Ascension Review - Blue
by Rand, the Most Sednezer'd
Since I’ve been a bit lax recently, I’m going to take the time for this article and review the entirety of AS blue. I think I’ll even rate on a 1-5 scale, just because I can.
Arctic Owl - About as good as Sage Owl and the other half dozen similar cards. Nothing to write home about really, though this one does sometimes get some fat out of the way. **
Asterion, Kelsan Sage - at the very least, he’s a more substantial Archivist. The mana ability is somewhat useful in a Robe Combo deck, but the Archivist ability is usually more useful. ***
Bounce - Not as good as Unsummon for getting rid of annoying things, but rather nice for saving you own stuff from large combat bouts or major destruction spells. **
Bribe - Compare this to Control Magic : if you want to steal something beefy, this is more expensive. But if you want to steal a utility creature , the kind with low P/T but good abilities , this is usually better. All in all, there’s something satisfying about killing an opponent with their own cards. ***
Charm of Dreams - Some card drawing, or a nearly useless bounce effect, or Envelop. The abilities are mediocre at best, but on the other hand one of them is bound to be useful. As you have the card drawing, you can at least cycle through it if none of the other abilities are helpful. ***
Chronos Efreet - Sure, it’s a 4/4 flier for 3, but do you trust your opponent with 2 turns to deal with it? If you have board control, you probably can afford something scarier and less risky, and if you want to scare your opponent with something, giving them extra time to deal with this threat. **
Cobalt Dragon - It’s big and scary, but it can’t kill anything. Of course, it flies over most creatures and will kill the opponent in 4 turns, but a bloody Scryb Sprite can hold it at bay. Not a bad card to have, especially in sealed where both flight and beef are highly valued, but not as good in steal. ***
Contralith - I never liked the Aliths. Of the ones from AS, this is the most useful, but that’s not saying much. **.
Countertactics - Fetching extra counters isn’t bad, but at the cost of another card and a life is kinda harsh. Coupled with the incredible plethora of counters blue has to choose from other than this, this doesn’t get played much. ***
Counterfice - Maybe with Contralith... *
Counterhack - Useful against decks that use many artifacts and non-basics with powerful effects (there are a lot), and it can still counter anything Counterspellable. Good to have two or three of in your draw-go deck. ****
Denial - It’s a splashable hard-counter; that’s good enough as it is. Add in the possible card drawing, and this is a great card. Just don’t be afraid to forego the card drawing if they try to cast a creature that’ll give you a hard time. *****
Disruptive Phantom - My Draw-Go deck’s kill mechanism, this guy at the very least makes opponent’s leave 2 lands untapped. After that, he starts beating the snot out of them 2 at a time. ***** easy.
Dream Trade - Jazzfan had a real penchant for counters, I guess. Only potentially useful on first turn, but really a scary proposition; the goblin you countered may give them a land, another goblin, or a dragon. *
Elastic Doppelganger - a somewhat fun card, it’s only as good as what else is in play. Personally, rather than hope something good is out, for 5 mana I’ll just play something I know is good by itself. **
Equal Trade - Might have its possibilities in multiplayer as a peacemaker, but usually its mediocre card drawing. If you want two cards for two, try Charm of Dreams. **
Essence Thief - Like Elastic Doppelganger, it gets better with your opponent’s creatures. However, this can take their creatures out, hitting a creature for 2 from a distance, and steal an ability as a side effect. Murder in limited, but not much more useful in constructed than, say, Mawcor. Considering how often that got played, that isn’t all that useful. **.
Fallacy Land - Okay, so it doubles the land’s mana production, but disables colored mana production for entire turn. Blue’s sorry excuse for landkill. *
Gazing in the Mirror-Mere - The ability isn’t overly useful and it’s symmetrical. With a Soldevi Digger type of effect, it could be deadly, if you can figure out how to draw a card from bottom of your deck in Apprentice. **
Illusionary Warrior - okay, that’s some major beats, 3 damage they can’t even chump block. Moreover, any creaturekill they try to use on it merely bounces them to your hand. Either they kill it with a mass removal spell, or counter it, or kill you somehow, but they have to find some way to get rid of it soon, because 3 damage a turn adds up quick. ****
Indecision - It’s a slow Boomerang with a negligible lifegain ability tacked on. Bah. **
Jewel, Novice Shapeshifter - My finisher of choice for Draw-go, just because she’s so damn cool. All your cards have flashback, and she’s pretty buff from all the counters you’ve cast over the course of the game. And she changes colors. She is this powerful BEFORE she ascends. *****
Kledion Mind Sage - Tim+. That’s all you really need to say. He’s a Timproof Tim. ***
Knowledge - It may be a sorcery, but that’s a lotta card drawing on turn 2. ****
Kraken of the Deep - This is HUGE for 6 mana. And, if you’re willing to sacrifice islands, it’s 4 unblockable damage. Hasn’t seen as much play as it perhaps deserves. ****
Literacy - Prosperity, but you get to untap a land. Of course, that land is probably something insane that you can tap for 6 or 8 mana and cast all the cards you just drew. Could make a fun Pseudo Academy-Prosbloom deck, which would be rather fun. ***
Lucid Dream - Beefy and unblockable under circumstances blue can usually arrange readily. However, Illusionary Warrior hurts just as much, is cheaper, is always unblockable and harder to kill. That makes this, shall we say, not as good? ***
Merfolk Citizen - Nice defense early game, can be an annoying roadblock for swarm decks. ***
Merfolk Hero - Not as cheap as Lord of Atlantis, but it effects itself and multiples stack. Obviously only good in a Merfolk deck, and there aren’t overly many viable merfolk in HGML. **.
Midnight Rest - Effectively disables the creature, though any static or nontapping abilities are still there. Not quite creaturekill, but pretty bloody close. ***
Mindripple - Nice surprise for the end of your opponent’s turn. One or two isn’t all that effective, but they get real annoying if you can find some way to recycle them. ***
Mirage - Phantasmal Terrain but cheaper and better. All sorts of tricks in limited, perhaps some use with Islandwalkers or something. At the very least, one of their lands is a lot less useful to them. ***
Moment of Clarity - It’s Timetwister. So it’s removed from the game and isn’t splashable; that’s still a very powerful effect. *****
Ordain - I like this card. Unlike Mana Leak, it’s still semi-useful late game. I just love the feeling of ordaining my opponent’s spell three times and then finally countering it with a Denial. As close to a hard counter as you’ll usually get without actually having a hard counter. *****
Paradox - The ultimate sideboard card against Sovereign Robe (that would be a fun thing to see). Saw a decent amount of play before Kledion, Illusionary City was errataed. Still not useless, but mostly a sideboard card. ***
Ruminate - A fun way to kill Jewel, Novice Shapeshifter. The idea is to refill you counterdeck. Two of these could make a draw-go mirror match last forEVER. Still, not overly useful, when it comes right down to it. **
Rush of Ideas - I really like this card, though I’ve never seen it work. In a land or permanent heavy deck, this could draw obscene amounts of cards. Often, it’ll draw one, MAYBE two if you’re lucky. I still have the feeling this can be broken, but haven’t managed to yet. **
Sapphire Orb - Burn hates this. White removal hates this. Black removal doesn’t enjoy it much. Annoying, but way too situational. **
Sea Turtle - Decent early game defense, can hold down the fort for some time as you establish yourself. ***
Seawind Drake - a 2/1 flier for U can do some damage, but so does landscrewing yourself. An aggressively costed beatdown creature in a color not known for either. **
Shifting Efreet - This guy is to Morphling as Blasters are to Lightsabers; the latter is not as clumsy or random. This is more fragile (targetable) and costs more, but it is REALLY BIG. *****, and thank god it’s targetable.
Splash - okay normally, obscene against red. Of course, Red has always sucked anyway, so this hasn’t been bothered with. Hopefully, this will be more useful in the future. ****
Stasis Wyvern - Sure, it’s stupid. But it’s big and silly. Fun way in a Time Stop/Stasis deck to get a few more turns out of the enchantment. This has a really red flavor to it, though mechanically it is decidedly blue. ** for power, ***** for style points.
Temporal Ward - you’ll get your extra turn eventually. Assuming your opponent doesn’t just wait until they can crush you in one swift stroke. Extra turns are rarely a bad thing to have, though not being able to control when is inconvenient. ****
Thoughtless Whim - bastard child of Forbid and Capsize, and that’s bloody scary. Somehow, though, I don’t think BouncePhoenix would have been as good a deck. Still, a fair to decent card. ***.
Time Stop - A Stasis that gives you an extra turn, but is rfg after it dies. If you bounce the enchantment however, (not hard to do, try Thoughtless Whim) that effect is ignored. Stasis is always a fun deck to aggravate people with. ***
Time Travel - Wow, we managed to make an extra turn card NOT worth playing. **
Touch of Freedom - Flight isn’t worth a card. The bouncing is semi useful, but not really. **
Trade of Secrets - Notice that the discard isn’t a cost, so this works if you have no cards in your hand. This could be very abusable in that situation. Also, with recursion or threshold, it’s a good way to fill up your graveyard.
Unequal Trade - Prosbloom would have loved this. 5 life is a lot, but so is 3 cards. It’s like being on both ends of a Browbeat. Risky, but potentially very good. ***
Venomous Scorn - bernt. More lame blue landkill. *
Walking on Clouds - Flight AND Curiosity, that’s not bad. Make your own Magpie. ***
Wall of Confusion - Very nice deterrent. Cumulative Upkeep limits its usefulness, but it’ll make an opponent second-guess any attack so long as its out. ***
Wall of Hail - Very nice defense. Not much else to say. ***
Water Naga - Blah. *
Zazdor’s Curse - I guess this could be useful, somehow. Try it with some card that allows you to get new cards without technically "drawing" them. **
Well, there’s blue. Stay tuned for more features. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas, just email me at Sednezed@aol.com. Thanks!
