Duels of the Planeswalkers: Hands of Flame (Part 2 of 2)
From Sligh to RDW, mono-red burn has tended to follow a similar design philosophy, and Hands of Flame is no exception. This deck is packed with small, aggressive creatures, says the strategy insert. However, before assessing this deck it might be useful to spend a moment understanding the design philosophy of these preconstructeds.
Duels of the Planeswalkers was essentially designed as an arcade game ‘version’ of Magic, and so these decks “inspired by” the arcade game, should be viewed through that prism. Intermediate and advanced Red players of the (official) game may be well acquainted with the Philosophy of Fire and what it takes for Red to ‘get there’ (hint: speed kills), but when Hands of Flame claims to be “packed with small, aggressive creatures,” it means something slightly different:
0 1-drop creatures
5 2-drop creatures
5 3-drop creatures
8 4-drop creatures (!)
4 5+ drop creatures
And what’s more, almost half (10/22) of these are vanilla critters. If your collection is a little short on Hill Giants, Hands of Flame packs a full playset!
On the Upside
It’s easy to nitpick some of the card selection, though, so let’s next take a look at where this deck works best- its rares.
Hands really delivers the goods here. The premium foil is Kamahl, Pit Fighter who is a beast in this Duels environment. His critter counterpart is the Shivan Dragon, which, while long since ecliped by better scaly flying options for his mana cost, is still a simple yet iconic beater and a well-placed power card for the newer player these decks cater to. Banefire adds a third X-mana burn to the suite, Rage Reflection acknowledges the preeminent place melee has in this deck’s strategy, and knowing how I was nostalgic for Tempest block cards, I can only gaze with an approving eye at the inclusion of Furnace of Rath.
The Uncommons are generally solid if less sexy, though two of them make me baulk. First is Dragon’s Claw– it seems to be that each of these decks will include two of these barmy life-gainer artifacts (which, to be fair, newer players often gravitate toward). The other is even less comprehensible.
On the Other Hand…
I once bought a bulk collection from some fella in the parking lot of a grocery store, which felt about as dodgy as it sounds, and although not wanting to disappoint the little one I bought them, I was a bit underwhelmed with the cards. In particular was a Mons’s Goblin Raiders which had a gold star for an expansion symbol. Surely, I noted in horror, that card couldn’t possibly have been printed at that rarity, and I immediately gave it to Sam so that I might never have to gaze upon it again.
And while I’ve since learned that that was indeed a misprint, I get a similar queasy feeling when I regard the Earth Elemental at Uncommon. He’s a 4/5. For 3RR. That’s it. No powers or handy special abilities. Just longer-than-average flavour text. I’m not that familiar with Tenth Edition, but I can only speculate that this must have been a decision based on Limited, if they wanted to decrease the frequency with which a 4/5 body appears at the table. That’s the only reason that makes sense, otherwise it just makes my head hurt.
As for the non-creature cards, some burn and a couple of very Red tricks (the once-Black now-Red Enrage, and Act of Treason) round out the deck quite nicely for creature support.
FINAL GRADE: Like all grades for these Decks, it should be stressed that it’s relative to the Duels sets… matched against other, normal Magic preconstructed decks you’d probably drop a point from the grade, but I like what they did with Red here, and it did flow well in playtesting. 3.75/5
Duels of the Planeswalkers: Hands of Flame (Part 1 of 2)
Okay, true confession time. The snarky reviewer in me was almost hoping that this deck, Chandra Nalaar’s Hands of Flame inspired by the Duels of the Planeswalkers game, would be as much a bomb as the Jace deck, so that I could say the best part of it was the Bogardan Hellkite I opened in the M10 pack included in the box.
Alas, although one Hellkite richer, it was not to be. As it turned out, Hands was quite a different experience. My opponent for the runthrough was Sam, who was piloting the soon-to-be-reviewed Nissa Revane Ears of the Elves deck. We settled in this afternoon for the usual three games.
Game One
Sam was off to a good start dropping the Elvish Eulogist and Gaea’s Herald on her first couple of turns. I could only respond with a Bloodmark Mentor, but he quickly proved to be quite an investment when on turn 4 I dropped a Lightning Elemental. Often at 4/1 just a kill spell in a creature form, with the first strike granted by the Mentor he was suddenly a force. I followed up with a Cinder Pyromancer on turn 3, where all she had to show was a Wurm’s Tooth.
Sam’s Immaculate Magistrate and Elvish Champion dropped in turns 5-6 weren’t enough to save her as I struck again and again with the Elemental, taking her to 7. The Pyromancer was the hero of the day as I cast Incinerate, pinged her, Shock, and pinged her again for the game.
Game Two
As we’ll see in the forthcoming deck analysis post, Hands of Flame is a bit lacking in the opening game and this was no exception. Fortunately, Sam had no better luck and the first turn went by with us each dropping land. She played a Wurm’s Tooth on turn 2, I matched with a Goblin Piker. Goblin Sky Raider joined the fight the next turn, while Sam had no play until turn 5’s Immaculate Magistrate (which fell prey to an Incinerate). Meanwhile Hands is smashing face with the Goblins and a Hill Giant friend, while Bloodmark Mentor looks on.
This time, though, she’s able to snuff out the Mentor so he might trouble her no more, but the tide of red is too great to staunch when a Lightning Elemental is added and all she’s managed are Elven Riders. A quick Shock seals the deal.
Game Three
Once again, no openers but land, but a turn 2 Piker is deja vu all over again. Her first play comes with turn 3’s Greenweaver Druid, while I drop a second Piker. Any resemblance to the two games previous ends here, however, as the middle ground quickly becomes thickened up with creatures. Lys Alana Huntmaster, Talara’s Battalion and an elf token bolster her position considerably on turn 4, and my only response is to Blaze the Huntmaster.
An Earth Elemental reveals itself on turn 5, and shortly after Sam responds with an Elvish Visionary and Moonglove Winnower. Next turn brings me a Lightning Elemental, the last creature I’ll summon until turn 11. Meanwhile she’s bringing out a Gaea’s Herald, Elven Riders, an Elvish Warrior, and Elvish Visionary.
The detente ends on turn 11, though, when I mise a Shivan Dragon. The Furnace of Rath I drop the next turn spells lights out for Sam and her elves as the Dragon rages in for 18.
All in all, I’m far more satisfied with Hands of Flame than I was with Thoughts of the Wind. Although it suffers from the same build design, as we’ll see, this type of deck just seems to work better in Red, where you have a burn suite rather than countermagic and can more directly take charge of the battlefield with generally suboptimal forces in your favour.
Join me next time when I look under the hood of Hands of Flame, to see what works… and what doesnt. Thanks for reading!
Duels of the Planeswalkers: Thoughts of the Wind (Part 2 of 2)
In my last post, I broke down the new Duels of the Planeswalkers preconstructed deck, Thoughts of the Wind, and found a few flaws in its design. “While other decks rely on direct aggression and confrontation,” the blurb reads, “this deck prefers a more elusive approach.” Was I wrong? Did I underestimate its “elusive approach?”
To find out, I challenged Sam to three duels… with her piloting the Liliana Vess “Eyes of Shadow” deck.
Here’s how we did.
Game 1
Winning the roll, I opened with a Cloud Sprite, Sam returns with The Rack. Next turn I pass while she plays a Demon’s Horn, slipping it in behind The Rack (“Too embarrassing,” she said.) Meanwhile, I’m going in with my Sprites every chance I get.
She tries to drop out a Severed Legion, I Essence Scatter it. She drops a Drudge Skeleton, I don’t respond. By turn 5, the turn she Terrors my Sprites, she’s only at 19 life thanks to that miserable Horn.
She follows up her Terror the next turn with a Mind Rot, my turn like so many of them with this deck being “draw-go.” Another Drudge on turn 7. I play the next ferocious creature in my arsenal: the mighty Wall of Spears. She Mind Rots again, I Cancel. She drops an Abyssal Specter, I Essence Scatter. She tries to drop- of all things- an Unholy Strength on her Drudges, I Unsummon it in response. I’m into turn 12 before I actually replace the threat I lost on turn 5, playing a Thieving Magpie.
Sam Terrors it.
Both of us by this point are looking for the exit. She’s too polite to say so, but I can tell that deep inside, Sam’s wishing she was able to trot out one of her own decks rather than the precons. For my part, I can’t say I blame her.
A Dusk Imp comes out. I Mind Spring for 5. She kills off my Spears with a Consume Spirit, and keeps whittling away my life with the couple of creatures she has in play. It’s a race to get there. I drop another Magpies, followed up with a Cloud Sprite. She tries another Consuming Spirit on the birds, but I have the Boomerang. Next turn I replay the Magpies and add a Phantom Warrior for good measure. She Terrors that, too, but I replace it with an Air Elemental and am ruling the skies with my admittedly lacklustre army. When she plays Underworld Dreams, I know it’s gonna be close. I need something… but what?
I go to draw my next card. What is on top of the deck? What is on top of the deck?? Oh it’s Kraken’s Eye! Oh my God! Oh my God!!
Alright, so maybe it’s not the topdeck of the century. But curse this deck for making that hideous card one I’m actually happy to see… this once. Sam plays her last-ditch blocker, a Crowd of Cinders, I Mind Control it and romp through for the win.
Game 2
If you thought “Game 1” was a long read, you ought to have tried playing it. Thoughts of the Wind has been colossally underwhelming on my first pilot, but I still had hope that despite my bleak assessment, it would provide some amusement. “This is the first time I’ve ever been mored of Magic,” she noted as she finished shuffling her deck.
Sam and I drop a land for the first turn, then she plays the Rats, Drudge Skeletons, and the Severed Legion in short order after that. All I manage is a Phantom Warrior and an Essence Scatter against her Abyssal Specter. Her deck’s creature engine is flowing well: Sengir Vampire, more rats, a Dusk Imp, and still more rats. I manage to get out a Snapping Drake and Cloud Sprite, which I use to trade for the Vampire. She Terrors my Warrior, and swarms for the kill.
Congratulations, Jace, you just got spanked by my eleven-year-old stepdaughter.
Game 3
This game was the only of the three that ended up resembling fun for the either of us. I get out a Cloud Sprite and Wall of Spears early. She’s out with the Demon’s Horn and a Megrim. I sneer and slap down a Snapping Drake. She sneers back and lives the dream with a Mind Rot followed by The Rack.
I take a gamble and play a Thieving Magpie- now down to one card in hand- to try and build my hand back up and give me some options while doing so. Obviously having something against birds tonight, she’s ready with the Terror in response. But my Cloud Sprite is still earning its keep, flying in turn after turn uncontested.
It would do so for the rest of the game. Sure she was mana flooded, I think she missed her first land drop around turn 12. But what options she had were spent putting out bigger fires, like another Terror for a Snapping Drake. The miserable Demon’s Horn was good for a few life here and there, but the Sprite was relentless. “I can’t believe you’re gonna kill me with faeries,” she mumbled at one point as I flew in for still another single point of damage.
This was the first game of the three when the Blue deck did what Blue decks do best, which is establish control of the battlefield. Crowd of Cinders: Scattered. Consuming Spirit: Counterbored. Ascendent Evincar: Scattered. The best she managed was Rats with Unholy Strength (R.W.U.S., anyone?) On her last draw, looking for a miracle herself, she reached for the card, looked at it, and slumped her head down. “Why this, out of all things?”
A second Demon’s Horn.
The faerie got there.
Analysis
In the end, I suspect that Thoughts of the Wind will rank amongst the very least-played preconstructed I own. For creature-based aggro it’s weak, and the control is lacklustre, indeed precisely as I had supposed when I broke it down in my last post. I had hope then, but having piloted it I can think of little redeeming about the deck: it’s dreadful dull.
Liliana’s Eyes of Shadow deck at least has a Black discard theme to keep it hopping, and is light fun to play. It builds around a nice theme and does a good job backing it up with support. Not so this one- it lacks any semblance of focus. Unless, like me, you’re a collector, I’d urge you to save your money on this one.
FINAL GRADE: 1/5
Duels of the Planeswalkers: Thoughts of the Wind (Part 1 of 2)
“I hate this deck,” muttered Jimi, shuffling in between games 2 and 3 yesterday. Ultimately handed three losses in a row, it wasn’t hard to understand why. Why surely Jace- the “most powerful card in Standard,” deserves a better Planeswalkers deck, and I resolved to get to the bottom of things. Was it bad draws, bad plays… or is Thoughts of the Wind just a bad deck?
I sat down and pulled the deck apart.
Thoughts runs a surprising sixteen creatures. It looks to get in some early damage with a playset of one-drop Cloud Sprites, takes the day off on two-drops (perhaps expecting you to Negate or Essence Scatter?), underwhelms on three-drops with a pair of Wall of Spears and a single, lonely Phantom Warrior, and really starts kicking in the four-to-six-drop range.
2x Thieving Magpie (obviously in for card advantage, because one power for four mana frightens precisely no-one)
1x Mahamoti Djinn (despite being the foil rare in the set, he’s a pretty unsexy 5/6 vanilla)
So obviously, Thoughts asks you to hold down the fort a bit with some disruption while you build from gnats to beats, skipping right over the middle. I wasn’t impressed with either of the deck’s heavies- having a vanilla critter as your premium foil is a bit underwhelming (for the same cost I’d gladly trade a point of toughness for Shroud), and Blue has plenty of ways to turn the Denizen’s drawback (return each other creature you control to its owner’s hand) into a benefit with comes-into-play-effect critters. This deck runs precisely none of those, and given the presence of a Mind Control in the deck, it’s an even greater liability.
So the obvious question becomes, if Thoughts isn’t asking you to go aggressive on your second through fourth land drop, what is it expecting you to do, particularly on that creatureless second turn?
Umm, no… countering his two-drop with my own gives me nothing in the way of tempo advantage. I’d rather save these for something that hurts them to lose. Same goes for Negate and Cancel.
Again, same problem as with the counters. There are probably better uses for this one down the road a bit.
Seriously?
Granted, the deck’s later-game options are delicious: Mind Spring, Mind Control, Evacuation…
Counterbore on the other hand seems to have been included in a fit of irrational exuberance for countermagic. Lobotomizing another player usually has its greatest effectiveness in Constructed play, where running three-ofs and four-ofs are much more common than in these preconstructed decks. Not the best choice by the design team.
So from the first pass, this deck seems a little flawed. It wants to saddle two horses by having elements of both aggro and control, and ends up doing neither especially well. What Blue mage would squeal in delight topdecking a Cloud Sprite late in the game?
Of course, it’s one thing to poke about the deck at liesure, and entirely another still to see how it holds up under fire. Join me on my next post, where I’ll be taking Thoughts of the Wind on a little test drive. See you then!
Duels of the Planeswalkers: Eyes of Shadow
For those out of the loop, Duels of the Planeswalkers is a video game translation of Magic available on XBox Live and teasingly promised for the PC on Steam [update: it’s showing available]. I’ve heard it described as “Magic Lite,” something generally easy and accessible for the non-Magic player to enjoy, and these new Duels-inspired paper decks seem like the next step to lure the unwary into a cardboard addiction.
So how do they fare? To find out, Jimi and I sat down at the table and cracked two of them open. I claimed “Eyes of Shadow,” the mono-Black Liliana Vess-inspired deck. For her part, Jimi eased behind “Thoughts of the Wind,” the Jace Beleren mono-Blue deck.
Sleeving up the deck (60 cards, now that the 41-card “Intro Pack” model has been retired by Wizards), I had a chance to get a feel for it, and the theme immediately apparent was that one most dear to my heart:
1 Megrim
4 Mind Rot
1 The Rack
Wait… The Rack?! Now that did bring a smile, as I had not seen one in many’s the year (they were in Time Spiral, while I was out of the game… I recall them from Antiquities). But the amount of discard in the deck immediately presaged the joy to come against my hapless, mono-Blue opponent.
One minor but admittedly sour note was the inclusion of this offending piece of offal:
I don’t know what it is about these that so compels Wizards to stick them in their preconstructed decks. With rare exception (see: sideboarding against mono-Red), they’re dreadful, but maintain an ooh, lifegain shiny! effect on the newer player. And they’re Uncommons, no less. They may be a step up from the old Throne of Bone, but I’m not fooled!
Other cards of note include the classic Sengir Vampire, the Legends reprint Underworld Dreams, a solitary Mortivore, and the foil: Crovax, the Ascendant Evincar.
Game One
Once we got down to it, the game went by at a brisk clip. Winning the die roll, she began with a wee Cloud Sprite as her one-drop, I played a land and the lowly Demon’s Horn, followed soon after by a Severed Legion and Abyssal Specter while she grew her mana base. Playing Blue, I knew her relative silence didn’t necessarily reflect the strength of her draw, and was not surprised when she Canceled my Mind Shatter, then Unsummoned the Specter and Canceled the recast.
For my part, I kept whittling away with the Legion for two at a time, as she dropped a Snapping Drake and Air Elemental in successive turns. A Terror made quick work of the 4/4 flyer, and a Consume Spirit made quick work of Jimi.
Game Two
In a virtual repeat of our previous start, Jimi dropped two Cloud Sprites on successive turns, while I responded on turn 3 with the Severed Legion. I attempted to beef up the Legion with an Unholy Strength (another card I’d rather see the back of but seems to be the Aura-of-choice for Black in these precons), but Jimi Negated it.
With turnabout being fair play, Jimi drops a Snapping Drake and begins going to work on my life total. It gets in a couple bites before being Terrored, and my Mind Shatter hits paydirt this time as an Air Elemental and a Control Magic drop into her graveyard. No cards in hand for the Blue mage!
My relentless land drops rewarded me with a turn 6 Ascendant Evincar, which snuffed out both her Sprites with its -1/-1 to non-Black creatures. She topdecks a worthless Phantom Warrior, I responded with the Mortivore and it’s straight beats for the win.
Game 3
Bit of a nut draw for me personally, with The Rack, Ravenous Rats and Megrim staring back at me from my opening hand. I’m punished for overconfidence, however, when she Cancels my turn 3 Megrim leaving me with just the mangy Rats for an off discard. I play them next turn, and she drops Boomerang into her graveyard. Much better art on it now than the Legends card I remember.
She follows up with the ol’ standby, Snapping Drake. I drop Sengir Vampire, she Unsummons. Playing around countermagic, I tease out a Negate with my Mind Rot. She plays Wall of Spears and swings with the Drake.
I lay the Vampire back down and the Drake starts to tremble. She deploys a Phantom Warrior, I match with the Severed Legion and start the beats with Sengir. She returns fire with the Warrior, I play a Dusk Imp and terror the Drake. Right before conceding she Counterbores my gamewinning Consuming Spirit, and that’s all she wrote.
Deck in Review
A great deck for the beginning Magic player, there are just enough tricks in Eyes of Shadow to entertain and amuse without confusing its pilot, which as mentioned above seems to be the general idea of these decks. With a good mix of creatures and a full discard suite, this is easily one of the better mono-Black casual decks Wizards has released (I’m lookin’ at you, Zombie Empire).
The deck has little to offer the standard or competitive player, which I daresay it has little ambition to do. This is a good investment if you have occasional pick-up games with friends or family. If that’s you, great… if not, unless (like me) you’re a collector, your money is probably better off elsewhere.
FINAL GRADE: 4/5
Ertai's Lament 