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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!


Image from Wizards.com

Soulfire Grand Master
- Fate Reforged

Reviewed Jan. 13, 2015

Constructed: 4.00
Casual: 4.50
Limited: 3.88
Multiplayer: 4.25

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale:
1 - Horrible  3 - Average.  5 - Awesome

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 


David Fanany

Player since 1995

Soulfire Grand Master
 
This card's name is going to throw me off for a long time - the comic Soulfire had a very different premise and art style! Whenever you cast a Soulfire Grand Master, you had better have the sort of deck that can back it up. By that I mean that its game text basically telegraphs what your strategy is going to be, and it's hard to include the Grand Master as an incidental card or one that's "just good" in any strategy. If your deck needs this card for its instants and sorceries to do their thing, you may struggle when they kill it (as they probably will at some point). If your instants and sorceries are good anyway (I shudder contemplating this card with Lightning Helix or Warleader's Helix - yes, you really do get the life twice), this card can make them absolutely ridiculous, and even the fear that you might do so can be leveraged in your strategy.
 
Am I the only one who finds it funny that this card grants lifelink even to instants and sorceries that don't deal damage?
 
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5


Paul

Welcome back readers todays card of the day is incredibly unique, a lifelink creature which gives your instant and sorcery spells lifelink, insanity! The other ability isent too shabby either, allowing you to fetch your instant and sorceries for another use. With its solid base body, amazing first ability and useful second ability this card is poised to be a star. In standard this is going to slot well into Jeskai token decks that run Stoke The Flames and other assorted instants, the ability to stabalize your life while possibly returning a spell is just value too insane to ignored. Outside of constructed this card seems to be a little slow, in modern it could provide some interesting situations and and combined with powerful burn spells could be a great combination. In other eternal formats its a little slow and niche. In casual and multiplayer this can be combined with some powerful cards such as Blasphemous Act to gain absurd amounts of life and to recur game winning spells such as Time Warp over and over. In limited its only as solid as the spells you have making it somewhat of a dicey choice. Overall a powerful and unique card.
 
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 2.5
Multiplayer: 4.5

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Soulfire Grand Master which is a two mana White 2/2 with Lifelink that gives instant and sorcery spells you control Lifelink and for four mana, two of which being Blue or Red, puts the next instant or sorcery you cast that turn into hand instead of the graveyard.  A two mana 2/2 with Lifelink is already decent and playable, but in a Red/White deck the Lifelink for burn spells makes this an excellent addition to burn or life gain themes.  It turns Lighting Strike into Lightning Helix  and a spell like Anger of the Gods along with this can equal a huge life gain, particularly in Multiplayer. 
Channel/Fireball with Lifelink is possible and Overall this is a very strong creature for Boros and the paid effect can help reuse powerful cards for Blue or Red which means this will be a popular choice across multiple formats.
 
In Limited this is a two mana 2/2 with Lifelink and a high value rare in the set which makes for an easy first pick in Booster.  In Sealed this should always be played when running White and can justify splashing White into a deck using Blue or Red for the additional effects.  The Lifelink for damaging spells is potentially very strong, yet unlikely to be seen much.  The paid effect can be huge in later stages of the game when excess mana is available and that combined with removal can break the game open entirely.
 
Constructed: 5.0
Casual: 5.0
Limited: 5.0
Multiplayer: 5.0

Mattedesa

Deck Garage

Soulfire Grand Master
 
This is a card you're going to see a lot of.
 
A 2/2 with lifelink for 2 mana is something we've seen several times, and by itself would be a solid limited card, but nothing special. The biggest reason to play this card is the second ability that gives all your instants and sorceries lifelink. While lifegain on its own is still not a great strategy, tacking it on for free to all your burn spells or counterspells helps those type of decks hang on in longer games.
 
Speaking of longer games, that's when the Grand Master gets REALLY dangerous. If you've got an extra 4 mana sitting around, you can play your favorite instant or sorcery every turn. I expect there are some really stupid combos with this that allow you to play a spell several times - if not an unlimited number of times - in a turn. 
 
It really looks to me like a card that might cause some problems and people will get tired of seeing. Then again, it might be a false alarm.
 
Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 5.0
Multiplayer: 4.5


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