Exodus Review
By: Khonsu
Exodus is the second expansion in the Rath cycle, also known as the Tempest
block. The Rath cycle includes Tempest, Stronghold, and Exodus. The Rath cycle is
quite possibly the best cycle yet. Exodus includes 143 cards, 26 red, 26 white, 26 blue, 26 black, 26 green, 12 artifacts and 1 land. There are 55 commons, 44 uncommons, and 44 rares. Exodus introduces a number of strong cards, including the Oaths and Keepers.
White
White benefited perhaps the most from the Exodus expansion, gaining many
strong enchantments, enchant creatures, instants, and a couple good creatures. Some
of the best cards were:
Paladin en-Vec is a 2/2 first strike creature with protection from red and black that costs only 1WW.
Wall of Nets is a 0/7 wall that removes from play all creatures
it blocked at end of turn. However if it dies all of those creatures come back into play. It only costs 1WW.
Convalescence is a 1W enchantment that makes you gain 1 life if you ever fall below 10 life.
Peace of Mind is an enchantment which allows you to pay W and dump excess cards to gain 3 life.
Soul Warden is a 1/1 for a W that lets you gain a life whenever any other creaure comes into play. Perfect in a weenie deck.
Blue
Blue profited somewhat from Exodus's release, gaining some new ways to get cards into your hand, and also got a couple good creatures, which is good because that's what blue needs. Blue also got some new and pretty good shadow creatures. Here are some of the highlights:
Killer Whale is a 3UU casting cost 3/5 creature that allows you to pay U
and have it gain flying until end of turn.
Thalakos Scout is a 2/1 shadow creature for 2U that allows you to discard a card from your hand and bring it back to your hand.
Keeper of the Mind is a 1/2 for UU allows you to pay U and tap it to draw a card, if your opponent has more cards in their hand than you.
Ertai, Wizard Adept, a 1/1 for legend for 2U, is a permanent counterspell. You can pay 2UU and tap him to counter target spell.
Forbid, is a 1UU counterspell that has a buyback of choose and discard two cards from your hand, which, knowing blue, you could get back anyway.
Black
Black did pretty well in Exodus. It gained some good creatures, but most of the good black cards as far as Exodus goes were enchantments, instants, etc. However, black did get some pretty good shadow creatures. We also see lots of card removal. Here's some of the best:
Pit Spawn is a 6/4 first strike that costs 4BBB,
and costs BB each turn to keep out, but expensive as that is, any creatures damaged by Pit Spawn are removed from the game at end of turn.
Cat Burglar is a 2/2 for 3B, but for 2B and a tap it can force your opponent to discard a card from their hand.
Dauthi Cutthroat is a 1/1 shadow for 1B. It can also destroy target creature with shadow for just 1B and a tap.
Fugue is a 3BB costing sorcery that forces target player to discard three cards.
Plaguebearer is a 1/1 zombie for 1B. The amazing thing is that for XXB
and a tap you can destroy target nonblack creature with casting cost X or less.
Red
Red did fairly well in Exodus. Although there wasn't a lot of direct damage in the form of instants, there were a lot of ways to deal damage through creatures or enchantments. Red got some pretty good creatures, most of them having good abilities.
Here's a few of the best.
Ogre Shaman is a 3/3 for 3RR that for 2 and a random discard will deal 2 damage to target creature or player.
Scalding Salamander costs 2R and is a 2/1. But when the salamander attacks you can pay 0 and have it deal 1 damage to each nonflying creature defending player controlls, but only once each turn.
Keeper of the Flame is a 1/2 wizard for RR that can deal your opponent 2 damage for just R and a tap, but only if they have more life than you. Burn yourself a little, burn them a lot!
Sabertooth Wyvern is one of the few red creatures with flying. This beauty costs 4R, which may sound like a lot, but you get a 3/2 flying, first strike out of it.
Shattering Pulse is a instant that costs 1R with a buyback of 3 that destroys target artifact. This is very handy in multiplayer games.
Green
Green did really well in Exodus. With more pump-ups and some new additions to the spikes introduced in Stronghold, green is back and better than before. Exodus introduced to green a lot of cards pertaining to mana, how to get it, how to use what you've got, blackmail your opponent, etc. Green got a few good non-creature spells, but a large part of the good ones were creatures. Here's a look at some of the best green cards:
Mirri, Cat Warrior- probably the best card in Exodus. Mirri is a 2/3 first strike, forestwalk creature for 1GG. That coupled with the fact that attacking doesn't cause her to tap makes her absolutely awesome. When playing a green deck that's 2 free damage. She's also a legend.
Keeper of the Beasts is a 1/2 for GG. This keeper allows you to pay G and tap it to put a 2/2 green beast token, if you have less creatures than target opponent.
Survival of the Fittest is an enchantment that costs 1G and allows you to pay just a G and discard a creature card from your hand to search through your deck for any creature card and reveal it to all players and put it into your hand.
Rabid Wolverines is a 3GG casting cost 4/4. It also gets +1/+ 1 for each blocking creature, so the more creatures they use to block, the harder it gets to kill.
Reclaim is a cheap instant that is also effective. For just a G you can put the top card of your graveyard on top of your library. Good for non-regeneratable creatures, or echo creatures you refuse to pay for again with a good coming into play effect.
Artifact
There are 12 artifacts in Exodus, most of them are pretty good, but are mainly useful in select situations. Four out of 12, or a third, of the artifacts are actually artifact creatures. Here's a look:
Coat of Arms costs 5 and give each other creature +1/+1 for each other creature of that kind in play. Good in elf, rebel, goblin, etc. decks.
Transmogrifying Licid is a 2/2 artifact creature that costs 3 and counts as a licid. For 1 and a tap it loses this ability and becomes a creature enchantment that give enchanted creature +1/+1 and makes it count as an artifact. You may pay 1 to end this effect.
Spellbook is a free artifact that makes you skip your discard phase and lets you have a big hand for lots of options.
Land
There's actually only one land in Exodus, a rare called City of Traitors. City of Traitors is a land that can be tapped to produce 2 colorless mana, but if you play a land you must sacrifice it.
Ranking
This is the ranking for which color benefitted the most from the release of Exodus.
1. White
2. Green
3. Black
4.Red
5. Blue
6. Artifact
7. Land
Overall
Overall, Exodus is a supreme expansion. It has 2 new legends, some good shadow creatures, the Keepers, the Oaths, and some new additions to the spikes from stronghold, including a black spike. Exodus released 4 preconstructed decks: White Heat, Groundbreaker, Widowmaker, and Dominator. They are RW, RB, BU, and U respectivly. For some reason, Green was not included in any of the decks.
