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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day


Image from Wizards.com

Staff of Domination 
Fifth Dawn Rare


Reviewed May 13, 2004

Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.9

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

Click here to see all our 
Card of the Day Reviews 


Chris
Gerhardt

* game store owner in CA, ShuffleAndCut

Here you have a jack of all trades, though a master at none.  While versatility makes the difference between a good card and a great card, this just isn't a constructed card.  In casual though, this could be a lot of fun. 

In limited, Staff really hits its mark.  Its versatility really shines here as it gives you a really nice base of control, and always something to do with your unused mana.  An first pick and a definite play.

Constructed: 2
Casual: 4
Limited: 4.5
  
   Current Price:
Card - set - $0.00

   Combos Well With:
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Judge Bill

*Level 2
MTG Judge

*game store employee

MaRo's preview card for last week. The abilities are costed to prevent abuse (for the most part), and so we have one card with a lot of pedestrian abilities. Pseudo Icy, Pseudo Jayemdae Tome, this may be a good card for limited, or even casual, but I don't see this even making a splash in cometitive constructed.
 
Constructed: 1
Casual: 2.5
Limited: 2.5
 

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

Staff of Domination

 

Staff of Domination is very cute. It’s got some good abilities, and is under costed as a whole, although the abilities of it are over costed, so it balances out. In general, in a casual environment, especially multiplayer, the vast options of utility for this card will make it fun to play. In constructed, while Mark Rosewater may call it an engine card, I don’t think its anything other than a mana sink. To me, that’s the recipient of an engine, not an engine itself. Nonetheless, I’d try to play this card in Limited and Casual, and have a blast doing it.

 

Constructed:             2         

Casual:             5         

Limited:            3 

 
Jonathan
Pechon


2 Grand Prix Top 8's

Multiple Pro Tour appearances

Staff of Domination

 

Well…uhh…err…infinite-mana-combos, anyone?  This certainly looks like fun, and has a Morphling-esque spread of abilities.  The problem is…they just don’t matter in constructed.  There simply isn’t a way to make this card work with what we’ve got in constructed, being that there’s no reasonable way to generate infinite mana outside of Channeler-Pants.  Skip it.

 

Now, who doesn’t like having cards with ridiculous numbers of abilities in casual games?  This thing certainly provides you with a ton of uses, combining with your ridiculous mana combos or just as something to use at random.  I’d actually consider playing this in Mental Magic because the number of really solid 3-drop artifacts is rather low.

 

This really is a difficult call to make for draft without actually playing it.  My instinct says that the relevant abilities (drawing cards and tapping creatures) are overcosted; however, the sheer number of abilities available to you might actually make sure that this has some appeal.  Draft this with Vedalken Engineers and you’ll have yourself a pretty good time.

 

Constructed:  2.0

Casual:  3.5

Limited:  3.0

 


DeQuan
Watson

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

* pro tour player

* Scrye writer since 2002

This thing is like a Swiss army knife.  It seems to do everything.  The better effects cost more to use though, which is probably going to keep it from seeing play.  It's a good all purpose card though.  I'd epect it to get played a bti in casual games.  Also, it is going to be a high pick in limited:
 
Constructed: 2
Casual: 3
Limited: 4
 


Jeff Zandi

5 Time Pro Tour
Veteran

Level 2 Judge

Staff of Domination
I would have expected a card named Staff of Domination to have a picture of
the Pojo staff on it, because, you know, we uh, rule.and stuff. I'll be here
all week! Being serious though, which isn't easy with this card, it looks a
lot like an Unglued card. This Swiss Army Knife (you heard this card's new
name HERE FIRST) is amazingly fun. The bottom line is, if you have untapped
mana and this card in play at the end of your opponent's turn, chances are
you can do something useful. This is the kind of weird all-purpose artifact
that a lot of my friends come up with when they first try to invent their
own Magic card. Obviously playable in almost any Mirrodin limited deck, it's
hard to know if this card has enough utility to replace more focused cards
in good constructed deck designs. It's certainly possible. Somewhere, T.V.'s
MacGyver is building his first deck.WITH FOUR STAFF OF DOMINATION.
CONSTRUCTED: 3.0
CASUAL:           3.5
LIMITED:            4.0
 
Chase

Secret Squirrel on the Pojo.com
Message
Boards

Raksha Golden Cub

Gee there are a lot of cats around.  Well even so, this dog is top cat (?!).
Bonesplitters and clamps make the "when this is equiped" a playable
mechanic.  Double strike is nothing to sneeze at especially with the 4 extra
damage.  7 mana isn't fun to pay for a seemy weenie deck.  Though once this
hits, it would be a good finisher.

In limited, depends on if you're willing to pick up a bunch of cats and 7
mana.  I would be reluctant to pick this as it limits you to white though it
is a nice creature and its effect is powerful.

Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 2.5
 

Jason
Chapman
Staff of Dominion has a little bit of everything but boy does the price tag add up. Even so, I expect that some decks, especially control decks, may admire the versitility of the Staff and some players are always going to look for the mana to abuse it. I think it works best as a swiss army knife and many decks could potentially find it useful.

Constructed - Not great but it does have great flexibility - 2.5

Limited - No truly broken effects for limited but some benefits - 2.5

Casual - This card has a great casual feel - 3.0

 

 

 

 

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