| Rabid Rats |
Yet another cheap 1/1 with some bad ability related to
blocking. This is slightly better than some of the blocking cards, but
still not good enough to see use in black weenie.
|
| Ransack |
It’s expensive, but cast on your opponent, it could potentially
be a pseudo-Timewalk. Cast on yourself, it allows for library
manipulation on par with Lim-Dul’s Vault, although it lacks the
ability to search for a specific card.
|
| Rebound |
Aside from burn, there’s very little which targets a player.
All in all, Honorable Passage is better vs. Burn, and that’s all
Rebound is good for. Possibly anti-discard, sending a Stupor back
at the opponent.
|
| Reins of Power |
Most blue decks will not benefit from the little bit of
damage this card will allow you to sneak through. If your opponent
has enough creatures for the damage to be significant, you are probably
in more trouble than Reins can pull you out of. If, however, you have a
Goblin Bombardment...
|
| Revenant |
For 5 mana, black could find much better cards. As a late game
finisher for weenies he is decent, but there are cheaper black
fliers which are better all around. Since he only gts what’s in
your graveyard, his ability is significantly less powerful.
|
| Rolling Stones |
Bad pun, bad card. I’ve seen proposals for decks which
play a bunch of the new walls, and then drop this as a finisher.
First, Counterspell or Disenchant will ruin your day. Secondly, there
aren’t that many walls with power anyway. If you want an attacking wall,
use Dream Prowler.
|
| Ruination |
A decent card for crippling 5 color decks, but even then most
good players will keep back one multi-land just in case. This is
a card which is more threatening as a possibility, and does not
have to be used to affect your opponent’s game play.
|
| Sacred Ground |
If Disenchant wasn’t worth it, many decks will now be
splashing White for this powerful anti-Armageddon, anti-Pox,
anti-Ruination sideboard card. A really great way for Blue control,
or maybe even Necro, to hide from Armageddon.
|
| Samite Blessing |
A deck which is slow enough to waste a card on this and
to be able to leave a creature untapped to make use of it, probably
won’t need to do so. The effect provided is most useful in a weenie
deck, where creatures are not available for abilities besides attacking.
|
| Scapegoat |
I am not impressed by this. While it will save creatures from
Wrath/Quake, putting them in your hand is not exactly optimal. Also,
most good decks won’t cast more than 2 or 3 creatures, so it will
be little more than an Unsummon in most situations.
|
| Seething Anger |
Another sorcery that should be and instant. The buyback
calls for a large devotion of mana to a single creature whom you
cannot be certain will survive or be unblocked. It’s simply not
worth such an investment.
|
| Serpant Warrior |
3/3 for 3 is good, but not great. Taking 3 damage vs.
Burn is bad. Necratog or Hidden Horror will often be more
powerful, and, ironically, a better card advantage investment (as 3 life
vs. Sligh equals 1 card.)
|
| Shaman en-Kor |
With so many 2 power creatures for 2, a 1 power creature
is not going to cut it, especially when it’s best ability
requires 2 mana to make use of it. This is simply too expensive and
slow to see use in a weenie deck, and just not useful in other decks.
|
| Shard Phoenix |
He is too expensive to use in any red creature deck, and
requires too much red mana for a slower deck to make use of his
recursing ability.
|
| Shifting Wall |
With so many cheap walls with good abilities in
Stronghold, why would anyone use this vanilla wall which requires a
large mana investment to produce a wall on par with the others.
|
| Shock |
Shock vs. Kindle will be a tough choice for many Standard red
decks. Kindle is betterr for a slower counter-burn deck, which can
count on getting more damage from Kindle, and on having the mana
to cast it. Shock is more useful for weenie or Sligh decks, which may
only see a single one, and can make use of the extra mana for more
creatures early. With the addition of this and the popularity of Kindle
and 2-power creatures, I feel 3 has become the toughness to the current
environment what 4 was to the original type 2 with Bolt and
Incinerate.
|
| Sift |
As a sorcery, Sift requires the devotion of a turn’s worth of mana
for an ability which is not considerably better than Impulse’s. For
the same mana, you could have a Ransack.
|
| Silver Wyvern |
If you can afford it, this is a sturdy new flier that
will give Big Blue a knockout creature. With Counterspell mana
to back him up, the Wyvern will spell the end for many decks. I see him
replacing Air Elemental in many Standard decks. Unfortunately,
Edict is not targetted.
|
| Skeleton Scavengers |
3 mana for a 1/1 had better provide a good ability,
and this regenerate and inflate thing is not good enough.
Incinerate and Edict do not allow regeneration.
|
| Skyshroud Archer |
He would be decent vs. Frenetic, Rainbow, etc. if
Green didn’t already have so many PHENOMENAL 1 cc creatures like
Llanowar Elves or Quirion Ranger. Only in environments where Frenetic
is big will this guy see any use.
|
| Skyshroud Falcon |
An untapped 1/1 is of precious little use, especially
when you could have one that’s pro-red or pro-black.
|
| Skyshroud Troopers |
3/3 for 4 is not good, and by that time, the extra
mana won’t help very much either. Who wants to use a 3/3 to cast a
Quirion Ranger?
|
| Sliver Queen |
7/7 for 5 is good, but the different colored mana casting
cost is difficult to get with any speed, so she usually doesn’t
come out early. Once she is out, her ability to make little Slivers
really doesn’t matter much.
|
| Smite |
White needs good creature removal, but this isn’t it. White
control, which may have made use of it, has Wrath of God. It is
White Weenie which needs a selective creature removal spell, but it
cannot afford to leave behind a blocker. Also, Smite will not eliminate
a blocker.
|
| Soltari Champion |
2/2 shadow for 3 is decent, and the extra ability is
enough to consider using a few in White Weenie decks that once
used Soltari Lancer.
|
| Spike Breeder |
3/3 for 4 isn’t that great, but his ability to split even
if you have no other creatures is more useful than most Spike’s
abilities. Too bad it costs so much to activate.
|
| Spike Colony |
It isn’t worth the extra mana for more counters but no
ability. A 5 cc card should have a huge effect on the game, and
this does not.
|
| Spike Feeder |
Again, the ability is expensive and gaining life is not
significant. I’d rather have a Centaur.
|
| Spike Soldier |
The best of the Spikes. His other ability requires no
mana to activate, and allows you to save him from an Incinerate.
|
| Spike Worker |
Just the ability to bounce his counters does not warrant
paying 3 mana for a 2/2.
|
| Spindrift Drake |
2/1 flying for 1 is good, but the loss of 1 mana per
turn is too inhibiting for the 1 extra damage. I’d rather play a 1/1
and keep my mana.
|
| Spined Sliver |
2/2 for 2 is good, and he shares a color with Muscle
Sliver. Also useful is that he shares a color with Provoke,
making the blocking ability not a complete waste.
|
| Spined Wurm |
Vanilla creatures, unless they are very cheap, are not
good. Spined Wurm is not very cheap.
|
| Spirit en-Kor |
For 4 mana, you should be getting a larger creature than
2/2. Stick to the cheap en-Kor.
|
| Spitting Hydra |
The creture is decent, but at 5 mana you need to get
phenomenal. This is not the kind of card that sees tournament use.
|
| Stronghold Assassin |
This guy is too slow to see much tournament use,
except in decks using Gravepact. Even then, he’s probably too
expensive to make a big difference.
|
| Stronghold Taskmaster |
4/3 with no other ability for 4 would be good,
but the crippling effect on other black creatures is too big a
drawback. Unfortunately, he requires too much black to splash.
|
| Sword of the Chosen |
If it was 0 cc artifact, it would be too expensive.
This is quite possibly the worst card in Stronghold. Why would
you want to have more than 1 out?
|
| Temper |
This is simply too expensive for an overglorified Honorable
Passage. The extra toughness will rarely be worth the extra mana,
and you can’t prevent damage to players.
|
| Tempting Licid |
It is slower than Provoke, and it lacks the element of
surprise. Plus, you’ll need mana to pull him back off the creature
if the forced block kills it?
|
| Thalakos Deceiver |
He’s a slower Control Magic that’s prone to creature
removal, but on the plus side he can’t be Disenchanted. I think
the some decks may put this to good use. However, with cards like
Man-o’-War and now Evacuation, stealing creatures isn’t everything it
once was.
|
| Tidal Surge |
This is an expensive Fog. Tapping cretaures will only delay
the inevitable.
|
| Tidal Warrior |
Finally, a 1/1 for 1 Merfolk who makes other Merfolk
abilities useful. Seasinger now becomes a viable option for
Standard Merfolk decks. For that matter, Standard Merfolk decks
now become a viable option.
|
| Torment |
Why would you play this, which cannot even kill the creature,
with so many other great black creature removal spells.
|
| Tortured Existence |
Since it only puts the card back into your hand,
trading creature for creature is not worth wasting mana and a card
on. Carrionette or other creatures which you want in the
graveyard are the exception, but since it requires you to already have a
creature in the graveyard to use the ability, it isn’t as fast as
something like Buried Alive.
|
| Venerable Monk |
What deck has space to waste on a 2/2 for 3? Gaining 2
life is not a significant factor.
|
| Verdant Touch |
Wasting a whole turn’s worth of mana to make a 2/2 is not
a good idea, especially when you are opening your land up to creature
kill.
|
| Victual Sliver |
Given the choice of saccing a sliver for 2 damage or 4
life, which would you choose? It’s not that the life isn’t
significant, but it is only good in a Sliver deck, and I don’t see a GW
Sliver deck as tourney-viable. A 5 color Sliver deck wouldn’t have room
for this less-than-optimal Sliver.
|
| Volrath’s Gardens |
Since it requires a creature to be tapped on your
turn, this is a bad card. With the exception of Awakening, which
will give that creature back again, trading 2 mana and a creature
for 2 life is not that good.
|
| Volrath’s Laboratory |
In theory, you could create a CounterLab deck in
the same vein as a CounterPost. However, paying 5 mana a turn is
alot for any deck. I don’t see this as seeing much use, except as
a finisher in some bizarre control deck.
|
| Volrath’s Shapeshifter |
Most copying cards are not tournament worthy,
but this may be an exception. Unfortunately, you cannot use Counters
to protect him. Perhaps, if you splash black, you could
reanimate whatever you fed him later.
|
| Volrath’s Stronghold |
Necro will make use of this to recurse Bottle
Gnomes, and keep Steel Golems from disappearing forever. Imagine,
with Necro, this, and Bottle Gnomes...2 cards per turn for 4B, plus a
blocker. Best of all, you can choose if and when you want to draw the
creature again.
|
| Walking Dream |
With so many exceptional creatures, many of whom have
evasion abilities anyway, this is really a waste of 4 mana. On top of
that, he sucks if you’re playing weenies.
|
| Wall of Blossoms |
It’s no good for weenie, but other, slower green decks
will love a cheap wall that doesn’t cost you a card.
|
| Wall of Essence |
This should make creature hordes think twice about
swarming you. Great for stalling until you draw a Wrath. Unlike
most walls, it can effectively hold off several creatures.
|
| Wall of Razors |
The worst of the new walls. What does Red need a wall
for?, and what good is a 1 toughness wall? Talk about Fanatic bait.
|
| Wall of Souls |
There aren’t too many black decks that will use walls,
but this is a great way to hold off several creatures if you have a
deck that would benefit from that. Maybe even an early staller for
Necro.
|
| Wall of Tears |
Combined with Propaganda, Blue has some major creature
control. An opponent must now spend 4 mana to get any damage through,
and then be prepared to pay more to recast their original
creature. Particuarly devestating in PropOrb.
|
| Warrior Angel |
She’s big and bad, but too expensive at 6 mana. Right
now, except for Capsize, which is used in EXTREMELY slow blue
decks, I can think of no reason to play 6 cc card. For your
Volrath’s Shapeshifter, though...
|
| Warrior en-Kor |
Another good en-Kor creature. With a Priest out, he’s
pro-red, and either way he’s cool as a 2/2 for 2 that’s damage
resistant. If only there weren’t so many good 2/2’s for WW that
aren’t reliant on having out other creatures.
|
| Youthful Knight |
Between White Knight, Soltari Monk and Priest, Order,
and Warrior en-Kor, your White Weenie should not need more
creatures, and why would you splash a 2/1 first striker?
|
