ended up not being as good as we all thought it was going to be.  Helm of obedience is a good tool for Millstone decks.  It allows you to overturn a ton of cards.  If nothing else, you will get a creature from them.  Truth be told though, this card is most useful against control style decks.  They won't have very many creatures, so one of two scenarios happens.  You either get to keep overturning their cards and keep your helm, OR you get their one large creature.
 
Constructed: 3
Limited: 3.5


Andy
 Van Zandt

Helm of Obedience
This card sports several interesting notes...  while bribery may strictly be
better for getting a creature,  this card can mill hefty amounts-  enough to
be a big threat against a low or no creature deck,  and usually those with
low creatures have something really good to win with,  like morphling.  So
either way you end up with worthwhile results... and you don't have to play
blue,  and you don't need creatures yourself.  Slightly less useful in
limited, but still playable-  it's still "a creature" for all intents and
purposes.
constructed 3
limited 2.9

Ray "Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer
*Game Store Owner (Gamer's Edge)

Helm of Obedience

 

An old favorite, this was my kill card in more than one u/w and r/w control deck I built. Why play your own creatures they can kill when you can instead take one of theirs? And if they have no creatures? Then its a super millstone! Very flavorful and very powerful, I love this card in constructed. In limited, it was not nearly as good. It was expensive for what it did, and often only grabbed a mediocre creature. Playable, but nowhere near the powerhouse it was in constructed.

 

Limited:            2

Constructed:            5

 
Jason
Matthews


* Level 1 DCI Judge

*game store employee

* gaming for over 15 years
Helm of Obedience

This card is a living advertisement for an Anti-Blue Control strategy. So your tired of getting beat by blue counter decks just use the Helm of Obedience. Running against a bunch of land control decks use the Helm of Obedience. Add in a card or two that lets you see the top card of your opponents library and you can really start abusing this card. You don’t want to use this card blindly if you can avoid it but it can be used as a sideboard card. In limited where you choice of cards are small and bad creatures are plentiful I don’t think I would place a huge amount of value on it.

Limited 2.5

Constructed 3.25

Jonathan
Pechon


2 Grand Prix Top 8's

Multiple Pro Tour appearances

Helm of Obedience

People tried really, really hard to make this card work back in the day (I know I did). As a matter of fact, I ended up using it as a sideboard card in U/W on U/W mirror matches in an invitational event (playing against Counter-Post, they never really did have a lot of creatures). The ability to steal a man was much less important than the ability to munch away at your opponent’s library in huge chunks; if you managed to hit a guy, it was probably a pretty sizable monster.

In limited, the effect is less exciting simply because of the amount of creatures in a deck, but you still get to mill an opponent, and you can always happen to grab one of their fatties (though not too likely).

Constructed: 2.75

Limited: 2.5


Jeff Zand
i

4 Time Pro Tour
Veteran

Level 2 Judge

Helm of Obedience

I was standing in a little game shop in Lewisville, Texas called Buster and Crabby’s when I first saw this very interesting card. It was the first day of the release of Alliances and I was ripping packs along with some other local gamers. This card was immediately a strong weapon in lots of control decks. Some very brave players included a couple of these as their only win condition. There wasn’t much limited play back then, but if this card had been included in Mirrodin, it would be pretty useful. Even if you hit something as innocuous as a Myr, you would still be milling through your opponent’s deck AND stealing one of their creatures.

CONSTRUCTED: 4.0

LIMITED: 4.0

Chase helm of Obedience

Would Millstone be played if it was 2 mana more to play and it could steal creatures? Probably not. It’s pretty expensive and you’re not guaranteed to discard X cards from X mana. Plus, the creature you steal could be bad.

In Limited, there won’t be enough support for this archetype. If you take this, all you’re doing is making them randomly discard cards off the top of their library in exchange for you not being able to play your fatties.

Constructed: 1.5

Limited: 1.5

Danny Tatro
Helm of Obedience
 
A millstone like card that can put an opponent's creature into play under your control off the top of their deck. Interesting. In constructed its only type 1 which means it will never see play cause its not anywhere near type 1 material.
 
In limited its a bit better. Each turn activate it for 1, or go for the creature and activate it for more. Either way you get a creature and if they have lots of good ones you get it and they never will. A bit random and luck based. Probably not very good all in all due to the randomness of the quality of creature you'd most likely be getting.
 
Constructed: 1
Limited: 2
 

 

 

 

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