Pojo's Magic The Gathering news, tips, strategies and more!

Pojo's MTG
MTG Home
Message Board
News & Archives
Deck Garage
BMoor Dolf BeJoSe

Columnists
Paul's Perspective
Jeff Zandi
DeQuan Watson
Jordon Kronick
IQ
Aburame Shino
Rare Hunter
Tim Stoltzfus
WiCkEd
Judge Bill's Corner


Trading Card
Game

Card of the Day
Guide for Newbies
Decks to Beat
Featured Articles
Peasant Magic
Fan Tips
Tourney Reports


Other
Color Chart
Book Reviews
Online Play
MTG Links
Staff



This Space
For Rent

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


Image from Wizards.com

Memoricide
Scars of Mirrodin

Reviewed September 24, 2010

Constructed: 3.50
Casual: 3.50
Limited: 2.33
Multiplayer: 3.13

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 of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Memoricide

Once upon a time, Cranial Extraction defined a metagame. You just couldn't play a deck that depended solely on one card as long as people had this in their sideboards. Once your opponent hit four mana, your entire win condition would be stripped from you. Combo just wasn't viable, unless you could reliably go off (or put your most important combo pieces on the field, where Extraction couldn't hit them) before your opponent got four mana.

Why am I talking about an old Kamigawa card, instead of today's COTD, Memoricide? Isn't it obvious? Minus the Arcane subtype, Cranial Extraction IS Memoricide. And they're both Tyler Durden. When this hits the stores, any deck that depends too heavily on one specific card may find itself hunted out of existence, and not having full playsets may be less of a drawback.

Constructed- 3
Casual- 3
Limited- 1.5
Multiplayer- 3

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Memoricide
 
Memoricide's effect has been around in various forms for a long time now, and has just as much value as it did in Ice Age. I've been known to play with card's like this in places where you "shouldn't," like Singleton games, just because the often-overlooked fact of getting to see your opponent's deck can be so advantageous. Knowing, as G.I. Joe once said, is half the battle. Also, when you manage to play this against a Relentless Rats deck, it's kind of funny (although not so much for the guy with the Rats).
 
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 2/5
Multiplayer: 2/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Memoricide which is a four mana Black spell that is more or less a reprint of Cranial Extraction without the Arcane aspect.  Being able to exile all copies of a card from a player's hand, library, and graveyard is an incredibly effective tool at disrupting a combo or just eliminating either the strongest card they have or the hardest card for you to otherwise counter.  For Black this can be a Planeswalker, Enchantment, Artifact, something with Protection, or any number of other threats.  Knowing the decks being played in your area helps in the first game of a match, but for the second or third game you should know for sure what to name especially if you've seen their entire deck.  The cost is a little high which may allow fast acceleration or cheap threats to get out before Memoricide can be played, but otherwise any finishers can be taken out of the game.
 
For Limited this has value in the sidedeck, but it is pretty much a shot in the dark in the first game of any match aside from getting a look at someone's deck or perhaps exiling your own card for some obscure reason.  The format produces few multiple copies of cards and often the biggest threats will be singletons only.  Memoricide works well as to remove one of them before they hit the board.  Once you get into the second or third game you can simply exile whatever the biggest concern is or target whatever card may come up next that will disrupt your plans most.  As a strictly preemptive removal this is a difficult first choice in Booster and has nowhere near the power it holds in Constructed formats.  Consider the other choices carefully, but as it can effectively remove any card from the game it is a solid choice for any Black deck and easily splashed with the one dedicated mana symbol.
 
Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4.5


Copyright© 1998-2010 pojo.com
This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site.