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Pojo's Magic The Gathering Card of the Day
Daily Since November 2001!


Image from Wizards.com

Join the Ranks
Worldwake

Reviewed January 19, 2010

Constructed: 2.75
Casual: 3.75
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 2.75

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 

BMoor

Join the Ranks

This card does exactly what Ally decks have been needing to do. It puts Allies into play at instant speed, and it puts more than one out at once. In Zendikar the Ally deck was just, "untap, play my Ally for the turn, swing, go". No surprise factor. Incredibly susceptible to board sweepers and even to spot removal. This card fixes that, and pretty definitively assures that any successful Ally deck must play white.

Constructed- 3
Casual- 4
Limited- 3
Multiplayer- 2.5


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Join the Ranks

This is one of those cards that constructed players love to see in tribal keywords: decent without its tribe, potentially devastating with it. Allies are not considered viable in competitive constructed right now, but no-one knows what else will come with Worldwake, and a card that gives you Raise the Alarm and Redeem the Lost (with Kabira Evangel) in one package may put them over the top. You'll also be seeing a lot of this card in limited, as if Murasa Pyromancer and Kazuul Warlord needed any more help.

Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 2/5

Paul

Magic The Gathering Card of the Day: Join The Ranks
 
Welcome back readers our card of the day today is Join the Ranks from Worldwake, a card that can activate ally abilities at instant speed and may not see much play. Triggering two ally abilities at instant speed would be nice but currently allies are not seeing any competitive play regardless of format outside of use in limited. Ally’s as the name suggests build off of each other which fundamentally breaks a rule with your creatures, don’t over commit to the board. Allies to be most effective need to constantly drop threats and flood the board to get the most power out of their abilities. Join the ranks token’s trigger two ally abilities which can be devastating with card such as Hagra Diabolist and Murasa Pyromancer. As of now in all competitive formats allies are not seeing a lot of love and unless their abilities significantly change I don’t predict much out of competitive ally decks. The plus side it generates two creature tokens at instant speed and they are a relevant type for possibly solider decks. In casual and multiplayer allies are much better they are practically as scary as slivers as they don’t have to attack to get most of their lethal abilities and allow the player playing them to dominate the board. Another use would be in solider decks as instant speed threats. As with any creatures don’t over commit to the board and Allies and soldiers are powerful. In limited if you grab enough ally support you can make a fearsome deck utilizing synergy over raw card power in some cases.

Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 3.5

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is a simple one to review as it basically Dragon Fodder, but White Soldier Ally tokens instead of Goblins.  The extra two mana cost is purely from the Ally type as it allows for any of the Ally effects in this block to trigger twice from a single card.  This is exactly the kind of addition the theme needed and I expect it to become a mainstay in Ally decks, but not seen too often in token decks as the cost is a bit high for vanilla (in non-ally decks) creatures.
 
For Constructed, Casual, and Multiplayer this is a solid addition to any Ally deck, but not particularly noteworthy in any other builds.  If you are running White and Allies this should be run as a full set, otherwise other options exist that can generate more field presence.
 
For Limited tokens generally equal card advantage and with Allies in set this is a good choice at the common level to run multiples of.  Allies can be quite powerful and if you can draft a solid enough number a few of these go a long way.  Even without Ally creatures two tokens are hardly a disadvantage, especially as a topdeck in any kind of standoff where each creature played can tip the scales of the game.  For Sealed there is no reason not to play this if running White in your deck while in Booster it should be drafted earlier on especially if going for an Ally theme.  Taking this as a second pick after an Ally is not a bad play and can lead to a fairly dominant design, but try to gauge if anyone else is planning a similar strategy.
 
Constructed: 3.0
Casual: 3.0
Limited: 4.0
Multiplayer: 3.0

Miguel

Tuesday

1-19-10

 

Join the Ranks

 

Constructed: 2 1/1 for 4 mana at Instant speed is a solid card for a common. But it helps Allies. Allies have not seen a good solid deck for constructed. This should help a little but we will have to see what else comes out.

 

Casual & Multiplayer: Costs a little to much to throw on a Isochron Scepter, it could still be used with the good old Panoptic Mirror.

 

Limited: This card can really make drafting Allies a good thing. Being a common make it really good. Sealed deck I will have to see how many boosters are used, like will it be half Zendikar and Worldwake or something totally different.

 

Overall a good common card.

 

Constructed: 3

Casual: 4

Multiplayer: 3

Limited: 4

 

Later

Miguel


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