Final installment folks, and final chance for this set to wow us with something. To be fair, I did kinda forget momentarily about the new Grave Pact variant, which is pretty exciting, but really only goes in decks that already play Grave Pact. But other than that, I've been pretty underwhelmed.
Today we're wrapping up the review with the rest of the bunch, including Mutlicolor, Artifact and Land cards.
Gold
Neat, but too small and too expensive to activate.
Well, this is pretty impressive. Two decent +1's and a silly Ultimate? I'll take that. This guy will be right at home in my Marath deck. He can fuel Marath shenanigans with the first ability or dig for gas with the second.
Gaining 100 life isn't all that big a deal in EDH, though, what with the General Damage rule and all, but then again it's nice to have a Planeswalker with an Ultimate that doesn't make your opponents collectively shit themselves and turn you into the Archenemy on the spot.
After Prophet of Kruphix, I was expecting more from this guy. Then again, UG doesn't really need more Prophet-level brokenness. Verdict: Not universally playable, but okay in the right deck.
Well, now that's more like it! Go go Boros aggro! This guy just wants you to attack. Like, don't do combat math first, don't worry about how much mana your opponent might have open. Just say screw it, and GET IN THERE.
Love it!
Man, that Strive cost... phew.
Meh. Even with Haste and not coming into play tapped, this still just doesn't compare favorably to Army of the Damned.
Not sure yet, but I think I really dig this guy. I know I would definitely have run him in my Vish Kal deck, but that deck became Oloro and now I don't have a home for Athreos. Oh, and he in a nonbo with tokens, just FYI.
Scary bird!
Also, Limited fodder.
Neat. I like him for my Melek deck, even if he does sadly increase the permanent count (unless I can find a permanent to cut, of course). As a General, I have no idea how to build around this guy. Obviously, you run Top. But beyond that? No idea.
Oh, if only this guy had Deathtouch!
Very disappointed in this God. Love the art, though, even if the card is junk.
Now this seems seriously playable. Find a way to tap it without having to red zone it, and you've got yourself one hell of a Transmute engine going. Actually, at two mana, it could come down early enough to get one or two safe attacks, and that may well be enough to be worth it.
Weak, but cool enough it might see fringe play. W/B Cleric Tribal? I dunno, I kinda like it, even if I know it's really not a good card. But sometimes playing bad cards just because you like them is what EDH is about, right?
Artifact
Generic Anthem is generic. And not all that great. Anthems usually aren't great in EDH, unless they also double your mana or do something else wacky.
Nowhere near good enough to replace Greaves/Boots in most decks, because most of the time Shroud/Hexproof is more valuable than any of these other abilities. Still, while it might be a card you feel is too janky to run, you probably don't ever want to see them on the other side of the table.
While I can think of a few critters I would love to Equip this onto (Fathom Mage anyone?) it's just almost never going to be worth it, especially at Equip 2. But I'm not sure even Equip 0 would make it that much better. It's just too small an effect.
Jeez that's a lot of mana to tap something down! Seems awful.
Pretty art. Boring card.
Lands
Um... it's certainly
okay. I don't know. I tend to avoid using City of Brass where possible, only running it in three or four of my 16 or so decks. But, hey, it's there if you need it, so, great.
Well, this concludes our look at Journey Into Nyx. Thanks for coming along with me on this... journey (wah wah). So turns out this set is, for the most part, even worse than Born of the Gods (which I still think of as being pretty mediocre, though some aspects of it have grown on me with time). But it's not entirely devoid of playable cards, so whatever.
I really loved Theros, but I've been pretty much over this block since that set came out. By BNG came around I was already ready to move on. Now, it just feels like the house guest that won't leave. Sorry, Theros, you were cool until you got drunk, now you've just made an ass out of yourself. I have no idea where I'm going with this analogy or what it even means. Eh, nevermind.
Until next time, enjoy!
